Emperor’s Domination

“You know, attention doesn’t imply love.” Li Qiye smiled.

“What is it then?” The emperor’s brows furrowed.

“Hate begets attention, rage as well.” Li Qiye smiled mysteriously.

“What are you trying to do?” He felt something ominous looming on the horizon.

“What do you have to fear when you’re already dead? No, what’s worse than your current state?” Li Qiye shrugged.

He agreed about his predicament - dead yet still bound to this forsaken world.

“And?” He stared at Li Qiye. His intuition was right - the guy wasn’t kind enough to come pick up his corpse.

“If the world despises you and the same for the high heaven, we can do something to make it really mad.” Li Qiye couldn’t help but smirk while imagining: “You’ll get all the attention then.”

“You do know that I can’t do anything in my current state.” He said.

“I don’t expect a dead man to do anything but worry not, I’ll do the dirty work by bringing you to the high heaven’s home. If I smash hard enough, maybe you’ll splatter all over the place. Don’t you think that will really get it angry?” Li Qiye said.

“Of course.” He agreed.

“This is the important part of the plan, when it’s angry, it’ll be too easy for you to turn into ashes. Others can’t kill you and your smelly aura, but the villainous heaven should be able to obliterate you.” Li Qiye said.

“I see, you want to use the high heaven to sever the cycle.” He said.

“Use? More like I’m doing it a favor in lending it a hand to help another living being under its watch.” Li Qiye said.

“I would be dead afterward though.” He said.

A heavenly tribulation was certainly capable of reducing his dao to nothingness and severing his cycle. However, the key to Li Qiye’s plan was to have him alive after the fact.

“I’ll be there too, right?” Li Qiye said: “Anger is a tempestuous emotion, a sign of life, right?”

“You’re trying to steal from the high heaven, I see.” He understood.

“Once again, you’re painting me as a bad guy. All I’ll be doing is helping out because having too much anger is a bad thing, one has to vent somehow.” Li Qiye shook his head.

“Stealing the high heaven’s anger…” He had never thought about this before.

Everyone in the world was afraid of the high heaven, not daring to incite its wrath. Now, Li Qiye wanted to provoke it on top of stealing its anger for his own gains.

“A being born from the high heaven’s anger, that seems to follow the rule, no?” Li Qiye patted the emperor’s shoulder again and continued: “What kind of existence will you become? Definitely better than this world-weary dao thing, right?”

Rebirth and reincarnation were coveted by all cultivators. Supreme overlords might have been able to do so, albeit with clear deficiencies.

What they were about to do was one step above that - severing from the initial cycle and seizing rebirth through the anger affinity of the high heaven.

The driving force in this case was not Li Qiye but the high heaven. He was only there to facilitate. Ultimately, the result would be a new being with a part of the high heaven embedded.

“Fuck, you’ve gone mad.” The emperor couldn’t help but curse after hearing the plan.

“It’s the madness that makes it fun. Not everyone can reach this level of insanity, you know?” Li Qiye laughed.

“You targeted me from the very start because I’m the diarrhea that can provoke the wrath of the high heaven. That’s why you urged me to participate in the wars.” He said.

In their previous meeting, Li Qiye persuaded him to leave his reclusive lifestyle. This was a successful plan, driving the combatants away from the battlefields. However, this ended with his death.

In reality, he already knew that this would be the outcome. After all, death was what he wanted. What he didn’t expect was to be stuck in this state - his dao remained indestructible.

Now, it became clear that Li Qiye was planning something beyond that - not just using him to stop the wars.

“No, there has to be something else beyond reviving me.” He said.

“Sigh, who has time to plan and scheme so much? I’m merely doing what’s best for you so that you can be freed from this fate.” Li Qiye said.

“Right, you are doing what’s best but for you, not me.” He said.

“Sigh.” Li Qiye patted his shoulder again and complained: “What if I hadn’t interfered, have you imagined what type of life you would live?”