Chapter 1821 - It Really Was You

Yun Jiu, Xie Changque, and the other Great Martial Stage experts hadn’t gone insane, and they certainly hadn’t let their anger overcome their rationality.

Who among them

hadn’t

overcome an ocean of blood and a mountain of corpses to reach their current heights?

Although they suspected that Jing Cheng had tricked them, they could also tell that this sudden development was fishy.

But they didn’t have time to think about that now. There was no time left to investigate. They just had to do their utmost to capture Jing Cheng immediately.

Otherwise, they’d be finished. Buried Dragon Ridge would become their graveyard for the simple reason that only Jing Cheng knew the safe path through the ridge!

“Die!”

“Where can you run?”

“Ol’ Bastard Jing Cheng, lower your head now, and I’ll spare your life!”

...Bellows rang out as Yun Jiu, Xie Changque, and the others fought like mad. They stuck close to Jing Cheng and attacked without the slightest politeness.

Jing Cheng gnashed his teeth and fled without a word, but inwardly, he was incomparably frustrated.

The deathtrap he’d placed for Su Yi had yet to truly begin, but an unexpected development had already interrupted it. As if that weren’t bad enough, the others had misunderstood him, and they were chasing him like mad, leaving him no choice but to suffer in silence.

This almost drove him mad with anger.

Just what insidious, ill-mannered bastard started throwing sword qi around at random? Wait! Don’t tell me it was Su Yi?

Jing Cheng’s mind buzzed, and his expression shifted dramatically. Were that truly the case, wouldn’t it mean that Su Yi had been tailing them in secret this entire time?

Kaboom!

A swath of dazzling Dao Light whooshed toward them, and all manner of treasures flew through the sky.

Jing Cheng felt chills course down his spine. He fled with all his might, not daring to give the matter any further thought. He knew that now, he had to focus on fleeing Buried Dragon Ridge as quickly as possible. Otherwise...

A desperate shriek rang out, resounding throughout heaven and earth. The hearts of Yun Jiu, Xie Changque, and the others quivered.

A dense, massive swarm of wraiths appeared behind them, thoroughly surrounding the Immortal Kings who’d failed to flee in time. In the blink of an eye, all of them perished!

The wraiths were far too terrifying. Immortal Kings were completely helpless against them!

“Ancestor, save us—!”

Some of the Immortal Kings shrieked in terror. Yun Jiu and the others were frantic, and their faces were ashen. But they dared not turn back. The moment the endless swarm of wraiths surrounded them, they too would be doomed beyond a doubt!

“Run!”

“No—!”

“Even the high elder abandoned us?”

...Shouts rang out, one after another, as the Immortal Kings in Buried Dragon Ridge died in rapid succession. Fresh blood splattered the air and bodies broke. Their deaths were utterly wretched.

An Immortal King took to the skies, but before he got far, blood-colored lightning struck him dead, scattering his soul.

Wraiths gathered throughout Buried Dragon Ridge. No matter where the Immortal Kings tried to flee, they found themselves thoroughly surrounded.

It was like a bloody, brutal vision of purgatory!

Jing Cheng, Yun Jiu, Xie Changque, and the others were swarmed too, but they were, after all, Great Martial Stage experts, and none of them wanted to drag this out. They struck with all their might, breaking free of the wraiths’ encirclement in the blink of an eye.

It was just that not far behind them, the Immortal Kings’ casualties were rapidly increasing...

Yun Jiu, Xie Changque, and the others’ eyes were bloodshot. They were overcome with grief and fury.

Their six factions had joined forces on this operation. More than thirty older-generation Immortal Kings had come here alongside them. Some of them had been only one step away from entering the Great Realm. Yet now... it seemed few, if any of them, would survive!!

All of this was because of a single unexpected development.

“Jing Cheng, we demand an explanation from the Giant Whale Spirit Race!” someone roared in fury. Clearly, they pinned the blame for this on the Giant Whales.

Jing Cheng had nothing to say.

......

Far from Buried Dragon Ridge.

Su Yi, Xi Ning, and Fan Zhui stood in midair. They watched the carnage unfold in Buried Dragon Ridge from a safe distance.

Fan Zhui gasped, and his heart shook.

The wraiths weren't just there in ridiculous numbers; their strength was extraordinarily terrifying, too. They weren’t any weaker than Great Martial Stage experts!!

In the outside world, those Immortal Kings would have been hegemons of their territories, yet now, they perished in moments, unable to even struggle. Fresh blood splattered the air, and desperate cries resounded throughout heaven and earth.

For all Fan Zhui’s experience, the sight sent chills through his heart.

“Why are there so many wraiths here?” he couldn’t help but ask.

Wraiths were a type of monster created by negative karma. Wraiths comparable to Great Martial Stage experts had to have been Great Realm experts in life. It was hard to even imagine how many Great Realm experts had lost their lives here during the Primeval Era!

“To the best of my knowledge, the Dragon Palace was the hegemon of the Eastern Sea during the Primeval Era. Every other cultivation faction in these waters was subordinate to them,” said Xi Ning, her voice like the music of the heavens. “From this, it’s easy to see how strong the Dragon Palace was back then. However, if you look closely, it isn’t hard to discover that most of those wraiths weren’t Great Realm experts in life.”

Su Yi nodded. He agreed with this analysis.

“I’m afraid they hate me to the bone now,” laughed Su Yi.

Xi Ning had a strange look in her eyes. Earlier, she’d watched as Su Yi attacked, filling the sky with sword qi that cleaved into the mountains. And just like that, the curtains opened on a terrifying catastrophe.

From beginning to end, Su Yi expended barely any effort at all, yet the six factions suffered grievous casualties!

The most ridiculous part was that even now, Yun Jiu, Xie Changque, and the other survivors thought it was Jing Cheng who’d tricked them...

Worldly affairs could be ridiculous indeed.

Before long, the curtains fell on the battle at Buried Dragon Mountain. Only a small group of Immortal Kings escaped with Yun Jiu, Xie Changque, and the other Great Martial Stage experts. The rest perished.

“It looks like they’ve made it to the other side of the mountains alive,” said Su Yi, “but that won't do. When you help someone, you ought to be thorough. When you escort a monk, you ought to escort him all the way to the west. Naturally, I ought to send all of them on their way, too.”

Xi Ning couldn’t help but laugh, giving her extraordinarily beautiful visage an additional moving charm.

A moment later, the group set off and shot toward Buried Dragon Ridge.

“This way.”

The power of Profound Ruin appeared around Su Yi, spreading in all directions to envelop Xi Ning and Fan Zhui as he led the way ahead.

As soon as they arrived at Buried Dragon Ridge, they alerted countless wraiths. Xi Ning and Fan Zhui were instinctively on guard, and they readied themselves for battle. But they quickly discovered that although Su Yi led them on a seemingly slow, winding path, that path allowed them to narrowly bypass the places where wraiths gathered.

And when wraiths

did

draw near, they quickly scampered off in panic, as if something had frightened them.

Su Yi knew that wraiths weren’t truly aware. They fled in panic due to their instinctual fear of Profound Ruin.

Halfway up the side of a mountain, Su Yi stopped abruptly in place. This was where his enemies had gathered earlier. The ground was now stained red with blood and strewn with fragmented treasures and corpses.

Su Yi wasn’t the least bit polite. He immediately started going through the spoils.

Xi Ning was taken aback. To her, such items weren’t worth anything. A moment later, however, she recalled that Su Yi was an Immortal King; these treasures were still useful to him. She thus issued a quick order to Fan Zhui and helped out.

Su Yi witnessed the entire exchange, and he smiled but said nothing.

Before long, they’d finished gathering the spoils, and the three of them set off once more. When they’d left Buried Dragon Ridge, Su Yi turned back to gaze at the enormous wall of mountains.

A thought rose unbidden to his mind.

Once I’ve dealt with my enemies here, I’ve got to find some time to thoroughly temper my cultivation base.

Countless wraiths occupied Buried Dragon Ridge, each mightier than the one before. In Su Yi’s eyes, they were excellent fodder for combat practice. He could use them to sharpen his edge! To his dismay, destroying his enemies and seeking out good fortune came first. As eager as Su Yi was, he could only leave for now.

But then, a cold voice tinged with fury rang out. “Su Yi! So it really was you!”

Jing Cheng, Yun Jiu, Xie Changque, the other Great Martial Stage experts, and the surviving Immortal Kings emerged from a collapsed, dilapidated pavilion. All of their faces were ashen, unsightly, and full of hatred. Their murderous intent soared into the firmament.

There was no doubt about it. They’d resolved their misunderstanding, and they were waiting for Su Yi here.

“That’s right. It was me.” Su Yi laughed, then swept his gaze across the group. “Is there a problem with that?”

His open admission and sheer composure left the group gnashing their teeth so hard that they almost shattered.

The hell do you mean, ‘Is there a problem with that?’ Is that any way to talk?

Before this voice had even finished echoing through the air, Su Yi shot through the sky and attacked. He couldn’t be bothered to waste any time on talk. After all, his enemies were already here, neatly lined up. Any more talk would simply destroy the atmosphere.

Xi Ning attacked at the same time, her delicate figure blurring into a beam of light as she followed Su Yi into battle.

Jing Cheng, Yun Jiu, and the others visibly lost their cool.

“Run!” Jing Cheng suddenly activated the command medallion he was holding, and the power of the Laws surged forth and wrapped around him and his companions. The whole group instantly vanished into thin air.

Su Yi and Xi Ning exchanged glances.

There was no doubt about it; they’d misunderstood. Their enemies weren’t waiting there to get revenge. They just wanted to see who’d really tricked them.

Otherwise, why would they have turned tail and fled without even daring to fight?

“They’re actually quite clever,” Fan Zhui said with a cold laugh. If things really came down to a fight, not one of the Great Martial Stage cultivators of the Immortal Realm would survive; as it turned out, they knew that as well.

“Then I’m sure that command token of Jing Cheng’s is a secret treasure of the Dragon Palace,” Su Yi said with a frown.

Earlier, he’d tried to keep Jing Cheng from leaving, only for the old man to use a command token to borrow the power of the Dragon Palace’s Laws and flee.

Now, the same thing had happened again.

“That treasure is impressive, but it’s not without its flaws,” whispered Xi Ning. “For instance, take what happened at Buried Dragon Ridge. If he could have used this treasure, he would have escaped a long time ago, taking everyone else with him.”

Su Yi agreed completely. “That’s indeed the case.”

The next time he ran into Jing Cheng, he had to capture him alive immediately. He couldn’t give him any more chances to flee!

...

Meanwhile, deep within the ruins, in a run-down hall shrouded in darkness, an illusory book appeared in midair.

It opened, flipped through its pages, then stopped on a blank white page. A line of text arose:

“Although the karmic trends have escaped this lofty one’s control, I can roughly guess why that anomaly is not subject to the rules of the natural order of karma!

“Fortune and disaster are hard to predict, and cause and effect are difficult to grasp. I have to admit, I’m actually a bit eager to play with this unexpected anomaly.”