The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 452 Uneven Odds

The air crackled in resonance to the wantonly suffocating presence of two figures arriving at the battlefield.

Another two more champions of the Immortal levels had come.

One was Kong Liqun, champion of the Peacock race.

And the other Lang Mu, champion of the Lycans.

Then Hei Zong made his entrance too.

Almost every Immortal-level champion of the Lost Races had assembled.

Witnessing the congregation of the Lost Races’ pantheon of might and supremacy was enough to make every man and beast in the vicinity of Hanyang Peak retreat more than a thousand meters away to safety.

Such were their indomitable powers that the champions’ very presence was enough to make them all shiver in fright.

Huang Hai realized the truth and he turned pink, feeling troubled and embarrassed.

Taking the advent of Lang Mu and the other champions as their cue to retreat, Jiu You and the Sky Dragon Guard quickly sped down the slopes and away.

“Thank you, Huang, for your heroic assistance,” said Lang Mu. His greenish eyes flashing dangerously.

Those words he said only because he knew it was by Huang Hai’s intervention that the spot occupied by his race was not taken and his kins were safe.

“ARGHH!”

The feeling of resentment and anger disrupted Huang Hai’s natural energy flow and caused internal damage and he coughed up some blood.

Heroic?! Hardly! He almost spat out loud. He had only come because he heard that the Mustelids were being attacked.

If only he knew that it was not his race, but the Lycans who had been under attack. He would have stayed by the sidelines and watched.

“Don’t you think you owe me an explanation for this, Hei?” Huang Hai glowered at Hei Zong, for it was a Draconian who had told him that the Mustelids were under attack and that prompted him to intercept Chu Xun.

But the puzzled and confused look on Hei Zong’s face showed that he was unaware of what was going on.

But Huang Hai’s demand for answers made Hei Zong feel apologetic. After all, it really was one of his Draconians who relayed the wrong information.

“You, come here,” Hei Zong summoned the acolyte of his race, the very same who had reported the situation just now.

“I’m sorry, sir. The Lycans’ and Mustelids’ campsites were so near to each other that I thought it was the Mustelids who were under attack…” said the high-tiered Beast Lord sheepishly.

“You thought?!” Huang Hai nearly blurted out loud, feeling very close to another breakdown.

“My sincerest apologies, Huang. My men had caused this blunder,” said Hei Zong, feeling bad as well. What a costly error it turned out to be.

But everyone was thinking: how did Huang Hai ever become such an invincible mutant with such deplorable intelligence of his?!

On the other hand, Huang Hai was reeling with embarrassment and anguish. He had been taken a fool for, and he had even lost a psychic Sacred Relic too!

“So after all that brouhaha, you really ARE a fool,” teased Chu Xun.

“Hei, Lang,” Huang Hai implored the Lycan and Draconian champions, “Help me kill this scoundrel!” He needed to have Chu Xun killed if that could help regain some pride.

Hei Zong glanced at Lang Mu hesitantly. Huang Hai was right; the error had begun from his acolyte and he could hardly shake off any responsibility.

Lang Mu stared at Chu Xun coldly. “And you,” he called, “Why is the reason for your attacking my people?”

Chu Xun answered with a nonchalant grin, “What else? Wars are usually contests of interests.”

“And by your gist, the deaths of my people are no one’s fault at all?” Lang Mu took one threatening step forward as if to intimidate Chu Xun, his very presence emitting anger and malice.

“You can try to avenge their deaths. No one’s stopping you,” remarked Chu Xun, still lackadaisical as ever.

“Swoosh!”

Lang Mu’s gaze hardened. Then he vanished, appearing at the blink of an eye beside Chu Xun and attacked. His aura burgeoned instantly and the towering silhouette of a wolf standing upright on its hindlegs materialized behind his back as his ferocious presence cast a palpable tension across the battlefield.

“Go,” Chu Xun barked.

Jiu You and her companions dashed away, putting more than a thousand meters between them and the site of the fight.

Chu Xun clenched his fists tightly. Every iota of Hong Meng Immortal Qi inside him churned like a raging beast spoiling for a fight and he lunged at the Lycan mutant.

Lang Mu swung his fists and the giant wolfish silhouette behind him mimicked his actions, swiping a claw the size of a millstone at Chu Xun’s head.

Chu Xun fired a blast at the Lycan and the sparkling energy bolt collided with the wolf’s claw, causing an explosion.

“Rumble!”

The Formula of Kill!

The purple-colored “Sha” glyph bloomed in size and the glyph careened towards Lang Mu like a homing missile.

Lang Mu raised a hand and waved it. The wolf-like silhouette behind him mirrored his movements and batted the “Sha” glyph away.

“Rumble!”

Huge waves of steam and dust billowed toward all directions and every piece of rock and boulder cracked and shattered into gravel.

The large claws of the wolf-like silhouette exploded at the collision and the impact propelled Lang Mu several paces behind with the ground bursting open beneath his feet.

Lang Mu gave Chu Xun a frantic look of horror.

“Hei, what are you waiting for?!” Huang Hai screamed as he lunged at Chu Xun, firing a blast at the latter.

“Fool!”

Chu Xun hissed coldly and he fired a powerful blast of Hong Meng Immortal Qi at Huang Hai in response.

“Rumble!”

The torrent of Hong Meng Immortal Qi easily obliterated Huang Hai’s attack and slamming into him, knocking him off his feet with a loud grunt of pain.

But Hei Zong had used the moment of distraction to close in on Chu Xun. He waved an arm, causing unnatural winds to toss and the winds conjoined into an angry, whirling typhoon that rolled towards Chu Xun like an invisible monster.

Chu Xun quickly performed hand seals.

His magic gave birth to an amethyst cyclone.

A terrible cyclone with purplish gales trampled across the battlefield, causing the earth to ring as if in fear. The winds whacked viciously at the ground, kicking up sand and dirt.

The typhoon and the purplish cyclone met and bumped into each other, both still spinning wildly like a pair of tops before a final collision caused them both to detonate and an incredible seismic wave swept across the glen, leveling the terrain inside the vale.

Men and beasts all wore aghast grimace on their faces, their blood all ran cold in their veins.

All beheld the invincible might of the Devil who was battling three champions who were monstrosities in their own right and, even so, he appeared to be prevailing despite the uneven odds.

Huang Hai, Lang Mu, and Hei Zong too were astounded themselves.

These were Immortal-level champions whose very lift of one finger could easily cause mountains and hills to quake. That they were hailed as “Immortals” was proof enough that they were classes beyond mere common warriors.

Yet even with the collective might of three such unconquerable beings failed to take down the Devil.

“Who is this stranger?” Lang Mu asked Huang Hai.

“He calls himself Samsara; said he is a subject of Queen Jiu You,” grimaced Huang Hai dismally.

Lang Mu and Hei Zong stared at Huang Hai blankly. There was no way anyone with such power and might would be anyone’s subject.

Huang Hai seethed quietly. He did not believe what Chu Xun said himself, but he could only divulge what he was told.

“Come at me together!”

Chu Xun called haughtily, the adrenaline coursing in his veins made him wishing for more thrill. He was right; Immortal-level champions really were powerful as they said and hence he wanted a good fight. One that could give him enough inspiration and stimulus.

Every man and beast around them heard Chu Xun. “What?! Is this stranger challenging three god-like monstrosities to a fight!?”

“Goddamn, that’s awesome. If I ever get to reach Immortal Level, I want to be like that too,” said the tiger mutant with admiration permeating his gaze.

And he was not the only one; so were the rest of the Sky Dragon Guard too.

Chu Xun really was awesome and hardly anyone else could ever come close.

The Lost Races however glared at Chu Xun with disgust and annoyance, feeling this stranger out of nowhere not only revolting but conceited too.

Resentment blazed in Lang Mu’s eyes. The same swirled inside Hei Zong’s and Huang Hai’s eyes as well.

The advent of such a champion of the human race hardly boded well for them.

“KILL HIM!”

Lang Mu hurled himself first at Chu Xun.

Hei Zong and Huang Hai lunged as well.

Chu Xun could have not asked for anything more; this was precisely what he wanted. His veins coursed with Hong Meng Immortal Qi and inside him, his internal organs reverberated and every part of him glowed.

“KILL HIM!”

Being on the defensive was never his style. Offense is the best defense, he would always say.

His top speed had long penetrated Mach 5. Any simple movement by him could easily cause the winds to howl shrilly.

With the fury of thunder, Chu Xun swung his fist first at Lang Mu.

“Rumble!”

His fist collided with Lang Mu’s and a terrible shock wave pulsed away from the point of impact, eliciting a tidal wave of destruction everywhere.

Lang Mu faltered backward.

Chu Xun wheeled around and vanished, reappearing right before the Mustelid champion and he attacked.

Huang Hai punched at Chu Xun in response.

“Bang!”

Without his trusty Sacred Relic to protect him, and having suffered an injury during his earlier skirmish with Chu Xun, the force of the colliding fists knocked the Mustelid backward.

“You’ll pay for your insolence!”

Hei Zong came at Chu Xun from behind, conjuring a web of winds keen enough to slice anyone into strips of bloody viscera around Chu Xun.

Chu Xun only needed to summon his Hong Meng Immortal Qi, releasing the magical energies all around himself to dispel the shroud of deadly gales with a deafening boom and nothing of Hei Zong’s magic was left.

“Swoosh!”

Then he quickly retaliated by firing a blast of energy from his fist at the Draconian champion.

Hei Zong’s palm shone with a magical glow and he thrust it forth, firing a blast too.

“Rumble! ”

He managed to destroy Chu Xun’s energy bolt, but the force of the explosion tossed him backward.

Demon-slain Finger – Shaking the Sky by the Fourth Finger!

The air crackled and rang and bright purplish rays streaked around the skies and a behemothic monolith came crashing down on Lang Mu.

Lang Mu let loose a bestial howl as he hectically summoned his powers. The silhouette of a wolf standing on its rear legs appeared once more behind him and it mauled at the falling monolith.

“Rumble!”

Instead of destroying the monolith, the silhouette of the wolf exploded instead and the ground sank under Lang Mu’s feet. Nothing could be done to stop the monolith and it crashed down at Lang Mu.

The air resounded with an anguished cry from the Lycan champion as his entire self shone brilliantly in a glow of yellow as he desperately hurled what attacks he could at the monolith.

“Rumble!”

The monolith finally cracked and burst into a huge detonation that sent currents of dust and debris sweeping everywhere that even the view of the sun turned obscured.

Chu Xun took the chance to renew another attack on Huang Hai.

“Bang! Bang!”

With every of his punch came ripples of seismic waves. Even Beast Lords or Human Kings of the Great Completion of Ninth-grade could hardly withstand such aftershocks.

Chu Xun turned into the very paragon of carnage as he utilized even his shoulders, elbows, knees, and every part he could to unleash what destruction he could.

“Bang!”

With a ten-thousand-pound roundhouse kick that lashed with the force of an iron whip, Chu Xun smashed Huang Hai into the ground.

“Rumble!”

Huang Hai smashed into a hill and the impact caused a landslide.

Hei Zong came back at Chu Xun again for another attack.

Chu Xun made no attempt to evade. Instead, he charged headfirst into Hei Zong, giving him a heavy punch, then a roundhouse kick, then a follow-up with his knees then his elbow.

Not magic or any of his other spells; just plain and simple fighting techniques like a common warrior, only more powerful and deadly because of Chu Xun.

The tempering and the evolution of his physical properties as well as his recent breakthrough into the consummation of the Golden Core stages prompted the need for a fierce battle for him to attune himself to his new power levels.

Hei Zong could do nothing. Chu Xun’s relentless barrage of fists and kicks belted him again and again and he felt like a helpless ragdoll.

“Bang!”

A heavy punch from Chu Xun slammed into his chest like a powerful beat of a drum, the sound echoing off the jagged rock faces of the cliffs all around them.

“Bang!”

Then came another kick right into the side of his waist that discombobulated him.

Such attacks might not cause permanent damage to him, but the pain and trauma were unbearable.

To say nothing of the pain he was getting from striking at Chu Xun. Hitting the man was like beating on steel with his bare hands. Instead of hurting Chu Xun, his hands were getting numb.

But Chu Xun’s every single punch or kick was enough to have him wheezing with agony.

Such was the ungodly endurance of Chu Xun’s physical body that the Draconian could only behold with fear and awe.

Hei Zong howled with frustration. Despite the many times he had tried to reset the tempo of the battle and disrupt Chu Xun’s rhythm, the outcome remained largely unchanged: he only ended up as Chu Xun’s punching bag.

“You wanna flee? Here, lemme give you a hand!”

Chu Xun drove a spinning kick right into Hei Zong’s midriff and let loose a huge burst of Hong Meng Immortal Qi from his leg at the very instant his leg hit the Draconian’s body.

“Crack!”

The resounding crack of Hei Zong’s ribs snapping broke out like the crack of a whip and the Draconian was propelled into a boulder that weighed over 10,000 pounds, smashing into it.

“Swoosh!”

Lang Mu pounced like a predator finding prey, thrusting a palm forward, and fired a blast at Chu Xun that made the air around them crepitate incessantly.

“DON’T GO NEAR HIM!” Hei Zong shouted a warning, ignoring how weak and embarrassing it might sound.

With his diamond-hard physical endurance, there was no way any one of them could ever defeat Chu Xun in close combat.

But the warning came too late; Lang Mu had gotten too close and the blast he fired missed Chu Xun, the unnatural winds it churned lashed at Chu Xun’s robes, causing them to snap wildly in the turbulence.

Chu Xun clenched his fists firmly and swung them furiously, firing several purplish energy bolts that easily obliterated the Lycan champion’s attacks.

Lang Mu tried to beat a retreat, but Chu Xun was never going to let him go.

Like a chaotic beast, Chu Xun rained down whatever blows he could with his fists, his legs, his shoulders, and even his elbows and knees mindlessly without adhering to any style or order.

“Bang!”

No human could have ever bested a beast in physical endurance. Yet in Chu Xun’s case, it was wholly different.

When Lang Mu finally succeeded in landing a punch squarely into Chu Xun’s chest, not only the human hardly budged, his own hand was throbbing with pain and numbness!

Chu Xun sprang up into the air, driving his knee into Lang Mu’s chin. The Lycan crashed down to the ground on his back and the impact caused a humanoid-shaped depression on the ground.

“Bang! Bang!”

Every punch from Chu Xun connected and every blow elicited ripples of seismic waves. Lang Mu tried frantically to parry Chu Xun’s hails of blows, but to no avail. He just couldn’t see where they were coming from; every part of Chu Xun was like a deadly weapon bludgeoning at him from all directions.

The Lycan howled with anguish and frustration. He was effectively a walking punching bag!