Strongest War Emperor

Zhuge Xian’Er gave a slight nod and said in a steady voice, "People from the Holy Light Sect, the Beast Emperor Palace, and the Spirit Copper Level influence, Blood Evil Island, erupted into a massive brawl over treasure in the Dark Moon Abyss. The four King Martial Realm experts from the Holy Light Sect and Beast Emperor Palace were all killed, and the Dark Moon Abyss has completely collapsed."

"Ni Xia Valley, the Lightning Sect, the Mingxin Sword Sect, and other sects with grievances against the Holy Light Sect formed an alliance. Ten days ago, they assaulted the Holy Light Sect. They failed to breach the Sect Protection Array, but the Holy Light Sect’s sole remaining King Martial Realm expert was grievously wounded."

"Within three days, the Mingxin Sword Sect and its allies swept through and plundered all of the Holy Light Sect’s mines and territories. More than half of the disciples stationed outside the sect were killed or injured, and internal conflicts have erupted."

"The Beast Emperor Palace suffered a similar fate, but the Spirit Copper Level influence backing them intervened, saving them from ruin. Their losses were not as severe as the Holy Light Sect’s."

Everyone gasped.

After all, those two sects were just like their own—both were Profound Iron Level influences.

For such powerful sects to be toppled so easily, reduced to this state in just a few days... they were like candles in the wind, flickering on the verge of being extinguished.

It was anyone’s guess how much longer they could hold on.

All eyes turned to Shen Lang. Many of the people here knew he had gone to the Dark Moon Abyss.

Before Shen Lang had learned about the Candle Dragon, he hadn’t planned on doing any of this quietly. In fact, he had wanted to make an even bigger scene, to draw as much attention as possible.

"Don’t look at me like that. It was Blood Evil Island," Shen Lang said with a shameless grin, passing the buck to them.

’He had wanted to deal with Blood Evil Island anyway because of that whole business with Black Impermanence.’

’Using them like this now was letting them off easy.’

Zhuge Xian’Er gave a wry smile and continued, recounting other recent events from across the Western Wilderness one by one.

As they listened, everyone broke out in a cold sweat, their faces contorting in alarm.

Although they had heard a little about the Nine-Star Linked Pearls from their sect elders, these cultivators, secluded in the mountains day after day, could never have imagined the changes outside had reached such a horrifying extent.

By the time Zhuge Xian’Er finished, everyone understood why Shen Lang had said what he did earlier.

They also understood the gravity of the current situation.

The Star Continent had always been a world where the strong preyed on the weak and power earned respect. It was commonplace for sects to fight and plunder one another for resources.

But it was like the situation between the Xiu Hua Sect and the Profound Dao Sect. Even though they were rivals, as long as nothing major happened—like the discovery of a precious mine—large-scale conflicts between them were rare.

For the most part, their clashes were limited to various trials or martial arts tournaments.

At worst, there would be skirmishes among the junior disciples, but the scale of the fighting was never very large.

But the situation now...

...was that because of the Nine-Star Linked Pearls, rifts had appeared in many regions across the continent, from which Supreme Yin Qi was surging uncontrollably.

All manner of demons, ghosts, and fiends began to appear without restraint...

A major sect with tens of thousands of disciples could be wiped from existence overnight... Such things had previously only been heard of in legends about the Demon Race invasion and the upheaval of the Blood Race!

...

While everyone was still looking uneasy, Shen Lang spoke up. "I have some Divine Weapons that are of no use to me. I’ll hand them out for you all to use for self-defense."

He looked up and beckoned, calling over the four Bone Demons who were sitting at the edge of the group.

"Bone One, you will follow my sister and cultivate from now on. While you’re in the Yumu Cave Blessed Land, you are responsible for her protection. If she suffers so much as a scratch, I will grind you into bone powder."

"Bone Two, you will follow Ziyan. Bone Three, you’ll be with Senior Sister Su Rong. Bone Four, with Senior Sister Zi Lan..."

Before he could finish, the four Bone Demons burst out wailing in unison.

Bone One wailed, "Boss, you’re not getting rid of us, are you? I knew it! I knew that after this monkey and Miss Xian’Er returned, you wouldn’t want us anymore!"

Bone Two was even louder. "Boss! We’ve been cultivating really hard! See? We reached the Xuanwu Realm Fifth Heaven in less than a year! We can’t compare to a monster... uh, a prodigy like you! You can’t just abandon us!"

Bone Three’s voice was small and filled with resentment. "The boss is just toying with our affections... *sob sob*!"

Bone Four was the most direct. He just belted out a single sound at the top of his lungs: "WAAAAAH..."

Everyone present finally had a profound appreciation for the expression "the wailing of ghosts and howling of wolves."

As the four Xuanwu Realm Fifth Heaven Bone Demons shrieked, every Spirit Martial Realm Martial Artist present felt as if their soul was about to be torn from their body.

The piercing sound directly assaulted their Seas of Consciousness, forcing the group to clamp their hands over their ears, their faces twisted in pain.

The few with the weakest cultivation were hit the hardest; they passed out on the spot with a THUD.

’Just a few wails from the four Bone Demons were this unbearable. With the outside world now overrun with ghosts and fiends, isn’t every step fraught with lethal danger?’

Shen Lang shot to his feet and kicked out, sending all four Bone Demons flying into the lake. PLOOSH! They kicked up a huge splash.

"I helped you cultivate this far, and when I ask you to do one little thing—protect a few people—you start whining and complaining! You can come out when you’ve sorted yourselves out. If you can’t, and if you can’t talk like rational beings, then you can just stay in that lake and soak!"

The four Bone Demons didn’t dare to wail anymore. After a while, they timidly crawled out of the lake and went to squat in a corner, sulking and drawing circles in the dirt.

Shen Lang took out a longsword and offered it to Shang Xiaoran, who was in the crowd.

"This is the Ice Soul Cold Light Sword, a Second Grade Profound Artifact. I took the time to reforge it after I obtained it. It’s a perfect match for you."

"Whoa!"

An uproar went through the crowd. No one had expected that the first thing Shen Lang would give away was a Profound Artifact.

To put it in perspective, even Yang Tianyu, the leader of the Mahayana Sect’s elite disciples, had only recently acquired a Spiritual Artifact—and Shen Lang had unceremoniously taken it and tossed it to Shen Daofeng. Yang Tianyu was supposedly still sulking about it to this day.

Shang Xiaoran’s face flushed slightly. She instinctively glanced at Nalan Ziyun before saying meekly, "Hmph. So you do have a conscience after all, you brat. You still remember that I was the first senior sister you met in the Profound Dao Sect!"

As she spoke the last words, a flicker of inexplicable sorrow crossed Shang Xiaoran’s face. Though it vanished in an instant, it didn’t escape the notice of the more observant people present.

Love is a strange thing.

Some believe it’s sudden, a matter of love at first sight; if that spark isn’t there from the beginning, two people are simply not meant to be.

Others believe love requires a foundation, that it must be built through shared experiences, accumulating over time until it finally blossoms.

Shang Xiaoran clearly hadn’t fallen in love with Shen Lang at first sight. Growing up, her heart had room only for hatred and the dream of restoring her nation.

The first time she met Shen Lang was in Yunxi Valley. Back then, she’d thought he was pathetic, just trying to use Su Shi’s and Zhan Wuji’s influence to get into the Profound Dao Sect.

Afterward, she had repeatedly sneered at Shen Lang, thinking his cultivation was lousy and that he was lazy.

Her opinion of him only began to change after he entered the Wooden Man Alley.

Later, when she discovered that the version of Shen Lang she had seen was a facade, the feeling of being deceived lingered in her heart, making her want to find him and settle the score.

But Shang Xiaoran was an intelligent woman, and she soon came to a realization: Shen Lang hadn’t intentionally deceived her.

In truth, Shen Lang had merely suppressed his power. With his true strength, clearing the Wooden Man Alley with his physical prowess alone would have been a trivial matter.

From that point on, Shang Xiaoran’s feelings toward Shen Lang changed completely.

However...

The two had spent far too little time together. So little, in fact, that when she later tried to find him, he was nowhere to be found.

And by Shen Lang’s side, there was a woman of peerless beauty like Nalan Ziyun.

Whenever she saw Nalan Ziyun, Shang Xiaoran couldn’t help but feel a sense of inferiority. Although she herself was a rare beauty, there was still a noticeable gap when compared to Nalan Ziyun.

For Shen Lang to think of her first when handing out Magical Treasures filled Shang Xiaoran’s heart with a whirlwind of emotions.

She was happy, and yet she couldn’t feel happy at all.

She could see it in his eyes: his feelings for her were the same comradely affection he held for Su Shi and Zhan Wuji, not romantic love.

As if afraid others would notice something was amiss, Shang Xiaoran gave a light laugh and drew the Ice Soul Cold Light Sword from its sheath.

The blade was completely transparent, shimmering with a dazzling light. The moment it was unsheathed, a wave of cold energy washed over the area, causing everyone to exclaim in wonder.

"The Ice Soul Cold Light Sword was forged from Thousand-Year Cold Jade. After I reforged it, I submerged it in the Ice Soul Water Jade Pool for more than four months. The cold energy within it will help you suppress the killing intent in your body," Shen Lang explained quietly.

Shang Xiaoran’s heart jolted. "You... How did you know?" she asked nervously.

Shen Lang replied calmly, "The Emperor’s Killing Fist combines Emperor’s Will with killing intent. The resulting killing intent is vast and torrential. If mastered to the state of Great Success, its power is peerless. However, you are only practicing an incomplete version. And that part... is not well-suited for a woman’s cultivation."

"Hey! You... why did you just say all that out loud?" Shang Xiaoran was stunned, her pretty face flushing red with panic.

’The Emperor’s Killing Fist... That was a powerful cultivation technique coveted by many people.’

’Hao Fengliu and her group had hunted her all the way here for that very reason.’

’Now that Shen Lang had blurted it out, didn’t everyone here know her secret?’

"Hmph. So what if I said it out loud? If anyone here gets any ideas, I’ll make sure they die without a grave!" As he spoke, Shen Lang’s gaze swept with pinpoint accuracy across Hao Fengliu and a scar-faced man in the crowd.

He’d long known that Hao Fengliu was Shang Xiaoran’s enemy.

As for the scar-faced man, Zhan Wuji had told him about it later. Back in the Wooden Man Alley, the man had laid an ambush in the final section to attack Shang Xiaoran’s group, and it was Zhan Wuji and Su Shi who had joined forces to drive him back.

At that moment, when Hao Fengliu and the man saw Shen Lang’s gaze fall upon them, they were both stunned.

’Are you kidding? Even though their cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds over the past few months, reaching the Spirit Martial Realm Sixth Heaven, compared to a monster like Shen Lang, they were no different from ants!’

’Never mind the time he was provoked by Yang Tianyu and ended up crippling over a hundred Spirit Martial Realm experts from the Mahayana Sect...’

’...or the more recent incident where some idiots from the Artifact Origin Sect came courting death, and Shen Lang grievously wounded one of their Xuanwu Realm Ninth Heaven experts with a single strike. That story wasn’t just famous in the Profound Dao Sect; people in the major cities of the Celestial Profound Mountain Range were still gossiping about it!’

’On top of that, rumor had it that he now controlled the Thunder Guard and the Flower God Guard. If Shen Lang wanted to crush them, it would be easier than squashing an ant!’

At this point, Hao Fengliu knew she had to make her position clear.

Given Shen Lang’s ruthless and decisive nature, if she kept silent now, she might very well vanish from the face of the earth.