The Immortal Emperor Returns C450 – Contest

The Enchantment of Annihilation!

A magic that allowed a group to pool their powers together onto one single person to rapidly enhance his powers by leaps and bounds and the transfer could be done in just an instant.

With the help of its fellow comrades, the tiger mutant's powers rose from Eighth-grade to Ninth-grade, and that was just the collective powers of five Beast Lord mutants in this enchantment. Imagine how much more powerful one could be with a full band of twelve persons.

Such was the incredible potential of this enchantment.

The flying ship drifted silently through the clouds with such extreme speeds that it could easily cover thousands of miles in just one day.

The Sky Dragon Guard quickly seized what time they could to practice the Enchantment of Annihilation.

The next day.

Chu Xun and his companions arrived at Mount Lu.

Shaped like an oval egg if seen from the top, the entirety of Mount Lu was a collection of more than ninety summits overlapping with each other into a huge towering granite hulk both colossal and vast.

It was said that the ancient ruins had appeared at the main peak called the Hanyang Peak (literally, the Sun of Han Peak).

The fullness of Mount Lu was so large that countless other summits, gullies and chasms, crevices and caves, and even waterfalls and rapids could be found everywhere in its vicinity.

The top of Hanyang Peak cleaved straight into the clouds like a towering column that stretched all the way down from the high Heavens and the top never stopped being engulfed by mists and fog at all times.

Yet even the thick mists failed to obscure the conspicuous flicker of gold that emanated off the slopes midway to its top.

The bright flicker of gold was the spot where the ancient ruins sat. But an enchantment kept the place unreachable for common humans and wild beasts.

A Ninth-grade Beast Lord had tried to force its way into the ruins, only to be shredded into bloody strips and confetti of viscera by the enchantment of golden lights that kept the place.

Then people began to discover that the enchantment would mysteriously turn weak in the eventide. The collective effort of Immortal-stage champions might be able to destroy it.

Chu Xun stood atop the flying ship and peered down. Down below, he could see crowds of people and even wild beasts massing around, choking the route that led up Hanyang Peak.

One could almost make out the tensions rising from the wild beasts being so close to humans, but neither were eager to any open conflicts for now.

Chu Xun scanned the crowds with his Divine Sense. He could feel the presence of several auras both powerful and huge; these must be the Immortal-level champions hailing from the Lost Races.

The Immortal-level champions possessed extremely keen senses themselves. They could feel that they were being watched, but they could not track who or where did the sensation come from.

On a spacious plateau not far from Hanyang Peak, was a makeshift tent.

Two elderly men were inside, talking when their faces spasmed with shock in unison.

“WHO DARES TO SPY ON US LIKE THIEVES!?” boomed one of them, an old man with an evil look and copper-brown hair and beard. His thunderous voice sent all nearby peaks shaking like leaves.

Chu Xun withdrew his astral projection once, looking positively surprised. “Extraordinary,” he thought. “So Immortal-level Champions could detect my Divine Sense!”

“Should we be going down, Immortal Chu?” asked the elephant mutant.

Chu Xun nodded. He steered the ship to a nearby summit and landed. Once everyone had disembarked, Chu Xun performed hand seals with one hand.

“Swoosh!”

In a blinding flash, the long flying vessel shrunk into the size of a man's hand and dropped on Chu Xun's opened palm.

Everyone was flabbergasted.

Chu Xun chuckled. The ship was, for all intents and purposes, was a Sacred Relic. It was only natural that it had certain magical qualities.

Chu Xun, who had understood the intricacies of manipulating it, spontaneously knew how to use it to great effect.

“Remember, call me Samsara,” reminded Chu Xun.

Everyone nodded their heads, committing the order to memory.

They circled around the mountainside and wound their way back towards Hanyang Peak.

It was very, very crowded there and all the good vantage points have been occupied.

Then they heard the clamor of battle.

Apparently, two parties were battling each other to contest for an advantageous vantage point that enabled them to be closer to the ruins.

It was a flat plateau but not one that guaranteed absolute advantage. Even so, a fight was waging for it.

Such were the vagaries of the human heart that included greed, self-importance, and jealousy. Even if the position hardly justified any contest, people would still gladly fight each other just for an edge over others.

“Master Samsara, do you think we should contest for that spot too?” asked the elephant mutant, adroitly changing his way of addressing Chu Xun.

Chu Xun shook his head. The spot hardly interested him in the least.

Instead, he found a spot occupied by the Lycans. It was a summit so close to Hanyang Peak that with one leap, he could directly reach there.

More so, since he heard that the Lycans too had Immortal-level champions among them; he had been wanting to test his skills against an enemy of that caliber.

“Let's go,” called Chu Xun.

The Sky Dragon Guard moved as one, rushing up towards the summit now occupied by the Lycans.

Men and beasts noticed this too and they were surprised.

“Are they trying to contest the Lycans for their position?!” gasped a voice in shock.

“Looks like it. That's really bold of them. Don't they know that the Lycans have Immortal-level champions in their midst?”

“Idiots exist everywhere. More so, especially this year.”

“I bet they'd be slain and tossed down like slaughtered dogs before they can even reach the top.”

Humans and beasts all shared dark and furtive whispers amongst themselves.

The Sky Dragon Guard was only just halfway up the slopes when high-tiered Lycan Beast Lords, all in human forms, barred their way up.

“Begone.”

The Lycan Beast Lords demanded imperiously.

“You have three seconds to leave or we'll attack!”

One of the Lycan Beast Lords bellowed cruelly and smugly.

“And who do you think you are?!” the tiger mutant retorted fiercely in return, its sonorous roar rushing across the vale with daunting ferocity as it charged forward.

“Impudence!” an Eighth-grade Lycan hissed angrily, throwing himself forward to meet the tiger mutant in battle.

“Rumble!”

The impact from their first collision set a pulse of force that obliterated every piece of rock and boulder into dust, causing the nearby hills and cliffs to shake.

“I've decided to occupy this spot, mongrel pup! Now leave at once and I might spare you!”

“Impertinence! How dare you speak with such a tone before us Lycans! Do you not see Death when it's upon you?!”

The two mutants hurled themselves into each other again in another furious whirl of battle.

“Gimme a hand, Lion!” yelled the tiger.

The elephant and lion mutants sprang into action, activating the Enchantment of Annihilation together, and the tiger's aura soared in full tilt.

The Lycan did not understand how could the tiger mutant's powers skyrocketed all of a sudden and felt himself daunted by it.

“Bang!”

Blood and viscera sprayed everywhere as the Lycan mutant shrieked with agony; one of its arms had been destroyed by the tiger mutant with just one blow.

“HOW DARE YOU!”

Infuriated, the rest of the Lycan Beast Lords charged at the tiger mutant.

The rest of the Sky Dragon Guard quickly rushed ahead to help, but the tiger stopped them with a loud yell, “Hold the enchantment! Leave this whelps to me!”

Hearing this, his comrades – together with the Tibetan Mastiff mutants – focused on keeping the enchantment working and siphoning their powers to him.

The tiger mutant's aura scaled even higher, reaching Ninth-grade and the entire place radiated with his monstrous presence.

“Bang!”

The tiger swiped a claw at one of the Lycans attacking him, smashing his skull before sending his carcass hurtling down the hill with a side kick.

The carcass of the Lycan Beast Lord turned back into its original form – a wolf more than 10,000 pounds in weight – and rolled down the side of the mountain, crushing what rocks and trees in its way like a landslide with a long trailing death rattle.

The Lycan mutants might be high-tiered Beast Lords, but none of them were even anywhere near Ninth-grade and the tiger mutant was as good as a wolf that had found its way into a coop full of chicken.

Such was a difference that no number could possibly equate to. The tiger mutant unleashed his full display of brutality and savageness.

“Bang!”

With another maul, another Lycan died being dismembered into two bloody halves.

“Arrgghh!”

One more Lycan mutant perished with a blow that instantly caved in his chest. The morbid sight of the white bones protruding from inside the bloodied cavity on his chest was too sickening to behold.

The tiger mutant was on a rampage; none of these Lycans could survive even one single blow from him.

“Arrgghh!”

And the final remaining member of this troop – a Seventh-grade Lycan Beast Lord mutant – was torn into half by the tiger mutant with his bare hands, making it an even more macabre spectacle.

“That was fantastic,” the tiger mutant grinned at the end of it.

“Next time's my turn,” said the lion, his face full of envy.

“All right, let's not keep Immortal Chu waiting. Let's go,” reminded the elephant mutant.

All five of the Sky Dragon Guard charged uphill as quickly as they could.

“Roar!”

The howl of a wolf echoed across the vale with a rolling wave of malice.

The Lycans at the top of the plateau had discovered the Sky Dragon Guard coming and were evidently going berserk.

“You shall all die no matter what wretched beings you are!” came the booming voice of a Ninth-grade Lycan mutant.

But that Ninth-grade Lycan was not the only one there.

From their perch at the top, they watched coldly as the Sky Dragon Guard ascended and they made no attempt to stop them at all.

Jiu You could no longer keep her excitement bridled.

“Go on then,” said Chu Xun, giving his approval.

Jiu You charged, brandishing her golden halberd, and shot up the slopes with the speed of a lightning bolt.

The rest of the human warriors and wild beasts who had been watching the skirmish could not believe their eyes.

During the first clash, they had half-expected to see the elephant mutant and his comrades slaughtered. Yet instead, these nobodies from nowhere had made short work of eight Lycan Beast Lords!

“Who are these people!? How powerful they are?!”

“Wait. That girl. She looks oddly familiar,” said a voice from within the crowd. All eyes were on Jiu You darting uphill.

“That's Queen Jiu You!” pointed out someone.

“The one they called the little consort of the Devil?!” gasped another.

“Indeed. That's her all right.”

“They say she's incredible; she's Eighth-grade, but she could defeat even Ninth-grade champions.”

“How could she be not incredible, if she's really the consort of the Devil?”

“Indeed. An underage consort with such incredible prowess in battle. The Devil really has strange tastes – in addition to being a pedophile.”

The crowds whispered among themselves.

The corners of Chu Xun's lips twitched with utmost annoyance. “Me?! A pedophile?!” He grimaced quietly as he fought the impulse to slaughter all those people.

His good name now tarnished and ruined in the hands of this wretched brat Jiu You!

Most of the Lost Races were involved in this excursion to Mount Lu and their coalition was a strong and vast one.

Huang Hai, the Sixth Elder of the Mustelids was in conversation with the Immortal-level champion of the Draconian race.

Hei Zong, the Immortal-level champion of the Draconians, was quietly contemplating what Huang Hai had just told him.

Huang Hai was only just suggesting to him that the Lost Races' coalition should mobilize at once to Gujiang immediately as soon as their business here at Mount Lu had ended. They needed to mop up the forces of the Chu Mansion at once.

“Aren't you a little anxious about this invasion, Huang?” muttered Hei Zong quietly, “I have not encountered the Devil, but I am no stranger to the rumors about his powers and savagery. We might have no reason to fear him, but he's known to be a sly one and there's every need to be prudent.”

“I know what you're worried of, Hei. But remember: the Devil had vanquished every single entity of power that our races had fielded prior to our emergence. He had dragged our name and reputation through the mud and we need to deal with him quick to restore glory to our name, lest even the humans should look at us with disgust.”

“That is all frivolous nonsense, Huang. Think, Huang. Everyone across the world knows about our emergence now. Do you seriously think anyone dares to oppose us?” Hei Zong smirked confidently.

“It's precisely because we've only just emerged. That we need to act quickly. Eliminate the forces of the Chu Mansion and send a message to everyone all around the world that he who opposes us is only digging his own grave.”

“But what about the governments of these human nations?” said Hei Zong.

“The human governments are in control of nuclear weapons. To challenge them head-on would be folly. That is why we should act quickly and quietly to remove the forces of the Chu Mansion off the chessboard before the government knows what we're after,” said Huang Hai.

Hei Zong pondered those words quietly. After several beats, he looked up and said, “All right. So be it then. Once our business here has concluded, we ride for Gujiang at once.”

Huang Hai laughed triumphantly. “We'll rock the world and we, the Lost Races, shall henceforth become the new rulers of Earth.”

The two mutants shared a look and grinned.

Huang Hai reached out and took a pale-white gemstone. It was a Jewel of Isolation: a gemstone with magical properties that could prevent outsiders from listening to their conversation.

“Sir!” a high-tiered Draconian Beast Lord called from outside the tent.

“Come in,” said Hei Zong. The mutant had been calling outside for quite some time but they had paid no heed to him, too deeply engrossed in their discussion.

“What is it?” Hei Zong asked.

The mutant peered strangely at Huang Hai as if he wanted to say something.

Thinking that it was a matter of privacy, Huang Hai, out of decorum and respect, decided to take his leave, “Perhaps I should leave for now.”

“No, Master Huang,” said the Draconian hesitantly, “Someone's attacking your kin, the Mustelids.”

“Ah,” responded Huang Hai casually, barely registering what he just heard. Then he gasped with disbelief and shock, “What did you just say?!”

“Someone is attacking the Mustelid campsite.”

Huang Hai vanished before the mutant even finished repeating himself.

Chapter end