Chapter 638: The Return
The middle-aged man’s eyes lingered on the winged tiger cub on Jian Chen’s chest. As big as the continent was, he had been able to learn of the Winged Tiger God by accident, causing him to feel extremely excited.
Half a moment later, the middle-aged man tore his eyes away from the tiger cub to look at the gold-cloaked Nubis. As soon as Nubis’ figure registered in his eyes, the man let out a small start, “Hm? That’s Nubis! Why is an ancient beast like him following this group?” For a moment, the man pondered to himself. “With his strength, he has surely sensed the bloodline of the Winged Tiger God. He’s made his choice to help the Winged Tiger God mature to adulthood it seems. Pity. This choice will only lead him to the road of death.”
“How unexpected to see a Class 7 Golden-Striped Silver Snake and a Saint Ruler following Jian Chen around. I could kill them, but that’d alert the Saint Rulers in the Qinhuang Kingdom. With how close Mercenary City is, if one of their strongest found out that I’ve entered the human world, that’d spell the end for me. I’ll have to retreat for now. Bah, I’ll let you live another day.” The man thought to himself before his transparent image began to fade away from its spot and then out of sight.
Jian Chen and the others remained completely oblivious to the fact that they were being followed. Traveling toward the palace, the group then soon arrived at the entrance.
At Jian Chen’s command, everyone landed on the ground and strode into the palace. As an Imperial protector, Jian Chen was a figure that was known to everyone. Not a single person moved to stop him; they instead bowed from their waists while they stood off to the side.
Simultaneously, four enormous bursts of energy resonated from within the palace as if four ancient beasts had awakened from their slumber. The entire area was filled with this aura, almost freezing time itself. Four figures could be seen flying from each corner of the palace into the air above, and behind them, a crack in space itself could be seen. It was as if they were traveling within space instead of air. With unbelievable speed, the four figures surrounded Jian Chen and the others.
“Jian Chen pays his respects to the four seniors!” Jian Chen spoke with a calm smile to the ones around him. Since he knew that these four were the Imperial Protectors of the Qinhuang Kingdom and were Saint Rulers, he could speak without fear. In fact, he even knew two of the four already.
“Jian Chen, it’s you!” One of the middle-aged men spoke in surprise. Turning his eyes to the golden-robed Nubis and Jiede Tai, his eyebrows furrowed together, “Jian Chen, who are these two?” With his strength, he could sense that the two figures in front of him were also Saint Rulers.
“Seniors, these two are Jiede Tai and Nubis, two good friends of mine.” Jian Chen explained with a smile.
The four Imperial Protectors looked on in uniform shock. They couldn’t believe what Jian Chen had said. They would never have thought that Jian Chen would have yet another two Saint Ruler friends — this was a strength that even the Qinhuang Kingdom valued greatly.
“The great Nubis!” Nubis argued in annoyance.
“Hehe, o’ great Nubis, you are truly so great. How could I be so blind to not see that?” Wang Yufeng cajoled from the side.
As soon as Wang Yufeng spoke, Nubis took the words as a personal attack and insult to his pride. To hear this from an insignificant ant that hadn’t even yet lived for a fraction of his life, Nubis’ inherent pride felt greatly insulted.
Nubis’ face darkened several shades as a hint of crimson light entered his eyes. An intimidating aura began to leak from his body. It moved toward Wang Yufeng before Nubis grabbed Wang Yufeng’s throat with a hand. “Youngster,” Nubis started coldly, “Do you even wish to live if you mutter these words? Do you not think the great Nubis will not kill you where you stand right now?”
Wang Yufeng found it impossible to escape or even move because of the death grip that Nubis had on his throat. A feeling of suffocation began to well up from his body. He started to feel as if he was on the verge of death. What had been even more terrifying was the fact that Nubis’ eyes were scarlet, adding yet another factor of anger that struck fear into Wang Yufeng.
“Nubis, what are you doing, let go of him!” Jian Chen barked out. The light in his eyes hardened as if to become as sharp as the blade of a sword. Nubis’ actions had startled even Jian Chen since Wang Yufeng was a member of their party instead of an enemy.
Nubis turned an eye to look at Jian Chen and shrugged, “Youngster, for the sake of giving some face to Jian Chen, I’ll spare your life. You will not speak to me with such a tone in the future. Remember that. Or else I, the great Nubis, will not hesitate to kill you no matter how good of a friend you are to Jian Chen.” Nubis released Wang Yufeng’s throat, allowing his captive to drop to his knees and gasp for breath. Wang Yufeng’s entire body was entirely drenched with sweat because of the previous situation.
“You’re not a human — you’re a magical beast.” One of the Imperial Protectors spoke. When Nubis released his aura, all four of the Imperial Protectors had been able to recognize his true identity.
“Are you of the Gilligan clan?” Another Imperial Protector asked. After he asked his question, the other three Imperial Protectors froze for a fraction of a second.
Nubis gave a level stare at the four Imperial Protectors in front of him and proudly said, “Don’t take the great Nubis for a being from the Gilligan clan. There is nothing between them and the great Nubis.”
“Four seniors, please don’t misunderstand. Nubis may be a magical beast, but he isn’t a member of the Gilligan clan. He is a friend of mine and is by no means an outsider.” Jian Chen explained. Although he was unhappy with the fact that Nubis had let loose his arrogant attitude, it was far more pertinent to explain the situation and the relationship between Nubis and him or else risk a misunderstanding.
“If that’s so, then he’s no outsider to us as well.” The four Imperial Protectors sighed in relief. However, in their hearts, they were curious how Jian Chen had been able to make friends with such a powerful magical beast. Such a feat filled each and every single one of them with awe and even some envy. The natural fighting potential of a magical beast was far greater than their human counterparts. Some of the rarer magical beasts could even overstep the boundaries of rank and kill humans of a higher level.
Just barely recovering from a near-death experience by Nubis, Wang Yufeng’s entire body grew as rigid as a statue when he heard that Nubis was in fact a magical beast. Looking at Nubis with extreme terror, Wang Yufeng realized at that moment that this young golden-robed youth in front of him was a majestic Class 7 Magical Beast. A being that was on par with the Saint Rulers of the human world.
A parade of footsteps could be heard at the same time as well as a dense amount of soldiers came flying in from every direction possible. In the sky, twenty something Heaven Saint Masters appeared — they were the Imperial Advisors that stayed behind to protect the palace while the others were away.
These Imperial Advisors had clearly been startled by the outburst of strength from the four Imperial Advisors when they had made themselves known. The entire palace in fact had been made aware of their presence which caused security to increase to the maximum.
“Go back to what you were doing before.” One Imperial Protector commanded with a calm voice that traveled into the ears of all the soldiers there.
The dense crowd of soldiers soon trickled back into the palace as if they were water. As soon as they appeared, all of them had left, leaving behind only the twenty something Heaven Saint Masters in the sky. Each one of them were looking at the four Imperial Protectors in shock. The four Imperial Protectors were generally hidden within the palaces cultivating. They’d only leave the palace once every ten or so years to get some exercise, but to have all four of them appear at once was an extremely surprising sight.
“We pay our respects to the Imperial Protectors!” The Heaven Saint Masters bowed respectfully.
One of the Imperial Protectors waved his hands and replied, “You may leave!”
“Yes!” The twenty Heaven Saint Masters replied before glancing curiously at the entourage behind Jian Chen. Silently withdrawing, each one of them was extremely curious despite their calm demeanors. These strangers had been enough to startle even the four Imperial Protectors; this meant that these strangers were definitely important people.
“Jian Chen, I heard that you came across some trouble while in Mercenary City. Although we wanted to help you, the Qinhuang Kingdom was facing some dangers that we had to address. Thus, we could spare no time to help. We hope that you won’t take offense to that.” An Imperial Protector apologetically smiled at Jian Chen. It didn’t matter if it was the feat Jian Chen had accomplished back in Mercenary City or the fact that two Saint Rulers were traveling with him, the four of them couldn’t risk mistreating Jian Chen right now.
A great big smile appeared on Jian Chen’s face before he began to make conversation with the four Imperial Protectors. After several words, he got to the main problem at hand, “Seniors, something is happening back within my homelands, so I must hurry back there right away. If we may speak another day.”
“That’s fine, we won’t take up brother Jian Chen’s time any longer if that’s the case.”
Afterward, Jian Chen and the third prince, Qin Ji, managed to say their goodbyes. Then the four Imperial Protectors led Jian Chen’s group to the Space Gate where they would leave the kingdom from.
