God Emperor

After the ice mountain melted, the scorched black bird corpse was completely exposed. Who would’ve thought that such flames would come out of a small bird that had died so many years ago?

Crackle, crackle.

The fire burned brighter and brighter. The heat that it emitted actually created a warm feeling in the bone-chilling ice gorge.

The people fighting on the bridge—Zhang Ruochen, Qi Sheng, and the others—all stopped and stared at the cage hovering in the sky. They were all shocked.

“What is this? What happened?”

“How come I feel weak energy waves coming from the bird corpse?”

“No way! It died tens of thousands of years ago. How can it not be completely dead?”

“The creatures that can be imprisoned here are all horrible world-dominating demons. None of them are simple. Any one that escapes can overturn Kunlun’s Field.”

Not only did Ying Huo have extremely strong Spiritual Power, she could also predict future danger to some extent.

Right now, her expression was a bit grave. “Hurry and leave this place,” she warned. “Otherwise, we will all die here.”

Qi Sheng and Crown Prince Motian knew that Ying Huo’s gut feelings were accurate, so they didn’t dare to stay here any longer. Glancing at Zhang Ruochen at the top of a stone pillar, they stopped attacking.

The two of them rushed out of the stone bridge with Ying Huo and started to climb the ice wall.

Zhang Ruochen also sensed an extremely dangerous aura, so he didn’t stop them. Instead, he grouped with Qing Mo. Grabbing her wrist, he pulled her quickly out of the gorge.

Below them, the fire surging out of the bird corpse covered the entire cage. The space around the cage was actually a bit distorted.

Caw!

Then, a bird’s sharp cry came out of the flames. All the Saints inside the gorge, including Zhang Ruochen, felt a stab of pain in their heads. It was like getting stabbed with a needle.

Their visions turned black and blood flowed out of their ears. All Saints lost consciousness and plummeted.

As a plant-type creature, Qing Mo wasn’t too affected. She was only dazed temporarily and then quickly reacted.

She grabbed Zhang Ruochen’s wrist backhandedly. The fingers on her other hand transformed into five vines. Hitting the ice wall, the vines produced five holes so they hung in the air.

Ying Huo, Qi Sheng, Crown Prince Motian, Prince White Li, Sky-swallowing Demonic Dragon, and the others weren’t so lucky. They all fell from the sky and crashed against the stone bridge with loud booms.

Zhang Ruochen took a deep breath. Rubbing his temples, he turned and looked down at the cage hovering below him. “Such strong sound waves. Did it really awaken?”

The cage had become a huge fireball. The heat that it emitted was melting the walls of the ice gorge.

Popping sounds came from the palm-sized bird corpse. It broke out of the black shell. Dazzling feathers grew. The scene was as breathtaking as an ugly duckling turning into a swan.

Each of the fiery-red feathers were translucent and glistening as if made out of some type of jade. The Saints on the stone bridge woke up. Seeing this, they all found it incredible.

Did it really come back to life?

Shock flashed past Ying Huo’s eyes. “Is this… the legendary Immortal Bird?”

As the Goddess of the Immortal Pavilion, Ying Huo was very well-learned. She’d once read about the Immortal Bird in an ancient book. It had text and images.

The bird covered in flames in the cage looked very similar to the Immortal Bird.

Thud, thud.

The strange fiery bird crashed against the bars of the cage, wanting to escape from it. The layer of metal on the chains wrapped around the cage broke apart, revealing purple-blue electricity. Dozens of lightning bolts hit the bird.

Then the stone bridge shook violently.

Various ancient dragon runes emerged on the bridge like a celestial book.

The Divine Dragons had indeed left some things behind to imprison the monsters here, Zhang Ruochen thought. This is to prevent mutations that can let them escape.

Zhang Ruochen believed that the fiery bird had come back to life because of mutations.

Under normal conditions, even a Supreme Saint being would’ve died after being frozen for so long. How could it come back to life?

Zhang Ruochen was now far from the stone bridge. He could use the Great Spatial Move at any time to escape, so he stayed behind to investigate. He wanted to know what secret was hidden here.

He looked down while asking, “Where’s Blackie?”

Qing Mo’s brows were tightly knit. Thinking back carefully, she said, “Blackie fell down with us. While falling, Princess and I hit an ice mountain. We were instantly sealed and lost consciousness. I think Blackie should be sealed in ice too.”

After a pause, Qing Mo’s eyes looked around. “Could Blackie’s physical body be that bird?”

“How is that possible? It’s a cat.” Zhang Ruochen thought that Qing Mo’s thoughts were too strange and shook his head.

Qing Mo still believed that Blackie was a bird. She debated with Zhang Ruochen with a serious expression. “But Blackie has never made cat sounds. Don’t you think that it might not be a cat?”

“It just doesn’t like to make cat sounds.”

Zhang Ruochen didn’t sense Blackie’s aura on that mutated fire bird.

There was a mass of cages on either side of the stone bridge. Many ancient monsters and demons were imprisoned there. Zhang Ruochen started to suspect that Blackie’s physical body was in one of them.

He observed all the corpses, but none of them had a figure like Blackie. In fact, there wasn’t a single cat.

Of course, some cages were inside five-colored fog, so he couldn’t see clearly. He couldn’t say that Blackie’s body wasn’t hidden inside one of them.

Qing Mo seemed to think that Zhang Ruochen was right. She nodded and then asked, “Aren’t the Divine Dragons already extinct? Who would seal Blackie’s physical body here? And why would they do that?”

It was a simple question, but Zhang Ruochen couldn’t answer.

According to Blackie, Saint Monk Xumi had suppressed it back then. He’d sealed its physical body in the Yin Yang Sea and turned its soul into the weapon spirit of the Universe Spiritual Map.

But why would Saint Monk Xumi seal Blackie’s body inside the Yin Yang Sea? Zhang Ruochen had never thought about this before.

“Could it be that… Saint Monk Xumi isn’t human and is a Divine Dragon instead?” Zhang Ruochen got a crazy idea.

It wasn’t strange for a dragon to enter the Buddhist Way. Eight hundred years ago, the Buddha’s ride, the “golden dragon,” was a Buddhist Saint too.

Kaboom.

The fiery bird inside the cage produced stronger and stronger force. The lightning pouring out of the stone bridge couldn’t repress it anymore.

The stone bridge shook even more violently. At the same time, the five-colored fog around the bridge scattered, showing the entire bridge.

What Zhang Ruochen and the others had seen before was only a small portion of the bridge. It was hundreds of miles long and cut across the air. There were many dazzling dragon runes on the entire surface.

There was actually a five-colored ice mountain in the center of the bridge. It was thousands of meters tall and took up one-third of the bridge.

A young man stood at the bottom of the mountain. He had long blonde hair and a pair of dragon horns. His features were defined and his figure was tall and thin. He stood on the bridge with his hands behind his back. He stared into empty space, emitting an authoritative aura.

If he wasn’t standing inside an ice mountain, everyone would probably think he was still alive.

“He…who is he? Why is he sealed on the bridge? Judging from his standing posture, he doesn’t look like a prisoner or someone who was sealed during battle. It’s so strange.”

“Did he seal himself?”

…

Zhang Ruochen was also staring at the young man in the ice mountain. Even though he was frozen, his aura was still mighty. He was like a godly emperor gazing at the universe.

If he were still alive, he would definitely be a terrifying existence.

“He can’t be a Divine Dragon, right?” Qing Mo asked.

“If he is a Divine Dragon, then he would definitely be the last dragon of their race.”

“Why?” Qing Mo asked.

“Gut feeling.” Eyes dark, Zhang Ruochen said, “I have a feeling that something terrifying will happen next. Leave this place immediately.”

He took Qing Mo and used the Great Spatial Move, rushing out of the ice gorge and reaching the surface of the ice land.

Five-colored light burst out of the ice gorge. They transformed into a hundred-mile-wide beam of light. It shot into the sky, coloring the boundless sky above the Yin Yang Sea.

Qing Mo panicked. “What about Blackie? It might be in the ice gorge still.”

“Whether it can escape or not depends on its own abilities. With out current cultivation, rushing into the ice gorge again would just be like going to die.”

Just then, Zhang Ruochen had clearly sensed that Blackie’s connection with the Universe Spiritual Map had disappeared!

There were two possibilities. One, Blackie’s saint soul was damaged and destroyed. Two, Blackie had found its sealed physical body and used its own power to cut the connection.

The Sky-swallowing Demonic Dragon and the others rushed out of the ice gorge and fled to the ice land. They felt like they’d escaped from death.

The Sky-swallowing Demonic Dragon stared at Zhang Ruochen. Murderous intent flared from his body again.

The other Saints started circulating their Holy Qi too. They separated and walked toward Zhang Ruochen from different directions.

The Ancient Dragon Mountain, Nine Li Palace, and Immortal Vampires had all suffered great losses. They’d practically been wiped out and the reason was Zhang Ruochen.

How could they explain if they didn’t kill him?

“Still want to fight?”

Zhang Ruochen wasn’t afraid. He released Huang Yanchen and Ao Xinyan from the Mercury Gourd. He also summoned the Holy Carnivorous Flower to face the enemies.

“We’re all familiar. The imperial court will come have fun too.” Wan Huayu’s laughter sounded.

A moment later, the Saints of the imperial court walked out of the wind and snow, forming the third party.