Stealing The Heavens
chapter-146

While Princess Zhang Le brought help and dashed towards the enemies, Wu Qi had already begun preparing. From his storage ring, he took out a dozen of Nine Cloud Piercing Crossbows and ten bundles of specially made bolts, a total of 1000 bolts. Hastily, he tied the Explosive Talisman made by Heavenly Spirit Sect onto all the bolts. After using these powerful talismans twice and severely wounding his opponents, Wu Qi's proficiency in using them had become better. Thus, at any given time, he always had a few hundred of them ready in his storage ring.

With the help from some palace guards, all few hundred Explosive Talismans were quickly tied onto the bolts.

Right at this moment, a loud boom was heard coming from in front. Wu Qi raised his head and saw how Princess Zhang Le was blown away by the self-explosion of the Gold Core cultivator. Then, he saw six flying swords enshrouded in lightning fly out and tightly guard the only escape passage. Eight Ghost Immortals leaped forward desperately, trying to destroy the six flying swords, yet were injured by the Ninth Heavens Evil Subduing True Thunder, each letting out ghostly howls, transforming into evil winds and fleeing back beside Princess Zhang Le.

Wu Qi placed all the bolts which had been attached with Explosive Talismans into his storage ring, then picked up a dozen Nine Cloud Piercing Crossbows and began rushing towards the city gate like a rabbit.

Along the way, he passed the battlefield where the Blood Swallow Army and the enemies were engaging in a fierce fight. A few enemies who clearly did not possess a keen eye swung their blades towards Wu Qi but were all thrown far away by powerful kicks casually thrust out by him. How could these ordinary peak Houtian realm and Respiration tier warriors be his opponents?

Nearly dashing through the air, Wu Qi had arrived less than one thousand feet away from the city gate with just a few leaps.

At the same moment, surrounded and escorted by numerous guards, Wei Xiaoxiao was seen storming out from the city with an unsightly expression. Upon seeing this, Princess Zhang Le, who had rolled far away on the ground with her face stained with dust and looking rather dirty, immediately let out a furious cry. She sprung and shot into the sky, unleashing a large dark cloud underneath her feet. The dark cloud stretched a few acres in circumference, and amidst it, lightning was blinking and flashing. When she reached an altitude of several thousand feet, a few thousand silvery thunderbolts the size of human fingers struck out from the dark cloud, pouring toward the direction of the city gate.

Xiong Qing brothers were in the middle of sprinting towards the city gate with great maces in their hands. Suddenly, they raised their head up and saw the sky now blotted with thunderbolts. It greatly frightened them, causing them to cry out and immediately spin, dragging the great maces and running for their lives. A few thunderbolts slithered down like snakes and brushed against Xiong Qing's body, burning off a large amount of his body hair. Meanwhile, before the six brothers could run to a far enough distance, a large fiery red blade was being thrust out from the city gate and piercing through the air in an incredible speed. Then, with a deep, muffled whistling of the wind, it impacted forcefully onto Xiong Qing's back.

"Owwwwww!" A miserable howl rang out. Suddenly, a layer of blood-red flame burst out from the armor that covered Xiong Qing. A defensive array constructed from three layers of runes had barely blocked the blade for a brief moment before being smashed and shattered by a flame that burst out from the blade. The one-inch thick blood-red armor was ripped apart by the blade, knocking and throwing the burly Xiong Qing several hundred feet away. Both of his tiny bear eyes nearly popped out from his eye sockets, and a mouthful of blood mixed with flame was shooting out from his mouth.

The silvery lightning pouring down from the sky had sealed off the city gate. Every tiny lightning that landed on the ground would smite a large hole several feet in diameter, sending dirt and rocks flying in all directions. The large blade which hacked Xiong Qing's back made a turn in the air and flew back to where it came from, cutting out a nearly ten feet long breach on the net interwoven by the lightning. After that, the flying coach of Wei Xiaoxiao was seen rushing out from the breach. Six flying swords enshrouding in glinting lightning squeezed into the breach, spread and turned into six supporting points to prevent the breach from closing up, allowing the large parade of men behind Wei Xiaoxiao's flying coach to leave the city as well.

A loud and sonorous beast howl rang out. The large blade had left a huge wound on Xiong Qing's back, which made his internal organs expose and his body shiver because of the severe pain. Furiously and savagely, he spun, pointed his finger at the city gate and cried out, "My brothers, they have hacked your eldest brother! Kill them for me!"

Whistling noises of wind breaking filled the air as six blood-red rays, each a few feet thick and nearly eighty feet long, pierced through the air. The great maces held in Xiong Qing’s brothers’ hands produced a wild whistling noise, which could stir one's soul. Together with a pungent smell of blood, they transformed into dark blood-red rays and thrust toward Wei Xiaoxiao and her company, who had just made their way through the interception of the lightning net.

Screeches of birds echoed out. Seven to eight tall, skinny men, who were escorting and guarding beside Wei Xiaoxiao's flying coach, suddenly had the shirt on their back exploded, as colorful feathers of birds sprung out from their back, transforming into a pair of large, rapid flapping wings, bringing their body quickly up into the sky. These men turned into a few clumps of strong wind and dashed forward at top speed. In their hands were held weapons of strange fashion; it was a spiral-shaped spear. Using it, they unleashed countless shadows of spears, glinting and flashing in midair while violently greeting the large maces thrown out by Xiong Qing’s brothers.

Upon seeing that, Princess Zhang Le angrily rebuked, "The men from 'Wings Kingdom' outside of East Ocean? You're merely a tiny savage kingdom! How dare you to act wantonly in Great Yan Dynasty?"

'Men from Wings Kingdom'? Before Wu Qi could react to that strange name, he immediately saw the strong winds transformed from those few youth had collided with six blood-red rays. *Clang!* The tremendous noises of clashing shook and brought a severe pain to Wu Qi's ears. Six blood-red rays were knocked back for several hundred feet while the few youths from Wings Kingdom were letting out miserable howls. Besides from two clumps of wind which soared high up into the sky with a great amount of blood splashing out from them, all the rest were ripped apart by the enormous forces coming from the large maces. Countless feathers, blood, and flesh splashed and flew in all directions, falling and filling the surrounding ground.

Hovering in the sky was a gleam of five colors glinting in Princess Zhang Le's eyes. Between her palms, a ball of thunderbolt was blinking, and after a spell was recited from her mouth, a few hundred thunderbolts, each glimmering with peculiar five colors, poured down from the sky. Most of them were clashing towards Wei Xiaoxiao and her company while a dozen of them was thrown towards the last two men from the Wing Kingdom, who now trying to make a desperate escape.

The thunderbolts exploded. The two men from Wing Kingdoms, who were severely wounded by the large maces and now flying high up at top speed, were suddenly smitten by the thunderbolts unleashed by Princess Zhang Le. In an instant, their entire bodies were ripped into pieces by the explosion, leaving not even an intact feather.

Meanwhile, the rest of the thunderbolts were flying towards Wei Xiaoxiao with a loud rumble. While sitting inside of the flying coach and poking half of her upper body out from the window, Wei Xiaoxiao saw the shower of thunderbolts coming down to her. She hastily cried out aloud, "Where is Wu Liu?"

As Wei Xiaoxiao's loud cry echoed out, the coachman who controlled the flying coach suddenly sprung up. His nine feet tall body suddenly expanded. His skin was forcefully exploded and peeled off, turning into debris that shot and splashed in all directions. Then, a giant stood forty feet tall, his skin as fair as ivory, his hairs light green, and his eyes glinting with a purple glow like the brightest stars in the night sky. Upon his appearance, he stretched out both arms and grabbed towards the air in front of him, unleashing an invisible suction force and absorbing all the thunderbolts into the middle of his palms.

"Hey! Ha!" A loud laugh rang out, as the man, Wu Liu, clenched both his palms together and gave them a rub, forcefully kneading the few hundred balls of thunderbolts unleashed by Princess Zhang Le into a ten feet long electric arc the size of human hairs. Then, he tilted his head up and threw a gaze over at Princess Zhang Le, who had her eyes and mouth fixed. Casually, he thrust the electric arc towards Princess Zhang Le. With that, a sharp piercing noise rung out, as the electric arc pierced through the dark cloud of Princess Zhang Le and made a hole on it.

Wu Qi had his soul nearly flying beyond the skies. He gave a cry, "Zi Xuan?"

Then, he heard the ringing laugh of Princess Zhang Le coming from the sky above. She giggled and said, "Don't worry, Marquis Wu, Zi Xuan is alright! Haha, people of Long Bo Kingdom, you bunch of fools who only know how to fish big turtles in the border of Easternmost Ocean, how dare you poke your nose into the affair of Great Yan Dynasty? You're not afraid of death, are you?"

A bright green ray was seen emerging on top of Princess Zhang Le's head. Amidst it hovered a square fist-sized seal, emitting a vast green glow that swept across the skies while protecting Princess Zhang Le within. The electric arc thrown out by Wu Liu just now had impacted onto the green light that enshrouded Princess Zhang Le's body, and shattered into pieces. Yet, it failed to inflict even a tiny bit injury to her!

The man from the Long Bo Kingdom, Wu Liu, said with a deep voice, "Old mister Wei had hired Wu Liu as the personal guard of young miss, so it is my duty to protect her. I suppose this piece of seal is the Imperial Seal of Great Yan Dynasty? Why is it now held in Princess Zhang Le's hand?"

A nearly inaudible cry of swallows soared into the sky, as eight light-green swallows flew out from the seal, transforming into eight dazzling flying swords and forming an ingenious array of swords according to the position of Eight Trigrams, before enveloping Wei Xiaoxiao and her company. Princess Zhang Le gave a loud and sonorous laugh while saying, "This is not the Imperial Seal of Great Yan Dynasty, but a defensive treasure old mister Mo Di specially made for Zhang Le. Today is the first time that Zhang Le uses it, as you are the perfect candidate for me to try out the power of this precious treasure!"

Eight flying swords shot down from the sky together with several feet long bright beams on their back, encircling a space several miles in radius within the array of swords. A strong wind began to gather from all directions, as countless green wind blades were streaking and piercing through the air together with eight flying swords. Within a blink of an eye, the entire space was now filled with vague green shadows.

With a malevolent look in her eyes, Wei Xiaoxiao threw a gaze over at Princess Zhang Le. Then, using a glance filled with ten thousand times more malevolence, she fixed her eyes onto Wu Qi's face, who was now standing behind Xiong Qing and helping to apply medicine paste on his wound. Suddenly, she pointed her finger at Wu Qi and let out a hysteric shriek, "Wu Liu, kill Wu Qi! It is all because of him that my plan has failed! It is all his fault! Without him, the man arranged by me would have long claimed the title of Duke Yan Le, and everything would still be in order!"

Ignoring the eight flying swords and countless wind blades coming down from above, with merely one step, Wu Liu arrived before Wu Qi, thrusting out his gigantic fist towards Wu Qi's face.

As Wu Liu stood over forty feet tall, standing in front of him, Wu Qi looked like a tiny mouse facing a big cat. Even the fist of his was larger than Wu Qi's stature. When the fist was thrust out, although it was still several feet away from Wu Qi, the powerful force had already shaken the ground underneath his feet and made them crack with countless slits.

Wu Qi gave Wu Liu a brief smile, then he raised both hands up, triggered two Nine Cloud Piercing Crossbows and unleashed the loaded bolts.

Wu Liu responded with a brief smile as well, paying no attention to the bolts and continued thrusting his fist further. No ordinary bolts could hurt him. Even if these bolts did penetrate his body, it would feel like a few tiny needles poking into the palm of an ordinary man. What harm could that bring?

But, just within a blink of an eye, a miserable shriek was forced out from Wu Liu's mouth. Holding his right fist, he made a quick retreat. From the poles of his right arm, a great amount of pungent, black blood was seen bursting out. The muscle on his arm was twitching and jerking, as wisps of dark smoke coiled up at the same time. Actually, the bolts shot out by Wu Qi were not ordinary bolts, but the prickles which he brought out from Meng Mountains. Those poisonous prickles which could turn a burly man into a tiny ball of meat within the time of two to three breaths.

Although Wu Liu had a strong and vigorous body, yet he had no way to withstand this prickles covered with deadly poison. In just the blink of an eye, a layer of dark gas had spread toward his shoulder from the back of his fist. The purple gleam in his eyes blinked rapidly, then he gave a furious cry. Using his left palm, he chopped onto his right shoulder fiercely. A miserable howl rang out as Wu Liu had just chopped off his right arm from the shoulder. A fountain of blood shot out and reached a distance of several hundred feet away, while some even splashed and smeared onto Wu Qi's face.

Together with a jarring howl of wolves, the Sword of Greedy Wolf turned into a dark beam and thrust out, catching Wu Liu off guard and piercing through his heart in an instant.

Shadows of blades blotted the sky and covered down. Within a blink of an eye, a green tornado had encircled Wei Xiaoxiao and her company, trapping them tightly within. Princess Zhang Le threw her head back and let out a loud laugh while saying, "Wei Xiaoxiao, you better stay back in Ji City, waiting for my grandfather to punish you!" Then, she casually pointed her finger at the seal hovering on top of her head. With that, the shadows of blades immediately shot towards the center of the tornado with an ear-splitting noise.

Noticing that Wu Liu was dead, a gleam of aggression rose from the beautiful eyes of Wei Xiaoxiao. She looked like a dog who would lean over a wall in desperation.