The day I barged into the Heavenly Court, I saw the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King pinned beneath Jiang Ziya’s foot.
Li Huai’an was just a poor scholar. While sheltering from the rain, he opened a tattered book and somehow stumbled into the Hall of the Jade Emperor, uncovering the gods’ biggest scandal.
Li Jing, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, was beaten in front of everyone, and not a single immortal in the hall dared to intervene.
The lofty Heavenly Court turned out to be nothing but schemes and self-interest; every supposedly compassionate god and Buddha had a dark past they wanted kept hidden.
When he was discovered, a giant palm came crashing down from the sky, intent on grinding this “witness” to dust.
Li Huai’an had no cultivation and no connections. His only golden finger was the keen, ruthless eye he had developed from reading all kinds of books for twenty years:
Gods are people too, and every person has weaknesses.
He used the Heavenly Court’s scandals to blackmail the Heavenly Court, and the Underworld’s internal strife to keep the Underworld in check. He advanced one careful step at a time through the narrow gaps in the gods’ power struggles.
From a helpless nobody hunted down by all sides to a disruptor courted by all three realms.
When an invitation to the Peach Banquet arrived in his hands, every god wanted to know:
What exactly does this mortal want?
Li Huai’an closed the blank book, Strange Tales of the Three Realms, and smiled.
“I want to see if I can turn this Heaven upside down.”
