The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 264 Rescuing Yan Chong

With all the speed he could muster, Chu Xun zipped through the sky as quickly as lightning at Mach 2.5. Even with his fortified endurance, he could not help feeling his skin burning because of the air friction.

At the same time, the entire Haiqing City erupted to life at the rumbling coming from the motors of several dozen army trucks rushing towards the western suburbs of the city.

The journey from the army garrison to there, which should have taken at least an hour via transportation took Chu Xun only ten minutes.

It was already dark and the numerous factories in the vicinity loomed ominously in the twilight like predators skulking in the shadows, waiting to pounce.

His Divine Sense projected forth like a wave, sweeping through everything within a radius of a thousand meters, and his mind filled with images of everything that he sensed.

But the area was just too wide and Chu Xun needed to change directions every now and then randomly to cover more ground as fast as possible.

In the end, he landed atop the bough of an ancient tree and spread his Divine Sense again. Then he saw it. His eyes gleamed with recognition and he leaped, taking off again and streaking towards where he saw him.

From afar, he finally found Yan Chong, now lying in a pool of his own blood.

His eyes took on a cold and distant shine as he turned outraged, eager to spill blood on account of what his subordinate had suffered. He slung out an arm, casting a spell that shrouded over the fallen Yan Chong to prevent any more blood loss.

He examined him and the fury in his eyes subsided. Yan Chong was still alive; he was still breathing and his heart was still beating, albeit weakly.

His hands weaved another spell and the effects of another enchantment—a light dome that glowed as brilliantly as the Sun arched and covered over Yan Chong—came into view, shining conspicuously in the low-light environment.

The Rally of Light Enchantment.

With a grunt, Chu Xun forced out a drop of his True Blood. The scarlet drop of blood glittered with a bright golden sheen bouncing from the enchantment and Chu Xun pushed magically into Yan Chong’s forehead, and the latter shuddered unconsciously.

His skin began to radiate a soft red glimmer; Chu Xun’s True Blood was doing its work to help heal him.

Chu Xun weaved another hand seal. This time, the pool of blood began to move as if imbued with a life of its own, streaming back into Yan Chong through the pores on his skin.

Then Chu Xun injected more spurts of Hong Meng Immortal Qi into Yan Chong to help him regenerate any broken bones and internal organs.

There was so much blood loss that it took a long time for every drop of blood to return back into him.

Even when Jiu You and the others arrived, the process was still far from over.

“Damn it, Yan...” an angered Lei Bao breathed at the sight of his fallen comrade, his eyes blazing with grudge like a predator on the hunt.

“Silence, let Chu Xun concentrate on saving him,” growled Jiu You quietly.

It took another half-hour for all the blood to return back to Yan Chong. But he was still unconscious. He was still missing a great portion of his blood; most of them were lost during his escape while the rest had seeped into the ground. It was fortunate that Chu Xun managed to arrive on time to prevent more from being gone.

At least, for now, Yan Chong’s life was saved.

And it was, in great part, due to his greatsword. The pursuers’ attention had fallen to his Sacred Relic after incapacitating him and that caused them to neglect to deal him the fatal stroke or not even Chu Xun could do anything to rescue him.

Chu Xun disengaged his enchantments and fed Yan Chong a herb—a Blood-red Blossom, before channeling some powers into him to precipitate its effects.

Blood-red Blossoms help regenerate blood. Hospitals would have no shortage of blood supply, but it would do Yan Chong no good by transfusing blood from unknown strangers into him. It could potentially damage his magical cultivation so greatly that not even another drop of True Blood could repair.

After that, Chu Xun had Pan Zihao order some of his men to bring Yan Chong back to their encampment.

With Yan Chong taken away by a few of his soldiers, Pan Zihao reported with a salute, “We’ve secured all the exits with soldiers; awaiting further instructions now.”

“You’d do nothing. Just make sure nobody gets in or out,” said Chu Xun calmly, although everyone who heard him could see that this was only a calm before the storm.

But he ordered Pan Zihao to get to somewhere safe. There was little a common man without magic could do.

He led Jiu You and the others towards the deeper parts of the industrial area. The trail of blood that Yan Chong left earlier might have led his pursuers to him, but now it served to point Chu Xun to his quarries.

Chu Xun and his companions followed the trail of blood while he maintained the projection of his Divine Sense, taking note of everything that came within a thousand meters as they pressed on.

...

Inside an abandoned factory, a flagstone slab on the ground groaned sideways, revealing a yawning cave entrance that emitted a dozen shadowy figures.

“We need to leave at once,” said one of them.

“Master Mocheng... what about the girls,” asked another in heavily-accented Huaxia tongue.

“How about you let me have that greatsword, Master Songchuan. I promise you I get you another flock of girls. You have my word that they will be better in quality than the ones now.”

“@#￥%...”

The look on the face of the man whose name was Mocheng darkened at his offer being rebuffed.

“Go,” he barked to the others.

Under the cover of the night, dozens of them stepped out of the factory, preparing to leave.

“Maybe you should just stay,” a disembodied voice boomed from the darkness.

Everyone froze. They jerked their heads in the direction where the voice had come from and four persons stepped out of the shadows.

“Chu the Devil,” one of the men observed testily, eyeing the newcomers nervously like a chicken facing a snake.

Hardly any member of the Broken Souls Cult would ever fail to recognize Chu Xun, not when he is now the Number One nemesis of the Cult.

“The Broken Souls Cult,” commented Chu Xun dryly, his brows furrowing with interest.

Their trademark attire of dark hooded cloaks and masked faces could only mean one thing: these are members of the Broken Souls Cult.

“That’s a gorgeous little one,” remarked the man called Songchuan with a hungry look in his eyes transfixed on Jiu You.

Mocheng scowled quietly on the inside. “Great, as if you cannot find a better time to compliment a little girl...”

“You’re the wandering warriors from Fusang, aren’t you?” asked Chu Xun, studying the men, “You must be the ones who attacked the army encampment.”

The stranger called Songchuan never once took his eyes off Jiu You, ignoring what Chu Xun said. Instead, he hissed hushedly to his colleague, “Take this girl for me, Master Mocheng, and I’ll trade you the greatsword for her.”

Unbeknownst to him, his colleague named Mocheng was already feeling his knees buckling; hardly anyone from the Broken Souls Cult did not know Jiu You.

Swoosh!

Before Chu Xun could give the order, Jiu You lunged like a tigress. Her lithe frame glowed with a strange radiance as she pounced, her silvery spear leading the charge like a lance pointing straight at Songchuan’s throat.

Chu Xun chuckled weakly, then he said, “You lot too. Go. But don’t kill them. I need them alive.”

He needed some information on the true purpose of the wanderers being here after traversing across perilous seas to come here.

A chill swept up Songchuan’s spine as he froze for a split-second. Never had he expected that an adorable little girl like Jiu You could emanate such an intense and thick aura of malice.

Swoosh!

Drawing his long curved saber from its sheathe, Songchuan’s aura spiked. Then he raised his saber, its tip glinting proudly in the light when he raised it aloft.

Clang!

A sharp clamor of steel clashing resounded. His curved saber hit Jiu You’s spear, kicking up more sparks like fireworks with a trail of glitter following the tip of her spear whenever she swung it around.

Songchuan snarled and somersaulted in the air, rolling backwards and landing with so great a force that the ground cracked under his feet. Then he looked up in horror and disbelief at Jiu You.

Swoosh!

Brandishing her silver spear, Jiu You renewed her charge at Songchuan again, her weapon giving off more sparkling trails off its tip like a belt on stars in a pitch-black night.

Clang! Clang!

The burst of sparks from their fierce melee lit up the darkness of the night as Jiu You’s spear hummed, gaining more speed at each clash against its foe, churning up more auric bolts in its images that hurled themselves forward.

But Songchuan was hardly giving up; his unpredictable style and strokes aimed with intense doggedness at Jiu You’s vital areas.

Chu Xun observed the battle with his brows furrowed. By the usual standards of the strengths of Huaxia warriors, Songchuan’s powers should place him as a Second-grade Human King.

Cold fury burned like embers in Jiu You’s eyes as a palpable aura of malice swirled about her with the sharp tip of her spear twinkling brightly. She might not be a Second-grade Human King, but she was very close to being one, and the formidable Sacred Relic spear she wielded only made her all the more a dangerous foe.

The shocks coming from their clash pounded the ground relentlessly, threatening to split the earth and more energy bolts in the image of the spear burst out like a hive of wasps swarming at Songchuan with breakneck speed and he could only swing his saber around wildly, desperately defending himself.

A flurry of metallic clangors rang out.

Songchuan snarled defiantly. Then came a metallic snap that replicated into several repetitions; his weapon could take no more abuse. Its blade broke into shards and splinters. Yet before he could react, one of the spear-like energy bolts whizzed by and slammed into his arm. Warm blood sprayed around, and the stroke almost cut off his entire arm.

Jiu You contemplated her handiwork with silence. Her face turned to stone and she bolted forward again, eager to not give her enemy any respite and the tip of her spear snapped endlessly at Songchuan’s throat like a ruthless snake.

Panicking, Songchuan threw an arm over his back and seized the nape of his cloak and grabbed the handle of another weapon: Yan Chong’s greatsword. He pulled it to his front, using it as a shield. Jiu You’s spear hit its stout, wide blade with a litany of metallic rings at first, before an exploding force sent him hurtling away.

Songchuan, still holding on perilously to the greatsword, looked up at Jiu You in horror.

“A noble Huaxia weapon like this is unfit for the likes of you,” Jiu You’s babyish voice resounded before she attacked like lightning.

Songchuan tried to bring up the greatsword to parry the attack. But this was no longer his saber, light and nimble, but instead a heavy and clumsy greatsword that he lacked the finesse to wield. Jiu You’s spear lanced through his shoulder and she lobbed him into the air.

Songchuan howled painfully with blood pouring out his shoulder. He just barely looked up and the first thing he saw was the glint of Jiu You’s spear bearing down on his throat with intense rancor.

Songchuan rolled like a barrel ingloriously backwards, hurling the heavy greatsword at Jiu You while he was at it, and he bolted away quickly like a hare.

Jiu You evaded the greatsword with a side-step that reached a staggering dozen of meters, turning into a blur of light that shot after the fleeing Songchuan.

In his panic, Songchuan did not realize he was running right into Chu Xun.

Slightly surprised at first, Chu Xun’s lips curled into a grin. He weaved a hand seal with only one hand and it rose, pointing at the sky.

Answering his summons, a gigantic purplish fist descended from the sky and pounded on Songchuan, engulfing him a rolling mass of flying dust and gravel as the ground shook.

The Demon-slaughtering Palm that Chu Xun had not used for quite some time.

When the dust finally settled, all that was left was a crater with long, jagged cracks on the ground and in the center was a disheveled Songchuan, now planted into the ground.

Chu Xun had used only a fraction of the attack’s full force. He needed his quarry alive or he could have easily reduced him to dust.

“Wait, Jiu Y...!”

Bang!

Jiu You’s spear came from behind, lancing through Songchuan’s heart before it shook, ripping his entire torso into ribbons of blood and viscera.

Exasperated, Chu Xun smiled bleakly. Songchuan’s earlier behavior must have angered Jiu You so much that she really wanted to kill him.

The cold fury extinguished from her look, and she turned back into the playful little kitten she always was, smiling sheepishly.

“Come here.”

Like a little child being caught making a mistake, she came obediently as she was told, and put up a radiantly cheerful face, trying to please him.

Chu Xun sighed and stroked the mat of purplish hair on her head, then he pinched softly her little round cheek, saying, “The next time you disobey me again, I’ll have you sent to Emperor Ao and keep you there.”

She pouted and nodded, vexed.

“All right, now run along,” Chu Xun said, amused, “Remember, I want them alive. They can be useful.”

Jiu You nodded and trotted off into battle with her silver spear.

Mocheng roared with blood and anger. Lei Bao has been keeping him at bay with his sword breaker shining with a dark glow, throwing one powerful attack after another with hardly any reservation.

Bang!

Another scream from Mocheng ensued. Lei Bao had brought down his sword breaker on his back, breaking some of his ribs while almost crushing his heart while he was at it.

“Filthy trash, how dare you collude with these wanderers! You’ve brought disgrace to all Huaxia warriors!”

As he snarled, Lei Bao sent two more lightning bolts at his foe. With another blood-curdling howl, Mocheng emerged scorched-black like soot.

“Consider yourself lucky that you still have some value.”

With that sneer, Lei Bao turned around and found himself other quarries.

Aside from the now-dead Songchuan, the rest of the Cultists were only First-grade Human Kings.

Whereas Jiu You and her companions were all comparable to Second-grade Human Kings. That made mopping up the rest of the Cultist a one-sided trample.

In just a matter of seconds, they made short work of the Cultists.

At Chu Xun’s behest, Pan Zihao then came with some men and apprehended the defeated Cultists.