“Out of my way, annoying human! Now die!” Jiu Yuan roared.

A powerful surge of yokai qi erupted from his body as he opened his mouth. Once he had gathered enough Water and Fire Daoist patterns within, he unleashed several beams of water and fire.

Nine-headed Snakelets were masters in controlling water and fire, especially a pure-blooded Nine-headed Snakelet like Jiu Yuan, whose mastery over water and fire was even more powerful.

However, Chu Kuangren simply lifted his head and stared at Jiu Yuan. Having formed a sword hand sign, he casually swiped his finger across the air, unleashing a strand of sword qi.

His sword qi tore through the beams of water and fire.

Jiu Yuan’s eyes widened as the sword qi came toward him, instantly filling his field of vision and enveloping the whole sky!

It was as if that sword qi was the only thing left in the world!

Horror! Fear! Shock!

Jiu Yuan’s head could not even make a sound before it was chopped off by the sword qi, and lots of blood started spurting out.

One of his nine heads was cut off by that sword qi attack!

Furthermore, that was just a simple attack from Chu Kuangren.

It was not even ten percent of his full strength.

Jiu Yuan instantly knew he was no match for Chu Kuangren and immediately turned around to escape. He even set alight his life essence just to increase his speed of escaping.

“Oh.”

Just when Chu Kuangren was about to end his opponent, a black figure suddenly charged toward the Nine-leaf Soul Herb at lightning speed.

Someone was trying to take advantage of the situation!

That person was a Heavenly Immortal of the older generation.

“You’re too slow, old man,” Chu Kuangren said indifferently.

His figure disappeared while making a sword hand sign. As the old Heavenly Immortal was about to reach the Nine-leaf Soul Herb, Chu Kuangren reappeared and stood in the old Heavenly Immortal way.

“What?!”

The old Heavenly Immortal’s expression changed. “He’s so fast!”

His speed was already top tier among the Heavenly Immortals, yet Chu Kuangren still managed to block him without trouble.

‘Are all the younger generation cultivators so overpowered?!’

“Hmph! This Nine-leaf Soul Herb is mine, so f*ck off.”

The old Heavenly Immortal immediately unleashed the full might of his cultivation level.

He was not afraid of any karmic consequences of interfering with the Battle of Heavenly Champions. After all, even if he did not want to admit it, he was only a Heavenly Immortal.

An older Heavenly Immortal like him would not be affected much even if he interfered.

Only those elite among the Immortals would have their powers limited if they did take action.

“You’re not strong enough to do that!”

Chu Kuangren’s figure remained unmoved, like a towering mountain.

Then, he formed a sword hand sign, and a chilling burst of sword qi shot out from his fingertips.

It was so powerful that the old Heavenly Immortal could not do anything to resist. In an instant, he was swallowed in that attack.

As a mist of blood exploded in the air, the old Heavenly Immortal was dead!

At that sight, the surrounding cultivators got incredibly terrified.

“This Heavenly Champion… is so terrifying!”

“He’s certainly not an ordinary Heavenly Champion. He must be a Heavenly Immortal, at least. I bet he can even go against the Higher Third-grade Heavenly Immortals.”

“If I’m not mistaken, he must be the Hundred Academy’s Chief.”

There was a lot of discussion among the crowd.

However, Chu Kuangren ignored them and took the Nine-leaf Soul Herb away.

In the meantime, Jiu Yuan appeared in a mountain range somewhere, looking like a mess.

One of his heads was sliced off, and it was bleeding non-stop. His remaining eight heads were not looking so good either.

“Who the hell is that person?!”

“That sword qi of his… He’s surely not some nameless cultivator. Which orthodoxy does that Heavenly Champion belong to?” Jiu Yuan said with a grim expression.

He could not help but feel terrified when he thought about that sword qi attack earlier.

Nevertheless, he forced himself to suppress that feeling. “I, a mighty Nine-headed Snakelet, am afraid of a human?!”

“Hmph. D*mn that human. Once I find the treasures left here by my ancestor, I’ll surely make him pay for cutting off one of my heads!” Jiu Yuan said.

Then, his eyes lit up as he suddenly sensed something. “This feeling, could it be…”

He followed that feeling and arrived in front of a cave.

It was a deep cave. Even the light from outside could not reach its end.

There were tall wild grasses growing all around the cave’s entrance.

However, Jiu Yuan could vaguely sense a familiar aura coming from within that cave, and it resonated with his bloodline.

“Let’s take a look inside.”

Jiu Yuan immediately walked into the cave. It did not take long for him to reach the depths of the cave, where he saw a pool of blood surrounded by a sealing formation.

“Could this be the blood essence left behind by my ancestor?”

With that, Jiu Yuan got closer to the formation.

That formation did not affect him at all.

“As expected, this formation technique is only effective against every being but the Nine-headed Snakelets. This truly is my ancestor’s treasure.”

“Haha! This is wonderful.”

Jiu Yuan looked at the pool of blood with a fiery gaze.

He thought of Chu Kuangren. “Once I’m done refining this pool of blood and increasing my cultivation level, I’ll definitely make you pay for what you’ve done!”

…

At that moment, Chu Kuangren and his party arrived at the ruins of an ancient city.

That ancient city was full of dead souls.

“This is a fragment of Fengdu City,” Chu Kuangren murmured.

The whole area was filled with vast amounts of rage qi and death qi. Due to the fact that the mechanism responsible for the Six Realms of Reincarnation was destroyed, the dead souls had been devouring each other.

The scene was almost identical to the Fengdu Underworld City he previously found.

As Chu Kuangren ventured deeper inside, he could sense the Emperor Seal’s aura growing denser. “It’s close.”

“The aura of the living?”

Suddenly, a cold voice echoed throughout the whole area.

An armored dead soul, emanating with ragi qi and death qi, soon appeared before Chu Kuangren and his party. Then, he screamed, “Attack!”

The armored dead soul charged toward Chu Kuangren and attacked with his Heavenly Immortal cultivation.

On the other hand, Chu Kuangren raised his hand to form a sword hand sign and unleashed an attack.

Bam!

The sword qi shot forth, immediately blasting the armored dead soul away.

“This living person possesses formidable strength.”

The armored dead soul was shocked. After that, he let out a long roar as if summoning his companions, and many dead souls suddenly headed toward his location.

The number of dead souls gathered was countless, filling the surrounding area.

At that moment, they seemed to have plunged the whole place into darkness.

Their screams, cries, howls, and shrieks were endless.

“Living beings. Those are living beings.”

“Living beings… Kill, kill, kill!”

Countless dead souls surrounded Chu Kuangren and his party like the end of the world had started.

Far away, many cultivators who came to the Great Dreamfog Marsh and arrived at Fengdu City soon noticed the large gathering of dead souls.

“Look at how the dead souls are reacting. What the hell happened?”

“Interesting.”

“Something extraordinary, I bet.”

Some cultivators stealthily approached the scene to prevent the dead souls from detecting their presence. Only then did they notice it was Chu Kuangren and his party who were surrounded by the dead souls.

“Tsk tsk. It looks like they’re the culprits who caused the dead souls to gather in such huge numbers. Well, with just a few of them, they’ll be dead in a few moments,” said one of the cultivators while shaking her head.

They also noticed a few Heavenly Immortals and dozens of Earthen Immortals among that large group of dead souls, while the remaining dead souls were seemingly uncountable.

Only a True Immortal could handle such a situation.

Otherwise, it would be hard for anyone else to survive.

“Living person, you can only blame yourself for coming to this forbidden place. Only death awaits you all now.”

The armored dead soul yelled, “Attack!”

Countless dead souls immediately charged toward Chu Kuangren and his party.

Boom!

A terrifying aura suddenly erupted.

Standing with his hands behind his back, Chu Kuangren looked at the dead souls indifferently. However, to the dead souls attacking, the aura exuding from his body was incomparably vast and mighty.

That aura signified the ultimate suppression of a higher being!

It was something that the dead souls could not resist!

“W-What is happening?!”

The armored dead soul was trembling all over.

“Kneel!” Chu Kuangren said out loud indifferently.

In that instant, the countless dead souls suddenly felt their knees turning weak. Be it a Heavenly Immortal or Earthen Immortal, everyone knelt on the ground against their will!

With one command, thousands of dead souls knelt to the ground!