The Horned Dragon Star was located at the Three Coves Quadrant. It was extremely far from Earth, and even Golden Immortals adept at Dimensional Dao would need one month to reach Earth even if they teleported, should they choose not to use the warp portals.
With the portals, however, they would need just three days to reach Earth.
Naturally, that was because the portals on Mars had all been destroyed, or the immortals could have arrived directly on Mars with long-range warping.
***
Meanwhile, Jiang He was riding Hu Mei, having journeyed across the stars and returned to Earth.
He paused for a while beyond Earth, looking down upon the grotto-heavens, which flickered with immortal glimmer and frowned slightly.
There were already a handful of these grotto-heavens within Hua Nation borders, and many more similar structures in other countries. Once they were utterly revealed, however, Earth would be left in chaos, what with Earth’s very surface multiplying and a drastic change in landscape, not to mention the possibility of natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis.
“Maybe I could persuade the owners of those grotto-heavens so they won’t come out… if they could refine hundreds, even thousands of miles into an area of just inches, they could move their grotto-heavens away too.”
As the thought cross his mind, Jiang He descended through the atmosphere and returned to the Hua Nation.
At the same time, Wang Hou could not help breathing a long sigh of relief upon sensing Jiang He’s return.
As long as he was alright.
Even so, the kid was too impulsive—his opponents were over a dozen Heavenly Immortals, four True Immortals, and one Golden Immortal. How bold could he be that he would strike first?
Though he did not say it, Wang Hou had extremely worried after Jiang He left.
Taking to the air and greeting Jiang He, he cut to the chase. “What’s the situation, Jiang He? You’re not hurt, are you?”
“I’m fine,” Jiang He replied.
He was feeling chipper, but could not help becoming gloomy at Wang Hou’s question and smiled bitterly. “Sorry, Minister Wang… I slipped up.”
Wang Hou did a double take before laughing, “Why would you apologize to me, Jiang He? You had virtually carved out the Hua Nation’s current peace single-handedly. If it wasn’t for you, there would be no telling how great a storm could have been caused after the immortal sects, demonic sects, and daemon cultivators had revealed themselves.”
“Likewise, if not for you, we would not have made a move on the Feral Kings or destroyed the Sky Demon Cult so easily. Who else could have stopped them if they had succeeded in paving the way for the Sky Demons?”
Wang Hou paused at that, and bowed deeply at Jiang He while saying, “I should be the one saying sorry, since I was too weak to help you.”
Jiang He stared at Wang Hou weirdly at that.
Minister Wang…
Why would you say all these?
It feels a little mushy…
This man was the one who feared nothing from heaven to earth, and remained overbearing whoever he faced. Did someone possess him?
His immortal will swept out in inspection.
Wang Hou was a paragon martial artist, and his presence was nothing anyone could imitate.
On the other hand, Wang Hou, still unaware of what Jiang He was thinking and seeing Jiang He’s gloomy look, decided to console him, “You’ve actually done your best. As for the immortals of the various sects… they probably would not wreak havoc on earth for no reason, or they would have the pay the price of karma should they inflict civilian casualties.”
“Your slip up might draw the attention of the returning immortals… Jiang He!”
Wang Hou looked at Jiang He as he began to persuade him to leave Earth once more.
Jiang He, however, was utterly perplexed.
Why would he mention that out of the blue?
Shaking his head, Jiang He replied, I won’t leave Earth for the time being, Minister Wang. As for the returning immortals…”
Hehe…
Chuckling coolly, Jiang He confidently said: “I won’t bother them if they know their place, but if they dared to strut, they all have to die.”
Jiang He’s tone changed at that and he laughed sourly, “When it comes to the returning immortals, it’s not as if there’s no way to fight them even if they were Golden Immortal-pinnacle. The only thing that troubles me a little right now is that my ambush of the Green Hill Foxes in outer space failed and I didn’t wipe them out at once, allowing two True Immortals and seven Heavenly Immortals to flee…”
“Hold on…”
Wang Hou’s eyes widened and he exclaimed in surprise, “What did you say? Didn’t you slip up?”
“I did.”
Jiang He was at a loss for words, but explained, “Didn’t I tell you? I allowed two True Immortals and seven Heavenly Immortals to escape when I should have killed them all. How is that not a slip up?”
Wang Hou couldn’t say anything in return.
That is a slip-up?
Are you not misunderstanding the term ‘slip up’?
His eyes then narrowed as he realized the other meaning in Jiang He’s words, and ask somberly, “Do you mean to say that you’ve dealt with the Green Hill Foxes’ Golden Immortal? As well as two True Immortals and multiple Heavenly Immortals?”
Jaing He shook his head.
“…”
Wang Hou felt as if he was losing his mind then.
You said you allowed two True Immortals and seven Heavenly Immortals to escape, does that not mean you’ve killed the others?
He was about press Jiang He when Jiang He calmly said, “I only killed one Golden Immortal and one True Immortal. I’m not sure how many Heavenly Immortals I’ve killed, since I attacked too quickly to count. I’ve also captured the other True Immortal alive instead of killing him.”
Capturing the True Immortal alive instead of killing him naturally meant Jiang He did not kill True Immortals, which was why there was nothing wrong with Jiang He shaking his head.
Finding Wang Hou spacing out a little when he was done, Jiang He could not help twitch a little. “It seems that you expect that my mercy could bring repercussion and is therefore worried, Minister Wang. It’s fine, however, since I just have to use my time efficiently to improve my abilities. If I am strong enough, I would not have slipped up… in fact, so what if I let a few of them escape when I have the power to take down Grand Luo?”
Jiang He then added at the thought, “Alright, I have urgent matters back home so I’ll be going, Minister Wang. You don’t have to worry about the returning immortals either, since I would resolve every problem as soon as I could.”
Whoosh!
Turning into a sword light, he disappeared over the horizon.
Around a dozen minutes later, Jiang He landed outside his house at Jinyintan Village and went straight inside his palm, planting every immortal crystal at one go. After he was done, he picked up his farm, bringing it along with him as he left.
After all, he still had to head to outer space to ambush the elites from the Penglai Sect and other factions, just as it would be quite special to carry his farm wherever he went and do his farming out in space.
“Right…”
“I need to contact the Taixu Sect and the Ten Thousand Swords Sect.”
Jiang He took the skies, but stopped just as he was about leave the atmosphere. Whipping out a communications jade charm, he linked up with Jin Sidao’s jade charm.
A projection of Jin Sidao appeared, and he smiled with a glowing face. “Mister Jiang, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“There’s something I need to trouble you with.”
Jiang He said, cutting to the chase, “The immortals are returning, and I’ve already slain one of the Green Hill Foxes’ Golden Immortals.”
“Reach out to the Taixu Sect, the Jiuhua Sect, the Scale Dragons, and the other factions that do not have much grudge against me so they come to outer space with me. When the time comes, they can help me identify the immortals of their own sect—what if I attack and injure them by mistake since I don’t know them?”
Pausing, Jiang He then added, “Actually, injuries would be a trifle since I could just compensate and apologize to them… the truth is, how could I bear to kill them by mistake?”
