Stealing The Heavens
chapter-247

Holding his spear, Ying Ziying engaged Xiang Yu in a fierce battle, while the eight alligators threw their heads back and let out loud roars into the sky behind him. He thrust spear after spear, leaving behind numerous wounds on Xiang Yu's body. Alligator was actually a subspecies of flood dragons, but they could only be considered as lower-grade flood dragons with faint bloodline. Nevertheless, as alligators had very thick scales, their strength was incredible, and their sharp claws could easily break apart mountains. Thus, although they ranked low in the clan of flood dragon, their true overall strength was no weaker than any legitimate flood dragon.

If they managed to transcend, transforming into Heaven Immortal with a fleshly body of True Dragon, their overall strength was only about thirty percent of that True Dragon transformed from flood dragon. However, before that, an alligator's overall strength could be easily up to par with any middle to upper-grade flood dragon with very pure bloodline.

As Ying Ziying was also cultivating with Nine Dragons Cauldron Grand Magic, he had chosen eight alligators as his dragon souls, which gave him the unique characteristics of alligators. He had a very tough fleshly body and powerful strength. In terms of pure muscle strength alone, he was a few times stronger than Ying Zheng, who had gathered eight flood dragons and one serpent. It was just that his cultivation of divine abilities and Dharmic powers was weaker than Ying Zheng. Now, with him alone, he had engaged the severely wounded Xiang Yu in a fierce battle, and actually put up a very impressive fight, as he did not show any sign of being in a bad position.

Xiang Yu threw his head back and issued a furious roar. His coiling-dragon spear was destroyed in the previous battle, resulting in him fighting the enemy bare-handed. He swung and thrust his fists utterly without a literary style, punching and smashing at Ying Ziying in a very messy and unorganized manner. Meanwhile, Ying Ziying wielded his spear in a very strict standard, as each of his strikes did not look fancy or tricky. Instead, it seemed open and above-board like a lofty mountain, pressuring Xiang Yu with the incredible muscle strength of his.

As Xiang Yu was severely wounded, and had just demonized himself, he had lost over ninety percent of his strength. He could not withstand Ying Ziying's domineering strength of eight alligators, and was kept being pushed and knocked back by the spear. Every now and then, the sharp tip of the spear would bring up streams of blood from his body. Xiang Yu let out deep, senseless roars ceaselessly, like a wild beast that had gone berserk as he kept leaping and attacking Ying Ziying desperately. Although much of his strength was depleted, and his offensive strength was greatly reduced, but the recovery strength of his body had reached an insane level. Ying Ziying had produced numerous bloody scars on his body, yet in just a few breaths, they were completely healed. No matter how many holes Ying Ziying pierced on his body, up to hundreds of them, he still could not kill Xiang Yu.

Yan Dan had spent some time watching the battle between Ying Ziying and Xiang Yu coldly. Suddenly, he raised his right arms up in the air and cried out, "All the generals, listen to my command! Aid Ziying the Emperor of Qin and kill Xiang Yu!" Then, he gave the people around him a meaningful look, while his lips moved slightly, secretly giving them another order, ‘When aiding Ying Ziying in killing Xiang Yu, let Ying Ziying charge at the forefront, and after Xiang Yu is killed, try their best in capturing Ying Ziying alive, and kill him if they fail to do so.’

Jing Ke let out a loud laugh. His body twisted, and abruptly transformed into a dazzling white beam with the diameter of a fist. He shot through the distance of one hundred miles and pierced through Xiang Yu's body in a straight line. He was using the Grand-white Dragon Sun-piercing Technique, a technique he named after he was ablaze with rage and went on the mission of assassinating Ying Zheng, implying the spirit of how a white beam pierced through the sun and a rainbow poked through the sky. All the gold element energies in his body had compressed and formed into a white beam with a very strong penetrating force, like a divine weapon. It could even pierce through upper-grade magical treasures or even spirit items.

The white beam had opened up a see-through hole the size of a bowl on Xiang Yu's body. It was a clean cut with no shreds of flesh or bones around it. While his blood and flesh kept wiggling and twisting, trying to heal and restore the wound, a very sharp energy with immense offensive force had remained near the wound, grinding any newly grown flesh into shreds. Although Xiang Yu had obtained the celestial fiend body of immortality, he still could not heal the frightening wound in a short amount of time.

Jing Ke issued a long cry, shrouding in wisps of white mist as he revealed himself at a distance of several dozen miles away. He panted, looked at Xiang Yu, and laughed. "Xiang Yu, how is the taste of my attack?" The Grand-white Sun-piercing Technique of Dragon had gathered all Jing Ke's energy, compressed all his spirit and energy into one, and exploded with an unimaginably tremendous force. This was the profound essence of Jing Ke's cultivation technique. Therefore, although it was just one single strike, it cost nearly half of his energy essence, and that was why after releasing the attack, he was panting and busy in circulating his cultivation base, restoring his energy.

Two bright blood-red beams shot out from Xiang Yu's eyes as he stared furiously at Jing Ke, threw his head back and howled, "Jing Ke, I'm gonna kill you!"

As both his body and Nascent Divinity had turned fiendish, Xiang Yu had lost his reason. As a result, the one who inflicted greater damage to him, his instinct would drive him to counterattack that person. Jing Ke's strike had caused a very serious damage to his body, and it made Xiang Yu immediately discard Ying Ziying, who was in the middle of attacking him. Roaring and yelling while emanating a massive blood-red energy, he turned to charge towards Jing Ke.

Ying Ziying gave a loud, long laugh, then immediately wielded his spear, unleashing several dozens of powerful dark beams in the shape of alligators, hitting onto Xiang Yu's body in a row. The heavy impacts ripped and tore Xiang Yu's muscles, sending blood and gore flying in all directions, while it made his pale dark bones get exposed again. The Banner of Chiyou immediately issued a shrill and furious howl of warriors, as a massive sheet of blood-red energy surged out from Xiang Yu's body and then channeled into the banner. It then spread out and blanketed an area of nearly one thousand feet in circumference, providing a strict protection to Xiang Yu.

Ying Ziying thrust his spear again, but this time, the alligator-shaped beams hit the Banner of Chiyou, and were only able to cause some insignificant ripples on the blood-red energy barrier, and failed to inflict any damage to Xiang Yu. Instead, a powerful backlash was generated from the Banner of Chiyou which shook Ying Ziying's spear and struck his wrists with a great pain, causing him to nearly lose grip on the spear. Ying Ziying was greatly frightened, as he quickly brought the spear, spun, and retreated. But, Xiang Yu was again infuriated and attracted by the attack, as he turned to punch out his fist towards Ying Ziying.

Suddenly, from the Banner of Chiyou came bursting out a jet of immense murderous energy. It quickly fused into Xiang Yu's punch, transforming into a fist beam the shape of a fierce tiger, with sharp horns on its head, smashing towards Ying Ziying's back while letting out ferocious roars. When this several hundred feet long, blood-red tiger made its appearance, the surrounding natural energies were immediately drawn to it. All the vegetation on the nearby mountains withered and died instantly, while an immense death energy soared quickly up from underground, transforming into countless pitch-black palms. They grabbed towards Ying Ziying's body while letting out gloomy and evil ghost howls.

Caught unprepared, Ying Ziying was grabbed by these suddenly appeared pitch-black palms. His body was tightly gripped by numerous black palms, and he had lost the ability to move. Very quickly, the blood-red tiger approached him, and when it was about to hit his back, it shrunk and compressed rapidly. Eventually, it became the size of a human fist, then brutally smashed into the center of Ying Ziying's back.

A loud boom rang out, accompanied by calls of countless war bugles. Ying Ziying's dragon robe was torn into shreds, as the heavy punch smashed and broke his backbone into pieces. Blood burst out from all seven apertures of his while he was knocked tumbling few miles away.

Upon witnessing how Xiang Yu severely wounded Ying Ziying, Yan Dan clapped his hands and laughed happily, "Excellent! Quickly capture Ying Ziying alive!"

Before his words could fade away, the guards brought here by Ying Ziying gave a loud cry together. Abruptly, their skins exploded and peeled off, exposing a metal body underneath that shone brilliantly. It turned out these guards were all metal demon figurines wrapped in human skins. When they saw the subject they were supposed to protect was wounded, they immediately revealed their true form and strode towards Ying Ziying. The group of several hundred demon figurines stood in a circular formation around Ying Ziying. A blinding bright light began emitting from underneath their feet, spreading out as it quickly formed into a large teleportation formation.

A massive amount of energy surged out from the bodies of these metal figurines, rushing and channeling into the teleportation formation, providing it with sufficient power to break through space. In the next moment, the figures of Ying Ziying and all few hundred figurines turned vague and incorporeal, then vanished into thin air.

"Oh?!" Mo Di looked into the direction where Ying Ziying and the demon figurines vanished in astonishment, then laughed pleasingly and said, "Engrave parts of teleportation formation onto each demon figurines, and when in a time of need, the restrictive spells in the bodies of several hundred demon figures will be activated, which turn them into a mobile teleportation formation? It is indeed a brilliant idea, an excellent idea! This must be a brainchild of Guigu'zi. Who else could have such an incredible ability?"

Xun Kuang too was nodding and smiling. "It must be the miraculous approach of our old brother, Wang Xu. In terms of the art of divination, conceal weapons and mechanical, only he alone under the heaven can compete with the Mo Sect!"

Mo Di kept rubbing his palms excitedly, as his old interest was reawakened. "I wonder how powerful are these demon figurines of Qin army. Who knows, maybe I'll bring out those powerful combative gears that Mo Sect had produced during these years, using them to fight the Qin army. Hehe, especially the Mo City, I've always wanted to see how powerful the Mo City is!"

While both men were praising the divine approach of Guigu'zi, Yan Dan had personally brought numerous military generals and civilian officials, encircled Xiang Yu, and trapped him down completely. Leading a group of Great Yan cultivators with them, Han Fei and Su Qin had deployed various restrictive formations in the nearby areas, tightly locking down the surrounding airspace. Thus, no matter how Xiang Yu kept roaring furiously, pushing and slamming in all directions, he just could not escape from this place.

Holding a short crescent halberd in each hand, Fan Yuqi, who had a huge stature that looked like a big piece of iron ingot, charged towards Xiang Yu fearlessly and engaged him in a fierce melee battle. The primary cultivation technique practiced by Fan Yuqi was the Earthly Indestructible Body from the Indestructible Sect, and thus, the toughness of his fleshly body was simply awe-inspiring. On top of that, he had an innate spirit item with incredible power hiding in his body. Most likely, it was an earth element innate spirit item. With his fleshly body nourished and tempered by this innate earth element energy for over two thousand years, the defensive strength of his body made Wu Qi shake his head in disbelief.

"He is simply a rock in a sh*thole, hard and stinking, and cannot be broken!" Wu Qi shook his head as he saw Xiang Yu punch several hundred times on Fan Yuqi's body, yet only producing a massive amount of sparks, without hurting even a single hair of his.

The process of tempering a fleshly body was a laborious task that cost very long and boring hours. As Fan Yuqi carried an innate earth element spirit item with him all the time, the Earthly Indestructible Body tempered by him after spending two thousand years had reached the maximum limit one could achieve below the realm of Heaven Immortal. Unless he were personally attacked by a Heaven Immortal, even Wanying Dragon King would not be able to leave a tiny scar on his skin. Compared to Fan Yuqi's fleshly body, Wu Qi's Dharma body of Earth Immortal was as weak as the shell of a chicken egg.

"Be positive! He had arduously cultivated for over two thousand years. How long have I been cultivating for?" Twitching his lips and baring his teeth, Wu Qi kept watching Fan Yuqi. He felt a tingling sensation on his teeth.

Suddenly, another bright golden light flashed by, as Jin Jia, whose fleshly body was the strongest among all five demon kings, joined the battle as well, aiding Fan Yuqi by restricting Xiang Yu's movement. Jin Jia's true form was an extraordinary beast - the Gold Eating Armadillo. Since he was little, he had been devouring gold element energies. Therefore, his fleshly body was extremely powerful, even tougher than Fan Yuqi's body. When these two guys with insanely strong bodies tangled Xiang Yu in a fierce fight, they simply left no room for him to escape.

At the moment, it seemed that Xiang Yu was about to be killed on the spot or captured alive by the people of Great Yan. But suddenly, a dark slit emerged in the sky above, from which came two large hands which looked like they were hewed from white jade, pressing down slowly.

One hand pointed its finger out, crashing all the restrictive formations deployed by Su Qin, Han Fei, and several tens of thousands of Great Yan cultivators.

Another hand thrust forward, slapping both Fan Yuqi and Jin Jia one hundred miles away, then smashing several dozen miles into the ground. After that, two large hands gently grabbed Xiang Yu up, and brought him quickly into the dark slit in the sky.

"Your Majesty Yan Dan, Xiang Yu is the bravest warrior of Great Chu. I can't let Your Majesty kill him.

"Qu Ping of Great Chu offers greetings. There is no conflict between the Great Chu and Great Yan, and Great Qin is our common enemy. Why don't we, the Great Chu, and your Great Yan, join hands in defending against Great Qin?"

Looking at how the two large hands dragged Xiang Yu quickly into the dark slit, after a moment of silence, Yan Dan cried out in a stern voice, "Agreed!"