Sovereign of the Three Realms

Jiang Chen had no lack of ability or courage, and he fully exploited the Lotus’ enormous capability to surreptitiously move upwards. Numerous ice and fire lotuses had taken up residence a few meters beneath and around the cavern. Jiang Chen’s consciousness descended upon them to observe the brutal fight.

The cavern was a wreck, fallen boulders dotting the area.

A black dragon was coiled atop an enormous boulder, staring viciously at a particular rock wall. The hunchback had already lost an arm, and his chest and back were covered with bloody wounds. He was panting heavily.

“You despicable human, how dare you set up a poison formation in my territory! What sect are you from?! When this sage one leaves this area, I’ll make sure to annihilate your sect!” The dragon’s awe-inspiring voice reverberated around the cavern, echoing to and fro.

“Hahaha!” The hunchback began to laugh maniacally, in spite of his injuries. “Such big talk! I might actually be slightly afraid of you if you weren’t poisoned to this state. You still want to throw your weight around after being hit with my Spirit Restraint Powder? Dream on!” His words set off a spasm of coughs, hacking up large mouthfuls of blood.

It was obvious that he’d used poison to ambush the dragon, but had been injured in turn as well. Given his grievous wounds, he couldn’t muster enough strength to end the dragon with one last blow.

Jiang Chen wasn’t sure if he should be happy or worried at this sight. The hunchback’s deviousness was too frightening. He hadn’t made a move when he’d first arrived at the spring, but had instead set down a poison formation first. It was obvious that he’d long been prepared for such an outcome.

As for the dragon, it hadn’t noticed the poison formation when it first woke up. It’d immediately attacked fiercely and ferociously, taking in more poisonous air as it did so.

Although its powerful attacks had injured the hunchback, the dragon had also been heavily dosed with the Spirit Restraint Powder, leaving it unable to concentrate its dragon breath anymore. It too was unable to give the hunchback a lethal blow.

One true dragon and one second level sage realm had both suffered great losses.

“Vile human, don’t think I don’t know your intentions! As good as the spring is, it won’t purify your lowly bloodline.” The dragon was incensed.

The hunchback laughed leisurely. “Just keep talking tough! I won’t die from these injuries for a short while anyways. But with your poison, even with the true essence of a dragon, how long can you hold on without aid? Three months? Six months? One year? I’ve got more than enough time to spare. When you die, I’ll peel off your skin, pull out your tendons, bleed you dry, feed on your heart, and then refine your core, hahaha!! The bloodline of a dragon and a spring with wood spirit energy, what a fortuitous occurrence that the heavens have given me! There hasn’t been an emperor realm cultivator in the Myriad Domain for hundreds of years. It looks like I’m predestined to become a Great Emperor and unite the Myriad Domain!”

If one could absorb the bloodline of a dragon, ascending to the emperor realm was a given. Add the baptism of the spring, and it wasn’t farfetched to think that he’d become a Titled Great Emperor that everyone in the Divine Abyss Continent would look up to.

The hunchback started laughing proudly as he started to imagine his future, but his laughter choked off into silence as a violent light shone in his eyes, “Who’s there?!”

Although Wei Wudao 1 was gravely injured, his consciousness was unimpaired, and he felt a ripple of another consciousness in the shadows, observing them. The shout he let out shook the rock walls in its intensity, rock shards falling as they fragmented into pieces.

That ripple of consciousness had been Jiang Chen in the shadows. The Lotus had almost perfectly concealed him, and he’d been very careful, but he hadn’t thought that Wei Wudao would be even more shrewd than a rat! He immediately retracted his consciousness and ceased observing.

Wei Wudao looked around for a bit, but came up empty handed. “That’s odd, I definitely felt a consciousness spying from the shadows. Although it hid itself well, there’s no mistake about it.” Wei Wudao suddenly looked at the two water curtains. The two figures were still inside. “Weird, was it my imagination? Those two origin realm rats have no future but death under the suppression of my Rune. There’s no way they can escape. Can it be that there’s some remnants left alive from that pack of minor origin realm cultivators who entered the cave earlier?”

Wei Wudao suddenly jerked in surprise when his thoughts reached that point. It wasn’t that he was afraid of those minor origin realm cultivators. He was confident he could handle them all, even if they came charging in as a horde. Even a lean camel was bigger than a horse, and his injuries were only to his body. His battle strength might be below par, but that wasn’t enough to prevent him from dealing with a few minor realm cultivators.

Wei Wudao’s gaze was about to shift from the water curtain when a thought struck him.

“Wait… wait!” Something flashed through his mind. The quick glance he’d taken just now had set off a slight warning bell. His body flashed as he landed next to the water curtains like a large bird of prey. The closer he was to the water curtain, the further he was from the dragon. Therefore, he didn’t feel the slightest pressure from this movement.

“How can this be!?” He looked at the two figures in the water curtain, particularly Mu Gaoqi. His face had been almost turning purple from suffocation earlier, but why was he actually more rosy cheeked now? This doesn’t make sense!

Wei Wudao paced around the curtain, looking carefully at the two. However, he couldn’t see anything through the water either. If a level two sage realm cultivator looked carefully at the illusion that Jiang Chen was channeling through the Lotus, they would’ve certainly seen some flaws. But when viewed through the curtain and his heavy injuries obscuring his perception, he could call upon only half his cultivation. Therefore, he couldn’t see much of anything no matter how hard he looked.

Wei Wudao’s unease only grew as he slapped his hand against the water curtain, a blue light from his hand seal covering the water curtain.

Pop! Pop!

The two water curtains popped as two figures landed in front of Wei Wudao.

“Hmm? This isn’t them!” He was greatly shocked and slammed his hand down on the two lotuses. They swayed and then drilled deep into the ground.

This turn of events left Wei Wudao openmouthed with surprise. He’d been out and about in the world for who knew how long, and had imprisoned many with his Rune. Even sage realm cultivators would find it almost impossible to escape if confined by his rune, but now two origin realm rats had escaped! He was both angered and anxious.

He was angry that his Rune had proven ineffective, and anxious that the two origin realm rats might come back with reinforcements, ruining his advantage for taking the spring for himself.

A true dragon and a spring of wood spirit energy. This was a fortuitous occurrence bestowed by the heavens! What portion of it would be his if stronger people arrived? He didn’t even dare think about it!

As he blanked momentarily, he was suddenly struck with joy. That peeping consciousness he’d sensed just now must have come from the two minor origin realm cultivators.

Since they haven’t left yet, there’s no need for them to leave now!

Wei Wudao suddenly smiled and flicked his hand, a jade-green vertical bamboo flute appearing in his right hand. “A mere origin realm wants to display your incompetence to me? My ‘Hypnotic Requiem’ melody will destroy your consciousness, even if you’re hidden thousands of feet in the ground.” Wei Wudao had many hidden techniques, and this particular melody was useless on dragons, so he hadn’t bothered to use it. The souls of dragons were simply too strong, and the consciousness of a dragon was almost invincible. Wei Wudao had never thought of using this method to suppress the dragon. However, it was perfect for two mere origin realm cultivators.

Jiang Chen knew that things had taken a bad turn when his consciousness had been discovered. However, he wasn’t nervous as he decided to just break out of the wall and land on the other side, placing the dragon between him and Wei Wudao.

The dragon had obviously long since detected Jiang Chen’s presence. He looked Jiang Chen up and down as the human broke out of the wall.

Jiang Chen grinned and greeted it in the dragon language, “Five claws and horns. You’re a true descendent of the dragons!”

The dragon trembled when he heard the dragon tongue, staring at this human young man with incredulity. “Human, you know dragon speech? Are you the reincarnation of a true dragon?”

“…no no, there’s no presence of a dragon about you.”

“I’m not the reincarnation of a dragon, but I’m a friend of the dragons.” Jiang Chen spoke in flawless dragon.

The two of them chattered away in the dragon language, completely stunning Wei Wudao. He glared fiercely at Jiang Chen, “Kid, just what kind of background do you have?”

Jiang Chen smiled, completely at ease, “Does that matter, Wei Wudao? Are you going to get the hell out now yourself, or will you wait for the experts from my sect to come and destroy you?”

“You!” Wei Wudao scanned the surroundings and found no sign of Mu Gaoqi’s consciousness. He suddenly started, “Your companion fled?”

Jiang Chen laughed. “Do you think we’d be so dumb as to stay here for you to capture? Of course he went back to get reinforcements!”

“Went back?” Wei Wudao’s eyes spun in thought. “You’re a disciple of the Regal Pill Palace, and it takes at least four to five days to make a round trip from there. By that time, I’ll have assimilated the dragon blood, refined the core, been baptized in the spring and gone on my merry way. Your sect can only come to pick up your carcass!” Wei Wudao lifted the flute and prepared to play.

Jiang Chen had come out because he’d been worried about this “Hypnotic Requiem”. He could resist its effects, but Mu Gaoqi, hundreds of feet below, wouldn’t be able to. This was why Jiang Chen had come out to face this Wei Wudao.

Of course, he wasn’t the sort to put himself in sure danger like a moth to flame. He’d broken out of the wall because he’d already made his own plans. He would never stand face to face with his enemy without preparations beforehand. But even with Wei Wudao’s injuries, a second level sage realm still wasn’t someone Jiang Chen could handle.

“Wei Wudao, who are you trying to frighten with a mere ‘Hypnotic Requiem?’ Why don’t you get a taste of this first!” Jiang Chen pulled back on Sunpiercer after speaking, sending out three arrows in quick succession like meteors flaring across the sky, aimed straight at Wei Wudao.

“Pathetic little tricks!” Wei Wudao’s flute flicked left and right and knocked the arrows away with ease.

1. The hunchback’s name