by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
Further onward, he saw a corpse of a human. The robes belonged to the Righteous path, and there was a clean incision on the back of the head. This person had been slain in one attack, with even their Yuan Spirit annihilated.
The corpse belonged to a young rank nine Celestial that still had a bewildered expression on his face. Even in his death, he hadn’t understood what was going on.
“There’s no Heavenly Dao aura or the leftover aura of a divine item. There are no signs of resistance. It seems the dangers you can’t see really are the fatal ones.” Long Chen shook his head as he looked at the surrounding rocks.
This person was most likely slain by his companion, by someone he trusted. As for why that person had killed him, who knew?
The most dangerous thing in the cultivation world was a person’s heart. This was an ancient teaching that had been true from time immemorial.
Although Long Chen had killed countless people, he always kept his conscience clean. He had never felt any guilt for his actions.
However, each time he saw someone being killed by someone they trusted, he would feel infuriated. Betrayal was something he couldn’t accept.
He continued onward. The land ahead was covered in mist, but this mist was actually dark yellow. It looked beautiful yet also extremely dangerous.
Long Chen had just reached the misty area when a figure slowly walked out of the mist, just so happening to be walking directly to Long Chen.
Seeing Long Chen, his expression completely changed. Before he could do anything, Long Chen’s sword was already slashing down mercilessly.
“A meeting of fate!”
Chapter 1824 Robbing the Robber
It truly was a meeting of fate because that person was from the Xuan Beasts and had been one of the people beside True Immortal Jiaoqi who had targeted Long Chen outside the Yin Yang World, saying that he would kill Long Chen as soon as he saw him. Fate had drawn them together here.
The Xuan Beast had just noticed Long Chen when Long Chen’s sword came slashing over to him. He hastily raised a battle-ax to block.
The Xuan Beast was blown back, while Long Chen’s body also shook slightly. His sword was too light, and it might be alright against most Empyreans, but this Xuan Beast expert was an elite who had been sent into the Yin Yang World ahead of the ordinary experts. Long Chen was also forced back in this exchange.
This person’s power was not inferior to Xiang Yunfei’s. Without a weapon suited to him, Long Chen actually had no advantage over him.
The Xuan Beast expert’s expression changed. After being blown back, he actually ran away.
That dumbfounded Long Chen. This person was so powerful. Even if he wasn’t as strong as Xiang Yunfei, he was still on that level. That one exchange was enough for experts on their level to sense this. If Long Chen wanted to defeat him, that would definitely come at a price, and to kill him would be very difficult.
Unexpectedly, such a powerful expert directly fled. He was extremely fast, and Long Chen was still stunned when he vanished from sight.
“Ah, he was already injured.” Examining his surroundings more closely, Long Chen saw a drop of blood on the ground left behind by that Xuan Beast.
Long Chen walked over and touched the blood. Beautiful light shone from it. It was filled with the Xuan Beast’s essence.
“There’s a corrosive aura within it, as well as the power of a curse. I didn’t see any big injuries, so he was most likely stabbed, either being struck by poison or a curse. So he was trying to find a place to heal. I just wonder who injured him. Was it another person or some native beast? This mist must be filled with dangers.” Long Chen looked at the mist in front of him gravely.
That Xuan Beast expert was very powerful, and Long Chen hadn’t seen any injury on him. Whatever wound there was, it had to be very small. For such a small injury to make a Xuan Beast expert flee for his life in search of a place to heal, it definitely had to be very fatal.
“Should I chase that fellow?” Long Chen liked that idea, but he decided against it. His chances of killing him were too low. If his prey just ran off in the end, it would be a waste of time.
He continued forward, walking into the mist. Here, he found that this mist was condensed by a special law. It was not true mist, but something that seemed like the result of a formation.
“The mist contains an energy that blocks spiritual probing and tries to distract the soul. It would create hallucinations if someone’s will wasn’t strong enough.” Long Chen immediately noticed the oddities of the mist, but it couldn’t affect him.
Continuing onward, Long Chen saw a figure standing in the mist, its whole body shuddering.
He was just an ordinary rank nine Celestial of the Righteous path. His eyes were closed, and he was covered in sweat.
Long Chen patted a hand on his shoulder, causing him to let out a startled cry. It was like he had been startled awake out of a nightmare.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen!” That person looked at Long Chen with a hint of panic in his eyes.
“Your will isn’t strong enough. You should leave. You will only die here.” Long Chen only gave a simple warning before continuing onward.
“Many thanks, senior apprentice-brother Long Chen. I…” The expert stood there with a complicated expression.
“I don’t care if you left the Martial Heaven Alliance. Wearing the robes of the Righteous path should be enough to state your position. I know there are things out of your control, I only saved you because we’re from the same side.” Long Chen indifferently waved his hand, quickly vanishing from that person’s sight.
Long Chen had already realized that this person belonged to a sect that had left the Martial Heaven Alliance. Although he was wearing the Righteous path’s robes, there was a specific mark on his sleeves. That mark wasn’t very conspicuous, but Long Chen had noticed it. Despite that, Long Chen had still saved him.
In truth, some disciples were innocent. The ones who made the decisions were the higher-ups, and these disciples were powerless to change their decisions.
As long as they hadn’t raised their blades against him, Long Chen didn’t want to kill them. It wasn’t because he was such a nice person, but just that he had his own bottom line.
The mist grew thicker as he advanced. The mental invasion also grew stronger, and other people would be seeing illusions everywhere. However, Long Chen’s will was strong, and he wasn’t affected at all. He didn’t even need to summon a mental defense.
Finally, the mist began to fade, and he saw a land of unending mountains. They were still barren, but now they consisted entirely of dark red stone.
“Hahaha, little girl, hand over your treasures and I’ll spare your life!”
Long Chen had just walked out of the mist when he heard some shouting. “Oh? Someone’s robbing others? Good, let’s see if I can rob the robber.”
Long Chen quickly advanced. He also hid his spiritual fluctuations and aura. Once he was past a small mountain, he saw that there were two people, both from the Righteous path. One was a man with fiery-red light in his eyes, and he was blocking the path of a young woman.
The man was an Empyrean with a powerful aura. He had yet to release his manifestation, but his aura was completely locked onto the woman in front of him.
As for the woman, she was just a rank nine Celestial. Her aura was not very strong. She looked very weak, and she was like a lamb for the slaughter in front of this Empyrean.
Long Chen looked strangely at this woman. He felt her figure to be somewhat familiar, but he didn’t recall a rank nine Celestial amongst the women he knew.
“We’re both from the Righteous path and should be united. You haven’t even seen the treasure, but you got greedy and want to kill me. Is this your Dao of cultivation?” The woman shook her head.
Her voice was a bit coarse. It was dry and tart. Her voice also seemed to contain great disappointment, as well as a sorrow that was difficult to describe.
Long Chen got curious and switched locations to get a better view. Looking at her face, he found that her looks were very ordinary. She had quite a few freckles as well. It could be said that she was a bit ugly.
However, her eyes were still very bright, but they were filled with a complicated expression of disappointment.
“Are you an idiot? What kind of nonsense are you spouting? What Dao? The cultivation path is one where the strong step over other people’s corpses to advance. As long as there is profit, who cares? Don’t waste any more of my time. I’ll give you to the count of three. If you don’t hand it over, I’ll kill you. One…”
The woman seemed to have given up on fighting. She sighed, “You, Zhang Yunxiang, are a generation’s genius, the heir to the Rain Slashing Mountain House. Normally, you act very heroically. Your reputation is excellent. But who would have thought that there was such a sinister and merciless face behind that heroism? Just a quasi divine item is enough for you to tear your fake mask off and want to kill me, a weak woman?”
The woman was holding an ancient sword with divine runes flowing around it. This man had targeted her precisely for that sword. Seeing that she was just a rank nine Celestial, he naturally grew greedy.
Long Chen’s mouth couldn’t help but curse. Was this woman really an idiot? Did she not know not to reveal her wealth for nothing?
She, a little rank nine Celestial, actually dared to openly hold a divine item. How was that any different from a child carrying a piece of gold and walking into a den of beggars?
“Stop wasting time. Although I rarely kill women, I don’t have time to waste on you. Just die.” That man’s manifestation suddenly burst into existence.
A rank nine Celestial’s Heavenly Dao energy would be completely stripped away by an Empyrean’s manifestation. This woman had no chance to fight back. That person’s palm slammed toward her, and she simply closed her eyes, seeming to be waiting for her death.
A burst of wind blew back the woman’s hair. However, the fatal blow she had been waiting for never came.
That was because a hand had caught that man’s wrist. Another person had appeared in front of her.
When she saw that person, her entire body shook. She covered her mouth, filled with disbelief.
“Long… Chen…”
The man that had been about to kill her suddenly saw someone else arrive and catch his attack easily. When he saw that person, he was filled with terror.
“I suppose that you killed your companion before even entering the mist, correct? If you have a human’s appearance, you should act like a human.” Long Chen’s domineering spiritual yuan surged into that man through his wrist, sealing his Dantian.
Just from this person’s attack, Long Chen knew that he was the one who had killed the corpse that had died from a sudden sneak attack. Long Chen easily recognized his aura.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, I… I….”
He was terrified, wanting to argue. But in front of Long Chen’s cold gaze, he found that he couldn’t lie. At some point, his soul was completely sealed by Long Chen.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, I know my wrongs! Please, forgive me! I am willing to be your slave, to-”
“Hand over all your treasures,” said Long Chen indifferently.
Chapter 1825 The Strange Woman
That person immediately took out three divine items. There were one spear and two swords. They were all quasi divine items.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, I’ve taken out everything I own. Can you please let me off?” That person immediately felt more relaxed upon seeing that Long Chen merely wanted to rob him. He felt that as long as he handed his treasures over, Long Chen wouldn’t kill him.
“Don’t try to trick me. I’ve killed many people. I’ll give you to the count of three, and if you don’t hand over everything, I guarantee that you won’t see tomorrow’s sun.” Long Chen smiled disdainfully.
Long Chen’s divine sense was completely locked onto this person. He could sense even the most imperceptible fluctuations. As nothing could escape his senses, lying to him was an impossibility.
That person’s expression changed. Under Long Chen’s icy gaze, he finally submitted, tossing out another seven divine items.
This person was truly a marvel. Ordinary spatial rings were unable to store divine items. The only exception was a spatial ring that had reached the same level as a divine item. Otherwise, they would need to be stored in a spiritual space.
In either case, he had to have forced the divine item to submit or sealed it, or he would simply be courting death. The self-detonation of a divine item would annihilate him.
As expected, these divine items all had sealing runes on them. This person was quite skilled in this regard, or there was no way he could have sealed this many divine items with his power.
“Senior apprentice-brother Long Chen, I swear these are all the divine items I have. I beg you to stay your hand and let me off.”
This person was pale, looking as miserable as if his parents had just died. He knew that Long Chen’s Spiritual Strength was many times stronger than his own. Hiding anything from Long Chen was suicide.
If he was tougher, he could refuse to hand over anything. He could have crushed his spatial ring, throwing the divine items into the chaotic flow of space so that no one could obtain them.
However, in front of Long Chen, it was impossible for him to be tough. He still wanted to live, so he had no choice but to hand over his treasures.
“You had quite a few.” Long Chen smiled icily. Each of these divine items represented the life of an expert, or perhaps more accurately, the life of a Righteous expert.
This person’s power wasn’t worth crap in Long Chen’s eyes. His guess was that all the people he had killed had been people who had trusted him, his friends. There was no other way he could have killed so many experts in possession of divine items.
“Long Chen, you’re a peerless expert. I’ve already handed over my treasures. Killing me won’t get you anything more. Will you still kill me?” probed the man brazenly. A glint of resentment flashed in his eyes.
These divine items were all his treasures. For them, he had used his own connections, viciously attacking the people closest to him, but now, all those treasures had ended up in Long Chen’s hands. He was extremely unwilling, but he had no choice.
Long Chen suddenly slapped that person, sending him staggering back. “Scram.”
After slapping him away, Long Chen didn’t look at him anymore. He grabbed the divine items and put them in the primal chaos space.
The man glared at Long Chen resentfully, but he didn’t dare to express it. He rushed away, vanishing within the mist.
“You bastard Long Chen, just wait! I won’t let you off for this! I’ll- AH!”
That person was in the midst of cursing Long Chen when he suddenly grabbed his head and tumbled to the ground, rolling around crazily.
“You bastard… you did something to my mind!”
When Long Chen had slapped him, he had sent a strand of Spiritual Strength into this man’s mind-sea.
When his resentment and rage flared, it would cause his soul to rage as well. After that, the single strand of Spiritual Strength would transform into a sharp blade, and countless illusions began to appear in his head.
He saw the friends he had betrayed and killed. They were covered in blood. Then he saw the very blade he had used to kill them in their hands. With it, they began to hack him over and over again.
“NO!”
A terrified scream rang out. In real life, he was rolling around crazily, but in his mind, he was unable to move. He could only allow these people to cut him to pieces.
Although Long Chen wasn’t a soul cultivator, he had learned some simple soul arts from Meng Qi, and his Spiritual Strength was extremely powerful. When that person’s resentment erupted, he would fall into his most terrifying nightmares. The more he was afraid of something, the more he
would see it.
These illusions used his Yuan Spirit as fuel. They would continue until his Yuan Spirit ran out of energy and was incinerated. Only then would his pain stop.
However, a person’s Yuan Spirit had quite a bit of energy, and it could be incinerated for a long time. In other words, this person would slowly die amidst endless pain and suffering. Perhaps this was his retribution for betraying others.
…
Long Chen put away all the divine items. He supposed he had made quite a decent profit. As for that person’s fate, it was within his expectations.
“Thank you.”
The woman gratefully bowed toward Long Chen.
Although her looks were ordinary, every single one of her movements contained an indescribable charm to them that made Long Chen feel like she looked very familiar.
“There’s no need to thank me. I was just being a robber. I’m even more evil than that person. But don’t worry, I’m much superior and tactful. Speaking of which… that sword is a calamity in your hands. How about you give it to me for safekeeping? Again, there’s no need for you to thank me.” Long Chen waved his hand, looking at the sword in her hand.
The woman actually chuckled at Long Chen.
“Miss, I’m in the midst of robbing people, so please be more serious. Respect my profession.” Long Chen hardened his expression.
“The great founder of the Dragonblood Legion, an unrivaled heavenly genius, the unmatched Long Chen would actually rob a weak woman? I don’t dare to believe it.” The woman smiled at Long Chen without the slightest fear.
Long Chen swore inside. So he had been recognized. He immediately said, “I haven’t been doing too well in the world lately. It’s been tough. Sometimes I’m forced to be a robber to get some money to survive. Uh, girl, why do you look a bit familiar to me? Do I know you?”
“I know you, but you don’t know me. I’m just a nameless little figure, a nobody. My talent is only ordinary, while you are a dragon amongst men. How could you know me?” The woman sighed with sorrow.
