Chapter 452: Once Again (Patreon)

The Dragon Emperor charged forward, like a golden comet. He flew faster than ever with the suppression of Donghai Longzi’s domain of destruction. His hands reached out and grabbed the severed limb.

‘I got what I wanted. Time to leave,’ the Dragon Emperor thought.

He spared a glance, just in time to see a colossal tail whipping toward him. The layer of golden qi protecting him expanded as he raised his saber into a defensive position. The tail struck him with a mighty thump and sent him flying. By allowing the attack to connect, the Dragon Emperor converted the momentum for his own use.

With his prize in hand, the Dragon Emperor shot off into the distance.

“Bastard!” Demon Empress Bluefeather shouted. She wanted nothing more than to fly after him and make him pay, but she didn’t. The Dragon Emperor’s last attack had caused her to feel fear. She had a feeling that if she continued to entangle with the Dragon Emperor, she would fall.

The Vermillion Bird glanced at Donghai Longzi, who was clutching his missing limb. She sighed in relief, thanking the latter for not flying into a rage, as most demons might.

Although he didn’t fly into a rage, Donghai Longzi was gazing at where the Dragon Emperor was last seen, eyes narrowed.

“It won’t be too late for revenge once you enter the Demon Emperor Realm,” Demon Empress Bluefeather comforted.

Donghai Longzi still gazed at the same spot, but he replied, “Yeah.”

His form started to shrink and shrink until it was humanoid standing a little less than two meters and with two horns protruding from his forehead. Black robes adorned him, but his left sleeve flapped in the Vast Void, clearly empty.

Finally, he looked at Demon Empress Bluefeather. “Where do we go from here?”

“Follow me.” With that, Demon Empress Bluefeather transformed into a blue streak and flew into the distance, followed by a black stream of light. The two didn’t re-enter the Tieniu Realm and flew away.

They didn’t know when, but their battle might have caught unsavory attention outside of the Demon Clan’s plan, so the two needed to hide their tracks. If they regrouped with the other demons inside the Tieniu Realm, it would only cause their tracks to become more obvious.

Better to split up. This way, the humans would prioritize searching for her, instead of some miscellaneous demons, even if they are true demons that have entered the True Demon Realm and above.

Of course, Demon Empress Bluefeather was unaware that the commotion they caused had long been noticed by the Immortal Court. She probably never imagined that as she was in the heat of the battle with the Dragon Emperor, everything that happened was being relayed to a certain individual in the Primordial Realm.

***

“Well, at least they aren’t foolish,” the Dragon Emperor muttered to himself. Gone was his dragon transformation, and in its place was his original appearance. The golden light around him had dimmed, as he had attempted to cloak it to mask his presence and actions as much as possible.

If Demon Empress Bluefeather and that black dragon chased him, he didn’t mind gathering more trophies from the two. Although a qingluan’s flesh and blood wouldn’t be as useful to him, it was still a rare material in the modern era.

“Now, where should I go?” the Dragon Emperor asked aloud, to no one in particular. After some thought, he decided to find some random realm to extract the blood essence from the dismembered dragon limb and absorb it.

The Dragon Emperor glanced at the black claws still in his grasp. Like with the red dragon, he had tried to store it in his spatial ring, but it was constantly leaking black qi that caused his attempts to fail. He attempted to place a seal on it, but it would break after the leaking qi built up enough pressure.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have much talent in seals, so he had to extract the blood essence as much as possible before the limb became useless.

“Who’s there?!” the Dragon Emperor suddenly shouted. In one swift motion, he unsheathed his saber and swung behind him.

The golden saber seemed to slice through empty air, but at the final moment, it struck something. A split second later, a delicate hand with milky white skin appeared. It was pinching the edge of his saber with two fingers and a thumb.

Try as he might, the Dragon Emperor discovered that he couldn’t dislodge his weapon from the seemingly weak grasp. Even exerting all his strength, he couldn’t free his saber. But his struggle didn’t last long as the hand’s owner revealed himself.

Like shattering glass, pieces fell off his invisible foe. At first, it was a purple sleeve, then the robe. Finally, it revealed a young man wearing a gold coronet. His and his assailant’s faces were identical, except for those pair of bedeviling eyes. “Xi Tianyi!”

“Dragon Emperor,” his arch nemesis simply said.

It was as if an explosion had gone off in the Dragon Emperor’s mind. He always imagined the day he would clash with Tianyi in a life and death fight in the future. Only, he never expected it so soon. Still, he quickly calmed himself and released his saber.

Most saber wielders and even swordsmen might roar at him for releasing his precious weapon, but the Dragon Emperor didn’t care. He had many more, and he knew that he would not be able to out power the foe who stood across him. In the past, it was always he who overpowered his foe with brute strength. Now, it was the Dragon Emperor’s turn to feel what it was like to be physically weaker than his opponent.

“You’re alone. Aren’t you afraid I will kill you?” the Dragon Emperor asked as he kept widening the distance between the two. Although Xi Tianyi’s appearance was unexpected, he had no intent on retreating. At least before he exchanged a few blows with his hated foe.

Xi Tianyi lowered his arm and stared at the Dragon Emperor. “Kill? I’m afraid even a divinity would find it troublesome to kill me, much less you.”

“Big words, Junior,” the Dragon Emperor shot back. Divinity? Even if he was an immortal sovereign, the Dragon Emperor didn’t dare to say that he could escape from a divinity. “I’ll show you the heights of heaven and earth.”

“Is that all you know how to say?” Xi Tianyi asked, his voice light and his eyes half-lidded, as if he was bored by all this. “You already said all this when you were possessing Lei Jingye’s body. Do you think it will be any different if you possess a wastrel like Lovespot?”

“—you,” the Dragon Emperor said. He couldn’t help but wonder how Xi Tianyi found out he hopped from Lei Jingye’s body to Lovespot. He was sure he left no clues.

“It’s really simple. I didn’t think it was possible back when I was still mortal, but after entering the Immortal Realm, I learned of all the impossible techniques,” Xi Tianyi said. “And thank you for confirming my suspicions.”

The Dragon Emperor snorted. “So what? Are you going to ask me to give this body back and for this body’s grandfather? Well, it’s too late. When I left the Buzhou Immortal Sect, I’ve already destroyed any hope for Lovespot’s revival.”

Xi Tianyi shrugged. “No, I don’t really care. In fact, I might even tell Redseal myself. I kind of want to see his reaction.”

The Dragon Emperor stared, not sure if Xi Tianyi was lying or not. Still, what did it matter? Whose body he took no longer mattered. The karma between him and Xi Tianyi would only end when one side died.

Golden scales appeared all over the Dragon Emperor’s body as he transformed into a humanoid dragon. He relaxed his grip and allowed the black dragon’s limb to hang untethered in the Vast Void. His eyes turned to the color of molten gold as he stared at his arch nemesis.

A golden saber, one bearing many similarities to the one still pinched between Xi Tianyi’s finger appeared in his hand. “Come!”

Xi Tianyi didn’t move and simply stared at the Dragon Emperor, totally different from the heated battle the latter had envisioned. Just as it seemed that silence would turn awkward, Xi Tianyi let go of the saber and pointed at the Dragon Emperor. No, he wasn’t pointing at the Dragon Emperor, but the discarded dragon limb.

Then, the Dragon Emperor sensed it. The simmering qi within the black dragon limb started to boil. Acting on instinct, the Dragon Emperor formed a shield of golden qi and shot away from his trophy, but it was too late. With a catastrophic boom, the scaled limb exploded, catching him within its blast radius.

Less than a second later, he escaped out of the cloud of black smoke, but black flames lingered on his body, eating away at his golden shield. The Dragon Emperor frowned. ‘The power of destruction is even stronger than when that black dragon used it.’

He didn’t have time to ponder why as a figure approached him from the side. Without even turning his head, the Dragon Emperor unleashed his saber, the saber intent within roared madly with tyrannical might. This seemingly simple slash would cow even veteran immortal emperors, yet all it amounted to was stopping at Xi Tianyi’s delicate-looking palms.

Before Xi Tianyi could close his fingers around the blade, the Dragon Emperor retreated. He glanced at his foe’s palm, only to see a thin mark just slightly whiter than the skin. ‘Even that couldn’t make him bleed? Just how hard is his skin?’

A sense of discontent arose within the Dragon Emperor’s chest, one that he used to fuel his fighting intent. He really wanted to force Xi Tianyi to use his technique before he brought out his own stronger techniques. If he didn’t, it meant that he was already at a disadvantage. No, not just a mere disadvantage. All of Xi Tianyi’s actions told him that the former didn’t consider him a threat anymore.

His mind and gut were telling him to use every possible means to flee, but his heart was raging. The Dragon Emperor intensified his glare. If looks could kill, Tianyi would be nothing more than a pile of unrecognizable meat chunks.

The Dragon Emperor stared. He kept his attention on Tianyi, but he carefully observed his surroundings. Nothing changed. The stars still shone brightly, but the Dragon Emperor’s instincts told him something was wrong. It told him to flee yet again.

However, he did not have time to think as Tianyi moved. No, Xi Tianyi didn’t attack after somehow exploding his trophy. Instead, a sword appeared in Xi Tianyi’s hand. The latter grasped the handle with his right hand and pulled it out of its scabbard.

The Dragon Emperor recognized the sword. How could he not? He has seen Xi Tianyi wear it when he was only in the Nascent Soul Realm. It was a plain sword with a simple yet elegant hilt.

Xi Tianyi unsheathed and released the scabbard, which disappeared into nowhere. Next, he brandished the sword at the Dragon Emperor.

A sense of humiliation arose in the Dragon Emperor’s chest. What did Xi Tianyi mean by this? He would admit that compared to ordinary cultivators, Xi Tianyi was talented in the way of the sword, but it wasn’t even a tenth of his own talent in the saber technique.

Did he think he could win with his stupidly strong body? No, the Dragon Emperor refused to allow Xi Tianyi to stomp on his pride.

The Dragon Emperor raised his saber and brandished toward Xi Tianyi. As his saber’s tip pointed at his arch nemesis, so, too, did his eyes. Two gazes interlocked and sparks clashed.

This would be a duel of sword and saber.