The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 251 Treacherous

Chu Xun could not quite understand. Why did the silver-haired woman, a stranger to him, hate him so much, that she wanted his life?

“Have we met before?” asked Chu Xun. He failed to recall if they had seen each other once and that meeting had gone badly.

“No,” said the woman coldly with a clear and shrill, “You wouldn’t be alive now if we met before.”

“But why? Why do you hate me so?” asked Chu Xun, frowning, “At least tell me why you want me dead? Let me know the reason.”

The woman kept silent for several seconds until she finally said, “Why should a treacherous man like you need any reason to die?”

Stunned, Chu Xun fell into a fit of laughter. This woman must have mistaken him for the wrong person, he mused. But before he could explain, another voice interrupted him.

“This seat belongs to me,” said Leng Bufan coldly with an imperious glare at Chu Xun.

Chu Xun’s brows slanted curiously. His eyes flickered with a strange look. “Could she be your woman?”

“That is no concern of yours,” breathed Leng Bufan, struggling to maintain his suaveness, “Your concern should be getting out of here. Quickly.”

He deliberately conveyed his threat in an ambiguous manner.

Only, Chu Xun broke into giggles. “So she really is your woman. Well, let’s see how much love she has for you.”

He did not wait for himself to finish; forming several hand seals, he rapidly channeled a burst of his magic and sent a fistful of it at the man before him in a surprise attack.

Leng Bufan went livid. He did not expect that this stranger would dare attack him. Mustering his Internal Breath, the aura he exuded churned up strong, unnatural winds that sent the tables and chairs around him flying.

The silver-haired woman sat on the table closest to them both, yet she hardly bulged an inch. Thinking that this was Leng Bufan’s deliberate display of his magical powers, the surrounding patrons braced at Leng Bufan’s commanding level of magical cultivation and his adroit skill in controlling his Internal Breath.

A self-conceited Leng Bufan threw himself forward and took the blow with an outstretched hand.

Boom!

A deep rumble swept across the floor of the storey, with waves of shocks rippling to all directions.

Everyone thought that the unknown stranger would be defeated. Leng Bufan’s stroke would either wound him gravely or even kill him.

Only, the outcome left every onlooker dumbfounded with disbelief.

Crunch!

The piercing sound of bones cracking resounded over the silent crowd and they saw Leng Bufan sent flying with an anguished scream.

Not one expected the outcome of this short bout to end in such a way and no one could move, petrified with shock and awe.

After a series of bangs and cracks, Leng Bufan crashed to the ground, after having smashed several tables and chairs ornately furnished with golden trims, his right arm now a mangled and grotesque bag of bones.

Chu Xun raised a hand and thrust it at Leng Bufan, conjuring a purplish set of chains that shot straight at his foe.

Leng Bufan howled defiantly, his eyes a flush of red. No, he grimaced, “I won’t accept this result. How could anyone defeat me with just one blow?!”

He channeled his powers once more, his Internal Breath boiling inside him and he thrust his left palm at the incoming purple chains.

Boom!

Leng Bufan’s left palm met with the purplish chains, and the clash caused an explosion, kicking up a terrifying cyclone around the fighting man that ripped the chairs and tables apart.

Leng Bufan let loose another guttural howl of pain and it left everyone watching feeling as if their blood had run cold and their backs prickly with numbness.

Leng Bufan reeled away from the clash, his left arm now twisted at an angle which would have been impossible for an otherwise healthy arm and his hair a long untidy fringe and with blood escaping the corners of his lips. The once-sparkling clean white suit now became a set of tattered rags that he looked even more beggar-like than any other pauper outside.

Several Reincarnation Lines shot out and coiled around Leng Bufan’s limbs and neck, dragging him ignominiously like a piece of log towards Chu Xun.

Leng Bufan yelled hoarsely. Once as the proud son of a wealthy family, blessed with remarkable talents, many have pegged him to be a future prodigy who would one day achieve immortality and reign supreme over his peers. Yet here he was, dragged on the ground like a filthy piece of driftwood, defeated by a boy barely nearing him in age. How?! Impossible?! He refused to believe it. Yet before he could open his mouth to yell more, the Reincarnation Lines around his throat tightened, choking his windpipe.

Chu Xun turned back to the silver-haired woman. “Give me the spirit and I’ll give you your lover.”

The silver-haired woman had been watching the battle with just as much interest as watching paint dry. Hearing Chu Xun’s offer, she smirked, “Since when is he my lover?”

Uh?! Chu Xun almost gasped aloud, stunned.

“Don’t you lie to me,” Chu Xun muttered with ice, “Give me the spirit or I’ll kill him.”

“Be my guest,” snapped the woman with not even a beat of hesitation.

“Er...” Chu Xun wavered; the woman’s aloofness almost made him spew out curses and expletives.

“Very well then,” he said, raising a hand that swirled with Immortal Qi, “I’ll kill him.”

But the woman focused her attention on the crystal vase with not so much as a look at the injured young man now at his feet.

This time, Chu Xun was convinced. He had to believe that there was nothing at all between this young man and the woman.

“Ah...” muttered Chu Xun, sounding rather annoyed, “So you’re just a sham.” He withdrew his Reincarnation Lines and kicked Leng Bufan aside like a bag of trash.

That left Chu Xun morose. The woman seemed hardly eager to surrender Hua Qingwu’s spirit, and he had mistaken Leng Bufan as her lover. That prompted him to quickly apprehend him so that he could exchange him for the spirit. Yet after all the kettle of fish, it was all for nothing.

Leng Bufan rolled aside, lying on the ground with as much pride as a dung heap, his face contorted and bruised from the beatings and that last kick Chu Xun gave him. Anger, shame, and hatred burned in his eyes, and unable to swallow any more humiliation, he coughed up a mouthful of blood and passed out.

Caught between tears and laughter, Chu Xun could only resort to subtler methods.

“I am sure you’ve mistaken me for someone else, my lady,” said Chu Xun solemnly.

The silver-haired woman stared at him for a beat of silence and said finally, “Your name is Chu Xun, is it not?”

“Chu Xun?!”

“Chu the Devil?!”

“Chu the Ruthless?!”

Before Chu Xun could even admit, murmurs and gasps of shock ensued from the crowd of onlookers.

“My apologies to you all to have disturbed your meal, everyone,” said Chu Xun to them, clasping his fists in salute.

Everyone returned the salute reticently. No one would dare question nor contradict him, no matter he was sincere in his apologies or not.

Chu Xun’s bloody reputation, built upon the heads and carcasses of countless foes, was enough to keep everyone tame and humble.

They peered at the unconscious Leng Bufan and gloated, “You have only the stars to curse, you fool. Of all people you could’ve offended, you just have to pick Chu the Devil! Serves you right!”

“Chu the Devil... Chu the Ruthless... What fitting names for a treacherous person like you, Chu Xun,” smirked the silver-haired woman.

Chu Xun felt at a loss. The woman knew his name. Without any doubt, she must know him. “I can only plead ignorance, my lady? In what way have I been treacherous?”

“You have allowed a woman to wait for you ten thousand years. How could you bear having a woman wasting away her youth for you? Is knowledge and arcane magic really so important to you?” snapped the woman.

Still, Chu Xun failed to understand everything she said.

The onlookers all beheld the exchange with strange looks on their faces.

The woman’s eyes turned clear suddenly, looking unusually determined. But why, Chu Xun wanted to ask, why the tone as if she was interrogating a man who had betrayed his lover?

“I am absolutely sure you’ve mistaken me for someone else,” affirmed Chu Xun again.

“I knew it. I knew you wouldn’t admit,” remarked the woman.

Chu Xun could find no words to respond. Deep inside, he cursed and swore. Who in the world was this woman referring to?! Which idiot was it who had antagonized this madwoman?!

“‘I will come to you, if you have lost your way. Up to the High Heavens or down into darkest depths of the Underworld, I will come for you,'” recited the woman, glaring at Chu Xun coldly, “Those were her last words.”

Hearing that, Chu Xun felt a knot tightening in his chest. The words bore the weight and force of a tidal wave and out of nowhere, a strange sense of grief struck him so heavily that he teetered on the verge of crying.

He lost all sense of time until the corners of his robes fluttered in a gentle breeze that brushed by, jerking him back to the present. He reached up to touch his face, and felt it damp with tears.

Why? Why have I cried? A frowning Chu Xun wanted to ask, but he could not. Not with the strong grief tugging strongly at his heart.

Next second later, all that grief and sorrow mattered no more. The silver-haired woman vanished.

Chu Xun frantically operated the Evocation of Heavenly Secrets magic, and vanished too himself from the spot in hot pursuit.

As soon as he left, the floor erupted with excited murmurs and chatters about Chu Xun.

Just then, several strangers came, each of them powerful figures exuding very strong magical auras.

Their arrival once again brought the entire floor to heel and silence prevailed once more.

“Bufan,” one of them, an elderly man with a long white beard that hung down his chin, grimaced at the unsightly state of the gravely-injured Leng Bufan and he rushed over to help him up.

“WHO! WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS?! I WILL RIP HIM TO SHREDS! THIS BASTARD WHO DARES TO HURT MY SON!” bellowed one of the men, his voice rocking the entire building to its foundations.

The elderly old man fed Leng Bufan a tablet and channeled some of his magical powers into the younger man to help him heal his wounds.

A little while later, Leng Bufan regained consciousness.

“Tell Grandpa, Bufan, who was it?” asked the old man. He did not sound angry, but his stern presence was enough to make everyone feel his indomitable aura – the aura of one as mighty as a Human King—that the crowd began to feel breathless.

“I, I, I don’t know...” croaked a weakened Leng Bufan, suffocating between breaths. Yet a cold fire burned in his eyes as he kept his teeth gritted with anger.

“You there,” barked the old man at a warrior standing nearby, “Who was it?”

“It’s Chu Xun,” stammered the warrior hesitantly.

“Chu the Devil?!” gasped the old man.

Even the rest who came with him were startled as well.

But the white-haired old man recollected himself and growled, “Don’t worry, Bufan. Demon or not, Grandpa will see to it that justice is dispensed.”

But Leng Bufan shook his head. He struggled to his feet and breathed bitterly, “No. This revenge... I will carry it out myself...”

That surprised the elderly man and the others, although they nodded one after another with a consoled smile. So long as Leng Bufan was not defeated in spirit, he would one day rise up again like a phoenix from its ashes.

On the other hand, the silver-haired woman zipped at blinding speed, covering one hundred meters with each single step, racing away from Pingshun Town.

The lines on her forehead creased with deep thoughts. Why had she been feeling uncomfortable since Chu Xun appeared? Why was there a sudden ineffable wave of sadness?

She frowned suddenly as she sensed someone approaching and a faraway sonic boom from over her shoulders attested to that.

She smirked again, the rosy-red lips behind her thin gossamer veil curling slightly.

Swoosh!

She picked up more speed, bolting forward like a sliver of light.

Not far behind, taken aback by the silver-haired woman’s sudden increase in speed, Chu Xun accelerated as well, skimming speedily right above the ground.

At almost Mach 2, all that could be seen was only the silvery glitter from her long hair flowing in the wind—a single bolt of light streaking across the vast terrain. But there was a shock in her eyes. She did not expect to see Chu Xun catching up from behind. He was faster than her?!

As a matter of fact, Chu Xun was even more startled, for he sensed the aura of True Energy emanating from the woman in front.

With one hounding the other from behind, the pair kicked up sand and stones all the way like a pair of fighter planes in an intense dogfight.

It did not take long for the difference in speeds to show as Chu Xun finally caught up to her.

The woman skidded to a stop and wheeled around to glare at Chu Xun.

Chu Xun halted too, standing tens of meters away from her.

“Give it up, or I will have to retaliate,” hissed the woman coldly.

Chu Xun grinned weakly. “As if I am interested to play tag with you,” he thought quietly, but he replied with a yell, “I just want the spirit. Give it to me and I’ll leave at once.”

“Surrendering her spirit to a treacherous person like you will only sully its innocence. Rest assured that I will personally return it to its rightful owner one day.”

“I won’t give up until I have that spirit,” declared Chu Xun.

The woman’s eyes flashed with unfriendly rage. “Very well, let us see if your cultivation of magic is just as remarkable as your speed.”

Boom!

Her bright hair shot into the air, dancing wildly in the winds churned up by her peaking aura that rose and burgeoned with such intensity and might that the air crackled with fear. She performed some hand seals with one hand.

Chu Xun’s pupils constricted with disbelief at what he saw as he uttered throatily, “Wait a minute, you’re a Cultivator?!”