Stealing The Heavens
chapter-277

"No, something's not right here!" Without hesitation, Han Xiao sent out his divine will, and immediately scanned through the forest area one thousand miles in circumference around him. With that, every flower and grass, every tree and plant, even the tiniest sand and dust, were completely exposed to his divine will. Apart from Wu Qi, who was hiding inside a thicket and had his aura totally concealed with a mystic technique, everything in the area was blanketed under his divine will, and nothing could escape from his probing.

Clutching Jiangcheng Zi's neck with one hand and dragging him up, Han Xiao had teleported over a distance of ten miles away within a blink. After a cultivator became a Heaven Immortal, exercising the divine ability of teleportation was like how an ordinary mortal drank a glass of water; it would become his second nature. Without any prior sign and with just a blink of his body, he had teleported to another place. Those old demons with a cultivation base of peak-stage Nascent Divinity realm, such as Wanying Dragon King, would have to spend some time gathering their energy, reciting spells in their mind, before they could break through the dimension and teleport away. Both of them just could not be compared with each other.

With a sway of his body, Wu Qi too transformed himself into a clump of green mist, drifting through grasses and trees as he followed closely behind Han Xiao, maintaining a distance of roughly one mile.

The place where Han Xiao teleported over was a huge pine tree with black bark, about three thousand feet tall and one hundred and twenty feet in diameter. A thick layer of lichen and wisteria was growing on its trunk. A strong life force of vegetation was emanating from the huge pine tree ceaselessly, while it kept absorbing the surrounding natural energies. The entire tree was shrouded in a faint layer of misty green glow.

"Oh, Heaven! This is amazing!" With a blank expression, Han Xiao gazed at the huge pine tree, then suddenly broke out into a wild laughter. He waved his arm casually and flung the sleeve towards the pine tree. There came a loud crackle, as the huge pine tree suddenly exploded into wood dust that blotted the atmosphere. Right at the core of the trunk, where all the life force of the pine tree was gathered, there was a crystal, about few feet long and as thick as an adult's arm, taking the shape of a spindle.

A vague, dark green figure, half-tree and half-human, which looked mostly like a tree but had a face of an old man, was seen springing out from the surface of the crystal. A furious yet saddened howl was heard coming from it, then it transformed into a green beam and was about to flee away. However, Han Xiao stretched his hand forward and performed a grabbing gesture, and the vague figure was trapped right in midair. It was then shoved back into the green crystal. Immediately, a blinding green light burst out from the crystal, while sounds of weeping were heard coming out from it. A clear figure could be seen right inside the green crystal; it was the figure of that half-human and half-tree.

Lying on his stomach under an azalea plant, Wu Qi could not help but sigh as he looked at the green crystal. He reckoned this old pine tree must be at least ten thousand years old, as it had already given birth to its own demon soul and demon core. As long as it was given some extra time, it would be able to give birth to a body of a demon. When a plant tried to manifest, it was at least one hundred times tougher than demon beasts and birds. Therefore, although this old pine tree had lived a very long age, it still looked like a tree.

However, when a plant demon manifested, their Dharmic powers and divine abilities would usually be many times stronger than ordinary demon beasts and birds. Yet, during the period before the manifestation took place, it was also the most dangerous time for the plant demons. Since Han Xiao had seized the demon core which the pine tree took tens of thousands of years in cultivating, forcibly trapping its demon soul inside it, this old demon tree had lost all the possibility of truly becoming a demon. The best ending for it would perhaps become the item spirit of some powerful spirit item. With the enormous energy gathered in the huge body of this old demon tree, it could at least become the item spirit of a mid-grade spirit item.

Han Xiao was so happy he threw his head back and let out wild laugh into the sky, dancing with joy as he said, "What a blessing from the Heaven! A ten thousand years old demon soul, a TEN THOUSAND years old demon soul!! With such a powerful demonic energy, such a pure spirit will, as long as I refine it meticulously, it can be crafted into the item spirit of a mid-grade spirit item! And as long as I breed it meticulously for another ten thousand years, it will even have the possibility to be upgraded to an upper-grade spirit item, or even immortal item!! Hahaha!! Sure enough, I, Han Xiao, is having a pretty good luck today!"

After letting out a few wild laughs, Han Xiao thrust his hand out and chopped off both Jiangcheng Zi's arms. While laughing coldly, he told Jiangcheng Zi, "For the sake that you've led me to this land of treasures, I'll let you live for a little bit longer! Hehe, but as you're a cunning junior, to prevent you from ruining my fortune, I can't let you have your arms."

Han Xiao gave Jiangcheng Zi a slap on the face complacently and threw him several hundred feet away. Then, fully satisfied and contented, he breathed out a long sigh and said, "This planet under my feet actually bred so many natural treasures, it must be my destiny to come to this place. It will be a pity if no one is witnessing all this. Pathetic junior, this is also the reason why I let you live for a little bit longer. I want you to witness how many treasures I can find on this planet!"

After that, Han Xiao spread out his divine will, and once again he cried out in disbelief, "How can this be possible??! This is..."

A green light burst out from his right palm, transforming into an enormous palm that grabbed towards a little mountain ridge that stretched slightly over three hundred miles long. The enormous palm blotted the sky and blanketed the earth five hundred miles in circumference. He grabbed and pulled the mountain ridge up from the ground, and with a mild shake of it, several hundred mountains and hills within the ridge crumbled and crushed to pieces. Then, a strong wind came blowing by, carrying away all the dust and dirt, revealing an energy stone vein underneath the mountain ridge, glinting brilliantly under the reflection of the sunlight.

According to Great Yan Dynasty's standard, it was an energy stone vein of middle to small scale. It stretched roughly forty miles long, and the density was about one energy stone within a ten feet wide mountain rock. One out of thirty lower-grade energy stones was a mid-grade energy tone, and for every one hundred and fifty mid-grade energy stones, there would be one upper-grade energy stone. Among the database of Great Yan Dynasty's strategic resources, an energy stone vein such as this did not carry the value to be excavated.

Yet, Han Xiao simply let out a hearty laugh and cried out surprisingly, "Fancy that! There is actually such a rich energy stone vein here!! How amazing!!" He reached out to Jiangcheng Zi, whose shoulders were bleeding endlessly after the arms were ripped, pulled him up and flew above the energy stone vein. After that, he thrust one arm down at the energy stone vein, shooting out a large ball of green mist, which quickly rolled up the entire energy stone vein. In the next moment, roughly one million pieces of lower-grade energy stones, thirty thousand mid-grade and slightly less than two thousand upper-grade energy stones levitated from the ground and fell into his hand.

Wu Qi was aghast. It was indeed the power of a Heaven Immortal, as Han Xiao's control of his Dharmic powers had reached a stage where no Nascent Divinity cultivators could catch up. The green mist shot out by Han Xiao had wrapped all the millions of energy stones inside of the vein at the same time, and every single one of them was pulled out from the rock by a force that just strong enough to do that. The force did not do too much damage to the rocks wrapped around the energy stones, and all the energy stones in the vein had already been pulled out and fell into his sleeve.

If a Nascent Divinity cultivator wished to accomplish the same task, he could only resort to brute force, smashing all the mountain rocks and then picking up energy stones from the debris. Of course, such method would cause a great damage to the energy stones in the vein. On top of that, breaking apart the mountain rocks would cost a lot of energy, even for a Nascent Divinity cultivator. Therefore, using one's energy to mine energy stones was not really worthwhile.

And hence, be it Great Yan, Great Chu, or Great Wei, the task of excavating energy stones would usually be carried out by ordinary human slaves. This ability of mining which Han Xiao showed was more than enough to make all the top men of various dynasties die because of jealousy, as its effectiveness was simply too incredible.

After placing all the energy stones in his sleeve, with a face filled with unrestrained greed and the corner of his lips smeared with white foam, Han Xiao pulled out an upper-grade energy stone which was the size of a toddler's head, and began carefully fiddling it with his hands.

"Upper-grade energy stone... this is really a rich energy stone vein. Junior, back in your White Cloud Immortal Sect, how many energy stone veins are still producing yield currently? Hmm? For all the disciples in your sect, even the second generation disciples of Nascent Divinity realm, how many energy stones can they enjoy every year?" After spending some time fiddling with the energy stone, Han Xiao gave Jiangcheng Zi another heavy slap on the face.

With an astonished expression on his face, Jiangcheng Zi looked at the mountain ridge destroyed by Han Xiao's palm strike, looking at the ground that was shaped like beehives after having all energy stones excavated by Han Xiao. Then, shaking his head and smiling wryly, he said, "White Cloud Immortal Sect has been established for over eighty thousand years, and all the native energy stone veins in White Cloud Planet have completely depleted. Currently, we can only rely on the little energy stones supply produced after those energy stone veins absorb natural energies on a yearly basis. It is really a tough situation."

He breathed out a long sigh and spoke frankly, "Apart from our Patriarch, we have two Heaven Immortal Sect Elders, over one hundred seniors of Nascent Divinity realm, and over one thousand disciples of Nascent Soul realm. Thus, the consumption of energy stones is tremendous in our sect, as everywhere and everything will require the use of energy stones. Currently, those seniors of Nascent Divinity realm can only receive one thousand lower-grade energy stones on a yearly basis."

Han Xiao burst out into a wild laughter, threw Jiangcheng Zi to the ground, and then casually grabbing towards another large mountain ridge off in a distance.

Similar to just now, an enormous green hand flew out, grabbed the mountain ridge which stretched over two thousand miles long, and with a shake, all the mountains crumbled and shattered, revealing a large scale energy stone veins underneath it. Seven to eight rare and precious accompanied metals were mixed among them, such as Purple-Gold, Silver-Essence, Red-Copper and a few others. A green gleam flamed in Han Xiao's eyes as he threw his head back and laughed wildly, facing the large energy stone vein which was at least one hundred times larger than the previous one. He just could not stop from laughing heartily.

"Wonderful! WONDERFUL!! Jiangcheng Zi, junior, now I really don't feel like killing you. This planet is actually a planet of treasures which has yet to be exploited! Give it a good sense now, the density of the natural energy in your surrounding is at least three times denser than at your White Cloud Planet! And, the natural treasures, rare and precious ore veins here, are simply beyond counting! Amazing! I can totally establish a sect and make this planet my base!"

Han Xiao was trembling from head to toe with excitement. "I was all alone in the past, and in those days, all the planets in Liyuan Galaxy which were suitable to establish a sect had already been occupied by immortal sects of various sizes. What a surprise! There is actually an unexploited planet of treasures inside this damn Flaming Nether Ocean! I'm really..."

While Han Xiao was crying and yelling complacently, all of a sudden, he turned facing westward and shouted sternly, "Who are the little rats that are peeping at me?"

A large cloud suddenly spread out in the western sky, while several thousand cultivators and demon beasts rushed out from behind the cloud.

Among these cultivators and demon beasts, Wu Qi saw Yan Dan, Qu Ping, Mo Di, Xun Kuang, Xiang Yu, Duke of Long Yang, and even people from Great Qin, such as Guigu'zi, Huhai, Xu Fu, Li Si, and many others. Apart from them, Wanying Dragon King, Xiong Wanling, He Qianqiu, and many demon kings with the cultivation base of Nascent Divinity realm and above were seen standing amongst the hosts as well. According to the power they came from, they stood on separate clouds and flew slowly towards Han Xiao's direction.

Obviously, Han Xiao was shocked by them. While frowning, he threw a glance over at the large parade of cultivators and demon beasts who came flying towards him. Suddenly, he unleashed all his immortal pressure.

A stream of green light swept across the heaven and earth. Amidst a faint roaring of wind and thunder, the enormous spiritual pressure spread out like a fierce tidal wave on a rocking ocean. Immediately, the pressure came pressing on them, which then brought a pallor to Yan Dan and everyone's faces, while nearly throwing them off the cloud. However, in just a blink of an eye, one after another powerful divine will rose and connected together, then greeted the immortal pressure emanated by Han Xiao.

*BUZZ!!* A loud buzzing noise rang out. Han Xiao took a small step back, while Yan Dan and his company were forced several tens of feet back.

Sitting inside of the prison wagon, Huhai suddenly burst into a loud laughter with a strange voice and said, "Aye, this old twerp really thinks this place is now in his palm? Hehe, an Immortal... I wonder if a spirit pill concocted using an Immortal's blood essence could make my cultivation base skyrocket? Guys, let's put aside the enmity between us for now and kill this old twerp together. What do you think?"

Suddenly Han Xiao laughed. "This is absurd! A group of mere cultivators fancying of killing an Immortal? Well, today I'll teach you what the true power of an Immortal is!!"

A large sheet of five-colored strong light burst out from Han Xiao's palm, amidst which came countless colorful flower petals that spun at high speed, shooting right towards Yan Dan and all the people that came together.