Chapter 223 - Blackmail

There was a dead silence!

Including Cui Xingyi, five Human Kings had shown up. Their combined strength was terrifying. Just the mere sight of the five of them standing together could scare a bunch of people to death.

However, now two out of the five were dead and one of them was injured. There were only the Human King from Xiangsi Pavilion, Zhou Lianyan and a Human King from another sect called Suo Lun.

Ge Wuwei was scared out of his wits and his once handsome face was now pale and petrified.

Simply by raising his hand, Chu Xun caused an explosion followed by a torrent of blood rain and killed another top warrior Ge Wuwei just like how he killed Qin Zhicheng.

Chu Xun looked at the remaining sects coldly.

When they met Chu Xun’s eyes, everyone felt as if their heads were about to explode. Chu Xun’s eyes were like a sharp blade that scraped their skin ominously.

“Please calm down, friend. We do not wish to be your enemy,” Zhou Lianyan said quickly.

A look of sarcasm flashed across Chu Xun’s eyes.

“Then why are you here? To have some tea with me?”

Zhou Lianyan laughed bitterly deep inside and said, “In fact, we are here because we received an SOS from the disciples of our sects. We rushed over thinking that they must be in grave danger, yet we have no intention to be your enemy.”

Suo Lun nodded and said, “We have never met you before, why would we be your enemy?”

A look of interest appeared in Chu Xun’s eyes.

“Then why did the other two who came along with you want to kill me the moment they saw me?”

Zhou Lianyan and Suo Lun knew he was referring to Ge Yingtian and Wu Ming.

“It was a big misunderstanding. We did not agree to come here together, we only happened to arrive at the same time,” Zhou Lianyan explained with a smile.

In fact, they felt extremely bitter inside right now. “Ever since we became Human Kings, this is the first time we have to explain something to anyone so patiently and politely.”

“But this man standing in front of us is so cruel and powerful. He could kill a Human King without any hesitation, just like a devil.”

“A devil?”

Zhou Lianyan and Suo Lun looked at each other when they thought of this word.

“My friend, are you that Chu the Devil whose name was known across the Martial Tao world more than ten years ago?”

He was young and cruel and he appeared on Qianlong Mountain. All these clues made it easy for anyone to think about Chu Xun.

Chu Xun nodded slightly.

He looked calm and collected, yet deep inside he felt both scared and lucky. “These two could already have been Human Kings more than ten years ago. Luckily I never offended them back then, or I would have long been dead.”

“So it really is him,” Zhou Lianyan and Suo Lun thought as they looked at each other again. Chu Xun was very well-known back then, so even Human Kings had heard of his name.

“You still owe me an explanation about why your companions wanted to kill me,” Chu Xun said while thinking if he should leave these two people here.

The two of them became alert all of a sudden, as they sensed the danger in Chu Xun’s eyes.

“Please don’t get us wrong. The two of us only arrived together by coincidence. The other two were close to Cui Xingyi,” Suo Lun explained quickly.

“I see,” Chu Xun thought.

“Who is the one that ran away?” Chu Xun asked. Due to his carelessness, he had let one escape earlier.

If a Human King decided to run away, very few people would be able to catch him. The chase would be even harder in a forest like this.

Zhou Lianyan and Suo Lun were both speechless and the corners of their mouths twitched. “Why would you kill them if you don’t even know who they are? Aren’t you afraid that you may get yourself into some trouble? I guess only a ‘devil’ like you would do such a thing,” they both thought.

“That man was Wu Ming, a presbyter of Tianlong Fort,” Suo Lun said.

Chu Xun nodded and suddenly said, “I saw you youngsters trying to kill my friend outside my house. I will make you pay.”

“Umm…” the two of them were stunned. They could not follow Chu Xun’s random thoughts. A moment ago he was asking about Wu Ming and now he wanted to make them pay for what they were doing.

“And you are even younger than us ‘youngsters’,” they thought.

“Since we are on the same path, you must know how attractive treasures are to us. We found the seeds of the Green Dragon Flower, so it is perfectly normal that we would fight for them. Since they have not made any huge mistakes, how about I make them apologize to your friend and we just overlook this matter?” Suo Lun said.

“Normal?” A sarcastic look appeared in Chu Xun’s eyes, “How is it normal when so many people wanted to attack her together?”

“Let them go, Chu Xun!” Hong Ling suddenly said.

Chu Xun was puzzled and so were Zhou Lianyan and Suo Lun. Based on what they knew, she would have died if Chu Xun had not shown up.

“She saved my life…” Hong Ling then recounted everything that happened before Chu Xun arrived.

Zhou Lianyan and Suo Lun were both shocked after hearing about Hong Ling’s experience. Qin Zhicheng became a top warrior at a young age and they heard that the Martial Tao world also spoke very highly of him, yet they did not expect him to have such wicked, disgusting thoughts.

“What is a Black Giant?” Chu Xun asked curiously. He had just woken up from his training not long ago, so he had very little knowledge about the creatures that emerged after the transformation of Earth.

Suo Lun’s expression became a little strange, then he explained to Chu Xun what a Black Giant was.

Chu Xun raised his shapely eyebrows. His expression remained unchanged, yet his eyes looked extremely cold and indifferent.

“Sifang Sword Sect will be eliminated.”

Chu Xun was furious after he heard how Sifang Sword Sect handled things.

Qin Zhicheng and Cui Xingyi probably never knew how much trouble they had gotten the Sifang Sword Sect into.

Chu Xun calmed himself down. He would deal with Sifang Sword Sect in the future, now he would make everyone here pay for what they had done first.

Fairy Xuan did not receive any punishment, because Hong Ling begged Chu Xun not to.

On the other hand, Suo Lun was not so lucky. Chu Xun blackmailed him for twenty middle-tier spiritual herbs and elixirs. Suo Lun almost cried, because even after the transformation of Earth, these middle-tier spiritual herbs and elixirs were still hard to find.

“We will take our leave now!” Zhou Lianyan bid farewell to Chu Xun and left with Fairy Xuan.

“Then we will leave as well,” Suo Lun said with a sad look on his face.

“Farewell,” Chu Xun said with both hands clasped in front of his chest.

Suo Lun shuddered at his words and ran away with the other disciples from his sect.

“How rude!” Chu Xun mumbled.

Hong Ling smiled and said, “He probably hopes he will never see you again.”

“Why?” Chu Xun was confused.

“Even though Earth has undergone a huge transformation and there are spiritual herbs and elixirs everywhere, most of them are still low-tier, so middle-tier ones are still very rare. You blackmailed him for twenty all at once. I bet he would feel the pain of that for a long time,” Hong Ling said with another smile.

“Really? But he is a Human King! If he could not even let go of twenty spiritual herbs and elixirs, he is truly a disgrace among all Human Kings,” Chu Xun muttered.

Seeing that Chu Xun received a great deal, yet was still complaining, Hong Ling smiled gently.

Chu Xun formed a magic signet and the path leading up to the mountain was immediately revealed. It was as if the dark clouds had been blown away to reveal the bright sun.

Hong Ling’s eyes opened wide in surprise. She watched the narrow path leading onto the mountain curiously.

“That was all done by a magic formation?” She asked.

Chu Xun nodded and said jokingly, “You sure picked the best place to run to. Who would have thought that you ran all the way to my house.”

Hong Ling laughed bitterly and said, “You saved me from a near-death situation, but I really had no idea you live here.”

Chu Xun knew, because on the opening day of Chu Manor, all the visitors were from the Martial Tao world.

The two of them made their way up while catching up with each other.

“Argh!”

On their way up, a 30 feet tall black bear growled and smashed a hill with its paw. It seemed to be incredibly strong.

Hong Ling was shocked. She did not expect wild beasts to live on this mountain as well.

“It is fake,” Chu Xun explained.

Hong Ling was even more astonished. She was in awe of the power of magic formations.

“They used to be pretty effective at scaring people away, but they are of not much use now, since such beasts are everywhere,” Chu Xun said as he shot two streaks of purple energy and broke the Eye of Formation. The Illusory Formation disappeared, together with the scary monsters and beasts.

Chu Xun felt slightly excited when they reached mountain top. “It has been more than ten years. I wonder how my families are doing?”

Meanwhile, the sword technique inscribed on the giant white stone attracted Hong Ling’s attention.

“Can I try to comprehend it?” Hong Ling asked hopefully.

“Save yourself some time, I will teach you an entire set of sword techniques later,” Chu Xun said.

Hong Ling was a little stunned. Martial skills were considered invaluable treasures, so she did not know what to feel when Chu Xun agreed to pass one to her.

However, Chu Xun did not think too much about it, because he already had countless martial skills like this one. He pointed to the place between Hong Ling’s eyebrows and passed a set of information to her in an instant.

After a short while, Chu Xun retracted his hand and Hong Ling opened her eyes.

“This isn’t the sword technique on the stone, is it?” Hong Ling was slightly surprised, because what Chu Xun passed on to her was different from what was on the stone.

“This White Moon Sword Technique suits you better,” Chu Xun said.

Hong Ling smiled happily. She suppressed any feelings she had for Chu Xun and said casually, “Thanks a lot, friend! I’ll return your favor someday.”

“Sure!” Chu Xun said as he smiled and nodded.

The two of them came to a giant manual transmission hub on the other side of the plaza. It was set up by Chu Xun before he left years ago.

A few figures were covered in colorful light and they were deep in training.

“Are these members of your family?” Hong Ling asked.

Chu Xun nodded and smiled gently.

The smile on his face soon froze as he raised a hand that was enveloped in purple energy. The spiritual energy transmission hub exploded immediately.

The colorful light disappeared as well. Now everyone inside could be seen clearly.

“Dad, mom, Rourou…”

Chu Xun formed a signet and all the spiritual energy on Qianlong Mountain was drawn here. It then entered each person’s head, as if it was trying to wake everyone up in an instant.

“Boom!”

The air became distorted and the spiritual energy nearby was agitated. Spiritual energy from every direction came toward them altogether.

This whole process lasted for more than an hour.

…

After a gentle cough, Tang Rou woke up. Her puzzled eyes were filled with disbelief and excitement the moment they were fixed on Chu Xun.

The others gradually woke up as well.

Chu Xun sighed in relief when Zheng Guangyi woke up as he had the weakest cultivation among all.

“Xun…” Liu Ran’s eyes turned teary.

“You remembered to come back?” Chu Tianhe said jokingly, his eyes a little teary as well.

Chen Hanlong, Zheng Guangyi and Mo Xinghe were all grown men, yet now they all acted like restless boys when they saw Chu Xun.

They surrounded Chu Xun and started talking to him excitedly and Chu Xun, who was never good with words, felt even more lost.

“Brother Chu Xun…” Tang Rou walked to him. Her skin was as fair as the snow and her steps were light and swift.

Chu Xun touched her hair and said in a slightly surprised tone, “Ending Stage of Qi Refinement?”

Tang Rou showed a sweet smile and nodded.

Chu Xun was genuinely impressed by how fast Tang Rou had improved during her training. It seemed that his estimation last time was wrong. Even though Tang Rou’s constitution was not excellent for the path of cultivation, she was still rather talented.

“Now you can take care of yourself! Isn’t that right, warrior Tang?” Chu Xun said jokingly.

Tang Rou lowered her head shyly. No matter how high her cultivation became, in front of Chu Xun, she would always be the girl who was secretly in love with him.

Chu Xun looked at the others. Zheng Qian was young and he was able to learn things quickly, so he had reached the Middle Stage of Qi Refinement.

“Not bad, better than your father,” Chu Xun praised him.

Zheng Qian blushed in excitement and scratched his head. He felt really lucky to have followed Chu Xun that day.

The rest were a little past the best age to start training, so they were all at the Early Stage of Qi Refinement.

“This is?” Liu Ran asked as she looked at Hong Ling next to Chu Xun.

Chu Xun then realized that he had not introduced her, so he introduced her to the rest.

Chen Hanlong already knew Hong Ling and he was in shock when he learned than she was already a grade-five Grandmaster. Knowing that she gained all her cultivation because she ate a flower seed by accident made him feel that it was even more unfair.

His funny reaction made everyone laugh.

It was their first reunion after so long, so they all had many things to talk about.

Chu Xun’s parents went off to prepare a meal.

Chen Hanlong secretly brought out different kinds of wine as he and the others were planning to make Chu Xun drunk this time.

Tang Rou followed Chu Xun like his shadow. She would look at Chu Xun’s face from the side and chuckle secretly.

“Another silly girl has fallen for him,” Hong Ling thought and shook her head.

They started eating after an hour.

Chen Hanlong first raised a toast to Chu Xun,. He then looked at the others with a weird expression after finishing his drink.

But the others pretended not to see that.

“Hanlong, let’s drink again,” Chu Xun smiled and raised his cup.

Chen Hanlong quickly returned his toast and he made another weird face at the others.

“Hanlong, why are your eyes twitching?” Zheng Guangyi pretended to be confused.

“It must be a cramp, that’s why his eyes keep blinking,” Mo Xinghe said.

“I read somewhere that drinking can help with muscle cramps around the eyes. Here’s another toast to you, Uncle Chen,” Zheng Qian said as he raised his giant cup.

Chen Hanlong was puzzled.

He then experienced what it meant to have a taste of his own medicine. Everyone started toasting him, even Chu Tianhe and Tang Wenyan came to join the fun.

At first, Chen Hanlong tried to negate the influence of alcohol by channeling his True Energy, but his True Energy was soon suppressed by Chu Xun.

In the end, he was the one who got extremely drunk.