Stealing the Heavens

With only a few words, Guigu’zi made Wu Dehou speechless.

Who was Guigu’zi? Even his two disciples were able to stir up the Warring States with their eloquent tongues. And as their master, he was even better. How could Wu Dehou be a match of such a man, when he was merely a courtier in the Great Wu Dynasty?

Red-faced, Wu Dehou stared blankly at Guigu’zi for a long time before finally forcing out a sentence, “The appointment of Imperial Advisors is too important a matter to be decided by His Majesty alone. We must bring this matter to the court and discuss with all the courtiers.”

Wu Qi smiled as he shook his head and said, “There is some truth in what the Regent said.”

Wu Dehou gave Wu Qi a suspicious look. It was clear by now that he and the three Daoists were rivals, but why did this man agree with him? Frankly speaking, given his current grip on the Great Wu’s court, any policy brought to the court by Wu Tianming would have been impossible to pass.

Wu Tianming seemed to have thought of this point as well. He looked at Wu Tianming with helplessness and frustration.

Wu Qi just smiled and nodded lightly, “Your Majesty, you’d better summon all the courtiers of Great Wu to discuss this matter. Anything must be done in a ‘proper way’.” When he said that, Wu Qi intentionally stared at Wu Dehou, accentuating the words ‘proper way’.

Wu Dehou’s reaction was exactly as Wu Qi expected. His dark face turned purple and his eyes were bulging, looking as if he were about to draw a knife and kill someone. This man was indeed a roughneck who could not keep anything in his heart. He could have acted brazenly with his authority for a while, but in the end, he was doom to death.

With a smile on his face, Wu Qi turned and returned to the crane’s back.

Wu Tianming took a deep breath, then summoned up the courage to give Wu Dehou a glance and threw out a palm-sized gold metal. Before long, the sonorous and crisp tolls of a golden bell rang out of the majestic cluster of palaces in the city. They looked down and saw the doors of the mansions along the streets around the imperial palace thrown open, from where hundreds of chariots and horses swarmed out in the company of guards, quickly heading toward the palace’s front gate.

Wu Qi shook his head slightly. It was obvious that the magnificence of this Great Wu Dynasty’s court was no way near that of the Great Yu. It was, in any case, a small kingdom from the outer heavenly realm. He could still remember the breathtaking sight of more than 300,000 courtiers from various clans discussing the state affairs in You Xiong Palace, before Great Yu was divided by the two major upheavals. In contrast, no more than two to three hundred courtiers were attending Great Wu’s palace now.

As the courtiers poured into the palace, Wu Qi and his companions landed inside directly. At that moment, a group of eunuchs and maidservants greeted them and escorted Wu Tianming into a great hall. There, the emperor bathed and changed the imperial robe. It was an hour before he was ready.

Wu Qi, his companions, and Wu Dehou were waiting for the emperor outside the great hall. Guigu’zi and Mo Di had closed their eyes to take a rest, too lazy to pay the Regent any mind. Wu Qi, on the other hand, was exchanging glances with him. Wu Dehou was fuming and his gaze was as sharp as a knife, full of menace. Meanwhile, Wu Qi stared back at the old man unflinchingly, with his sharp eyes sweeping across his vital points and making him uncomfortable. It was not too long before Wu Dehou’s fury was largely quenched by the threatening glances. He turned his head away a little timidly and dared not to look at Wu Qi again.

Wu Qi deliberately gave a few dry laughs, and his voice made Wu Dehou turn in exasperation and glare at him once more. But at that moment, his eyes suddenly turned very bizarre; they became dark and deep, swirling slowly like whirlpools. The Regent’s gaze was attracted by Wu Qi’s eyes, and his soul was almost sucked over by the whirlpools in them.

Terrified, Wu Dehou shrieked and jumped back for a great distance. His soul trembled in his spiritual ocean as if it were about to fly out of him. He hastily took two bone talismans out of his sleeve and smashed them with one hand. Two runes which could stabilize the soul and ward off evil spirits gleamed and were imprinted on his foreheads, settling his restless soul.

Sweating profusely, Wu Dehou pointed angrily at Wu Qi and wanted to scold him. But, when all the curses reached his lips, it dawned on him that this man was not one of those henchmen serving him, whom he could beat and scold as he liked. The horrible feeling that his soul was nearly sucked away by an external force had made him feel like he had just turned on the edge of death, and he dared not to even look Wu Qi in the eye now, let alone scold him.

Forcibly suppressing the fear in his heart, Wu Dehou lowered his head, his eyes darting from side to side. Wu Tianming’s sudden recruitment of Wu Qi and two other men had a huge impact on his power in Great Wu. But, how was he going to respond? He pondered in frustration, racking his brain but failing to come up with any ideas.

After much deliberation, Wu Dehou could not help but turn his eyes to the great hall not far in front of him. His henchmen were now waiting in the hall, and there were a few wise men among them, who might be able to think of some good solution for him.

A cloud-board ¹ rang. Wu Tianming, having bathed and changed his clothes, strode out while being surrounded by eunuchs and maidservants. Several young eunuchs had come over and waited on him as he boarded a chariot engraved with nine dragons and pulled by a deer. When he was seated, the emperor turned and waved to Wu Qi and his two companions with a smile. “How about sharing the chariot with me, Imperial Advisors?”

Wu Dehou’s face flickered, but Wu Qi only nodded and said with a faint smile, “The relationship between the monarch and the subjects needs to be prudent and courteous. Your Majesty, please help yourself.”

The emperor froze for a moment. Then, he gave a meaningful look at Wu Dehou, whose face had turned unsightly, before nodding and saying, “What Imperial Advisor said is reasonable.”

When he had finished, Wu Tianming waved his hand. An old eunuch screamed at the top of his voice, and the party went straight to the great hall.

In the great hall used to hold the court, the kings, officials and heads of various departments were divided into dozens of small groups, discussing in low voices why the emperor was calling his subjects today. Normally, Great Wu had a court meeting every three days, and all the usual state affairs were decided by the Regent, Wu Dehou, directly in the office of Prime Minister, which had nothing to do with Wu Tianming.

However, today was not the day for a court meeting. Why was Wu Tianming, who was merely a figurehead, summoning the court now? What happened?

The eunuchs’ shrill cries reminded the courtiers that Wu Tianming had arrived, so all of them sluggishly and slowly returned to their respective positions. When the emperor was seated on the throne, more than seventy percent of his subjects turned to look at Wu Dehou at the same time, who had walked into the hall with him, before falling to their knees, bowing and shouting their greetings to Wu Tianming.

Wu Qi, Guigu’zi, and Mo Di stood beside Wu Tianming while Wu Dehou snorted coldly and stepped down from the jade dais where the throne stood as he slowly took his place at the head of the court. Before the emperor could speak, the Regent had waved his hand unconcernedly and said, “Rise, subjects of Great Wu! His Majesty has summoned you to the court meeting today because he has invited three Imperials Advisors for our dynasty. Haha! You may begin to discuss this matter now!”

Imperial Advisors? Puzzled, all the subjects looked up at the three men standing beside Wu Tianming. It was at this moment that they noticed how unsightly Wu Dehou’s face had become. Even when Wu Tianming’s father, who was also Wu Dehou’s real elder brother and the former emperor of Great Wu, died, his face did not look as ugly as it did today.

The courtiers began to fill their heads with all sorts of thoughts. The former emperor of Great Wu died suddenly just three days after they arrived in Pangu Continent. It happened so suddenly that none of the courtiers had time to react. Then, Wu Dehou stood out and selected Wu Tianming, the weakest and least popular prince, to ascend the throne.

Within a month of assuming the throne, Wu Dehou had made Wu Tianming a mere figurehead, taking over all the power of the emperor. But now, the emperor had suddenly brought back three Imperial Advisors, which was a thought-provoking decision.

After a short silence, an elderly man, who looked so old as if he might die at any moment, walked slowly out of the ranks. “If I may ask, Senior Immortals,” he asked in a trembling voice, “what makes you think you are qualified to be Great Wu’s Imperial Advisors?”

All the courtiers asked in unison, “What makes you think you are qualified to be Great Wu’s Imperial Advisors?”

Wu Tianming’s face darkened at the sound of such a chorus while Wu Dehou seemed to have suddenly regained his spirits. The Regent puffed out his chest, triumphantly looking at the courtiers and finally have a feeling of exhalation.

Wu Qi took a slow step forward and said coolly, “I’m Seven Killing. Of the three of us, I’m proficient in battle and killing, and no one can stop me from charging into the enemy formation. My eldest brother, Daoist Greed, is proficient in astronomy, geography, astrology, divination, and he can control all the spirits under the heaven. Oh, he is also an expert in other areas such as agriculture, fishery, animal husbandry, trading and economics. As for my second elder brother, he is proficient in artifact refinement and pill refinement. The weapons he refines are all divine weapons, and the spirit pills he refines…”

While laughing, Wu Qi took out one of the pills he had concocted with those Delightful Buddhas and slowly presented it to Wu Tianming.

“Your Majesty, this is the Nine Rotations Pill concocted by my second elder brother. It can let you become an immortal immediately. I wonder if Your Majesty would like to try it?”

Wu Tianming’s action came as a surprise to everyone. Before Wu Dehou could speak and before the courtiers could object, he grabbed the pill and swallowed it in one gulp. Even Wu Qi was startled by his quick action. This emperor seemed to have been pushed to a really tight corner. How else would he dare to do such a desperate thing?

Fortunately, this spirit pill was not a poison, but a real supreme elixir.

After ingesting the pill, Wu Tianming was immediately bathed in a rich glow of golden light that radiated from every pore of his while sticky, black impurities were constantly being washed out of him. Soon afterward, a faint fragrance began to waft out of his body. As he trembled over and over again, he suddenly opened his mouth and spat out three purple-golden lotus flowers. For the moment, the great hall was filled with an exotic scent while a mighty energy wave gushed out of the emperor’s body, forcing the courtiers to lose their balance.

This pill contained not only a tenth of the purified energy essence of a Delightful Buddha, but also a copy of his attainment, which was sealed in it by Wu Qi with a technique he had invented in his previous life. In the blink of an eye, Wu Tianming’s cultivation base skyrocketed, from a Nascent Soul cultivator to an eighteenth-tier Gold Immortal. After that, the remaining energy in the pill was all stored inside him. The emperor looked up into the sky with dreamy eyes, a sign that the Buddha’s attainment was now merging with his relatively weak soul.

Wu Qi cleared his throat and said lightly, “This is the Nine Rotations Pill, and it can let anyone become a Gold Immortal immediately.”

He gave the stunned courtiers a glance and asked in a faint voice, “If I may ask, do you think my brothers and I are now qualified to be Great Wu’s Imperial Advisors?”