The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 263 Investigation

In only a little more than an hour, the entirety of Haiqing City turned into the warriors’ worst nightmare as thousands of battle pets were slaughtered that day and just as many warriors either maimed or wounded.

Still, even in the aftermath, no one yet knew who the people behind all this atrocity were.

What was more mind-boggling were the behavior of the soldiers who had always given the warriors and their pets a wide berth in the past. As if succumbing to a mindless frenzy, they too began to fire their weapons at every beast that appeared in their line of sights, aiming specifically for their heads that some of the beasts ended up blind and even if they managed to survive the massacre.

A blind battle pet was as good as a useless one that left their owners the only choice of killing them themselves.

Nevertheless, there were also warriors who were quick and sharp of mind. One only had to ponder about any possible names in the domain of Martial Tao who could mobilize the army at his behest, and he or she would quickly realize the identity of the person behind the bloodbaths of Haiqing City.

Stunned silence would come to those who eventually realized who it was. With the great number of battle pets still alive in Haiqing City, there was no way that they could be fully exterminated in a short time. Eventually, that culminated in the stampede of wild beasts veering away Haiqing City and countless other warriors moved away, bringing their battle pets with them to escape the purge.

On this day, Chu Xun and Pan Zihao watched more warriors leaving the city with their pets from their perch atop Haiqing City’s tallest building.

Pan Zihao stood as straight as a pole. He stole a glance at the man beside him and could not help feeling proud for being able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the man he admired greatly.

“Next, have the soldiers quietly seek out any news about the Fusang wanderers. Do nothing to alert them. We only want intelligence.” The Fusang wandering warriors each carried unique powers and capabilities that made them substantially stronger than common soldiers.

Lei Bao came, carrying his long sword breaker and still heaving after his last bout of butchery. He saw Chu Xun and muttered a grumble, “These vermins are fleeing too quickly. I’ve yet to have enough of my fill.”

It did not take long for them to be joined with the others—Yan Chong, Jiu You, and Winsome Widow.

“My Lord,” said Winsome Widow, reverently handing up the short dagger with two hands.

“Keep it,” said Chu Xun. One Sacred Relic was a small price to pay for his subjects’ loyalty.

Overjoyed, Winsome Widow gasped, “Why, thank you, my Lord.”

Jiu You’s pretty eyes blinked, and a mischievous smile broke broadly on her little round face.

“What’s so funny?” asked a dubious-looking Chu Xun.

“My respects to you, O’ Great Lord,” Jiu You squeaked playfully.

“Er...”

Chu Xun was left stunned and bewildered for a split-second before smiling abashedly himself. He had never put mind into it, but now that he heard Jiu You addressing him as “Lord”, it sounded strange and weird, if not incongruent and confusing, since Yan Yi and Wu Busi addressed him as “Master” at times.

“Or we could just settle by ‘Chief’? It sounds magnanimous while friendly too,” grinned Lei Bao.

Winsome Widow cast him a sidelong glare. “One would think we’re addressing the leader of some neighborhood thugs. I would suggest we all use the term ‘Master’, since no matter us of the Fire Dragon Palace or the Tianwu Sect, we are all subjects of the Chu Mansion.”

Yan Chong nodded his assent quietly.

“As you wish,” said Chu Xun. Names and titles were the last thing on his mind, especially when the domain of the Martial Tao has had coined no less of titles for him alone.

“Master, do you have news about those filthy wanderers? My sword breaker is eager to spill some more blood,” said Lei Bao, licking his lips eagerly.

“We’re still investigating,” a cold gleam flashed in Chu Xun’s eyes, “They dare ambush the army garrison. For that, they’d better forsake any hopes of leaving unscathed.”

“There could be more than meets the eyes than just some simple incursions by these wanderers into Huaxia region,” observed Yan Chong.

“Damn those mysteries, we’ll just kill them all,” scowled Lei Bao impatiently.

“Yan Chong might be right,” remarked Chu Xun, “With the anomalies going on everywhere, the region of Fusang is surrounded by sea. They don’t get many wild beasts there, but they’d have no shortage of sea monsters. To traverse all that to come to Huaxia, I’m afraid there really is more that we have to find out.”

“Could it be due to the ancient ruins found outside the city?” pointed out Winsome Widow.

“I don’t think some millennia-old ancient rubble is enough to have these people wade through thousands of miles of mortal danger to come here...” murmured Chu Xun, his brows furrowed in deep thought. Then he said, “Although it could be it—if the ruins hide something that they seek.”

News about the discovery of the ancient ruins had been blazing through Haiqing City for nearly two months, and the chatter had not yet subsided.

Strangely, the ancient ruins appeared only during the middle of every month. Whenever it materialized, the entire necropolis would emit a bright radiance so great that one would think the entire mountaintop was glowing.

“No matter what reasons they have, they cannot be allowed to leave alive,” hissed Chu Xun, his gaze locked on the long stream of warriors and beasts flowing out of the city, his lips curling with malice.

The anomalies occurring everywhere on Earth had ushered in an age of warriors where the common rules and laws of Men could no longer govern them and the common folk lost what rights, freedom, and interests that once belonged to everyone. He could have easily ignored this new status quo, but unconsciously, he was trying to rebuild for the common folk a safer and fairer world.

Was it due to the bone of the Ancestral Dragon, or was it due to his change of perspective since returning to Earth, he could not well say.

He had once heard Emperor Ao mentioning how the first Ancestral Dragon sacrificed itself in protection of the common folk.

In fact, Emperor Ao had once asked for his help to defend the common folk. He might not have given his word, yet somehow, he began to work to the best interests of the common people.

Chu Xun had never been a warm and caring person and he was always insensitive towards life and death. Life in the other world was hundreds, or even thousand times worse than Earth. After all, his path from a weak and helpless Cultivator of magic to the throne of Immortal Emperor would never have been possible without trampling over the innumerable remains of his fallen enemies.

His indifference to the fragileness of life might have taken a turn since his return to Earth, still, Chu Xun remained a leopard who failed to change all of his spots.

Among the habits he failed to change included his doggedness to repay to others what was given to him, be it kindness or vengeance.

“Should we help with the investigations on the wanderers too, my Lord?” asked Yan Chong.

Chu Xun pondered quietly before he nodded gently.

And Yan Chong left with the others.

Together with Jiu You and Pan Zihao, Chu Xun returned to the army encampment to await more information.

The ancient ruins appeared on the fifteenth day last month. With the thirteenth day today, they still have two more days until the ruins reappear again.

Because of his Evocation of Heavenly Secrets that accorded him a heightened sense of premonition, Chu Xun felt an inexplicable dread rearing its head inside him.

Lei Bao and Winsome Widow rejoined them in the evening. Moments later, Chu Xun felt his cell phone vibrating. It was a picture transmitted to him from Yan Chong. It was a photograph of an abandoned factory, although the quality of the image was badly blurred.

“I can’t get through to him,” said Winsome Widow after trying a few times and being patched to voicemails; his phone must be off.

“Where is this place?” Chu Xun showed the picture to Pan Zihao.

“The industrial area of Haiqing City is in the western suburbs. But most of the facilities there were built using the same design. I’m afraid I can’t say which facility this is just through this picture,” said Pan Zihao.

“Get all your men into the western suburbs now. Surround that place,” barked Chu Xun.

Pan Zihao immediately gave the order with hardly any hesitation.

“I’ll head there first. Come as soon as you can,” said Chu Xun before he hurriedly turned into a jet of light that shot into the sky and he vanished out of sight.

At the western suburbs of Haiqing City, a figure staggered with faltering steps, leaving drops of blood spattering on the ground behind him.

It was Yan Chong and he was seriously wounded. A terrible wound slashed from his shoulder down to his abdomen, almost splitting his stomach open.

Behind him, several shadowy figures gave chase, hounding him after the trails of his blood on the ground.

Yan Chong could hardly stop the bleeding; the wound was just too deep and long for him to properly bandage it.

“Damn it,” he cursed. The loss of too much blood was making him giddy and his legs weighed like lead, and he had had to put away his greatsword back into his Storage Ring.

“He won’t be far; he’s been badly wounded,” muttered only of the pursuers coldly, whose aura was thick and strong.

“#￥%%@...” said another of the pursuers in an unrecognizable tongue, wielding a strange-looking saber.

“Rest assured, Master Songchuan, he’s seriously injured. There’s no way he can escape.”

“@#￥%...”

“Don’t worry. Whoever he is, he will be dead and dead men tell no tales.”

The pursuers talked as they gave chase, but the conversations diminished their speed not one bit.

“There. Up ahead,” one of them remarked.

They spied Yan Chong ahead of them, and it was all because of his injuries. They not only bogged down his speed, but also provided a trail with which they could use to track him.

A whistle tore through the air over his shoulder, and he could feel it racing right at his back. He smiled weakly, knowing that he would never outrun his pursuers, and he spun around to face them.

“Who are you? Why are you here?” demanded one of his pursuers.

“I’m your grandfather,” Yan Chong sneered mockingly.

What heat in the air seemed to be lost as the pursuer’s aura grew colder at his response, “Your nonsense has no place here.”

“As if I don’t know,” scoffed Yan Chong frankly, “But I can’t resist giving you a jab.”

“Spare us your witty nonsense, and perhaps we’d do you the favor of giving you a quick death.”

“I’m dying anyway. But calling me ‘grandfather’ make me feel really happy even before I die,” teased Yan Chong again, wiping away the blood at the corner of his lips.

“You realize you’re prodding us to kill you right now?” hissed the pursuer insidiously.

“Get on with it then. Are the goons of the Broken Souls Cult as chatty as you?”

“I see. So you’re here for us,” spat the pursuer viciously, his eyes gleaming with cold fury.

“Of course. Why else would I come to a place as Heaven-forsaken as this?” jabbed Yan Chong again.

“Who are you actually? How did you find this place?”

The sarcasm in Yan Chong’s voice grew, “Would you kill yourself in shame if I were to say I followed you here?”

“That’s impossible,” denied the pursuer bluntly.

“Nothing is impossible. You went to the downtown in the afternoon, where you met up with him...” Yan Chong gestured to another of the pursuers. “Then you came here together. Am I right?”

He was right, and that made the two men stirred uneasily.

“Like I told you before, if this is single combat, killing you would be just as easy as killing dogs,” scoffed Yan Chong derisively. The pursuers were no stronger than he was, and he was armed with a Sacred Relic. But it was their superior number and him being caught off-guard that he nearly lost and die with his belly split open.

“WHO ARE YOU?” asked the pursuers again coldly, once again returning to this question.

“It doesn’t matter who I am. What matters is that you won’t survive the night,” guffaw Yan Chong again and more blood trickled out his lips. He was sure Chu Xun would already be on his way here.

“Very well. Since you refuse to tell, we’ll just have to send you down to Hell,” apparently the pursuers have no interest in prolonging the encounter since Yan Chong was not giving up anything.

Swoosh!

He raised a hand and channeled his Internal Breath, focusing them on his hand and he hurled a bolt of energy at Yan Chong.

Trying desperately to channel his own powers, but to no avail, all Yan Chong did was only to vomit more blood with excruciating pain. In the nick of time, he flicked his wrist and his greatsword appeared in his grasp.

Boom!

The white bolt of light struck on the blade of his sword, and a terrible ripple of shock wave burst forth, knocking Yan Chong off his feet for 100 meters. More blood poured out, dyeing the front of his robes in a smear of morbid scarlet, yet he adamantly held on to his sword.

Life was ebbing swiftly out of him, he could feel, and the vertigo hardly subsided, if it did not grow. Darkness filled what remained of his bloody vision and he could only manage a bitter smile before his focus scattered and his eyes closed.

The pursuer who dealt the blow burned with a strong desire; he had been coveting Yan Chong’s Sacred Relic since they met.

But a shadowy figure—one of his fellow pursuers—reached Yan Chong before he could and the figure took the greatsword for himself.

“What is this, Master Songchuan?”

“#@￥%&*...”

Hearing this, he retorted darkly, “I killed the man, Master Songchuan. The sword should be mine.”

“Master Mocheng, this man is here because you erred. And how would you have defeated him if not for me heavily hurting him before? Hence the sword should be mine,” said this Fusang wanderer in an accented Huaxia tongue, his eyes gleaming mockingly.