Stealing The Heavens
chapter-172

Chapter 172: Death Formation

Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh

"Screw off before the emperor!" roared Ying Zheng. His voice was so loud that it swept across the battlefield like a loud boom of thunder. Several dozens of demon beasts who had formed their Demon Cores were being pushed tens of miles away by the sound wave while coughing blood. Abruptly, the shapes of eight flood dragons and one serpent behind Ying Zheng's back condensed inwardly, and in a blink of an eye, they transformed into a fist-sized black seal branded with an image of nine dragons. He grabbed the seal and gave a stern cry, "Nine Dragons Cauldron Grand Magic, Conquer of the Nine States!"

Countless Water element thunderbolts exploded crazily around Ying Zheng. The violent explosive force made his body tremble, yet none could break through the layer of defensive black gas shrouding his body. Holding the black seal, he stood amidst the black gases, as a vast menacing energy shot out from his eyes. With the power of him alone, he was able to fight at an equal level with the demonic energies emanated by countless demon beasts in the entire Lake of Four Waters. It was incredible.

Ying Zheng held the seal and forcibly pressed it downward, pouring an invisible but tremendous force out from it. Miserable and shrill cries immediately came out from the mouth of all the aquatic demon beasts who stood or hovered thirty miles around Ying Zheng, as they were sent off the air. There were some mudfishes and eels whose bodies were rather weak, as the tremendous force ripped and tore their bodies, causing numerous wounds of all sizes on them, making blood spill and spray out crazily. There were even some unlucky demon beasts which had their bodies ripped apart by the force. Their internal organs and bones were flying everywhere and blotted the sky.

Upon looking at so many demon beasts injured and killed by one single strike from Ying Zheng, the catfish-flood-dragon cried out exasperatedly. Using its four claws, it savagely grabbed towards the lake and brought up four waterspouts that soared high up into the sky. Like four long whips, the four black waterspouts swung and waved violently, thrusting towards Ying Zheng's face in the most aggressive manner. When they were formed, the water level in the lake suddenly reduced by one thousand feet. Only heavens knew how much of lake water was contained in these four waterspouts.

Millions upon millions kilograms of lake water condensed within four little waterspouts, compressed into the density one hundred times stronger than pure steel. The catfish-flood-dragon wielded the waterspouts, whipping and slapping in all directions. It coiled up large sheets of strong winds that blow onto the formation deployed by Bai Qi and the other men, making it shake and nearly crumble, and forced them to keep backing off. Together with jarring noises of wind breaking, four waterspouts aggressively whipped onto Ying Zheng's body, who was holding the seal and was in the middle of suppressing all the wild demon beasts.

A loud boom rang out, as four waterspouts shattered after the collision. Countless water fountains shot through the sky, turning into a heavy downpour that covered an area of ten thousand miles. Hovering steadily in midair, Ying Zheng forcibly took on the powerful strike. Blood sprayed out from all seven apertures of his while his Imperial robe was ripped into pieces by the waterspouts. The skin on half of his body swelled and became green, and soon turned dark-purple. While coughing blood, Ying Zheng kept staring at the catfish-flood-dragon, laughing out loud as he said, "You're pretty strong, as you can injure my True Dragon body. I've taken a liking to you, you're the best candidate for me to cultivate my Nine Dragons Cauldron Grand Magic!"

He then raised the seal up in the air again, formed a finger incantation and pointed towards it. Finally, he gave a loud and stern cry, "Nine Dragons Cauldron Grand Magic, Six-Directions Sword Strikes!"

Abruptly, the black seal expanded and exploded, transforming into countless thousand-feet-long sword beams that shot into all directions. The power of each sword beam was comparable to the full-blown attack unleashed by a late-stage Human Immortal using a lower-grade magical treasure. Their power was incredible and awe-inspiring. In a blink of an eye, they had covered the entire Lake of Four Waters. Wherever the sword beams went, demon beasts who had their Demon Cores formed would be impaled by them and fall off from the sky. Very quickly, the demon beasts' blood of various colors had stained the entire lake.

As the catfish-flood-dragon had an enormous body, at least several tens of thousands of sword beams hit it without end. Ying Zheng had exerted all his strength in unleashing the attack, and there was a vast energy contained in each sword beam, making them possess a shocking penetration force. The enormous body of catfish-flood-dragon kept shivering while scale after scale was ripped off, and bits of blood kept spraying out from its skin. Some sword energies even cut off large chunks of flesh from its body. Like a raging rainstorm, pale-golden blood kept shot out and poured down from the sky. The severe pain made the catfish-flood-dragon tremble. Without the slightest hesitation, it shrunk its body and turned it into a large meatball.

Suddenly, several dozens of thunderbolts streaked down from above, thrusting towards Ying Zheng in a messy order. However, with just one grip of his palm, they were all shattered into nothingness instantly.

After shrinking into a meatball, the catfish-flood-dragon roared out furiously, "Kill, kill all the humans here! Who dares to take a step back in this battle, I'll definitely eat it after this is over!" Following the angry roar of the catfish-flood-dragon, countless demon beasts disregarded their own safety and flew through the shower of sword beams, sprung and leaped towards Ying Zheng and his men. There were even some demon beasts, whose overall strength was comparable to Earth Immortal, who began unleashing their unique innate abilities.

There was an old demon soft-shelled turtle, whose back shell over two thousand feet in diameter. It shot itself up into the sky while howling crazily. Upon reaching the highest altitude it could, its body began to spin at a high-speed. Like a flying disc, it fell down right towards Ying Zheng. When the old turtle was falling down, watery clouds was seen rolling around its body while countless thunderbolts burst out from its back shell, bringing together ear-splitting loud booms as they thrust forcefully towards Ying Zheng.

Bai Qi, who hovered not far behind Ying Zheng, flew into the sky. Using a dazzling longsword, he savagely hacked onto the back shell of the old turtle. The assault made the old turtle give a painful howl, as its back shell that was tougher than diamond was ripped apart, and the strike had severely injured its internal organs. Nevertheless, Bai Qi was knocked back down to the ground by the frightening force coming from the massive weight of the old turtle, which sent him right into the rolling lake in the sorriest state. Then, a couple dozens of long tentacles, which looked like they belonged to some demon octopus, poked out from under the water, tangled Bai Qi's body and dragged him down into the depths of the lake.

Two large demon green-prawns, each with a body nearly one thousand feet long, glinting brightly green like they were made from some precious gemstones, gave a shrill cry together. Both had their six arms grabbed on six fangs that fashioned in a peculiar manner, bringing up countless white beams and thrust crazily towards the group of several dozens of Nascent Soul captains, who were maintaining the defensive formation not far behind Ying Zheng. The front claws of prawns came with a very powerful explosive force. Every knock performed by an ordinary one feet long lobster could easily shatter a crystal glass the thickness of a human thumb. These two big prawns which had turned into demons could easily pierce through several great mountains with one single knocking strike.

Although Wu Qi had successfully cultivated his Dharma Body, such innate ability was something that could never be compared with. It was indeed true that humans were the wisest among all creatures, but nature had also given all the other creatures under the heaven their own respective extraordinariness. If they were able to cultivate to a certain stage, they could turn such innate ability into their magical power, and their strength would not be weaker than the magical power of human cultivators. As a matter of fact, they were usually stronger than human.

Riding on clouds, thirteen Nascent Soul captains greeted the two great demon prawns. They drew their swords and sprinted forward, fighting head-to-head with two demon prawns with pure muscle strength. Loud ringing clash of weapons echoed out, as twelve Nascent Soul captains were knocked back while coughing blood. Their breastplates were shattered into pieces by the fangs wielded by two demon prawns. The last captain gave a furious cry, flipped his hand and hacked his sword forcefully on the chest of one demon prawn, cutting out a very long wound on it.

Sticky and pale-green blood sprayed out from the body of the demon prawn, shot and splashed onto the body of the last captain. A very loud hissing noise rang out, as the blood of the demon prawn was actually a few hundred time more corrosive than the strongest acid. As a result, the Nascent Soul captain gave a horrifying howl. His clothes and armors were melting down quickly, followed by his skin and flesh, as they were melted into poisonous liquids that dripped down to the ground. The captain made a quick and decisive decision: he self-exploded. A blood red light shot out from his dantian, within which, his two feet and three inches tall Nascent Soul was seen trying to make a desperate escape.

However, while he was less than thirty miles into the escape, a pitch-black, foolish looking demon turtle suddenly poked its body out from a dark cloud in the sky. Two large hammers were seen held in the turtle's hands, then it stuck out its long neck. Its small eyes went wide as it wielded one of the hammer right onto the escaping Nascent Soul. A miserable cry came, as the Nascent Soul was smashed into pieces by the hammer. A Water element thunderbolt streaked out from the hammer and smote the last piece of the soul into a mess. With that, the Nascent Soul captain had all his souls turned into nothingness, completely vanishing from this world.

A furious roar echoed out from underneath the water. In the next second, Bai Qi, who had his body fully stained and smeared with all kind of strange mucus and blood of various colors, leaped out from the water in a messy state. A large squid with its body stretching nearly three miles long and covered in countless shells and algae, was seen slowly emerging from under the surface of the lake, casting its fierce eyes right at Bai Qi's face. In an ambiguous and vague voice, it roared, "Eat you! Eat you! EAT YOU!" Then it shook its body as all seven to eight tentacles of it suddenly stretched longer and reached to a length of several dozens of miles. They produced a jarring wind breaking noise as they grabbed towards Bai Qi altogether.

It was at the same moment that Ying Zheng raised the black seal up in the air again and swung it down. "Nine Dragons Cauldron Grand Magic, Eight-Directions Sword Strike!"

Eight huge dark shadows of swords shot whistling out from the seal, generated jarring noises and swept across the battlefield, slicing the tentacles of the big squid into countless pieces. At the same time, several hundred demon beasts with large bodies were hacked and chopped apart by the sword shadows, striking them with a severe pain and forcing them to cry out in pain while backing off. But still, tens of demon beasts had their life force wiped out and fell miserably into the lake below.

Ying Zheng then gave a loud cry, "These demon beasts are too fierce and strong, retreat now!" Black gases violently surged out from below his feet and enveloped him, Bai Qi and other men completely as they flew quickly towards the great mountain where Li Si and Xu Fu had deployed a formation. None of the demon beasts knew what was the meaning of 'never to pursue a desperate foe', and knew nothing about the strategy of luring the enemy in deep. Every single one of them was laughing wildly in a winning manner, as they began chasing in Ying Zheng's direction in high spirits.

Especially that giant squid, it must have suffered a big loss when fighting with Bai Qi just now, as it kept spitting smoke and bubbles from its mouth. It was howling wildly while sprinting forward aggressively, and using all its tentacles to keep slapping and whipping onto Ying Zheng's body. Wu Qi was greatly puzzled when he first saw this squid. Clearly, this was an inland lake, so how could a squid live here? But then he thought over it again, as even a flood dragon could exist in this world, thus it probably was not something unusual for a squid to live in an inland lake.

Then, he sighed, looking at how these demon beasts swarmed into the ambush which Ying Zheng had deployed in advance. He shook his head.

Meanwhile, the meatball transformed from the catfish-flood-dragon was seen shrinking rapidly. In just the time of two to three breaths, it had transformed into a strange lady clad in a black dress. She stood about five feet tall, her body rather fat and her head actually still the head of a catfish. Right in the center of her head was mounted a long, sharp dragon horn. Casually, she stretched her hand forward and grabbed towards the lake. A loud rumble suddenly came from the bottom of the lake, as a black pearl the size of a human head, emanating enormous energy waves, was seen slowly emerge and float out.

The Acquired Pearl of Fire Element residing inside of Wu Qi's dantian suddenly trembled and began echoing with the black pearl from the great distance. Wu Qi was shocked. It seemed that black pearl was also a natural spirit item as well, and contained a great amount of Water element essence, a perfect match to the pearl that was residing in his dantian.

The catfish-flood-dragon grabbed the pearl, stepped onto a dark cloud and angrily pursued after Ying Zheng. At the moment, Ying Zheng and his men had retreated to the peak of the great mountain where they came from earlier, while the swarm of demon beasts had reached a distance of fewer than three miles from the mountain.

Noises of bowstrings being pulled suddenly filled the air, as several hundred Gold Core soldiers stationed halfway up the mountain took out a large crossbow each, the size of which was longer than the arm of an adult man. They pulled the string and loaded rows of eight feet long bolts onto the crossbows. At the same time, under the lead of Xu Fu, numerous practitioners stretched their arms forward and casually pointed their fingers in the air, shooting out countless runes from their fingertips which then merged slowly into all the bolts.

On the peak of the mountain, Bai Qi took a step forward, spat out a mouthful of mucus that came from the squid's body, then roared exasperatedly, "The death formation of Qin crossbow, slaughter them all!"

With the command being called out, sounds of crossbows being triggered rang out, and a large curtain of bolts immediately poured whistling out into the air. The bolts pierced through the air with long tails of dark smoke behind them. The dark smoke then enveloped each bolt and turned into shapes of twisted beast heads on them. The runes cast and fused with the bolts by Xu Fu and all the practitioners had attracted the souls of fierce and wild beasts that could be found everywhere in the forest, and skyrocketed their power.

The shower of bolts blotted the sky and traveled over one hundred miles away. The swarm of demon beasts suddenly halted, and their bodies turned stiff, after which, countless demon beasts fell off from the sky like raindrops.

With just one round of shooting, nearly ten thousand demon beasts had their bodies riddled with holes and died on the spot.