Chapter 473 - Rogue Immortals (1/2)
There was nothing but still silence with everyone gaping with disbelief. This was the might of both the Northern Mad Emperor and East Peak Emperor, both whose might could easily vanquish even the strongest mages of the Grand Completion Realm. Levels of strength too surrealistic for anyone to comprehend.
“STAY WHERE YOU ARE!” A deafening howl broke the silence. Qi Heng of the Order of the Divine Fire had apprehended Huangfu Xin’er.
Realizing that with the arrival of Xiao Ning and Gu Feng, he would never be able to escape unscathed, Qi Heng had quickly used the magic of psychokinesis to apprehend Huangfu Xin’er when Xiao Chen was not looking.
“Let her go!” Xiao Chen growled, his eyes going red with rage that even Qi Heng could not help but shudder. But the latter recollected himself and managed a croak. “Let me leave this place freely. I’ll release her when I’m 500 kilometers from here. She will not be harmed, and you have my word! But stay away! Stay away or she’ll be harmed!”
It was unbecoming for a senior mage to hold an injured woman hostage in public. It was a sight so disgraceful and embarrassing for all younger mages to behold. Xiao Ning glowered at Qi Heng with a stare so cold that it could freeze the sun, growling, “Let the girl go…”
Another tremble shot up Qi Heng’s shoulders. Xiao Ning’s cold and furious stare was suffocating and it became a chance for Huangfu Xin’er to deliver a blow at the elder man, which rebounding force she used to propel herself free.
With the Immortal-override Steps, Xiao Chen darted forward and caught Huangfu Xin’er and deftly whisked her away to safety, leaving her in the hands of Ziyun’er before he lunged at Qi Heng with his saber. With three successive strokes, he dissected Qi Heng into several parts, but not before Qi Heng’s soul had escaped from his physical body through astral projection and fled in a scarlet ray of light that streaked quickly away.
“Halt!” Xiao Chen roared, swinging his saber without mercy. Still, Qi Heng managed to escape, but not with some serious damages to his Soul.
Silence once again returned with everyone’s attention now turning to the couple of dozens of members of the Order of the Divine Fire now abandoned by their leader. They were gripped by panic and shock and none dared to move an inch. “Meet your maker then!” Gu Feng hissed with contempt and delivered a slap that hurled a magic death ray that immediately pulverized all the whimpering members of the Order into dust.
“How’s your injury?” Xiao Ning asked, helping Xiao Chen to his feet while injecting some of his inner powers into the latter to help him recover.
“I’m fine,” Xiao Chen replied, shaking his head. Su Xiaomei rejoined them, but she was frowning with concern. “We should not stay long here, My Love. We should leave. I felt a strong presence stirring in the distance despite it trying to remain hidden…”
He looked far away into the eastern skies and felt the scarcely perceptible presence of somebody powerful. “Very well, let us leave.” Xiao Ning remarked to everyone.
Everyone whirled around and began walking away. Suddenly, the air trembled and a huge, powerful wave of aura swept from the East, making everyone at the mountaintop hold their breaths.
“Parlor tricks!” Gu Feng spat, swinging his Raging Dragon Blade menacingly. “Who goes there! Show yourself! Come out and have a taste of my blade!”
A massively-tremendous aura churned in the distant skies, stirring like a monstrous behemoth waking up from its slumber, and another wave came. Only this time, the person whom the aura belonged to no longer made any attempt to conceal his might. The sheer might of the wave of invisible strength shook the whole Wuyue Peak and left many others reeling with confusion and chaos as some began coughing blood.
The staggering presence had everyone on the mountaintop frozen with fear. “This aura… No, it cannot be any ordinary human! This is the presence of a demigod! And immortal, not just some common mage!” Gripped with fear, some were teetering on the edge of having their knees crumbling.
The white nimbuses in the faraway eastern skies roiled and boiled, a stirring monstrosity in the horizons threatening to roar with anger. The ground beneath everyone’s feet shook furiously in resonance and when they looked up once more, the clouds overhead rolled like galloping horses, thundering towards Wuyue Peak at incredible speeds, with three streaking rays of light in their midst, sundering the blue sky into halves.
Everyone held their breaths in consternation. Xiao Chen’s grip on his Demon Blade tightened as he instinctively formed up to stand abreast with Xiao Ning, who was beholding the strange phenomenon with a frown. He grabbed at Xiao Chen’s shoulder and shoving him to his back, saying, “Rogue Immortals of the League, stay back!”
Before they knew it, the cluster of nimbuses was 2,000 feet from the Central Peak, looming ominously over everyone. The clouds broke and scattered, revealing the people inside, the sight of which had everyone holding their breaths. “Immortals! True immortals!”
Surrounded by strands of mists, standing imperiously besprinkled by specks of swirling clouds, were three ancient men, each clad in robes of purple, red, and green respectively. They towered aloft in the air with heights of 30 meters that they looked like mountains in the sky. Between their powerful aura and taming presence and their acrimonious stares, countless of the younger students of magic and sorcery were shaking with fear.
Not even Xiao Chen could breathe easily himself. These were Rogue Immortals. Having prepared for their Ascension at the final stages of the Grand Completion Realm, mages would attain their first taste of immortality if they succeed. They would become Undying, even though it was but a mere traditional misconception; nothing is undying and indestructible.
Mages who failed in their Ascension would become Rogue Immortals unless Fortunes smiled upon and bestowed upon them another chance. Rogue Immortals were half-demigods and their powers would never again be measured by Realms and stages, but Tiers. Tier-9 Rogue Immortals, the highest rank of cultivation of a Rogue Immortal, would once again be qualified for another attempt to achieve Earth Immortality.
Earth Immortals are the preliminaries of true Immortality. Mages who were true Immortals although they did not yet belong in the Realm of Heaven. Their strengths would no longer be gauged by Tiers or Realms, but by stages.
Xiao Chen took a long breath to calm himself as he beheld the sight of the three Rogue Immortals. “So these are the Rogue Immortals of the Leagues? The aces of the League that could easily defeat even mages of the Grand Completion Realm? Why are they here then? For me? No, they’re here for Big Brother Xiao Ning and Gu Feng!”
It was as he feared. Xiao Ning and Gu Feng might have reconciled their differences, but their powers and strength were all but exhausted and spent after their long duel through day and night. “Scheming b*stards of the League,” Xiao Chen cursed. “They must be biding their time just for this! All the while they were ignoring the deaths of nearly 100 innocent lives cold-heartedly!”