Stealing The Heavens

A breeze blew into the luxury pavilion with the water vapor from the river in the distance, waking Liu Bang with a chill. Leaning against a heap of silk, he patted the buttocks of a female immortal lying beside him, then rolled over to enjoy her delicate flesh. But suddenly a thought came to his mind, and it drove him to his feet.

He gritted his teeth and threw open the half-shut window. In front of him, five dark watchtowers stood up like a sore thumb under the moonlight.

“Do I really have to suffer this?” He stared blankly at the lofty towers and felt an urge to order Han Xin to barge into the mansion opposite of his palace now, and kill Wu Qi and everyone else in there. Liu Bang’s residence, the Cloud Dragon Pavilion, was the tallest building in Changle Palace, but it was only a thousand feet tall. And yet, Wu Qi’s watchtowers were three miles tall, much taller than his residence.

Liu Bang had to look up very hard to see the top of the towers.

At the top of each tower stood a stone pillar about a hundred feet tall, topped by a fire bowl from which green flames soared into the sky. Because of the sheer height, the green light emitted from the flame shone a hundred miles around, smearing everything green and making Changle Palace, a magnificent residence of an immortal, look as ghastly as the nether world. Even the guards on night patrol appeared like some ghostly shadows.

Several soldiers were leaning out from the top of the watchtowers and glancing wantonly into Changle Palace. From up high, they could easily see everything in the palace, including the routes of the night patrol, and Liu Bang, who was staring at them through the window.

“How am I going to suffer this?” It had really put Liu Bang’s nose out of joint. With five three-miles-tall watchtowers standing right in front of his palace, it was no different than an outright provocation, a slap in his face. “Does he know who I am?” he muttered. As the Celestial Ambassador to Great Yu, and a big shot with great power in the Heaven, how could someone dare to create such a scene on his doorstep?

The five towers were like a hand strangling around his neck, an act to make him feel bad!

Because of these towers, he did not even bother to have fun with the female immortals beside him last night. Instead, he fell asleep after regulating his breath in anger. Usually, when he did that, he would sleep soundly without a dream. But last night he had a nightmare, in which he was crushed under five dark watchtowers.

With a golden gleam flickering in his eyes, Liu Bang turned his gaze toward the Mansion of Dong Hai Province. Apart from the five ridiculously tall watchtowers, the style of the other buildings in the mansion was out of the ordinary as well. They looked nothing like a mansion but a great barracks. In the very center was a yurt-shaped arched hall, surrounded by two thousand neatly arranged matchbox-like log cabins, each accommodated ten burly soldiers. Not one maidservant could be found in this so-called mansion.

It was clearly a barracks, a barracks that blocked in front of his Changle Palace! And, it was the imperial builders from Great Yu’s palace who built it. If it had not been for the fact that it was built by the builders governed by Great Yu’s inner court, which told him that in it there was Emperor Haozun’s will, Liu Bang would have sent someone to give Wu Qi some trouble. For example, the five ridiculously tall watchtowers would have collapsed by now due to some accident.

“What’s that Tan Lang trying to do? Does he want revenge on me? Hah, who does he think he is?” Liu Bang shook his head. He did not think Wu Qi was in a position to trouble him. “Then, could it be that Emperor Haozun is behind this? Or even that old fellow dwelling on Xuanyuan Peak? Tsk, is it because they had discovered something?”

Liu Bang frowned thoughtfully. With his hands clasped behind his back, he looked down on the Mansion of Dong Hai Province and was lost in deep thought.

Gradually the moon moved westward and a streak of red clouds began to spread out in the east. Before long, half the sky was covered with orange morning glow. The warm glow of the dawn drove away the gloominess and evilness that brought by the green flames burning atop the watchtowers, and suddenly Liu Bang felt much better. Staring sarcastically at the mansion, he gave a sneer and shook his head. “It’s too late. So what if you did find some traces? Too late, it’s really too late!”

“One way or another, you ants will have to bow your heads and kneel before us. There is no reason for Great Yu to continue its existence!” A proud smile brushed his lips. With his mood turned good now, Liu Bang felt a flame was burning in his lower abdomen. So he walked back to the bed, pulled a female immortal to him, and getting ready to enjoy her.

Suddenly there was a loud noise like a thunderclap. The front door of Changle Palace, tens of feet high and two feet thick, made of solid gold, was rattling deafeningly as someone knocked at it. In the midst of the loud and sonorous noise, Wu Qi’s voice resounded through the palace like a thunder, “Wake up, Liu Bang! I’ve come to pay you a visit!”

Liu Bang, who had just been in high spirits, softened instantly. Looking at the female immortal in his arms, he felt an urge to curse. Who would visit someone so early in the morning? The moon was still hanging atop the mountains in the west, the sun had not yet risen in the east, and Liu Bang was naked without even brushing his teeth. Who would pay someone a visit at this hour?

Outside Changle Palace, Wu Qi, dressed in a burlap robe and sandals woven of fine straw, with disheveled hair and a toothpick in his mouth, was knocking at the front door with his fist as a smirk like that of a scoundrel hung at the corner of his mouth. His fist was hard and his strength was strong, so each of his knocks sent sparks flying off the door forged of pure gold and left a deep imprint.

Several captains and soldiers stationed at the doorstep of the palace watched helplessly as Wu Qi damaged the door. Forged of pure gold, the door was inlaid with countless pearls and jades, and caved with patterns of rare flowers and plants. It was more of a rare artifact than a door. But Wu Qi took no notice of it, and was punching it over and over again, filling it with dents. At the end of the day, these captains and soldiers had to bear full responsibility for the damage.

But none of them could move at all, for their joints had been locked down by Huang Liang and a group of fearsome soldiers, who were standing in front of them and laughing merrily. Because Princess Zhang Le had carried out several blood sacrifice ceremonies recently, a group of soldiers from the army of Dong Hai Province had their cultivation bases skyrocketed, and now they all possessed the cultivation bases equivalent to that of a thirtieth-tier Heaven Immortal.

And as the cultivation technique of the human race specialized in the tempering of the flesh, every human soldier who had attained a certain level of cultivation base had the mighty strength to topple mountains and overturn seas. Although these guards at the front door also possessed the cultivation base of a Heaven Immortal, they focused more on the cultivation of magic, therefore their combined physical strength was actually weaker than that of a soldier from Dong Hai Province. As a result, even though they were proficient in magic, there was no way they could use it now, with each of them suppressed by a dozen soldiers.

Bringing thousands of soldiers and smashing at someone’s front door early in the morning, Wu Qi’s behavior could only be described as disgusting.

But Wu Qi thought he was gentle enough. If it was not for the fact that he had yet figured out Liu Bang’s trump card and true strength, he would have tried to kill him in secret. Also, he was very interested in claiming that Sky Veiling Flag of Chaos. Since he was already thinking of killing Liu Bang and seizing his treasure, it was not a big deal to bring some soldiers and create a scene early in the morning.

Wu Qi demanded that Liu Bang should come out to receive the guests. His voice rumbled loudly like the explosion of a bomb, shaking the floor. Soon, noises could be heard ringing out from within the palace, and before long, the badly battered door swung open, from inside came pouring out a large crowd of soldiers, led by Han Xin, whose face pale with anger.

Staring fiercely at Wu Qi, Han Xin snapped, “This is King of Han’s palace, who dares to make such noise here?”

Then, he turned to look angrily at the dozens of guards who had been pressed against the wall by Huang Liang and others. Clenching his teeth tightly, he growled, one word at a time, “Marquis of Dong Hai Province, are you attacking us?”

Wu Qi gave Han Xin a surprised look and waved a hand, and immediately several soldiers came to him with many games in their hands. “Why do you say that?” he asked, somewhat astonished. “I got a lot of good games last night when I was hunting, and then I thought of my new neighbor, King of Han, and so I have brought these games here early morning as a gift. Why did you say I was attacking you? May I ask your name?”

Went hunting in the middle of the night and delivering games early in the morning as a gift? Han Xin’s eyes swelled with murderous intent as he fought back the urge to kill Wu Qi with his sword. Staring fixedly at Wu Qi, he said coldly, “I am Han Xin!”

Wu Qi responded nonchalantly, then pressed a hand against Han Xin’s chest and shoved him back. “Han Xin? Never heard before. You must be a nobody. I’m here to see your master. Can you get out of the way, please?”

A mighty force burst out of the palm, causing Han Xin’s bones to crackle and nearly shatter them. Wu Qi now had the cultivation base of a second-tier Gold Immortal, and as he continued to digest the skeleton of the ancient immortal and absorb half of Buddha Futu’s willpower, his overall strength grew by leads and bounds every day.

Han Xin’s cultivation base was obviously not as strong as Wu Qi’s, and he did not pay much attention to the cultivation of the flesh. Furthermore, though it seemed that Wu Qi had only casually put his hand against his chest, it actually came with a force that could shatter an entire planet.

Luckily Han Xin backed away as soon as he saw the situation was bad for him. A flash of red flickered across the surface of his body, and a loud crackle kept ringing out as he canceled out the tremendous force Wu Qi had sent over, turning it layer by layer into sharp sword energies that shot out from all parts of his body.

The crowd of soldiers standing behind Han Xin was thrown into disarray by the sword energies that came to them without warning. Dozens of them who stood at the front had their armors shattered and were thrown tumbling back with blood spitting out of their mouths, while several unlucky ones had their bodies torn apart. Broken arms and legs flew everywhere, and for a moment the doorstep of the palace was in chaos.

Wu Qi cried out in a fuss, “Han Xin, how could you do this to your men? Is it really that fun to kill someone early in the morning?”

Han Xin was so angry that he coughed up some blood. Glaring furiously at Wu Qi, he did not refute but concentrating on forcing the tremendous force out of his body.

Just then, Liu Bang’s voice came from afar, “It’s my honor to have a prestige guest paying me a visit. Pardon me for not receiving you at the front door. Please come in, Marquis of Dong Hai Province!”

Wu Qi roared with laughter, then swaggered into Changle Palace with Huang Liang and the others.