Secular Immortal of the Nine Realms - Chapter 204
Chapter 204: Time to Get to Work
“White Tiger Empire…” Chillwater’s emperor hesitated. “Ji Congyun is close with them as well. They might not necessarily pay me any heed even if I personally make a request, since this is Chillwater’s internal affair.”
“Your Majesty, have you forgotten that the Fourth Princess is training at the White Tiger Empire’s Ten Directions Sect? Her Highness is also on close terms with Lin Li, the son of White Tiger Empire’s great general,” the old eunuch said.
The emperor’s eyes lit up. He would have forgotten about his daughter’s existence if not for the old eunuch’s reminder.
He had sent his daughter to White Tiger Empire’s number one martial arts sect, the Ten Directions Sect, at a very young age, and it had been twenty years since. She had only returned once in the meantime, and it was with Lin Li.
“Go and write a letter right now, and find the fastest way possible to deliver it to her hands!” the emperor ordered. “Make sure to keep this matter under wraps. The Ji Clan mustn’t know about this.”
“Please be assured, Your Majesty. I’ll send an aide over,” the old eunuch replied with a nod.
“Remember, you must relay to them that Fang Chen is a cultivator. It would be best if they could bring in a cultivator from their superior state to aid us,” the emperor said.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
…
The huge procession eventually arrived before the cavern.
Ji Congyun had mobilized hundreds of Ji Clan’s experts, including Ji Junhua. There were at least a hundred Earth Profound realm martial artists, whose cultivation ranged from Aureate Ki to Origin Ki, whereas the remaining three hundred were all at Ki Manifestation.
“Young master Fang, I have mobilized more than half of our experts for this. Our Ji Clan will be severely weakened if anything goes wrong here. I’d like to know what we ought to do inside the cavern so that we can at least prepare ourselves…” Ji Congyun clasped his fist and said.
Ji Junhua and the others looked at Fang Chen as well.
In truth, they had no idea what this operation was all about, but they had no choice but to come since it was Ji Congyun rallying them. Thus, they were curious to know what Fang Chen would say.
This was a place fraught with danger. Even Immortal Zuo was reluctant to visit it again after coming here once. The Ji Clan had deployed over half of their forces for this operation, so they wanted to make sure that everything went smoothly.
“There are only two faes you need to be careful of. One of them is the stone fae, and the other is the bat fae,” Fang Chen explained. He glanced at Ji Congyun before carrying on, “You and I will tie down one fae each, and the rest will be a piece of cake. Make no mistake, there will be casualties, but it won’t be as severe as before.”
“I… have to go in too?” Ji Congyun shuddered. Do I really have to go into that godforsaken place again?
“What do you think?” Fang Chen replied with a smile.
Ji Congyun clenched his fist. He turned to Zhao Yan and said, “Will he be coming with us too? He’s a Longevity Ki martial artist too. I’m certain he’ll be of great assistance inside.”
“Well, we need someone to guard the entrance too, right? The last thing you want is for someone to seal the entrance on us. We would be trapped in there for an entire year if so,” Fang Chen said.
Ji Congyun fell silent.
“Shush!” Fang Chen suddenly raised his hand, a gesture for the crowd to quieten down.
The crowd instinctively did as they were told, but they looked at Fang Chen with confused eyes.
What they saw next baffled them.
A little silver sword slowly emerged from Fang Chen’s forehead.
It was an inexplicable sight for normal martial artists like them. Never had they ever seen anything like that before. It was beyond their imagination how a sword could hide in someone’s head, even if it was only thirty centimeters long.
Fang Chen vaguely remembered Li Daoye telling him that nurturing an ego artifact could take from several years to decades… yet this silver sword embryo took only a single day to morph into a flying sword?
That sword embryo is indeed extraordinary, though I have to say the sword is a little short…
Suppressing his astonishment, Fang Chen remarked with a smile, “I thought you’re an idle bum who only eats and does nothing. It looks like I have misunderstood you.”
The little sword flew spiritedly in front of him. Even though it was only thirty centimeters long, Fang Chen could sense that its prowess surpassed that of the Moonsunk Gold Truncheon.
Logically speaking, this sword embryo should already have daosoul imprint on it, though I wasn’t able to see anything. It could be that this daosoul imprint is far beyond my means to discern, Fang Chen thought.
“Hungry, hungry…” the little sword cried.
This voice could only be heard by Fang Chen, but it was not just a vague telepathic impression anymore. Fang Chen widened his eyes in astonishment. “You’re able to speak now?”
“Hungry, hungry, eat…” the little sword continued crying.
It has only gained sentience, so it can only utter simple words like a child, though a day might come when it can converse with me like Victorious Buddha, Fang Chen thought. He looked at the flying sword and said with a smile, “Slackers don’t get to eat. I’ll find some food for you if you properly do your job later.”
“Job, job…” The little sword flew into the sky before whizzing back to Fang Chen’s side.
The crowd was dumbstruck.
Ji Junhua’s face turned pale. With such a flying sword in his possession, won’t he be able to remotely assassinate any of us, including Ji Congyun? How do we stop someone like that?!
“Return for now.”
Fang Chen took the little sword back into his body entering the cavern together with Ji Congyun. The others followed them. Upon arriving at the other side, they stood in a neat formation as they awaited further orders.
“Young master Fang, what do we do next?” Ji Congyun asked.
“The stone fae and bat fae should swiftly notice us given our huge group. Let’s wait for them to make an appearance first,” Fang Chen said with a smile.
Ji Congyun nodded.
Around fifteen minutes later, the crowd felt the earth quake.
A massive stone fae was sprinting in their direction, and each footstep of his left a huge pit on the ground.
Shortly after, a black shadow appeared in the sky. The bat fae had arrived too.
“Split into your respective groups and collect everything of value here. We’ll gather here ten days from now,” Ji Congyun ordered.
“Yes, Old Master!” Ji Junhua and the others immediately scattered in all directions.
The stone fae and bat fae didn’t chase the crowd. Their eyes were focused on Fang Chen and Ji Congyun, knowing that the two of them posed the greatest threat of all.
“Which one do you want to take?” Fang Chen asked.
Without any hesitation, Ji Congyun gathered his inner ki and unleashed a palm strike against the stone fae. It was a powerful blow, but it failed to even jolt the dust off the latter. However, it did succeed in angering the stone fae, and it immediately went after Ji Congyun.
In less than a minute’s time, Ji Congyun and the stone fae had already disappeared from sight.
All that was left was Fang Chen and the bat fae.
“You understand human speech?” Fang Chen asked with a smile.
The bat fae slowly flapped its wings while glaring at Fang Chen from the sky. Its eyes didn’t carry the sentience that Victorious Buddha and the others possessed; all Fang Chen could sense was bloodthirst.
“They appear to have developed in a different direction from Victorious Buddha and the others; they don’t seem too intelligent. That’s intriguing…” Fang Chen murmured.
The bat fae and the stone fae were much stronger than Victorious Buddha and the others, but their intelligence was far lacking. This could be due to their cultivation method or the intentional deed of Enlightenment Heaven Supreme.
While Fang Chen was pondering upon this question, the bat fae noticed that his thoughts were wandering and took this chance to charge at him.
The next instant, the little sword suddenly whizzed out. In a flash of silver light, it pierced a hole through the bat fae’s wings. Fresh blood splattered like a beautiful flower.
“That attack only consumed a small bit of my spirit ki. I guess this is the difference between an ordinary artifact and an ego artifact.” Fang Chen was satisfied with the result.
