Stealing The Heavens
chapter-435

*Zoom!*

The enormous bronze statue almost brushed Wu Qi as it smashed down. He managed to avoid it by mere inches, but at the same time, he purposely shook his hand and made Liu Yi stumble a little. As a result, the edge of the statue, which was the corner of its fluttering sleeve, briefly brushed against Liu Yi's body, mangling his right knee down to his right ankle, tearing and crushing all the flesh and bones of his right leg.

Liu Yi howled tragically with a hoarse voice. Tears and snot were spraying out from his eyes and nose. While dragging him by the neck, Wu Qi kept running and shouting, "Fear not, brother Liu Yi, I will protect you!"

As Wu Qi was crying out loud, he transformed into a gust of wind and fled hurriedly. An old monk sitting cross-legged on top of the statue saw him. The monk threw out a Buddhist bead and yelled fiercely, "All evils should be purged! Face your death now, evil Daoist!" When it left the old monk's hand, the black sandalwood bead transformed into a washbasin-sized thunder ball as it thrust straight towards Wu Qi's back. It even brought up a gust of strong wind that pushed away a few Gold Core cultivators from Euphoria Heavenly Palace.

Wu Qi turned his head slightly to look back over his shoulder, and saw the approaching Buddhist bead. With a casual wave of his hand, from among the many spirit items which his Master and Seniors in Yuan Hua Sect gave him before he left them, a defensive magical treasure named 'Green Cicada Wing' sprung out, transforming into a sheet of green ray that shielded his back. When the Green Cicada Wing was unleashed, a sharp chirping of cicada echoed out instantly, and several hundred fuzzy, green cicadas, each as large as an adult's fist, flew out, wheeling rapidly both inside and outside the green ray. Their thin wings flapped at a high speed, from which came thrusting out white wind blades one after another. Like a swarm of insects, they greeted upon the thunder ball.

A loud boom rang out. The thunder ball exploded, and the Buddhist bead was shattered to powder by the Green Cicada Wing. The scattering thunderbolt split into several dozens of flames that shot in all directions. Taking the opportunity, Wu Qi shook his wrist again, causing one of the flames to land right on Liu Yi's buttock. It burned off his pants in an instant, while a thumb-sized, purple thunder-flame stuck on his buttock and burned with a sizzling sound. Before long, the flame burned out a fist-sized hole on his fair buttock.

Liu Yi had nearly passed out from the severe pain brought by the wound on his right leg. Now, with the latest trick which Wu Qi played on him, his eyes went wide and he gave a heartbreaking shriek. It was so loud that even the chirping of cicadas was completely covered. The once casual and elegant Liu Yi had totally changed. His fair and handsome face had become yellowish like cured meat, and cold sweats were breaking out from all over his body, trickling down in streams.

Clutching Liu Yi's neck, Wu Qi dragged him as he ran as fast as he could from the scene. While running, he yelled, "Don't worry, brother Liu Yi! I am with you, and I won't let you die! Not now!"

A loud rumble was heard coming from several miles behind him. Eighteen old monks had driven the frighteningly huge bronze statue and smashed it onto Lady Qiao's cloud bed. More than a thousand layers of white clouds burst out from the bed, trying to resist the impact from the statue. However, among the eighteen monks, at least three of them were having cultivation bases of Heaven Immortal realm. Furthermore, they had used the divine ability of Vajra Subduing Devil to form a formation, driving the Vajra's magical item, which had been worshiped for countless of years before the Buddha, and transforming it into such a gigantic statue. The impact brought by it was almost comparable to that of one hundred Mount Tai smashing down from several tens of thousands of miles above.

Layers after layers of cloud were shattered and dispersed into streams of bright light. Coupled with Lady Qiao's hysterical and despairing howls, the statue crushed the cloud bed, pushing it straight into the ground, together with several hundred boys and girls, handsome young men, and the company of cultivators from Euphoria Heavenly Palace.

The surrounding mountains trembled violently as the statue went almost a mile deep into the ground. Fearing that those people underneath the statue might survive, the group of eighteen old monks quickly performed hand incantations while reciting some scriptures, hovering several hundreds of feet above the ground. Together, they unleashed a beam of Buddhist light and sent it into the now in-the-ground statue.

Abruptly, the bronze statue trembled. Countless thunderbolts were darting out from it and slithering quickly towards the sky. Before long, numerous rainbow-colored Buddhist light beams came swirling from all directions, swiftly transforming into a pillar of rainbow light that fell straight down. Amidst the pillar of light, one could vaguely see a few antique-looking Buddha statues sitting cross-legged, hands performing swastika incantation gesture. Countless fuzzy images of Bodhisattva, Arhat, Vajra, and Heavenly Kings were flashing and blinking behind their backs.

The pillar of rainbow light fused into the Vajra statue. The ground shook violently, causing several dozens of nearby mountain ridges to collapse, lofty mountain peaks to topple, and rivers and streams to change their courses. Bottomless rifts were cracked open in many places one after another. Water from those rivers and streams poured down into these rifts, disappearing without a trace in an instant.

A grieving and indignant voice rang out suddenly, "Qiao'er! My Qiao'er! I, Lao Qianye, had found my lover at long last. But you... you bald donkeys have just killed her!!"

The ground about one hundred feet away from the huge hole created by the Vajra statue burst open suddenly, from which came soaring out Lao Ai. He was cupping Lady Qiao in his arms, who was now bathed in blood, with all her bones crushed into pieces, head badly mutilated like a messy watermelon, and golden gleams rippling out from between her brows. Anyone with a fair knowledge would know that the golden gleams rippling out from between her brows was the sign that her immortal soul had completely shattered, and the source power of her soul was returning to the heaven and earth.

The group of eighteen old monks laughed joyously together, "Sādhu! Sādhu! The prime evil is eliminated! We've returned peace and calm to this world!"

The old monk who attacked Wu Qi previously cried out with a loud and stern voice, "You devils, quickly bow your head and surrender! Do you wish to have your soul completely disintegrated, just like this evil woman?"

Lao Ai, who was also drenched with blood, gave those old monks a 'sinister' glance, before taking a step forward and teleporting himself to several tens of miles away. "Just you remember, bald donkeys! I will never let you go! As I don't have the overall strength to avenge Qiao'er today, once I have cultivated to a Primordial Immortal, I'll definitely attack Golden Pavilion Temple, killing every single bald donkey in your temple!"

'Tsk!' All eighteen old monks felt disgusted in their mind. When under certain circumstances, one really should bide one's time and wait for the right opportunity to seek vengeance. But, what Lao Ai said was that he would do that after he cultivated to a Primordial Immortal. 'Ugh, how many Primordial Immortals were there in the Heaven? Most probably, there are only less than ten of those supreme-grade Primordial Immortals! And you said you will seek vengeance after you have cultivated to a Primordial Immortal? Do you really want to avenge Lady Qiao or not?'

The ground off to a side cracked open suddenly. Eighteen celestial fiend puppets, including the one who was disguised as Reverend San Le, sprung out from it, dragging Madman Xue, who looked really dirty as they fled in a flurry. While transforming into a gust of wind to flee from the scene, 'Reverend San Le' cried out loudly, "Bald donkeys, I'll spare these remains of Ganoderma Immortal for you! My fellow Uncle-Masters, Junior and Senior Brothers, let's escape now! These bald donkeys are too menacing to deal with!"

The puppet disguised as Min Hua also cried out in a hoarse voice, "Long as the green hills are there, one need not worry about firewood! Fellow disciples, the enemies are too strong. We have to leave now! Once we have cultivated to Primordial Immortals, we'll come back and settle the scores with them!"

Led by Lao Ai, the company of celestial fiend puppets brought Lady Qiao's corpse and Madman Xue, who appeared to be in a perfect condition, and fled towards the direction which Wu Qi had taken previously. Their speed was incredibly fast, and while the group of old monks had just exercised a very powerful restrictive Buddhist spell, they did not have enough time and strength to hunt them down.

And what happened next had kept them occupied, losing their chance of hunting down Lao Ai and the company.

All of a sudden, eighteen celestial fiend puppets roared at the top of their voices, "The remains of Ganoderma Immortal have been unearthed here! Fellow Daoists, do not let these extremely cruel and merciless bald donkeys get all the benefits! Come and seize it! A mortal who consumes the Ganoderma Horse materialized from the blood essence left behind by a Ganoderma Immortal will become an Immortal straight away, and even a Heaven Immortal will have his cultivation base take a huge leap! You can become a Gold Immortal with it!"

These celestial fiend puppets were not mortals with fleshly bodies. They were Fiend Immortals with half-fleshly and half-puppet bodies. Because of that, their roars were so loud that they echoed to a distance of several thousands of miles away. All the people in An He City heard them loud and clear, and everyone knew that the remains of a Ganoderma Immortal had been unearthed!

The people from Euphoria Heavenly Palace had been following closely next to Lady Qiao's cloud bed. As their Master was controlled by Lao Ai using an evil technique, and crushed to a mess by the statue, having all her energy essence completely sucked by him, none of them had the ability to stand up against the joint attacks unleashed by three Heaven Immortals and fifteen Nascent Divinity cultivators. As a result, apart from the celestial fiend puppets, Lao Ai, and Madman Xue, each one of them were killed, with their souls totally perishing.

Nevertheless, relying on their profound cultivation base and quick reflexes, when the statue was smashing down, both Lord Jade and Mister Gold dared not to fight head-on against the divine ability of evil subduing unleashed by eighteen old monks using the Buddhist magical item. Hence they managed to teleport away in a flurry. When Lao Ai managed to escape with Lady Qiao's broken body, both of them rushed back as if their parents had just passed away, wailing and whining, "Qiao'er, oh Qiao'er, you've died a horrible death! We will definitely avenge you!"

Amidst the sad and shrill cries, Lord Jade threw three strangely shaped jade axes into the sky, which transformed into three large moons and chopped towards those old monks. Meanwhile, Mister Gold roared furiously as he waved his hands, filling the sky with countless golden blades, spears, swords, and axes, which rained down like a thunderstorm towards the group of old monks.

Moreover, both men had joined hands to unleash a divine Immortal ability. With their fingers pointing randomly at the surrounding mountain ridges, several lofty mountains were lifted up into the sky, then compressed into clumps of soil the size of a fist in just a blink of an eye, bringing together a very dense earth energy as they smashed down towards the three old monks with the Heaven Immortal cultivation base.

Eighteen old monks roared together. All of a sudden, one of the Heaven Immortal realm old monks sprung out from the formation, quickly leaping towards the Ganoderma on the slanting peak, paying no heed to Lord Jade and Mister Gold's joint attack. On the other hand, the rest of the old monks cried out as they stood into a formation of Nine Halls, a relic flying out of the top of their heads, transforming into a large sheet of energy barrier that wrapped the mountain ridges within a radius of several miles. They had adopted a defensive tactic.

The Vajra statue flew out of the large hole slowly, hovering below the group of old monks with both hands performing a hand incantation of Immovable Buddha, unleashing a bronze-colored energy barrier that was as thick as a wall. Similarly, it had assumed a defensive position.

The joined attacks of Lord Jade and Mister Gold smashed onto the energy barrier unleashed by the old monks, but was only able to raise countless ripples on its surface, cracking the nearby ground, but failed to break the defensive barrier. As a matter of fact, Buddhist's Zen Defensive divine ability was famous throughout the universe for its sturdiness. When these Buddhist cultivators threw away their dignity to defend with all of their strength, there was little chance, if none, to break through their defense.

Holding a golden monk's blade, the old monk who left the formation previously leaped his way on top of the Ganoderma, not uttering a word as he wielded the blade and hacked the Ganoderma. A loud clanging noise rang out and sparks flew all over the place. The blade went at least one finger deep into the Ganoderma!

Suddenly, several hundred loud cries were heard coming from far and near,

"Bald donkeys! A precious natural treasure like this is not something you can put your hands on!"

Bright gleams and shadows began to emerge around the scene. At least five Heaven Immortals, thirty Nascent Divinity cultivators, and several hundred Nascent Soul and Gold Core cultivators came rushing from all directions!