Sovereign of the Three Realms

“Gaoqi, remain here.” Jiang Chen said. Although the two sides in front of them were heavily injured, Jiang Chen’s intuition told him that something was a still bit off. Something strange was entwined in the air of this unfamiliar place, forcing him to stay on his guard.

Lin Feng and Feng Wanjian didn’t care much for that as they strode over, already hefting their swords to enthusiastically send the four on their way. Feng Wanjian stopped in front of Xu Gang, chuckling, “Xu Gang, you vile swine! You broke our oath and brought in an earth origin realm cultivator. Your karma has arrived!” He swung down at Xu Gang’s neck after speaking.

Jiang Chen didn’t stop them. He was more interested in that rare spirit herb. However, he felt something untoward the moment Feng Wanjian struck downwards, and instantly halted in his steps, preparing to back up. At the same time, a ghastly cry came from Feng Wanjian as he collapsed in a heap on the ground.

The Walkabout Sect disciple who’d been lying in a pool of blood stood up with a sinister smile. He didn’t look injured at all!

Almost at the same time, the light from a blade flashed from where Lin Feng had dashed to Yue Pan, and his head was separated from his body. The ashen-faced Yue Pan also leapt up, also looking full of vigor.

Bam bam bam!

Xu Gang sprang into action without delay, with the enormous boulders crushing his body suddenly flying at Jiang Chen with incredible force. The other Walkabout Sect disciple also jumped up and drew back his bow. The nocked arrow transformed into a streak of light as it shot towards Jiang Chen.

The balance had been critically altered in those crucial moments. Feng Wanjian had fallen from a sneak attack, and Lin Feng had been bisected in a single blow. The four who had originally been struggling for life had Jiang Chen surrounded from all four corners, already launching their killing blows.

It was a good thing Jiang Chen had been on his guard earlier. When he saw the boulders crashing down on him and the arrow flying through the air, he snorted softly and clenched his hands once, sealing off the air around his body with a magnetic storm.

Wham!

The boulders exploded as soon as they hit the storm’s front, and the speeding arrow vanished after being ground away by the storm. Jiang Chen’s eyes flashed coldly as he looked at each of the corners.

“So it seems the four of you were plotting together?” Jiang Chen laughed coldly at them. He hadn’t anticipated this scene from the Walkabout Sect and Great Cathedral. Seconds away from attacking each other, they’d formed an alliance and agreed to play dead to create this facade.

“Kid, state your name!” Yue Pan leered. “I don’t create nameless ghosts with my blade.” The eyes of the two from the Walkabout Sect rapidly darted around, a thick sense of killing intent within them.

Jiang Chen’s gaze was at ease as he looked at the latter two, “You’re dealing with the devil here. Aren’t you afraid of becoming sacrificial lambs to the Great Cathedral later?”

A disciple with almost triangular-shaped eyes snorted derisively. “That’s our matters, you don’t need to worry about that.”

Xu Gang yelled, “Kid, don’t try turning us on each other!”

Jiang Chen smiled faintly, “Do I even need to?”

Standing off in the distance, Mu Gaoqi was greatly beset with worry. He had produced a sword and was preparing himself to leap into the battlefield. Although his strength was only first level origin realm and on a completely different level from those present, he knew he couldn’t sit idly by as his comrade was surrounded.

“Gaoqi, back up some.” Although Jiang Chen was standing with his back to Mu Gaoqi, it was as if he had eyes on the back of his head as he stopped Mu Gaoqi’s impulsiveness.

Xu Gang suddenly grinned, “Mu Gaoqi, if you want to come down here to your death with that little bit of talent of yours, we won’t mind sending you on your way as well.”

Even a rabbit would bite if it was forced up a wall. Mu Gaoqi spoke in a rare moment of anger, “Xu Gang, don’t you overstep yourselves! The duos from the other three sects have been all eliminated now, what else do you want?”

Xu Gang snorted softly, glaring at Jiang Chen. “Mu Gaoqi, you’re something else, aren’t you? Where did you find this rogue cultivator? Even we were almost fooled by how deep he’d hidden himself.”

That the Great Cathedral and the Walkabout Sect could set aside their previous grudges and team up against Jiang Chen meant that they had realized Jiang Chen was the true threat in this expedition. This was why they’d set aside their differences to create this ruse of injuring themselves to lure their enemy. It was a pity that Lin Feng and Feng Wanjian had escaped death from the lava lake only to die here.

Yue Pan flourished the blade in his hand. “Alright, less talk now. This kid isn’t an ordinary character since he could escape from the boiling lava lake. If the four of us don’t take him out together, none of us can dream about calmly proceeding later.” It was obvious that they were definitely in agreement on that point.

Mu Gaoqi cried out loudly, “Be careful, the Walkabout Sect uses poison!” Jiang Chen knew that without Mu Gaoqi’s reminder, but it was truly displaying their incompetence in front of a true connoisseur if they wanted to use poison on Jiang Chen.

Back when he’d been playing with poison in his previous life, who knew if the Walkabout Sect had even formed yet!

Xu Gang and Yue Pan were both Great Cathedral disciples and possessed frightening battle strength at close quarters combat. On the other hand, the Walkabout Sect disciples were skilled at long range combat, and excelled at using strange poisons from the shadows to control the battlefield.

If they hadn’t all sworn to the heavens previously that they wouldn’t act against each other before killing their opponent. Yue Pan and Xu Gang would’ve never been willing to expose their backs to the two from the Walkabout Sect.

Two figures pincered Jiang Chen between them, their speed leaving a trail of sand and rocks in the air. Yue Pan’s style was fierce, dominating opponents with sheer momentum, whereas Xu Gang favored a vigorous attack, bursting with power. They were very similar in style, but their ease in coordinating this attack revealed how often they’d worked with each other. The twin attacks coming from either side would result in a combined strength that was far greater than the sum of its parts.

The two from the Walkabout Sect had sealed off the battlefield with their arrows and poisoned darts, using concealed weapons to harass Jiang Chen in tandem with Yue Pan and Xu Gang.

Mu Gaoqi was frantic and surreptitiously circled around to the back of one of the Walkabout Sect disciples, only to hear the latter snort derisively, “Mu Gaoqi, don’t blame me for killing you if you step within three hundred meters of me!”

Mu Gaoqi had wanted to backstab the fellow from behind, and even more worried now that his plans had been seen through. He knew that he was only of first level origin realm and had never focused on martial strength. He had no advantages whatsoever if he wanted to face off with these third level origin realm cultivators.

Yue Pan’s blade had locked onto Jiang Chen at this moment. “Time to meet your maker, kid!” Yue Pan’s downward swing suddenly accelerated by a few notches. Light from the blade flashed by as the weapon bit deeply into Jiang Chen’s shoulder.

Pfft!

The blow cleaved Jiang Chen clean in two. Xu Gang’s blow also landed in that split second opening, smashing explosively onto Jiang Chen’s upper body. He twisted his sword, making Jiang Chen’s head explode loudly.

Xu Gang and Yue Pan looked at each other, highly pleased with themselves. They’d been practicing this concerted move since they were ten, and had never failed even against opponents a bit stronger than them. However, when the two had finished basking in the afterglow, they felt slightly nonplussed. The atmosphere felt a bit bizarre, and something felt off. It was like they’d overlooked a key detail.

Their strike had been clean and to the point, with no flaws to it whatsoever. Except, the feedback from that crisp and vigorous stroke was eerily similar to a giant gourd, and they felt none of the usual thrill that came from dismembering their opponent.

“Something’s wrong!” Yue Pan took a look at the corpse and finally noticed. There was no blood.

“Yue Pan, what the hell are you guys doing?” The two from the Walkabout Sect had also discovered this outlandish situation and began yelling loudly.

Everyone suddenly felt the ground tremble beneath their feet, which rapidly grew in intensity till it felt like the earth was about to split apart.

Bam bam bam!

Countless explosions rocked the air as numerous holes suddenly appeared in the ground. Vine strands sprang out like the tentacles of a monster, instantly sealing off the area.

As for Jiang Chen, he landed in front of Mu Gaoqi with a twist of his body, looking none the worse for wear.

The expressions of Yue Pan and the others changed drastically as they discovered the vines around them were all lotus vines, each of them the frost-white limbs of the Ice Lotus. The vines surrounded the four disciples like an igloo.

“What the hell is this?” Yue Pan was feeling quite weirded out by this turn of events and slashed at one of the vines. It broke with a snap.

“Haha, it’s merely form! Good for looks and nothing else. It’s just a bunch of trash!” His sword danced with brilliance in the air as he slashed at a second vine.

Whoosh!!

Cold light flared brilliantly as this stroke slashed down. A faint layer of frost had grown on the longsword that was slashing down on the second vine. In the next second, it spread rapidly, covering the entire sword.

“No! This is freezing qi!” Yue Pan hurriedly threw away the sword and backed up, but a vine had snuck up behind him, as if it were a spirit snake. Its flower petals probed forwards, then wrapped around Yue Pan like an enormous mouth as countless currents of white frost instantly froze Yue Pan.

Crunch, crunch!

The flower petals shook a few times as its enormous biting force crushed Yue Pan’s body to pieces and digested it. The remaining disciples could do nothing but watch with mouths open in horror.

Xu Gang reached out, intending to use his old trick of having a scapegoat attract the vines while he made his escape. However, he had barely begun to reach out when two vines behind him wrapped around his waist and hoisted him into the air. He was immediately immobilized as he flew through the air.

Xu Gang was scared out of his wits, “Surrender, I surrender! Daoist Chen, I surrender!”

The other two Walkabout Sect disciples weren’t any better off. They had already been trussed up by the ice vines, and the immense freezing power of ice continuously assaulted their nascent soul, as if wanting to even freeze their circulation.

“Mercy, Daoist Chen! We surrender! If you need help in exploring the spirit spring, we’re yours to command!” The two from the Walkabout Sect knew that their life and death was up to a single thought of the other. If they still didn’t surrender now, they wouldn’t ever have a chance to.

Jiang Chen’s face was detached. “Mine to command?”

“Yes, yes! You know too that Mu Gaoqi is weak and insufficient. We’re the useful ones in moments of need!”

“That’s right, if you tell us to go east, we’ll never go west!”

Mu Gaoqi didn’t have the slightest reaction even though these people were calling him weak. He was completely shellshocked. He knew that Jiang Chen was strong, but had never imagined that Jiang Chen would win so easily when surrounded by four people. What kind of counter attack was this? It was a complete smackdown!