Chapter 327: The Great Jing Immortal Dynasty (15)

"Your existence has indeed brought this Immortal Monarch some amusement," Burial True Immortal Monarch said, the corners of his mouth curving slightly. It was impossible to tell whether the expression was real or illusory—mockery, perhaps, or mere playfulness.

He waited quietly as the Strategic Chess Emperor Lord stepped into a new realm, making no move to interfere.

"I have succeeded… I, Strategic Chess, have finally broken through to the immortal realm and become a True Immortal!" Strategic Chess Emperor Lord laughed wildly. At this moment, he felt more powerful than ever and no longer feared Burial True Immortal Monarch.

He gathered his killing move, surging with murderous intent, and charged straight at the Immortal Monarch. Yet just as he was about to reach him, he saw Burial True Immortal Monarch looking at him as if he were an insect.

Faced with his full-powered strike, Burial True Immortal Monarch simply extended a single finger and pressed forward gently.

Countless barriers appeared before the Strategic Chess Emperor Lord. No—he had been reduced to a mere mortal!

"Immortality is not merely a matter of strength," Burial True Immortal Monarch said indifferently from on high, watching Strategic Chess Emperor Lord struggle. "I had thought you would understand, yet you remain so foolish. Immortal dao fortune? Is this what you relied upon?"

Burial True Immortal Monarch flicked his finger lightly. The vast fortune enveloping the Strategic Chess Emperor Lord began to shatter layer by layer.

"Anyone who slaughters beings protected by immortal dao fortune will suffer the immortal dao curse. This is an unchanging rule of eternity," he continued. "But did you truly believe this rule was meant to bind me? You actually thought to use a rule I myself established to oppose me?"

With a casual wave of his hand, Burial True Immortal Monarch restored every force and expert Strategic Chess Emperor Lord had destroyed. The sight shattered Strategic Chess Emperor Lord's Dao heart completely.

All the effort of countless epochs had been nothing but a joke.

Blood and tears streamed down his face as he alternated between crying and laughing like a madman. "Why… why… I am a sinner… I am a sinner… hahaha…"

Despair. What utter despair.

Strategic Chess Emperor Lord's Dao heart had been utterly broken.

Burial True Immortal Monarch regarded the raving figure as if admiring a carefully crafted work of art. The stage play that had entertained him was nearing its end. He did not mind showing a bit of mercy.

"Why?" the Immortal Monarch asked. "Because it was amusing, of course. Don't you think it is entertaining to watch an ant climb higher and higher, only to plunge it back into despair the moment it grasps all hope?"

For long-lived beings, boredom was the greatest torment. To Burial True Immortal Monarch, toying with fate was his greatest pleasure. Strategic Chess Emperor Lord was neither the first nor the last.

The immortal dao fortune dissipated. Strategic Chess Emperor Lord's body vanished.

Burial True Immortal Monarch turned his gaze in one particular direction—the direction of the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty.

"Now, this Immortal Monarch has found a more interesting toy."

The corners of his mouth curved upward.

...

The immortal dao fortune vanished. Countless human powerhouses died violent deaths, plunging the race into tragedy.

Inside the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty, the impact was slightly lessened due to the extra protection, but the situation was still dire.

Su Chen's Great Wisdom Heaven suffered heavy damage. The strongest expert of the human race, Strategic Chess Emperor Lord, had attempted to become an immortal—and failed!

The consequences of that failure had dragged the entire human race down with him.

"A True Immortal… there is a True Immortal plotting against the entire human race!"

Su Chen had no issue with a True Immortal scheming against the human race in general. The problem was that he himself was currently a member of the human race, and now he had been marked by one.

He understood the terror of True Immortals all too well. With his current strength, facing a True Immortal-level existence was impossible.

But he still had time to grow.

From the final memories of Strategic Chess Emperor Lord, Su Chen knew that the terrifying Burial True Immortal Monarch intended to turn him into the next Strategic Chess Emperor Lord.

A chess piece appeared in Su Chen's hand.

"Giving me time… will be your greatest mistake."

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In the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty, the Strategic Chess Emperor Lord had fallen while attempting to become an immortal, taking the entire human race's fortune with him.

Ever since that day, Heavenly Martial Emperor had also vanished without a trace.

Gradually, rumors began to spread throughout the dynasty. They claimed that Heavenly Martial Emperor had been suppressing the dynasty's fortune and was now gravely wounded by the backlash from the dissipation of the human race's immortal dao fortune. He was on the verge of death and no longer possessed the strength to suppress the various foreign races.

The rumors grew wilder by the day. The Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty tried every means to suppress them, but the stories continued to spread. Even in the most remote corners of the dynasty, word circulated that Heavenly Martial Emperor was severely injured and on the brink of death—despite many people having no idea who he was.

...

Purple Sun Heavenly Province.

Of the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty's three thousand provinces, only eighteen were known as upper provinces. Each one had been forged into a pure land through the blood and sacrifice of countless human ancestors. These provinces housed innumerable forces, including several pillar-like immortal-level powers with Emperor-level experts guarding them.

The Zhuge Clan was one such power. As the colossal entity overseeing Purple Sun Heavenly Province, their mission was to protect the entire province and ensure the dynasty's vital lifeline never fell.

"Will we still receive reinforcements?"

Zhuge Yao, renowned across the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty for her ability to calculate the workings of heaven, looked at the dimming world and gave a bitter smile.

This was already the three-thousandth year of Purple Sun Heavenly Province's siege. Ever since news of Heavenly Martial Emperor's disappearance had spread, the forces he had once suppressed began to stir. When they realized he would not appear no matter how far they went, their actions grew bolder. What started as probing soon turned into outright invasion.

Without its leader, the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty fell into disarray. Internal factions fought for power and cultivation resources. While foreign races remained wary, the internal powers tore at each other without restraint. Only a handful of province-level forces, led by Purple Sun Heavenly Province, continued to resist.

As a result, Purple Sun Heavenly Province had become a thorn in the eyes of many foreign races.

Before Zhuge Yao stood a woman holding a red-tasseled spear. Cold light gleamed off her armor, stained with immortal blood. After thousands of years, Nan Hongsang had grown tremendously. She had become the Martial Goddess guarding Purple Sun Pass, single-handedly suppressing countless foreign prodigies.

Ever since leaving the capital, Nan Hongsang had never returned. All messages seemed to have vanished into the sea.

"Reinforcements…The entire Purple Sun Heavenly Province has been cut off from contact. There is no word from the capital, and the other provinces fear the foreign races' strength and have abandoned resistance. If Purple Sun Heavenly Province falls and becomes a paradise for foreign races, our human race will never have another chance to rise."

Nan Hongsang understood the critical importance of Purple Sun Heavenly Province all too well. Her red-tasseled spear stood like an unyielding banner.

Without reinforcements, the foreign races did not even need to send their Emperor Lords.

"Yes… our human race will never rise again. Perhaps today we will fall here."

Zhuge Yao reached out with her slender hand and touched the void, manifesting countless worlds. Those worlds had turned into ghostly domains. Above the barriers of Purple Sun Heavenly Province stood a towering giant, its head bowed low, all signs of life gone. Yet even without vitality, it continued to fight.

Streams of light constantly poured into its body—light drawn from the ancient altars across Purple Sun Heavenly Province. Every second, countless lives were extinguished. Geniuses who had once been unrivaled in their realms had become nothing more than insignificant nourishment for the giant.

Although half of Purple Sun Heavenly Province's territory still held, the living beings within those lands had already been reduced to less than one in ten thousand.

"The Zhuge Clan's Heaven-Seizing Grand Array won't hold much longer," Zhuge Yao said. "I will use the last strength of Purple Sun Heavenly Province to send you away. As long as you survive, there may still be hope."

Zhuge Yao looked at Nan Hongsang with a faint smile. At this point, how could someone as clever as her fail to understand the situation? The only way to resolve Purple Sun Heavenly Province's crisis was if Heavenly Martial Emperor appeared. But that was impossible.

Nan Hongsang shook her head.

"Why not? Don't you want to return to the capital? For the past seventy thousand years, you've been talking about that husband of yours nonstop," Zhuge Yao said. A trace of envy appeared on her ethereal, fairy-like face. "I still don't understand what's so special about him that a remarkable woman like you would think about him for so long."

A rare, gentle smile appeared on Nan Hongsang's face, softening her usual battle-hardened aura. "To me… everything about him is good. He prepares pastries for me, always comforts me when I'm upset, watches me practice spear in the snow, and plays the zither for me…"

Zhuge Yao could not understand. There were countless men in the world who could do such things. What kind of charm did that man possess to make a prodigy like Nan Hongsang depend on him so deeply? The Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty had countless geniuses, yet that man's name had never appeared among them.

"Since he's that good, you should leave even more. You still carry immortal dao fortune. The Zhuge Clan's grand array can send you away—they won't be able to stop you."

Although Zhuge Yao did not fully understand, she did not want to see Nan Hongsang die here in vain.

Nan Hongsang smiled. "Precisely because of that, I must stay. If I escape, the historians of the world will not let me go, nor will they let him go."

The towering giant's body gradually stopped moving. From its feet to its head, it stiffened inch by inch. No matter how powerful a corpse was, in the end it was still just a corpse. Purple Sun Heavenly Province's final trump card had been exhausted.

The black tide of foreign races, countless as locusts, surged into Purple Sun Heavenly Province. The last remaining human cultivators of the province, even when they poured out in full force, seemed insignificant before the overwhelming numbers of the enemy.

Nan Hongsang's red-tasseled spear snapped. She drew the sword at her waist and carved a path of mountains of corpses and seas of blood through the foreign races. Her cultivation broke through once more, yet she continued fighting until her true essence was depleted, her laws ran dry, and not a single drop remained in her Dao source.

The human population of Purple Sun Heavenly Province dwindled rapidly.

Nan Hongsang gripped her sword hilt with all her remaining strength and looked around at the god-like enemy figures surrounding her.

"Has the human race's Heavenly Martial Emperor truly died?"

"This human prodigy carries immortal dao fortune on her body."

"We cannot kill her directly, but we can suppress her. Once the immortal dao fortune protection dissipates, we will be able to end her."

"What a pity about Heavenly Martial Emperor as an opponent. With Purple Sun Heavenly Province destroyed and the number one genius of the Great Jing Heavenly Dynasty falling into our hands—if Heavenly Martial Emperor were still alive, he would never accept this outcome."

"..."