Sovereign of the Three Realms

“Jiang Chen, you coward! Do you dare reveal yourself and meet me head-on?” Cao Jin was at the height of his rage. Although an attack on this level wasn’t life-threatening, it was still maddening to be humiliated by an ant like Jiang Chen.

Whoosh!

Jiang Chen’s figure suddenly halted in midair about a hundred meters away.

“Meet you head-on?” One could clearly see the hints of mockery in his smile. “Cao, you’re at peak sage realm and want me to fight you in single combat. Should I call you naive or am I the idiotic one?”

Jiang Chen wasn’t the sort who blindly followed established rules. Even if he’d met a mortal sage or earth sage realm cultivator, he felt that he would be able to take them on in battle. But Cao Jin was one step away from emperor realm. Jiang Chen wasn’t so overconfident to think that he could go toe to toe with such an opponent. He wasn’t a typical hotheaded youth who could be provoked with one line. He only acknowledged one point, that any method was a good method as long as it defeated the opponent.

Jiang Chen wasn’t so much of a fool as to face off against one of the ten great disciples of the Sky Sect with his cultivation of a mere first level sage realm. The resources and treatment he’d enjoyed in this life was less than one hundredth of what his opponent had had thus far. If it wasn’t for his memories from his past life, the difference between him and Cao Jin was that of heaven and earth due to the circumstances of their births. It was because of this point that Jiang Chen had the right to fight Cao Jin. He’d never do something so brainless as to give up his only advantage and go toe to toe with his opponent.

By this time, the Goldbiter Rats had defeated the six wolverines. Cao Jin watched it happen with his own eyes, but was in no condition to help his contracted spirit beasts. He was already completely preoccupied with the attacks from the three entities. Although his life wasn’t in danger at the moment, the situation was far too precarious for him to free a hand to help the six wolverines. His mind wasn’t on them either.

He’d split out part of his consciousness to try and lock onto Jiang Chen’s position. He’d decided this time that he would completely take out Jiang Chen, even if he ended up a bit injured for his troubles. His Sword Ocean Cover previously hadn’t locked onto Jiang Chen’s consciousness, which had allowed the latter to escape through using some smoke and mirrors technique. Cao Jin wasn’t going to allow that to happen again when Jiang Chen’s true body revealed itself this time.

“I must hit him with one fatal blow this time!” Cao Jin clenched his fist, holding another talisman inside. This was his other trump card, the Apocalyptic Darklightning Rune!

This rune could erupt forth with dark lightning capable of destroying the world, unstoppable in its might. If Jiang Chen was targeted by this rune, he’d be unable to run to anywhere within a radius of fifty kilometers. The bolt of lightning was akin to a thunderstorm, denying all chances of escaping.

“The Apocalyptic Darklightning Rune is my final ace. I’ll have to rely on my own techniques if I still can’t kill Jiang Chen. Unfortunately, I’m unable to even draw close to him in the face of all his tricks!” Cao Jin knew that this was his last chance. He locked on with his consciousness—

In a burst of speed, Cao Jin employed some fancy footwork to evade the attack from the vines and punched upwards to blast the magnetic golden mountain away. In return, he took some blows from the golden-armored warriors in his back.

Bambambam!

Using the momentum from the blows, he shot forward, once again locking on with his consciousness. His chance was here! He opened his hand and activated the Apocalyptic Darklightning Rune.

“Die!” Cao Jin grimaced as the light from the rune flashed, causing the skies and earth to darken.

Rumble.

Countless streaks of darklightning descended from the skies in the next instant. Darklightning wasn’t ordinary lightning. It was said to be the accumulated vengeful thoughts of the underworld, ascending to the clouds thanks to the power of reincarnation and condensing to form darklightning. Darklightning was wrathful and fiendish, sinister beyond comparison. When struck, endless malicious intent would entangle around its target and quickly reduce the victim to a skeleton.

“A thunder rune?” Jiang Chen started when he saw Cao Jin’s ace, but it was his next move that stunned Cao Jin in return. Jiang Chen raised both hands up and adopted a welcoming posture, as if very much welcoming the darklightning’s arrival!

Just as Cao Jin was standing there, stunned, the magnetic golden mountain above him came crashing down viciously again. It was a good thing that his reflexes were fast enough to allow him to push upwards with both hands, arresting the mountain in its tracks. He was about to push it away when the twelve golden-armored warriors pounced fearlessly. Some wrapped themselves around his head, others around his legs, and more around his waist. Countless vines surged upwards furiously at the same time and entwined around his body, trussing him up in the blink of an eye.

Cao Jin was immensely enraged as he shouted loudly, “Get away!”

Rumble!

He struggled free of all of the vines as the force of his shout fragmented them into small pieces. The golden-armored warriors however, weren’t alive and so didn’t know the meaning of fear. They came back for another round after being shrugged off. Since Cao Jin’s hands were preoccupied with the magnetic golden mountain, he could only use his shoulders and knees to attack. This undoubtedly hampered his movements.

This was when something astonishing happened. The lightning descended, but—

Just as they were about to reach Jiang Chen, some mysterious power seemed to halt their attack, causing them to disappear into the void. It was as if there was a miraculous black hole on Jiang Chen that could swallow the darklightning!

Cao Jin felt like an iron weight had just crashed into his chest. His eyes witnessed everything, but his mind refused to make sense of it. He had been able to bear the loss of the six wolverines to the Goldbiter Rats, but this ace of the Apocalyptic Darklightning Rune was something that could kill even an ordinary emperor realm cultivator once they were caught by it! And yet they hadn’t even scratched Jiang Chen. It was more as if he’d absorbed them all.

Cao Jin was utterly stunned senseless by this bizarre scene. He almost wondered if Jiang Chen was a ghost or a demon at this point! Was he immortal? Was any sort of attack effective on him? Although he was just first level sage realm, Cao Jin had the misconception in that instant that it was impossible to beat Jiang Chen!

Jiang Chen retracted his hands as the smile on his face widened. His posture was as relaxed as though he was enjoying the spring wind. He looked at Cao Jin, “Cao, looks like you’ve used another trump card!”

Cao Jin opened and closed his mouth, having the feeling of wanting to cry but being unable to.

“Jiang Chen… I swear I’ll kill you!!” He had almost completely lost his mind in the depths of his rage.

“What a coincidence, that’s what I want to say to you!” Jiang Chen suddenly smiled and snapped his fingers. In the next moment, the scene changed.

Cao Jin was still hesitating when he felt the air constrict around him. Layers of strange walls in the air appeared in the next instant, and no matter how he charged at them, Cao Jin would only rebound.

“What’s going on?” Cao Jin was really panicking now. He’d been nonplussed when his aces had failed just now, but not to the point of panicking. Now, not only was he a bit frantic, he was even a bit afraid. Matters had completely gone out of hand, and he was now locked in a storage space, like he’d been confined to an independent jail in space in this area! He was unable to break through no matter how he charged at it.

“Is this a formation?” Cao Jin was startled and thought that he’d met with a formation again. He took out the Moonshatter Awl. He attacked the air fiercely with the formation splitting technique, but realized that this cage in the air was no formation at all. The formation splitting technique had no effect.

“This isn’t a formation?!” Cao Jin was even more frightened and screamed out. “Jiang Chen, you devious little prick! What trick are you up to now?”

Jiang Chen laughed leisurely and looked at the struggles of a caged beast. He knew that Cao Jin would be unable to escape this time. He immediately brought out the magnetic golden mountain, activated the Soldier Rosary Beads, and furiously smashed towards Cao Jin. He also called out at the same time, “Do it, Brother Long!”

There was a violent trembling in the air as a true dragon appeared in the sky in the next instant, materializing in a mysterious manner.

“Dragon? True dragon?!” Cao Jin’s reaction was the same as Ding Tong and Elder Chen’s, reacting like they’d seen a ghost. As strong as he was, his heart sank when he saw a true dragon from the ancient times. Although he felt that this dragon was likely a young one, even the weakest of dragons were still a real dragon!

Dragons were by nature a fighting race, and one of the most superior bloodlines from the ancient times. Their combat ability and potential were practically innate, and even the weakest of them would be a supreme genius in the human race. Not to mention that Cao Jin had discovered by now that it was this dragon’s domain that was restraining him!

Amongst the humans, only the emperor realm cultivators could deploy their own sphere of influence, their domain. However, this dragon seemed to be able to do so having yet to enter the emperor realm! It was apparent from this just how great this race’s potential was!

Cao Jin so greatly regretted his actions now. He finally understood that Jiang Chen had been deploying all sorts of smoke and mirrors with him, but his final ace was this true dragon! If he’d summoned this dragon immediately, then Cao Jin would’ve recognized his inevitable defeat and ran. But Jiang Chen had put on the act that they were evenly matched, making Cao Jin think that he could handle his opponent and thus hadn’t wanted to run away at all. He’d become gradually numb to all of Jiang Chen’s actions, resulting his current predicament of being locked in the dragon’s domain.

There were no words to describe Cao Jin’s regret, but there was nothing he could do in the face of the dragon’s domain, even with all the arts and techniques available to him. Under Long Xiaoxuan and Jiang Chen’s continued assault, Cao Jin was thoroughly beaten like a dog fallen into water. His eyes were still full of everlasting regret in the very moment that the last breath left his lungs.

Long Xiaoxuan however, picked up his body unceremoniously and crunched it a few times. Cao Jin’s equipment kept falling out, such as the Ocean Cover Sword, Moonshatter Awl, and multiple richly stocked storage rings. This was an unexpected windfall for Jiang Chen. Shi Zhen and Fatty Wu storage rings also naturally made their way into his hands.