The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 352 The Beacon of the Sun God

Chu Xun’s brows angled slightly with suspicion. Something was wrong with Orlov.

“Give it here,” Chu Xun demanded bluntly, his aggression visibly palpable.

“Most revered Devil,” said Orlov, still wearing his phony grin, “I’m afraid you have to first release Angus.”

Chu Xun’s eyes squinted a little warily. “Something is really wrong,” he thought.

“Very well!” he said and he leaped off his perch and began walking towards Angus.

Suddenly, he swerved sharply and shot at Orlov like a flash of light, raising his fists on the ready to strike.

It came unexpected and sudden, that Orlov quickly channeled his powers and the shroud of the True Flames formed a protective shield around him.

Crack!

But the shield barely took form and Chu Xun’s fist came pounding through it, shattering it and pummeling him with such force that launched him hundreds of meters away, and when he finally landed, the ground split under his feet.

Shock and fear filled Orlov’s eyes. His entire self gave an involuntary shudder as he balled his fingers with disbelief. The Storage Ring was gone!

Chu Xun retreated and quickly scanned the contents of the Storage Ring he had just robbed. But what he saw filled him with cold fury. There were magical herbs and elixirs inside, but barely dozens of them and a stark contrast to the number he had been promised with.

“So this is the so-called five hundred elixirs, five hundred magical herbs, and five hundred magical fruits, eh?” Chu Xun glowered with a voice dangerously still, holding up the Storage Ring between his fingers.

Orlov could hardly hide the trepidation now playing on his face. He could not believe that their ruse would be exposed so soon.

With no more need for any pretense, the grin faded from his face, replaced with a strong look of malice.

“Much mayhem you’ve caused the West, Devil, that you’ve destroyed organizations and laid waste to strongholds while also killing hundreds of Western warriors. For these transgressions, you must die. And thus, here I am to exact judgment upon you in the name of the Sun God.”

Chu Xun merely stared at Orlov calmly with a cynical grin breaking upon his lips.

“And you intend to ‘exact judgment’ by bringing only these paltry lot?”

Orlov giggled smugly. “I am aware of your incredible powers and quaint skills, Devil, which have even helped you escape the wrath of the Pope. But understand this. You might be powerful, but that doesn’t make you invincible.”

“At least I am. To you lot,” Chu Xun responded with not a tinge of emotion in his voice.

“Really, Devil?” Orlov regarded Chu Xun with mocking eyes. “Be careful of hubris, Chu Xun. You might regret what you say if somehow I have something that might kill you.”

Chu Xun’s eyes scanned around warily. Confident as he might be, he was not as self-important as others mistook him to be.

He could see that something was wrong with Orlov when he tried taunting Chu Xun even when knowing he would be no match for the Devil.

Chu Xun decided to strike first.

“Angus assaulted a border village in the night and killed several stout men of Huaxia. For that, he’ll die and so will you, since you’re here!”

He quickly weaved several hand seals and thrust an arm into the air.

Buzz!

The air quivered and the earth rocked, and all around them, the mountains swayed as if in resonance.

All of a sudden, rivulets of light shot into the air, forming a gigantic dome of light that encased Orlov and his men inside.

The Heavenly Field of Ultimate Death!

The rivulets of light intensified and turned into walls of blinding light shimmering and bright, constantly pulsing with ripples of purplish energies radiating off its surface.

“Stand back,” ordered Orlov.

Those words barely escaped his mouth when a deafening hum robbed their attention. Everyone looked up and their faces immediately fell with horror.

Countless bolts of Sword Qi whistled high up the eaves of the dome, clustering and massing together like thousands and thousands of needles crisscrossing each other.

“Watch out!”

Orlov screamed to his men.

Woosh!

Then, without warning, the countless Sword Qi bolts swarmed as one, rounding up to form a huge dragon that roared as it bore down on the men.

Panic flashed in Orlov’s eyes. Frantically, he summoned his True Flames and fired a True Flame ball at the dragon.

Boom! Boom!

Stray Sword Qi bolts appeared out of nowhere to intercept the True Flame ball. They collided with the fireball, turning into a deafening explosion with cinders raining like fireworks to the ground.

“ARGGGHH!”

One of the wards of the Holy Temple let loose a guttural shriek, frightening the others out of their wits. Everyone jerked their heads around to see a Sword Qi bolt coming out of nowhere to spear through his larynx, blasting off nearly the whole length of his larynx.

Orlov’s scarlet-red True Flame ball was still continuing its climb straight towards the dragon. But having weakened by the explosion earlier, the dragon need only to ram through it, rending asunder the ball of flames into harmless fiery sparks.

Then they began to realize: every inch of space around them was filled with Sword Qi bolts zipping around like birds of prey, beautiful and mesmerizing, blinding and sparkling.

Yet Orlov was hardly in any mood to enjoy the scene. These Sword Qi bolts were more dangerous than beautiful, like keen and sleek swords and blades, eager to sink their edges into his flesh.

Woosh!

They were caught between the anvil and the hammer: between a roaring dragon and thousands of sparkling Sword Qi bolts.

“Deputy Prelate Orlov, we need the Beacon now!” screamed one of the wards in distress.

Feeling a mix of malice and frustration, Orlov shouted bitterly, “TASTE THIS, DEVIL!”

He was only just about to dig from within his robes the Beacon of the Sun God when the sight before him changed: the sky full of Sword Qi was gone, replaced by a thrashing blizzard.

“What the...”

Orlov and his men were all stunned beyond words.

Woosh!

Winds howled and the scuds of frost lashed like raging beasts.

Orlov inadvertently staggered forward, only for one of his feet to sink deep into the snow.

“What’s going on, Deputy Prelate?! Where are we?! Have we passed into another dimension?!” screamed one of the wards. He held out a hand and a snowflake fell into his opened palm. He watched it melt and felt the cold tingly sensation. It was real.

Orlov felt himself going dizzy. Everything was a whirl of blurry white all around them, as if they were caught in some uncharted lands with only the few of them, alone and lost. The trepidations of being disoriented and forsaken came hitting him like tidal waves that he almost felt like crying.

Swish!

Then he heard a noise – a noise of something violently slicing apart flesh – and he inexplicably felt something warm and hot splashing the back of his head. He turned around at once.

Some of the other wards redirected their attentions this way as well and they burst into terrified shrieks.

A spike of ice had shot out of the ground when no one was looking, and impaled another ward through his chest.

The warm liquid that hit the back of his head was the blood of this dead ward.

Swish!

Another icy spike shot out of the ground like a lance.

Bang!

This time, Orlov was prepared. With a single fist, he shattered the ice prong before it could hit anyone.

Troubled and yet furious, Orlov could still not make out what magic did the Devil cast on him. He yanked out something from inside his robes: an ancient oil lamp barely the size of his hand, gleaming brightly with a rich golden luster.

From outside the field of his enchantment, at the first glimpse of the shining gleam of the Beacon, Chu Xun had raced inside, eager to seize the object before his foes could properly wield it. Then again, as he took out the ancient object, Orlov already felt danger closing in on him.

He knew full well about Chu Xun’s battle style and his speed. It was proven when Chu Xun snatched the Storage Ring from him during their initial bout and it only made Orlov more apprehensive.

Because of that, he barely took out the Beacon when he began channeling every shred of True Flame within himself and gave the ancient oil lamp a heavy blow from his mouth.

Everything happened within a fraction of a second, with Orlov trying to not give Chu Xun any chance at all.

Orlov blew hard at the oil lamp.

Woosh!

Terrible jets of flames shot out from the sprout of the ornately-fashioned oil lamp.

The deep-scarlet flames, carrying an oppressive temperature, swept like waves, rolling and spreading in the air.

Chu Xun felt his senses tingled wildly. He skidded to a halt, wheeled around and shot to a distance in just the blink of an eye, taking refuge at the crest of a mountaintop.

Crack! Crack!

A sudden cascade of something loud like glass cracking turned Chu Xun’s face into one of horror. He spun around and looked with aghast at the webs of cracking elongating long the surface of the barrier walls of the Heavenly Field of Ultimate Death like spider webs.

Bang!

With a sudden eruption of force, the barrier walls crumbled and waves of dark red flames burst around, striking several mountain peaks nearby.

Sizzle!

The places where the waves of inferno hit immediately melted into molten rocks.

“What flames are these?!” Chu Xun thought. The flames had destroyed not only his enchantment, but also flattened hills and mountains, turning them into seas of magma.

Due to the barrier walls of the enchantment, no one watching the live broadcast could see what was going on inside.

But they saw how the barrier walls of the enchantment were melted by the sheer heat of the flames before waves and waves of them came rolling over the skies, turning even mountains and hills into molten rocks, and everywhere around them was now a great lake of liquid magma.

Hardly anyone could refrain from crying out with shock and awe when they saw what happened, be they warriors of the West or Huaxia.

Heavens Almighty... What terrible flames...

Waves wiped over everywhere, reaching even the thunderstorm enchantment that trapped Angus inside.

He did not even know what was going on when he saw the flames coming like tidal waves at him. He barely yelped a word when the flames easily engulfed the enchantment whole with him inside.

The ground split one inch after another with a long terrible crack ripping across far and long. All around them, the terrain was completely transformed into streams of magma joining together to flow down into the crack.

Every rock, tree, hill in the vicinity of a thousand meter was utterly gone, having reduced into cinders like purgatory on Earth.

All around Chu Xun, he could feel the air warping under the terrible swelter as more heat waves build up, sweeping away even the clouds up overhead.

“Stand back, all of you,” yelled Orlov, sweeping an arm to gesture the remaining of the wards away. He channeled more of his powers and activated the Beacon again. The Sacred Relic produced a shroud of light that enveloped him, allowing him to walk over the hot, molten rocks without harm.

“Get down here, Devil!” yelled Orlov, pleased and pompous. With another gust of breath at the Beacon, he fired another huge burst of flames at Chu Xun.

Yet even before the flames got close, the rocks under Chu Xun’s feet slowly cracked before turning into hot liquefied rocks.

Chu Xun stared grimly, clenching his fists tightly. Then he punched into the air, firing a bolt of Hong Meng Immortal Qi at the waves of flames billowing towards him.

Sizzle!

His energy bolt barely got close before it was incinerated into nothing.

“Hahahaha... Let’s see how great and mighty you are before the True Flames of the Sun!” Orlov roared with laughter gloriously.

Boom!

The waves of conflagration enveloped the top of the mountain, but Chu Xun was gone, and the entire mountain vanished, utterly melted into magma.

“Where do you think you’re running off to, Devil!” Orlov yelled, giving chase from behind with the Beacon in his hand.

Unfortunately, he could not keep up with Chu Xun’s speed; the latter evaded every single attack he hurled at him.

“You’ll never get away, Chu Xun! I’ll trample my way into Huaxia! Let’s see how you are going to stop me now!” Orlov taunted.

As he sped away, Chu Xun performed several hand seals and pointed at the sky, activating the Demon-slain Finger spell.

Boom!

A gigantic monolith came crashing down on Orlov with its behemothic weight.

Woosh!

But with another colossal jet of flames, he easily nullified the Demon-slain Finger.

Chu Xun stared gratingly. “What in the world is that fire?! It looks as powerful as the Heavenly Essence flames!”

With mountains and hills bending and crumbling to the indomitable swelter of the flames and the green fields and coppices all now transformed into pits and runnels of magma, this had become a veritable Hell on Earth.

Chu Xun performed more hand seals.

Boom!

Dark cumulonimbi gathered and roiled like a stirring monster with thunders crackling angrily in its midst, blotting out the sun from the sky.

The Purple Thunder Doom – Punishment from Gods!

Streaks of lightning tore through the dark clouds like knife through paper, slicing down from high above and smote viciously at Orlov with the accompaniment of deafening rumbles.

Woosh!

More flames burst from the sprout of the Beacon and picked up altitude as quickly as a bird, and in just the blink of an eye, the dark clouds were all gone and dispersed.

“What other tricks do you still keep up your sleeves, Devil? Show me, impress me!” gloated Orlov smugly, proud and imposing with the Beacon in his possession.

Exclamation and cries of shock swept the Internet as those inside Huaxia who cared about Chu Xun held their breaths for him.

Inversely, those with enmity against Chu Xun cheered and hooted with elation with hopes that Orlov would reduce Chu Xun into ashes.

“This is the consequences of your blasphemy against the Holy Temple, Devil!” hissed Louis from his chair. The Devil’s incessant torment these recent days had practically stomped what good name of the Holy Temple into the mud.

“Don’t run, Devil! Stand right there and face me in a fight like a true man!” Orlov challenged Chu Xun, still chasing him from behind with the Beacon.