by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
During these three months, he had been eating medicinal pills all day. The Divine Gate Star had grown to the size of a soybean. His FengFu, Alioth, Life Fate, and Enlightenment Palace Stars had also gone through a transformation. Even he wasn’t sure what level he had reached right now.
His four qi seas had grown by several times, and his 108,000 stars had been subtly changing as well. He was full of energy.
“I really hate your ignorant way of speaking. Last time, you survived thanks to your dogshit luck. But this time-”
“I’ve gotten tired of your unchanging way of bragging. Can’t you change it up a bit to keep it interesting? Let’s just see who’s stronger!” Long Chen let out a single punch, shaking heaven and earth. He shot toward Gui Yan.
“You’re not fit to be my opponent. Die!” Gui Yan sneered. The giant skeleton’s club came smashing toward Long Chen.
The Spirit race experts were all worried. Long Chen looked completely miniscule when compared to the skeleton.
The Dragonblood warriors who were ‘cleaning up the battlefield’ all looked at him with anticipation. They all felt like it had been a long time since they had seen Long Chen fight.
BOOM!
Space exploded and the earth rocked. A howling tempest tore through the ground. This was a world-shaking collision.
After this fierce exchange, the Spirit race women stared in shock at the sky. Long Chen was still in his punching posture.
As for the skeleton, it had been blown back a hundred miles, its bone club shattered. The skeleton simply lay there as if it was dumbfounded.
“Impossible!” Gui Yan roared furiously, unable to believe this.
“Do you like slapping yourself in the face so much? Alright, I’ll help you.”
Long Chen flew into the sky and then dove down like an eagle after its prey. A cauldron appeared in his hand, smashing toward the skeleton.
“Ghost King Fusion!” Gui Yan had no time to be shocked. He hastily formed hand seals, and he merged into the skeleton’s skull like water. An image of Gui Yan appeared on the skull.
After Gui Yan merged with the Ghost King, nine blood-colored flowers appeared behind it. He was using the Ghost King’s body to summon his manifestation.
Once the manifestation appeared, the skeleton’s shattered club regrew. It now had countless Heavenly Dao runes on it and was much stronger than before.
BOOM!
The club collided with the Blazing Dragon Cauldron.
Terrifying shockwaves spread, tearing apart the land. The Dragonblood warriors hastily defended, and Li Qi summoned a huge earthen shield to protect the Spirit race experts. Once the shockwaves had passed, only a few experts from the Corrupt path were left. Some of them with stronger cultivation bases had managed to escape through luck. The rest had all been slaughtered by the Dragonblood Legion.
After all, the Dragonblood Legion had no weak members. Their cultivation bases had reached the mid Jade Core realm, and they had over three thousand rank eight Celestials. The rest were rank seven Celestials. Such a terrifying legion, when combined with the lead of five rank nine Celestials in Meng Qi, Tang Wan-er, Gu Yang, Li Qi, and Song Mingyuan, was more than capable of annihilating those Corrupt experts. So what if they had some Life Star experts? They were not even close to being able to stop the Dragonblood Legion.
Since their battle was done, the Dragonblood Legion spread out, forming a huge encirclement that sealed the battlefield. They stared at Long Chen’s fight with rapt attention.
Long Chen was repeatedly smashing the cauldron into the blood-colored skeleton. The Ghost King was definitely powerful, and each time its club collided with the Blazing Dragon Cauldron, the ground would shake violently. This was a pure collision of power with no technique.
After three smashes, Long Chen was still unable to cause any damage to Gui Yan or the Ghost King. Long Chen felt helpless inside. The Blazing Dragon Cauldron might be an Ancestral item, but it wasn’t a fighting item. It also wasn’t heavy enough for him to unleash his true power. It seemed he would need to find a suitable weapon in the future.
“Split the Heavens 5!”
Long Chen suddenly switched the cauldron for a fiery-red sword. Sword-light soared into the air and then slashed toward the Ghost King.
Gui Yan was horrified. In that instant, he felt a cold chill. The skeleton suddenly shrank and coiled around itself, forming a huge sphere. Blood-colored light formed around it, constructing multiple barriers. This was its strongest defensive state.
BOOM!
The sword-light slashed down. A huge explosion caused a bottomless pit to appear in the ground, and the sphere shattered into countless pieces.
In front of the fifth form of Split the Heavens, this defense was too flimsy. Perhaps if Gui Yan had launched an all-out attack instead, he might have been able to receive this blow.
However, Long Chen’s overwhelming power had made him lose confidence, so he had made a foolish mistake. Split the Heavens possessed a natural effect of breaking barriers and shields. By switching to defense, Gui Yan had suffered immensely.
His skeleton shattered, and Gui Yan flew out from one of the fragments, vomiting blood. But Gui Yan was a true expert. As he vomited blood, he quickly formed hand seals. His blood condensed into a huge portal that possessed powerful spatial fluctuations. He was using his own essence blood to build a spatial portal. It was one of his secret life-preserving techniques.
BANG!
His spatial portal had only just formed when a huge wind blade slashed into it, breaking it apart.
It was Tang Wan-er. They all knew that killing a rank nine Celestial was very difficult. They not only had great power but also countless hidden trump cards and karmic luck supporting them. The heavens would create ways for them to escape, which made killing a rank nine Celestial as difficult as defying the heavens.
So Tang Wan-er and the others were all prepared to stop Gui Yan from escaping. Tang Wan-er was also a rank nine Celestial, so their Heavenly Dao energy was equivalent. She was more than capable of breaking his secret art.
Gui Yan hastily took out a talisman, but just as he crushed it, his expression changed.
This precious teleportation talisman was shredded, but no spatial energy came to bring him away. That was because at this moment, he was surrounded by countless wind blades that even cut through the space around him. The disturbance of the spatial energy around him turned his teleportation talisman into scrap paper.
Teleportation talismans were not transportation formations. They needed stable space to activate, or if the space around them was fluctuating, the teleportation talisman wouldn’t have the energy to resist the disturbance.
After failing twice, the delay allowed Long Chen’s sword to come again. This sword was about to take his life.
“Long Chen, you'll regret it if you kill me!” shouted Gui Yan, suddenly taking out a fist-sized emerald.
Chapter 1404 Forest of Life
That was a life storage stone, and it was capable of storing living creatures temporarily. Many life rings were created using low level life storage stone, making it so they could only store plants.
However, high level life storage stones could accept living creatures. It was an extremely miraculous stone.
The space inside it had no natural laws and no spiritual qi. It could barely give enough life energy for its inhabitants to not immediately die.
Long Chen’s sword stopped right before slashing through Gui Yan’s head. But because it happened too suddenly, his sword swiped across Gui Yan’s forehead, drawing blood.
Long Chen had no choice but to stop. Small faces floated up one by one on the life storage stone. He could see hundreds of the Spirit race women lying in that static space, completely unmoving.
“Long Chen, I know you won’t kill me.” Gui Yan clenched the stone. As long as he crushed it, those Spirit race women would be killed.
Long Chen didn’t say anything and just stared at Gui Yan coldly. He hadn�
��t expected him to have such a trump card. No matter what abilities Long Chen had, he wouldn’t be able to kill Gui Yan now. Was this the karmic luck of a rank nine Celestial?
“Long Chen, the warriors of the Spirit race aren’t afraid of death. As long as you kill him, they’ll be happy even in death. Otherwise, with this person’s power, he’ll kill even more of our sisters in the future.” The one called the Spirit Guard brought the others back. Looking at the life storage rock, she felt a bit unwilling, but she still urged Long Chen to kill Gui Yan.
That made Gui Yan’s expression change. Right now, he could only use these hostages to extort Long Chen. This was his final trump card. Without it, he would definitely die.
“Long Chen, I trust you won’t do that. You’ll let me go.” Gui Yan stared at Long Chen confidently.
“You know me so well?” Long Chen stabbed his sword into the ground, leaning on it. His expression was calm.
“Give up on scheming. Even if you could defeat me, you can’t kill me instantly. It’s impossible for you to prevent me from crushing this life storage rock.” Gui Yan seemed to see through Long Chen’s thoughts.
Long Chen was truly unable to do this. He had dozens of ways to kill Gui Yan, but he couldn’t stop him from crushing the life storage stone right before his death.
Even if Meng Qi, Tang Wan-er, Gu Yang, and the others helped, it was impossible. This trump card of Gui Yan’s just happened to be Long Chen’s weak point.
“You win. Leave the life storage ring, and I’ll let you go,” sighed Long Chen.
“Long Chen, it’s not worth it!” The Spirit Guard was startled.
“No, killing him isn’t worth it. In my eyes, he’s just a dog. I can take his life whenever I want. Getting the lives of hundreds of sisters for the life of a dog is an excellent trade,” said Long Chen.
Gui Yan’s expression sank, but he didn’t say anything. Although he was mocked by Long Chen, he knew he had managed to save his life.
“I want to bring the life storage stone with me. You can send someone-” probed Gui Yan cautiously.
“Don’t play this game with me. Although you have a trump card, it isn’t as powerful as you think. You can threaten me, but you can’t threaten the people of the Spirit race. If you try taking a single inch, I won’t be so lenient,” said Long Chen coldly.
“Alright. I swear-”
“You aren’t qualified to swear an oath with me. Gui Yan, it seems you still don’t understand your situation. You have no qualifications to bargain or make conditions right now. The people you’ve captured aren't people from the Dragonblood Legion. Do you understand?”
Gui Yan’s expression changed several times. He shouted, “Then how do I know you won’t go back on your word as soon as I hand over the life storage stone?!”
“Tch, my boss just feels sorry for these sisters. Your life isn’t even worth a fart to him. Furthermore, who do you think my boss is? Within all the Central Plains, he’s well known for being a real man. When does he ever go back on his word? As for your own garbage reputation, how much crap do you think that’s worth?” shouted Guo Ran.
Gui Yan thought about it, and he agreed that it was true. Although Long Chen was famed for being domineering and vicious, he never went back on his word. There were many things people cursed him for, but that wasn’t one of them.
“Spirit race, if I hand over this life storage stone, will you attack me?” Gui Yan still wasn’t at ease, and he shouted to the Spirit race experts.
His Ghost King was destroyed, and his combat power had dropped precipitously. Let alone Long Chen, even the Spirit Guard could kill him.
“Long Chen is the friend of the Spirit race. His attitude is our attitude as well,” said the Spirit Guard.
Although they all wanted Gui Yan dead, they also hoped for their sisters to return alive. This contradiction made it so although they were unwilling to see Long Chen release Gui Yan, they were grateful to him as well for the lives of their sisters.
“Fine, I’ll trust you this time.” Gui Yan clenched his teeth. He knew he had no other choices and tossed the life storage stone to Long Chen.
Long Chen received it and tossed it to the Spirit Guard. The Spirit Guard activated it, and light flashed. Hundreds of Spirit race women appeared on the battlefield.
The other Spirit race women went up and pressed their hands on their foreheads. Life energy poured into them, awakening them.
“Can I leave now?” Gui Yan was still a bit worried. His life was in Long Chen’s hands.
“Scram.” Long Chen had originally wanted to ask him some more things, but asking the Spirit race experts would probably be better.
Gui Yan took out another teleportation talisman. Crushing it, spatial energy wrapped around him. But just as he was about to be teleported away, an arrow shot through the teleportation talisman.
“Bastard, are you going back on your words?!” roared Gui Yan.
“Sorry, truly sorry. My bow went out of my control. Please, go ahead and take out another talisman,” apologized Guo Ran. But it was obvious to everyone he had done it on purpose.
“Do you think teleportation talismans are cabbages?! I only had two!” roared Gui Yan.
“Is that so? Then… do you want me to send you off?” Guo Ran raised a dark red crossbow, his expression sincere. This new crossbow was a new invention, and the pressure it emitted gave others a chill.
“Long Chen, what do you think you’re doing?!” demanded Gui Yan.
“Hurry up and scram!” Long Chen frowned impatiently.
Gui Yan looked from Long Chen to Guo Ran to his nocked crossbow. Clenching his teeth, he transformed into a ray of light that shot into the distance.
Guo Ran followed him with the point of his crossbow, ready to attack at any time. But Long Chen didn’t give the order.
“Boss, he really is going to get away,” said Guo Ran unwillingly.
“Let him go. I let him go on purpose.” Long Chen was nonchalant.
“On purpose?” Everyone was flabbergasted. No matter how they looked at it, it didn’t look like he had done this on purpose.
“Meng Qi, this is Gui Yan’s purest essence blood from his forehead. With your power, you should be able to use it to track his approximate position, right?” Long Chen handed a drop of essence blood to Meng Qi.
Seeing that, Gu Yang and the others came to a sudden comprehension. It seemed that Long Chen had intentionally pierced Gui Yan’s forehead at that time.
He had used his sword to extract a drop of Gui Yan’s purest essence blood. As for Gui Yan, in that life and death juncture, he hadn’t noticed Long Chen doing this.
The essence blood from the space between a person’s eyebrows was their purest. That was where their soul was condensed. It was a place where a person’s qi, soul, and essence met.
“Yes, this should be no problem.” Meng Qi smiled.
She was a rank nine Celestial, and her soul energy was fused with her Heavenly Dao energy. Tracking a person’s general position was truly simple for her.
“Boss, let me prostrate myself toward you.” Guo Ran worshipfully looked at Long Chen. Long Chen wasn’t just powerful, his ability to adapt to sudden changes was also monstrous.
Gui Yan had forced him into a passive position, but because of this drop of essence blood, the initiative was once more in Long Chen’s hands.
Best of all, Gui Yan had no idea that this essence blood was in Long Chen’s hands. His position was in Long Chen’s control now.
“Respected friends, thank you for your help. The Spirit race will always remember your kindness.” At this time, the Spirit Guard bowed toward Long Chen in a very strange and ancient manner.
The other Spirit race women followed along, expressing their gratitude to Long Chen.
“You’re too courteous. I want to ask, can you bring me to see that senior from your Forest of Life? I came here in order to thank her,” said Long Chen.
“Of course we can.” The Spirit Guard an
swered directly, and so they all boarded the flying boat. The Dragonblood Legion became lively, because these beautiful women of the Spirit race were wearing very ‘popular’ clothes. Long Chen had to cough very loudly a few times for them to settle down.
Long Chen found that these Spirit race women didn’t show the slightest shyness in the face of the Dragonblood warriors’ fiery gazes. Their expressions were very natural. In fact, they seemed pure and naive, like newborns.
Through a simple conversation, Long Chen learned that this battlefield had just been an outpost. The true battle had yet to start, but the situation was already very tense for them.
Long Chen learned that the Heaven Devouring Forest was called the Dark Forest in the Spirit World. They were the enemies of the Forest of Life. The two sides were like water and fire, and they had been fighting for countless years.
As they flew, they saw more and more Spirit race experts patrolling this area. It seemed they had entered the territory of the Spirit race now.
When the flying boat first passed those Spirit race experts, they were startled and about to activate the alarm before they saw the Spirit Guard waving to them.
The battlefield here was huge. Even with the flying boat, it took them some time before they saw a verdant, thriving forest. When he saw that forest, Long Chen smiled. That was a familiar aura.
Chapter 1405 The Beautiful Spirit World
Endless life energy invigorated everyone’s minds. It was completely different from the Dark Forest. This place was full of tranquil air that freed people of their worries. Just entering this forest would make a person feel like their heart was being cleansed.
When Long Chen and the others came off the flying boat, they couldn’t help closing their eyes and sensing that sacred and pure energy in the air. It made them feel so close to the forest.
Long Chen had felt this aura before. This was the aura the forest divinity had possessed, but now it was much denser.
