Stealing The Heavens

Wu Qi and all the other subjects of Great Yu turned to look curiously at the main entrance of the great hall. According to the arrangement of those almighty experts who founded the Heaven in those years, the crown prince of Ziwei Lingying, the Great Celestial Emperor of the Heaven, held a lofty position that second only to his father, and that made him one of the mightiest figures across the whole universe.

His status was so exalted and unique that when he arrived straight to Liangzhu from the Thirty-three Heavens, the eunuch of the court could do nothing but come into the hall to inform Emperor Haozun about his arrival.

The emperor remained in silence for a long while, the starlight in his eyes flickered restlessly. At length, he slowly raised a hand and said in a deep voice, “Granted!”

Wu Qi blinked. Emperor Haozun had only said a word, ‘granted’. That was equivalent to putting himself on the position of the sovereign and looking down at the Heaven’s crown prince as his subject. He was granting his subject an audience. The word had precisely exhibited Emperor Haozun’s present mentality—if this crown prince dares to cause any trouble here, he doesn’t mind to teach the punk a painful lesson.

Wu Qi had even sensed an unusual fluctuation in the power of the star and the natural energy of the earth vein within the great hall. It was as if a super nuclear warhead was cooking up in Emperor Haozun’s body. A faint but terrible aura that made one’s scalp went numb was spreading over from the emperor’s direction. Ji Ao, who was kowtowing to express his gratitude, had risen to his feet and returned to Wu Qi’s side. He lowered his voice and said, “This crown prince must be up to no good!”

Wu Qi nodded in agreement. How could the crown prince of the Heaven up to any good here?

Before long, the sound of footsteps could be heard as a few eunuchs brought a handsome youth into the hall. The youth wore a purple-gold double-dragon crown, a luxurious purple dragon robe strapped with a purple jade belt at the waist, and a pair of purple boots. Behind his back a clump of purple cloud shaped like a ganoderma was swirling about, in which two purple swords, shaped like crescent moons and translucent like crystal, could be seen flying back and forth nimbly.

The young man’s large, bright eyes were also filled with a deep, mysterious purple gleam, which flashed brilliantly whenever he glanced around, and made him exuded an invisible air of nobility. Anyone with an uncertain mind would feel difficult to straighten up before this man’s aura.

But Wu Qi just wanted to laugh. What an extraordinary purple eggplant. Purple was no doubt an extremely exalted color, for even when Primordial Immortals cultivated to the peak of their realms, their immortal energies would also be converted into strong purple energy. However, you don’t have to make yourself look all purple just to show your extraordinary and exalted status, do you?

“What a big eggplant!” said Wu Qi under his breath. After hearing that, Princess Zhang Le and Ji Ao, standing next to Wu Qi, felt this crown prince of the Heaven did remember a purple eggplant the more they looked at him. They could not help but smile. Ji Ao could refrain himself better, so he only curved his lips into a faint smile, but the princess simply laughed it out, with her eyes curved into two crescent moons.

Whether it was Great Yu’s emperor and his subjects, or Lord Bowang, the crown prince of the Heaven, they were all people with profound cultivation bases and sharp eyes and ears. Wu Qi’s remark on Lord Bowang was clearly heard by everyone, and Princess Zhang Le’s laughter was especially abrupt in the quiet hall.

The emperor and his subjects all grinned at the same time, while Lord Bowang, who carried himself like an important figure, had his face flickered between blue and purple, making him looked more like a big eggplant. He shot an angry glare at Wu Qi, then gave Princess Zhang Le a quick glance from the corner of his eye. He saw Wu Qi was just an ordinary subject of Great Yu, so his expression remained the same, but when his eyes caught the princess they lit up instantly, and his pupils constricted abruptly.

Wu Qi frowned. He gave a cold snort and glared fiercely at Lord Bowang.

Lord Bowang made no secret of his covetous toward Princess Zhang Le. His glance swept the princess up and down like two beams of light. Then, after giving Wu Qi a contemptuous look, he turned to Emperor Haozun and said indifferently, “Greeting, Human Emperor!” He did not even bow but only nodded casually.

Emperor Haozun, grinning from ear to ear, raised a hand and said, “Somebody, ‘give’ him a seat!”

The word ‘give’ was emphasized by the emperor. Several well-prepared eunuchs hastily brought out a large black stone chair and lightly placed it below the raised platform where Emperor Haozun’s throne was. These eunuchs purposely placed it very close to the platform, so if Lord Bowang seated on it and wanted to talk to the emperor, he had to lift his head at an angle of nearly ninety degrees.

Looking at the chair that had been deliberately placed in that awkward position, Lord Bowang smiled calmly. He casually waved a hand, and immediately a golden chair forged of all kinds of rare materials with a soft brocade cushion placed atop appeared at his side. Slowly he seated himself on the chair carved with ninety-nine dragons, then he said with a faint smile, “Thank you for the seat, Human Emperor!”

Emperor Haozun snorted. He gave the empty black stone chair a glance and said coolly, “Great Yu is poor, so you will not feel as enjoyable as when you are in the Heaven. What brings you here today, Crown Prince? Just go straight to the point, for I’m not in the mood to waste my breath with you. too many people are killed in Liangzhu recently!”

As the present Human Emperor, it was considered extremely serious for Emperor Haozun to say like that. Just one wrong word from Lord Bowang could set off a huge conflict.

As if he had not expected Emperor Haozun to not give him face like this, Lord Bowang frowned at him for a moment, then only said slowly, “It’s precisely for what has happened in Liangzhu these days that I’ve come here today. May I know why there is such a huge mess in Liangzhu this time? We from the Heaven take this matter very seriously. After all, the human race is…”

Before Lord Bowang could finish his long speech, Emperor Haozun had already slapped the armrest of his throne. A loud, dull rumble chocked Lord Bowang’s unfinished words into his throat. Staring coldly at him, the emperor said with a sneer, “What does what happened in Liangzhu matter to you, the Heaven?”

“The human race is the root of all the immortals!” said Lord Bowang in a deep voice.

“There are no immortals in Liangzhu!” said Emperor Haozun coldly.

Lord Bowang chuckled and said, “Your Majesty must be kidding. It is only recently that the Heaven had learned that some of the fallen immortals had been reincarnated in Liangzhu.”

Emperor Haozun’s eyes grew even colder. “Since they have fallen and reincarnated, they are turning over a new life now. Why do the Heaven still miss them so much?”

Lord Bowang took a deep breath, rose to his feet and said, “They were once Heaven’s subjects, so even though they have fallen and reincarnated, we naturally have the responsibility to bring them back and help them recultivate so that they can become immortals again as soon as possible!”

Not giving Emperor Haozun the chance to speak, Lord Bowang went on quickly, “Please have pity on them, Your Majesty, and hand me the few immortals who have reincarnated in Liangzhu!”

There was dead silence in the great hall. Emperor Haozun looked up, squinting at the ceiling, and only sighed after a long pause, “You… want to die? Lord Bowang, if I kill you today, will the Heaven start an all-out war with Great Yu because of you?”

Lord Bowang’s mouth fell open. He was frozen on the spot for a long time, wordless.

King Yang Shan sneered at one side and said, “Which of the Great Celestial Emperor and the Celestial Emperors of the Five Directions doesn’t have many wives and concubines? Which of them doesn’t have hundreds of crown princes? There are still hundreds of them after one is killed. To start a war with Great Yu just for an unimportant son? Is the Great Celestial Emperor such a foolish man?”

As soon as King Yang Shan said that, all the civil and military officials in the court roared with laughter. There were even some military officials, who had cultivated so much that their brains had turned into muscles, drew their weapons while laughing strangely, all eager to slay Lord Bowang on the spot. Now that Emperor Haozun had said like that, what was the big deal of killing Lord Bowang here and now?

It was all very well that Lord Bowang had not come, but the fact that he had come and said something like that proved conclusively that Liangzhu’s rebellious clans had ties to the Heaven. Although the confessions Great Yu had gathered now were enough to prove that everything was related to the Heaven, Lord Bowang’s presence here was equivalent to handing the evidence directly to Great Yu.

Hundreds of thousands of men burst into laughter at the same time, and with half of them already attained a significant result in the tempering of their bodies, which made them full of vim and vigor, it sounded as if hundreds of thousands of thunderclaps rang out at the same time, rattling the ancient great hall. Lord Bowang’s face flickered, then he suddenly heaved a long sigh, cupped his fist and said dejectedly, “I beg Your Majesty’s pardon for my mistake. Now that those fallen immortals have already reincarnated and turned over a new life, they are Your Majesty’s subjects, and naturally their lives and death are under the control of Your Majesty’s will. We, the Heaven, have no rights to intervene!”

Emperor Haozun stared coldly at Lord Bowang and snapped, “You better remember that… Those reincarnated immortals and bodhisattvas, they all deserve to die, so, they are dead now, with their souls completely perished and no longer have the chance to reincarnate again. Go back and tell your father that whatever they want to do, Great Yu will take it and fight back!”

With both hands clenched tightly into fists, Emperor Haozun gritted his teeth and said, “Whatever you want to do, you will have to step over our dead bodies first!”

A fierce murderous aura poured out of Emperor Haozun’s body, while all the courtiers in the hall, including Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le, cried out at the same time. For a moment the murderous aura stacked up like a towering mountain; the killing intent of hundreds of thousands of men surged and smashed down onto Lord Bowang together. His face flushed as a strange crackling noise echoed out from inside of him—his internal organs were seriously wounded by the fierce murderous aura.

Even a mighty figure like Amitabha, the Lord Buddha, dared not to fight head-on against the killing intent of hundreds of thousands of men, let alone Lord Bowang?

Lord Bowang looked at Emperor Haozun in horror. He took a deep breath, then slowly breathed it out. “In that case, I understand now… There’s actually one more thing I need to do this time. I want to see the Heaven’s special ambassador to Great Yu, Liu Bang. It’s for an internal affair of the Heaven. May I have Your Majesty’s permission?”

Emperor Haozun stared at Lord Bowang for a long time, and finally he slowly raised his right hand and said, “Liu Bang is your Heaven’s subject, so naturally you can see him. You may go now… and I hope you will leave You Xiong Plain as soon as possible after seeing him. Immortals from the Heaven like you are not welcome here!”

After the turmoil, during which Emperor Haozun had ordered the killing of so many powerful clans who had betrayed Great Yu, the relationship between Great Yu and the Heaven as well as the Buddhism League had been torn apart, so there was no point in saying anything nice to each other. That was why Emperor Haozun was not at all polite to Lord Bowang.

Lord Bowang bowed deeply to Emperor Haozun and strode out of the great hall where he felt extremely uneasy.

Looking at Lord Bowang’s back, Emperor Haozun said in a low voice, “I want to know what he’ll say to Liu Bang! Who can do it?”

Wu Qi pondered for a moment, then took Princess Zhang Le’s hand and strode out of the rank.