Strongest War Emperor

Shen Lang never could have imagined that the one launching a silent sneak attack on him was none other than the Xue Dangdang he had longed for day and night!

"Dingdang? Watch out!"

With a panicked roar, Shen Lang disregarded the backlash and violently retracted his frenzied power.

Then, he instantly slapped the body of the blade with his left palm. The long saber CLANGED and was knocked askew.

In that instant, the Spiritual Power in Shen Lang’s body fell into chaos, and his vital energy and blood roiled!

His meridians were instantly ravaged by his own power and Sword Intent, causing him unbearable pain!

And in that brief delay, Xue Dangdang’s Blood Handprint had already landed solidly on Shen Lang’s chest!

At that moment, the power of his Chaos Divine Body surged forth on its own. Countless scales enveloped Shen Lang’s entire body, then vanished in a flash.

BANG!

A bloody light flared from the Blood Handprint, and the scales that had just appeared on Shen Lang’s chest instantly shattered!

An incomparably ferocious Energy drove straight into his body, blasting him backward!

Shen Lang shot back like a cannonball, instantly snapping several towering, ancient trees.

PFFT!

While still flying backward, a sweet taste filled Shen Lang’s throat, and he suddenly spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

Just then, Shen Lang, still retreating rapidly, began to spin like a top. He thrust his hands out to the sides, using "Star Shifting" to deflect the majority of Xue Dangdang’s tyrannical and unrivaled power.

Then, he dropped into a crouch on one leg, bracing the other against the ground behind him. With a flick of his right hand, he plunged the Immortal Celestial Saber straight into the earth, forcibly bringing himself to a halt.

Even so, he still plowed a shockingly deep trench in the ground!

’King Martial Realm Cultivation!’

Blood trickled from the corner of Shen Lang’s mouth as he raised his head in horror.

The person standing before him was undoubtedly Xue Dangdang. Her appearance, her aura, and the feeling in Shen Lang’s heart all confirmed it.

But Xue Dangdang’s Cultivation had already reached the terrifying level of the King Martial Realm!

In just one short year, even someone as astonishingly talented as Shen Lang, who possessed heaven-defying items like the Life Spiritual Liquid and the Tai Chi Diagram, had not yet reached the King Martial Realm.

He never thought that Xue Dangdang, with whom he had a five-year pact to meet again, would have leaped so many Levels to become a King Martial Realm expert!

’What on earth happened this past year?’

The unimaginable leap in her Cultivation wasn’t what surprised Shen Lang the most.

What Shen Lang found most unacceptable was that Xue Dangdang, just as Shui Qingwu had said, had truly lost her memories.

How else could she possibly try to kill him!

Using her King Martial Realm Cultivation to unleash the Imperial Dragon Sect’s ultimate technique, the Blood Handprint...

On top of that, Shen Lang had suffered a backlash from his own power and peerless Sword Intent just to retract that blade... If not for the unfathomable power of his Chaos Divine Body, he would have undoubtedly died from that one palm strike!

The pain in Shen Lang’s heart, seeing this now-unfamiliar Xue Dangdang try to kill him under such circumstances, surpassed the physical pain from her strike...

Shen Lang had already deflected most of the Blood Handprint’s sinister power, and the Thunder Power within his body had then dispersed the rest.

But the might of the King Martial Realm was far beyond what the Xuanwu Realm could handle. Shen Lang was already severely injured from the backlash of his own power and retracted Sword Intent. Taking another palm strike like that on top of his injuries, he had almost lost control of the Spiritual Power in his body. He trembled, his face a mask of agony.

With a flick of his wrist, he tossed a Withered Wood Revives Spring Pill into his mouth and began circulating his Power to heal his wounds.

"Dingdang, I promised I would go to the Xue Family to get you in five years. I never thought we would meet again so soon... and I certainly never thought it would be under circumstances like these... Do you... do you really not remember me?"

Shen Lang asked, a bitter taste in his mouth.

Having not seen her for a year, Xue Dangdang seemed to have grown a little taller. The shape of her face had also changed slightly, becoming more mature and beautiful.

She still wore a long red dress as she always had, her body adorned with countless bells.

But the look she gave Shen Lang was that of a complete stranger.

"To take a Blood Handprint from me and not die... you’ve got some skill."

Xue Dangdang looked at the half-crouching Shen Lang with some surprise. "How strange. How do you know my name? And why do I get a familiar feeling from you? Have we met before?"

Shen Lang suppressed the roiling energy in his body and said painfully, "If you still remember your own name and how to use the Blood Handprint, it means your memory isn’t completely gone. How could you have forgotten all the little moments we shared together?"

Xue Dangdang floated in the air, silent. A trace of confusion appeared in her eyes.

Although she had no memory of the man before her, and the past few years were a complete blank, it didn’t mean she had become an idiot.

Just now, after she had struck him, watching him spit blood and fly back, her heart had inexplicably ached!

An indescribable feeling of regret had welled up for no reason at all.

Even more incredibly, she felt that if she had been the one to take that blow, she might have felt better...

’This is utterly absurd and bizarre!’

She had never felt this way when killing people before.

Moreover, to avoid hurting her, he had retracted his power at the last moment after swinging his blade, suffering a backlash from his own power and Sword Intent.

An action taken in such a hurry couldn’t possibly have been premeditated.

’In that case... am I really that important to him?’

"Who... who are you, exactly?"

Xue Dangdang stared at Shen Lang’s pale face, as if trying to etch it deep into her mind.

Shen Lang gave a bitter smile. "A name is just a label. Since you can’t remember, what’s the use in telling you?"

His tone shifted. "No matter what has happened to you, I will face it with you. We’ll live and die together, never abandoning one another. But I have urgent business right now. Dingdang, can you stand down?"

"Stand down? Impossible." Xue Dangdang refused flatly. "The White Bone Hall is a force under my command. You’ve killed so many of my people. How can I let you leave?"

Before Shen Lang could speak, she clapped her hands, causing the bells on her wrists to jingle. "You lot, get back here! A mere Immortal Celestial Saber scared you this badly? Aren’t you afraid of becoming a laughingstock?"

As soon as she finished speaking, the five Xuanwu Realm Ninth Heaven powerhouses from the White Bone Hall, who had just been scared off by Shen Lang, sheepishly flew back.

The five once again surrounded Shen Lang, glaring at him with hostile eyes like tigers stalking their prey.

The Immortal Celestial Saber was frightening, but in their eyes, Xue Dangdang was clearly even more terrifying.

"Could it be that your memory loss has something to do with the White Bone Hall?"

Shen Lang stared coldly at the five from the White Bone Hall, his killing intent overflowing.

With a thought, fingernail-sized scales poured out from his Pill Sea. They grew in the wind, transforming into pieces of jet-black, gleaming armor.

Piece by piece, they converged on his body—his arms, his legs—forming a majestic suit of Armor that fit his frame perfectly.

On the surface of the Armor, tadpole-like runes were emitting a strange light.

This Armor, forged from Four-winged Green Python Scales, was named the "Xingtian Battle Armor" by Shen Lang.

This was only the second time he had used it.

The first time was not long ago, when Helian Qingshan had made a Third Grade Profound Artifact self-destruct.

Now, facing these five Xuanwu Realm Ninth Heaven powerhouses, plus a Xue Dangdang who had reached the King Martial Realm, Shen Lang had no choice but to play all his cards and go all out!

At his peak, one or two people at the Xuanwu Realm Ninth Heaven would not have posed much of a threat to Shen Lang.

Even uninjured, with his current speed and power, it was already difficult enough for Shen Lang to one-shot a Xuanwu Realm Ninth Heaven expert, unlike how he’d dealt with Martial Artists at the Fifth and Sixth Heaven of the Xuanwu Realm.

But in his current, heavily injured state, five Xuanwu Realm Ninth Heaven powerhouses were enough to force him to use a Swordsmanship like the "Netherworld King’s Three Extremes Sword."

What’s more, there was also Xue Dangdang—someone he couldn’t bring himself to fight, and even if he did, he couldn’t win!

Shen Lang’s current Cultivation was in a very strange state.

In terms of Spiritual Power, the Spiritual Power in his Pill Sea was stronger than that of an ordinary Spirit Martial Realm Ninth Heaven Martial Artist, but it couldn’t compare to that of a Xuanwu Realm expert.

However, his Tai Chi Diagram was equivalent to a second Pill Sea, and the Energy within it far surpassed that of an ordinary Xuanwu Realm Ninth Heaven expert.

From this perspective, although Shen Lang’s current Cultivation appeared to be at the Spirit Martial Realm Ninth Heaven, it was actually above the Xuanwu Realm Ninth Heaven but still below the King Martial Realm.

On the other hand, thanks to his masochistic Cultivation and the stimulation from the Medicinal Liquid refined from the Thousand-leaf Fruit and the Ice Soul Water Jade, his Chaos Divine Body was constantly awakening and growing stronger.

Every day, it underwent almost unimaginable changes.

Every day, Shen Lang could feel himself growing much stronger.

But no matter what, the power of his Chaos Divine Body had not yet reached the level of the King Martial Realm.

At best, it could be said to be on par with it.

Combining these two aspects, Shen Lang’s true current strength was somewhere between the Xuanwu Realm Ninth Heaven and the King Martial Realm, even surpassing the so-called Half-Step King Martial Realm.

Besides all this, there were two more points he hadn’t factored in...

First, the Immortal Celestial Saber was an Imperial Artifact, and one that had sealed Labrador, an Emperor Martial Realm Howling Moon Celestial Wolf Soul!

With the Immortal Celestial Saber alone, it wouldn’t be very difficult to kill a Xuanwu Realm Ninth Heaven expert in a head-on clash.

Second, the Cultivation Techniques Shen Lang practiced far surpassed those of ordinary King Martial Realm or even Emperor Martial Realm experts...

Take the "Netherworld King’s Three Extremes Sword," for example. Back then, Emperor Martial Realm experts like Shangguan Feiyue and Shark’s Kiss had coveted it endlessly. Ling Chen, at only the Xuanwu Realm Fifth Heaven, had learned and used it on the spot to severely injure Yuwen Huaji. How could it be an ordinary technique?

Not to mention anything else, the "Demon Blade Technique" he got from Zuo Wentian was a Sword Skill several times more powerful than the "Netherworld King’s Three Extremes Sword"!

The "Netherworld King’s Three Extremes Sword" is an Emperor Level Technique, while the "Demon Blade Technique" is an Emperor Level Blade Technique!

And after this year of Cultivation, Shen Lang’s Physical Strength had skyrocketed, and he was already more than capable of withstanding the backlash from both the "Demon Blade Technique" and the "Netherworld King’s Three Extremes Sword."

Using the "Demon Blade Technique" and the "Netherworld King’s Three Extremes Sword" to fight an expert at the King Martial Realm Early Stage, he stood a fighting chance.

As for anyone with Cultivation below the King Martial Realm, he could cut down as many as came!

But the problem now wasn’t whether he could win. Even if he could, could Shen Lang really bring himself to raise his saber against Xue Dangdang?

With Xue Dangdang mixed in with these people, Shen Lang didn’t dare to rashly use an incredibly powerful Cultivation Technique like the "Netherworld King’s Three Extremes Sword."

If he didn’t use a Swordsmanship with such immense destructive power, in his heavily injured state, he feared he wouldn’t even be able to handle those five men...

This was the first time in a long while that Shen Lang had found himself in such a dire predicament!