Stealing The Heavens

Panda Novel

“An ambitious woman is very scary, but a woman who is both ambitious and career-minded is even scarier!”

Standing on a dark cloud and flying across the sky, Wu Qi complained lazily to Ao Buzun and Catfish, who were sitting next to him. “Yes,” said Ao Buzun as he nodded in agreement, “Lord Mother is such a woman, ambitious and career-minded! I really don’t know where she got that patience of her to cope with all the new recruits!”

Catfish opened her mouth lazily, threw a few calloused fingers into it, chewed and swallowed. “Why is she doing so much?” she stared stupidly at Wu Qi and said, “For me, a comfortable cave, plenty of food, and that’s enough!”

Wu Qi and Ao Buzun gave her a glance and said nothing. Although Catfish had stepped into the realm of Dao Reasoning, it was clear that she had only apprehended the Heavenly Dao, and she herself was still as muddleheaded as before. Eat, sleep, that was all that she concerned, wasn’t it? Sure enough, simple life was the happiest!

Shaking his head, Wu Qi sighed as he looked into the distance at a flock of soaring egrets.

Princess Zhang Le was working very hard to drill the new Dong Hai Army and diligently set up a brand-new Directorate of Celestial; Lu Chengfeng was working restlessly to reorganize the administration of the provinces under the jurisdiction of Dong Hai Province and the there hundred provinces under Zhong Province, he was so busy every day that his heels hardly touched the ground; Yan Bugui was frantically planting spies everywhere, desperately expanding the Punishment Court’s training camps so that he could train more spies; Patriarch Jiang Yun and Supremacy Three Flame were working together to develop new prescriptions for spirit pills, while teaching the disciples of Underhand Sect with passion…

Everyone had their hands and even feet full, for they all had their own pursuits and goals. Wu Qi, on the other hand, made himself an absentee leader. He left all of Dong Hai Province’s affairs to Princess Zhang Le and others, while he himself went to An He City to see Yan Dan.

‘Everyone is busy, but for what?’ Wu Qi folded his arms on his chest and glanced lazily at the passing clouds in the sky. He already had the cultivation base of the Primordial experts, and as long as he continued to cultivate himself, the realm of Dao Breaking and Dao Fusing were within reach. Why, then, should he work so hard now?

‘Now, with my strength, I can kill Reverend Li Yang, my former enemy, with just a slap of my palm. Why do I have to find so many things to do for myself?’

He was pondering all the way, until the cloud flew into An Le County. That was when he suddenly laughed. ‘How about stop the tragedy that struck Tan Lang and Le Xiaobai from happening to the people around me again? How about not let the fate of my friends and family be dictated by others? Now that I’ve stepped into the realm of Primordial, why can’t I go a little higher?

‘Go a little higher, to the level where I no longer have to fear any machinations, no longer have to fear that someone will be able to destroy this little peace and happiness in my heart. Not letting myself to be sad and heartbroken again, not letting myself shed tears for someone again. So, go a little higher, to the level just a little bit higher than those who caused all the troubles, I think this should be my pursuit now, right?’

If Wu Qi was alone, with the cultivation base of a Primordial expert, he could just find a quiet place to live in seclusion and spend his eternal life in peace and leisure. But now he could not walk away just like that, for he was all tied up by friends and family. How could he leave when he had so many people to care?

Glancing sideways at Ao Buzun, who was sneakily stuffing an immortal’s thigh into his mouth, Wu Qi sighed and muttered to himself, “At the very least, I should stop this fella from being crafted into a storage ring once again… that’s just too sad!”

With a big smile on his face, Wu Qi made the cloud landed in a dense forest about a hundred miles outside the south gate of An He City. After tidying up their clothes, he, Ao Buzun, and Catfish swaggered off towards the city. At their speed, it only took them a quarter of an hour to cover the distance of a hundred miles.

Along the way he saw crisscross fields where crops grew extremely well. Of course, crops were almost impossible to grow badly in places like Pangu Continent. Still, through the rice seedlings planted as neatly as if they had been measured with rulers, Wu Qi could tell that the farmers who were cultivating the fiends had put a lot of thought into them. They were looking after these fields very seriously. Only old farmers with a deep affection for farmland would take crops and fields so seriously.

Small groups of strong youths were drilling between the fields and at the head of villages, their cries rang out like thunderclaps. They thrust their fists like lightning and stamped their feet like thunder, and dull noises could be heard whenever their fists and feet crossed with one another. Each of their moves followed a very strict standard. All of them were muscular, a clear sign that they were taking the path of body cultivators, and their current overall strength was probably comparable to that of a body cultivator at the realm of Nascent Soul.

In every group of youths there was a leader whose overall strength far superior to others. These leaders looked capable and vigorous, and the murderous aura of someone from the army was so vivid in their every move that it could not be concealed. On average, their cultivation bases were at the level of a thirty-sixth-tier Heaven Immortal, while several of them were far stronger than their peers, possessing the formidable strength very close to that of a twentieth-tier Heaven Immortal.

Wu Qi was shocked. These were the soldiers Great Yan had trained over the last few years, weren’t they? To have such a result in just a few years, it was clear that Yan Dan and his men must have poured in a lot of time and effort. He curiously covered the whole An Le County and An Yi County with his divine sense, and was surprised to find that there were tens of millions of such well-trained youths in both counties.

He smiled wryly and shook his head. It was because he had provided enough cover for Great Yan that, Yan Dan and his men were able to build up their army in such an unscrupulous manner. In other parts of Great Yu, even if the Prefecture Overseer of a first-grade province dared to expand his army by one million, he would have been charged with scheming a revolt.

In addition to these youths who had formed the army, many academies and schools had been built in the towns and cities of the two counties. This was something that Great Yu never had before. The common people on Pangu Continent never learn anything like writing or history. They just followed the habits of their forefathers and the oldest way of life, rise with the lark and go to bed with the lamb.

In Great Yu, only the children of the imperial clan and the members of the aristocratic clans were able to receive education in culture, history, military, political affairs and others from an early age. The Directorate of Celestial was responsible for educating them. Because of its unique position in Great Yu, all kinds of knowledge taught in Directorate of Celestial would not be known to the common people.

However, in the past few years since Great Yan took control of the two counties, in addition to develop agriculture and expand the army, it also built academies and schools to teach common people all kinds of cultural knowledge. Wu Qi ‘saw’ that in many academies, some simple and honest young people were designing machines and instruments under the guidance of teachers from Great Yan, and more people were studying medical science, forging, farming, astronomy, and other technologies. There was even a school in An He City that taught the art of cooking, and surprisingly, many people were learning how to cook.

In contrast to the suffocating atmosphere of the conservative tradition in Great Yu, the two counties ruled by Great Yan were full of life, and their atmosphere was refreshing. Wu Qi could not tell whether the changes in An Le County and An Yi County were good or bad.

It was a good thing that people’s minds and intelligence were activated and improved.

But when that happened, they would be faced with more temptations. And if the temptations were the eternal life of immortals or something more fascinating, could these people, who were as simple and honest as the rocks in the depths of the mountains a few years ago, resist them?

In those years, when An He City was invaded by the forces of the Dao League and the Buddhism League, it took those cultivators tremendous effort and hundreds of years to barely achieve some result. But when these common people under Great Yan had experienced a culture that was very different from Great Yu, and then a cultivator sect suddenly came here once more, would they scramble to join the sect and completely abandon their status as human beings?

Wu Qi was muttering to himself, while Ao Buzun and Catfish looked up at the sky, chewing something bloody in their mouths. With their suspicious look, when they swaggered to the gates of An He City, they were naturally stopped by Great Yan’s soldiers clad in Great Yu’s standard armors.

More than two hundred soldiers surrounded the three of them. Wu Qi could not help but laugh bitterly, and he said frankly to the officer of this group of soldiers, “Under Great Yu’s military system, the garrison of the entire An Le County could not exceed one hundred men. But now you have posted more than two hundred soldiers in front of just one city gate. Isn’t this clearly telling outsides that there is a big problem here?”

His words made the soldiers around him very nervous. They drew their weapons at the same time and took a big step forward reflectively.

Ao Buzun began to laugh coldly, while Catfish clicked her fingers excitedly and said, “Brother Wu Qi, can I eat them? This little leader’s body is strong and looks chewy!” Her words sounded very evil and made the soldiers’ faces flickered. In the next moment, they shouted in unison and were about to launch an attack against the trio.

Wu Qi gave the drooling Catfish a glare, sighed and said under his breath, “Her appearance is quite pretty and charming, but why is all she has in her mind is food?”

Sighing, Wu Qi produced the Token of Nine Swallows Yan Dan had given him and threw it over.

The officer took the token, shuddered, and cried out at the top of his lungs, “Stop, stop! My lord, are you…”

After a bit of tumult at the gates, Wu Qi was able to meet Yan Dan and his son, Yan Qijun, along with Mo Di, Su Qin, Han Fei, Jing Ke, Yue Yi, Fan Yuqi, Qin Wuyang, and other Great Yan’s courtiers at the City Lord’s Mansion in An He City, which served as Great Yan’s imperial palace now.

Everyone greeted him warmly after years of separation. As during this period of time Princess Zhang Le had followed Wu Qi around and did not stay in An Le County, Yan Dan and others were almost cut off from the outside world and could not receive any information at all. “How are things going, Wu Qi?” Yan Dan asked hastily when he saw Wu Qi coming, “Where’s Zi Xuan? Why hasn’t she come with you?”

Wu Qi smiled and greeted Yan Dan and others, and then he came straight to the point and told them the purpose of his visit.

“Send invitations to the emperors and subjects of the other five dynasties in the name of Great Yan; there are some things that need to be said frankly!”

Rubbing his fingers, Wu Qi looked at Yan Dan and said, “Frankly speaking, I am short of men now. All the emperors and subjects of the other five dynasties are outstanding figures, and I want them to help me. I am too lazy to run around and catch them, so I need Your Majesty to trick them here with invitations!”

Yan Dan, Yan Qijun and others were all stunned. Were they hearing things?

Wu Qi wanted the emperors and subjects of the other five dynasties to work for him? How was that possible?

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