As Kui Lin flashed an eerie grin, a bloody mist burst at the bottom of the pit.
The dense, bloody mist alerted everyone inside, and they surveyed their surroundings cautiously. Yang Jian and the Great Sage blocked Ye Zichen, and the imperial lords surrounding Kui Lin didn’t hold back either. They unleashed their divine power with abandon, as if it were worthless.
“You still haven’t given up?” Great Emperor Chao Feng was the first to react. He clutched his Starlight Spear and flung it at Kui Lin.
Empress Su Qingyan, Su Wan’er, and XUan Ji quickly dispersed the surrounding bloody mist. Once it had diminished somewhat, the other great emperors unleashed the attacks they’d been building up. However, against all expectation, there was no sign of Kui Lin in the ditch.
The Ocean Emperor, who was charging at the front of the pack, stopped. He looked into the hole and frowned.
Bi’an took a step further. He raised his Hidden Dragon Sword and swung viciously as he glared into the pit below.
“We let him get away.” Just moments ago, when they saw the look on Kui Lin’s face, they thought he was prepared to fight to the death. Who would have thought that this would end so anticlimactically? Kui Lin had just seized a gap in their guard and run off.
“With all those holy light emblems on him, he won’t get far, at least not in the near future. I’ll go bring him back.” Bi’an was just about to set off after him, but Chao Feng blocked his path.
“Don’t go,” he said.
“Then are we just going to let him run? If he makes it back to the Demon Realm, he’ll bring nothing but trouble!”
“You won’t be able to catch him.” The Ocean Emperor looked at the surrounding bloody mist; it had yet to fully disperse. “Just now, what he used was most likely a forbidden art of the demon race: Blood Explosion. He completely abandoned his physical body, blew it up, and escaped as a wisp of soul. Chao Feng told you not to chase him because he knows that the holy light emblems no longer exist.”
Chao Feng nodded. He really couldn’t sense the emblems he’d left on Kui Lin any longer. Had he still been able to sense them, there would be no need for Bi’an to give Chase; he could do it himself.
“He escaped?” Su Qingyan and the others rushed over, but they could tell at a glance that Kui Lin was no longer present.
Chao Feng nodded, and Xue Yang put his Ocean God artifact set away.
“Without an ocean nearby, that set of yours is about as useful as a chicken’s ribs.”
The speaker was Xuan Ji. Xue Yang looked at her, but said nothing.
She was right!
The three Ocean God’s Artifacts were indeed very powerful, and near water, they made Xue Yang practically invincible. However, the restrictions on this set of god-given artifacts were too severe. Without water, he couldn’t shine. Even with all three artifacts combined, they didn’t make much of a difference. They might even have made him weaker.
The Ocean Emperor couldn’t argue with Xuan Ji. Both her Destiny Compass and Bi’an’s Hidden Dragon Sword could be used anywhere, at at full strength.
It was a pity!
Had they fought at the River Styx or the Sea of Innocence, while the Ocean Emperor dared not proclaim he could beat Kui Lin, he at the very least wouldn’t have been so helpless.
“Don’t say that. At the very least, with water nearby, no one can afford to overlook the Ocean Emperor,” said Su Wan’er kindly.
“It’s really frustrating. If we’d taken care of Kui Lin here…” Bi’an still seemed upset about Kui Lin’s escape.
However, Xuan Ji simply laughed. “So what if he escaped? After using Blood Explosion, he’ll have less than ten percent of his former power. Even if he manages to reforge his body, he won’t be able to stir up any waves any time soon. Also, you surely haven’t forgotten a certain someone, have you….?”
Xuan Ji’s gaze landed on Gu Luolin. While the imperial lords were indignant about Kui Lin’s escape, this spoiled little princess seemed even angrier.
When they considered her background, the great emperors felt chills go down their spines.
Fleeing seemed like a big mistake; Kui Lin would probably have been better off letting them catch him now.
“How could you let him escape?” When she realized that Kui Lin had fled, Kui Luolin’s little face went completely red. She gnashed her teeth, puffed up her cheeks, and clenched her little fists. “No, it’s good he escaped! When I get back to the clan, I’ll have my mom and dad beat him to death!”
Ye Zichen stood off to the sidelines. He couldn’t help but grimace.
Then, although Ye Zichen wasn’t sure when he got there, Venerate Spirit Treasure whispered something in his ear. “Even if he makes it back, his days won’t be pleasant!”
“You’re showing up now of all times?” The Great Sage glared at Venerate Spirit Treasure. “I asked you to help so many times, but you just stood back and watched! I really called you my brother for nothing.”
The Great Sage didn’t have the Ruyi Jingu Bang. All he had was an ordinary wooden staff.
While fighting Kui Lin’s avatar, so long as he exerted even just a little divine power, the staff would break without harming the avatar. Worse, the avatar stuck to him like glue. How could someone with as strong a temper as the Great Sage take that?
In response, he sent Venerate Spirit Treasure a transmission requesting his aid, but Venerate Spirit Treasure reacted as if he hadn’t heard anything. He just stood outside the battlefield like a spectator, unwilling to even lift a finger.
“Did you call for me just now? I didn’t realize.” Venerate Spirit Treasure grinned, and from the look on his face, it was obvious that he had in fact received the transmission. He just hadn’t felt like intervening.
Fortunately, nothing had gone wrong, and the Great Sage didn’t feel like arguing with him. He simply swung his arms and ignored him.
Ye Zichen, meanwhile, wasn’t interested in the Great Sage and Venerate Spirit Treasure’s little spat. He was more concerned about what Venerate Spirit Treasure had said just before that.
“Even if he makes it back, his days won’t be pleasant?”
Something suddenly occurred to him, and his eyes flashed with ambiguous light. “Venerate Spirit Treasure, are you saying….”
Venerate Spirit Treasure smiled in response, but said nothing. He simply looked around, as if to say that this wasn’t the place to discuss this.
Ye Zichen understood, and didn’t push. Soon, the other imperial lords rushed over. All of them wanted nothing more than to find out about the mausoleum’s transcendent fortune.
“Star Master Ye…”
“I’m a bit tired, and we’ve been here too long. I imagine all of you have numerous matters to attend to back at your respective factions as well. How about we head back for now? We can discuss everything else later.”
“That works too.”
….
….
….
When the group left the lower plane and returned to the God Realm, it was already night time.
The great emperors left, one by one, which Ye Zichen was glad of. After seeing them off, he returned to the Tenth Divine Mountain. However, this time, Gu Li’s group went with him.
What gave him an even bigger headache was that Gu Luolin decided to stick around too.
Upheaval City!
This was the city at the heart of the Tenth Divine Mountain. Ye Zichen had made the city the Upheaval Alliance’s base of operations, so he named the city accordingly.
Even deep into the night, the city was still well-lit.
The rulers who’d escaped the first era were here, and they’d split into patrols to keep watch outside the city’s walls.
Their patrols didn’t just cover the city and its periphery; it covered the surrounding million-mile radius too.
“This is your territory?” Gu Luolin batted her large eyes and looked at Ye Zichen. She’d naturally. heard about the emergence of a tenth Divine Mountain too, but at the time, she didn’t know it belonged to her nephew, so she hadn’t asked much about it.
Now, seeing this for herself, Gu Luolin discovered that her nephew was far more badass than she imagined.
He had a million rulers and diviners just keeping watch. Although, in terms of experts, he couldn’t compete with the Gu Family, this massive display of military might would make anyone sigh in admiration.
“Zichen, you’re back!”
As soon as they stepped into the city, Xiao Yumei appeared leading a crowd. The group behind her consisted of Xiao Yan and other higher-ups of the Upheaval Alliance.
“So, you’re my nephew’s wife?” Before Ye Zichen could say anything, Gu Luolin beat him to the punch.
“Uh….” Xiao Yumei fell silent, unsure of what to say.
Ye Zichen had alerted her of their return in advance, but since time was short, he hadn’t told her anything about their adventures in the mausoleum in detail. She’d heard nothing about Ye Zichen’s little aunt.
“Yumei, arrange for rooms for them. I have some other matters to attend to, so unless the alliance’s affairs are particularly urgent, tell me about them tomorrow.”
“Alright.” Xiao Yumei gestured for Gu Li and Gu Luolin to follow her, but Ye Zichen kept Venerate Spirit Treasure behind. They nodded at each other, and then two of them headed to Ye Zichen’s quarters.
They then sat in his courtyard’s pavilion and met each other’s gaze.
“Venerate Spirit Treasure, might I ask…”
Venerate Spirit Treasure smiled, took out a cell phone, and passed it to Ye Zichen. It was the exact same one Ye Zichen had given him not long ago.
Ye Zichen took a deep breath, then accepted it. He unlocked its welcome screen and saw that its social media app was open.
His three most recent contacts, aside from Ye Zichen, were two avatar-less accounts.
“This is….”
“That old guy agreed to cooperate with us,” said Venerate Spirit Treasure with a grin. Then, he pointed to the person at the top of his contacts list. “That’s Red Demon. Just now, I spoke with him a bit, and before he left, he asked me to thank you on his behalf.”
Red Demon!
Ye Zichen still had an impression of him. He was one of the Six Demons, and he was still loyal to the former Demon Emperor. In the mausoleum, he’d announced that he was here to avenge his master. It was also clear that he knew that Kui Lin was involved in the former Demon Emperor’s disappearance.
If he’d asked Venerate Spirit Treasure to pass on his thanks, it seemed he’d heard news of the former Demon Emperor.
This time, he’d returned to the Demon Realm, and the former Demon Emperor had suddenly made an appearance…
“Did he leave the dungeons?”
When Ye Zichen had gone to the dungeons to visit him, the Demon Emperor showed no willingness to cooperate at all.
“He left a few days ago. Xue Yang knows about the situation too, but out of concern for the Xue Family’s reputation, he doesn’t dare let too many people find out. But not long ago, his ex-wife Zhao Qianling went back. If I’m not mistaken, the geezer’s currently waiting for Kui Lin inside Kui Lin’s very own Demon Palace!” Venerate Spirit Treasure laughed gleefully.
“Good!” Ye Zichen slapped his thigh. The emergence of the former Demon Emperor had come at just the right moment.
Although it would take time to change the demons’ leadership and begin a new dynasty, Ye Zichen trusted that the former Demon Emperor’s authority still remained, and that many inhabitants of the Demon Realm had once been his subordinates.
The former Demon Emperor’s return would revitalize the demon race. Ye Zichen dared say that a full half of the realm’s clans would pledge their allegiance to him, resulting in internal division. As for the remaining half, they couldn’t possibly just ally themselves with Kui Lin. They’d undoubtedly watch and see how things played out. When the time came, Ye Zichen would send Kui Lin a “generous gift”…. This time, they weren’t just playing around!
