Stealing The Heavens
chapter-224

Giant waves rolled and surged through the land, and a very dense water vapor filled every inch of the air. Wu Qi was now riding on the back of a Red-haired Iron-shelled Turtle, who had a huge shell that was over three hundred feet in circumference, pressing on through the violent waves towards their destination. When in the Longyuan River, the strength of all aquatic demons would get a huge boost. With the help of water channels that were passed down from the ancient time, the army of aquatic demons came very quickly to a branch of Longyuan River closest to Great Dream Marsh - the Spirit Tapeworm River.

The Spirit Tapeworm River stretched over several tens of thousands of miles, and was occupied by only one creature - the frightening Bloodsucking Spirit Tapeworm. It was a fearsome parasite with the body as tiny as a hair, while their length could grow from three inches to three hundred miles long. They were known for living in the body of various formidable creatures and feeding on the creatures' blood essence. The strongest Spirit Tapeworm had the body as long as three hundred miles, and its overall strength could be comparable to a demon beast of peak-stage Nascent Soul realm. When someone was bitten by it on the skin, even if it were a flood dragon, the Spirit Tapeworm would still suck out all his body liquid within a blink of an eye.

Fortunately, these Bloodsucking Spirit Tapeworms were aquatic demons. Thus, they were under the control of the Dragon King Mansion of Longyuan River by nature. Many years ago, Wanying Dragon King had gathered all the Spirit Tapeworms into this Spirit Tapeworm River, making the entire river as their territory. During normal times, all the aquatic demons including Yue Hai, Han Zhu, and Tan Xue, the three great demons, would not come visiting this place. Meanwhile, these fearsome tapeworms would never leave the boundary of Spirit Tapeworm River as well. When they did that, they would be immediately attacked by millions upon millions of aquatic demons.

The vast and violent river water poured into the Spirit Tapeworm River, causing the water level of the once thirty miles wide river to rise abruptly. Then a large patch of bizarre, blood red creatures made their appearance suddenly on the gleaming surface of the water, wiggling and creeping endlessly. While sitting on the back of the giant turtle, Wu Qi was stunned when he saw the countless Spirit Tapeworms that suddenly appeared on the surface of the water. His flesh crept instantly, and there was a chill that ran down his back.

A very strong, savage and nearly insane desire for fresh blood and energy essence suddenly skyrocketed into the atmosphere. It was coming from all those hair-like Bloodsucking Spirit Tapeworms of various lengths, a desire that could strike fear in one's mind upon feeling it. On the water surface of the Spirit Tapeworm River that stretched several tens of thousands of miles long, countless tapeworms were seen rolling wildly about. They blanketed the entire river with a layer of several miles thick creeping worms.

No one could tell how many frightening bloodsucking creatures were there in the river. Even Wanying Dragon King, who stood right next to Wu Qi, had his body suddenly trembled. Following the great flood and plunging into the Spirit Tapeworm River, all the aquatic demons were now wearing an abnormal expression, each trying their best to calm themselves while looking at the massive and boundless mass of Bloodsucking Spirit Tapeworms in front of them.

When it came to the number of a certain species, if these Bloodsucking Spirit Tapeworms claimed themselves to be the second, none of the aquatic demons in Longyuan River could claim their own species as the first. The total number of these tapeworms in the entire river could easily reach up to a trillion, and this number did not include their eggs, which had fully covered the entire riverbed and were tinier than sands.

A group of about one thousand tiny red lines raised up from the water. Wu Qi ran his divine will over at these red lines, only to discover they were nearly one thousand Spirit Tapeworms emanating faint auras of Nascent Soul realm. As their population had reached an astronomical figure, they had the most number of experts. Although these Spirit Tapeworms were the weakest among the same level aquatic demons, with their fearsome innate abilities and the massive number of their population, they had become a very frightening existence in Longyuan River, that made people tremble with fear on the hearing of their name.

A Spirit Tapeworm, its body measuring about four hundred miles long, was seen slowly slithering through the water and coming towards them. There was a small clump of red cloud hovering over his head, in which, a vague fist-sized humanoid figure was seen twisting and bending. Then, a sharp voice was heard coming out from the mouth of the twisting humanoid figure, "Old Dragon King, are you here visiting us? Hehe, what a coincidence! A few days ago, my children had captured some fresh meat from Great Dream Marsh, and we have not actually tasted it yet. You've come at the right time, Old Dragon King. Let us enjoy it together."

This was a Bloodsucking Spirit Tapeworm, who had attained the cultivation base beyond peak-stage of Nascent Soul realm, and had formed a thread of his own Nascent Divinity. He was the Master of Spirit Tapeworm River at the time. He was giving a reverent and submissive attention to Wanying Dragon King. Although Bloodsucking Spirit Tapeworm had a very huge population and incredible innate abilities, they were, after all, aquatic worms. By nature, that made them be under the control of flood dragons. A flood dragon might die after he was attacked by a Spirit Tapeworm with his blood essence sucked dry, but when the flood dragon let out a dragon cry, he could easily kill off countless Spirit Worms.

Such a natural restriction between the species made no Spirit Tapeworms dare to show any disrespect when they were facing Wangying Dragon King.

Wanying Dragon King said with a deep and powerful voice, "There’s no need for such politeness, Old Tapeworm King. We are here today to bring a great flood over at Great Dream Marsh. I need you to call upon all your children, and I grant you all permission for mass slaughter in Great Dream Marsh today. You're free to feed on any demon beasts in the great marsh which are not aquatic demons from Longyuan River... Hmm, that old fool He Qianqiu and some of his children are trapped in there as well. Don't touch them either."

"Are you going to attack the Ice Earthworm, Old Dragon King?" The Old Tapeworm King laughed, "That's excellent! For several thousands of years, I've been longing to suck his blood essence. Since Old Dragon King is going to touch him, there is no better news than this!" Then, he shook his body and emanated a strange wave that spread across the entire Spirit Tapeworm River.

Then, through his divine will, Wu Qi saw a bloodcurdling scene happen right in the riverbed. Amidst the several miles thick mud deposit at the riverbed, countless eggs of Spirit Tapeworm hatched at the same time, sending out an army of an unfathomable number of three inches long tapeworms into the water, who then joined the original army of tapeworms on the surface of the water. In an instant, the entire surface of Spirit Tapeworm River took a crimson hue, with the creeping and rolling of endless tapeworms that made one feel like the river itself was one enormous, living creature.

Wu Qi's flesh crept in a way that he thought it would never happen. In the meanwhile, catfish-flood-dragon was standing beside him, shivering from top to bottom. She quickly called upon a large ball of water and wrapped herself in it, isolating her body from any contact with the outside world. Although she knew these Spirit Tapeworms were also aquatic worms, and a defensive water method would be useless against them, but she still felt better after adding a layer of defense around her.

Feeling uncomfortable, all the other big or small demons quickly exercised their own spells, isolating their bodies from any contact with the outside world. This Spirit Tapeworm River was really not a pleasant place to visit.

As more and more Spirit Tapeworm hatched, the bloodthirsty aura that filled the atmosphere had become stronger and stronger. Even Wanying Dragon King himself had dragon scales poked out from his skin. Obviously, he too could no longer endure the visual impact brought by the emerging of the tapeworm army. He took a deep breath, then pulled out the two large hammers of his and casually waved them in the air. With that, the gleaming and forming water of Longyuan River surged and rushed into Spirit Tapeworm River.

Old Tapeworm King let out a joyful cry, while the countless Spirit Tapeworms in the river responded to his cry by twisting and bending their bodies at the same time in the great flood that was brought here by Wanying Dragon King. Then came a loud rumble, as the water level in the river suddenly rose to ten thousand feet, and turned into a vast white expanse, submerging countless tall mountains and rushing beyond the river course. With the great push from countless aquatic demons and worms, many huge waves that were several miles tall were raised, pressing towards the Great Dream Marsh located several hundred miles away.

The Great Dream Marsh was an ancient swampy land, occupying an area of one hundred miles, surrounded by mountains and ridges. Through ages, a large amount of mud, fallen flowers, and withered grasses accumulated there, and were nourished by the poisonous gases that burst out from a few underground Yin energy holes, which gave the place a layer of mud over several thousand miles thick. Nothing could remain standing on the surface of the mud; even the lightest feather that touched it would be immediately sucked into the ground. If a Heaven Immortal accidentally intruded this place, he would have his immortal body contaminated by the deadly poisonous gas and filthy energies, and eventually fall in this land of death.

Over countless of years, this frightening Great Dream Marsh had devoured an endless amount of formidable demon beasts. In the entire Meng Mountains, the only existence that could walk freely and live in this place was the Master of Great Dream Marsh, the Nine-headed Ice Earthworm, and the group of peculiar demon beasts who were born in this swampy land and recruited by him.

However, the bottomless mud deposit was not the only thing one could find in Great Dream Marsh, there were also several dozens of small islands which men could walk and live on. As a matter of fact, Nine-headed Ice Earthworm had raised a lot of livestock that served as his food, and they were placed on these islands, the largest of which could reach a circumference of about one thousand miles.

At the moment, on a beautiful, small island less than thirty miles in circumference and very close to the border of the swampy land, filled with luxuriant trees and exotic flowers, He Qianqiu was seen bathed in blood and trying his best in supporting a nearly collapsed defensive formation. He was using it to protect a group of several dozen flying demons, who looked very weak and weary, while holding back the crazy attack from several thousand peculiar demon beasts and a strange nine-headed worm.

The strange nine-headed worm had a body about ten miles long. At a glance, the lower part of his body looked like an ordinary earthworm, but near the middle part of the body it began to branch out into nine huge upper bodies, each about few miles long. There were no eyes nor any facial features that could be found on top of each nine bodies, but only a large rounded mouth, several tens of feet in diameter. Inside these wide-open mouths, one could find rings of sharp teeth, layer upon layer, pitch-black but glinting like the shark's teeth.

His entire body took a pitch-black hue, and was wrapped around by a layer of crystal blue cold air. He, was none other than the Master of Great Dream Marsh, the Nine-headed Ice Earthworm.

Currently, Ice Earthworm was crazily spraying out sheets after sheets of icy wind and snowflakes, attacking the defensive formation that was less than three thousand feet in circumference, in which He Qianqiu was holding up with all he had. Countless snowflakes the size of water buckets kept spinning rapidly like sharp wheels, and slicing on the pale white defensive formation, generating many sparks that shot in all directions. The paper-thin defensive formation had suffered from tremendous impacts, and looked like it was going to break at any time.

He Qianqiu kept letting out sharp and jarring crane screeches, while coughing out mouth after mouth of pale golden blood essence. He did not even hesitate to waste his prime energy in maintaining the integrity of the defensive formation. Several dozens of flying demons kept crying and yelling around him, asking him to leave them behind and run for his own life. Yet, He Qianqiu did not listen to them, but poured in all his effort to maintain the formation.

The Nine-headed Ice Earthworm kept twisting and moving his huge body wildly, letting out near insane laugh as he said, "Big white bird, old white bird, if you want to leave, none of us here can stop you! Why are you still protecting your apprentices and disciples? We are demon cultivators! Why do you behave in such a kind and benevolent manner? Are you f*cking out of your mind? Now, that's the result of you making contact with those humans outside the mountains! Look what have they turned you into?"

The Ice Earthworm continued teasing in a loud voice, "As long as you can run away from this place, you can always recruit fresh apprentices and disciples! Why are you sacrificing yourself to save them? There are still millions upon millions of apprentices and disciples waiting for you in your immortal's cave! And yet, you are sacrificing yourself for the sake of these several dozens of creatures with feathers? What for? Go on! Make your escape now! After all, my speed won't allow me to catch up with you!"

He Qianqiu rolled his eyes and sprayed out another mouthful of blood essence, strengthening the defensive formation and not saying a word.

Not far away from the little island, an army of two hundred thousand Qin soldiers was seen stepping on the wing-shaped magical items and hovering in midair, forming a great formation emanating with a menacing aura that surrounded the entire island. Zhang Yi, Li Si, Li Xin, Bai Qi, Wang Jian, Wang Ben, Wang Li, and many other important ministers of Qin army who Wu Qi met before were now holding their respective magical treasures and items, assembling within the great formation.

In the sky high up above them, a pitch-black dragon chariot pulled by nine dragon-headed horses was hovering behind a dark cloud. Solemnly and calmly, Ying Zheng was sitting inside of the chariot, looking down at He Qianqiu with a thoughtful expression. "Yan Dan, your Imperial Advisor is being trapped here. Will you come and rescue him? I am looking forward to your arrival!"

A dark box was sitting quietly on his knees. With utmost tenderness, Ying Zheng stroke the surface of it. Suddenly he breathed out a long sigh.

Following the sigh, the peaks of many lofty mountains that surrounded the Great Dream Marsh suddenly burst out with great water that reached one hundred feet high. Nearly at the same time, the vast expanse of whiteness emerged from all directions, and with a deafening loud boom and rumble, the great flood rolled and plunged down from the mountains, splashing and spraying up an immense amount of water vapor and rushing into the pitch black great Dream Marsh.