God Emperor

Under the guidance of Half-Saint Li Ku, the three passed through the wilderness and entered deep into the mountains.

Peaks loomed in all directions. The rivers were clear and occasionally, huge beasts would fly over.

Along the way, Zhang Ruochen observed carefully and could clearly feel the subtle formation ripples in the mountains. Each mountain was like a formation tower.

Half-Saint Li Ku walked at the front. “The Guardians of the Prison are a hidden ancient race. We’ve never participated in the fights between the various large forces. However, we are also closely connected with the large forces.”

Zhang Ruochen retracted his Spiritual Power and asked naturally, “What do you mean?”

Half-Saint Li Ku pulled at his whiskers. “You have probably seen that the ground is covered in formation runes,” he said, chuckling. “Any outsider who tries to break in will die.”

“The formation runes are indeed dense, complicated, and interconnected,” Zhang Ruochen said. “It’s not an average formation.”

“These ancient formations were all left behind from the middle ages,” Half-Saint Li Ku said. “It has boundless power. Even a Supreme Saint will have to pay for it, let alone a Saint.”

“Basically, the Sword Tomb was a huge prison that the humans constructed during the middle ages. It was used just to imprison the evil human strong cultivators and beasts. There are three main families within the Guardians of the Prison clan. They were the three families that watched over this prison back then.”

“The Sword Tomb was abandoned later because of the chaos. Then 10,000 years ago, Pluto of the Immortal Vampires was born. He created upheaval and the human race almost went extinct.”

“At the most difficult moment, the human Saints worked together to defeat the Immortal Vampires and restrict Pluto. His cultivation was infinitely close to that of a deity. He was the most powerful existence in the entire Kunlun’s Field after the middle ages.”

“Even though the various Saints had restricted him, they couldn’t kill him at all. They could only seal him temporarily. Thus, people suggested reopening the Sword Tomb just to imprison Pluto. That was when the Sword Tomb gradually became known as the Pluto Sword Tomb.”

“In the past 10,000 years, whether it was the Sacred Central Empire, the Qingchi Central Empire, or the current First Central Empire, they’ve all sent the worst evils to the Pluto Sword Tomb for the Guardians of the Prison to look after.

“This is why the Guardians of the Prison have no conflicts with anyone but also don’t wish to be involved in any of the fights. Your conflicts with the imperial court truly make it very difficult for us.”

Zhang Ruochen was curious. “Then what do the Six Major Swordsmen have to do with the Guardians of the Prison?”

Half-Saint Li Ku’s expression was serious. He shook his head. “This relationship is very important. Only the Six Major Swordsmen and the patriarchs of the three major families should know this secret.”

The Guardians of the Prison clan consisted of the three major families. Of course, they’d also developed some outside forces. They were spread throughout the Yuan Mansion and were deeply rooted in this land.

For example, the Li Family of Qingli County was actually one of the outside forces. They weren’t one of the three major families.

While speaking, they appeared before a 3,000-foot-high stone mountain. The mountain was shaped like two swords planted in the ground. The peaks were extremely steep and had green spiritual medicines and ancient trees growing on the sides.

Standing at the bottom and looking up, one could only see countless swords stuck in the mountain. They were dense and countless. Rusted chains wrapped around the mountain like tendrils, snakes, and dragons.

Here, the Taotian Sword started shaking and whistling from Zhang Ruochen’s back.

The tens of thousands of ancient swords on the two mountains seemed to sense something too. They all started shaking as if they would fly out of the mountain.

“How can there be so many swords?” Li Min’s tiny mouth opened. She gaped at the two mountains in shock.

“Right now, you’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg,” Half-Saint Li Ku said. “If you go to the Sword Tomb, you’ll see that the swords there are thousands of times more than the ones here.”

Just then, Zhang Ruochen made a small sound. He looked back.

Half-Saint Li Ku also felt something. His expression changed slightly and the Heavenly Eyes in the middle of his eyebrows opened. He followed Zhang Ruochen’s gaze.

Thick Blood Qi rolled over from deep within the forest. All the trees were dyed blood-red.

Roar!

The ground shook violently and a group of Monks in tattered clothing rushed out of the forest. There were so many of them. There seemed to be thousands of them in the sea of people.

Their eyes were red and their bodies were covered in fresh blood. Their bones jutted out and they had sharp teeth. They howled like beasts and tried to charge towards the two mountains.

Half-Saint Li Ku’s expression changed. “Those are the Blood Slaves created by the Saints of the Immortal Vampires.”

Whoosh!

Half-Saint Li Ku reached out and manipulated his Spiritual Power with all his might. All the Spiritual Qi converged toward him quickly, gathering above his hands as two balls of white light.

He reached out and the white essence scattered in all directions. It formed a curtain of light, blocking all the Blood Slaves outside.

Thud. Thud.

Their attacks fell upon the curtain of light, setting off deafening sounds. Even Half-Saint Li Ku couldn’t really hold back the thousands of Blood Slaves. He had to keep retreating to dissolve the pressure on him.

Zhang Ruochen didn’t help. He stood to the side, observing the Blood Slaves. “They’re only in the Heavenly Realm, but they have the power of the Fish-Dragon Realm. The Blood Slaves created by the Vampire Half-Saints are so terrifying.”

“The Vampire Half-Saints can implant a shred of Saintly Qi and Saintly Intent onto a Blood Slave so that it works for him. However, these Blood Slaves are indeed strange.”

Li Min grabbed her hair. She seemed to be in deep thought. Evidently, the books had no records of this situation.

“They should be Suicide Blood Slaves,” Zhang Ruochen said.

“What’s that?” Li Min asked.

“Suicide Blood Slaves,” Zhang Ruochen said, “are when a Vampire Half-Saint makes an order, forcing the Blood Slave to burn his Blood Qi and vitality. This allows them to display power ten times stronger than usual. Of course, they also have very short lifespans—only one day.”

“I see.” Li Min nodded. She made note of this and seemed to have learned something great.

“The Immortal Vampires are trying to attack the Pluto Sword Tomb. How many times has it been now?”

Zhang Ruochen showed no sign of helping. He looked at Half-Saint Li Ku. “The Vampires have already attacked. Why haven’t the Monks of the Guardians of the Prison activated a formation to kill the Blood Slaves?”

Half-Saint Li Ku was sweating and his lips trembled from the deprivation of Spiritual Power. “The Vampires have already attacked three times before. They don’t actually want to attack the Pluto Sword Tomb. They only want to test the strength of the formation outside it.”

“They also want to use this chance to use up the Spiritual Qi in the earthly meridian below the formation. Once too much Spiritual Qi is used up, the formation’s power will weaken. Earlier, the clan leader ordered to not activate the formation if the Blood Slaves attack.”

Zhang Ruochen nodded. “I see.” Since they wouldn’t activate the formation, Zhang Ruochen prepared to help the Guardians of the Prison defeat this wave of Blood Slaves. It would count as a gift for their first meeting.

But before he could act, powerful Sword Qi suddenly fell from the sky. It shrouded the entire space here.

Whoosh.

The ancient swords stuck on the sides of the mountains flew up. They flew to the top of the mountain on the left, forming a huge vortex and flying quickly.

“Such strong Sword Intent.” Zhang Ruochen was slightly shocked, so he didn’t attack for now. He looked up to the top of the mountain.

He saw an extremely young man with a straight form standing at the mountaintop. Powerful Sword Intent burst from him. It was that Sword Intent that caused the ancient swords on the mountains to fly towards him.

“Go,” he uttered.

The thousands of swords flew out and rained down amongst the Blood Slaves.

Poof!

Poof…

…

A moment later, all the Blood Slaves fell to the ground, lifeless. The man at the top of the mountain put his Sword Intent away. Then all the ancient swords flew back and stabbed into the mountain again.

The man’s body shook and he disappeared from the mountaintop.

The next moment, he was above the thousands of Blood Slave corpses. He stood around 30 feet in the air and huffed coldly. “The Vampires dare to provoke the Sword Tomb? They overestimate themselves.”

When Half-Saint Li Ku saw the man in the air, he let out a long sigh and put his Spiritual Power away. Then he put his hands together and bowed. “Greetings, Swordsman.”

The man turned. Looking at Half-Saint Li Ku, he nodded.

Swordsman? Zhang Ruochen was slightly shocked. Was this man really one of the Swordsmen?

After all, Sword Saint Xuanji had said that the Six Major Swordsmen were all Sword Saints that were known throughout the world. Could this man be a Sword Saint? Zhang Ruochen immediately shook his head. This man’s Sword Intent was very strong, but he was still a bit away from the state of “Human Sword.”

Plus, this man’s cultivation was still in the Half-Saint Realm. He wasn’t a Saint yet.

Zhang Ruochen wanted to ask Li Min. After all, she should know this man’s identity. But when he looked at her, he discovered that the composed girl was actually staring at the young man with a fawning expression. Her snowy cheeks were actually blushing.

She hadn’t looked like this even when she’d seen Wan Zhaoyi and the Saint Lady. Zhang Ruochen seemed to get his answer. He smiled and didn’t ask her anymore.