Stealing The Heavens

Yuji, dressed in a long red dress, lay still in the great hall as the silvery gray blood kept flowing out of her mouth.

Xiang Yu stood beside her like an old pine that had suddenly become hollow and died, spiritless and lifeless. His eyes, once so brilliant, had turned a fishy gray, and his soul seemed to be fading with the silvery gray blood in Yuji’s mouth.

Wu Qi squatted beside Yuji, carefully dabbed a trace of blood with his fingertip, and with extreme caution, he examined it with a mystic art of identifying poisons he learned from the Directorate of Celestial. The bloodstain burned at the tip of his finger, giving off a pungent, scorched smell like a fried pepper. Even with the mighty strength of his flesh, his finger tingled, and a tiny patch of skin was burned to coke by a silvery gray flame.

“Is it the Thousand Bugs Juice with Blue Belly Kiss as the main ingredient?” Wu Qi asked Yuji, who was shrinking in size, “Of the 3,600 forbidden drugs in the Directorate of Celestial, it ranks 758. It’s a poison that can threaten Primordial experts.”

Yuji looked at Wu Qi in surprise, then said with a hint of pleasure in her voice, “I can’t believe you know so much about the Directorate of Celestial.”

“Yes, I do know a lot about the Directorate of Celestial,” replied Wu Qi with a serious nod. “Not long ago, in Liangzhu, I personally annihilated several powerful clans with the heritage of Supreme Oracles. They kept a lot of copies of the classics from the Directorate of Celestial, all of which belonged to me now.”

Yuji smiled. She stared at Wu Qi and said, “You are only a tool! Little man, your first time is just a tool!” Upon hearing that, Xiang Yu trembled, and there was blood running from the corner of his mouth. Yuji’s face flickered and she turned her head away from Xiang Yu.

Wu Qi smiled too. He patted Yuji on the head and said softly, “You’re a very clever woman, but when one is too clever, one will harm both others and oneself. You’re trying to provoke me into not trying my best to save you, aren’t you?”

Yuji narrowed her eyes, while Xiang Yu shouted in a low voice, “Wu Qi, save her with all your might. The whole Xiang Clan is yours!”

The faces of Huang Xie and Li Yuan changed color. They stood up in anger, but Qu Ping said slowly, “That’s my thought, too. If such a woman dies, the world will suddenly lose a precious treasure. King of Dong Hai, save her with all your might. I will help you accomplish your goal with all the strength of Great Chu.”

Hearing that, Li Yuan lowered his head and sat back in his seat. Huang Xie, on the other hand, growled angrily, “This is ridiculous! How can a woman’s life and death determine a court event? Your Majesty, Xiang Yu, don’t you think this is the height of folly?!”

Wu Qi snorted coldly. He glanced sideways at Huang Xie and said, “Despise women? Try cursing your own mother three hundred times? Motherfucker, try calling your own father that? You despise women? Are your own mother not a woman?”

Huang Xie was dumbfounded. He was about to refute Wu Qi when he saw Catfish slowly took out a shiny golden leg that belongs to an arhat, and threw it into her mouth, chewing happily. She patted her bulging chest hard to show Huang Xie her gender. Huang Xie wisely shut his mouth, while the others in the hall watched Catfish happily chewed the leg with cold sweat trickled down their foreheads.

Wu Qi sighed. He patted Yuji on the head again and said, “The Thousand Bugs Juice with Blue Belly Kiss as the main ingredient… I could have saved you if I had been prepared. But you took too much and I don’t have the right medicine on my hand now. Well…”

A triumphant smile emerged on Yuji’s face. She tried to say something, but Wu Qi stopped her. Reaching out and patting Xiang Yu on the tight as he stood beside him, Wu Qi said, “Whatever I am, a tool or something else, I just want to tell you that a woman who is too clever often does the stupidest thing in the world. Do you think, by using that method to get rid of the curse for Xiang Yu, with his temper, he can live alone when he finds out the truth?”

Yuji’s face fell instantly, and her body shivered violently. She looked at the blood dripping from the corner of Xiang Yu’s mouth in horror and cried out, “I… I am guilty for that, but I just… I just…”

Wu Qi sneered. “You just want to end it all, don’t you? I don’t know where you were and what you did during the two thousand-odd years they were on Myriad Immortals Planet, but when you were sent back to him, you were prepared to die, didn’t you?”

Yuji stared blankly at Wu Qi, unable to say a word.

“Something to do with your Young Master, Yu Xin? And what have you done during those years?” asked Wu Qi in a deep voice.

She closed her eyes and refused to say another word.

Wu Qi shook his head and sighed. “Woman, you never understand a man’s heart. Xiang Yu, he’s different from Ying Zheng and Huang Xie. Both of them are men who can sit on the throne, but look at Xiang Yu. Does he look like an emperor? How can he look like an emperor?”

Yuji clenched her hands tightly into fists and hissed, “Why hasn’t the poison taken its effect?!”

“Of all 3,600 forbidden drugs of the Directorate of Celestial, Thousand Bugs Juice is the slowest but most intractable poison. It will take about two hours to actually kill you. We have plenty of time to get things straight between you and Xiang Yu.”

After pondering for a moment, Wu Qi asked, “Tell me frankly, do you still love Xiang Yu?” Shrugging, he felt the goosebumps that broke out across the back of his arms and said with a wry smile, “That makes my flesh creep, but I really want to know if you love Xiang Yu or your Young Master?”

Yuji’s eyes were closed, and it was a long time before she said in a hoarse voice, “If I don’t love him… why would I do such a thing? I only wanted him to be happy, as I had seen him for the first time, to tame the fiercest horse, wield the sharpest sword, and slay the most ferocious beasts. He ought to be a tiger in the woods, free to roam. He ought not to be a man imprisoned by a curse, a man who can be manipulated at any time.

“Why would I stop Yuyao and Yue Tan from reporting to Young Master what you have here if I didn’t love him?” cried Yue Tan, as mouthfuls of silvery gray blood spouted out of her mouth. “How could you have settled on Pangu Continent, if I hadn’t begged them so hard?!”

Xiang Yu clenched his hands tightly into fists, opened his mouth, and coughed up a mouthful of blood, “Save her, Wu Qi! Stop talking all the nonsense!” he snapped.

Glancing up at Xiang Yu, who looked like a mad tiger, Wu Qi said calmly, “What’s the rush? She still has two hours before she dies of a toxic attack… honestly, the strength of this Thousand Bugs Juice… hey, can you wait till I finish? You have such a short temper. No wonder Liu Bang robbed you of everything in those years.”

Xiang Yu was so angry that his face turned blue. He jumped around the hall for a while, screaming, and then stood panting beside Wu Qi, gritting his teeth and staring at Yuji. Xiang Zhuang, Fan Zeng, and others hurried over and held him from left and right, lest he was too impulsive and caused some unwanted trouble.

Ignoring Xiang Yu, Wu Qi looked at Yuji and said, “That Chiyou’s blood essence didn’t come easily, did it? Xuanyuan Peak is the only place now where you can still find the people from Chiyou Clan, and in your capacity, it should be impossible to get the blood essence from their strongest men. Who did you ask for help?”

Yuji looked at him coldly. “With my place in Young Master’s eyes, and with my status in Young Master’s heart, what means do you think I can use to ask anyone for help? Do you still have to ask these questions? Do you really want me to make everything so clear?” Wu Qi nodded slowly, while Xiang Yu gave a loud roar and coughed up another mouthful of blood. Fan Zeng and Xiang Zhuang shivered and grabbed his arms to keep him from going crazy.

Looking at Yuji, Wu Qi could not see any will to live in her eyes. He could not help but laugh bitterly. “How can a proud man like Xiang Yu allow his woman to pay such a great price to save him? You’re forcing him to kill himself, not saving him.”

Yuji shivered and her face turned ashen.

Wu Qi remained silent for a while, then he stood up and said, “Well, time is running out. I’ll give you, who are related to this, the most direct solution. I’ll send Yuji, Yue Tan, and Yuyao into transmigration, escort their souls to some good family for reincarnation, and wipe out all their karma with that Yu Xin. If anyone cares about them, they can go and find them after their reincarnation.”

Xiang Yu stamped his foot and bellowed, “Reincarnation? What nonsense are you talking about?!”

Yuji sighed faintly. “Reincarnation? Do I still have a chance to be reincarnated? My lord, my lord…”

Xiang Yu crouched down, trembling. He ran his hands over Yuji’s face and said softly, “What do you… want?”

Yuji looked at Xiang Yu and smiled. “Let me be reincarnated, and let me be with you in my next life as clean as a newborn baby. Let me forget everything. I just want to remember the happy things when I just met you. I don’t want to remember those unhappy things… If I were reincarnated, would you come to me?”

Xiang Yu’s eyes were full of blood and tears. He nodded heavily with clenched teeth and struck the ground with a punch.

Wu Qi nodded, relieved that he had found the best solution. ‘When I send you, Yuji, into transmigration, I’ll surely erase your memories in Meng Mountains.’

He heaved a long sigh and turned to look at Yue Tan and Yuyao. Frowning, he asked Huang Xie and Ying Zheng, “What do you think?”

Huang Xie remained silent, while Ying Zheng said with cruel coldness, “Since she won’t give birth to a child for me, none of us owe each other anything. Let her go!”

With a wave of his sleeve, Ying Zheng stood up and strode to the outside of the hall with all the courtiers of Great Qin. “Please send her into transmigration, King of Dong Hai… Let her live another life…”

Almost out of the hall, Ying Zheng suddenly stopped. Without even looking back, he stood in front of the hall and said lightly, “I, will not respect her as before, nor will I protect her, obey her, or listen to her advice about the state affairs… If King of Dong Hai can do it, let her be reincarnated as a member of the imperial clan of Great Qin, so that at least I can still love her, care her.”

Ying Zheng’s tall and straight body suddenly stopped. He walked slowly out of the hall as if he were suddenly hundreds of years old.

Wu Qi turned his gaze toward Huang Xie, who avoided it.

He gave a soft sigh and nodded solemnly.