1680 Shock
Long Fangyu stood before the giant gate of the secret realm, staring at the iridescent colors of the barrier that kept the secret realm out of the regular world.
He stared at it, but his eyes did not see anything. His mind was lost in his thoughts, and the only thing he could think at the moment was that he hated himself.
He was a coward, a hypocrite. After gaining his brother's trust that he would not do anything to hurt him, he told his father exactly where he had to go to find him.
He hadn't told the Emperor about his brother. The Emperor had only come there to meet with Alex. But by telling him where Alex had gone to, he had pretty much told his father where his brother was too.
The moment his father said that the king of the Southern Continent might be plotting something, he had lost all sense in him to hold back his information and told his father exactly what he needed to hear.
He had put the empire's priority before his brother.
And now he felt terrible about it.
"No," the Crown Prince told himself. "I can't let this be, can I? I have to go save him. I have to save my brother."
He took a deep breath and entered the secret realm.
The thing he saw when he entered was the destruction of the land inside and only two people in the distance.
His father stood over Alex with his spear pointed at Alex, ready to kill him.
* * * * * * *
Alex clutched the teleportation talisman in his hand tightly, hiding it from the Emperor. He needed to use it to escape.
Small-ranged teleportation, even the Earth Devour technique seemed useless against the Emperor given his usage of Immortal Qi. As Alex was now, the only way to get out of this situation was to use the talisman.
Only when he teleported far outside of the range of the Dragon Emperor could he truly escape?
He asked Godslayer for help, but the Sword spirit was too weak to do anything against the Dragon Emperor.
Alex started up at the eyes of the man whom he hated so much. He had brought so much pain to him and his friends.
The Dragon Emperor was the person somehow responsible for Pearl's mother's death. He was the man responsible for all but killing his sister.
And now, he was responsible for killing Yao Ning, the woman who cared for Alex, the woman who Alex cared for as he would his own grandmother.
The Dragon Emperor had killed her, and that was the reason why the man would die at his hands.
"You wish to kill me," the Dragon Emperor said, pointing the spear down at him. "I understand. We are of the same mind in that. I wish to kill you too. But it seems fate has a different intention of what is to be of your life."
The spear slowly dug into Alex's chest, blood pooling out.
"I had some idea about your Body Cultivator, but it seems you have become unnaturally strong. This cannot happen in merely 10 years with the Mountain Crushing artifact. Tell me, how did you improve your body before this?"
Alex grunted. "The only… the only thing I'll tell you is that one way or another, I will kill you," he spoke.
The Dragon Emperor snorted. "You couldn't kill me even if I let you do it. My body cultivation alone is stronger than most others," he said as he pulled down the spear, cutting more of his flesh. "If you do not wish to tell me about your body cultivation, then it's fine. Tell me about the White Tiger. Where did you gain his protection?"
Alex spat at the Dragon Emperor, but the man simply created a gust of wind that diverted it. Then, with the same air, he slammed Alex's head into the ground, sending specks of black and white to fill his vision.
"I see, then you will not tell me that either," the Dragon Emperor said, anger and disgust filling his mind. "Oh, how I wish to kill you right now. But it seems I cannot kill you."
Alex's attention snapped back when he heard those words. 'Couldn't?' he wondered.
The Dragon Emperor read the confusion on Alex's face. "Yes, I cannot kill you," he answered. "Are you happy you will live?"
Alex said nothing.
"Don't worry. The only reason I cannot kill you is because of your trade. We made an oath to trade with each other. Until our trade is completed, I cannot kill you. If you want to die right now, complete the trade. You will die anyway in 3 years if you don't complete the trade on your end."
The Dragon Emperor started laughing to himself. "Trade and I'll kill you now. Don't and die 3 years later. You do not have easy prospects, do you?" he asked.
3 years. That was a short time, but if Alex could get even that, it would be helpful. Anything to continue living would be helpful.
Then he saw the Dragon Emperor and saw the mania behind his eyes.
"I said I would let you live for 3 years," he said, dragging his spear through Alex's stomach even lower. "I did not say you would be kept as you are until then."
The Crown Prince arrived and saw the horrifying sight in front of him.
"Father! You can't do that," he quickly said. "The Phoenix will kill us."
"Don't worry about the Phoenix, son. She's weak right now," the Dragon Emperor said. "Besides, even if she had her strength, she couldn't come. I can kill this man without any remorse and we would be safe. So long as an Immortal doesn't come for us, there is no one in this world stronger than me and my empire."
"So… you aren't going to deny that you killed the Azure Dragon," Alex said between gasps of air. He was struggling to find a way to escape from all that was happening to him.
"Killed the Azure Dragon? No," the Dragon Emperor said. "At least, that wasn't my intention. It just happened. I'm curious how you found out. Was it Yan Yating? No, he's bound by oath to not answer anything. Even if he broke his oath to the empire, he cannot break an oath to the heavens."
The Dragon Emperor sighed. "I should not be delaying this any further," he said. "If you are the one my prophecy claims to be my downfall, then I must get rid of all chances of you defeating me."
He dragged the spear even below and stopped right above the naval region. Alex felt the pain there and knew what was going to happen.
He heard the panicked sound belonging to Godslayer in his mind that seemed to echo through his mouth.
"NO—"
The Dragon Emperor stabbed down and cut through his Dantian.
Alex gasped as the shock hit him. As if plunged into a pool of ice-cold water, his body spasmed as all the Qi in his body drove into his Dantian, and from there it leaked out.
Alex teleported as far as he could, but that was not as far as he wanted to. His Dao was working, but nothing was coming out of his Dantian. The leaking Qi did not work for him.
"No!" Alex shouted. He tried to heal his body, but it didn't work. Without Qi, the Undying God's Physique did not work. He needed Qi to heal his body.
Blood poured out of his stab wounds. He needed a pill. Maybe a pill could help him if he was fast enough.
The Dragon Emperor's senses were on him as he watched Alex fret around from far away.
Alex felt his mind grow heavy from not just the pain but also the blood loss. His dantian was destroyed, so he was no cultivator anymore. The loss of blood now affected him as it would a regular person.
He lay on the ground, panting, trying to think of something. His mind blanked for a moment, forgetting what he was doing. He needed Qi to heal his body quickly, to heal his wounds.
"Right, pill," he remembered and went to look for a pill. However, when he tried to look into his Soul Space, he found it nearly impossible to get into his Soul Space.
"No!" Alex cried out. His spirit was wounded, either from the stab or from crippling. "No, my pill." He couldn't even enter the Soul Space, let alone find the pill.
The Dragon Emperor watched silently from the distance.
"Father, he'll die," the Crown Prince said.
"No, he won't. We'll take him back once he goes unconscious," the Dragon Emperor said and continued watching.
Alex frantically hit his head to keep himself from fainting. He couldn't faint here. He needs to heal his body. No, he needed to run away.
He remembered the talisman in his hand and used his weak spiritual sense to activate it. But that talisman needed Qi too.
How was he going to get any Qi here? He had no access to his storage and his dantian was broken open. He could not use any Qi from his own body.
"Dao?" Alex thought. He could use Dao, but that wouldn't heal him or activate the talisman. What he needed was Qi and there was no Dao that could give him Qi.
"No…" Alex realized. There was one.
Immediately, he fell onto his pool of blood and held to it. Even as pain flared in his mind from using a strong Intent while his spirit was weakened, he didn't stop.
He employed the Dao of Blood Aura.
The aura in the blood within him and the pool beneath him surged, turning from Blood Aura into Qi. Immediately, his body drank on the Qi, using it to heal his wounds.
But Alex didn't have the luxury. Even as his body tried to heal the wounds on his torso, Alex pulled it away, dragging it into the talisman before it could leak away from his destroyed Dantian.
The Qi formed from the blood outside his body was out of his control, and it was only the ones from within his body that Alex could use. But even that, while very weak, was just enough for him to use to activate this talisman.
The Dragon Emperor's face changed as he realized Alex was doing something. He flew toward Alex immediately, but it was too late. He had given Alex the distance he needed, and that had given Alex enough time.
Silver light glowed around Alex as he used the last of his mental strength to use the Dao to use the talisman. When he knew he had finally done it, his will to stay conscious gave out.
And darkness took over.
