stealing the heavens
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Outside the Palace of Empress Wa, a dozen young girls were attacking the seven Buddhist Patriarchs with knives, pikes, swords, and halberds, who sat cross-legged on the ground expressionlessly. But, no matter how they attacked, they could only make a few ripples in the void in front of the old men. Such weak attacks could not even get close to their bodies.
The patriarchs looked sadly at the ground. Their visions could penetrate the landmass where the Palace of Empress Wa sat and see everything that was happening on Pangu Continent.
Fighting for the dominion of the human race and the control of the entire Pangu Continent was the general strategy jointly devised by the seven Buddhist Patriarchs and the nine Dao Patriarchs, but the execution was left to their disciples. It was apparent now that the disciples of the Buddhist League had failed to live up their patriarchs’ expectations—they were a little shaky under the aggressive attack of the Dao League.
All the while, the seven Buddhas were suppressed by the nine Daoists, so the Buddhist League had never been as strong as the Dao League. The seven Buddhas always had a thought in their minds, that was, to make Buddhism League suppress Dao League someday and truly become Pangu World’s number one power, occupying endless fortune and virtue. But, judging from what they saw now, Buddhist League’s reserves were, after all, nowhere near as strong as Dao League’s. Their disciples had worked very hard to recruit the heavenly ghost kings of the Ghost Realm, but Dao League had already subdued the Fiend Realm, the Demon Realm, and the Spirit Realm.
Not to mention the fact that the List of Deities used to collect souls and the Whip of Deities used to promote deities were in the hands of the nine Daoists, although they crafted them together. The seven Buddhas were only tasked to block the gates of the Palace of Empress Wa and keep her from making trouble.
The seven Buddhist Patriarchs glanced at each other with worried looks. The eyes of three of them were flashing with lotus flowers and swastikas, indicating that they wanted to do something. But, the other four shook their heads lightly and stopped their impulses. Even though the Heaven Secret had become chaotic now, what happened on Pangu Continent could not be concealed from anyone. If the Ling Dynasty was suddenly defeated and the mercenary armies Heaven had hired from the Fiend Realm, the Demon Realm, and the Spirits Realm suddenly suffered a great number of casualties, the nine Dao Patriarchs would not sit still. They would most likely strike secretly and teach the Buddhist League a lesson.
So, they could not strike…they could never strike. They had to count everything on their disciples.
Suddenly, the girls’ attacks stopped and their cries ceased. They put away their weapons and stood respectfully on both sides of the palace gate, bowing their heads deeply. Clad in a long dark yellow dress, Empress Wa walked slowly out of the palace with a four-legged square cauldron faintly visible in a cloud of smoke over her head.
The seven Buddhist Patriarchs rose to their feet at the same time, putting their palms together and calling out in unison, “This penniless monk offers greeting, Your Holiness.”
Empress Wa arched an eyebrow as she tucked her hands in her sleeves and said faintly, “You monks have been blocking the front gates of my palace for so many years. Don’t you think it is time to get out of the way? You are plotting against the human race, and yet you do not allow me to help them…You are too tyrannical and mean.”
The real names of the seven Buddhist Patriarchs were no longer known, and they had no official Buddhist names, only nicknames they gave themselves: Shouxin, Shoushen, Shouyi, Shouse, Shouzu, Shouyuan, and Shouqi [1] 1 . Shouxin was the most senior among them, and he had one hairpin in his bun; Shouqi was the youngest, and he had seven hairpins in his bun.
“Please forgive us, Your Holiness!” said Shouxin, who had a sad face. “When this is over, the human race will still be the same human race, and Your Holiness will still be the Holy Mother of the human race. Nothing will change. We are just replacing Great Yu with better rules.”
Empress Wa looked at him coldly. “You didn’t help us when we were creating the human race, so what right do you have to make changes to the human race now?”
Shouxin smiled. “Your Holiness is all alone now. The Chaos Fiend Gods who created the human race with you, who were thus able to enjoy the fortune of the human race, have now all fallen. So, we can make any changes to the human race!”
“You have the cheek to say that…So now, you are bullying me because I am alone?”
The seven Buddhism Patriarchs put their palms together and bowed to Empress Wa without saying a word. They did indeed bully her because she was alone now, and they expected that she would not be able to do anything to them. Now that they had blocked the front gates of a woman’s residence and kept her from leaving, they did not mind the rudeness in Empress Wa’s words. In short, in the face of great interest, the honor was the last thing they cared about.
Looking coldly at the seven monks who dressed up like daoists, Empress Wa sighed, “Those Chaos Fiend Gods who had created the human race with me all died under your design, right? On average, a Chaos Fiend God who had survived from ancient times to the present time had fallen every ten eons, and all of them perished in both souls and flesh. Your plots are indeed amazing.”
Shouxin chuckled and said, “Your Holiness flatter us. Now, would Your Holiness please return to the palace? We will discuss it again when all the dust has settled. There is too much blood on Pangu Continent now. Your Holiness better not go out, lest Your Holiness gets your shoes and socks dirty.”
Empress Wa looked up at the boundless purple cloud in the sky and said, “It seems that you monks and daoists have calculated everything out. But unfortunately, you should not have provoked me! Even though I’m a woman, you all must have heard of a saying of the mortals—nothing could be more poisonous than a woman’s heart! You can fight for everything, but you shouldn’t have touched the human race!”
Shouxin asked with a smile, “I don’t understand what Your Holiness is trying to say.”
Although he was smiling, Shouxin’s heart gave a jerk. At Empress Wa’s level, she would never lie. The fact that she had said something so demeaning of herself meant she had officially ripped apart all the civility with them. In other words, they had completely angered her by blocking the front gates of her palace, and she was going to fight back.
What disturbed him was how she would fight back. Although she was a Dao Fusing expert, she was alone, so what means would she use to fight back? Empress Wa had fused with the Dao with the great virtues of creating the human race, but over the years, her cultivation base had been maintained at the third tier of the Dao Fusing realm. Of all the Dao Fusing experts, she was the weakest. What means would she use to fight back?
‘Could it be that she means to fight back with these maidservants, whose true forms are immortal birds and divine birds?’ Shouxin glanced mockingly at those young girls standing behind Empress Wa.
These immortal birds and divine birds all had profound foundations, and they had been dwelling in the Palace of Empress Wa all year round. As none of the past Apocalypses had impacted the palace, the number of maidservants living here had been growing ever since Pangu created the world, and their cultivation base was excellent. Without considering others, there were nearly a hundred maidservants who had stepped into the realm of Dao Breaking. But, what good could they do? In the face of Dao Fusing experts, figures of Dao Reasoning and Dao Breaking were no different from ants. A Dao Fusing expert could easily defeat a hundred Dao Breaking experts with just one palm strike.
“May I know what does Your Holiness mean by saying that?” Shouxin asked once again.
Empress Wa tucked her hands in her sleeves and slowly turned around, walking toward the palace with a dozen of maidservants. “What do I mean? Nothing. I am all alone now, with all of my best friends dead. What could I do?” she said faintly. “I know you, the seven monks and the nine daoists, are trying to control Pangu World. Well, do what you want then!”
Her voice was calm, but Shouxin felt as if his heart was afloat, empty and unsettled. He stared at her back and his mind echoed with the words she had just said—nothing could be more poisonous than a woman’s heart. How much had she hated them to make her say such a thing? And what means did she have to deal with the extremely powerful alliance of the seven Buddhist Patriarchs and the nine Dao Patriarchs?
He counted on his fingers for several hours, but failed to find any useful clues from the already chaotic Heaven Secret. His eyebrows twitched with anger as he blamed the eighteen Saints in his heart for stirring the Heaven Secret into such a mess.
Empress Wa walked slowly back into her palace and came to the great hall where Xuanyuan and Shennong were meditating. At the sight of her, both emperors hurriedly rose to their feet and bowed to her, “Your Holiness!”
She seated herself on the cloud bed in the center, narrowed her eyes, and pondered for a moment before saying in a faint voice, “You’ve put this off for too long, but you don’t have to anymore. When you passed down the throne of the Human Emperor, you could have fused with the Dao. But, for the fear that those few monks and daoists would do you harm, you did not. Today is an auspicious day, and since they are asking this themselves…I say now is the time for you to fuse with the Dao!”
“Aye!” Xuanyuan and Shennong answered at the same time. They sat back on the cloud beds, then their flesh suddenly disintegrated into two masses of energy that rolled and rocked restlessly. Inside the one that was Xuanyuan were scenes of shining spears and armored horses; fierce battles being fought in battlefields; and countless deities, saints, and immortals dancing and worshiping. In the one that was Shennong floated countless herbs and spiritual roots, and scenes of primitive people laughing happily, thousands of birds and animals dancing joyfully…
Empress Wa had concealed the aura emanating from the two of them with the cauldron hovering over her. As the Heaven Secret was in a mess now, the seven Buddhist Patriarchs did not expect that two of the most important leaders of the human race were fusing with the Dao right now, so close to them.
Gradually, figures could be seen appearing in the two masses of energy. At the sight of them, Empress Wa nodded and relaxed. Then, she pointed at the cauldron and cried out in a soft voice, “Wake up now, you who have been asleep! Suiren, Fuxi, Zhuanxu, Ku, Yao, Shun, you have been reincarnated countless times in the mortal world. It is time to wake up!”
In Pangu Continent, the emperors of the six states had once again sat around a table, and were racking their brains to squeeze more benefits out of the Ling Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty. All of a sudden, their bodies turned stiff and their eyes gleamed with a myriad strange light, while a vague prehistoric aura swirled around them. Gradually, even their facial features changed slightly.
An enormous power, which had been accumulated in each of them for countless reincarnations, awakened, sprouting like a seed. Without alerting anyone, their cultivation slowly increased from the ninth-tier of the Primordial realm straight to the peak of the Dao Breaking realm.
Qu Ping sighed softly, then cupped his fist to those around him and said, “Countless eons have passed since we parted in the Palace of Empress Wa… Long time no see, everyone!”
Ying Zheng scowled and sighed unhappily. “This…Why couldn’t you let me win this round? Why did you have to wake us up now? This is so boring!”
Empress Wa, who was sitting in her palace, paid no heed to Ying Zheng’s complains. She pointed again at the cauldron, which trembled slightly and sent out a faint ripple.