Chapter 1539 - Returning the Earth-Binding Chains

Just as Achiel released his aura, sent the four guards flying, and stepped toward the Ancestral Hall, a yell rang out from behind, "Achiel, you're getting bolder by the day. How dare you injure my guards!"

The words had barely fallen when a palm descended from the sky toward Achiel. The aura behind him pressed down like a mountain, even stronger than Achiel's, reaching the second-level Heaven Gaze Realm.

Achiel had his back toward the attacker, and he couldn't react in time before the palm reached his spine. The strike carried no murderous intent and only aimed to punish him, but if it landed, it would still leave him unable to rise for a long time.

At that instant, a palm appeared out of nowhere as Liu Wuxie finally made a move. He cast the Great Five Elemental Mythical Art and struck out lightly.

An invisible ripple burst outward like a violent gale, sweeping through the surrounding stone statues and toppling them in every direction. A restriction blanketed the entire Sky City, so even if experts at the Heaven Gaze Realm fought here, the commotion wouldn't differ much from a battle between cultivators at the Void Realm.

Without that restriction, a battle between cultivators at the Heaven Gaze Realm would have destroyed the Sky City.

After Liu Wuxie intercepted the palm, he turned and saw a woman leading a group of attendants rushing toward them. The moment Liu Wuxie saw the woman leading the group, his eyes narrowed. Her beauty stole his breath.

Liu Wuxie had seen countless beauties in his lifetime, and even his wife, Xu Lingxue, could take one's breath away. Even his other wives each possessed their own breathtaking charm.

Yet the woman before him differed completely from them. She carried a pure, sacred beauty that felt untouched by dust. White draped her from head to toe, and layers of white gauze wrapped her delicate body, but strangely, Liu Wuxie couldn't see any wings behind her.

Since entering the city, Liu Wuxie had observed that every Spirit Clan member possessed a pair of wings. However, this woman stood apart from that rule.

Her skin looked so delicate that it seemed it would break with a touch, and her jet-black hair rose in a simple style, held by a cheap wooden hairpin that only made her seem more dignified and regal. Her long legs ran a notch longer than a human's, and her tender, beautiful eyes resembled two crystal grapes.

She appeared to be in her late teens, a healthy blush tinting her cheeks, and youthful energy radiating from her. Standing there, she resembled a goddess. Everything about her made men want to bow by instinct, not from desire, but from reverence.

More than that, her cultivation at the Heaven Gaze Realm at such a young age genuinely startled Liu Wuxie. She looked eighteen or nineteen, yet her bone age leaned closer to twenty-three or twenty-four, roughly the same as Liu Wuxie.

The woman's gaze also landed on Liu Wuxie, and she saw something different in him. Unlike other humans, Liu Wuxie looked at her with pure admiration, not the possessive lust other men carried.

"Cousin, you came at the perfect time! I have urgent matters to report to the chieftain!" Achiel rushed over, not angry in the slightest. The breathtaking woman turned out to be Achiel's elder cousin.

"The chieftain is in seclusion. Tell me if you have anything to report," the woman said, reining in her expression as she instructed Achiel to speak to her. She didn't even mention that Achiel had brought a human into the Sky City.

Achiel was her younger cousin. They might have grown up together, but their status stood worlds apart.

"The Feathered Emperor has returned," Achiel said. He couldn't tell others, but he didn't hide it from his cousin, because she was the Feathered Emperor's descendant, and that bloodline ran through her veins.

"What?!" she faltered, hearing that, and the two attendants behind her rushed forward to support her.

"Repeat what you said," the woman demanded, convinced she had misheard.

"The Feathered Emperor has returned," Achiel said, raising his voice. Even the two attendants heard it clearly, and they almost stumbled.

The woman's name was Ariel, the saintress of the Spirit Clan and the heir to the next chieftain. The Spirit Clan's inheritance differed greatly from that of the human race; they practiced matriarchy, and each generation's saintress inherited the chieftain's position.

The current chieftain was Ariel's mother. That meant Ariel would marry and bear children, then others would raise the boy, while the girl would become the next saintress and inherit the mantle.

"Do you know the consequences of deceiving me?" Ariel asked, anger surfacing on her face. The Feathered Emperor was her ancestor, the strongest ancestor the Spirit Clan had produced in the past hundreds of thousands of years.

Yet the Feathered Emperor had fallen hundreds of thousands of years ago, and only a handful of people in the Spirit Clan still knew of him. Achiel was also a descendant of the Feathered Emperor, so he naturally knew the legendary ancestor existed.

"Let's speak elsewhere," Achiel said, pulling Ariel aside because too many people were looking at them. They moved closer to Liu Wuxie, to a spot with no one else nearby.

Only then did Ariel glance at Liu Wuxie, wariness settling on her face.

"Feathered Emperor, you can take out the Earth-Binding Chains now," Achiel said.

Feathered Emperor served as a title of reverence in the Spirit Clan, and no more than three had ever inherited that title in their history. Since ancient times, the Spirit Clan had lived under a matriarchal order, and only three generations had ever let men rule as the Feathered Emperor.

Liu Wuxie glanced at the woman before him and circulated his soul energy, summoning the Earth-Binding Chains from his soul sea. The instant it appeared, the entire Sky City trembled as countless people sensed it.

Ariel dropped to her knees at once, mirroring exactly what Achiel had done during their first meeting when Liu Wuxie had revealed the Earth-Binding Chains.

The guards and attendants fell to their knees as well, and the scene turned strange and solemn. The Earth-Binding Chains appeared only briefly before vanishing again, returning to Liu Wuxie's soul sea.

"The Earth-Binding Chains! How does he possess the Earth-Binding Chains!" Ariel rose with confusion twisting across her face. She couldn't understand how the Earth-Binding Chains could appear on a mere human, because even among the Spirit Clan, only descendants of the Feathered Emperor could control them.

"Cousin, this isn't the place to speak. Let's go to the chieftain," Achiel whispered.

Ariel drew a deep breath to steady her shock, then immediately led the guards into the castle. This time, no one tried to stop Liu Wuxie and Achiel.

When they entered the castle, the furnishings proved far more lavish than Liu Wuxie had expected. Astral crystals paved the floor, no fewer than ten million.

Liu Wuxie had nearly thrown his life away to borrow fifteen million astral crystals, yet the Spirit Clan used astral crystals to pave a floor as though they were gravel. And it wasn't only the astral crystals; the surrounding walls and pillars were made of rare materials that could fetch astronomical prices on the open market.

Ariel left at once, most likely to inform the chieftain. Meanwhile, guards lined both sides of the hall to prevent Liu Wuxie from escaping. With the Earth-Binding Chains involved, the Spirit Clan naturally wouldn't allow him to leave their territory.

The Spirit Clan had lost the Earth-Binding Chains for countless years, so bringing them back carried immense meaning.

Time ticked by, and about fifteen minutes later, an elderly woman walked into the main hall with Ariel following behind her. The elderly woman was likely the Spirit Clan's chieftain.

The moment she appeared, an immense aura swept toward Liu Wuxie, and her cultivation at the Quasi-Immortal Realm pressed down so heavily that it made his bones feel cramped.

The Heavenly Dao Book opened, and the pressure lifted immediately.

When their eyes met, shock flickered through the elderly woman's gaze. She clearly hadn't expected Liu Wuxie to withstand her pressure, especially when Achiel stood to the side, trembling in tears. Part of it came from status, but more of it came from the sheer oppression a powerhouse at the Quasi-Immortal Realm could unleash.

"Where did you obtain the Earth-Binding Chains?" After the elderly woman sat down, she questioned Liu Wuxie without offering him a seat.

The guards on both sides withdrew, leaving only the elderly woman, Ariel, Liu Wuxie, and Achiel in the main hall. Ariel sat beside the elderly woman, eyes fixed on Liu Wuxie, curious about the man before her.

"Greetings, Senior!" Liu Wuxie bowed and recounted his encounter with the Feathered Emperor without omitting a single detail.

When the elderly woman learned the Feathered Emperor had fallen, bleakness settled over her face. After the Feathered Emperor had vanished, the Spirit Clan had declined steadily.

"Are you willing to return the Earth-Binding Chains to our Spirit Clan?" the elderly woman asked.

"I promised the Feathered Emperor that I would return the Earth-Binding Chains to the Spirit Clan, and I came here with that purpose today," Liu Wuxie said as he summoned the Earth-Binding Chains and let them hover in the air.

Achiel couldn't collect the Earth-Binding Chains, and back at the auction, the chains had nearly blasted him away.

The elderly woman turned to Ariel and nodded. Ariel stood at once, walked up to the Earth-Binding Chains, and formed seals with her hands, imprinting them into the chains.

Then a bizarre scene unfolded: the Earth-Binding Chains behaved like a delighted child, hopping about before finally returning home.

Liu Wuxie felt the message the Earth-Binding Chains sent back. Even after he returned them, he still maintained a deep bond with them.

The Earth-Binding Chains slowly descended and hovered before Ariel, who reached out and grasped them. The chains then began to shrink until they became as thin as a strand of hair. Tears slid down Ariel's cheeks as she looked at them, because the Spirit Clan had waited countless years for their return.

"Thank you for returning the Earth-Binding Chains to our Spirit Clan. You can tell us what you need, be it wealth or beauty. Our Spirit Clan will satisfy you," the elderly woman said, allowing Liu Wuxie to name his price.

As long as the Spirit Clan could do it, they wouldn't act stingy.

Liu Wuxie frowned as soon as he heard that. What did the elderly woman take him for? He had come only to return the Earth-Binding Chains and fulfill his promise to the Feathered Emperor, and he had never once thought of using the chains as leverage to demand anything.

"I appreciate your goodwill. I have returned the Earth-Binding Chains to the Spirit Clan, and I have set one worry to rest. I'll be taking my leave now," Liu Wuxie said, cupping his fists as he turned and walked out of the hall.

He had already completed his task, and he saw no reason to remain in the Spirit Clan.

Liu Wuxie's blunt refusal startled the elderly woman, and she couldn't help wondering whether anyone in the world still valued promises so highly.

After all, Liu Wuxie had searched for the Spirit Clan's whereabouts for years for the sake of a single promise. When he found Achiel, he didn't hesitate to travel across astral domains personally to deliver the Earth-Binding Chains.

This time, even Ariel stood stunned. Everyone always said the human race was greedy, yet she couldn't see a trace of that in Liu Wuxie.

Suddenly, thumping sounds echoed the instant Liu Wuxie stepped out of the main hall. A dark mass loomed above the Sky City as the Black Crow Clan launched their assault.