The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 301 Tug-of-War

The incessant roars of the yeti rumbled across the glen.

Its bloodshot eyes looked hideously terrifying by the second, and its erect fur shining coldly like needles.

Chu Xun was exasperated. He was utterly drenched from head to toe in blood and was regretting his boorish method when he could have easily gone for easier and more casual ways.

I should be like a gentleman – waving my fan, reciting some poetry, chatting up the ladies while trying to look casual and cool, he mused. Yet he seemed to be inept in such dainty and delicate ways, he thought as he shook his head.

He stomped hard into the ground and propelled himself up into the air until he reached the height of the giant ape, and he delivered a punch.

Angered, the yeti’s head shimmered with white light as it rammed its head at Chu Xun.

Bang!

Blood spattered everywhere, complemented with the painful howls of the yeti and there on its head was a bloody puncture.

Chu Xun scoffed bleakly. It was too big, the humungous head of this behemothic ape. Despite driving the full length of his arm into its head, he barely reached deep enough to hit its brain.

The huge ape fell into a delirium of rage, raising its hand to swat at Chu Xun.

Chu Xun withdrew his arm and hopped off to the back of the monster’s head.

Bang!

The huge paw missed Chu Xun and came down hard on its forehead instead.

With no scruples, the blow came hard and vicious and everyone below could almost swear that they heard the sound of the yeti’s skull cracking.

The gigantic ape began wobbling in its step like a drunken man, trampling and smashing to bits the misshapen stone columns that littered everywhere.

It clutched its head, shaking it vigorously as if to steady itself. But Chu Xun, clinging on to the furs on its head, felt dizzy instead.

Yan Wushuang and his men below stared in silence, although they nearly burst out laughing when the gigantic ape nearly caused itself to faint.

Chu Xun swung his fist – once, and twice... then again... and again... Until he burrowed a hole at the back of the monster ape’s head, trying to attack its brain.

With the skull broken, Chu Xun wormed his way into the head of the gigantic yeti. Inside he found a tangle of arteries and veins, each horrifyingly thick, until he saw the brain, a wrinkled and crumpled mush of soft tissues so grotesquely huge.

Driven to madness by pain, the yeti careened hither to thither like the rampaging beast it became, using its head to batter at whatever hard objects it could find – huge boulders, misshapen rock columns, and so forth – while obliterating them to mere rubble and gravel.

Inside its skull, Chu Xun stepped on a giant vein – one which he knew he won’t be able to wrap his arms around, given its girth – like a child stepping on a swing and launched himself towards the brain.

As he drew close to it, he looked up and gulped hard. Gods, he thought quietly. Small wonder why it managed to develop sentience of its own, he mused. This bloody brain was as large as a goods caravan!

With Yan Wushuang and his men outside, he could use his Hong Meng Immortal Qi without being seen. Purplish tendrils of aura in forms of gas snaked around him as his fists glowed. He knew he only had to destroy the brain, and no matter how strong or tough this yeti is, it would die.

Boom!

A jet of purplish ray fired from his fist, destroying the yeti’s brain.

But his eyes shot wide. In the midst of the bloody mush, Chu Xun found a white, glittering stone falling out of the brain.

“A Spirit Core.”

He hurried forward and took into his grasp the shining gemstone, feeling the rich amount of energies swirling inside.

Never until now did he realize that all Beast Lord-class animals have Spirit Cores. What a bounty, he chuckled. This might only be a First-grade Spirit Core, but he was sure he would encounter better Cores in the future.

Spirit Cores, being the crux of all Beast Lord-class animals’ strength, were rare supplements extraordinarily helpful to a warrior’s progress.

Differentiated by colors, Spirit Cores come in ten grades from the highest to the lowest – starting from the top with gold, silver, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, and finally white.

He had never seen any golden Spirit Cores before, for they were the rarest and the most powerful of all Cores.

Being white in color, this very Core he was holding was only First-grade. It was useless to him, but it could be a boon to others.

Outside, the giant yeti crashed to the ground at its brain being destroyed.

Boom!

The earth rocked and rocks smashed into dust by the giant yeti’s carcass.

Chu Xun emerged from inside, so terribly soaked in blood that the very sight of him was macabre enough.

“Wow, Liu...” Yan Wushuang breathed in awe, sticking up a thumb.

The rest of the company watched Chu Xun with just as much admiration – admiration befitting one with such supreme might and power.

Chu Xun smiled weakly, “If only there’s water here. I need to wash myself, this muck is disgusting.”

“I remember seeing a little pond not far ahead. Let’s go there together.”

Chu Xun declined Yan Wushuang’s offer to lead him there, and trotted there himself after getting the directions.

“Examine the carcass, Yan,” Chu Xun’s sonorous voice boomed magically from a distance, “You might find something valuable.”

With a wordless response, he asked his men to search the carcass, feeling not an ounce of embarrassment. Chu Xun had risked himself to defeat this monster, it was only right that the spoils should go to him.

Chu Xun found the pond of water that Yan Wushuang described. It was water that flowed from the top, melted from the snow of Kunlun Mountain and it was icy cold.

The pond stretched barely five meters wide, but dark and ominous its water shimmered. One might wonder how deep it could be.

Chu Xun stripped his blood-sodden clothes and leaped into the water. Fortunately for him, he was wary.

Yan Wushuang and his men ransacked the giant yeti’s carcass, and they gathered whatever useful and valuable they could find, including its True Blood that clumped near its heart bar its normal blood, for the hulking remain was so large that its blood was enough to drown everyone.

After almost a half-hour, Yan Wushuang murmured to himself, “What’s taking him so long?”

He just barely finished, when a huge explosion came from afar.

Everyone’s face fell with horror and they scrambled towards the direction of the commotion.

Meanwhile, Chu Xun was frustrated. To think that he would be attacked by a monster python when he was bathing.

With a trunk as long as several dozen meters long and so large its girth that two men could barely ring their arms around with scales as large as a table, the gigantic python reared its triangular head, baring a jaw full of long, sharp fangs and a tongue as long as a soldier’s spear.

How could this even be a snake?! With so many fangs, would other beasts consider you as one of them?!

The gigantic snake sprang up from the depths of the pond, catching him unawares and snapped its jaw at his leg.

That angered Chu Xun so greatly that he pummeled mercilessly at its head, hitting off several of its fangs.

Whoosh!

The air screamed from over his head and Chu Xun ducked quickly.

A terrible boom resounded; the giant python’s tail missed him, creating a long trench in the ground on where he stood before.

This python might not be as powerful as the giant yeti, but it was nevertheless a Beast Lord – and a cunning one at that, hiding in the pond, biding its time for a prey.

Enraged, Chu Xun stomped hard into the ground to launch himself up, and he delivered a blow at its head.

Swish!

Despite its absurdly huge girth, the giant snake was unusually agile. It wheeled back around and slithered into the pond, causing Chu Xun’s attack to miss.

“You’re lucky you’re quick at running,” Chu Xun grumbled and turned to leave.

Splash!

Water spattered everywhere as a huge snake tail shot out of the pond, swatting down on Chu Xun like a huge slab of stone.

Chu Xun ducked just in time, and the ground split under the impact with sand and gravel flying everywhere.

As soon as it dealt its stroke, the gigantic tail immediately slunk back into the water and disappeared.

Gods in Heaven, Chu Xun seethed. So this monster’s not only cunning, it’s sneaky too!

If not to maintain his guise of being Liu Tianhe and not Chu Xun, he would have readily dove into the pond to kill this monster.

Chu Xun spun on his heels and was about to leave.

Splash!

The surface burst with the gigantic tail springing out of the pond, its tailing whipping down furiously.

“I’ve been waiting,” Chu Xun growled, evading the stroke. Missing again, the tail withdrew quickly.

Only this time, Chu Xun was ready and he had not the intention of allowing it to leave. He bolted after the tail and wrapped his arms around its tapering trunk and pulled with all his might, trying to pull the giant python out of the pond.

With the tapering tail growing smaller at its end, Chu Xun grabbed hard at it, beginning a tug-of-war against the snake.

By the time Yan Wushuang and the others arrived, they were astounded to find Chu Xun pulling a humongously massive snake tail out of the water.

“WHAT ARE YOU GAWKING AT!? COME HELP!” bellowed Chu Xun.

The monster python was so powerful that a simple wave of its tail could easily flatten mountains and hills and it was taking every ounce of Chu Xun’s strength just to keep it at bay.

Yan Wushuang and his men jerked awake from their stupor and rushed to help, and everyone helped to pull the tail backwards.

Splash!

The surface of the pond erupted once more, this time with the gigantic snake’s head rising from the water with its fangs bared and it lunged.

“Hold on tight,” shouted Chu Xun and he let go. With a powerful jump, he rocketed up at the attacking snake.

Bang!

Chu Xun rammed into the gargantuan snake’s head the size of a small hill, sending it reeling away with broken fangs falling out of its mouth.

Being a Beast Lord with shrewd cunning, the gigantic python immediately realized that it was no match to Chu Xun and began to slither quickly back into the cold waters of the pond.

But with Yan Wushuang and his men yanking it back, it swiveled back around and snapped at its own trunk.

Crack!

The snake’s trunk was snapped into two. Yan Wushuang and his men did not notice it until it was too late; the one-third portion that consisted the snake’s tail they were grabbing at fell apart and everyone crashed backwards into a heap on the ground.

Dragging the remaining two-thirds of its length, the snake slid swiftly back into the water and never came back.

Even Chu Xun himself was shocked by this. This beast maimed itself to save its life. Savage.

“What happened, Liu? What made that snake attack you?” stuttered Yan Wushuang, still not quite recovered from the shock. To think that a beast has such resolve and ruthlessness to extricate itself from danger in such a brutal way.

“What do you mean? Here I was, taking a bath, and that ruddy snake came out of nowhere and tried to gobble me!” screamed Chu Xun as if with frustration. “You pointed me here! What kind of pond has such depths that could hide such a huge monster?!”

Yan Wushuang could find no words to retort, and he could only smile apologetically. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that a monster lurked here.”

“Heavens Almighty,” Chu Xun cursed under his breath, “You’re lucky that I know you. Or else, I might even think you were trying to have me killed!”

That startled Yan Wushuang. Indeed, anyone would think so had Chu Xun failed to escape unscathed.

“Thank you, Liu,” Yan Wushuang beamed, positively proud and pleased to have Chu Xun trusting him.

“I’ll have none of that touchy-feely moments with you! Just barbecue me some snake meat to make it right,” said Chu Xun.

Huh?!

Yan Wushuang eyed the almost-ten-meter long snake tail with a fixing stare.

“W-W-Wait... Y-Y-You mean... that, Liu?!”

Chu Xun found himself a rock that he could sit down on like a stool and scowled, “Don’t you know? That bloody snake is a Beast Lord. That means, its blood and flesh has magical properties that enhances one’s power. What’s more, the flesh’s a delicious and exotic delicacy.”

Nevertheless, Chu Xun felt it a shame that he did not manage to procure the giant python’s Spirit Core.

“But Liu, we need to go explore the ruins,” persuaded Yan Wushuang, “How about this, once we get back to Yanxue City, you can have anything you want to eat, at my expense.”

“Come on, how often can you find Beast Lord-class animal flesh in the city?” said Chu Xun, “Moreover, we’ve been fighting for so long, and until now, the ancient ruins has yet to appear. For all we know, by the time the ruins appear, those who have been watching us for so long would have all arrived.”

“But what if they all arrived?” said Yan Wushuang, “Surely with your powers and mine, dealing with them will only be a cakewalk.”

“Save it, flattering is not your style,” Chu Xun scowled.

Yan Wushuang’s face broke a sheepish frown, but he began to feel he and Chu Xun had gotten closer.

“It’s not a matter of courage,” added Chu Xun as he leaning down to lie on the rock like a bed, “I only wish to not be cannon fodders.”

“Cannon fodders? What do you mean, Liu?”

“Cannon fodders. That’s what we are if we go on plowing through all the troubles ourselves, while clearing off any obstacles for the others while making it easier for them to reach the prize,” scoffed Chu Xun, visibly annoyed.