Stealing The Heavens

Lord Bowang, wearing an unsightly face, stepped into the chariot that had stopped in front of the imperial palace and gave a deep shout.

Three adult golden Ying Dragons flapped their wings, their nostrils opened widely and sprayed out two streams of white smoke. A fierce wind rose from the ground as the dragons slowly dragged the magnificent and enormous chariot into the sky. Three thousand heavenly soldiers, clad in purple-and-golden armor and armed with golden javelins, soared into the sky on their heavenly horses, escorting the chariot out of the city.

When Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le walked out of the palace, they happened to see Lord Bowang’s chariot, which was as huge as a hill and fully carved with the patterns of the dragon, flew past the city wall, heading in the direction of White Sand Bay. Several eunuchs, riding on large black vultures, were guiding the way at the head of the fleet. They were the guides the Chief Eunuch of the imperial palace had provided for Lord Bowang, who were also charged with keeping an eye on the crown prince so that he did not wander freely.

Black vultures!

Looking at the eunuchs’ mounts, Wu Qi could not help but smack his lips. He had to admire these eunuchs. In terms of politeness, when the crown prince of the Heaven come to visit, the guides provided to him should use extraordinary mounts such as azure dragons or phoenixes, but they actually used black vultures! In Great Yu, black vultures had a special meaning. The stinking, fierce birds were also called the bird of death, who were considered the most inauspicious creatures.

Using the birds of death to clear the way for Lord Bowang was a sure sign of bringing him bad luck. ‘Emperor Haozun is so mean,’ thought Wu Qi. He did not believe that those eunuchs had the audacity to play tricks on the man. It was clearly the emperor’s idea. ‘Is he trying to curse Lord Bowang for an early death?’

He shook his head. Then, together he and Princess Zhang Le flickered into an invisible gust of chilly wind, blowing out of the city.

A few shadows flashed over the imperial palace. A few old Oracles in white robes appeared out of thin air with a whirl of wind. They glanced at the direction where Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le had vanished into, grinned in surprise and whispered a few words of admiration to each other, and then blurred into gusts of chilly wind and went after Lord Bowang’s fleet as well.

This was the second team sent by Emperor Haozun. Wu Qi had volunteered to find out the purpose of Lord Bowang’s visit, and although Emperor Haozun praised the initiative, he could not put all his chips on Wu Qi alone. The second team was a group of Supreme Oracles from the Secret Palace who specialized in infiltrating, breaking restrictive spells, and all kinds of spying mystic arts.

Surrounded in golden light and auspicious clouds, Lord Bowang and his entourage arrived at Liu Bang’s Changle Palace.

As soon as he reached the front gate of the palace, Lord Bowang’s eyes went wide. He stared blankly at the five three-mile-tall watchtowers in Wu Qi’s residence that was not far away from Liu Bang’s and could not recover himself for a moment. Not only he, but even the three thousand heavenly soldiers who came along to protect him were also dumbstruck when they saw the watchtowers, all confused as to how freak was the man who had constructed such tall watchtowers.

It was a full ten minutes before Lord Bowang smiled bitterly and muttered, “It looks like King of Han is shabbily treated here. Aye, the man who had been ordered to keep an eye on Liu Bang is quite a talent… if I could recruit him to work for me, he would certainly make my brothers vomit blood in anger.”

Lord Bowang coughed softly as his eyes continued to wander about, and as that the chariot landed straight in front of the main hall in Changle Palace. Liu Bang had been waiting with a group of men in the square in front of the hall. As soon as he saw Lord Bowang strode out of the chariot, he hurried up and bowed down respectfully to the crown prince in accordance with the courtesy of the Heaven.

Before Liu Bang could get down on his knees, however, Lord Bowang had reached out and stopped him in a hurry. “Under no circumstances you should do this! You are undertaking a very difficult task, and you have rendered meritorious service to Heaven. How can I allow you to kneel before me?” said the crown prince. A plume of purple smoke rose from all over him, spread out into a mass of dense purple smoke and wrapped up Han Xin and others, stopping them from kneeling down as well.

Liu Bang smiled and bowed his head. “Crown Prince, you are my…”

Lord Bowang interrupted him with a wave of a hand. Taking Liu Bang’s hands in his, the crown prince said affectionately, “You and I are brothers, so save those courtesies! I’ve told you that between us no courtesies are needed!”

Both men had put on a great show of the friendship between the monarch and his subjects. Afterward, they walked into the main hall, hand in hand. The heavy metal doors were then closed, keeping the few eunuchs outside, who Liu Bang’s guards would bring them to somewhere for tea and rest.

Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le had sneaked into the hall before them, hiding in a cloud on top of a pillar. Liu Bang was very fond of pomp and grandeur, therefore his great hall was of the utmost magnificence. It was filled with brilliant light and clouds, and all the pillars were made of the finest jade. The clouds that kept drifting out of the pillars became the perfect cover for the plumes of cloud Wu Qi had unleashed with his Natural Phenomena Medallion.

Using the Natural Phenomena Medallion, a small world was conjured around Wu Qi, which was then blanketed with a thin layer of chaotic energy. Princess Zhang Le, on the other hand, gathered the clouds drifted out of the pillars around them, covering the small world properly.

After Lord Bowang and Liu Bang entered the hall, Han Xin immediately shut the doors; Zhang Liang took out a writing brush and waved it continuously in the air, writing the ancient characters ‘Seal’ repeatedly. The golden characters flew out quickly and attached to the walls, floors, and ceilings. Soon, they formed a sheet of thick light that completely sealed up the great hall.

Meanwhile, Xiao He’s eyes glowed with a strange light, sweeping the hall like a broom dozens of time. Where the light passed, the void was frozen like a winter stream. If anyone was hiding in the hall with an art of twisting the void, it would have been discovered by this light.

Even so, Liu Bang dared not to be careless. He produced the Sky Veiling Flag of Chaos and wrapped the whole hall tightly with it, only then he smiled confidently and said, “It’s all right now, my lord.”

Lord Bowang gave a cold snort. The warm smile on his face had disappeared, replaced by a stern face as he sneered, “Oh? Is it so simple?”

With a flip of his palm, Lord Bowang produced a transparent, invisible orb whose presence could only be detected through the twisted light around it. A burst of immortal energy was sent into the orb, and suddenly a blinding light shone all over the hall, with such a terrible heat that it almost shattered the little world Wu Qi had constructed with his Natural Phenomena Medallion.

Hiding in the little world, both Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le felt a burning heat on their skin as the light swept passed them. Wu Qi did not mind the heat, for his skin was thick and his flesh was tough, but Princess Zhang Le’s delicate skin was red. She gritted her teeth angrily and swore to herself that she would repay this to Lord Bowang soon. Together, the two of them exercised a mystic art to stabilize the little world, barely keeping it from collapse. Luckily, the layer of chaotic energy had absorbed seventy percent of the light’s power, otherwise their presence would have been discovered.

The small orb circled the hall like a lightning bolt, and Lord Bowang nodded contentedly when he found nothing unusual. Little did he know that what he had just done had seriously injured the few old Oracles who were hiding nearby. The magical spying mirror they produced with a mystic art was destroyed by the orb, which created an explosion that nearly disfigured them.

With a cold snort, Lord Bowang made the orb hovered over his head and let the light shone across the hall. “This is a unique treasure crafted of the Evil-breaking Magic Eye taken from the avatar of an ancient Buddha,” he said lightly, “With it, no one can come near the hall to eavesdrop on you and me.”

He glanced disdainfully at the Sky Veiling Flag of Chaos, which had turned into a dark cloud and blanketed the whole hall, and said proudly, “This flag is quite a unique treasure, I grant you, but when it comes to the ability to isolate aura and guard against being approached, it can never be as good as my treasure.”

Liu Bang complimented Lord Bowang with a smiling face, saying nothing more than the polite remark such as ‘only the most virtuous man deserves a unique treasure like this’. Wu Qi had heard it all so many times, but it seemed Lord Bowang enjoyed the flattery very much. He held his head high pleasingly and took the compliments word for word.

It was a long time before Lord Bowang finally asked, “What happened exactly? Why did Great Yu suddenly carry out such a great purge? My father wants to know how much Great Yu knows and how many of our agents they destroyed!”

Liu Bang’s face went sour instantly. He sighed and shook his head. “Although this is King Bai Shan’s fault, when you come down to it, it’s Buddha Futu’s fault! If he had killed that King of Dong Hai Province and allowed Ji Tao to break through the realm of Third Pangu Heaven, nothing would have happened today!”

Shaking his head, Liu Bang gritted his teeth and said, “My lord knows what happened that day. It doesn’t matter if it’s just the death of Ji Tao, but King Bai Shan, that bloody fool, he actually overreached himself to get revenge on that punk… and got caught alive!”

He began to recount the events that led up to the purge. As he spoke, Liu Bang kept looking up at Lord Bowang, watching his expression carefully.

With a cold snort, Lord Bowang said indifferently, “I don’t care about those who are dead. What matters to me now is, how many are left?”

Liu Bang burst out laughing. He triumphantly rolled up his sleeve, revealing a string of red jade beads on his wrist.

Three of the twelve beads carved of red jade had turned black and cracked, but nine of them were still as red as blood, glowing faintly.

He puffed out his chest and laughed. “Rest assured, my lord. Although there are plenty of fools like King Bai Shan, there are many wise men as well. Nine of the twelve most important agents I’ve found in Great Yu, save the various immortals who have reincarnated here, are alive and kicking.”

Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le looked at each other in horror. A chill washed up from the soles of their feet and made their hearts felt as if they were immersed in icy water.

Even though so many powerful clans had been wiped out, there were still so many important agents left?

Besides King Bai Shan and his son, who were the important figures Liu Bang had recruited?

And those were only Liu Bang’s agents. What about those reincarnated immortals and bodhisattvas? How many of them still lurked in the depths of Great Yu?