God Emperor

Zhangsun Lan, the Master of Hundred Battles School who was standing below Di Yi, narrowed his aging eyes and said in a flattering tone, “In response to your question, young master, Red Wish Emissary has suffered a great loss. Half of the manpower she brought along has perished. She has returned with only a dozen people, most of them seriously injured. I doubt if she still has any fighting strength.

“She must have thought that she would be safe back in Red Willow Heights, not knowing that our young master has been waiting here to put her neck into the noose.”

Zhangsun Lan was openly gloating about his decision to seek refuge with Di Yi when he saw that Red Wish Emissary was not going to make it.

Looking back, he thought it was a wise move.

Di Yi pondered for a moment and then laughed. He said, “To even be able to flee back to Red Willow Heights shows she’s quite capable. Zhangsun Lan, go open the gate and bring Red Wish Emissary to Sacred Willow Hall. I’d like to see her expression when she sees me.”

“She’ll probably be quite desperate.”

Zhangsun Lan let out a laugh and took three steps backward before turning away and performing a bodily movement to hurry over to the manor’s gate.

“Tap, tap!”

Purple Wind Emissary, who was carrying a Dragonhead Long Spear, entered the main hall from the side. He glanced at Zhangsun Lan’s back and frowned.

He turned around, remaining standing below Di Yi. With a nonchalant expression, he said, “Young master, something is amiss. Red Wish Emissary is already back in Red Willow Heights yet we still have not heard from Cyan-robe.

“Theoretically, she would have informed us immediately when Red Wish Emissary escaped so that we can prepare in advance.”

Di Yi knew Red Wish Emissary’s strength and abilities rather well, therefore he was not overly worried about what she could do. “There are only two or three masters by Red Wish Emissary’s side. How much trouble can they cause—

“What’s happening?”

Di Yi had suddenly gotten a sharp sense of a shudder in the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. He looked up quickly and narrowed his eyes to focus on what he was seeing above his head.

“Ch-ch!”

Above the magnificent Sacred Willow Hall, a dense Inscription of Array appeared with complex inscriptions interweaving to form a huge array wheel that covered the entire palace.

At the center of the array wheel, powerful energy rapidly converged and condensed into a one-meter-diameter white light column. As the light column drove down, there was a deafening explosion.

“Boom!”

The power of the white light column was extremely terrifying. In an instant, the column had pierced through the ceiling of Sacred Willow Hall and was about to land on top of Di Yi’s head.

Di Yi and Purple Wind Emissary’s faces fell. They were stunned by the sudden turn of events.

“This is not good. Someone has mobilized the killing array of the manor.”

Di Yi reacted quickly. He ripped off the cyan jade amulet on his neck and tossed it up into the air.

Lines and lines of inscriptions appeared on the surface of the cyan jade amulet, and it radiated glaring cyan light. With a buzzing sound, the light condensed to form a large ten-meter-tall big bell with cyan light that enclosed Di Yi and Purple Wind Emissary.

A deafening noise rang out, followed by a powerful energy storm that surged out in all directions and caused an even more devastating noise.

The majestic Sacred Willow Hall collapsed in a flash. All that remained was a heap of ruins and dust rising up ten feet in the air.

“Rumble!”

The entire Red Willow Heights quivered violently. Perhaps many other buildings had collapsed.

Di Yi and Purple Wind Emissary were buried under the rubble. It was difficult to tell if they were alive or dead.

The evil cultivators in Red Willow Heights were all alarmed and terrified as they turned to look toward the Sacred Willow Hall.

“This is terrible, the Sacred Willow Hall has been attacked by the enemies.”

“The young master is in the Sacred Willow Hall. Hurry and save him.”

…

A thick black cloud of dust emerged from the direction of the Sacred Willow Hall. Red Wish Emissary, who had just entered Red Willow Heights, looked elated knowing that Zhang Ruochen had succeeded.

Admittedly, the Great Guardian was truly capable—he was able to enter Red Willow Heights unnoticed and gain control of the manor’s array.

Even Red Wish Emissary was beginning to fear his capabilities.

She secretly made a mental note to get to the bottom of his identity once Di Yi was dead. Having a superior with a mysterious identity in her company seemed a threat too great to ignore.

Red Wish Emissary glanced at Zhangsun Lan who was walking ahead of her. Suddenly a murderous thought came into her mind and she yelled. “Strike.”

In an instant, Shi Buchou and Xu Hong turned into two beams of light that shot forward, each wielding their respective moves to strike Zhangsun Lan.

“Zhangsun Lan, you betrayed Her Excellency. Today, you are doomed.”

“Luminous Soaring Punch.”

Shi Buchou closed his palm to make a fist and punched forward in attack.

“What are you doing? I am one of you, why are you assaulting me?”

Zhangsun Lan was a top-tier superior whose cultivation had reached the Ninth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm. His strength was profound beyond measure.

He never thought that the Sacred Willow Hall would collapse so suddenly, but what was even more shocking was Shi Buchou and Xu Hong’s surprise attack on him.

Xu Hong sneered. “Zhangsun Lan, did you really think that we are not aware of the fact that Di Yi is already in Red Willow Heights?”

Chilly light emitted from Xu Hong’s fingers. Bending his fingers into the shape of claws, he wielded an Inferior Class Ghost Level claw technique and attacked Zhangsun Lan’s neck.

Zhangsun Lan’s reaction was extremely fast. He rapidly ran Genuine Qi and punched two handprints forward to counterattack.

However, he had struck out in a hurry, so he could only manifest 60 percent of his power. How was he to withstand the attacks of masters Xu Hong and Shi Buchou?

“Boom!”

Upon contact, Zhangsun Lan rebounded and crashed into a seven-story tower before landing in a pond some distance away.

Under the violent impact, the edges of the pool cracked and the ground shook.

With a “swoosh”, Red Wish Emissary flew over, lifted the holy crystal staff high to perform the sorcery of “Lost Dreamland.”

Zhangsun Lan had just emerged from the pool when he was attacked by the sorcery. His body shook gently, and then he fell from the air with a “thud”, his body paralyzed on the ground.

Shi Buchou wielded his attack once again, striking Zhangsun Lan’s head. It cracked open, and half of his body sunk into the ground.

A superior whose cultivation had reached the Ninth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm was defeated by three great masters who had joined forces.

“This is the fate of a traitor!”

Red Wish Emissary stared nonchalantly at the corpse on the ground and then turned to glance at the group of evil masters behind her. “It’s time for the final battle. Let’s attack the Sacred Willow Hall. The reward for the one who manages to cut off Di Yi’s head will be a Holy Weapon and fifty-million Spiritual Crystals.”

“Attack!”

“Attack!”

…

Upon Zhangsun Lan’s death, the evil masters’ momentum picked up. Drawing out their Genuine Martial Arms, they charged toward Sacred Willow Hall one after another.

All of the 147 arrays in Red Willow Heights had been fully mobilized. Half were defensive arrays and the other half were offensive killing arrays.

Pillars of light shot up from the ground to form towers of arrays that started to rotate wildly.

“Rumble!”

Screams of agony were heard coming from Red Willow Heights as the attacks of the arrays killed numerous evil cultivators.

Soon, Red Willow Heights had turned into ruins with blackened pits and corpses everywhere.

Di Yi dashed out from the ruins of Sacred Willow Hall covered in dust and soot. Having lost his composure, he said heavily, “Someone has taken control of the array pivot of Red Willow Heights. Cao Xu, Cao Ling, go to the underground altar immediately and kill whoever is controlling it.”

Two evil dominators, a man and a woman, who were in metal armors hurried off in the direction of the altar. Purple Wind Emissary stayed back to protect Di Yi.

Cao Xu and Cao Ling were twins who were in their sixties, however, they looked as young as if they were in their thirties.

Both of them had reached the Ninth Change in the Fish-Dragon Realm. They had once defeated Zhao Hanhu, the commander of the Glazed Knights, when they paired up in sword array.

They were extremely powerful and capable.

Di Yi sent them to the underground altar in order to make sure that everything was taken care of. They had to regain control of the array pivot.

When Cao Xu and Cao Ling arrived at the underground space, they saw that the four array masters were still sitting crossed-legged on the altar and in control of the array.

As Cao Xu swept his eyes across the underground space, he did not see any other monks. With a cold, loud voice, he said in reproach, “What are you doing? Who permitted you to mobilize the offensive array?”

All the four array masters trembled uncontrollably. They looked at each other with fearful expressions. They were terrified.

Their lips moved, but they did not dare to speak.

A bright and clear voice sounded in the underground space. “There is no need to reprimand them. They mobilized the offensive array because I threatened them.”

“Who is that?”

Cao Xu and Cao Ling looked as if they had been electrocuted when they heard the laugh. They immediately released the Vigorous Qi of the Holy Light. They kept their backs together as they wielded bodily movements.

Wearing the Shooting Star Invisible Cloak, Zhang Ruochen stood at the entrance of underground space and looked at the terrified Cao Xu and Cao Ling, he could not help but smile as he spoke again. “My intention is to kill Di Yi. I will spare your lives if you obey me and stay here.”

Although they could hear a voice close by, they could not see him.

Cao Xu and Cao Ling’s faces fell.

“Swoosh!”

“Swoosh!”

Two black swords were drawn out of their scabbards and into their hands.

To put on a defensive front, Cao Xu placed the sword in front of his chest, mobilized Spiritual Qi in his holy meridian and injected it into the blade, thereby activating all the inscriptions in the sword.

On the other hand, Cao Ling held the sword with both hands so that the sword stood vertically in front of her. This opening posture was a defensive move as well.

It was not surprising that the Cao siblings were so frightened. After all, the underground space was very small, and everything was within their field of vision, yet they still failed to detect any aura even with their level of cultivation. It was terrifying.