Chapter 343 - 318: Lower Realm Barbarians
"If Your Excellency wishes to leave, I will not stop you.
However, certain things belong to my Cang Que. For Your Excellency to take them without a word... isn’t that a bit improper?"
Zhao Xuanji’s words were like the strike of a cold Jade Chime ringing out across the slowly calming Heaven and Earth. They carried an undeniable declaration of sovereignty and, more than that, the absolute confidence of one who had just obtained supreme power.
Hearing this, Qi Yun stood with his hands clasped behind his back. The half-smile on his face slowly faded, replaced by a calmness as profound as a deep pool.
He knew, of course, what the other was referring to.
The Fruit Position!
This object was a condensation of the Great Dao, almost like a piece of the puzzle that made up a world.
The False Celestial Will had dissipated, and the True Celestial Will had reclaimed the Celestial Position. How could it stand by and watch as an item so crucial to its very essence was taken by an outsider?
"And what if I insist on taking it?"
Qi Yun’s voice was calm and steady, yet it reached Zhao Xuanji’s ears more clearly than the biting winter wind.
No argument, no explanation.
Just a simple question, but it carried an unshakeable resolve.
The fiery gold flames in Zhao Xuanji’s eyes leaped. The faint golden Emperor Dragon Qi and Cyan-Green Dao Rhyme around him erupted with power, like a sleeping emperor fully awakening to reveal his majesty.
"Then I will have no choice... but to apprehend you!"
Before his words had faded, his boundless imperial might materialized!
Countless phantoms of Five-Clawed Golden Dragons, woven from pure Emperor Dragon Qi and fragments of newly born authority over Heaven and Earth, soared into the sky from behind Zhao Xuanji.
Each dragon was a thousand zhang long, its scales and claws flashing. Their eyes glared with fury as they let out roars that shook mountains and rivers, carrying the supreme will of an emperor who could suppress the four seas and rule the eight wastes as they charged down toward Qi Yun!
Wherever the dragons passed, they formed a unique "Emperor’s Domain," intending to completely seal and suppress Qi Yun!
Faced with this terrifying suppression, enough to make any Yang God of Cang Que crumble in an instant, a cold, mocking light flashed in Qi Yun’s eyes.
’Lower Realm Barbarians, you truly don’t know your own limits.’
He cast aside all restraint. He raised his right hand, which had been hanging at his side, and in his palm now rested a palm-sized Jade Box, pearly white and made of a material that was neither gold nor jade.
Without the slightest hesitation, Qi Yun circulated Dao Rhyme through his fingertips and touched the hazy halo of light on the Jade Box’s surface.
BZZZZ—!!!
The Jade Box flew open at the touch!
A single beam of light, condensed to the absolute limit, shot out from the box and soared into the sky. At first, it was as dark as ancient Profound Iron, but in the next instant, it erupted with a brilliant, shattered-gold divine radiance.
Within the pillar of light, a tyrannical, desolate aura—an aura that felt as if it could crack open the starry sky and crush myriad worlds—descended upon this land. It was as if a slumbering primordial beast had suddenly awakened!
The divine radiance rapidly retracted and condensed.
Before Qi Yun, it formed an illusory figure, tall and imposing, over ten zhang in height!
The figure was not solid, yet it was as condensed as if it were. It was completely shrouded in shattered-gold light, its facial features indistinct.
Only its eyes were visible, like two compressed, violent stars, burning with an infinite sharpness that could look down upon all of eternity and conquer the heavens!
The Dao Rhyme that naturally flowed around it was heavy and sharp, filled with an extreme will to break all shackles and tear through all obstacles.
It was none other than—an Illusion Body of Desolate Halberd Splitting Sky True Monarch!
The moment the Illusion Body appeared, its shattered-gold eyes swept casually over the area.
In that instant, all the events that had occurred within a radius of tens of thousands of miles over the past period...
From Qi Yun sweeping up the karma of an entire realm to force the False Celestial Will to appear, refining the End of Dharma to wipe out the entire Cang Que Cultivation Realm, to the fake True Monarch, the stripping of the Celestial Position, the False Celestial Will’s self-destruction, the return of the Celestial Position to its true state, and Zhao Xuanji stealing power to rise...
All the scenes, auras, and karmic ripples, like a scroll being unrolled in reverse, were instantly reflected in its eyes, completely perceived and understood.
Then, the Illusion Body of the Desolate Halberd True Monarch turned its head slightly to look at Qi Yun. On its blurry face, a satisfied smile seemed to form.
"Not bad."
The voice wasn’t loud, but it rang like clashing metal, carrying the unique majesty and praise of a True Monarch that pierced straight to the Divine Soul.
"You have not disappointed me."
This simple sentence put Qi Yun’s heart at ease.
’This trip to Cang Que is in the bag.’
After the praise, the Illusion Body of the Desolate Halberd True Monarch suddenly raised its head. Its shattered-gold eyes locked onto the highest point of the Celestial Vault, and its lips twisted into a savage grin filled with boundless arrogance and brutality.
"Had a lot of fun chasing me back then, didn’t you?"
"Today, it’s my turn to collect some interest!"
Before the words were even spoken!
BOOM—!!!
The Illusion Body of the Desolate Halberd True Monarch instantly transformed into a shattered-gold divine ray that ripped Heaven and Earth apart. Ignoring all spatial distance and conceptual barriers, it slammed, with the most barbaric and tyrannical force, deep into the vast Celestial Vault that represented the core of the True Celestial Will!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!!!
In the next moment, throughout the entire Cangque Realm...
No matter where they were, all living beings felt terrifying tremors from the earth beneath their feet and the sky above their heads, as if the very foundations of the world were shaking!
It was a ferocious clash far beyond the level of a Yang God, a battle that touched upon the very origin of the world!
High up in the endless Celestial Vault, shattered-gold and cyan-green light flashed, collided, and annihilated each other with insane frenzy.
Every collision caused the rules of the entire Realm to cry out in mourning. Celestial phenomena went haywire: stars appeared in the daytime, night became as bright as day, torrential rain fell, and vast clear skies froze in an instant!
And as the grueling battle between the Illusion Body of the Desolate Halberd True Monarch and the True Celestial Will erupted...
Down below, the aura on Zhao Xuanji—the very aura that connected him to the nascent True Celestial Will and granted him supreme power—suddenly began to fluctuate violently and destabilize, like a river cut off from its source!
"Ugh...!"
Zhao Xuanji let out a muffled groan. The vast, sea-like pressure around him, which had been approaching the level of a Pseudo Monarch, rapidly deflated like a punctured ball!
The Cyan-Green Dao Rhyme coiling around his body flickered erratically.
The countless phantoms of the Emperor’s Golden Dragon charging toward Qi Yun also let out mournful cries as their forms grew faint and their power drastically diminished!
In just a few breaths, Zhao Xuanji’s aura plummeted like an avalanche, falling from the peak where he could touch upon the Pseudo Monarch level, all the way back down to the standard peak of the Yang God Realm.
He was still at the apex of this realm.
But compared to his near-divine state from moments ago, it was a world of difference!
His face was pale, the fiery gold flames in his eyes flickering violently, revealing a trace of shocked anger and disbelief.
But the Emperor’s Heart Skill was all about adapting in an instant.
Zhao Xuanji took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his roiling blood and the storm of shock in his heart. His expression quickly regained its composure as he looked at the still-unflustered Qi Yun and said in a cold voice:
"I alone may not be your match right now,"
He paused, then suddenly raised his hand. A simple, ancient Dragon Pattern Token in his palm blazed with light!
"But what if... we add them to the equation?!"
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
As the Token activated, fifty brilliant rainbows of light, as scorching as great suns and filled with pure yang energy, suddenly lit up the distant horizon!
The rainbows of light tore through the sky, arriving in an instant. They landed with a crash on the ruins in front of Zhao Xuanji, revealing fifty figures with powerful auras, all circulating with Pure Yang Dao Rhyme.
These were precisely the fifty Rapidly Cultivated Yang Gods that Qi Yun had painstakingly trained and brought to fruition!
Led by Zhao Jia and Zhao Yi, the fifty stood in silent formation. Although their individual auras were slightly weaker than a veteran Yang God’s...
...the combined pressure of fifty pure yang auras still formed a terrifying, suffocating force field.
As heavy as a mountain, as scorching as the sea.
Seeing Zhao Jia and the others arrive at his summons, Zhao Xuanji’s confidence surged once more.
’These Death Warriors, secretly selected by the Royal Family and loyal for generations, will never disobey an imperial command!’
He straightened his back, his imperial majesty flaring once more. He faced the leader, Zhao Jia, and barked a stern command:
"Zhao Jia, hear my order!"
"This otherworldly demon has stolen our realm’s Supreme Treasure and thrown the order of our Heaven and Earth into chaos!"
"For me—apprehend this fiend! Dead or alive!"
His voice was like thunder, carrying an indisputable imperial command and killing intent.
However...
As his words fell, a dead silence descended upon the ruins.
The fifty Yang Gods remained silently standing, like fifty lifeless statues.
Their leader, Zhao Jia, kept his eyes lowered, his gaze calmly fixed on the scorched earth at his feet, completely ignoring Zhao Xuanji’s majestic and murderous command.
The majesty and severity on Zhao Xuanji’s face slowly froze.
His pupils contracted. A tiny sliver of ice-cold dread suddenly shot up from the bottom of his heart, instantly spreading through his entire body.
He looked again at Zhao Jia, at the fifty faces that were so calm they were almost indifferent.
A deeply ominous premonition, like a cold, venomous snake, coiled around his heart.
"You..." For the first time, his voice held a nearly imperceptible tremor.
Just then, Qi Yun, who had been watching with his hands behind his back and the faint hint of a smile on his lips, finally spoke.
His voice wasn’t loud, but it clearly reached the ears of everyone present, especially the fifty Yang Gods.
"Tell him,"
Qi Yun’s calm gaze swept over Zhao Jia and the others. His tone was casual, yet it carried an invisible sense of control.
"what... you call me."
The moment his voice fell—
RUMBLE—!!!
Led by Zhao Jia and Zhao Yi, the fifty Yang Gods, their auras blazing, moved in perfect unison. Facing Qi Yun, they dropped to one knee with a thunderous crash!
Their knees slammed into the scorched, broken ground, creating a muffled boom like the beating of war drums and kicking up rings of dust!
Fifty heads bowed at once, their posture respectful, even tinged with a near-religious fervor.
Then, fifty deep, firm, and resolute voices merged into a torrent of sound that broke through the clouds and shook the lands. It exploded across the sky above this battlefield, still reeling from the clash of gods:
"Master!"
The sound wave rolled out, sweeping in all directions.
Zhao Xuanji looked as if he’d been struck by lightning. His body shook violently, and he staggered back half a step before managing to steady himself.
The composure he had struggled to maintain completely shattered, leaving his face an unbelievable, ashen mess of white and blue.
He stared deathly at the kneeling figures—the force that should have been absolutely loyal to the Royal Family.
He then snapped his head toward Qi Yun, whose calm expression made it seem as if everything was under his control. Zhao Xuanji’s lips trembled, but he couldn’t force out a single word.
Qi Yun gave the ashen-faced and crestfallen Zhao Xuanji a cool glance, then slowly clasped his hands behind his back and turned away.
"Kill him!"
...