Sovereign of the Three Realms

However, none of the geniuses who’d emerged from the Paramount Realm had seen Jiang Chen inside. How would they possibly give any useful intelligence?

“This is your last chance, but it seems that none of you treasure it!” Qitian Sect Head Xing’s tone suddenly turned frosty as his killing intent surged.

Jiang Chen and Ling Bi’er looked at each other beneath the ground, a feeling of helplessness rising in both of them. Their strength wasn’t enough for the two of them to attempt a rescue. Jiang Chen hardened his heart and began making plans to leave. He was well aware that brashly attempting rescue would not only end up in failure, but might also condemn the both of them to death. Yet precisely at that moment, a voice transmitted through the air to his ears, “Sir Jiang, I’ll lure the two emperor realm cultivators away, you save everyone.”

Jiang Chen was first startled and then delighted, “It’s Miss Huang’er!” Some bizarre confidence rose in his heart when he heard Huang’er’s voice. He sent a message to Ling Bi’er, “Senior sister, listen to my commands. We’re going to save them.”

Ling Bi’er’s heart trembled slightly. Save them? Save the group with two emperor realm cultivators standing guard? Just as she hesitated, the heads of both emperor realm cultivators snapped to one side, roaring, “Who’s there?!”

The two enormous presences swept towards the northeast as soon as their voices sounded. Jiang Chen whispered harshly, “Let’s go, senior sister!”

The two suddenly charged out from the deep crevice within the earth as he called upon the Lotus. Jiang Chen activated the formation disk and summoned the Ancient Slaughter Formation of Seven, covering the entire area with it. He was the absolute lord of the formation’s domain once it was activated.

“Junior brother Jiang Chen?”

“Brother Jiang Chen!”

Surprised cries kept resounding, but Jiang Chen didn’t bother with them, “Everyone, this is an emergency. I can’t undo the restrictions on your bodies, so I can only take all of you with me. Don’t resist with your consciousness, otherwise we’ll have no end of troubles.”

He didn’t wait for them to respond as he pressed down and took them all into the palace in a flash of light. At the same time, he turned to Ling Bi’er, “Senior sister, activate the escape glyph!”

The escape glyphs that Ling Bi’er had received from senior Shao Yin were incredibly powerful, ones that surpassed the level of the Myriad Domain. When she heard Jiang Chen’s order, she crushed one of them without hesitation as Jiang Chen retracted the formation disk at the same time, causing the formation to vanish. When light flashed again, Jiang Chen and Ling Bi’er had vanished from where they’d stood.

The entire process took place in the blink of an eye, with the sage realm cultivators in charge of standing guard over the captives unable to react in time. They only saw a world of glittering white snow abruptly appear in front of them, and disappear just as they were doubting their senses. But along with the snowy world, the Myriad Domain geniuses disappeared as well.

“Someone’s rescued the captives!”

“Damn it, it was a diversion!”

“After them! Hurry!”

“After them!”

The scene was soon engulfed in chaos as those cleaning up the battlefield also rushed over. They too were shocked beyond words when they saw how chaotic things had become. However, no one knew which direction to go off in since the flash of light had vanished. Someone roared out, “Split up!” and all the sects split into different groups to start chasing in different directions.

As they did this, they all realized that if their opponent had dared flee in a flash of light, they must’ve fled for quite a distance. They would be searching for a needle in a haystack trying to chase them down like this. Unless they had an unimaginably powerful methods of searching using their consciousness, it would be an utter daydream to even hope to catch up to their opponent.

The groups all returned after a short while, each of them hanging their heads. It was obvious that everyone had come back empty-handed.

“Damn it, they got away.”

“That was a strong glyph. They made it out at least a hundred miles. There’s no way to track them down.”

“Sigh, let’s wait for the sect heads to return before making a decision.”

They were all dejected and very frustrated by what had happened. The operation to suppress the Myriad Domain this time was not the success they had envisioned. Apart from the Regal Pill Palace sneaking away ahead of time, a large portion of the Great Cathedral’s skilled fighters had made it out alive. Now that the young geniuses of the Myriad Domain had been rescued, this was just repeated slaps to their face, over and over again. The four sects who’d participated in this operation was likely going to become the laughingstock of the Great Scarlet Mid Region.

Sect Head Xing and Fu returned with dark expressions after half an hour. The two had given chase for a long distance, but had come back empty handed. Those in charge of guarding the captives hardly dared breathe when they saw the sect heads return with dark expressions.

“What’s going on? Where’s everyone?” Sect Head Xing asked darkly.

An oppressive silence answered him. Sect Head Fu flicked an eyebrow as well, “What’s going on? Are you all dumb?”

An elder stammered out at this point, “There… there was suddenly a world of ice here just now. Then the group of captives disappeared into thin air.”

The two sect heads had their expressions freeze over when they heard this. They looked at each other, now understanding what had happened. How could they not realize now that they’d fallen victim to someone’s distraction tactics? The opponent had obviously wanted to lure them away so that others could rescue the geniuses. What was pitiable was that the emperor realm cultivators had fallen for the bait, hook, line and sinker. A single move was all it had taken. They’d underestimated their enemy, plain and simple.

The two were extremely depressed but had no place to vent their rage. It wasn’t their subordinates’ fault. If it hadn’t been for the two sect heads being taken in by the diversion and leaving, nothing would’ve happened here. It was a mistake born of overconfidence.

Sect Head Xing began complaining as the two grew anxious, “Sect Head Leng’s taken the Bamboo Sect to chase down the Regal Pill Palace, but has still sent no word after so many days. Sect Head Qin Mo is even more ridiculous. He headed into the Paramount Realm, but still hasn’t returned even when it’s about to close. What, is he going to take up residence in there?”

It was obvious that the unfavorable situation was stressing Sect Head Xing out to the point where he was taking his anger out on his missing allies. Sect Head Fu also nodded, “Sect Head Leng and Qin Mo both had ulterior motives. They wouldn’t be in their current straits otherwise.”

The battle was basically over at this point, and their evaluation was nowhere close to positive. Therefore, the two were looking for scapegoats. After all, when it came down to things, the Bamboo and Zither Sects did indeed hold greater responsibility. If it wasn’t for the two prioritizing their goals and leaving the group, this situation may never have developed the way it did.

Another person came running in with an urgent report as they chatted, “Sect Heads, another group of people have emerged from the Paramount Realm. We captured them all, but the realm’s already sealed off.”

Sect Head Xing hurriedly asked, “Any news of Jiang Chen?”

The person shook his head and added on, “Sect Head Qin Mo and those from the Sacred Sword Palace haven’t come out either.”

Sect Head Xing’s expression changed rapidly, even Qin Mo didn’t make it out? He looked solemnly at Sect Head Fu. For the first time, a hint of fear rose in their hearts. The Paramount Realm had closed, but Sect Head Qin Mo hadn’t exited yet! This wasn’t a good sign. It was very possible that he’d perished inside. Both of their hearts trembled. If Sect Head Qin Mo had perished, then their operation this time would be an utter failure.

On the other hand, if this was the case, then they could shove all responsibility onto the Zither Sect. Another scout came back with a report just as they were speaking, “Sect Heads, things are really bad! The Bamboo Sect’s group was discovered about eight hundred miles out. They’re… they’re all dead!”

“What!?”

Sect Head Xing and Fu was shaken all over again as their fear started to grow. “Are you sure!? What about Sect Head Leng…”

“We’ve already brought the sect head’s body back,” The scout responded dismally.

Bamboo Sect Head Leng had set off in proud spirits, but had returned as a cold corpse. Looking at his body, it didn’t even seem like he’d been through a hard battle, with no exterior wounds. However, his expression had been twisted into an extreme grimace, as if he’d weathered unspeakable terror before he’d died, freezing this expression on his face even in death.

Sect Head Xing observed the body for a while his neck began to prickle. The confirmed death of a sect head had finally caused wariness to spark in his eyes. “Sect Head Fu, it looks like we really did underestimate the Myriad Domain. There’s such a strong cultivator in this region! There are no wounds on Sect Head Leng’s body, but his consciousness has completely collapsed. This is an exceedingly sophisticated attack!”

With the collapse of the consciousness, there was no longer any will controlling the body, so bodily functions could naturally no longer continue.

Sect Head Fu remained silent for a long while as he looked at Sect Head Xing. Both nodded at the same time, “Our operations are at an end, we can go back to the Great Scarlet Mid Region and report to the emperor.”

Both of them had made up their mind. Retreat.

……

At a spot roughly four hundred miles to the southeast of the Myriad Domain, Jiang Chen retracted the light around him and released the young geniuses of the various sects. “Everyone, it’s safe for now here. You should take advantage of this moment to refine the restrictions placed on you.”

It was a good thing that the restrictions on the geniuses hadn’t been too strong. They simply restricted movement. It was only a matter of time before they managed to free themselves. Xiang Qin in particular was covered in wounds. Jiang Chen gave him a few additional healing pills.

“Junior brother Jiang Chen, what’s going on?” Shen Qinghong had been one of the first to free himself.

Jiang Chen roughly went over what he knew, stunning all of the geniuses in the telling. They were both relieved that they’d evaded disaster when they heard how the Sacred Sword Palace had betrayed the Myriad Domain and brought enemies into the Paramount Realm to hunt down geniuses, but also extremely infuriated at the same time.

“Everyone, the distance is far and the mountains are high. I hope we meet again in the future. I suspect that you won’t be able to return to your sects just yet, as that would only be entering the lion’s den. You are all geniuses of your sect, and I trust that I don’t need to remind you what needs to be done. This is not a place to linger, so let us part ways here.” Jiang Chen had already gone above and beyond the call of duty and morality by rescuing everyone.

Xiang Qin was quite forthright as he raised his hands in a cupped fist salute and spoke seriously, “I will repay your favor of saving my life one day! May we meet in the future!”

Those of the Great Cathedral exchanged glances and immediately left together.