Vol 3. Chapter 107: An All-Out Escape
“You... You’re talking nonsense!”
Faced with Xiao’s words, Xue Tianao began cursing hoarsely.
Clearly,
after being stunned for several seconds, Xue Tianao was filled with doubt over what Xiao had said.
Olivia, Lillian, and the others had betrayed him? How could that possibly be true?! They loved him so desperately that they would practically die for him! How could they possibly betray him, choose not to come to his aid, and run away instead?! That was impossible!
And besides,
Luokefei couldn’t even protect himself?!
What kind of joke was that?!
That man was the Grand General who protected the nation! A powerhouse whose raw strength approached the Peak Eighth Tier! Even the infamous ‘Sword Demon’ had once been forced back by him! How could someone like that be unable to protect himself? You, the Duke of the Black Rose Family, and two Demon King-class beings are all here fighting me! Who else could possibly harm that legendary powerhouse?!
Questions erupted one after another inside Xue Tianao’s mind.
However, Xiao had no intention of explaining anything. She merely gazed playfully at the blond man before her... Oh, no... Calling him a bald man would probably be more appropriate. After all, all the hair on Xue Tianao’s body had been completely reduced to ashes by Limo’s previous Nihility Cannon bombardment...
Although Xiao offered no explanation, after thinking carefully about it, Xue Tianao had no choice but to accept this fact.
After all,
if nothing had happened to Luokefei, then that old general would surely have already come to support him, his son-in-law. He would never have allowed Xue Tianao to fight alone here.
Even if Xue Tianao were not his son-in-law, Luokefei would still have come for the sake of the empire...
Author: Bawu Ziyun
Yet that old general was nowhere to be seen now. In other words, had Luokefei really encountered some incredibly powerful opponent?
But,
who could possibly fight Luokefei?!
Countless questions flooded into Xue Tianao’s head all at once, causing the empire’s supposedly ‘wise and mighty’ emperor’s brain to practically crash as he fell into a dazed stupor.
But no matter what, he could no longer count on Luokefei’s help...
As for relying on the other Royal Knights and the Imperial Guards, that was obviously unrealistic. At this moment, the northern wall’s defenses had finally reached their limit. Under the Abyss Demon horde’s relentless assault, they abruptly collapsed. Countless Abyss Demons had already stormed into Skyvault, completely dragging the army he had once been so proud of into a bloody and brutal meat grinder.
Under circumstances like these, how could the Royal Knights or Imperial Guards possibly come to reinforce him? They could barely protect themselves...
After realizing this,
Xue Tianao’s heart plunged into a bottomless abyss, swallowed whole by a swamp of despair.
There was no longer any possibility of turning things around...
Everything he had painstakingly built was actually going to vanish within a single day...
‘Why... did it turn out like this...’
Staring fixedly at the Duke of the Black Rose Family ahead of him, Xue Tianao clenched both fists tightly, intense rage and resentment filling his pale golden eyes. However, no amount of anger could change his current disadvantage. And as the two Demon King-class beings gradually closed in on him, even the last remnants of fighting spirit within Xue Tianao disappeared without a trace.
His anger, unwillingness, and desire for revenge all transformed into unprecedented terror,
causing Xue Tianao to retreat again and again as cold sweat poured down his body.
If Xue Tianao’s loyal subordinates saw him now, utterly terrified and devoid of even the slightest will to fight, they would probably begin questioning everything they believed in.
To make matters worse, Xue Tianao’s physical condition had already begun deteriorating.
After all, it was only through the blessing of three layers of divine power that he had barely managed to survive his battle against these three monsters. If he lost that divine power and his strength returned to the High Seventh Tier, he would probably be killed instantly...
Death would be inevitable.
And now, Xue Tianao could vaguely sense that his body was already approaching its limit. The golden divine power was no longer surging as violently as it had at first and was gradually beginning to dissipate. He probably only had a few minutes left before he lost the enhancement of that divine power entirely.
When that happened, the backlash from possessing divine power would strike as well, directly robbing him of his ability to fight and reducing him to a cripple sprawled helplessly on the ground...
If that happened, he really would be nothing more than meat on someone else’s chopping block...
Watching Snow Devourer and Deathwing charge toward him from both sides with overwhelming momentum, launching a coordinated attack with thunderous force, while Xiao constructed a magic formation in the distance, Xue Tianao held his breath.
No,
no...
I can’t die...
“I CAN’T JUST DIE HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”
While the divine power still remained within him, Xue Tianao desperately swung the Divine Armament—Heaven-Splitting Sword—in his hand.
‘Judgment of Salvation!!’
Xue Tianao abruptly poured all the divine power surrounding his body into the divine sword. At the cost of sacrificing a Divine Armament, he unleashed his most powerful technique! At this life-or-death moment, Xue Tianao could no longer afford to hesitate. Dying merely to preserve a Divine Armament would obviously be idiotic.
Unlike before, Xue Tianao had learned his lesson this time. He did not stupidly shout out the name of his move while charging his ultimate attack.
Instead, while Xiao was constructing her magic formation, he seized that instant to condense a golden magic formation of his own!
Immediately afterward,
Xue Tianao’s pupils suddenly contracted as the golden longsword abruptly disintegrated, transforming into countless metallic fragments that scattered through the sky. As the magic formation rotated, those fragments transformed one after another into endless golden particles. As though answering some sort of summons, they continuously converged within the magic formation.
The next moment,
accompanied by Xue Tianao’s ghostly wailing, the golden radiance within the formation gradually gathered together, abruptly transforming into a hundred-meter-tall humanoid upper-body phantom with indistinct facial features and a chilling aura of slaughter. The male phantom, whose entire body was wrapped in golden radiance, emanated a sacred presence. The ‘Sword of Judgment’ in its hands contained enough power to seemingly destroy heaven and earth. If that sword descended, ordinary enemies, along with more than half of Skyvault, would likely be reduced to dust.
Strangely enough, this time Xue Tianao’s skill was not interrupted by Xiao.
With a furious howl, the golden phantom resembling a god of slaughter immediately swung the energy sword in its hands, launching a ferocious attack toward Xiao and the two Demon King-class beings ahead!
In an instant,
earth-shattering energy exploded once again.
Even Xue Tianao himself was blasted backward by the resulting shockwave.
And the very next moment, taking advantage of being sent flying, Xue Tianao immediately mobilized every last trace of divine power and magical power within his body. Under their enhancement, he pushed his speed to its absolute limit! In an instant, he transformed into a golden meteor and shot straight through a crack in the barrier!
That’s right.
Having completely lost his will to fight, Xue Tianao ultimately chose to flee.
Although ‘Judgment of Salvation’ was an incredibly powerful technique, Xue Tianao did not believe it could defeat the Duke of the Black Rose Family and two terrifying Demon King-class beings in one strike. Once they shattered the god-of-slaughter phantom, he would undoubtedly be doomed.
In that case, he might as well flee while his enemies were being held back!
As long as there was life, there was hope!
As long as he survived, he could rebuild all these forces from scratch!
With that thought in mind, after breaking out of the barrier, Xue Tianao desperately fled southward.
‘Can... Can I actually make it?!!’
Seeing that the enemies behind him had yet to destroy the golden phantom, wild joy immediately surged within Xue Tianao’s heart. However, before he could immerse himself in the joy of surviving this disaster for long, a black demonic spear was suddenly hurled through the air. With unstoppable force, it violently pierced straight through the golden phantom,
then shot into the sky, hurtling directly toward Xue Tianao!
?!!
‘Th-That is?! That bastard’s demonic spear?!!’
In an instant, all his joy vanished, replaced by boundless terror.
Driven by his survival instincts, Xue Tianao hurriedly attempted to mobilize his power and defend himself. However, the demonic spear’s speed completely exceeded his expectations. Before Xue Tianao could even gather enough divine power to form a defense, the cackling demonic spear pierced directly through his abdomen and violently shattered his spine...
After suffering yet another devastating injury, Xue Tianao let out a heart-rending scream.
The acceleration granted by his divine power abruptly ceased, and Xue Tianao’s entire body plummeted from the sky,
crashing headfirst into a nearly collapsing high-rise building outside the imperial palace...
...
Barely managing to crawl up from the ground, Xue Tianao’s entire face had become twisted with fear. From time to time, he glanced back in absolute terror toward the imperial palace behind him. Strictly speaking, the demonic spear’s attack had not actually inflicted an especially severe fatal wound on him.
However, it had unquestionably interrupted his acceleration.
And his badly damaged spine could not possibly regenerate immediately. That meant he could no longer accelerate madly like he had just moments ago...
Looking back at the golden phantom that was gradually collapsing, Xue Tianao became increasingly terrified and uneasy. After all, he knew perfectly well that if he failed to seize this opportunity to escape, then once his ultimate technique was completely destroyed, the only thing awaiting him would be the same miserable death he had suffered in his previous life...
‘No... I... I can’t die...’
Regenerate already!
Hurry up and regenerate!!
Fucking regenerate already!!!
Dragging the lower half of his body, which had temporarily lost all sensation, Xue Tianao screamed inwardly while desperately mobilizing the divine power within his body. Unfortunately, perhaps because his strength was already approaching its limit, his regeneration speed was far from satisfactory...
Seeing the Nihility Cannons unleashed by the two Demon King-class Abyss Demons blast the golden phantom full of holes, leaving it on the verge of collapse, Xue Tianao was as frantic as an ant trapped above molten lava...
But at that moment,
as though suddenly sensing something, Xue Tianao’s pupils sharply contracted.
‘Th-That aura is? She actually came here?!’
The Child of Destiny suddenly saw a possibility of ‘survival.’
He abruptly turned his head and looked toward the two graceful figures, one black and one white, rapidly approaching the imperial palace from nearby. The flame of hope ignited once again within Xue Tianao’s heart.
‘There... There’s a way...’
A sickly smile spread across his face as Xue Tianao dragged his temporarily paralyzed lower body and abruptly rushed toward the two approaching figures...