Chapter 1685: The Battle Begins

Demonic energy surged into the heavens. Kui Lin stood in the air, murderous intent billowing around him.

His red irises shone with a bloody glow, like two pillars of light. Waves of demonic energy washed over everything within a hundred mile radius. 

Within the surging demonic energy flashed six different colors of light.

The Ocean Emperor led the Upheaval Alliance’s six Great Emperors and formed a circle around the periphery. Yang Jian, Pu Jingwan, and the Great Sage stood about a hundred meters above him. There were nine imperial lord experts in total, forming a shape like a bell around Kui Lin.

This would undoubtedly be a battle the likes of which this world had never seen!

An Lu and Gu Li stood side by side in the air, a hundred miles away. Their two imperial lord attendants surged with demonic power too as they cautiously protected their two charges’ safety.

“Is the one coming out going to be Big Brother Ye Zichen?” Once An Lu woke up, Yang Jian and the Great Sage weren’t the only ones worried on Ye Zichen’s behalf. An Lu had been worried sick about Ye Zichen ever since regaining consciousness.

Her little face flashed with hints of worry as she leaned into Gu Li and watched the place where space was rippling.

“I don’t know.” Although, after entering the palace’s one true room, they could sense the battle raging below, Gu Li was certain that Ye Zichen was still alive.

Had Ye Zichen died, Gu Li, as the other of the heavens’ twin emperors, would have received Ye Zichen’s celestial fate and imperial starlight. But he’d obtained neither, which meant that Ye Zichen was still alive and well.

But the situation the Outsider Gu Li had described had yet to materialize, which meant that Ye Zichen still hadn’t obtained the mausoleum’s good fortune. 

That meant that the person about to exit the mausoleum most likely wasn’t Ye Zichen.

But at a time like this, who else could it be? Who else would leave the mausoleum now?

Gu Li trusted that Kui Lin and the great emperors would guess that the person leaving the mausoleum was Ye Zichen, or at least, someone who’d obtained fortune within the mausoleum. Otherwise, their standoff wouldn’t have turned so fierce. 

Gu Li didn’t quite know what to make of this situation. In the end, all he could do was turn to An Lu and shake his head. 

“I hope Big Brother Ye Zichen is alright!” An Lu clenched her little fists, put her hand to her chest, and prayed silently for Ye Zichen’s wellbeing. 

Meanwhile, Kui Lin and the great emperors of the Upheaval Alliance were still staring each other down.

“You people….” Kui Lin’s voice had changed; it seemed to emanate from all directions like an incantation, as if it had emerged from within the swathes of demonic energy.

Kui Lin gradually raised a finger, and the surrounding demonic energy gathered around his hand. “Do you really want to die?”

Whoosh!

As he shouted, he unleashed his mighty spiritual pressure. Every boulder within range shattered into pieces. The demonic energy emanating from him seemed stained with an aura of death; all the plants around the mausoleum wilted and withered as it swept over them.

The flying imperial lords released their divine power in an instant. It surrounded and protected them. It didn’t matter how intense the winds of demonic power were, or how fierce Kui Lin’s spiritual pressure was. The great emperors just stared him down, not retreating in the slightest.

They couldn’t retreat!

The spatial ripples of someone exiting the mausoleum were behind them. They most likely came from Ye Zichen. So long as they were able to fight, there was no way they’d let Ye Zichen encounter danger.

“He’s so vicious.” An Lu burrowed into Gu Li’s chest in fear. They weren’t within range of Kui Lin’s demonic energy, but even so, his display of power sent a chill down An Lu’s back, and she couldn’t help but shiver.

“He’s a demon imperial sovereign!” said Gu Li with an air of lamentation. His words were an affirmation of Kui LIn’s abilities. 

“Can those people beat him?” An Lu blinked.

Gu Li looked at them once more. The hundreds of miles of demonic energy represented the range of Kui Lin’s domain. It encompassed all of Ye Zichen’s allied imperial lords, which put a huge damper on their strength.

Furthermore, Gu Li’s personal strength wasn’t all that high. At most, he was an imperial king. 

At his level, he couldn’t possibly comprehend how strong imperial lords were, much less imperial sovereigns. He didn’t know whether the Ocean Emperor and company were a match for Kui Lin, so he couldn’t give An Lu an accurate answer.

Nine imperial lords could shake the foundations of any race, but an imperial sovereign could blot out the heavens with a single hand.

“I can’t say for sure. Imperial lords are indeed strong, but becoming an imperial sovereign represents a qualitative leap; the gap is huge. A hundred diviners working together might not be a match for a ruler. An imperial lord and imperial sovereign are probably… Well, I dare not say.”

As he spoke, Gu Li glanced over at Venerate Spirit Treasure.

He was well aware that Venerate Spirit Treasure was the real expert amongst Ye Zichen’s allies. If he were to fight Kui Lin, he wouldn’t necessarily be at a disadvantage. He might even be able to suppress him. But then…. That was on the assumption that Kui Lin hadn’t gone fully mad and didn’t use his trump cards. 

If Kui Lin decided to throw caution to the wind, Gu Li didn’t think highly of Venerate Spirit Treasure’s odds of victory. 

But then, that didn’t matter. What mattered was that Venerate Spirit Treasure showed no indication that he planned to participate in their battle. 

In addition to Gu Li, An Lu, and Venerate Spirit Treasure, Red Demon was also there as a spectator. 

No one who’d entered the mausoleum could tell exactly what he was thinking. He made no attempt to fight for transcendent fortune, nor did he seem interested in the treasures of the snowy mountains.

When the Ocean Emperor and company left the mausoleum, Red Demon followed them out without hesitation.

Afterward, he didn’t leave. He acted just as he had when they first saw him: he sat with his legs crossed, his expression inscrutable.

Perhaps he was just sticking around to see Kui Lin’s true strength for himself. Or perhaps…

He wanted to see just who’d gotten his hands on the mausoleum’s transcendent fortune. 

In any event, as Kui Lin and the great emperors stared each other down, Red Demon acted like an uninvolved spectator. 

Red Demon aside, two others had attracted Gu Li’s attention: the two who’d stood out so much before, the little loli and her stalwart companion. They were the ones who’d told them how to enter the inner palace, and they’d made an appearance in the real room, too. More importantly, they were so strong, others had no choice but to take them seriously.

And yet, for whatever reason, they didn’t seem the least bit interested in the mausoleum’s treasures. They left with the Ocean Emperor’s group too, but unlike Red Demon, they didn’t stick around. It seemed they weren’t just disinterested in transcendent fortune; they didn’t even care enough to wait and see who’d obtained it. 

By now, there was no sign of the strange pair within the range of space Gu Li was capable of surveying. 

This trip to the mausoleum sure had been strange!

Suddenly, unearthly winds rose up around the mausoleum, stirring up dust and bits of rock. Gu Li and An Lu couldn’t help but avert their eyes.

Their two attendants formed a series of hand seals to ensure their safety. Red Demon and Venerate Spirit Treasure didn’t seem the least bit affected, though; they watched the Demon Emperor’s battle directly

“If you don’t want to back down, just die!” Standing between the imperial lords, Kui Lin could no longer hold back his temper. He lashed out without reservation.

He really didn’t have the patience to wait any longer. It didn’t matter whether the person within the ripples was Ye Zichen or not. He had to ger rid of the Ocean Emperor and his cohorts anyway.

If he didn’t clean them up, even if this particular new arrival wasn’t Ye Zichen, but rather an imperial king or two…

When Ye Zichen finally did appear, the Ocean Emperor’s group would still stand in Kui Lin’s way. They were still a canyon he had to gross.

Rather than waiting in agitation, it was better to take this chance and clean up the obstacles in his path.

The Demon Emperor deserved his title. He really was an imperial sovereign of the demon race.

It seemed this time, he’d really made up his mind to slaughter them, so he struck like lightning.

Six clones split from his main body. All of them had their own awareness, so Kui Lin didn’t need to divine his attention to manipulate them. This was the exact same technique that the other imperial lords envied Xue Yang for: independent avatars.

But in comparison with the Ocean Emperor, it seemed Kui Lin had polished this art to a higher degree of refinement.

Six avatars charged Xuan Ji, Su Wan’er, the Fox Empress Su Qingyan, Yang Jian, the Great Sage, and Pu Jingwan. Their goal was to keep them occupied. Meanwhile, the Demon Emperor’s true body gathered the surrounding demonic energy and condensed it into four additional arms. Then, he charged his way toward Xue Yang,, Bi’an, and Chao Feng with the intent to kill. 

Booms rung out without pause. It was impossible to track imperial experts’ battles with the naked eye alone. From a distance, all anyone could see was lights flashing within the demonic energy, accompanied by one hair-raising explosion after another. 

Just the aftereffects of their clashes were enough to shatter the space around the mausoleum. Fortunately, Yang Jian and the Great Sage had thought to put up barriers in advance. Otherwise, the Immortal Region would have been unlikely to survive unscathed. 

“Xue Yang, back at the River Styx, you beat one of my avatars. This time, let my real body taste your power. I heard you completed your Ocean God artifact set? Well, why not take them out and let me have a look?”

“Hah….” Xue Yang’s eyes flashed with derision, but he dared not underestimate his foe. He equipped the Ocean God’s Trident, Crown, and Ring. Then, he sent Chao Feng and Bi’an a transmission. “Don’t let down your guard! Kui Lin still has tricks up his sleeve!”

“I don’t need you to tell me that.” Bi’an clenched his Hidden Dragon Sword. His god-given artifact seemed like it could sense the impending battle; its blade quivered as if excited. “If we can wipe him out here, we’ll eliminate a major source of risk for the Upper Three Realms.” 

“What shameless boasting!” said Kui Lin. Bi’an hadn’t spoken through a divine sense transmission either, so Kui Lin heard every word.

However, even as Kui Lin roared in fury, a streak of light shot past his left side and through the demonic energy. Kui Lin immediately turned, but the light still left a golden gash at his underarm.

“You’ve been Demon Emperor for so long, have you forget to stay alert? If this continues, we won’t be the ones to die here!” said Chao Feng with a snort. He was carrying a spear formed of pure starlight. 

“So even the glorious Great Emperor Chao Feng has learned to ambush others?”

“Ambush?” Chao Feng didn’t understand. Hadn’t their battle started the moment he took to the skies?

Where was the accusation of a sneak attack coming from? He really didn’t get it.

“Forget it. A motley band like you can only resort to such petty tricks in hope of petty gains. But even if you pulled off your sneak attack and won your petty gains, your arrogant boasting is laughable….”

“Petty gains?” Great Emperor Chao Feng still seemed confused. “Are you certain that’s all it is? Demon Emperor, Your Excellency, paying so little attention to others will be your downfall.” 

When he heard that, Kui Lin finally examined his wounds. 

That streak of holy light had yet to disperse. More importantly, it was eating away at his body. Or rather, it was purifying his demonic power.

At the same time, Chao Feng sent Xue Yang and Bi’an a transmission. “Attack! Let’s end him here and now!”