The Revenge of the Reborn Supreme Sovereign

"Sentenced to the Sixteen Layers of Hell? And eighty-one lifetimes of reincarnation in the animal realm on top of that?"

Hearing the Judge’s proclamation, Qin Fan couldn’t help but click his tongue. The saying "one reaps what one sows" was certainly true; this was a truly tragic end. Still, compared to the three thousand enslaved souls, Zhou Donglin at least had a chance to be reborn as a human. But those three thousand souls he had poisoned into puppets no longer had that chance. They were now puppet souls, forever barred from the cycle of Reincarnation! They were destined to wander the periphery of the Underworld, existing only to serve Zhou Donglin.

"Alright, you may go," Qin Fan said with a slight nod, rather satisfied with the Judge’s answer.

"Yes, Great Saint! The Underworld is beset with tedious matters, so I shall take my leave!" the Judge replied, trembling with trepidation as he slowly began to rise.

But just as he was about to vanish, his eyes shot open. "Wait, you’re not the Great Saint! You still have a mortal lifespan! And that lifespan is—"

The Judge stopped short, unable to continue. The cardinal rule that the secrets of Heaven must never be revealed pervaded all.

"Did I ever say I was some Great Saint?" Qin Fan asked with a smile.

"Then how can you see and hear me?" the Judge asked, his guard now up.

"You don’t need to concern yourself with that. In short, let’s mind our own business. You follow the rules of the Underworld, and I’ll walk my path in the Human World," Qin Fan said, shaking his head.

Under his Eyes of Golden Flame, what couldn’t he see through? Never mind a mere Underworld Judge; Qin Fan felt he could see right through even a true Immortal. After all, the Elder of the Heavenly Dao had once said that the legacy of the Victorious Fighting Buddha was the inheritance of Copper Skin and Iron Bones and the Eyes of Golden Flame. That was why, when Qin Fan was reborn on Earth, the Prison Suppressing Body and the Eyes of Golden Flame had manifested so effortlessly. It seemed that inheritance was etched into his very bones.

Hearing Qin Fan’s somewhat arrogant words, the Judge’s face twitched as he clenched his jaw. If this were truly the reincarnation of the Great Saint, then he would have to bow and scrape, no matter how arrogant the words. He would even have to accept severe humiliation. But this wasn’t the Great Saint. This was just some common boy who, by a stroke of luck, could see through him. Not only did this boy show no reverence for a Netherworld Official like himself, but he also dared to speak so outrageously? A surge of anger began to bubble up, but at the last moment, the Judge suppressed it, a thoughtful, amused smile crossing his lips instead. This boy’s lifespan was already running short; why should he bother getting angry with him at a time like this?

Smiling, the Judge said no more. He spun on the spot and vanished into thin air before Qin Fan’s eyes.

As the Judge vanished with a soft SWISH, it was as if a barrier had shattered. Immediately after, the urgent voices of Lai Zhuge and the others broke through.

"Master Qin, what happened to Zhou Donglin?"

What happened to Zhou Donglin? Did the Judge’s appearance freeze time?

At that thought, Qin Fan belatedly shook his head. The Judge had been astonished that Qin Fan could see and hear him, which meant he must have used some kind of technique. At their current stage, there was no way Lai Zhuge and the others could have seen through a Judge’s methods.

Shaking his head with a wry smile, Qin Fan paused before saying, "He who lives unrighteously courts his own destruction. Old Man Heaven has taken care of him!"

What in the world? Old Man Heaven took care of him? How could words like that come out of Master Qin’s mouth?

Lai Zhuge and the others were completely baffled.

Meanwhile, realizing Zhou Donglin was lying motionless on the ground, Zhou Shaofeng scrambled forward. He threw himself over Zhou Donglin’s body. "Master, Master, what’s wrong? Don’t scare me! Wake up! Wake up!"

But no matter how much Zhou Shaofeng shouted, Zhou Donglin remained utterly unresponsive.

"You bastard! What in the hell did you do to my master?" Faced with the inert state of the man who was both his teacher and a father to him, Zhou Shaofeng’s mind and reason descended into chaos. He whipped his head around to face Qin Fan and roared like a madman.

"Why don’t you check and find out?" Qin Fan said with a shrug and a playful, teasing smile.

Check? Yes, right, check!

Placing his thumbs on Zhou Donglin’s temples and his index fingers on the point between his brows, Zhou Shaofeng held his breath and closed his eyes.

Ten seconds later.

"NO!!!"

A heart-wrenching howl erupted from Zhou Shaofeng’s throat. His senses told him that Zhou Donglin’s soul was no longer in his body. What did that mean? It meant that if the soul did not return to its vessel within twenty-four hours, he would be well and truly dead!

Dead? A Heavenly Master, dead just like that at the hands of a brat not even twenty years old? No, no, that’s impossible!

"Did you take my master’s soul? Where is it? Give it back! Give it back now! Don’t force me to go on a massacre in Jiangzhou and slaughter your entire clan! Give it back!"

His thoughts in disarray, Zhou Shaofeng let go of Zhou Donglin and leaped to his feet. Staring at Qin Fan, veins bulging on his neck, he shrieked in a frenzy, completely lost to madness.

"Are you threatening me?" Qin Fan, who had initially been ready to laugh it off, felt his face darken the moment he heard the words "slaughter your entire clan."

"Give it back!" Zhou Shaofeng howled again, his mind gone.

With that final cry, he threw all caution to the wind. His body shot forward, leaping through the air like a bolt of lightning, lunging toward Qin Fan with a chilling intent.

Yes, it was true. Zhou Donglin had secretly and heartlessly forged the Soul Training Banner. He had inhumanely enslaved three thousand souls, robbing them of their chance at Reincarnation. The entire spectacle with the Demon Dragon’s energy was a play he had directed simply to feast on the souls of the enlightened. But at the end of the day, Zhou Donglin was still his master. After the purple-black Qi Dragon had wiped out all the Abnormal Masters from Xiangjiang, his master had still mumbled a warning for him to flee.

Without Zhou Donglin, he, Zhou Shaofeng, would have been nothing more than a street urchin, destined to waste away in an orphanage before becoming just another faceless member of society’s dregs. But Zhou Donglin’s appearance had changed his fate. It had put an end to a childhood spent sacrificing his dignity just to survive. It had transformed him from a parentless stray into the great Master Zhou, a name known to all in Xiangjiang.

Crows repay their parents’ kindness, and lambs kneel to nurse. Zhou Shaofeng was a living, breathing person, and he had never, for a single moment, forgotten what Zhou Donglin had done for him. He revered his master as he did his own life. So it didn’t matter how wicked Zhou Donglin was. It didn’t matter how devoid of humanity he had become. He was still his master, his benefactor, the one person for whom he would gladly give his life.

But now, his master’s soul had been ripped from his body, leaving behind a husk that was mere hours from becoming a corpse. How could Zhou Shaofeng stay calm? How could he possibly remain rational? In his madness, his only thought was to take Qin Fan hostage and get his master’s soul back. He had, however, overlooked one critical point: if Zhou Donglin himself couldn’t defeat this man, what hope did he, Zhou Shaofeng, have of succeeding?

"Since you’re so eager to die, I’ll give you a hand. I’ll reunite you with your master!"

Watching the ferocious Zhou Shaofeng charge at him, Qin Fan scoffed coldly. He flicked out the Dragon-locking Golden Whip.

CRACK!

With a single snap of the whip, his aura exploded with a thunderous burst.