Sovereign of the Three Realms

The Goldbiter Rats he had left as sentries quickly transmitted some intelligence that surprised Jiang Chen. “It seems that I’ve previously underestimated this Sacred Sword Palace. I hadn’t thought that Elder Chen would be this shrewd and calculating. He’s actually used some scheme to lure the Great Cathedral away while he comes after me himself?”

He had to admit, he had understated the Sacred Sword Palace’s abilities. He’d always felt that the Sacred Sword Palace was all brawn and no brains, with their eyes on the top of their heads. Now, as he looked at Elder Chen, Jiang Chen realized that he had been too naive. None of the elders were the kindly sort. Elder Xiang Gan of the Great Cathedral and Elder Tan Lang of the Tristar Sect had both been planning on effortlessly reaping the spoils of a contest fought by others. They wanted to be the unknown oriole behind the mantis stalking the cicada. Rather, it was rather the Walkabout Sect who’d learned their lesson, since Elder Wu Hen had left first with his sect.

Jiang Chen was somewhat surprised by this. He’d thought that the Sacred Sword Palace and Walkabout Sect would be the two sects most eager for his blood. Judging from their actions, could it be that the Walkabout Sect truly wanted to let bygones be bygones? Either way, it was all the same to Jiang Chen since he hadn’t suffered any losses in his exchange with the Walkabout Sect. He’d already killed Wei Qing, and although Elder Wu Hen had coveted his Hidden Chameleon Cloudpine, the elder had ended up giving him a sky rank herb instead.

No matter how he looked at things, this trip had been quite profitable. If the Walkabout Sect had truly recognized the error of their ways and turned back, he wouldn’t mind that either. After all, one enemy fewer for the Regal Pill Palace was a good thing, particularly when the sect had been the main beneficiary of this trip. A party who had received benefits should always be more reserved and keep a lower profile afterwards.

However, since that Elder Chen had resolved to create trouble, not only did Jiang Chen not mind, he even slightly looked forward to their upcoming clash. Without considering the various grudges between the Sacred Sword Palace and the Regal Pill Palace, how many times had the Sacred Sword Palace suppressed him and troubled him during the Pill Battles and the harvest of Mt. Rippling Mirage? How many times had this sect tried pressuring him and encumbering him? Wang Han had attempted to murder him whenever the two had met! And now this Elder Chen was looking for him with hostile intent, obviously coming to kill him as well.

Previously, Jiang Chen had given them the antidote out of consideration for the greater picture and not because he was generous. If he hadn’t, the other sects would definitely have grown more hostile towards the Regal Pill Palace. If the other sects had not been present, Jiang Chen would’ve never spoken of the Miasma. Had the matter been only between the Regal Pill Palace and the Sacred Sword Palace, he’d absolutely have stayed in the back and quietly admired how they would die to the poison, before making off with all their treasures.

Now that Elder Chen was hunting Jiang Chen down by himself, he no longer needed to consider the bigger picture since no one else was around. The killing desire that Jiang Chen had suppressed for a long time finally exploded. As the intelligence was continuously fed to him by the Goldbiter Rats, Jiang Chen knew that the other members of the Sacred Sword Palace had lured the Great Cathedral and Tristar Sect away. This meant that only him and Elder Chen were left inside.

“Mm?” Jiang Chen’s ear suddenly twitched as a faint smile appeared on the corners of his lips. “Is he here?”

He didn’t take cover or try to escape the meeting. Instead, Jiang Chen merely stood on the banks of the lake and looked at the island in its middle. He should’ve been setting foot on the island by now. But if he didn’t do away with this old fart first, that would just be leaving trouble behind him.

……

As Elder Chen followed the sword butterflies, he noticed that Jiang Chen was on the path to the island in the lake. He was startled and had to speed up, since he was deathly afraid that it would be difficult to track Jiang Chen down if he set foot on the island again. After all, the Miasma was on the island. Even though he’d taken the antidote, who knew if the antidote would still be useful after its effects had passed? Therefore, Elder Chen picked up his pace and hurried back to the lake area.

Suddenly, he halted in his steps as he noticed a figure standing proudly on the banks of the lake with its arms crossed. The figure perched on an enormous boulder, giving it the dashing air of standing aloof from the world, above all else.

It was Jiang Chen!

Elder Chen was surprised and delighted. He was surprised that Jiang Chen was standing there, coolly composed, and delighted that Jiang Chen had yet to set foot onto the island. Elder Chen could easily hunt him down in this area.

“So you’ve come hmm, Chen?” Jiang Chen slowly turned around with a slight smile that made Elder Chen’s heart sink.

The elder spoke frostily, “What, you knew I was coming?”

Jiang Chen’s smiled emotionlessly. “Does it matter whether I knew or not? Here you are. Speak. What do you want this time?”

“What do I want?” Elder Chen started laughing. “You ask me what I want? You’ve humiliated my Sacred Sword Palace multiple times in a row, do you think I’m here to have a heart-to-heart chat with you?”

“So this means you’re here to kill me, right?” Jiang Chen said with a supercilious smile.

“Don’t act coy, you’ve brought this upon yourself! If I were you, I would’ve left for the outside world immediately. If you’d done that, I wouldn’t have been able to hunt you down. But who knew that you’d lose your head and not bear to leave? It looks like there’s something on this island that still holds your interest?”

Jiang Chen nodded. “Chen, it seems I’ve underestimated you. Since you’re able to find your way here while throwing off the other sects, you’re definitely not dumb.”

For some reason, Elder Chen’s heart sank even further when he heard this. Jiang Chen seemed to have known that he was coming? And he even knew that the other sects tried to follow him, and that he’d shaken off their pursuit? Elder Chen was momentarily astonished, but got over it in a second. “Jiang Chen, I don’t have time to flap my lips with you. Spit out all you’ve gained and I can leave you a whole corpse. If you insist on defying me, I don’t mind ripping you apart piece by piece, and then using my internal flames to bake your soul so you beg for death!”

Elder Chen leered as he clapped his hands together. Seven sword shadows whooshed into the air, enclosing Jiang Chen’s body and blocking off all movement. He wouldn’t be able to jump into the lake even if he wanted to.

Nonetheless, Jiang Chen’s expression didn’t change at all. He still had an amused hint of a smile playing about his face. “I wonder how your cultivation ranks in the Sacred Sword Palace, Chen?”

“Kid, do you think you can escape death by changing the topic?”

“No matter what your rank is, I only want to tell you that you will no longer exist in the Sacred Sword Palace after today. Ah right, I can also tell you that Du Lihuang…”

Elder Chen’s expression darkened before Jiang Chen had finished speaking. “You killed Du Lihuang?”

“Although I didn’t kill him, I saw exactly how he died. Mm, I have everything he collected as well. Do you want to take a look?” Jiang Chen laughed leisurely before he suddenly smacked his head. “Oh right, that idiot Wang Han’s accusation that I gained a few thousand blades of Sage Fledging Grass was correct.” He took out some blades of Grass as he spoke and flung them up in the air, tauntingly.

Elder Chen’s face had grown colder and colder, and he spoke lowly, “So it seems that you’d long since hidden these things away, and have come back to pick up your loot? What a filthy little vermin you are!, As expected, you have a keen mind indeed if you’ve managed to deceive even those old foxes!”

Jiang Chen smiled indifferently. “You think too much. The only reason I’ve come here is to attract some idiots from the Sacred Sword Palace so I can take my anger out on you. You’ve done your fair share to provoke me during this time.”

“Hahaha!” Elder Chen laughed uproariously. A mere fifth level origin realm cultivator dared speak such words even when death was staring at him in the face! “Kid, dreaming in broad daylight, huh? I don’t know if you’ve lost your mind from the fright or if you’re simply too arrogant. I’ll crush a fifth level origin realm ant like you in three moves!”

Elder Chen activated his sword technique after speaking, The seven sword shadows turned into numerous beams of cold light and shot down from the heavens, churning through the air. It was at this moment that a glimmer of light the size of a mustard seed suddenly materialized in the air around Jiang Chen. It only wavered once before it formed a marvelous vortex that swept through the air and sucked in all of the sword qi without warning.

“What?!” Elder Chen was dumbfounded. He’d never seen such a bizarre thing! The next instant, something even more incredulous happened as the mustard seed of light swayed with the wind before turning into a stunning gale that disturbed the air currents and shifted the clouds. The most frightening thing was that the momentum of this gale actually sealed off the air within twenty kilometers around them. It was as if this section of space had been carved out and separated from the outside world.

“How can this be?” Elder Chen was frightened clear out of his soul. He had simulated many possible outcomes along the way, such as him easily crushing Jiang Chen, or Jiang Chen being defiant to the end, such that he needed to call upon his trump cards to end things with great effort. But in all his speculations, the end result had been him killing Jiang Chen. He’d never thought that a mere fifth level origin realm cultivator would be any threat to him in martial dao.

And yet—

Elder Chen finally understood in this moment why Jiang Chen had always been so composed, why this young disciple was of the mind to discourse freely and proudly with Elder Chen. Jiang Chen wasn’t stalling for time at all; he really did have the confidence to do so! Elder Chen had viewed Jiang Chen as prey snared in a trap, easily within his grasp. But he’d never thought that Jiang Chen saw him as the prey instead, one that he could kill at any time!

It was just—how could Jiang Chen be doing this? How could such terrifying spatial restraining power explode so suddenly from a fifth level origin realm ant? This didn’t conform to reality at all, it had surpassed the bounds of reason!

Elder Chen soon had his answer but he almost didn’t believe his eyes. He blinked, hard, as he stared unwaveringly at the heavens above him. That—was a true dragon!

Horns, scales, five claws. A real, true dragon!

Elder Chen was completely shellshocked in this moment. He couldn’t understand this at all, why did Jiang Chen possess a true dragon?!

What did a true dragon represent? Even though the elder had never seen one, he was still aware of a dragon’s power. He couldn’t imagine at all that a mythical dragon, present only in legends, would appear here under Jiang Chen’s control! It was at that instant that Elder Chen’s heart sank, never to arise again as he knew he was done for!