The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 348 What Makes You Think You Can

Angus’s words left Yan Wushuang and everyone else seething.

“He only wants to humiliate Chu Xun!”

“Never,” glowered Tang Rou with apparent disgust.

Creak!

Still wearing his kindly smile, his grip constricted around Yan Wushuang’s throat and more blood came trickling out his mouth.

“Never, really? You might want to reconsider.”

“Don’t hurt him!” cried Tang Rou.

“Say yes, and agree to be my woman, and I’ll spare the lives of everyone here,” grinned Angus.

Tang Rou’s eyes twitched with uncertainty and distress as she grappled with her decision.

“NO! DON’T!” roared Yi Xiaosu again hoarsely, “This filth wants only to humiliate Chu Xun! We’d rather die than let him succeed!”

“No... Tang Rou... No...” croaked Yan Wushuang with what strength he still had left as another rivulet of blood escaped his mouth.

“We’re not afraid of dying!” yelled another member of the League still lying amongst the rubble, “Immortal Chu will avenge us!”

“Chu Xun will have your hide for this, you scum of the Holy Temple!” screamed another one whose legs had just been crippled by one of Angus’s attacks, “I might die, but I’d never allow you to sully Chu Xun’s name thus!”

Bang!

He raised a hand and blasted a bolt into his own head. The stroke blasted open his skull with blood and grey matter dripping out.

“ARRGGGHHH!” Yi Xiaosu let loose another deranged roar. Dragging his battered self, he threw himself again at Angus.

With a face full of scorn and contempt, Angus swung his arms, tossing Yan Wushuang like a limp ragdoll into Yi Xiaosu and both men crashed together and crumbled into a heap.

“Consider this, my fair lady: There’s no escaping for you, whether I kill them all or not. You should know that I did not have to give you such an offer,” said Angus silkily.

But Tang Rou broke into a smile. Word by word, she stared deep into Angus’s eyes and said with equal disdain, “This is where you’re mistaken. We might be powerless against you, but I will gladly die with them than go with you.”

Those words of grit and resolve came as a surprise to Angus who was stupefied for one split-second before he pounced at Tang Rou, saying, “You’d never have the chance.”

Caught off-guard. Tang Rou frantically fired a volley of True Energy at him.

Angus shook his head gently, raising his hand nonchalantly to defend himself.

Boom!

Came a deafening explosion.

“ARGGHH!”

No one knew what happened. All they heard was Angus screaming as something hit him out of sight, crashing to the ground more than a hundred meters away.

Tang Rou stood stunned and shocked for a moment before a look of surprise showed on her face. She wheeled around hurriedly and came eye-to-eye with the gentle gaze she could have never been any more familiar with.

“Big Brother Chu Xun,” she gasped, her voice laced with surprise and sorrowful complaint.

Chu Xun withdrew his hand slowly and tidied her disheveled hair before pulling her into his arms.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been late.”

Hearing the strong drumming of Chu Xun’s heartbeat almost turned Tang Rou into a marshmallow. It was the first time he hugged her on his own and the gesture filled her with such embarrassment, turning her so pink that she barely heard anything else he said.

Angus could hardly believe it at first. But just as soon as he clapped eyes upon Chu Xun, his blood froze.

This would prove that Chu Xun must be the one who had been killing Western warriors all around Country Y recently.

“Goddamit, you...” growled a badly-injured Yan Wushuang, annoyed at what he saw, “Quit playing lovey-dovey you two... I’m going to die...”

Tang Rou dislodged from Chu Xun’s arms like a frightened little rabbit, her face and eyes so red that she almost teared up. Whimpering in a low voice, “Please, Big Brother. Help them! They’re all hurt!”

“Fast, save Yi first,” shouted Yan Wushuang. Yi Xiaosu had lost a hand and it had been burned to crisps by Angus earlier.

Chu Xun hurried to Yi Xiaosu and injected a spurt of Hong Meng Immortal Qi into him. He examined his severed wrist and shook his head morosely.

“It’s alright. At least, I manage to survive,” remarked Yi Xiaosu, sounding rather sanguine – or at least, the appearance of it.

His gaze traveled to Le Dayong’s dead body and his face twisted with visible sadness, feeling sorry for the men who had died.

Chu Xun moved around, helping to heal everyone else.

Angus stared from a distance, watching Chu Xun at work and his eyes flashed with deliberation.

“Don’t let that scum escape, Chu Xun,” yelled Yan Wushuang, refusing Chu Xun’s help for now. Angrily, he snarled, “Kill that bastard. He’s the sadistic monster who tore out Le Dayong’s heart!”

“O Great Devil Chu Xun, are you not a little too late?” commented Angus calmly.

Chu Xun peered at him, and with all warmth escaping him, he muttered icily, “Indeed. I’ve been too late. This is all my fault.”

“Will you kill me?” asked Angus.

Chu Xun shook his head. In a voice low but no less conspicuous, he growled, “I won’t kill you. But I’ll make you wish you’re dead.”

Angus fell silent for seconds before he broke into a smile, “I’m not like those trash who belonged to the Dark Guild.”

“Is that your way of saying you’re strong?” asked Chu Xun, staring at him.

Angus shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe not very strong. But I’m afraid it won’t be easy to kill me.”

“Really?” observed Chu Xun sardonically. With a look at Yan Wushuang, he said, “Record this.”

“Why record when we can just go live?” said Yan Wushuang who immediately began his live broadcast.

Chu Xun stared at him, surprised, clearly not expecting Yan Wushuang to be a buff in such entertainment. “All right, up to you then.”

The live broadcast began.

Warriors of the West were the first to rouse with surprised cheers when the camera first showed Angus. It was daytime in the West.

But it hardly took long for word of the broadcast to spread across Huaxia.

Before long, eyes from all over the world were intently watching the broadcast.

Chu Xun’s conquest of the West had garnered much international attention that people from all around Earth had been keeping abreast of any development online that even the slightest quiver of a single blade of grass could easily send ripples worldwide.

Yan Wushuang hastily tidied himself, making sure he looked presentable before turning to face the camera, saying,

“Greetings everyone. I am the broadcaster of this transmission today. First, allow me to introduce this little hamlet not far away from the Huaxia-Country Y border.”

The camera swiveled and stopped before Angus. “And here,” said Yan Wushuang, “We have a golden-maned hound that many might not recognize. Fear not, he’s none other than Angus, a Deputy Prelate of the Holy Temple of the Sun.”

Hoots and cheers came from the viewers online.

But why is Angus, Deputy Prelate to the Holy Temple, here in a remote border village within Huaxia borders?

“Next, it is my greatest pleasure to give to you an esteemed guest – one of the most esteemed, in fact, considering the furore he’s managed to kick up wherever he went,” and the camera panned to Chu Xun.

“Yes! He’s...” Yan Wushuang paused as if to let the moment sink, “The Devil! CHU XUN!”

That earned him a glare from a slightly-annoyed Chu Xun.

“That really is the Devil!”

“He’s not imprisoned by the Pope! So that means he managed to escape unscathed even after the whole debacle at Country V?!”

“That would mean... that the Western warriors in Country Y were all killed by him! Wow, that’s incredible! Gods, I don’t even know what else to say!”

All hell broke loose on the cyberspace with incessant chatters and discussions.

Chu Xun’s disappearance all these while had given rise to rumors where some claimed that he was being kept under lock and key by the Holy See, while others postulated about his death. No one had expected that he would mount a reappearance here in Huaxia.

This would substantiate the speculations that it was he who had murdered the presbyters of the Dark Guild, the Knights of the Circular Table, and the last remaining godson of the Pope in Country Y.

But for now, right at this moment, there was no one more flustered than the Holy Temple. Chu Xun’s crashing of the party would now spell failure for Angus’s plan.

Louis Krieg, High Prelate of the Holy Temple of the Sun, watched his monitor with not an ounce of kindness in his gaze. Quickly, he left a message for Chu Xun, telling him that the Holy Temple would never forgive him if Angus fell on Huaxia soil.

Before the eyes of the world, Chu Xun hurled back a scornful response, saying loudly to the camera, “If only you’re here in person. I would have killed you myself, let alone some filth like Angus.”

Chu Xun wheeled around and reiterated to Angus, “As I’ve said before, anyone who offends Huaxia, near or far, I will kill him!”

“Is this really what you want, Devil?” snarled Angus loudly and sternly, “For both of us to be wounded?” He needed to appear strong and powerful before the eyes of the world to keep up the Holy Temple’s name.

“For both of us to be wounded?” repeated Chu Xun, his brows raising with evident disdain, “What makes you think you can?”

At the same time, Yan Wushuang entered the frame in a miscue, yelling, “With the Devil for Huaxia and Angus for the West, the final battle begins!”

But Yan Wushuang held the camera wrongly; it was facing him instead of the two men and the audience was hardly amused by this.

“Ah, well... Face the camera away from your big face, I wanna see the Devil.”

“Who the hell are you? Hurry up and face Immortal Chu! Who do you think wants to see that big ugly face of yours?! Good Lord, you look like a car crash just took place on your bloody face.”

“Gosh... You should have had plastic surgery before appearing on TV. Your hideous face is enough to give anyone the creeps.”

The Internet abounded with countless dissatisfied views miffed with Yan Wushuang facing the camera and one after another, and they lampooned and insulted him to no end.

Yan Wushuang fumed so greatly that he nearly blew steam. His face might be misshapen with bruises and swells, but that didn’t make him any less handsome and dashing!

Still, he could hardly negate the overwhelming pressure from his audience. Obeying their wishes sourly, he turned the camera around to broadcast the duel, saying, “And now— Eh?! Where is he?!”

The camera spun around, but Chu Xun was gone! Frantically, he panned the camera over to Angus.

The entire cyberspace turned as silent and still as a necropolis.

Dumbfounded, it took great lengths and time before Yan Wushuang could finally recover from his stupor. “Urm, everyone... A-a-and we... We have a winner...” he stuttered, “Well, thank you for watching. That’s all for the duel and the winner, Chu Xun, the Devil of Huaxia in a perfect victory!”

Yan Wushuang quickly hit the “End” button to stop the broadcast.

In the final frame of the broadcast, no one could possibly miss Angus lying in a crumpled heap on the ground, bloodied and mangled, before Chu Xun stomped a foot into his face, pounding his head further into the ground.

“GODDAMMIT! WHO THE HELL WAS THAT?! GET OVER HERE THIS INSTANT SO THAT I CAN WALLOP THE HELL OUT OF YOU!”

“Curse that idiot! I wanna beat him so hard that not even his mother will recognize him in the end!”

“I’ll @##￥% you! Piece of shit!”

An all-out onslaught of curses and expletives erupted all because of Yan Wushuang. His dilly-dallying had caused everyone to miss how Chu Xun had beaten down Angus and all they got was a single frame of the aftermath, which hardly satiated their hunger for the thrill of watching the Devil in action.

It was a travesty no Huaxia warrior was amused of. For them to only catch a single glimpse of the outcome of the fight caused an uproar online with thousands screaming for Yan Wushuang’s blood.

Naturally, Yan Wushuang saw it coming. That was the reason he quickly terminated the broadcast.

“Damned you. Can’t you just slow down?!” frowned Yan Wushuang sourly. He did not even need to check, the Internet must be swarming with threats and curses aimed at him.

“I have tried my best to slow down, actually,” muttered Chu Xun.

Pursing his lips, Yan Wushuang grumbled, “Can’t you just quit acting all suave and stuff for just one bleeding second?”

But Yi Xiaosu everyone else knew the best. There was hardly ever any need for Chu Xun to pretend to be high and mighty. All it took was only one single punch, and the Devil had easily vitiated Angus’s shroud of flames of the Sun while smashing all his bones altogether.

Such strength and power. Such might that would make anyone quake. Everyone had tasted firsthand the strength and power that Angus wielded, yet not even he could take a single punch from Chu Xun.

With that one punch that instantly quashed what flames that imbued Angus, Chu Xun showed zero mercy. He chased after Angus once he crashed to the ground and hammered a fit into the latter’s face so hard that his skull nearly shattered and the Deputy Prelate could only manage to scream with agony.

Right at that moment, Angus finally understood Chu Xun’s question: What makes you think you can? It was too ludicrous for words, that arrogance of his and he should have realized during Chu Xun’s question then and for that moment of hubris, Chu Xun now demonstrated to him the truth. The stinging truth of their disparity.