Chapter 155: The Holy Sovereign's Wrath, Meier's Demise-Nether Spirit Realm(Endless as Nai An)

When the crimson qilin transformed by Wang Man returned to its true form, it revealed a strange man wearing a black long robe with hair reaching his waist and a red mark extending from the corner of his eye to his temples.

With a fair face, a high nose bridge, a cold expression, and a seductive smile hanging at the corner of his mouth, he looked down at Jiang Pingchuan, who was lying disheveled on the ground before him. At this moment, although no one knew who the man before them was, a name inexplicably surfaced in their minds—the instigator of this war, the Barbarian King.

The Barbarian King looked at Jiang Pingchuan with a cheerful smile, casually flicking his slender fingernails with a playful expression, holding the posture a victor ought to maintain. Jiang Pingchuan looked at Hu Mei'er, whose body behind the Barbarian King was pinned with ten black-feathered arrows, a complex look flashing in his eyes. He slowly stood up and reached out to touch the three scars on his face.

A blazing sensation radiated from those scars, and the aura surrounding Jiang Pingchuan began to change. Unlike the feeling he had previously given everyone, this was a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering transformation. Although Jiang Pingchuan currently looked utterly disheveled, his aura felt as if it had just been unsealed, carrying a cold expression.

This feeling was remarkably similar to that of the Barbarian King before him, yet Jiang Pingchuan's aura was even more intense. Seeing the transformed Jiang Pingchuan, the Barbarian King's originally composed expression turned somewhat cautious, as he caught a glimpse of his own military counselor in Jiang Pingchuan.

His military counselor had been assigned to him as an assistant by his clan. However, not long ago, after the counselor went to discuss an alliance with Zhao Wenjie, he had vanished without a trace. At that time, the Barbarian King had not taken it to heart, because he could sense that his counselor's strength was by no means inferior to that of the elder-level figures within his clan.

Seeing the shadow of his counselor in Jiang Pingchuan, the Barbarian King froze. At that moment, a thought suddenly struck him: it was highly likely that the Jiang Pingchuan before him had killed his counselor and used some arcane art to conceal the counselor's abilities within his own body.

Yet, upon thinking of this, the Barbarian King suddenly chuckled softly. How could he possibly bring himself to believe that Jiang Pingchuan had the capability to kill his military counselor? Ignoring the Barbarian King, whose demeanor kept shifting, Jiang Pingchuan stepped forward and walked toward the crumbling Hu Mei'er.

Jiang Pingchuan walked to Hu Mei'er's side and placed his hand on her wrist, intending to channel his restorative vital energy into her. However, he discovered that within him at this moment, there was not a trace of restorative vital energy to be found.

His body was entirely filled with violent, offensive combat vital energy. He was now as if he had changed into an entirely different mode of existence. Hu Mei'er smiled bitterly at Jiang Pingchuan and shook her head.

"My lord need not do anything more for Mei'er. To be able to die in my lord's arms, Mei'er is already content."

Hu Mei'er slowly raised her hand to Jiang Pingchuan's face, gently stroking it. With reddened eyes, Jiang Pingchuan looked at Hu Mei'er in his arms. The ten black-feathered arrows in her body had already vanished, but in their place was Hu Mei'er's gradually cooling body.

Memories left to her by Jiang Pingchuan flashed through Hu Mei'er's mind. Smiling while shedding scalding hot tears, Hu Mei'er looked at Jiang Pingchuan. In her heart, after that person, Jiang Pingchuan was the first man she had truly loved in a thousand years.

The moment she laid eyes on Jiang Pingchuan, a ripple of emotion had stirred within her heart. She did not know why she felt this way toward the man before her, only that when she saw Jiang Pingchuan's life threatened, no other thought existed in her mind except to use everything she had to save him.

The figure of the man before her was so familiar, just like the one she had seen a thousand years ago when she was still unawakened. At that time, his figure appeared somewhat sturdier than Jiang Pingchuan's current one, yet apart from his build, the Jiang Pingchuan before her was so similar to that person. His character, his speech, and that faux-serious demeanor were all as though that person had been reborn. She had strived in cultivation just so she could one day visit the so-called Divine Realm and catch a glimpse of that person. Hu Mei'er knew that the one she yearned for did not belong to this world. Upon meeting Jiang Pingchuan, she had cast aside the chastity of her thousand years of cultivation, wishing only to spend her life with him. Yet now, the Jiang Pingchuan she loved was also about to slip away from her. She suddenly felt that the heavens were utterly unfair to her.

"You will not die."

Jiang Pingchuan's lips trembled slightly; facing Hu Mei'er, he did not know what to say. Just as Lord Gong had said back then, Hu Mei'er loved him, but within his heart, someone else had already taken up residence. Jiang Pingchuan wished to save the Hu Mei'er before him, but within his mind, aside from combat and slaughter, he could find no tranquility.

Staggering to his feet, Wind Tiger slowly made his way toward Jiang Pingchuan's back. Everyone present was now covered in wounds. Seeing Wind Tiger charging fiercely at Jiang Pingchuan, the dazed Hu Mei'er suddenly turned Jiang Pingchuan's body around.

Yet Jiang Pingchuan tightly pulled Hu Mei'er into his embrace and shook his head at her. He did not want Hu Mei'er to block anything for him anymore. Anxiously, the others watched Jiang Pingchuan. Wind Tiger's momentum was fierce, and Lord Gong was nearly shaken into severe injuries by this aura alone.

Looking at Hu Mei'er's worry-filled face, Jiang Pingchuan smiled. Without any intention of turning around, Wind Tiger sneered and slammed his palm directly into Jiang Pingchuan's back. The Barbarian King watched Jiang Pingchuan with a hint of playfulness, refusing to believe that Jiang Pingchuan would take Wind Tiger's palm blow for no reason at all.

In the Barbarian King's eyes, Wind Tiger was bound to die next. Yet, seeing that his subordinate might be killed by Jiang Pingchuan, the Barbarian King not only had no intention of lending a hand, but instead adopted the stance of a spectator watching a drama unfold.

Sure enough, the moment Wind Tiger's palm made contact with Jiang Pingchuan, a ball of pitch-black flame erupted from Jiang Pingchuan's eyes. Behind him, Wind Tiger's face contorted savagely, as if someone were slicing him to pieces with a knife, inch by inch. His face distorted, and his body swelled up like a balloon.

Suddenly, just as Wind Tiger's body seemed on the verge of exploding, it rapidly withered away in an instant. Finally, emaciated down to skin and bones, he melted into a puddle of blood that dripped onto the ground, where the thirsty gravel frantically sucked it dry into parched bloodstains.

Sneering at Jiang Pingchuan, the Barbarian King launched a fierce and powerful attack toward Lord Gong and the others. Holding Hu Mei'er in his arms, Jiang Pingchuan tried to charge at the Barbarian King, but it was already too late. The Barbarian King's first targets were the heavily injured Long Heng and Xia Ha. Exchanging a glance, Long Heng and Xia Ha smiled cheerfully, wrapped their arms around each other's shoulders, and looked up at the Barbarian King bearing down upon them from mid-air.

"Boom..."

"Heng... Ha..."

Suddenly, something entirely unexpected happened. Golden light erupted from Long Heng and Xia Ha. After a dazzling flash of light, the two were draped in golden battle armor, with the Chinese character for "Battle" engraved upon their chests.

A familiar scene seemed to flash through Jiang Pingchuan's eyes as he watched this. He had seen this set of armor before, just as if many others had once worn such armor to fight shoulder to shoulder with him. After donning the golden battle armor, Long Heng and Xia Ha slowly opened their mouths and uttered the phonetic characters of "Heng" and "Ha."

With every vocalization, golden characters of "Heng" and "Ha" materialized in mid-air, crashing toward the Barbarian King. Using his bare hands, the Barbarian King shattered the characters one by one, but as Long Heng and Xia Ha kept vocalizing, he clearly struggled to cope and slowly began to retreat. Meanwhile, Long Heng and Xia Ha steadily advanced toward the Barbarian King's camp, continuously uttering their battle cries along the way.

As the Barbarian King retreated to his own camp and halted to stare at Long Heng and Xia Ha, the sky suddenly turned pitch black. A dazzling beam of light descended from the heavens, illuminating the battlefield of the Border City. Long Heng and Xia Ha froze in shock, as if they had laid eyes on something terrifying.

Just as the two attempted to flee, a beam of light far exceeding Supreme-realm power tightly bound Long Heng and Xia Ha in place. Jiang Pingchuan and the others raised their heads to look at the figures appearing within that radiance. Standing inside the pillar of light was a group of people.

At their lead was a young man clad in silver battle armor. His appearance was quite bizarre; upon his fair forehead, a third eye had unexpectedly opened. Jiang Pingchuan stared at the youth, but the youth merely cast a cold glance at Jiang Pingchuan and completely ignored him.

"Generals Heng and Ha, you dared to enter the mortal realm without permission and disrupt the order of the world. Now that you have manifested, you still wish to escape? Will you not obediently return with me to face punishment?"

The three-eyed youth said coldly to Long Heng and Xia Ha. Aside from staring at Long Heng and Xia Ha in curiosity, everyone present looked upon the three-eyed youth with even greater wonder. They could vaguely sense that this youth, whose power surpassed the Supreme realm, did not belong to the mortal realm, but rather to the legendary Divine Realm. The Long Heng and Xia Ha before them were also beings of the Divine Realm. The sheer volume of information was overwhelming, leaving everyone dumbfounded and struggling to digest it. Even the Barbarian King frowned as he stared at the three-eyed youth.

"Sage Lord, might you allow the two of us to speak a few words with our master..."

With a sorrowful expression, Long Heng looked up at the youth before him. This three-eyed youth was none other than Erlang Yang, the current War God of the Divine Realm known as the Northern Martial Sage Lord.

"Impudence..."

"Boom..."

Before Long Heng could even finish speaking, the Sage Lord stared at him with an expression of annoyance and suddenly swung his palm, striking Long Heng directly. Long Heng let out a muffled groan as the bones throughout his body cracked. Sent flying by the blow, he spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.

Jiang Pingchuan looked down at Hu Mei'er in his arms. Hu Mei'er looked at the Sage Lord and then back at Jiang Pingchuan's current expression; she knew what Jiang Pingchuan wanted to do. Hurriedly shaking her head at him, she tried to stop him, but Jiang Pingchuan had already placed her into Lord Gong's hands and walked toward the Sage Lord. Standing beside Xia Ha, Jiang Pingchuan raised his head and locked his cold gaze upon the Sage Lord above.

"Why did you harm him?"

The aura around Jiang Pingchuan continued to shift as he spoke in an icy voice. No matter who the other party was, since they had harmed Long Heng in his presence, they had to give an account. Jiang Pingchuan's greatest doubt was why the strength of all of them had been suppressed upon arriving at the Changfeng Continent, yet this person before him remained entirely unaffected, reigning supreme as the master of the Changfeng Continent at this very moment.

"Heh, it's you. A mere ant. Do I need to report to you when I do things? A bunch of ignorant wretches, scram..."

As the Sage Lord looked at Jiang Pingchuan, his expression grew complex, though buried deep within his eyes was a profound jealousy. No one understood why such a supreme Sage Lord would harbor jealousy when looking at Jiang Pingchuan—a figure who, in his eyes, was nothing more than an ant.

Yet everyone could sense that this Sage Lord seemed to hold a grudge against Jiang Pingchuan. Xia Ha tugged at the sleeve of Jiang Pingchuan's robe from behind, signaling him not to act rashly. But given Jiang Pingchuan's temperament, how could he possibly back down in the current situation?

"What kind of thing are you, barking and shouting here? I'm warning you, you can insult Jiang Pingchuan, but you cannot insult me."

Tossing the bangs from his forehead, the Barbarian King looked coldly at the Erlang Sage Lord in the sky, a sarcastic smile plastered across his face. Glancing indifferently at the Barbarian King, the Sage Lord casually raised a hand. The Barbarian King furrowed his brow, let out a muffled groan, spat a mouthful of blood, and was sent flying backward in utter disarray.

The surrounding crowd tightened their gazes even further upon Jiang Pingchuan. Even the Barbarian King had failed to withstand a single move from the Sage Lord; Jiang Pingchuan, whose strength was on par with the Barbarian King's, presumably was no match for this person either. In truth, in the eyes of everyone present, Jiang Pingchuan was simply in no position to stand on the same plane as the being before them. That person's tier was a god, while Jiang Pingchuan was merely a human with exceptional cultivation talent.

"A bunch of ants daring to defy a heavenly god. Courting death."

No sooner had the Sage Lord spoken than he flipped his palm slightly, causing Xia Ha, who stood beside Jiang Pingchuan, to drop violently to his knees. Without a word, Jiang Pingchuan bent down and wrapped his arms around Xia Ha's arm. Only then did the others notice that Xia Ha had not knelt freely; the very instant he fell, Jiang Pingchuan had cushioned his knees with his feet. With a tearful, mournful expression, Xia Ha shook his head continuously at Jiang Pingchuan.

"Let go of me! This has nothing to do with you! Live on properly! Let go of me! Let go of me!"

Anxiously looking at Jiang Pingchuan, Xia Ha struggled frantically, trying to wrench his arm free from Jiang Pingchuan's grip. Yet Jiang Pingchuan simply wore a stern face, ignoring Xia Ha completely as he slowly tried to hoist him back to his feet.

With a mocking expression, the Sage Lord pressed his palm down a fraction further, causing Jiang Pingchuan's body to suddenly arch into a bow. He felt as though the Xia Ha in his grip had transformed into a towering mountain; trying to lift him up was no different from attempting to hoist a giant peak.

"Stand up! I am going to make you stand up!"

Flushed red from straining, Jiang Pingchuan still refused to let go of Xia Ha. Staring in astonishment, the crowd watched as a tear rolled down the corner of Xia Ha's eye, weeping and begging Jiang Pingchuan to let go of him. Still, Jiang Pingchuan maintained his grip on Xia Ha's arm, steadily exerting force to lift him upward.

Blood streamed from Jiang Pingchuan's seven orifices, his flushed complexion turning deathly pale. Yet, astonishingly, Xia Ha's body actually began to rise upward inch by inch. Seeing Xia Ha being slowly hoisted to his feet by Jiang Pingchuan, the Sage Lord's eyes turned icy. With a cold snort, he unleashed a palm strike toward Jiang Pingchuan, who remained entirely oblivious to the incoming attack.

"Boom..."

Still, the Sage Lord's palm strike failed to hit Jiang Pingchuan, intercepted instead by a blue, ghostly light blocking his path. Jiang Pingchuan looked at Hu Mei'er before him; ultimately, she had completely sacrificed her life to save him.

Smiling at Jiang Pingchuan, Hu Mei'er dissolved into countless blue points of light, beginning to vanish slowly from her feet all the way up to her head. Jiang Pingchuan continued to tightly grip Xia Ha's arm, watching helplessly as Hu Mei'er slowly faded away.

"So everything is like this. My lord, live well. You were never meant to stop here. You are him, and he is you. Someone is still waiting for you."

The moment Hu Mei'er completely dissipated, a flash of profound clarity flickered in her eyes. As if she had seen through everything, she looked at Jiang Pingchuan with a sorrowful expression. At that moment, she attained enlightenment of her own Dao, witnessed that sealed memory once more, saw the reflection of that person in Jiang Pingchuan, and understood that she was merely a fleeting shadow appearing in that person's world once more.