Chapter 2181.1: A Familiar Despair

“We cannot permit this person to live!” Among the five awakened cultivators, a dark-skinned man with bushy eyebrows frowned ferociously. “Where did Lu Tianling recruit such a perverse genius from? His strength and potential matches the finest of Great Xia! The Lu Clan will be trouble with him in their roster.”

This awakened cultivator answered to the Origin Sect banner. He yanked several hundred cultivators to him with a wave of his hand and threw them at Terra Demon’s river of sword qi.

Wails and screams crescendoed as the sky was dyed red. The other four followed his lead and swiftly threw several thousand cultivators at Terra Demon’s sword river.

As strong as he was, he was only latter soul projection. His full strength managed to kill three thousand cultivators before his sword river ground to a halt.

“Kill!” roared the Origin Sect cultivator. There was a black shortsword in his hand and he waved two rays of black light into existence around him before charging the enemy.

“The silver haired man has a heaven-defying treasure on him, which is why a soul projection cultivator can withstand the might of awakened cultivators!” someone called out from the crowd.

“That’s right, but as incredible as it is, it requires massive amounts of true origin. That man won’t hold on for much longer!”

The two voices sent the horde into a frenzy. Worlds of cultivation were never short of desperados and the mention of a heaven-defying treasure was enough to spur everyone into motion at the same time, hoping for a shot at the riches.

Safe within the sword light, color drained from Fengxian Wu’s face.

“Metal Origin Slaughter!” Terra Demon roared without a flicker of change in expression. The words formed a massive wave of sound that extended in all directions. Each character scythed into the cultivators as if keen rays of sword qi.

“Metal Origin Slaughter!”

“Metal Origin Slaughter!”

“Metal Origin Slaughter!”

Four successive shouts unfurled from Terra Demon, collecting as formless and intangible wisps of sword splendor in the void. The weaker cultivators were already bleeding from their orifices and dropping from the sky.

“The art of killing through sound!” gasped one of the awakened cultivators. Though he hastily dodged, numerous injuries already crisscrossed his body.

....

Two figures stood silently at the peak of a towering mountain outside Immortal Burial Valley.

“That subordinate of yours is terrifying!” Mo Qiyue sucked in a sharp breath as he watched Terra Demon cleave through one hundred thousand cultivators while protecting Fengxian Wu. The man had lost himself in the concentration of his arts.

“Seriously, what kind of person is your master?” Mo Qiyue turned to look at Lu Yun.

The Lu young master sighed. Though Terra Demon prowled through the battlefield like a tiger, he wouldn’t endure for too long. His was the nascent soul of an immortal king, one that consumed so many resources that Yong Heyu’s soul projection body couldn’t contain it. If the situation continued, it wouldn’t be much longer before the body collapsed.

“Being able to exert so much power at soul projection.. I would say that only the perverse White is able to stop him,” Mo Qiyue continued when Lu Yun remained silent.

“White?” The Lu young master blinked; it was his second time hearing the name. The first was during his first visit to Immortal Burial Valley. When this place was still called Iron Pagoda Mountain, Mo Qiyue, Jiang Feng, and Qin Qianxue had mentioned this person.

“An absolutely perverse genius with only the cultivation of a nascent soul, but.. ai,” Mo Qiyue spoke no further. “Go in there and bring back the princess.”

Three figures in black flashed into the masses as soon as he gave the order. Commotion from the horde had traveled far and wide, drawing more and more cultivators to the valley. Anyone who came attacked Terra Demon as they saw his performance with their own eyes. The more heaven defying he was, the more likely that he possessed a heaven defying treasure.

The five awakened powerhouses jointly formed a massive defensive circle that barely contained his Metal Origin Slaughter.

“Attack the woman behind him!” yelled the Origin Sect representative. He could tell that Terra Demon would be able to storm through the horde at will if the man was here alone. The man was constrained in everything he did because of the woman behind him.

Although the five awakened cultivators were from different factions, they’d reached an agreement that they could wait to fight over Terra Demon’s treasure after he died. The key thing was that he died first.

With the Origin Sect cultivator as the vanguard, the other four followed close behind him. Most of their power was concentrated on their leader.

“Break!” shouted the Origin Sect member. He sent out a ray of scarlet light that cut through Terra Demon’s art of sound and beelined for Fengxian Wu. They wanted to distract him and cause him to reveal weaknesses in a bid to protect Fengxian Wu. The five would then be able to kill him in a joint blow.

“What a strong attack, it must be a secret art!” Terra Demon creased his brow when he saw the light. Just as he was about to put himself in front of it, a figure in black arrived in front of him.

Pfft!

The scarlet light struck the figure square in the chest. The figure trembled before dispersing the light.

“The Scarlet Origin Light of the Origin Sect. Well well, very good!” The figure sharpened into focus as a man in black spirit armor and a black helmet. A black dragon seemed embossed on his armor. His voice was cold and although one couldn’t make out his features, his aloof gaze was clearly felt from the helmet.

“The Iron Dragons of Great Xia!” groaned the Origin Sect representative.

The Iron Dragons were the most elite group of cultivators that answered only to the imperial family and eight major royal families. Not even the thirty-six celestial marquises dared run afoul of these terrifying guards.

While the Iron Dragons were made of only cultivators, each of them was a preeminent powerhouse who could overpower some of the heirs of Great Xia nobility.

“Isn’t the Origin Sect more daring by the day! You dare attack even Princess Fengxian!”

Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

The other two Iron Dragons drew close as well, standing in front of Fengxian Wu and Terra Demon.

The three guards deployed their auras without reservation—they were close to the strength of immortals, not wandering immortals. The frenzied one hundred thousand cultivators collectively shuddered when the auras washed over them and halted.

“Princess Fengxian!” The Origin Sect cultivator was as pale as a sheet.

Princess Fengxian was King Fengxian’s most beloved granddaughter. After she left home due to certain things a year ago, her whereabouts became unknown. To think that she’d come to the Jade Ruins Realm!

One of the Iron Dragons sneered coldly and waved his hand, eliciting a bright dragon croon from the drawing on his armor. It charged the five awakened cultivators and ate them whole.

These five were on the same level as the Iron Dragons, but they didn’t even last one move in the exchange.

“You are not bad at all. Although you are only soul projection, you match us.” The Iron Dragons ignored the rest of the cultivators, turning to Terra Demon instead when he summoned the dragon back to him. All of them could see that if it wasn’t for Terra Demon’s dogged defense of Fengxian Wu, he would’ve killed the five awakened cultivators early on.

“Are you interested in joining the Iron Dragons?”

“No.” With this, Terra Demon understood that Lu Yun had arrived and nodded at Fengxian Wu. He streaked into silver radiance to reconvene with his lord.

The Iron Dragons weren’t displeased by his departure. They left Immortal Burial Valley with Fengxian Wu, enabling the one hundred thousand cultivators to breathe more easily. Mobility restored to the horde, they scattered in all directions.

Instead of returning to Mo Qiyue, the Iron Dragons boarded a flight treasure. Raising cupped fists to Mo Qiyue, they broke through the void and left with their precious guest.

Lu Yun heaved a long sigh of relief to see Fengxian Wu gone. It would’ve been an incredible headache if anything had happened to this young miss while she was in his care. He wouldn’t have sent Terra Demon with her if she hadn’t insisted on visiting the valley.

....

Great Xia, the Origin Province.

Bellows Mountain.

At only ten kilometers wide and several dozens of meters tall, it was a very small mountain even in a world of cultivation. However, it was the core of Origin Province. The Origin Sect, a Great Xia faction with one of the most premier marquis in residence, was located on this mountain.

A young man dressed in long golden robes, so handsome that he was almost uncanny, stood with his head tilted inside the sect’s great hall. He toyed with a golden orb the size of a fist.

“What is His Majesty the Human Emperor thinking to summon eight titled kings and thirty-six marquises for a backwater like the Jade Ruins Realm? He even disturbed the heavenly book for it,” murmured the young man as he creased his faintly golden eyebrows.

The heavenly book of the Celestial Realm Battlefront was the core of Great Xia. It was so important that disturbing it meant affecting the dynasty as a whole, not just that backwater.

The so-called Immortal Burial Valley was just a joke to the eyes of Great Xia nobility. There was at most the remains of one immortal inside, and even if it was the rumored treasure of an ancient immortal potentate, it wasn’t worth calling upon the heavenly book to do so.

The heavenly book was relevant to too many matters!