The Immortal Emperor Returns C386 – The True Blood of the Ancient Horror

The canine fang barely the length of a man's hand exuded an aura of malice and bloodlust that filled the air within beats.

Suan Ni, an ancient beast of untold horrors, one of the most ferocious among all species and one of the ten greatest ever to walk the Earth.

The Winged presbyter's aura began to wane while the aura of the Suan Ni's canine tooth waxed in comparison; the latter must be absorbing his powers.

“Get ready to die, you wretched creature!” cried the Tenth Presbyter, hurling the canine tooth into the air, the fang radiating an aura redolent of death and blood as it hurtled toward Chu Xun's direction.

Chu Xun allowed himself to freefall back down to the ground swiftly.

The canine fang, shining in a morbid-red glow, flew after him as if with a mind of its own.

Chu Xun watched the tiny fang chasing after him as doggedly as a bee and looked nowhere near amused. He drove a fist into the air, launching a fist-like energy bolt at it.

Boom!

Instead of destroying the tooth, it was the energy bolt that was dispersed into bits of energy dregs as if it had hit a wall.

The pupils of Chu Xun's eyes constricted with slight amazement, musing, “This ancient monster must really be powerful. Even in its death, its canine tooth still retains so much ferocity and power!”

As soon as he hit the ground, Chu Xun ducked behind a large celestine boulder weighing more than a thousand kilograms.

Then came a deafening rumble. The rock was split in half by the canine fang upon collision, crumbling into countless little stones and gravel and that hardly extinguished the fang's ferocity as it charged at Chu Xun again.

With his mind, Chu Xun quickly cast another spell: The Formula of Kill!

Boom!

Winds rolled forward like a wave, only to be blasted backward as even Chu Xun's signature “sha” glyph was blasted back by the canine tooth that stormed forward like a battering ram.

With as much speed and agility as his feet could carry him, Chu Xun ducked and ran, but the canine tooth just wouldn't stop speeding after him, a shiny sliver of lightning streaking after him.

It was unfathomable what power and supremacy Suan Nis retained during the prime of their species ages ago when even a Suan Ni canine fang – one that had been sealed and kept for centuries or even millennia – could wield such power and consciousness of its own.

Chu Xun evaded as best as he could, but the canine tooth literally plowed through every boulder and tree, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake but its speed and force nowhere near falling at all!

Chu Xun's face turned to stone. He flicked his wrist and sparkles of gold shone around his hand. Dragon's Wrath appeared and he gripped firmly its hilt.

The saber that Emperor Ao had once used to slay a Tao Wu cub and had sealed its soul in this weapon. Perhaps it was only fitting that both ancient horrors should fight each other.

At its activation, the blade of Dragon's Wrath danced with shiny glitters of gold. Chu Xun swung it furiously at the incoming canine tooth and with a resounding roar, an energy bolt charged headlong at the Suan Ni fang.

As the energy bolt screamed through the air, the bestial phantom of a Tao Wu appeared and it gave a heavy swat on the canine tooth, batting the fang away as it would with a baseball.

The Suan Ni fang shook involuntarily with a life of its own and wheeled back around. With a sickening pierce, it lanced through the Tao Wu phantom like a bullet.

The Tao Wu's ghostly silhouette roared defiantly, albeit there was no sound. But from the looks of it baring its fang, everyone knew it was angry and it bore down on the canine tooth, biting it hard like a vice.

The canine fang jerked hard to tear itself free with more glows of red rippling incessantly until it finally got loose but not without much of its reddish glow and vigor diminished.

Chu Xun saw his chance and lunged, bringing his saber down on the canine fang.

Clang!

The blow elicited fiery sparks and left a crack on the fang. But that was still not yet enough to destroy it and Chu Xun was already feeling his arm throbbing with numbness as he reeled with disbelief.

The Tao Wu phantom withdrew back into the saber. Chu Xun channeled more power into the weapon and fired another blast again and the phantom reappeared once more, streaking across the air like a prancing predator furiously in pursuit of prey.

Bang!

The beast caught up to the Suan Ni fang and mauled it with its claws.

Far away, the Winged presbyter stared hatefully at Chu Xun. Spreading his wings, he flew to the Suan Ni fang and forced a mouthful of his own True Blood that he spewed at the canine tooth.

HUM!

A ghoulish-red luminescence flooded everywhere and devoured everything in its path like an avalanche, and the atmosphere turned suddenly thick with the stench of blood. The Suan Ni fang blazed crimson-gold in the dismal gloom and a beast appeared – several meters long, it opened its gaping mouth wide and displayed its sharp fangs and teeth, roaring triumphantly into the sky.

The phantom of another ancient horror – the Suan Ni.

Chu Xun looked very grim. He gathered more Hong Meng Immortal Qi inside him and channeled them into Dragon's Wrath and the Sacred Relic blazed with a fiery purplish radiance.

He swung his weapon hard again, firing another energy bolt and another phantom of the Tao Wu reappeared, padding swiftly with each step eliciting tremors that caused the very air to crackle.

The Suan Ni phantom spied its foe coming and it let loose a roar that sounded like a challenge and it rode forth to meet its match in battle!

Two ancient beasts of the wild, nemeses to each other across the eons and testament to an age where the Lost Races once enjoyed their prime, now finally meeting each other once more after

ROAR!

Deafening roars rumbled across the skies and into the hills as the two ancient horrors ripped and tore at each other. Every single swipe of their claws could very well distort even the fabric of Time and Space.

The ferocious Tao Wu found its chance and locked its jaws firmly on the Suan Ni's throat and the two beasts rolled and convulsed wildly in a violent whirl.

Everyone witnessing this beastly duel was petrified like sculptures.

Ancient horrors like the Tao Wu and Suan Ni existed today only in fiction or illustrations on the Internet. Even as the brawl now ongoing right before everyone's eyes were between mere figments of ghostly figures, the fierceness and intensity of the melee nevertheless left everyone gawking with astonishment.

The Suan Ni groaned with pain as it rolled and rolled to free itself from the vice-like bite of the Tao Wu, never stopped clawing viciously at its assailant and with every swipe of its paw, ripples of ghostly strands burst out like blood.

The fight between the ancient horrors destroyed any boulder and rock that had the misfortune of being in their path. Even trees – century-old oaks with trunks that stretched wider than the wingspan of two adult men – shook on their roots so strongly with leaves and twigs falling off their boughs.

Chu Xun's eyes gleamed with the comprehension that he needed another plan. Switching Dragon's Wrath to his left hand, he waved his right hand and another weapon appeared – a golden staff.

The golden staff fashioned from the tailbone of the Ancestral Dragon.

Right at the moment the golden staff appeared, the two raging beasts suddenly stopped in their tracks and both stared at Chu Xun in unison.

Whoosh!

The Tao Wu raced backward, turning into a flash of golden light that retreated back into Dragon's Wrath.

The phantom of the Suan Ni remained at a distance, circling menacingly while looking visibly apprehensive towards the golden staff in Chu Xun's grasp.

Activating the golden staff made it shiny with a radiance of gold interlaced with purplish shimmers and Chu Xun charged, speeding after the Suan Ni.

Whoosh!

The golden staff arced around in a vicious curve with a dull rumbling that resembled a dragon's roar.

Bang!

The Suan Ni thought it could swipe at Chu Xun, only to be slugged by him using the golden staff that not only sent the beast flying but also destroyed its paw.

The ancient horror snarled fiercely and regrew its ethereal appendage.

But that was not all, Chu Xun came back around, eager to not let his quarry have any respite and brought another blow squarely on its back.

Bang!

That sent the Suan Ni rolling to the ground. Cracks and crevices could be seen lining all around its ghostly form. Chu Xun's heavy stroke had nearly utterly destroyed it.

The ancient beast let loose a belligerent roar. The lines and cracks began to disappear, but the phantom of the ancient beast looked noticeably obscured from before.

No longer patient, the phantom decided to attack Chu Xun instead.

Chu Xun ran to meet his foe, the first thing he did was drive the golden staff through the face of the Suan Ni like a baseball bat, using so much force that his hands were growing numb.

The Suan Ni phantom crashed to the ground, this time, its ghostly silhouette looking paler still.

Chu Xun charged, eager to mete out the final checkmate. But before he could, Dragon's Wrath shone brightly all of a sudden and the Tao Wu phantom sprang out on its own. It pounced on the Suan Ni phantom like a wolf on a jackrabbit and sank its fangs deeply into its throat and snapped it.

The phantom of the Suan Ni burst into multitudes of fiery sparks that quickly disappeared like embers.

The Tao Wu phantom sucked in every glittering spark and with what seemed like a satisfied grin, it sprang back into Dragon's Wrath.

As the wielder of Dragon's Wrath, Chu Xun could feel that the Tao Wu phantom – upon consumption of the Suan Ni phantom – had become more real and corporeal. “So ancient horrors can consume each other to increase their powers, eh? That's unbelievable.”

With the phantom of the Suan Ni now utterly gone, the catalyst of its projection – the Suan Ni tooth fell to the ground.

The Winged presbyter who had been watching everything from afar spread his wings and swooped down quickly. He needed to recover the canine fang.

But Chu Xun was faster. Reaching mid-Golden Core Stage had increased his top speed to Mach 4. In just mere breaths, he easily reached the spot where the canine tooth had fallen and was just in time to swing his golden staff.

Bang!

More feathers tossed into the air and with a suppressed groan of pain, the blow caught the Tenth Presbyter in the arm, mangling it into an impossible angle as he tumbled to the ground.

Chu Xun reached for the canine tooth. But his finger just barely grazed the tooth and it snapped into halves with a crack and from the midst of the fine hairline crack, blood began seeping out. But it was no ordinary blood. The entire sky turned red right when the blood began dribbling out as if heralding the advent of an ancient horror.

The True Blood of a Suan Ni.

Chu Xun's breathing began to pick up pace as he lurched with amazement. The True Blood of an ancient horror. It might be a substance of great age and scarcity, but even a drop of it could carry immense value.

Chu Xun immediately produced a little jade flask and stored the Suan Ni True Blood inside.

The Tenth Presbyter stared with his sclera utterly red with anguish. The Suan Ni fang had been one of the greatest heirlooms of the Winged race and it had long been his possession which he had used sparingly as a Sacred Relic, without knowing that inside the fang was the True Blood of a Suan Ni.

That made the drop of True Blood a treasured substance of great power and indispensable importance.

Mo Qian and the Winged Legion watched in dumbfounded silence. They had just lost the Suan Ni True Blood, an item of immeasurable worth.

“GIVE IT BACK HERE!” howled the injured and no less livid presbyter. According to the ancient codices of the Winged Race, all ancient horrors each carried special abilities of their own and gaining possession of their bones, True Blood, or any other relics could yield a thing or two about these abilities.

Learning just a thing or two from the special abilities of these ancient horrors could very well bestow great advancements in power that could very well grant the possessor of the True Blood the edge to win even fights against greater opponents.

That explained how angry and livid the Tenth Presbyter of the Winged race was when he was defeated during his attempt to recover the True Blood.

“KILL HIM! WE NEED THE TRUE BLOOD!” he howled at the top of his voice like a maniacal beast himself.

Mo Qian, the Winged Legion, and the two elderly Wingeds whom Chu Xun had defeated earlier lunged together, swarming at Chu Xun like a huge raving stampede of birds.

Everywhere else, watching the live broadcast from the screens of their computer and television, the champions and chieftains of the other races – the Zombies, the Macroprimates, and so forth – felt their hearts pounding anxiously with envy and trepidation at who would get the Suan Ni True Blood.

“Who's that human!? Find out quickly!”

“Assemble the elders! We need to rush for the capital at once! I must get that Suan Ni True Blood!”

“With the Suan Ni True Blood, anyone could turn into a powerful champion with ungodly powers.”

Every one of the Lost Races had their sights set upon the True Blood.

So began the fierce battle.

A fierce battle where every member of the Winged horde present threw themselves at Chu Xun.

Chu Xun beheld the sight of the Winged army massing to overrun him with irises as cold as frost. Not one to wait for the fight to come to him, he charged headlong and the first he found was the Tenth Presbyter whom he furiously batted with his golden staff, sending him hurtling into the air, his flesh exposed raw and red.

Having expended much of his powers and his own True Blood to activate the Suan Ni fang, the Tenth Presbyter had lost all of his former strength. Yet even in his prime, Chu Xun could have easily defeated him, let alone a shell of his former self.

Howling with agony as he knocked down several tall and huge trees in his way until he finally crashed to the ground, spewing mouthfuls of blood.

Mo Qian swooped down on Chu Xun with his sword aimed at Chu Xun's back.

But the latter easily pirouetted around with his golden staff pivoting with momentum building. With a huge bang, he socked the Winged leader's sword out of his hand before landing a piledriving kick into his chest, caving in his ribs and hammering him into the ground with such force that a deep crater blew wide open.

At the same time, the two elderly Winged escorts of the presbyter caught up just in time for a pincer attack from either flank of Chu Xun, each brandishing their swords glinting gold in the sunlight.

Chu Xun swung his golden staff without mercy, shattering first the sword of the elderly Winged on his right before striking him in the waist all in one fell stroke, fracturing his pelvic bone.

Appalled by the fate of his comrade, the other elderly Winged spread his wings to stall his charge and instead thought of retreating.

But it was too late; a Reincarnation Line had appeared before he could backtrack and Chu Xun stepped on it to propel himself after the elderly Winged. He quickly put aside his golden staff in his flight and seized one of his quarry's wings. With a savage yank, he tore the feathered appendage off the old man, spraying blood and feathers into the air accompanied by the elderly Winged's anguish cries.

More Reincarnation Lines appeared beneath Chu Xun's feet for him to use as footholds.

Before he could plummet down to the ground, Chu Xun caught the elderly Winged by his other remaining wing, but not to save him – instead to brutally slam him into the ground!

Mo Qian was just below. With Heaven-knows-how-many ribs shattered and his wings utterly wrecked, he could barely move. He fought to sit up, then he heard a shrill, guttural scream coming from overhead. He looked up and what he saw nearly made him faint.

His head was coming up just in time to see Chu Xun slamming the elderly Winged down on him.

Crack!

Chu Xun drove the elderly Winged's head through Mo Qian's chest like a pillar, pounding his head right through Mo Qian's back and smashing his heart. The impact snapped the elderly Winged's throat and with a final jolt of spasm, he died with Mo Qian.

Chu Xun's sclera filled with tiny veins of red. With another dip on the Reincarnation Lines under his feet, he launched himself again higher into the air and landed nicely on the back of another Winged. He seized the Winged's hair and rode on him like a surfboard.

Chapter end