Chapter 118 - 84: Immortal Arrival in the Muddy World

Chapter 118: Chapter 84: Immortal Arrival in the Muddy World

It was late.

A heavy snow, like goose feathers, drifted down.

The wind had picked up.

And with it, more snow.

"Mm."

Emperor Jie nodded, his gaze drifting outside. With just one look, he found he could not turn away.

His wait was over.

Outside, a figure stood—a young man in a Muddy World Profound Robe, looking like an Immortal. Separated by the door, he had been watching him for a long, long time.

The Second Realm of Power: Merging with Heaven and Earth.

A First Grade could not see him.

A Grandmaster could not see him either.

But he could.

A High Tier Qi Cultivator, equal to an Innate Grandmaster! This was why he, in this chaotic world, could sit firmly on the Emperor’s throne and keep the realm stable.

Jie was delighted.

He asked a question.

"I have followed the Xuanlong Imperial Strategy, making the Three Sects bow and the Nine Clans submit. The people are at peace, and the flames of war are extinguished. Am I not a good Emperor?"

Inside the hall, the assembled court officials—half from Zhou, half from Liang—exchanged glances, assuming Emperor Jie was addressing them. They all knelt, bowed their heads, and shouted in unison.

"His Majesty is wise and sagacious!"

"It is a blessing for all living things!"

Jie didn’t even spare them a glance.

He just kept waiting.

And waiting, and waiting.

He waited for a long time.

The ministers’ knees grew numb from kneeling.

But from beyond the Imperial Study’s door, from that Immortal-like figure, there came no praise for him.

Jie was disappointed.

The endless praise of the world could not compare to his silence.

"The rivers and mountains of this world, the well-being of the people, the stability of the Human Race—is all of that not worth the death of one nameless orphan girl?"

Jie asked.

In a daze, he seemed to return to that one night.

Wind and rain.

The stench of blood filled the air.

Sitting on the dragon throne, gazing out toward the Jinjiang River, he finally asked the question he had always wanted to ask, here amid the wind and snow of the night.

"Is the world more important? Are the people more important? Or was she more important?"

The ministers were in an uproar.

Only then did they realize that Emperor Jie was not speaking to them.

There was someone outside the Imperial Study.

But when they looked left and right, they could not find a single soul.

What level of cultivation was this!

A High Tier Qi Cultivator?

Or an Innate Grandmaster, beyond a Third Realm Grandmaster?

"The world is important. The people are important."

"But she... is important, too."

Su Chen answered.

He took the Late Emperor’s Decree from his robes—the one he had taken from Jie—and placed it at the entrance to the Imperial Study.

The one sword he had been nurturing, he ultimately did not unleash.

It wasn’t that he was afraid.

He was just... terrified.

Back then.

At the camp by the Jinjiang River.

With a single, impulsive sword strike, he had cut down the Flame Emperor, ushering in the current golden age of Liang. But in doing so, millions of Zhou People were forced back to the Land of Cold and Bitterness.

The people were still suffering.

It was just that the suffering of tens of millions of Liang People had been exchanged for the suffering of tens of millions from Old Zhou. For five years, day and night, the wails of the Zhou People’s grieving, departed souls echoed in his ears from thousands of miles away.

And then there was the regret in the Flame Emperor’s eyes as he died.

The support of the people!

The Flame Emperor had also been thinking of the people.

It was just that he was thinking of the Zhou People.

The people of Liang sang his praises, but tens of millions of Zhou People cursed him. Day and night, their curses were a ceaseless torrent in his ears.

He wondered.

’Was that sword strike a mistake?’

Since then, he had buried the Dust-Washing Sword a second time, vowing never to draw it again—at least, not to slay an emperor.

He was afraid of making the same mistake twice.

"You are, indeed, a good Emperor."

"It’s just..."

"I met you too late."

"If I could do it all over again, I... would still choose Cyan Sparrow, not you..."

Su Chen left.

He walked away into the boundless wind and snow.

At that moment, the Grandmaster Tributors of the Royal Race, who had been hiding near the Imperial Palace, finally dared to emerge, staring in terror in the direction he had disappeared into the snowstorm.

Among them were formidable Grandmasters who were just a hair’s breadth away from the Third Realm.

Even powerful Ancient Yu Grandmasters were hidden among them.

But none of them could see even a trace of Su Chen’s figure.

"Dissolving."

"This is the Merging Realm."

"But even a cultivator at the Third Realm of Grandmaster, who has achieved Self as Dragon and entered the Merging Realm, shouldn’t be this terrifying!"

"Just who is this person?!"

The Grandmasters trembled, horrified by Su Chen’s power.

They even suspected that this person might be the rumored, terrifying Sub-Innate—a state above the Third Realm of Grandmaster but below an Innate Grandmaster.

"He is the Wind Snow Sword Immortal!"

Jie pushed open the door to the Imperial Study and walked out. He picked up the Late Emperor’s Decree from the ground—the one by which the Xuanlong Emperor had named him successor.

The Grandmasters bowed their heads, and the ministers prostrated themselves, all shouting with joy.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty!"

"You have earned the Wind Snow Sword Immortal’s approval!"

"Even the number one cultivator in the world has returned the Late Emperor’s Decree, acknowledging your status as lord of the world!"

Jie, however, was silent.

He flicked his sleeve.

An Immortal Skill: Wind, Come.

In an instant, all was quiet.

Everyone, including the Grandmasters, was swept away by the wind.

He remembered very clearly.

And Su Chen remembered very clearly, too.

After they parted ways at the Library Pavilion, they both knew the next time they met, it would likely be a battle to the death.

"This wasn’t an acknowledgment."

"He was just afraid of cutting me down by mistake, just as he did the Flame Emperor, and plunging the world into chaos and the people into suffering once more..."

RUMBLE—

The Imperial Study collapsed.

The wind and snow had crushed the Imperial Study.

Emperor Jie had a Magic Crystal called "Immovable as a Mountain," and it had shattered!

Tonight, separated by a door, the two had not met face-to-face, yet killing intent had filled the air.

"So this is the Sub-Innate realm? As expected of the greatest figure in Mortal Cultivation. No one who has come after you can even catch up."

"A pity."

"But the Human World is no longer ruled by Mortal Cultivation! You’re afraid of the world falling into chaos? Then let the world fall into chaos."

A scorching fire erupted in Jie’s palm, and the Late Emperor’s Decree was turned to ash.

He no longer needed his approval!

Since it had come to this, their next meeting would be a battle to the death.

The lives and deaths of the people no longer had anything to do with him.

...

...

The Tree Whiskers stirred.

Su Chen had once again become Doctor Xuu, walking through the snowy streets of the Imperial City and returning to his medical hall and apothecary.

The streets were filled with contact signals from the Black Abyss, but he acted as if he saw nothing.

Only when he had a use for the Black Abyss was he the Black Lotus Saint. When he didn’t, it was a case of, ’Sorry, Black Abyss who?’

"The apothecary’s business is as bad as ever."