Stealing The Heavens

The Prime Minister? The King of Han? Liu Bang?

With hands clasped behind his back, Zhang Tengyun frowned at the smiling Liu Bang. There was a strangeness to today’s Liu Bang, as if a mask on his face was torn off, showing a very strange face. He still looked the same, but his aura had become very bizarre.

Lu Buwei stood behind Liu Bang while smiling and as he glanced wildly at the naked girls sprawling on the cushions. From time to time, he clicked his tongue in admiration and had a lecherous look on his face, as if he could not wait to show these girls some love.

“Prime Minister? King of Han?” Zhang Tengyun twitched his lips. “Since when did my Ling Dynasty have a Prime Minister? And since when have I conferred someone the King of Han?”

Smiling happily, Liu Bang spread his arms and said, “You didn’t, but now you have.”

Zhang Tengyun flew into a rage. A three-feet-long bronze dagger-axe suddenly appeared beside him and thrust toward Liu Bang’s chest with a beam of bright blue light. The weapon was strangely and anciently shaped, and its surface was fully carved with the scenes of ancient people worshiping heaven. As soon as it appeared, a malicious aura swept out in all directions, as if a huge prehistoric beast was trying to swallow Liu Bang with its gaping mouth.

Silently, a white lotus flower appeared in front of Liu Bang. A ray of immortal light shot out of it and wrapped around the dagger-axe before it could near his chest, vanishing it in the blink of an eye. Zhang Tengyun froze, startled to find the lotus flower to be so familiar. He looked up hurriedly, and as he had expected, the Supreme Artifact of Primal that floated above him was gone.

“You…” Zhang Tengyun shivered as a chill ran from his soles up to his head. It was as if he had been struck by a thousand thunderbolts, and he suddenly understood something.

Liu Bang stroked the white lotus flower lightly and said in a gentle voice, “Don’t panic, Your Majesty, this subject doesn’t mean any harm! Your Majesty is the heaven-chosen Sacred Emperor of the human race…Who dares to be rude to Your Majesty? Who dares to hurt Your Majesty?”

He smiled and bowed deeply to Zhang Tengyun. “As for where does this subject come from…Well, it is true that Ling Dynasty didn’t have a Prime Minister and a King of Han in the past, but now it does. Also, the old man behind this subject is Lu Buwei. He is a man with great ability and is an exceptional pillar of the state. Therefore, he will be the Imperial Advisor of Ling Dynasty, in charge of all state affairs.”

Zhang Tengyun’s face turned blue with rage, but the ominous chill in his heart turned it pale again, making his face shift rapidly between blue and pale, while his body was shivering. He did not know whether he was frightened or angry, and he could not control his body from shivering. When he saw Lord Boyang, who looked exactly like him, and the white lotus flower floating in front of Liu Bang, he felt the darkness closing in around him while beads of cold sweat kept breaking out from all over him.

He clenched his jaws as he pointed a trembling finger at Liu Bang and said, “Without my imperial edict, there will be no Prime Minister or Imperial Advisor!”

Lord Boyang took a slow step forward from behind Liu Bang. The crown prince, who was claiming to be a simple-minded man with an incomplete soul when born, said dryly, “Your consent or imperial edict is not required here. These matters are decided by me, and I will announce the decisions to the world with my own imperial edict.”

Suddenly, a gleaming three-story green pagoda silently emerged over Zhang Tengyun. Some crescent-shaped light spun out of the tricolor light of red, white, and blue emanated from the pagoda, slashing down at Lord Boyang with a monstrous killing intent. The pagoda was also an artifact the nameless daoist had given Zhang Tengyun when he took him as his in-name disciple. As a Chaotic Spirit Artifact, it came with a fearsome power of cutting through all physical things.

Glancing pleasingly at the pagoda, Lord Boyang nodded and said, “A nice artifact…I like it! I will use it often in the future!”

As he said that, he pointed at the pagoda. With the gesture, the tricolor light emanated from it immediately rolled back like a receding tide, filling the air with a loud rumble. Then, like an obedient kitten, the pagoda that was about the size of a human head left Zhang Tengyun in a beam of bright light as it flew in front of Lord Boyang and hovered there quietly.

Beads of cold sweat trickled down Zhang Tengyun’s naked body. “What is going on!” he screamed in horror. “This…This is an artifact I’ve refined with my heart’s blood and divine soul…Why…Why? What evil method have you used? How could you… how could you…”

Zhang Tengyun could not finish his words. Regardless of what evil method Lord Boyang had used, the problem was…what kind of evil method could take away an artifact a first-grade Primordial Immortal had refined with his heart’s blood and divine soul? He would not be so shocked if it were only a weak spirit artifact or immortal artifact, but it was a Chaotic Spirit Artifact! Moreover, the white lotus flower was a Supreme Artifact of Primal! Putting aside Zhang Tengyun’s cultivation base, both artifacts had very strong sentience, which was even stronger than Zhang Tengyun. Who could take them away if they were not willing?

Cold sweat trickled down his skin in streams. Zhang Tengyun staggered back, his body shaking violently and his joints rattling. Utterly shocked, he was panting breathlessly. Somehow, he suddenly remembered his brothers whom he had strangled to death with his hands, one at a time. When he was approaching his defenseless brothers with an evil smile on his face, they were panting violently and retreating in horror, just like him today.

Amidst his great fear, Zhang Tengyun felt his belly boiling with heat; in the face of unpredictable danger, he actually felt great pleasure. It was a pleasure a hundred times or even thousand times stronger than what was brought to him by those girls lying on the ground, as if his own destruction was the most delightful thing in the world.

Liu Bang smiled derisively when he heard Zhang Tengyun’s loud scream. Shaking his head, he said with a faint sigh, “Your Majesty has truly refined these artifacts with your heart’s blood and divine soul. But, does Your Majesty know that a human has three spiritual and seven physical souls?”

Zhang Tengyun shot a look at Liu Bang, exasperated. What nonsense was this? Every cultivator knew that a human had three spiritual and seven physical souls!

“Between you and me, I have two spiritual souls and four physical souls, and you have one spiritual soul and three physical souls,” said Lord Bowang coldly. “So, when you were refining these artifacts with your divine soul, it was the same as me refining them. My two spiritual souls and four physical souls are stronger than your one spiritual soul and three physical souls, don’t you agree?”

Zhang Tengyun looked at Lord Bowang in horror and bellowed, “This is ridiculous! My divine soul is complete with three spiritual souls and seven physical souls. How could it…”

Liu Bang laughed. Looking complacently at Zhang Tengyun, whose face was pale and blue with fright, he said slowly, “Your Majesty has been a friend of Heaven for so many years. Have you heard of the forbidden clans? Using their forbidden method, we split a spiritual soul and three physical souls into three spiritual souls and seven physical souls. After that, we filled them with soul power with the Buddhist League’s divine power and sent them into transmigration. And this is how you are here!”

Lord Boyang stared coldly at Zhang Tengyun and sneered, “You have gone through 99,999 cycles of transmigration. Every time, you were born as an emperor, you absorbed the aura of the emperor that many times. Whenever you died, the Buddhist League always escorted you and your aura of the emperor into your next incarnation. Therefore, each time you reincarnated, your dynasty got more prosperous!”

He snorted coldly and went on in a flat voice, “As for me, I’ve been tempered day and night by the natal star power of the six emperor stars in the Thirty-three Heavens, which are the Purple Star, the South Star, the North Star, the Central Star, the West Star, and the East Star, and my divine soul has fused with their essences. What you have accumulated is the emperor aura of the human race, and what I’ve accumulated is the emperor aura of Heaven.”

Liu Bang added, “When the three spiritual souls and the seven physical souls merge as one again, the aura of the Human Emperor and the aura of the Heaven Emperor will be mixed with one another, and the true new Sacred Emperor of the human race will be born. And once Your Majesty leads Ling Dynasty to sweep across Pangu Continent, kills all those emperors of the small kingdoms from outer heavenly realms, and seizes their emperor aura, the world will no longer be able to resist the rise of Your Majesty!”

Lu Buwei could not wait to show off himself. He tittered and said, “Originally, as the man who inherits the destiny of heaven and earth, the emperor aura of Great Yu’s Human Emperor is unshakable by any external force. But, he had given birth to a few filial sons, haha! Now, with New Yu divided from Great Yu, the emperor aura of Great Yu is split into two parts, and neither part can fight against the vast emperor aura Your Majesty have gathered from all the mortal kingdoms. The fate of the human race is now set in stone! Even if Empress Wa can break out of her palace, she will no longer be able to turn the situation around!”

Lord Boyang clasped his hands behind his back as he held his head up proudly and sneered, “With the vast virtues bestowed by the Heavenly Dao after the countless outer heavenly realms joined back with Pangu Continent, I now have the chance to fuse with the Dao. Once I succeed, I will be worthy of the name of the Sacred Emperor of the race. It is time for the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan and the Yan Emperor Shennong to step down from their thrones!”

Zhang Tengyun trembled as he looked in horror at the trio and cried out, “Wha-what…What about me?”

Lord Boyang’s lips curved into a very strange smile. “You? Do you even exist? You are nothing but an illusive thing! I am me, and you are not me!”

Liu Bang smiled faintly and said, “Of course, you’re still useful. For example, the body of Crown Prince has to do something very beneficial to Ling Dynasty, and we need a soul to control it. At that time, we will have to trouble Your Majesty.”

Zhang Tengyun shuddered. He threw his head back and let out a loud, long roar. Then, he suddenly leaped into the air and transformed into a beam of golden light as he was about to flee.

However, Lord Boyang casually pointed out a finger. Zhang Tengyun’s body squirmed as he shrieked and fell off from the golden light. “You are nothing but the manifestation of my one spiritual soul and three physical souls. Do you think you can run away from me?”

A crackling noise rang out as Lord Boyang’s forehead split open, from where his two spiritual souls and four physical souls slowly flew out in six masses of strong —two purple and four golden. They gracefully came over to Zhang Tengyun, who was screaming and yelling in fear, and then squeezed through the crown of his head. As he struggled and twitched violently, a bloody line split open in his forehead, and a vague, powerless shadow drifted out of it, slowly fusing into Lord Boyang’s body.

The shadow was Zhang Tengyun’s everything, the illusive manifestation left behind by Lord Boyang’s one spiritual soul and three physical souls after they had gone through 99,999 cycles of transmigration.

Before long, the new Zhang Tengyun slowly opened his eyes and rose to his feet. He gave the petrified Lord Boyang a look and lightly waved a hand.

“Send him to the border and make his death look good!”