“Strike!”
“Strike!!”
“Strike!!!”
The roar reverberated through the Blood River Domain, transforming into a frenzied storm that shook the heavens and startled even the souls of Immortals, making their reactions just a little slower.
As this roar resounded, a snow-white band of light appeared.
“Aaagh!” Ji Wenzhang howled in pain.
His body was instantly sliced in half, and energy surged into his body, blasting him to bits from within.
“Guang Yuan!” Huang Wuji bellowed in fury.
The sudden attacker was none other than Guang Yuan.
A hand of flames appeared and struck Ji Wenzhang’s True God. This was the Flame Celestial Sovereign’s Primal Chaos Flame, seeking to obliterate Ji Wenzhang and give him no chance of reviving.
On the side, the Azure Dragon and Vermillion Bird both struck back, stopping the Flame Celestial Sovereign’s Primal Chaos Flame and sending it right back where it had come from.
At the same time, Fairy Gu Ye, Mu Ziyang, and Blossom Queen Ran Qing all attacked Guang Yuan.
All of them were furious.
Just then, a beam of sword energy shot out of the distance.
Flickering with a faint blue light, it was like the herald of death, instilling endless fear in everyone’s hearts.
Ji Wenzhang, who was in the middle of reforming, instinctively felt an ill foreboding, and he cried out in despair, “NOOO!!!”
The blue beam of sword energy stabbed into his soul.
Ji Wenzhang’s soul, which had already reached the True God level, was cut in half, and then that imperishable True God soul melted away like snow in sunlight, vanishing from sight. The Immortal power, now bereft of a master, erupted at the bottom of the river, sending out powerful shockwaves.
“Old Ji!” Fairy Gu Ye cried out in grief.
Fairy Gu Ye couldn’t believe that a good friend of many years was gone just like that.
It was not an absolute rule that Immortals could not die.
The undying and everlasting Immortals could actually be dealt with in a variety of ways. Running them out of Immortal energy so that they had nothing to revive with was one way, and obliterating their divinity was another…
A man stood in the distance, a cold smile on his lips and a long blue sword with twinkling Dao Runes on its blade in his hand.
“Jin Tianya!” Fairy Gu Ye growled.
Jin Tianya was clearly the one who made that attack, using the very sword in his hand!
“Yes, it’s me.” Jin Tianya grinned.
“Why? Why did you do this?” Fairy Gu Ye roared. “Last time, you intervened to take back what was yours, so we didn’t hold anything against you. What’s the reason this time?”
“‘Why’? For this Godslayer Sword, of course,” Jin Tianya laughed. “For the price of this Godslayer Sword, the Lord of the Blood River hired me to attack on his behalf once, slaying at least one Earth Immortal. Now that the deed is done, if all of you turn the other cheek and let me go, I guarantee that I will not disturb you any further.”
He flew off.
“Leave your life here!”
Fairy Gu Ye rushed over, abandoning the battlefield to pursue Jin Tianya.
In a flash, the pair had disappeared from sight.
Horizon Ocean Pavilion was known for its mastery of Space, able to cross a thousand kilometers in an instant, so it was natural that Fairy Gu Ye was fast. But Jin Tianya was also extremely fast, and most importantly, while he was in the Blood River, he could be assisted by the Lord of the Blood River, so their speeds were essentially equal.
Despite running for an incredible distance, Jin Tianya was unable to outrun Fairy Gu Ye.
As Fairy Gu Ye got closer and closer, Jin Tianya decided to just stop and wait.
Fairy Gu Ye snarled, “Finally realized you can’t run?”
She raised her hand, and countless thin threads shot at Jin Tianya.
But these thin threads were actually spatial fissures. Horizon Ocean Pavilion could use Space to travel vast distances and could also slice apart Space.
Compared to the Jewel Immortal Sovereign, Fairy Gu Ye’s method of cutting space was much softer and more difficult to recognize.
Jin Tianya softly sighed. “Is this really necessary? Couldn’t you just let me go? You just have to send yourself to your death.”
His aura began to soar, growing stronger and stronger until it finally broke through the Earth Immortal threshold…
——————————
“Guang Yuan!!!” Back at the Blood River, Ran Qing screamed, “Why did you do this?”
Guang Yuan’s sudden attack had caught everyone off guard, and none of them could understand why he had done such a thing.
For many years now, the humans of the Blood River Domain had been under the thumb of the fiends and demons. For the fiends and demons, the Rosecloud Domain’s domain-merging war was an invasion, but for the humans, it was a release.
Why had Guang Yuan turned traitor in such a situation?
The Immortals just couldn’t understand.
But Guang Yuan said nothing, simply resisting the combined attacks of Ran Qing and Mu Ziyang with all his might.
Even though Ji Wenzhang was dead, Guang Yuan had turned traitor, and Fairy Gu Ye had been drawn away by Jin Tianya, in terms of overall strength, the Rosecloud Domain side still had the advantage, and if this continued, the Rosecloud Domain would be the ultimate victor.
At this moment, a section of the river waters parted, revealing the scarlet river bed.
A human skeleton was slowly rising out of the mud.
This skeleton radiated an astonishing pressure that pushed all the water back, and even the Immortals inwardly trembled when they gazed at it.
There was no doubt that these were the remains of a most powerful individual.
This individual had employed some unknown method so that not only did they not become Returned Remnants on death, they managed to preserve quite a lot of their power. This alone was beyond the capabilities of the average Immortal. No Earth Immortal or True Immortal could do it, and even Gold Immortals might not be able to.
Could it be…
Everyone came to the same conclusion.
Sure enough, the Lord of the Blood River laughed. “Didn’t you want to see what my ultimate trump card was? Well, take a good look! Correct! This is the everlasting golden body of the master of the Court of Myriad Domains, Immortal Emperor Yu Cheng! Why did Guang Yuan betray you? Simple! Because he knew that you couldn’t win! By betraying you now, he can still bring himself and his people some hope of survival!”
“Nonsense! Why would Yu Cheng’s remains be here?” Ran Qing shouted.
“And why not?” Blood River sneered.
With a wave of his hand, the Blood River began to transform, the crimson waters turning into the void.
In the depths of that void was a resplendent palace, the Court of Myriad Domains. Suddenly someone flew out of the court, as fast as lightning, and he kept flying and flying until finally, he stopped at a planet.
Though the man had stopped, he radiated a light that obscured his features.
He gazed at that planet with his hands held behind his back. He seemed to say something, but it was impossible to tell what. He then took out a strangely-shaped sword.
The man slashed the sword at the planet, and a brilliant wave of sword energy sliced into the planet.
Thus, the planet was split apart into two halves, yet they remained relatively close together in the void.
After slicing the planet in half, the sword also broke in two. One of them, with a drab white color and a simple appearance, he threw at the upper half of the planet. The other, blue and chilling, he threw at the lower half of the planet.
The man followed that sword onto the lower half of the planet, charging right into the river. This river was the largest on this half-planet, and it was scarlet like blood throughout the year. A monster had arisen from it, and it was always bringing disaster. When the man charged into the river, his flesh exploded off his body, his blood flowing out. The entire river began to boil, and a thunderous roaring could be heard. And then the man’s skeleton sank to the bottom of the river and into the mud, vanishing from sight.
Everyone was stunned by the sight.
Blossom Queen Ran Qing pointed a trembling finger at the projection. “Are you saying that’s…”
“That’s the Rosecloud Domain,” Tang Jie said, his gaze still resting on that upper half-planet. Long ago, he had once wondered why the structure of the Rosecloud Domain was so special. After all, most of the other domains were planets, and few were bowl-shaped like the Rosecloud Domain.
Only today did he learn that the Rosecloud Domain and Blood River Domain had actually been one, and that some Titan had cut them apart. It was no wonder the two domains were so close. As for the Lord of the Blood River, it had just been an ordinary monster, and it was only after obtaining that Titan’s blood that it finally transcended.
That sword cast into the Rosecloud Domain was clearly the Basking Moon Sect’s supreme Dao armament, the God-Conquering Merak Sword!
As for the sky-blue sword thrown into the Blood River Domain, this was clearly the sword Jin Tianya had been carrying, the one he called Godslayer.
Whether it was conquering Gods or slaying Gods, what it really meant was that they possessed a supreme power that could attack True Gods. To say that they came from the same source made complete sense.
And only a treasure used by someone like the Immortal Emperor would still be so powerful after being divided in two.
Tang Jie turned to the Azure Dragon, who was pale with shock. “The Xuanyuan Sword! The Immortal Emperor’s Xuanyuan Sword!”
(TN: Xuan Yuan is the name of the Yellow Emperor, the mythical cultural hero of Chinese civilization who is credited with numerous inventions. The Xuanyuan Sword was the weapon he used.)
Tang Jie hastily asked, “You’re saying that man is the Immortal Emperor?”
The Azure Dragon shook his head. “I don’t know!”
Tang Jie frowned. “Weren’t you an acquaintance of the Immortal Emperor? How can you not know?”
“Because nobody knows what he looks like. Whenever I saw him, I would always forget what he looked like, and only when we met again would I remember. But after that, no matter how hard I tried, I could never recall his appearance. This is the majesty of the Immortal Emperor, existing only in the mind. The lowly ones cannot see him, cannot speak of him, cannot manifest him, cannot remember him, cannot describe him…”
In the end, Blood River had only created an illusion that could not manifest the true majesty of the Immortal Emperor, so the Azure Dragon could not be sure. But he could never forget the form of the Xuanyuan Sword.
Thus, even though he couldn’t completely confirm that it was the Immortal Emperor, he was still convinced that this was his skeleton. He stared in disbelief at Blood River. The Lord of the Blood River contained part of the Immortal Emperor, so he could be considered an avatar of him to some extent. The Azure Dragon shook his head. “How could this be?”
The Lord of the Blood River crazily laughed. “Whether you believe it or not, all of you will die here! Rise!”