The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 445 Chu Xun Enraged

Most of the Beast Lords that came with Jiu You ended up either dead or maimed.

The duo of Huang Yin and Hu Shi’en—both Beast Lords at Grade Nine of the Great Completion—had turned the tables and made it a one-sided slaughter.

Jiu You herself was also seriously injured, and she could hardly defend herself.

“Open your eyes wide and take a good look at how I’ll crush your subjects with my fingers, Queen Jiu You,” Huang Yin sniggered vilely.

“Bang!”

Huang Yin slapped a palm at the head of a Tibetan Mastiff, blasting its head open with a jet of blood and grey matter bursting out.

“Roar!”

Jiu You’s reddened eyes bulged and swirled in their sockets. She turned into her original form—a gigantic snake—and bared her fangs at her foes, spitting out streaks of cold air.

Huang Yin rushed away with the speed of a lightning bolt to evade the blasts of ice.

The cold air harmlessly struck the ground more than a dozen square meters around. Then crisp cracking sounds echoed and the ground split inch by inch.

Despite her gargantuan mass, Jiu You moved with impossible dexterity, whipping her tail at Hu Shi’en in a deluge of multi-colored lights.

Hu Shi’en scoffed. Yellow lights radiated off him as his aura rose and he attacked, firing a blast of energy at Jiu You.

“Rumble!”

All of Wildfox Ridge shuddered as a ray of light shot into the sky. The blast parried off Jiu You’s humungous tail, blasting off several of her scales and wounding her flesh inside with blood spraying everywhere.

“What kind of python is this?” uttered Hu Shi’en curiously. He had never seen a python with so many colors before.

“That’s not the point. Kill her first,” Huang Yin growled, charging forth with obvious malice.

Jiu You’s clumsy mass thrashed and slithered over rapidly, eager to constrict herself around the two mutants.

“How mistaken you are,” Hu Shi’en mocked contemptuously. A yellow jet of energy blast burst from his palm, smacking squarely into Jiu You’s large girth, and sent her rolling away.

More lights of gold erupted. Jiu You’s golden halberd reappeared in Huang Yin’s grasp and he charged, lancing forth with lightning speed and intensity.

“ARGGH!”

Jiu You couldn’t resist letting out a grunt of pain as the halberd plunged into her tail and kept her pinned to the ground.

“My queen!”

The tiger and the lion Beast Lords all cried for her with concern and distress.

“Kill me if you can, you old bastard,” the lion roared.

Huang Yin turned around and flashed a cruel smile. “Don’t worry. Your turn will come soon.”

Jiu You turned back into her human form, and her right foot was pinned to the ground by the halberd, with red warm blood pouring out onto her milky-white skin.

Huang Yin lifted the halberd with Jiu You still hanging on to it like a fish. As he held her up, more blood gushed out of the wound on her leg, splattering on the ground in puddles.

“Your end is near, Queen Jiu You.” Huang Yin gave the halberd a violent shake that tossed Jiu You out into a heap on the ground. That tore apart most of her tendons and muscles and nearly ripped her foot off.

“Bang!”

When Jiu You fell to the ground, her dainty frame tumbled and rolled on the ground in a whirl of dust and blood.

“My queen!”

The lion and the rest of the still surviving Beast Lords all wailed for her.

“I’m fine.” Jiu You’s voice trembled as she spoke weakly. But blood never stopped pouring out of her mouth, and her little face was the color of death.

The beasts howled gravely. There was no way she was fine.

“It’s my fault. I’ve led you all to death,” gasped Jiu You with guilt, expressing her sorry to the Beast Lords who had pledged their lives to serve her.

“Please, my queen. Say nothing of the sort! We swore fealty to you! For the past six months, we’ve dealt with our share of these alien vermins! That’s good enough for me!” the tiger bellowed defiantly.

“Right! Killing one was already a good harvest for us, never mind two. We’ve killed so many so far! I’d say that’s a fair exchange!” yelled the golden-maned lion too.

“Wow, that’s touching, I must say.” Huang Yin flashed a wicked grin.

“Deal with them quickly and leave no loose ends,” said Hu Shi’en.

Huang Yin nodded. With an evil smile of triumph, he said, “Well, time’s up, long live the queen!”

Huang Yin waved the halberd around in a flourish, its tip giving off a blinding sparkle, and he fiercely stabbed with the polearm.

Just then, something huge and gargantuan cast its shadow from overhead.

Huang Yin and Hu Shi’en jerked their heads up at once and saw a massive silver-beaked eagle circling overhead, its colossal bulk blotting out the sky and the sun.

Huang Yin’s and Hu Shi’en’s faces fell immediately. Their plot had been discovered by that eagle!

“What should we do? That damned bird just saw us!” Hu Shi’en asked in a hushed voice.

“Find a way to deal with that bird. Leave no loose ends.” Huang Yin’s face went dark ominously.

“Leave it to me.” Hu Shi’en flipped over his hand, and a long, heavy-set bow painted in green magically appeared in his hand. The emerald-green weapon shone with a soft, scintillating luster.

“Is that an Elven bow?” Huang Yin gasped, astonished.

Hu Shi’en nodded. “I got it at an auction. It’s a very potent weapon, powerful enough to kill that eagle.”

Hu Shi’en produced three two-meter-long arrows fashioned from good steel and he knocked them on the bow.

“Swoosh! Swoosh!”

All three arrows shot up in the sky like meteors, screaming and tearing through the air with deadly force towards the silver-beaked eagle.

“Oh my god!” the eagle squealed with panic at the first sight of danger, flapping its wings frantically to flee.

But the arrows came too quickly before it could escape. The eagle screeched, its feathers all ruffled up. “I’m dead, I’m dead, I’m dead!”

Chu Xun radiated such an aura and presence of extreme rage and power like an ancient beast jolted awake from a long slumber that even the air around him warped and distorted as if cringing with fear.

He threw himself off the back of the silver-beaked eagle and allowed himself to freefall like a falling asteroid. The steel arrows barely came near when he effortlessly swatted them with the nonchalance of swatting a fly.

Hu Shi’en and Huang Yin did not expect to find that the eagle was carrying a person. They looked upward, stunned and bewildered for a moment.

“Bang!”

Chu Xun plummeted to the ground with a deafening crash, and the ground all around him sank and caved in with numerous cracks spreading out from where he stood with waves of dirt and dust rolling in all directions.

Before anyone could even react, the colossal silhouette of man’s hand materialized from the midst of the waves of dust, slamming into both Hu Shi’en and Huang Yin.

The attack without warning caught the two mutants unawares. Reeling with shock, they could feel the terrible power that the silhouette carried—so great that just looking at it coming towards them made their hair stand up—and they quickly spun around and escaped even before they realized it.

But the 30-or-so fox Beast Lords behind them were not so fortunate—the huge fist came down, and the ensuing explosion engulfed them all.

“Rumble!”

All of Wildfox Ridge shook violently with more cracks spreading everywhere. Where the silhouette had struck just now remained a large crater in the shape of a palm as deep as three meters.

More than a dozen fox Beast Lords were killed in the blast, and all of them were reduced to minced meat before they could make a yelp.

The rest of the fox Beast Lords who had managed to stay out of the way were caught by the pulsing shockwaves that caused internal injuries severe enough for them to vomit blood as they crashed to the ground.

Fear filled the dilated pupils of Hu Shi’en and Huang Yin as their faces went pale. It was simply too terrifying.

The surviving Beast Lords of Jiu You’s horde were all petrified into bewilderment.

It took several seconds before Hu Shi’en finally broke his silence and gave a bestial howl for his dead kin. The fox Beast Lords who were just killed represented the bulk of the might of the Canids which had emerged, and their death was a terrible loss.

The howl jolted every other beast awake from their momentary stupor.

They swiveled their heads and saw an ordinary-looking young man standing at the center of the crater, which he had created when he struck the ground just now, his very self radiating an aura of immense wrath and power.

Chu Xun strode over to Jiu You, peered at her ashen-pale face, and felt a knot in his gut.

“What a brat that really needs attention 24/7. Any later and this could have turned into an irreparable mistake.”

He had first gone to Mt. Ravencrow where he then found clues that showed that Jiu You had come here to Wildfox Ridge.

“You...” Jiu You looked up at Chu Xun uncertainly.

She might not recognize Chu Xun in his transformed appearance, but there was no way she would mistake his aura and smell, which had always been so familiar to her.

“Quiet,” Chu Xun muttered sternly.

Jiu You’s eyes lit up, and she smiled sweetly. It really was Chu Xun.

“To think that you still have the nerve to grin,” Chu Xun muttered with such suppressed anger that he could feel his own heart palpitating strongly.

Jiu You quickly realized how angry Chu Xun really was, and she lowered her head like a little girl that had been caught doing something wrong.

Chu Xun knelt down and injected a huge burst of Hong Meng Immortal Qi to help her heal.

The sight of Jiu You’s mangled leg did little to stifle Chu Xun’s anger and malice, and the aura emanating from him full of hatred and anger only grew stronger.

He first helped to stop Jiu You’s bleeding before using healing magic to repair her damaged tendons and muscles.

The Hong Meng Immortal Qi did its work quickly, but Jiu You’s wounds would require more work and the freshly-repaired leg would require more magical herbs and shrubs to fully recover.

And his Storage Ring had been emptied earlier when he left all his supplies to Jing Hong before he left Dragon’s Back.

“You, gimme your Storage Rings,” Chu Xun barked at Hu Shi’en and Huang Yin.

Both mutants stood there, motionless and stunned, wondering if they had heard wrongly.

“Who are you?” Hu Shi’en demanded, his face contorting with disgust. This stranger had appeared out of nowhere only to attack him before killing more than a dozen of his kin. And now he dared to make demands for his Storage Ring?! How brazen could he be?!

“Swoosh!”

Chu Xun had no stomach for banter. Nothing mattered more than saving Jiu You.

With only a blink of an eye, Chu Xun reappeared a hundred meters away, right in front of Huang Yin.

That shocked Huang Yin enough to nearly scare the living daylights out of him. “So fast! So fast that I could barely react!?”

“Get lost!”

Huang Yin thundered belligerently, swinging a fist over at Chu Xun to hit him.

“Bang!”

Chu Xun lifted a hand. As if the energy blast that Huang Yin had just fired at him hardly existed, his hands passed through easily and grabbed his wrist.

“Bang!”

Then he viciously landed a kick on Huang Yin that sent him into the air.

Only he could not fly through the air because Chu Xun did not let go of his wrist. And the kick sent him jerking backward with his arm still held by Chu Xun, even though he still fell three meters away with blood gushing out of his mouth.

Huang Yin let loose an agonizing shriek of pain. His arm was no more—Chu Xun had ripped it off his torso.

Chu Xun slipped the Storage Ring off the severed limb, and strong, purplish flames burst to life from his hand, devouring the limb into ashes.

So frightened that his eyes couldn’t even move, Hu Shi’en inadvertently staggered backward to flee.

Chu Xun clasped his fingers firmly against each other like a blade and chopped into the air, firing a flat energy bolt the shape and size of a cleaver’s blade that shot speedily at the mutant.

Hu Shi’en roared with hysterical desperation, conjuring layers of a magical shield around him. He clapped his hands, and a rich burst of yellow luminescence erupted off him. Such powers could have easily mangled steel plates more than 10 centimeters thick into tiny strips.

But the purplish projectile exceeded his expectations, slicing through the protective shield layers and crushing the energy that he had been amassing between his palms.

“ARGGH!”

Blood sprayed out, accompanied by Hu Shi’en’s painful bawlings, as the purplish blade-like bolt cleanly lopped off his arms.

Chu Xun slid off the Storage Ring from one of the severed arms before burning them into ashes too.

Then he went back to Jiu You, destroyed the magic that prevented any unauthorized entries into the Storage Ring, and emptied their contents.

There were many things inside—magical herbs and fruits, gold and silver, some local currency, and many others.

There were also a few tomes and manuals containing the knowledge of other magic and some Sacred Relics too, which hardly warranted any attention from him.

He chose the best herbs he could find and used his powers to synthesize them and extracted their essence, which he used to apply to Jiu You’s wounds. Then he chose some magical fruits that had mild healing properties and fed them to her.

Hu Shi’en and Huang Yin both writhed and contorted with pain and anguish, rolling around on the ground in pain.

The rest of the fox Beast Lords—those which had survived and had suffered internal damage from Chu Xun’s earlier attacks—hardly dared to move.

All of Jiu You’s horde—the lion, tiger, and the rest of the Beast Lords—all gawked in silence.

Everyone was left befuddled with amazement that two invincible Beast Lords who had reached Grade Nine of the Great Completion were so easily defeated with little resistance.

Whoever this was, he had to be at least at the Immortal Level!

But it delighted them that this stranger appeared to be more friend than foe.

“Save them,” Jiu You pleaded to Chu Xun to help her subjects.

Chu Xun peered at them coldly and hissed, “Were they the ones who had instigated you into coming here? Perhaps I should kill them all and roast them. They might be useless in a fight, so maybe it would be more helpful if they are turned into sustenance for you. Consuming their flesh and True Blood would help with your recovery.”

The lion, the tiger, and the rest of Jiu You’s Beast Lords had just been glad to survive until what they heard made their blood run cold.