Strongest War Emperor

When Shen Lang crushed the cluster of light, revealing the Blood Jade within, a phantom image of Alice appeared.

She was still wearing Shen Lang’s robe, her expression sorrowful as she looked at him.

”Young Master, didn’t you say you were coming to get me? I’ve waited for you for so many days. Don’t you want me anymore... I don’t believe you would lie to me, truly. I know you will come... I’m just a little worried...”

Alice looked as if she was on the verge of tears. They welled up in her eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment.

”I... I’m sure you must have been delayed by something, Young Master, right? I believe you would never go back on your word... I don’t trust the Human Race, but I just feel that you wouldn’t lie to me.”

”Young Master, I wanted to wait here for you, but I received a voice transmission from my grand-uncle. I have to hurry and meet up with him, so I had to leave first.”

”Young Master, Alice is a pitiful person, but I refuse to yield to fate. Will you help me? Please?”

”I don’t want to meet with my grand-uncle. I don’t even want anything to do with the Blood Race anymore... It’s a race that is cold-blooded to the extreme, a race spurned by the heavens. And yet, this race looks down upon the heavens and its people with disdain.”

”But I don’t even have the right to look down on the heavens. They only see me as a key to open the Blood Ancestor Tomb. They’ve never once considered my feelings. All they think about is opening the Blood Ancestor Tomb, obtaining the inheritance inside, and allowing the Blood Race to stand at the Peak of the continent once more...”

”They hold something that can make me turn to ash in an instant. The world is vast, yet there is no place for me... Before I met you, Young Master, all I wanted was to die... What is Soul Scattering? Hundreds of years of loneliness had already made me feel dead inside. But after meeting you...”

”I think being alive... is actually a wonderful thing.”

”Will you come find me? Please?”

”This Blood Jade contains a teardrop of mine. The moment you received it, Young Master, I knew you had come for me...”

”It will make me so happy, truly so happy...”

”If you’re willing to come find me, Young Master, please keep it with you, okay? The location my grand-uncle’s message came from is to the northwest of the Purple Chu Country, near the Barbaric lands. The closer you get to me, the deeper the color of this Blood Jade will become, and the stronger my aura within it will grow.”

”If you’re not willing to face the danger, Young Master, you can crush this Blood Jade... Alice will know. I won’t hold any resentment, truly. In the future... just let me become a memory to you... I hope you won’t forget that such a woman once existed, that for a fleeting moment... she appeared in your life.”

The words spilled from Alice’s lips, one sentence after another.

Teardrops rolled down her face, then dissolved into motes of light and vanished into the air.

Shen Lang watched in silence, not making a sound. He remained standing motionless long after Alice’s image had faded away.

”Alice...”

Shen Lang whispered her name in his heart. His mind conjured the image of that slightly foolish, dazed girl from the Blood Race.

The woman who, after just their first meeting, had treated him as her everything, her pillar of support...

’Is she really going to submit to the whims of fate so soon?’

Shen Lang gently caressed the Blood Jade in his palm. Even in the middle of winter, it still radiated a trace of warmth.

’Is this... the warmth of her tears?’

Shen Lang blinked and placed the Blood Jade into a pocket in his chest garment.

For some reason, the moment the Blood Jade touched his body, he seemed to see a silly-looking girl smiling through her tears...

People are just that complicated sometimes.

Some things are difficult, some are dangerous, yet he would still choose to do them.

Not for the sake of so-called justice, not for so-called fairness, and not out of pity.

But simply because of an inexplicable, indescribable emotion...

’This world will always have helpless turns of fate, and they are always difficult to change... But if you don’t even try, how can you know it’s impossible?’

’I’ve long wanted to transcend the grasp of fate. Doing this, I suppose, is also a battle against fate...’

Shen Lang took out the Immortal Celestial Saber, stroking its scabbard gently before slinging the long saber onto his back.

’Too weak. I’m still too weak. I’ll go check on Sister Hong Yu first, then continue my Cultivation for a few more hours before heading back tonight.’

Stepping out from the pile of rubble, Shen Lang was just about to leap into the air when suddenly...

A few faint rumbles echoed from the mountain forest to his right.

’Experts are fighting. That direction... why does it seem to be where Sister Hong Yu’s tomb is?’ Shen Lang’s gaze sharpened, and his heart skipped a beat.

”Old Ghost, full speed! Go!”

Shen Lang roared, his figure soaring into the air and streaking toward the Hong Yu Tomb.

Ten years ago, it was Hong Yu who had led him, only six years old at the time, to break through the Murong Family’s relentless pursuit and escape to the Phoenix Mountain Range.

Hong Yu had succumbed to her grievous injuries and died, but by a stroke of luck, the Life Spiritual Liquid within the Heaven-Sealing Cauldron had saved her life.

Later, she had even appeared to enlighten him, revealing the secrets of the Heaven-Sealing Cauldron.

Shen Lang had later deduced the matter of Hong Yu’s death and resurrection. In his heart, Hong Yu, his parents, and his older sister Shen Moran were the four people closest to him.

No matter what, he absolutely could not let Hong Yu be harmed again!

’Old Ghost, faster!’ Shen Lang roared in his mind.

The Ghost King didn’t know what was happening, but he could sense the frantic anxiety in Shen Lang’s heart.

Such an emotion was extremely rare for Shen Lang!

”I understand, Boss!”

The Ghost King replied respectfully, his speed abruptly increasing several notches.

Just like that, Shen Lang moved like an Elf through the mountain forest, passing through the dense woods and rapidly approaching the Hong Yu Tomb.

At this moment, near the Hong Yu Tomb, two men and a woman were suspended in the air. They were brandishing their weapons, wildly and arrogantly attacking various spots below as if searching for someone.

Vast swathes of trees were split apart, and countless boulders tumbled down the mountainside with a great RUMBLE, kicking up clouds of dust that filled the sky.

”Senior Brother, that bitch is a King Martial Realm expert, after all. If she’s really determined to hide, it’s going to be very difficult for us to find her, don’t you think?”

A fat man dressed in Beast Hide spoke in a muffled, booming voice.

This person had a fat head and big ears, a stomach as round as a drum, and short, thick limbs. However, the two-meter-long great pestle in his hand whistled with the sound of wind and thunder as he swung it. With each swing, a massive Energy Light Cluster would shoot out from the pestle and blast a large crater in the ground below. He was incredibly formidable.

Opposite him, a young woman with a graceful figure waved a blood-red fan downwards. A fierce wind instantly kicked up, and a visible ripple swept through the jungle below, sending sand and stones flying.

The woman glanced lazily at the man who had just spoken and said in a slow, slightly hoarse voice, ”Fatty, the three of us are only at the Xuanwu Realm Fourth Heaven. Even though that woman was seriously injured from her great battle with the three King Martial Realm experts from the Imperial Dragon Sect, and then ambushed by us and poisoned with the Blood Evil Soul-breaking Powder, if she were to launch a desperate, final strike, we might not get away unscathed.”

The fat-headed, big-eared man snorted coldly. ”Hmph, so what if she’s a King Martial Realm expert? She was already half-dead after fighting those three from the Imperial Dragon Sect to a mutual loss. Then she got hit with our Blood Evil Island’s Blood Evil Soul-breaking Powder. The fact that she could escape from the depths of the Phoenix Mountain Range all the way here is already a stroke of luck for her!”

”The Blood Evil Soul-breaking Powder is a secret poison unique to our Blood Evil Island, no less potent than the Ten Extremes Poison. If even a trace touches you, all your blood and qi will be controlled by Evil Qi. Once the Evil Qi forces its way into the heart’s meridians, her death is sealed!”

”I bet that bitch... can’t even move a single finger right now, can she? Otherwise, why would she just let the three of us curse and attack her without daring to show herself?”

”Hmph hmph, I wonder what this woman’s background is. To dare oppose the Imperial Dragon Sect, and to be so powerful, yet she runs to a place like this... Maybe she’s really related to the thing we’re looking for!”

Just then, the other man, a middle-aged man who had been silent until now, spoke up. ”This woman faced a siege by three King Martial Realm Third Heaven experts all by herself and still managed to severely injure and repel them. Her Cultivation must be at King Martial Realm Fourth Heaven or higher! You’re thinking too simply!”

”If she weren’t seriously injured and ambushed by us, she could have slaughtered us with a single finger!”

”The Blood Evil Soul-breaking Powder is powerful, but it’s not foolproof. If she can muster even a tiny bit of strength, the three of us will meet our end here today!”

”Stay sharp! If something goes wrong, a quick death will be a luxury for us!”

This man had a red cloth tied around his forehead and wore a tight-fitting, goose-yellow warrior’s uniform. He held a Giant Axe that emanated streams of crimson qi. A saber and a sword hung from his left and right hip, respectively. He appeared to be in his mid-thirties, and his presence was exceedingly formidable.

Hearing this, the fatty shivered and nodded his head like a pestle pounding rice.

”I get it. Then let’s hurry up and find this woman first. According to our Evil Qi senses, her trail disappeared after she reached this vicinity. She’s definitely hiding somewhere nearby!”

The fatty chuckled sinisterly. ”A King Martial Realm expert must have a lot of treasures on her. A windfall like this doesn’t come by easily. This is practically a gift!”

The three of them quickened their movements, positioning themselves at three different points and continuously sweeping the area, trying to flush the person out.

Anyone nearby would have found the scene rather unbelievable.

Only people from Demonic Dao Sects like Blood Evil Island could be so vicious and cruel as to dare target a King Martial Realm expert with a mere Cultivation at the Xuanwu Realm Fourth Heaven.

For a King Martial Realm expert, even one who was seriously injured, killing a Martial Artist at the Xuanwu Realm Fourth and Fifth Heaven would be as easy as flipping a palm.

Yet they still dared to poison and ambush her, and even pursue her to the bitter end!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The thunderous roars echoed ceaselessly. The birds and beasts in the nearby mountain forest scattered, fleeing for their lives to get away from this place.

Just then, a black shadow shot down from the edge of a cliff!

”You beasts from Blood Evil Island, taste my saber!”

Clad in black, Shen Lang’s eyes were sharp as he brought the Immortal Celestial Saber down on the fatty with both hands!