Chapter 1836: You Don’t Know Who I Am?

"I say Brother Situ, there’s a saying that not listening to the words of the elders leads to losses right before your eyes. Do you believe it now?"

Just as Situ Nan was about to make some reckless move, dragging Yu Baicang into hell with him, a voice laced with sarcasm yet tinged with a hint of mockery suddenly echoed from somewhere, making his heart stir involuntarily.

For this voice was undoubtedly extremely familiar to Situ Nan, but in such an urgent moment, he couldn’t recall where he had heard it before. However, the manic aura upon him had calmed somewhat.

"Who dares trespass in my Emperor Palace?"

Compared to Situ Nan, the Emperor Palace Elders who heard this sudden unfamiliar voice were instantly unsettled. Among them, the Fourth Elder, who had been chosen as a target by Situ Nan earlier, directly shouted with a voice filled with a strong threat.

"The Emperor Palace is hardly a dragon’s lair, I come and go as I please!"

After the shout of the Fourth Elder of the Emperor Palace, the voice sounded again. This time, he saw very clearly on one side of the courtyard wall, a young figure had somehow appeared.

This person wore coarse clothes and seemed to carry a peculiar long sword on his back. Yet in the dim light, everyone could see that he seemed to be a coarse-clothed youth just over twenty years old.

"Scared me for a moment, turns out it’s just a brat!"

Fan Yulin, who had also been somewhat distracted by that voice earlier, visibly relaxed upon seeing the absurdly youthful figure, though a trace of anger emerged in his heart.

"Does every random cat and dog dare look down on the Emperor Palace now?"

Fan Yulin was precisely furious about this lack of regard for the Emperor Palace, equating it to disrespect for the Canglong Emperor Palace. As an Inspection Hall Steward of the Emperor Palace Headquarters, he certainly needed to uphold the dignity of the Canglong Emperor Palace.

A mere Emperor Palace Hunter had already stirred such chaos in the Northeast Territory of the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud Outer Domain. The sudden appearance of a coarse-clothed youth also showed no respect for the Emperor Palace, which was simply intolerable.

"Kid, no matter who you are, daring to trespass in the Emperor Palace today means you’ll leave dead!"

Hearing the coarse-clothed youth’s insolent words, the first to step forward was the Emperor Palace’s Fourth Elder, who couldn’t hold back any longer. With a shout of threat, he immediately dashed towards the youth.

Witnessing this scene, neither Fan Yulin nor Yu Baicang attempted to stop it. It seemed they too wanted the Fourth Elder to teach that ignorant youth a lesson, letting him know the Emperor Palace’s dignity cannot be easily challenged.

After all, the coarse-clothed youth was far too young. Even at such an age, no matter how talented one was in the Nine-layered Dragon Cloud, they probably hadn’t reached the Holy Rank Third Realm, right?

This Fourth Elder of the Emperor Palace was a genuine Heavenly Realm Late Stage Expert, not a weakling within the region of Red Rock City. Handling a youngster barely out of his teens was effortless in their view.

"Is that... Brother Yun Xiao?"

Only at this moment did Situ Nan finally recognize the coarse-clothed youth on the courtyard wall as his new friend, Yun Xiao, whom he had encountered earlier on the pavilion.

Seeing Yun Xiao appear, Situ Nan couldn’t help but feel both surprised and delighted. He knew this person was wanted by the Emperor Palace Headquarters, and even though he didn’t understand the specifics, he knew it was not someone the Heavenly Realm Late Stage Fourth Elder could handle.

To see a helper emerge in such a moment of despair, although Situ Nan wasn’t overly optimistic about the chance to escape, it at least offered some shift in the otherwise absolute dead-end situation.

Compared to Situ Nan, Yu Baicang, Fan Yulin, and others naturally didn’t know that Yun Xiao was a wanted criminal by the Emperor Palace Headquarters. They all watched with smirks as the Fourth Elder charged fiercely, believing that the coarse-clothed youth would soon be in dire straits.

The starkly contrasting speculations on both sides finally resulted in a conclusion as the Fourth Elder closed in, but this conclusion wasn’t easily accepted by the cultivators on the Emperor Palace’s side.

Whoosh!

A fiery red light shot from the right hand of the coarse-clothed youth, instantly darting into the chest of the Fourth Elder of the Emperor Palace, causing his body to abruptly stiffen.

The immobilized Fourth Elder of the Emperor Palace naturally posed no threat to the coarse-clothed youth, yet what transpired next left all the Emperor Palace cultivators slack-jawed.

Boom!

The motionless Fourth Elder’s face suddenly flushed red, as if an extreme blazing heat was surging from within his body.

Within moments, what these Emperor Palace cultivators had feared became reality: a blood-red flame erupted from the chest of the Fourth Elder, enveloping his entire body in an instant.

"Ah!"

A piercing scream emanated from the blood-red flames, but it ceased abruptly after just one cry. Evidently, in this instant, the Fourth Elder of the Emperor Palace, at the late stage of the Heavenly Realm, had been burned to ashes by those flames.

Hoo...

The evening breeze blew in, scattering the falling ashes in the wind, as if the Fourth Elder of the Emperor Palace had never existed in this world, vanishing in just an instant.

For a moment, the courtyard belonging to Cai Yong, the Second Elder of the Emperor Palace, suddenly became quiet, and everyone was startled by this unexpected turn of events.

Even Situ Nan, who had witnessed Yun Xiao’s methods during the day, was a bit dazed, as the techniques he saw then were completely different from now.

Firstly, Wu the Youngest was only an early-stage Heavenly Realm cultivator, clearly weaker compared to the late-stage cultivation of this Fourth Elder of the Emperor Palace; secondly, the power of the blood-red flames seemed excessively large!

Compared to Situ Nan, who was mentally prepared, the Elders of the Emperor Palace, including Fan Yulin, the Inspection Hall Steward from the headquarters, had faces that changed unpleasantly after a brief astonishment.

"Kid, who exactly are you?"

This time, the person speaking was Yu Baicang, the supervisor of the Emperor Palace, who didn’t even bother with the injured Situ Nan. He seemed to sense an even greater threat from the coarse-clothed young man than from Situ Nan.

"You don’t know who I am?"

Upon hearing this, the coarse-clothed young man turned his head, asking somewhat peculiarly, making the Emperor Palace cultivators more bewildered.

"Should we know?"

This was the shared thought among the Elders of the Emperor Palace. The young man’s tone implied he was very famous, yet they couldn’t recall when such a demon-like youth had appeared within the range of Red Rock City.

At just over twenty years old, he could kill a late-stage Heavenly Realm cultivator as easily as slaughtering chickens. Such talent likely wasn’t cultivated by any small family or sect.

"Since you can’t remember, let me remind you again!"

Noticing the expressions on the faces of these Elders, the coarse-clothed young man shook his head. When his words fell, he reached towards his waist, producing a sheet of white paper.

"Your Canglong Emperor Palace issued this wanted notice; how come you don’t recognize the real person standing in front of you?"

The coarse-clothed young man waved the white paper filled with black characters in his hand. As the image on the paper came into view, coupled with the young man’s words, they instantly understood, their faces drastically changing.

The arrival was indeed Yun Xiao, and the sheet of white paper he took from his Waist Storage was the wanted notice given to him by Situ Nan during the day; he hadn’t discarded it.

Suspecting Situ Nan was a descendant of the Situ family and knowing that he wanted to venture into the Dragon’s Lair, Yun Xiao couldn’t possibly sit idly. He and Situ Nan entered the emperor palace just a short while apart.

Yun Xiao’s concealment techniques were far superior to Situ Nan’s. Sensing that the strongest in the Emperor Palace was only an early-stage Hua Xuan Realm expert, he had no more concerns and appeared at this critical moment.

With the intention of destroying the Emperor Palace in mind, Yun Xiao didn’t bother hiding his identity at this moment. These Emperor Palace cultivators, who colluded with evil, had all chosen their path to death.

"You... You... You are Yun Xiao?!"

The quickest to react was naturally Fan Yulin, the Inspector Steward of the headquarters. Although he repeated "you" three times before uttering the name, anyone could hear a strong sense of excitement from his tone.

It was Fan Yulin who brought the wanted notice for Yun Xiao from the headquarters to Red Rock City, although he didn’t know the details of the Emperor Palace headquarters’ pursuit of Yun Xiao, but he was extremely curious about that Yun Xiao.

Over the years, hardly anyone had warranted the Canglong Emperor Palace headquarters to issue a personal wanted notice, making Yun Xiao’s identity appear mysterious to many cultivators there.

Although Fan Yulin was unaware of the crimes Yun Xiao committed or the magnitude of the events he caused, he knew that apprehending Yun Xiao from the wanted notice, personally transmitted by the Phoenix Palace, would be a significant achievement.

However, Fan Yulin knew that Yun Xiao seemed to be active in the northern regions of the Outer Domain, while he was in the Northeast Territory. The chance of encountering Yun Xiao wasn’t very high.

Yet fortune smiled upon him; such a major achievement fell into his lap. How could Fan Yulin not be ecstatic?

Moreover, due to Yun Xiao’s earlier burning of the Fourth Elder, it allowed Fan Yulin, an early-stage Hua Xuan Realm expert, to sense Yun Xiao’s true cultivation. For someone only at the peak of the Heavenly Realm, how could a powerful Holy Vein Third Realm cultivator have any apprehension?