Book 7, 24: Killing
Ten or so Demonic Emperors plummeted from the sky at the same time, like dumplings plopping into a pot.
These emperors, who normally sat on high, had been slaughtered by Su Chen with a single move. The nearby Beasts who saw this felt their stomachs churn in shock.
This was a feat that none of them had ever witnessed before. No single individual had ever been this powerful in the entire history of the Primordial Continent.
Su Chen’s imposing might made everyone watching feel as if a god had descended upon their mortal plane.
The remaining Demonic Kings and Lords were immediately struck dumb by the scene and at a complete loss as to what they should do.
Su Chen made the decision for them. “There’s no need for you all to stay here either.”
He reached out and made a grasping motion in their general direction, pulling in all of the Demonic Kings and Lords into a spatial cavity.
This was yet another powerful technique that Su Chen had mastered after comprehending spatial Method Power, but he was only able to do it because of the faint white energy he had gained.
Even though he had used up all but a trace of the energy within his body after unleashing this attack, he had basically single-handedly wiped out about a tenth of the Beast horde’s strength. Such tremendous might was incredibly shocking to everyone who saw it.
The humans, in particular, all began to cry out with excitement when they saw all of the Beasts that had just attacked Su Chen plummeting out of the sky. The Beasts, on the other hand, felt their stomachs churn as they trembled in fear.
This powerful force had basically melted like ice in the presence of fire before Su Chen’s hands.
Even without that strange white divine energy, Su Chen could still fight. After a moment’s thought, however, he withdrew his hand and flew back towards the palace.
Word of what he had done would probably eventually reach Sky City. If that was the case, better to let them think that he was only capable of this much power.
But when he turned to leave, the Beasts suddenly calmed down quite a bit.
Su Chen had dealt them a grievous wound by wiping out so many of their powerful forces in a flash. Actually, they probably would have been more afraid had he not retreated.
But when they saw him backing off, the Beasts’ train of thought changed directions.
Su Chen hadn’t even tricked Sky City yet, but the Beasts had already been deceived.
“His strength has been exhausted!”
“This person is simply too scary! We cannot allow him to leave here alive, or else the Beasts will be sure to fall!”
“We must kill him at any cost!”
A large group of Beasts howled as they charged at Su Chen. In the blink of an eye, he was surrounded by a dozen or so more Demonic Emperors.
At the same time, a large hand covered in black fur appeared out of nowhere and reached out to grab Su Chen’s head. One of the Sovereigns had finally joined the fray.
Su Chen’s eyebrow jumped. “You really think I’m a pushover?”
He unleashed a punch, which slammed into the Sovereign’s palm. Immediately, he realized that his opponent’s attack appeared to be a little strange, carrying with it a faint vortex-like power that actually weakened his punch by quite a bit. In the end, Su Chen’s palm was unable to break through the Sovereign’s palm strike. Of course, the Sovereign’s palm was unable to do anything to Su Chen either.
The Beasts, however, interpreted this in a completely different way.
“So he is running out of energy.”
“Kill him!”
“The attack of a Sovereign is indeed uncommon!”
The Beasts understood how to flatter their leader, at least.
As if pleased by the praises of his subordinates, the Sovereign that had attacked Su Chen finally revealed its head. The Sovereign was in the shape of a giant bull. It opened its mouth and roared, “Su Chen, today is the day of your death. Hand your life over!”
“Hmph, it’s like you’re playing the villain in an opera,” Su Chen said disdainfully.
This bull had probably learned that phrase from a script from a play. The words sounded quite foreign and out of place coming from his mouth.
The bull Sovereign was infuriated by Su Chen’s snub. He swung his arm, and the giant steel rod in his hands descended from the sky towards Su Chen.
Su Chen raised his Lightless Blade to meet the attack, stopping the rod in its place. “Which Sovereign am I facing?”
historical
“I am the Sovereign of Regret!” the bull roared as it swung the rod again, which was as heavy and as thick as a mountain.
The bull Sovereign’s strength was clearly terrifying, to the point that even Su Chen didn’t want to try and endure it with his physical body alone. He could only activate his Seven Bloodline Microcosm Aspect. A beautiful scene appeared behind Su Chen’s back, enveloping the steel rod. As the steel rod carved through the Aspect, it was drawn into the image and turned into one of the many mountains comprising the scenery.
“Hm?” The old bull was stunned. He felt as if his Sea-Treading Rod had suddenly been mired in a pit of clay, making it incredibly hard to swing it any further.
The Sovereign of Regret possessed incredible physical strength, and even mountains wouldn’t be able to stop his violent swings. How could a mere image make it so hard for him to move?
“As I expected, you’re quite strange!” the old bull howled as he unleashed a punch at Su Chen.
Su Chen’s figure flickered as he directly teleported behind the old bull, then stabbed at the bull’s back with his sword.
The sword landed on the bull’s back. If Su Chen still had some of that faint white energy in reserve, the bull’s body would have exploded after the sword had run him through, rapidly destroying any vitality he had remaining. However, this sword strike was just a common attack from Su Chen. Even though it was powerful, it would not kill the bull. The old bull was a Sovereign, after all, with an incredibly vigorous life force. The wound would quickly heal on its own.
As such, the bull did not retreat, instead using its body to trap Su Chen’s Lightless Blade in place before violently headbutting Su Chen. The horns on its head glowed with a fatal icy light.
This goring attack was the real killing blow. Its power was roughly on the level of the Chu Clan’s Sky-Rending Blade. If Su Chen were to use Whitetower Teleportation, he would have been able to get away. However, the Lightless Blade was currently lodged deep in the Sovereign of Regret’s body and was being affected by his energy. As such, Su Chen wouldn’t be able to take it with him.
Su Chen had no choice but to grit his teeth and respond with a palm strike of his own.
The horn pierced right through Su Chen’s hand, exploding with energy and shredding it into bits.
“RAAAGH!” the Beasts howled in excitement.
Su Chen had been wounded!
Even though it wasn’t a fatal wound, and Su Chen quickly regenerated, they were all ecstatic.
The Sovereigns were their only hope after Su Chen had managed to slaughter a dozen Demonic Emperors in a single breath.
“Do you really think you’re that strong?” A vicious expression flickered across Su Chen’s face.
Even without the faint white energy, I am more than strong enough to wipe the floor with you!
The horn once again pierced towards Su Chen, this time aimed at his body.
Su Chen made no attempt to dodge, allowing the horn to descend.
Boom!
Su Chen remained completely motionless. Just as the bull Sovereign’s horn was about to pierce Su Chen’s body, it suddenly exploded.
“AH!” the Sovereign of Regret cried out in pain. “Spatial walls, those are spatial walls!”
Su Chen’s spatial walls were not only useful for defense; he could also use them as an offensive technique under the right conditions.
“We already warned you that Su Chen is no easy target, yet you insisted on charging in so haphazardly,” a voice spoke at that moment.
Three more claws simultaneously appeared out of nowhere, as if tearing through the fabric of space, and descended towards Su Chen.
Three Sovereigns had chosen that moment to attack.
“Shameless!” Li Chongshan and the others began to curse.
An ambush was an extremely low blow for individuals with as much status as the Sovereigns had.
Thankfully, Gu Huiming, Gu Changsheng, and Gu Feihong leapt into action, stopping those attacks from finding their target. The six palms and claws collided in the sky, sending a giant shockwave rippling through the entire battlefield.
At that precise moment, however, a black finger stealthily appeared, silently speeding towards Su Chen’s unprotected back.
The fifth Sovereign.
The ambushing Sovereign was called the Weeping Heart Sovereign. Its attacks were not particularly powerful, but they were incredibly sinister. Any wounds it opened up would slowly begin to drain the target’s Origin Energy, using that Origin Energy to slowly but surely multiply and enlarge the wounds.
As such, the Weeping Heart Sovereign was able to kill its targets just by inflicting a small wound and allowing time to take its course.
The Weeping Heart Sovereign was the most treacherous Sovereign out of the ten of them that ruled over the Beasts.
This finger strike from the Weeping Heart Sovereign came so suddenly that even Su Chen was slightly caught off-guard. The others surrounding him had no time to react either.
As its finger drew closer and closer to Su Chen, the Weeping Heart Sovereign felt a sense of ecstasy rising in his heart.
At that moment, however, a powerful white light suddenly burst forth form Su Chen’s back.
“This is......”
The Weeping Heart Sovereign was stunned.
Su Chen reached out and made a grabbing motion, plucking the Weeping Heart Sovereign out of the air. So it was actually a Siberian weasel.
The final vestiges of the faint white energy burst into the Weeping Heart Sovereign’s body, carrying along with it all of the remaining energy that Su Chen possessed. The Weeping Heart Sovereign exploded into pieces with a brilliant flash.
When the explosion of energy washed over the Sovereign of Regret, he let out a strange howl and then turned around to flee, not even bothering to take the Sea-Treading Rod still stuck in Su Chen’s microcosm.
Even if his personality seemed brusque and barbaric, he was faster than anyone when it came to fleeing at a critical moment.
The other three Sovereigns also immediately turned and ran when they saw that the situation wasn’t looking good.
Their ambush had failed, and a Sovereign had been killed in a single strike. How could they not feel fear?
Su Chen, however, made no attempt to give chase.
His execution of the Weeping Heart Sovereign had seemed quite simple, but it had sapped him of all of his remaining energy. At this point, he really did have no more energy left.
But even without strength, his wits were still about him.
As he watched the four Sovereigns turn tail, Su Chen laughed coldly before yelling, “The Sovereigns are fleeing!”
“The Sovereigns are fleeing!”
This proclamation echoed throughout the battlefield.
Actually, the Sovereigns weren’t fleeing - it was more accurate to say that they were returning to their positions on the back lines.
But the Beasts who hadn’t yet fully grasped what was happening saw that the Sovereigns they trusted in were in fact running, and one of them had already died.
The Sovereigns were the core of the Beasts’ attacks. If even the Sovereigns were running, how could the remaining Beasts have any confidence to continue fighting?
And without any hope of victory, even the barbaric, primal Beasts would begin to question the point of continuing to fight. If they had no chance of winning, then why fight? If their death would serve no purpose, then it was better just to run.
And as soon as thoughts of deserting arose, they would begin to spread like the plague.
Su Chen’s declaration had sent the Beasts into a panic. They each began to lose their will to continue fighting.
Upon seeing this, Li Chongshan chuckled. “The overall situation has been decided.”
Yes, the overall situation has been decided.
The collapse of an army was truly like the collapse of a mountain. Once it began, it would take divine intervention to stop it.
In but a few brief moments, the Beasts began to flee en-masse. Even the threat of death by the Sovereigns stationed at the back lines wasn’t enough to stop them.
Their morale had completely tanked. The situation was completely out of the hands of their commanding officers.
Not to mention that even the Demonic Kings and Lords were beginning to panic.
Once the floating palace in the sky began to move towards them, the battle was completely lost.
The Beasts began to flee en masse and in every direction. The mountains were covered with blankets of Beasts running as the human soldiers took advantage of the opportunity to cull their numbers as much as possible.
This battle lasted for three days and spanned tens of thousands of miles.
Blood had been spilled everywhere, and sword Qi flew all over the place.
Countless Beast corpses were gathered by the human cultivators and treated as precious hunting spoils.
And all of this had begun with Su Chen’s involvement.
From that day onwards, Su Chen had truly become a god in the eyes of the rest of the human cultivators.
“A god?”
Su Chen smirked disdainfully when he heard Lin Shaoxuan’s report. “I don’t want to become a god. They’re just old lifeforms that have been abandoned by the passing of time. They need to enslave other creatures in order to obtain their power. Their return will only bring disaster.”
Su Chen had learned from the Flying Moon Emperor what would most likely happen to the Intelligent Races inhabiting the Primordial Continent if the gods returned.
They would probably be even greater enemies than the Beasts.
How could Su Chen respect such gods? And if that was the case, how could he accept being considered a god himself?
“Yes, Sect Master is not pursuing the path to become a god, but the path to become an Immortal,” Lin Shaoxuan chuckled.
Su Chen froze for a moment when he heard this before smiling gently.
When Su Chen had first come up with the name for the Flying Immortal Cultivation Techniques, it was out of a sense of optimism and hope. At that time, Su Chen had no idea what an Immortal really was. He had simply assigned whatever was above the Ultimate Emperor Realm as belonging to that subset.
Now, it seemed that this way of thinking was still a bit shallow.
Real Immortals were like gods, but they possessed their own strength and ability.
If that was the case......
Su Chen suddenly came to a realization.
At first, he was having a hard time trying to name the faint white energy, but now he had suddenly gotten some inspiration.
This white energy was key to the path of becoming an Immortal!
“If that’s the case, I’ll call it Source of Immortality,” Su Chen muttered.
“What?” Lin Shaoxuan didn’t understand what Su Chen was saying.
Su Chen calmly replied, “I’m saying that the age of the gods has already come and gone. The age of the immortal is upon us. Ownership of the Primordial Continent is fated to be transferred from the gods to the humans.”