Hearing such anxious words from Ao Jiao, Xiao Chen ignored his fatigue and prepared to go over.
However, he looked around and discovered that Wang Yuzhu’s eyes were filled with hope as he looked at those motes of light, appearing entranced.
Oh no! I forgot that this person was still here.
Although Xiao Chen was normally a good judge of character, he could not help feeling nervous. In his current state, he was not confident of defeating this half-step Martial Emperor.
If the other party ended up being greedy, Xiao Chen could only choose to flee alone and not fight now.
Wang Yuzhu felt Xiao Chen’s gaze and smiled in embarrassment. “This is the Life Essence of a Martial Emperor. I’d heard of it before, but this is my first time seeing it. So I ended up a little too engrossed.”
Xiao Chen said calmly, “It’s fine. I understand.”
If the other party wanted to snatch it, this was his best chance. After Xiao Chen absorbed this Life Essence, there would not be any more opportunities to do so.
In the end, Xiao Chen had not gone through life and death with Wang Yuzhu nor spoken heart to heart with him before. He could use this opportunity to test Wang Yuzhu.
If Wang Yuzhu could endure the temptation and greed, not making a move on Xiao Chen, then he would be worth befriending. Xiao Chen asked Ao Jiao to stand guard before crossing three steps’ worth of distance with every two steps to arrive beside Old Hong’s corpse.
As Xiao Chen was about to sit down cross-legged, the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit Yuanying in his dantian wanted to roar again. It took advantage of his weakness to try and break through his suppression.
From the moment he entered the Distant Sea Dragon Grave, he had felt a mysterious existence calling out to him. The Azure Dragon Martial Spirit probably wanted to roar in reply to the call of this mysterious being.
Due to the presence of Yi Ling and the others, Xiao Chen had been suppressing the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit, not letting it respond to that call.
Right now, the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit wanted to take advantage of his weakness to return that mysterious call.
Xiao Chen was very cautious by nature. He did not know what would happen if he replied to that mysterious call in the Distant Sea Dragon Grave. It would be better if he recovered some of his strength first. So he suppressed the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit once more, not letting it return that call.
Then, he calmed himself and sat down cross-legged to start absorbing Old Hong’s Life Essence.
Strands of surging energy entered Xiao Chen’s body. He was shocked to discover that his exhausted Law Energy replenished quickly.
Soon, after he finished recovering, twenty thousand Heavenly Laws swam around the Heart of an Emperor like they were roaming dragons.
After that, his Primordial Energy started to recover. Although the rate was slower than that for the Heavenly Laws, it was still much faster than using Essence Stones.
Once Xiao Chen replenished all his energy, he discovered that his cultivation started to grow.
The Life Essence of the Martial Emperor flowed in continuously. Xiao Chen’s Heavenly Laws grew wildly, more than ten times faster than when he used Essence Stones to cultivate.
No wonder Ao Jiao told him to hurry up and not waste it. The Life Essence of a Martial Emperor was truly great nourishment. It was even stronger than some Sage Grade Medicinal Pills and natural treasures.
As Wang Yuzhu watched Xiao Chen slowly absorb the Martial Emperor’s Life Essence, his face revealed some envy. While he could not hide this expression, there was no greed in it.
“Such an opportunity is truly envious.”
A Consummation quasi-Emperor killing a Martial Emperor—not many people managed to accomplish such a heaven-defying feat even in ancient times.
However, his mysterious banner should be an Emperor Grade Secret Treasure. The peak strike of an Emperor Grade Secret Treasure can indeed severely injure an unprepared Martial Emperor. That is not strange at all.
However, don’t Emperor Grade Secret Treasures require Primordial Energy in order for one to truly control it freely?
Does Ye Chen possess Primordial Energy as well?
All sorts of questions appeared in Wang Yuzhu’s mind. He remained perplexed despite pondering over them hundreds of times.
---
After arriving before the Fire Dragon General’s burial ground, Yi Ling did not have to wait for long before the Martial Emperors who gave chase to the half-step Martial Emperors returned with the half-step Martial Emperors’ corpses.
After four hours, all the Martial Emperors, aside from Old Hong, had already regathered.
“That is strange. Why is Old Hong not back yet?” one of the Martial Emperors asked, feeling somewhat suspicious.
Someone joked, “Could it be that he can’t even deal with two half-step-Martial-Emperor-level experts?”
Worry flashed in the red-haired Martial Emperor’s eyes. Then, he said, “Never mind. Let’s not care about him for now. That masked fellow is somewhat difficult to deal with. He probably managed to run away.”
“Right, that masked fellow does indeed feel somewhat mysterious. Old Hong probably lost him and is too embarrassed to return.”
The few of them felt that there would not be any accidents, given Old Hong’s strength. The only possibility was that he lost the people he was chasing.
It was likely that no matter how they thought about it, they would never guess that Xiao Chen had already killed Old Hong, that Old Hong had not even had the chance to detonate himself, letting Xiao Chen absorb all of his Life Essence.
Yi Ling looked at the corpses at his feet, then at the large passageway in front. The Dragon Race puppets guarding the dragon grave lined the two sides, more than a hundred of them.
There was a formation in a depression at the end of the passageway. Those who wanted to open the doors to the Fire Dragon General’s burial ground would make use of this formation.
After waiting for a while longer and not seeing Old Hong return, Yi Ling shook his head and said, “Never mind. Let’s not wait for him anymore. The corpses at our feet are sufficient already. Let’s go!”
“Young Master Yi, the Emperor Grade puppets of the Dragon Race at the two sides will attack the moment we go over. Should we not make some preparations?”
Yi Ling’s lips curled up slightly. “Since I said we could go, we naturally can go. Do you think that my nickname of Dragon Slayer is just an empty title?”
After speaking, Yi Ling raised his foot and stepped forward. A strange aura appeared on his body, eliciting fear in the puppets at the two sides; it was extremely mysterious.
Before this aura, the two rows of Dragon Race puppets unexpectedly trembled slightly, as if in foreboding.
If Xiao Chen were here and saw the aura that Yi Ling unleashed, he would definitely recognize this aura.
That was right. This aura was exactly the same as the aura of the ghost Hou that Xiao Chen once saw.
“They really did not attack!”
The few Martial Emperors goggled. Then, they carefully followed behind Yi Ling with incredulous looks on their faces.
The group walked in, step by step, and soon arrived at the end of the passageway. Then, Yi Ling instructed, “Let out the blood and fill the formation.”
The others obeyed, spilling the blood of the half-step Martial Emperors into the formation.
At this moment, Yi Ling took out the dragon-shaped key and toyed with it in his hand. There happened to be a circular hole in the center of the ancient formation that perfectly matched the key he held.
“Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!”
The Dragon Race puppets on both sides trembled even more intensely. They looked like they would break free of their constraints soon and attack together.
The red-haired Martial Emperor felt afraid when he saw this. If more than one hundred Dragon Race Martial-Emperor-level puppets were to attack at the same time, even he would find it hard to cope.
The red-haired Martial Emperor said, “Young Master Yi, there won’t be any problems, right?”
Yi Ling revealed a faint smile of confidence. “I have been to thousands of dragon graves of various sizes. However, I have never had any problems even once.”
The red-haired Martial Emperor smiled as well. However, there was still a shadow in his heart. That masked fellow seemed somewhat unfathomable to him.
Before Old Hong returned, the red-haired Martial Emperor could not be completely at ease.
---
After Xiao Chen finished absorbing all of Old Hong’s Life Essence, he somewhat reluctantly opened his eyes.
A quick check revealed that his Heavenly Laws had increased by five thousand. Now, he had twenty-five thousand Heavenly Laws.
Unexpectedly, just by killing a Martial Emperor, he increased his cultivation by a quarter. That was comparable to using thousands of Essence Stones. Furthermore, it was much faster.
Xiao Chen could not help thinking that if he could kill a few more Martial Emperors, he would not need to cultivate anymore.
However, after thinking further, he realized that it was not realistic.
He managed to kill a Martial Emperor this time mainly because of Old Hong’s carelessness. Old Hong had not known that he had already condensed a Heart of an Emperor and could control an Emperor Grade Secret Treasure.
Otherwise, it would have been extremely difficult for Xiao Chen to kill him in one move. Old Hong would have detonated himself, so Xiao Chen would not have been able to obtain such a chance.
For regular Martial Emperors, even if you killed them, preventing them from self-detonating would be very hard. Furthermore, such actions were counter to the righteous path. If Xiao Chen kept thinking about doing this, then how would he be different from those evil loose cultivators?
In actual fact, Xiao Chen’s cultivation experience was no different from that of a loose cultivator. His not sinking into depravity for a long time was because his character never changed.
If his character changed, even if his strength increased, he would not be the original Xiao Chen anymore.
Ao Jiao reminded, Stop pondering it. There are such great effects only the first time. Quickly see what treasures this Old Hong has on his body.
Xiao Chen smiled as he recovered his wits. Then, he pulled out his Cycle Banner, which made a scarlet light shoot out.
After that, Xiao Chen searched Old Hong’s chest. As for Old Hong’s spatial ring, all he could do was look at it. The spatial rings of quasi-Emperors already contained restrictions, what more the spatial rings of Martial Emperors.
However, when Xiao Chen thought about this, it felt very unfortunate. If he could open this spatial ring, he would gain an enormous sum.
No matter how poor a Martial Emperor was, they would definitely have at least millions of Black Astral Coins and plenty of all sorts of emergency Medicinal Pills.
A Martial Emperor was not likely to carry anything good on his body. No matter who it was, they would definitely place the precious treasures in their spatial ring, just like Xiao Chen did.
Although Xiao Chen did not harbor much hope, he managed to find a talisman seal. This talisman seal had complicated and profound drawings on it. However, it looked very plain and simple.
Looking up, Xiao Chen discovered Wang Yuzhu walking over while staring at the golden talisman seal in his hand as if he recognized it.
“Brother Wang, do you know what this is?” Xiao Chen asked after noticing the situation.
Wang Yuzhu replied, “When I saw Old Hong lay the formation, he used this talisman seal. He carved the diagram on the talisman seal on the ground, and then he activated the talisman seal before placing it in the center of the formation. After that, it formed a formation that could defend against an ordinary Martial Emperor.”
Ao Jiao explained to Xiao Chen from the Immortal Spirit Ring, This is a formation commonly used by Martial Emperors. It is called the Iron Defense Magic Formation. The formations of the Martial Epoch all originate from the Immortal Epoch’s Buddhist, Confucian, and Daoist schools. Daoist and Confucian formations are rather rare. Most of them are Buddhist formations. The Iron Defense Magic Formation is one such Buddhist formation. Clearly, she understood it much better.
Let me test it out.
Xiao Chen had never seen this sort of talisman before and was rather curious. So he asked Ao Jiao how to use it and prepared to give it a try.