Stealing The Heavens

Amidst the bright light of the Thirty-three Heavens, Ziwei Lingying, the Great Celestial Emperor of Heaven, was holding a wine vessel carved of golden jade and as thin as a cicada’s wings. He seemed to be in a good mood as he was sipping wine while watching at the images appeared on a purple mirror suspended in the great hall. Everything that was happening in You Xiong Palace was shown on the mirror, and no details could escape his keen glances.

To fend off prying eyes and ears, there was countless restrictive magic both inside and outside of You Xiong Palace. Even so, the purple mirror could still reflect everything that was happening there in clear detail. It was thus clear that either this was a very powerful mirror, or someone in that great hall was having a secret relationship with Heaven. Either way, it was not good news for Great Yu.

With a smile on his face, Ziwei Lingying narrowed his eyes and nodded in approval at the attitude of the three emperors. He put down the wine vessel, then lightly clapped his hands and said in a low voice, “It’s time for you to strike, you three cunning old fools. If you keep sitting back and watching from a distance, I won’t even let you smell the fruit, let alone benefit from it.”

He chuckled, then turned his slightly dazed eyes to the few beautiful female immortals waiting on the side of the great hall. They had just transcended into Heaven over the past few months and were specially picked to serve the Great Celestial Emperor. Merely about a thousand years old, these female immortals were regarded among immortals as the fresh bamboo sprouts who had just poked their heads out of the soil in the spring, so tender that water could be squeezed out of their skins with just a gentle pinch!

The elated Great Celestial Emperor suddenly felt a heat in his lower abdomen. He counted on his fingers. For the sake of Heaven’s grand scheme, he had lost his eldest son, Lord Bowang, and he thought it was perhaps time for him to add one or two more princes. After all, it was only by maintaining a sufficient number of princes that he could put enough competitive pressure on his sons, forcing them to work harder and climb higher.

He was a successful father who knew what was best for his sons, grandsons, and descendants, or so he thought. Therefore, he felt the need to replenish two or three more children, and these beautiful female immortals were the best candidates for such a task. They were so pretty, young, and attractive; while his mood was so good now, he thought this was the right time for something romantic to happen.

He casually pointed a finger, and a female immortal standing close to him cried out as her slim and curvy body flew into his arms uncontrollably. With her sitting on his laps, he skillfully spread her legs and was about to explore her secret place when the purple mirror suddenly showed the scene of Emperor Haozun cursing and drawing the Xuanyuan Sword.

The Great Celestial Emperor was struck dumb. He retracted his hands, pushed the pretty woman away, and picked his ear in amazement. Did he hear that right? Emperor Haozun uttered profanity? “This…Since when did the Human Emperor learn how to curse? And he even shut the door of You Xiong Palace, trapping the three emperors who went to seek justice?

“And he has activated Liangzhu’s defensive formation, mustering the strongest power to attack the three ancient emperors of the gods? This is so shameless! Wait, he even ordered all his courtiers to attack them together? His shamelessness is just over the top!”

“What a shameless scumbag! As the Human Emperor, how could he do that?” Ziwei Lingying lurched to his feet in exasperation, pointing at the purple mirror and scolding at the top of his voice. “This Haozun is indeed the disgrace of the human race. How could he do that? Isn’t the Human Emperor supposed to be traditional, conservative, and old-fashioned?

“He should have reverently sent the three emperors out of Great Yu’s territory, and then dispatched military forces to garrison the borders in the east, north, and west, fighting the army of gods. How could he do this? How could he take advantage of the three emperors’ visitation to trap them, and even order his subjects to attack them together?

“This…this…This is ridiculous! Heaven and Buddhist League can do this, and we have done this quite many times. But, how could Emperor Haozun do this? How could he be so shameless?”

The Great Celestial Emperor was so angry that he slammed a palm on the table in front of him and smashed it to pieces. Then, he flicked his sleeve as he spun and walked away. His graceful and poised face was twisting, and his jaw was clenched, making him look extremely ferocious now. As he walked, he suddenly murmured, “Wait…It might be the best outcome if the three old fools are killed in Liangzhu…Hmph! Their few sons are good for nothing, and now it seems to me that they can be Heaven’s pawns…Yes, YES! They better die in Liangzhu!”

A bright gleam flashed in his eyes. Ziwei Lingying had instantly calculated what benefits Heaven would get if the three emperors were killed by Great Yu. If they remained alive, Heaven could only negotiate terms and share the benefits with them on an equal footing, but if they died, Heaven could have the possibility to replace them as the rulers of the three god clans. The benefits were too great.

With a cold grin on his face, he casually pointed his finger in the air and shot out a few beams of light, sending his ideas to the other five Celestial Emperors. Soon, rays of light as fine as silk shot back to him. The five Celestial Emperors informed him that they understood his ideas and were mobilizing forces and making various preparations.

He turned hurriedly into the rear of the hall and walked along a gallery paved with transparent crystal. When he was about a hundred feet into it, he suddenly froze in place and sunk in thoughts. After a few moments, he flicked his sleeve and abruptly shot into the sky in a beam of golden light, speeding out of the Thirty-three Heavens in the blink of an eye. Then, a bright light burst out of a palm-sized, crescent-shaped jade pendant hanging on the side of his waist, which enveloped him and teleported him across a great distance to the entrance of the Nine Heavens.

The garb he was clad in disappeared, as he changed into a Daoist robe decorated with clouds and water, with an ordinary bronze sword strapped to his back. He had transformed himself into a common cultivator. When he was done, he flew toward the higher-level heavenly realms along the border of Nine Heavens, carried by a white cloud flashing with a faint light beneath his feet. He was very fast, and it had only taken him a brief moment to travel past the entire Nine Heavens. After stepping into several teleportation formations situated in the boundless void, he finally came to a grayish cloud.

An archway carved of black jade stood mightily but alone atop the cloud, and the plaque hung across its lintel was inscribed with two blood-colored characters: Boundless Heaven. Three thousand grayish statues loomed beneath the archway in the likeness of fully armed and armored soldiers. An indescribable evil aura was swirling about them, which made the Great Celestial Emperor shiver.

With a cold snort, he took out a palm-sized black bone talisman and waved it at the statues. After that, he strode into the archway and disappeared in an instant as a mass of gray light engulfed him.

He emerged silently in a grayish world. There was a sun, a moon, stars, mountains, rivers, flowers, and trees in this world, but everything was gray. There was no other color here except gray. The air was lifeless as well; there was no wind, and the water was not flowing. The flowers gave no scent, and the birds never chirped. Everything seemed to be frozen at a certain point in time, such that it would never change.

Clearly, even Great Celestial Emperor himself was not accustomed to the environment here. He frowned at the surroundings, then flew toward a lofty mountain shaped like a pyramid in the distance like an old horse who knew the way. Along the way, groups of strange-looking figures could be seen standing atop the mountains. They either had the head of a man but the body of a horse, or the head of a man but the body of a serpent; some had several heads mounted on a body, and some had one head but several bodies. Some were covered in black hair like ape, and some had a body as transparent as a crystal.

Regardless of their appearances, these figures were all shrouded in an immense evil aura. They chuckled at Great Celestial Emperor as he sped through the sky, and some even took out bizarre bone staffs or bone arrows, waving at him. Their seemingly unintentional behaviors always frightened him and caused beads of cold sweat to break out of his back while his facial muscles twitched uncontrollably.

At last, he arrived in front of the lofty mountain and cried out at the top of his voice, “Wu Xian! Wu Xian! Come out now!”

A deep gurgling noise came in answer, sounding muffled as if it was coming from deep under the earth. Then, a pitch-black thing with a bizarre shape slowly slid down across the smooth surface of the mountain. It was about hundreds of miles in circumference, and no one could tell what it was. One could imagine it as an enormous mass of cancer cells, with a twisting face wriggling on each of the cells. As the weird, disgusting thing slowly slid down, it was constantly making the eerie gurgling noise.

When the thing came to the same level as the Great Celestial Emperor, part of it slowly rose and formed something that resembled the face of a man. An organ that should be the mouth opened and a voice came out of it, “What is it again? I thought I had sent a group of best youths from my clan to help you?”

Great Celestial Emperor’s face turned cold. He shook his head sulkily and said, “A futile attempt which wasted a great deal of Heaven’s manpower and resources…Wu Xian, what kind of elites had you sent to help me?” His voice was filled with resentment.

Wu Xian chuckled in a low voice and said, “Instead of blaming us, you should blame your Heaven for inaccurate information. Well, not that I want to pride myself on being advanced in age, but you are much inferior to your Great Patriarch. When he was the Great Celestial Emperor, he had helped us kill three Human Emperors and steal a large amount of Human Emperor Energy!”

He tittered, causing his body to roll violently. “With a little bit more of Human Emperor Energy, just a little bit more, I’ll have that thing made. Heh, a pity that the men you sent are incapable. If they manage to kill that Emperor Haozun and seize his energy, my work would have been done by now.”

Great Celestial Emperor’s face was unsightly. “Don’t you worry, I’ll get all the Human Emperor Energy you need,” he said in a deep voice. “But, I need you to help me personally this time.”

Wu Xian was stunned. While shivering, he shrunk to a ball and said in a mocking voice, “You need me to help you personally? You know how high the price is! Also, as I need to forge that thing now, I can’t afford to waste even just a tiny bit of my energy. Well, what are the good things you prepare to give me?”

Great Celestial Emperor said casually, “You’ll be satisfied.”

After considering for a moment, Wu Xian laughed hoarsely and said, “Fine, I’ll do it. I haven’t done it myself in a long time. Who is the target? I must tell you bluntly that whatever the target has in possession, they are all mine after I kill him with the curse.”

Great Celestial Emperor smiled, then lowered his voice and whispered the name of the target.