The Immortal Emperor Returns C342 – Surprise Diversion

The whole episode was like a rhapsodic ride on a roller-coaster with the enigma of Chu Xun's survival in constant fast-motion and full of surprises.

“Look, I knew it,” said one quietly, “He's not called the Deceiver for nothing. Thank the gods that we said nothing bad about him.”

“Indeed. That's really sneaky of him.”

Nevertheless, there were still parties who never stopped from taking more swipes at Chu Xun, with hopes that Chu Xun would perish in foreign soil.

Naturally, among these parties included the Broken Souls Cult and the Sifang Sword Sect, all of whom shared enmity with Chu Xun.

Country Y decided that they could no longer suffer any more losses. But they did not dare to directly launch anything at Chu Xun anymore, lest more of his wrath might befall them.

Deprived of any more options, Country Y turned to Country M for help.

Being in the direct limelight of the international stage, Country M could hardly back down from such a request for aid. The government of Country Y's strongest ally issued another statement, saying, “Country M condemns Chu Xun's acts of barbarity and savagery that impugns all fundamental views of humanity and agrees to assist Country Y to defeat this monster to restore fairness and justice to all humankind.”

Somehow, Country M must have enlisted help from several organizations, namely the Holy Temple of the Sun, the Dark Guild and some others more, and one could safely expect that the former must have promised them rich rewards.

The warrior orders immediately mobilized men into Country Y, declaring openly their “generous willingness to help conquer all evil and defeat Chu Xun”.

With even the Country V fielding warriors of their own to Country Y's aid, several other Western nations sent assistance of their own as well.

On that note, Chu Xun finally made an appearance on the cyberspace, leaving only a simple sentence that could never have sounded any more fearsome and daunting, “Come if you dare.”

Four simple words. Yet they were enough to send all of Huaxia into an ecstatic frenzy with everyone screaming cheers for him.

That infuriated the West so greatly that warriors there demanded that Chu Xun should pay for his arrogance.

It did not take long for a photo to begin circulating on the Internet.

It was Chu Xun, roasting a large pheasant on a spit.

The photo would have seemed ordinary if not for a few observant eyes who immediately noted that Chu Xun was having a barbecue right at the top of the main administrative building of Country Y's government seat.

The leaders of Country Y nearly lost their minds when they saw the photo and the Head of State himself even had to take his pills to prevent from suffering another stroke.

But when the sentries made it to the top of the building, he was long gone, leaving with only some scraps of feathers and the smoldering embers of the fire.

“HAHAHAHA! That's a good one, Immortal Chu! Let these bastards know how easy you can kill them! As simple as slaughtering a chicken!”

“Having a barbecue at the top of the administrative tower must afford a good and scenic view. Immortal Chu has great tastes for pleasure and leisure, we should admit.”

“He should have the Head of State to work the spit for him next time, and his sons and daughters to attend to him like waiters and waitresses.”

Huaxia warriors never stopped peppering the cyberspace with more playful jeers.

It was a stunt Chu Xun pulled off intentionally to mock all warriors of the West, and a very impressive one at that.

Hardly any warrior of the West failed to feel the shame and embarrassment. Right after they hurled their threats and yet this came.

It really was a period of infamy for Country Y, that in the span of mere days, the entire nation was stricken with panic and unrest.

But aid from other Western nations arrived quickly.

“The Head of State of Country Y, under heavy guard of his security detail, issued a statement, “I believe I speak for every member of the government when I say we can finally rest at ease. Help is here and the doom of the Devil is at hand.”

But before he could finish his speech, a purplish jet of light shot from nowhere and blasted part of his face, mutilating it while sending blood and tissue flying into the air. The Head of State was so frightened that he collapsed due to a heart attack and was immediately hospitalized.

Peacekeepers in form of warriors from other Western nations arrived shortly.

This time, the Holy Temple spared no expense by sending one of their best: a Deputy Prelate of their order. A person with formidable power and high authority that no more than a handful of the Holy Temple's members could ever hope to match, much less defeat.

The Dark Guild's contingent barely paled in comparison. The Guild marshaled a team led by two of its strongest presbyters: Eighth Presbyter Atkins and Ninth Presbyter Absolon, both of whom wielded great powers and unique abilities which placed them on par with Eighth-grade Human Kings.

Along with them came legions of other warriors from other participating nations and organizations.

Especially the Knights of the Circular Table, who had sent forth five powerful members from among their number.

At behest of their godfather, the Pope of the Country V, two warriors – both godchildren and wards of the Bishop of the Sacred Diocese and are equally powerful in their own right – arrived too at Country Y.

It was the greatest muster of warriors the world had ever seen, and it was all for one purpose: for the elimination of Chu Xun, the Devil.

“SHOW YOURSELF, CHU XUN!” bellowed Absolon, the Ninth Presbyter of the Dark Guild, triumphantly.

Despite answering Country M's call to arms, these warriors all maintain loyalties of their own and for that reason, they refused to reside together and Country M had had to do its best to provide to their various accommodations and needs as if they were gods walking the face of the Earth.

Everywhere else across the world, every pair of eyes, every organization and faction, and every country kept their intent gaze upon Country Y with anticipation of the battle that was to come.

Angus, the Deputy Prelate of the Holy Temple of the Sun, was a fair-skinned and mild-mannered Caucasian with light, golden hair that seemed only to shimmer with a soft luster. “We're not seeking to kill Chu Xun,” he insisted, “As a citizen of the Sun God's domain, it is his right to demand fair judgment. He needs only to repent and he shall receive absolution.”

Huaxia warriors snorted at that. “Try telling that to Chu Xun,” some said. “Let's see if the Devil would let him finish before smashing his face into a pulp.”

The godchildren of the Pope of the Country V however were hardly impressed. Proudly, they declared, “Come if you will, Devil, and we shall exact justice in the name of His Holiness the Pope.”

Needless to say, the Knights of the Circular Table wanted only Chu Xun's head for his earlier slaying of Krebs.

But three days passed peacefully without any incident as if Chu Xun vanished off the face of the Earth.

Taking his reticence as diffidence, warriors of the West began bombarding insults at Chu Xun for cowering and hiding like a tortoise.

More harsh and ugly remarks ensued, with some even mentioning Chu Xun's loved ones and friends.

Not willing to see Chu Xun being so discredited and disparaged, Huaxia warriors thronged as one to his defense and thus a mud-slinging verbal skirmish broke out on the Internet.

On the evening of the fourth day.

A huge explosion erupted in the mountains somewhere in the West. A fiery inferno shot up into the air, reaching for the skies with earthquakes that shook the earth so great that people more than ten lis away could feel the tremor.

News about this incident sent ripples through the Internet.

Just when discussions were beginning to heat up on message boards across the Internet, pictures from the site of the explosion began to circulate around.

People began recognizing the site of the explosion and more pandemonium ensued.

While the entire world stirred with puzzlement and amazement, the Dark Guild blazed with indignation and fury.

That was the site of one of the Dark Guild's splinter branches.

A branch of the Dark Guild was destroyed. But whose handiwork could it be?

And to cause such a huge explosion would require a huge supply of explosives. But from where could one procure such a huge amount of dangerous substance?

Then remarks began surfacing, deducing that the explosives came from the Dark Guild's own stores. Someone had pilfered them to destroy the Guild's own branch's stronghold.

The world was tottering around with bewilderment when Chu Xun reappeared suddenly, declaring openly,

“I am willing to own up to the sins I've committed and may I be justly judged. I shall gladly send anyone who is willing into the arms of the Sun God so that they could enjoy His love and compassion while basking in His glory.”

Huh?!

There was no missing that thick sarcasm in his message that almost drove everyone mad.

The Deputy Prelate of the Holy Temple of the Sun, Angus, had called out for Chu Xun, asking him to “repent and surrender himself to receive the love and forgiveness of the Sun God and to bask in his glory”.

As a response, Chu Xun had slipped into one of the Dark Guild's splinter branches and killed everyone there before setting fire to it, effectively sending everyone there “to receive the love and forgiveness of the Sun God”.

The presbyters of the Guild were so ashamed that they nearly lost their temper. It was no secret that the Holy Temple and the Dark Guilds were bitter rivals and Chu Xun was mocking them both in one fell swoop.

Faraway in a lavish estate, Angus's face twitched with suppressed rage until he could no longer bridle his anger any longer as he blasted the television screen before him into bits.

“O Mighty God of the Sun, I pray that you pardon these filthy vermin for besmirching your hallowed sanctity.”

He then broke into a smile. After all, it was the Dark Guild that had suffered losses and that alone was reason enough for him to celebrate.

But not everyone was pleased. The rest of the other peacekeepers who came to Country Y were infuriated and they accused of Chu Xun of being an underhanded coward who knew only to strike from the shadows

But in truth, they were resentful that after all their way here to Country Y, none of them had expected that Chu Xun would venture into their own homelands to launch an assault there.

It really was a diversion that caught everyone by surprise.

The Chief of the Dark Guild had destroyed his table before demolishing his villa to vent his anger.

In his rage, he sent for the Sixth and Seventh Presbyter of the Guild and dispatched them to the site of the explosion to hunt down Chu Xun.

The world was swept with shock and awe. Chu Xun had set up everything by first taunting the warriors of the West, challenging them to come to him.

Yet when they had arrived, he quietly slipped behind the enemy lines to ambush them from behind by laying waste to one of their strongholds.

“As expected of he who is called the Deceiver,” observed Emperor Ao when he heard the news, suppressing a grin.

The Chief Official of Huaxia saw the news and giggled. With vigor owing to his newfound passion of martial arts, he broke into peals of roaring laughter.

“I couldn't have done it any better myself!”

Further away, in the quiet little courtyard of a little house, reading the news left Yan Wushuang so awestruck that he turned speechless for seconds. “Wicked! Cunning! Devious!”

A slightly-concerned Tang Rou murmured, “Good job, Big Brother.”

Yi Xiaosu and the others could have never been any more petrified by the number of surprises Chu Xun pulled off that their hearts would have nearly stopped. By mistaking his taciturn reticence as a harmless and meek behavior, everyone had fallen for his grand ruse!

At the meantime, Chu Xun had found himself a scenic spot in a peaceful grove, where he caught a wild duck and a fat fish.

He roasted the duck and the fish that they looked crispy on the outside and juice on the inside and enjoyed his feast on the stump of a fallen tree like a table.

He took a couple of pictures and uploaded them to the Internet with a caption below that said, “What a shame that such delicious food had to be enjoyed without good wine to flush them down!”

Furore broke out once again on the Internet and Chu Xun's photos began disseminating across the cyberspace like a raging bushfire.

Fuming, the warriors of the West could only hurl more angry comments, saying how Chu Xun was a shameless cheat and a brazen charlatan.

The most bitterly enraged would be none other than the Dark Guild where its members were all practically convulsing and shivering with irritation and embarrassment.

They had traveled long and far to hunt down Chu Xun, only for him to be having a feast while enjoying a picturesque view. Nature had to offer him and yet he dared to complain about not having any wine.

But Huaxia warriors busied themselves by shoveling more coal to keep up the flames of ridicule and scorn.

“You really are my hero, Immortal Chu! We should meet up! You can regale me with tales of your exploits over wine at my place!”

“Remember to leave a wok or a pan the next time you destroy someone's stronghold, Immortal Chu. You might need it to cook or even boil soup. Remember to not forget some seasoning and wine too next time!”

Scrolling through the comments, Chu Xun mused with amusement, “So great this nation of Huaxia, that we have no shortage of different talents and skills! Here I have a long list of so many insightful and instructive suggestions!”

While the citizens of Huaxia rejoiced at Chu Xun's continued triumph, the West however was burning at the indignation and disrespect Chu Xun had never ceased to rub into their faces.

“I'll have you turned into minced meat and feed you to the dogs, Devil! Mark my words!”

“The Dark Guild will never let you go for this, Chu Xun you Devil!”

Faraway at Country Y, the Guild's two presbyters were stomping mad with uncontrollable anger that one might wonder if they could be having an aneurysm.

Chu Xun responded with a simple message intended for them that said, “Just you wait. I'll come to you and pluck off your heads.”

“So be it. We await your arrival at Country Y.”

At the headquarters of the Dark Guild, acolytes scurried about like busy mice, trying to pinpoint Chu Xun's location. Before long, through the photos Chu Xun had taken, they found where he was.

The Guild immediately sent forth a troop of men led by both the Sixth and Seventh Presbyters who rushed immediately to Chu Xun's location.

Chu Xun was just lazing about after his sumptuous feast when his phone vibrated. He peered at it and noticed that a new message had arrived. It was a satellite image sent to him by the Chief Official himself. Upon the image depicted his location and a conspicuous red dot that showed his next target.

Along with the message came a warning: Be careful!

Chu Xun quickly committed the information from the satellite image to his memory and deleted it before vanishing from where he stood.

The Dark Guild team arrived not long after only to find words arranged using bones and remains from the roasted duck and fish laid on the flat surface of the large tree stump.

Two simple words: So long!

But as Westerns who failed to understand the complex tongue of Huaxia, they did not understand what the words meant. They took a picture of the words and sent it back to the headquarters for their people there to interpret it.

In the end, all they received was a terrible earful by the Chief of the Dark Guild himself.

Incensed, the two presbyters could only vent their anger by unleashing salvos after salvos of death ray upon the harmless tree stump, only stopping after blasting a huge crater on the ground.

Chapter end