A dazzling mass of starlight enveloped an area hundred miles wide, being showered with fine threads of starlight that came pouring down from the stars hanging above the clouds high up in the sky, which had revealed themselves even though it was still broad daylight. Inside, figures of a dozen different divine beasts and fowls could be seen racing and flying back and forth, filling the air with loud rumbles that were unpleasant to the ears. From time to time, colorful beams of light broke through the trembling silver wall of light, streaking across the sky before falling onto the hills and mountains in the vicinity, which then quickly vanished into nothingness in silence.
Facing the strong wind at the high altitude on top of a lofty mountain a thousand miles away, there stood a colossal black flagpole. A huge black flag, 18,000 feet long and 9,000 feet tall, was fluttering fiercely at the top of it. A great plume of black smoke was constantly billowing out of the flag, condensing into a gargantuan, hazy and half-transparent hand in mid-air, which had the surrounding void across 3,000 miles completely covered.
All the energy fluctuations within the area were absorbed by the hand, such that no ripple of energy or even sound could escape. Although the hand was enormous, everything looked perfectly normal when one looked down from above. No one could see what was happening underneath it, whether through divine sense, naked eyes, or some rare magic eyes.
Beneath the great flag, Liu Bang and King Zhang Qiu sat opposite to each other on folding chairs with carvings of dragons that were inlaid in gold. A ten-feet-long table was placed between them, on the surface of which were placed numerous steaming hot delicacies. These delicious dishes were prepared on the spot by the cooks Liu Bang had brought with him here using real dragon livers, phoenix galls, and many other precious ingredients.
A tricolor deer demon who had cultivated to an eighteenth-tier Heaven Immortal was tossing about and howling miserably halfway up the mountain. At the moment, he had transformed back to his true form, with the tendons on his four legs and his penis cut away, and seventy percent of his blood taken away. He howled at the top of his lungs, but a Demon Repressing Talisman produced by the Directorate of Celestials was tightly attached on his forehead, leaving him with only the strength to howl and toss about in pain and do nothing else.
Smilingly, Liu Bang scooped up a spoon-full of steaming hot soup cooked with deer tendons and deer blood from the bowl in front of him, brought it to his mouth and gulped it down. Fresh and sweet deer blood slipped down his throat like silk, and as he chewed on the tendons cut into thin slices, they seemed to explode in his mouth, creating a storm of rich aroma and tenderness that overwhelmed his taste buds.
"Excellent!" exclaimed Liu Bang. Then, he gave the writhing deer demon a sideways glance and casually waved a finger. At the gesture, Fan Kuai laughed and dashed over, landing a foot on the deer's head. He produced a dagger and began to cut slices of fresh deer meat from its chest. He ate the meat as he cut them, uncooked, and downed it with strong wine a bodyguard had brought to him. Before long, he had finished all the meat on the deer demon's chest.
"This feels great!" Fan Kuai laughed and slapped his own chest with one hand while looking at the rapidly rippling silver mass of light in the distance with a fierce gleam glittering in his eyes.
King Zhang Qiu smiled faintly as he picked up a slice of fried deer penis with chopsticks and shoved it into his mouth. Slowly, he chewed on the steaming hot delicacy and swallowed it, heaving a long, satisfied sigh. Halfway up the mountain, a flood dragon who had also cultivated to a Heaven Immortal was wailing mournfully as a group of heavily-armored elite soldiers pressed him down against a large rock. A cook in green robe walked up to the flood dragon, then carefully removed tendons, liver, heart, and other precious ingredients from his body with a sharp knife.
Melodious music rang out from the woods beside them as a group of scantily dressed female immortals marched out to present a dance of Apsaras in front of King Zhang Qiu and Liu Bang, colorful fans and long silks in their hands. Surrounded by the fragrance of wine and meat, beautiful girls and entertainment, King Zhang Qiu and Liu Bang drank freely with great joviality.
When they had filled and emptied their glasses three times, and five main courses prepared with dragon meat were served and finished, Liu Bang put down his wine glass and turned to look at the dazzling mass of light off in the distance. "This punk is quite extraordinary! Bai Zhu and his companions all possess cultivation bases of Gold Immortals, and they are divine beasts with incredibly strong fleshly bodies. And yet, he is able to trap them with a formation. That's quite an achievement! No wonder you want him to be killed here, King Zhang Qiu!"
After wiping away a drop of wine on the corner of his mouth, King Zhang Qiu said with a cold grin, "His Majesty is fond of this fellow, and had even rewarded him a Supreme Tower. He is already a threat with his aptitude to cultivate both magic and fleshly body at the same time, and a bigger one when he is serving Ji Ao. If we don't take this opportunity to kill him, he will surely become a hindrance to our future plan."
Wearing a lazy smile, Liu Bang summoned a pretty female immortal to him and took her in his arms, gently rubbing her warm bosoms with both hands. "If that is the case, we shall let him run his own course. No doubt it would be best if he were to be killed by Bai Zhu, but it would be good also if he could kill Bai Zhu and others. At any rate, we can't let Bai Zhu and others leave You Xiong Plain alive!"
King Zhang Qiu gave a cold laugh, then narrowed his eyes and said with a cold snort, "But, could the plan really succeed by merely sacrificing a Primordial Immortal, a Buddha, and a few divine beasts of the Gold Immortal realm? Not to mention that Immortal Ding Jun is not really dead, but has joined the Buddhist League. Although he is no longer a Primordial Immortal, it will take him only a few years to become a Buddha. Can such tricks fool those people?"
With his hands fumbling at the female immortal's bosoms, Liu Bang said indifferently, "We just have to carry out the task as bid. As for what those almighty experts behind us think, what does it matter to us? Since they have made the plan, I'm sure they are confident that it can be accomplished. It's true that I'll be greatly benefited when it is done, but you will also receive a fair share of the loot!"
He squinted at King Zhang Qiu and said in a low, powerful voice, "Rest assured, Your Highness, the world needs a Human Emperor. However, what we need is a Human Emperor who can work with us. Sooner or later, the throne will be yours!"
King Zhang Qiu smiled at that, his eyes narrowed. Meanwhile, Liu Bang leaned his back against the chair and said lazily, "Your Highness just have to wait patiently…The matter is almost at its end. Even though the human race is protected by Empress Wa, and even if she is made of steel, how many nails can she break? Great Yu has incurred the wrath of the many this time. When the few Patriarchs who are on the same level as Empress Wa stand up together, all she can do is to watch from above heaven and do nothing about it!"
"With justice on your side, you can go anywhere. And the justice is with us this time!" said Liu Bang proudly, slapping the female immortal in his arms on the buttocks.
King Zhang Qiu and Liu Bang looked at each other and laughed. Then, they both looked up at the black flagpole that stood between them, glancing with passion at the huge black flag that was fluttering in the wind.
The flag was called the 'Heaven Veiling Flag of Chaos', which was the natal primordial artifact of the North Celestial Emperor from the Heaven, a treasure of primordial grade born in the Chaos. If Liu Bang had not borrowed treasure of this grade to conceal all the energy fluctuations within this area three thousand miles around them, how could the garrison in You Xiong Plain have failed to detect the clash of Wu Qi and Bai Zhu? But now, with all the clamor covered up by this treasure, even those Supreme Oracles were unaware of what was happening here. In the end, whether Wu Qi was killed by Bai Zhu and others, or Bai Zhu and his companions were killed by Wu Qi, it would still be the best outcome for Liu Bang and King Zhang Qiu.
"Luckily, I had informed Bai Zhu and his beast friends. Otherwise, we'd have let Tan Lang escape!" said Liu Bang with a smile, shaking his head. "Cultivates both magic and fleshly body at the same time? Won the Human Emperor's favor and was rewarded with a Supreme Tower? Bah! A genius such as this should be killed as early as possible, lest he gives us more troubles in the future!"
King Zhang Qiu nodded in agreement. He ate another slice of dragon liver, then raised his wine glass and said, "A toast for King of Han!"
Liu Bang smiled, and after kissing the female immortal in his arms, he lifted his glass and shouted, "A toast for Your Highness!"
The two looked at each other and laughed, then downed the wine in their glasses at the same time. Having his sexual appetite roused by the bright future, King Zhang Qiu grabbed a beautiful female immortal standing beside him and eagerly pushed her down on the chair. Soon, the woman's moans echoed out across the top of the mountain. Liu Bang and his companions, Zhang Liang, Han Xin, Xiao He, and others looked on with a sneer of disdain in their eyes.
King Zhang Qiu, narrowing his eyes and sprinting frantically atop the female immortal, smiled with a cold sneer in his seemingly hazy eyes.
Under the starlight gushing out from the Dark Yin Celestial Tower, Wu Qi clutched his hand on Bai Zhu's scalp, landing punch after punch on the latter's face and causing the poor fellow to howl and shriek miserably. Bai Zhu's wife, a similarly ferocious tigress, roared furiously as she transformed back to her true form and kept pounding at Wu Qi, trying to save her husband.
But, Ao Buzun and the dragon python sisters had pinned her down, keeping her from nearing Wu Qi. The lewd black dragon had shrunk his body to about an inch long, and was dashing back and forth around the tigress while teasing her with obscene comments, "Aye, you've lost a son, and now you are going to lose your husband! Well, well, a childless widow like you will surely live in misery! Hehe, a widow, a beautiful widow, why don't you just marry someone else? You are a white tiger, and I'm a black dragon, that makes us a perfect match! Come over here, my lady! Let me sooth your misery with a kiss!"
The tigress bristled at Ao Buzun's obscene comments. She tried to rip the black dragon apart with her sharp claws; but as the latter had shrunk to only an inch long, and her body was overly large, all her attempts ended up in vain.
Meanwhile, the dragon python sisters were showering her with beams of ice and fire, causing her to dodge in a flurry. In addition, numerous pearls condensed from starlight were raining down on her, each as heavy as a hundred mountains combined. Whenever she was hit by such pearls, an excruciating pain washed over her, and she would be thrown to the ground.
Worst of all, these pearls contained some magical power which filled her eyes with illusions every time she was hit. In the end, her mind began to wander, and she could no longer figure out where she was.
Although the two white tigers were pinned down by Wu Qi, the other divine beasts were still roaring wildly and attacking the formation's foundation. He was literally fighting against dozens of divine beasts who were as strong as Gold Immortals alone. It was an unbearable burden for him even just to keep the formation running.
Every attack unleashed by them landed a direct impact on Wu Qi's internal organs. Blood was dripping down from his seven orifices, and a stabbing pain was washing through his meridians. He looked up in surprise at the direction of You Xiong Plain off in the distance. 'How come no one has noticed the commotion here?'
Suddenly the silver curtain behind Wu Qi trembled and was shattered by a tremendous force.
A figure, shrouded in flames, swooped in with a heavy broadsword and struck it down toward Wu Qi's back.