Stealing The Heavens

King Yang Qiu’s father, King Yang Shan, was responsible for the chaos caused by Myriad Immortal Alliance.

He was a military advisor in Great Yu’s imperial court, a position roughly equivalent to that of a defense minister. He was also a staunch anti-immortal extremist who devoted all his energy and effort to the extermination of the powerhouses established by immortals on Pangu Continent.

Defeating the immortals, conquering outer heavenly realms, attacking and occupying the Heaven, bringing all those Immortal Emperors down from their lofty thrones and subjugating them for eternity…These were the ideas that King Yang Shan had been instilling into his children since when they were young.

It was because of this strong conviction that he led several mighty generals and Supreme Oracles to lay ambush several years ago, and eventually seriously wounded the Sovereign of Myriad Immortal Alliance. In the process, they injured the Sovereign, Immortal Ding Jun’s immortal soul, and put him at risk of dying. He was ambushed along with the Elders of the alliance’s Divine Hall; more than sixty percent of the Elders were severely injured, and several were on the verge of death.

After suffering such a devastating blow, the alliance naturally wanted revenge.

Like King Yang Shan’s hatred of immortals, there were extremists among immortals as well, especially in Myriad Immortal Alliance. Their aim was to conquer the Pangu Continent and turn its vast, fertile land into a paradise for all the immortals. In their belief, everything on Pangu Continent should be in the hands of the immortals; every single plant, animal, immortal stone, energy stone, and even the least important metallic ore, should be used by the immortals as an aid to their cultivation bases.

In their view, the mortals, who now dominated Pangu Continent, should be their servants and controlled by them for all eternity.

Therefore, with the reason that Immortal Ding Jun was seriously injured in an ambush, the radical immortals in the alliance initiated a major retaliation by destroying hundreds of almost defenseless cities in Great Yu with meteors, sparking a war that swept across Pangu Continent. Innocent people were dragged into the flames of war, and no one knew how many people were accidentally injured or killed.

This was what Liu Bang described as the cause of the war between Great Yu and Myriad Immortal Alliance.

According to Liu Bang’s analysis, Immortal Ding Jun was the spiritual leader of the alliance, and the driving force behind its rapid growth. Without him, the leaderless alliance’s combat effectiveness would plummet several times, while the immortals in the alliance would lose the astronomical amount of immortal pills concocted by the Heaven that he had been supplying, resulting in the dramatic reduction of their ability to sustain the battles.

More importantly, without Immortal Ding Jun, his three disciples who held great power in the Heaven would be at odds with the alliance, and it was very likely that they would no longer provide any protection, while the Heaven’s attitude toward the alliance would also experience a subtle change.

The most important factor, of course, was Liu Bang. As long as King Yang Qiu could send someone to assassinate Immortal Ding Jun and succeed, Liu Bang could make his confidant take over Immortal Ding Jun’s power and position. At that point, he could use his resources and power to influence the Heaven’s decisions. Without the help that the Heaven was secretly providing, it would have been extremely easy for Great Yu to destroy the alliance.

“Even if we don’t look at the other benefits, wouldn’t it be easier for Your Excellency to crack the formation which had been bothering you for quite some time, if we can get rid of Immortal Ding Jun, as he is the one who is providing them with help from behind?” After a lot of talking, Liu Bang finally came straight to King Yang Qiu’s biggest problem right now.

King Yang Qiu gave Wu Qi a quick glance, and he nodded slightly.

In fact, it was as plain as the nose on one’s face that without the help of someone in the Heaven, how could the formation laid out by Lord Wandering Immortal have conjured the true forms of the Celestial Lords? And, how could they possess the divine power of the Celestial Lords? Apparently, Lord Wandering Immortal was taken care of by someone in the Heaven, and that was why he was able to put together a formation that even Wu Qi found difficult to crack. If Liu Bang could really get his confidant to take over Immortal Ding Jun’s position in the Heaven and eliminate the Heaven’s care of the alliance, destroying the alliance would be just a piece of cake.

After considering for a moment, King Yang Qiu clapped his hands and laughed. “Well, you are indeed a man of great eloquence, King of Han! Somebody, take these girls to King of Han’s chariot!” Looking into Liu Bang’s eyes, he went on in a deep voice, “You mustn’t forget your promise!”

Liu Bang smiled, then handed King Yang Qiu a pale purple jade pendant.

King Yang Qiu took the jade pendant and quickly went through its contents with his divine sense before crushing it to pieces. Then, he waved his hand and shouted, “Open the front door and see the guests off!”

The tension in the hall was immediately eased. King Yang Qiu’s men drew back slowly, lifting their siege on Han Xin and the others. With a smile on his face, Wu Qi gently crushed the five little puppets with his finger, then rose to his feet and followed King Yang Qiu to see Liu Bang and the others off.

The feast was hastily concluded, but King Yang Qiu was clearly in high spirits, and Liu Bang looked happy as well. Hundreds of beautiful female immortals and cultivators in clothes that could barely cover their bodies were escorted into the chariot by a large group of soldiers. While chatting casually with King Yang Qiu, Liu Bang kept stealing glances at their swinging buttocks and legs. These beautiful and charming girls had taken his soul away, and his mind was no longer on King Yang Qiu now.

Accompanied by the beating of drums and gongs that resounded to the sky and the fluttering banners, the crowd watched Liu Bang and his companions board the chariot.

Before the chariot drove off, Liu Bang and his companions turned to look at Wu Qi almost at the same time. Zhang Liang, whom Wu Qi had attacked with a curse previously, nodded and said coldly, “If there is a chance, I would like to have a formal fight with you.”

Wu Qi smiled faintly, then cupped his fist toward Zhang Liang without saying a word. As he squinted at the man, he suddenly remembered his origins. Wasn’t his teacher named ‘Yellow Rock Old Man'[1]? Apparently, his teacher from the Immortal League was the reason they all worked for the Heaven now. Wu Qi felt he had touched on the context of what had happened in those years, and he only hoped that he could get evidence from King Yang Qiu to back up his guess.

Maybe, by following King Yang Qiu, he could make a trip back to earth!

Although his root, his lover and friends, were all on Pangu Continent now, he still had to make a trip back to earth. How could he justify the tragic death of his teacher and brothers if he did not raze Green City to the ground?

The female immortals and cultivators went streaming into the chariot. Women who could become immortals through cultivation were not idiots. Liu Bang was the King of Han conferred by the Heaven, and it was better to go with him than stay here and be King Yang Qiu’s prisoners. King Yang Qiu only treated them as playthings, and according to past history, many of the captured female immortals and cultivators were either gang-raped to death or sold to other powerful men in Great Yu. No female prisoners had ever come to a good end.

For them, it was better to follow Liu Bang, even as his concubines, than to stay with King Yang Qiu and be tortured to death.

Looking at those women entering the chariot, Liu Bang could not help but laugh happily. Contented, he said a few more words to King Yang Qiu, then waved his hand and said, “Li Yang, let’s go. It’s a long way back to Liangzhu, so cheer up and pay attention to the surroundings!”

Surprisingly, the driver of the chariot was Reverend Li Yang from Green City. Upon hearing Liu Bang’s command, he bowed respectfully. The way he carried himself seemed even more obedient than a slave. Wu Qi gave him an indifferent glance, and was a little confused about his decision. What good would it do him to be Liu Bang’s driver?

Surrounded by a faint layer of cloud, Liu Bang’s chariot slowly flew into the distant sky. King Yang Qiu, with his hands clasped behind his back, wished him a pleasant journey with a loud, almost emotionless voice. Standing beside him, the military officers and Oracles all showed relaxed smiles. The unwelcomed guests had finally left, and everyone relaxed their tensed mind in an instant.

All of a sudden, Wu Qi’s heart was thumping in his chest. His skin tensed up and his hairs stood on their ends, while his face turned extremely pale in the blink of an eye.

Reflexively, Wu Qi took a step aside.

The next moment, a golden arrow shot silently from a cloud in the distance, pierced through the sky with a golden tail behind and flew over Wu Qi’s shoulder. The arrow was six feet long, as thick as a thumb, and appeared to be made of a gold alloy. Its shaft was shaped like a wave of water, carved with countless tiny ripples and numerous runes outlined with reddish crystals. When it flew past him, he could even smell a warm, sweet scent.

The arrow was poisonous, and it was a very nasty, chronic poison.

A miserable howl rang out. The arrow flew past Wu Qi and went into the body of a disciple from Yu Academy standing behind him. Blood sprayed in all directions as the arrow pierced through the tall and handsome youth in the chest. His body swayed a little, and then fell to the ground and shattered like a figure made of sand, covering the ground with blood and gores.

But, the arrow did not stop flying. After penetrating the first man’s body, it continued to fly further, shooting through the bodies of another disciple from Yu Academy and two Oracles. Like the first man, their bodies disintegrated into blood and gores.

Finally, the arrow flew toward a heavily armored military officer, who let out a cry of alarm and held it firmly in his hands. A sharp grinding noise echoed out, and for a moment, the officer lost his footing; being pushed backward by the great force that came with the arrow and slamming into the arms of a Long Bo man. The strong and burly Long Bo man put his hands on the officer’s shoulders, but even he was pushed back for three steps by the enormous force. Together, the two men finally dispersed the arrow’s strength.

The military officer separated his hands and let the arrow drop to the ground. Then, he raised his stiff palms and turned to King Yang Qiu, whose face was unsightly right now, while saying, “Your Excellency, the bones in my palms are all shattered! This arrow is a secret weapon from the Heaven, the ‘Bear Slaughtering Arrow’!”

The Bear Slaughtering Arrow was a very powerful secret weapon crafted by the expert craftsmen in the Heaven, specially designed to deal with high-ranking military officers from Great Yu who cultivated body tempering techniques.

One of the ancestors of the human race, the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan, came from the You Xiong clan, and the capital city of Great Yu, Liangzhu, was still located in You Xiong Plain. So, when the Heaven named their secret weapon ‘Bear Slaughtering Arrow’, the implication was clear. [2]

Wearing a black face, King Yang Qiu looked in the direction the arrow had come from, which happened to be the direction of the formation. He gritted his teeth and growled, “Lord Wandering Immortal is equipped with Bear Slaughtering Arrows! There seems to be some truth in what Liu Bang said!”

Wu Qi frowned and said nothing. King Yang Qiu had put the blame on Lord Wandering Immortal, and Wu Qi also thought this was something done by the alliance. But, their target…their target was not King Yang Qiu…It was Wu Qi!

This was an assassination attempt on Wu Qi!