The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 310 A New Upgrade

Watching Deer-sitting Arhat’s soul dissipating between his fingers, Li Ye suddenly got a strange feeling in his heart. Full of unparallel vigor, he felt that all the living beings between heaven and earth were small, so no existence could make him bow his head down. Fired with boundless enthusiasm, Li Ye thought that he could take the sky as shore when seas reached the far-away and could be the top when mountains reached the highest. With soaring spirits, Li Ye firmly believed that as a tough, ambitious man, he should achieve his aspirations.

In Li Ye’s process of seeing through Deer-sitting Arhat’s Immortal Area, a surge of aspiration burst out from his body. From this moment on, he would not obey anyone. Like brushing aside the clouds and seeing the face of the sun, he felt enlightened in an instant as if the road before him and the Tao that he pursued suddenly became extremely clear.

Li Ye closed his eyes and forced himself to grasp this fleeting realization. In his Immortal Area, the Buddhist Country, Deer-sitting Arhat also wanted Li Ye to surrender by kneeling and prostrating himself before him. Li Ye became extremely uncomfortable because he felt that Deer-sitting Arhat was treating him like a fool and was treading him as if he were an ant at this moment. Li Ye felt that Deer-sitting Arhat greatly insulted him.

Buddha could not make him kneel down in worship.

Immortals could not let him bow down before them, either.

But if he refused to worship Buddha, he could never become one.

If he didn’t want to bow to immortals, he would never be able to become an immortal.

Thus, he could neither become a Buddha nor an Immortal.

So which way should he take?

In previous, Li Ye only knew that after his transmigration, Dragon Qi emerged in his body. It indicated that he was a Hidden Dragon and was qualified to become the True Dragon Emperor. His experience on the earth made him realize that only by bringing the whole world under a True Dragon’s domination could cultivators be qualified to achieve the Great Tao and be placed in Immortal League. Therefore, he decided to assist himself in becoming the emperor. Li Ye thought that when that day came, he would be able to ascend to become an immortal and enter the Immortal Court.

However, the Buddhism and Immortal Court of this world showed that even if he achieved the work of the True Dragon, the Immortal Court would never accept him. In other words, Li Ye was destined to be stuck before the Immortal Realm and could never surmount this obstacle, just like what happened to him before his transmigration. No matter how much progress he made in his cultivation and how deep understanding of the Great Tao he got, if the Immortal Court would not open its door for him and qualified him to be an Immortal, he could never be one of them. And eventually, he would perish and become nothing.

This situation was like someone had become an Imperial Scholar, but if the imperial court didn’t want to use him, the person could never become an official.

Yuan Tiangang had been staying in the Yang Spiritual Master realm for many years, and finally, the Immortal Court opened its door for him. However, he felt reluctant to become an immortal. Unlike him, Li Ye was doomed to be kept off the Immortal Court.

But at this moment, Li Ye suddenly realized that he didn’t need to become a Buddha or an immortal. What he was bound to become was an emperor!

His way was the way of the emperor.

He would become an emperor of this mortal world, the lord of a world.

The Immortal Emperor of the Immortal Court was the lord of Heaven.

Li Ye’s way was to achieve the work of a True Dragon, to become an emperor, the lord of a world, and to control the Luck between heaven and earth.

Li Ye didn’t want to worship the Buddha, nor was he willing to worship the Immortals. He would not kneel before any Immortal, and he would never pay homage to anyone. Then, Li Ye must become the lord of the world! Only after he became the emperor could he not submit himself to anyone alive!

“Buzzing!”

A sudden trembling sound appeared in Li Ye’s brain as if he had broken through some barrier there.

Immediately after that, the Dragon Qi in his body burst out an unprecedented howl. The green and white light around the dragon’s body became much brighter. The dragon’s body expanded and then shrank, bumping as fiercely as a heart, Surges of tempestuous forces were coming out continuously with the moving rhythm of the dragon body.

When Li Ye felt the force, his spirit was suddenly refreshed because it was the kind of power that he had never seen before. It was cold and domineering. Meanwhile, it felt like the warm and humid wind. It seemed as if this force had contained the yin and yang, which existed harmoniously together and shared the common prosperity.

In Li Ye’s consciousness, the Dragon Qi had already turned from green and white to all red. The dragon’s body moved in rhyme, expanding and shrinking. With this, the scales on the entire dragon body all opened. It looked as if the dragon was going to peel off its skin, in the way what snakes usually did. After that, it could gain a new life and be upgraded!

Such a scene suddenly refreshed Li Ye. Then, he felt the force that the Dragon Qi gave out. Like burning flames, the Dragon Qi darted around in his body. It seemed that it didn’t want to stay for a moment before all its strength burst out. At the same time, the rhythm of the Dragon Qi went on. Li Ye actually felt a strong sense of hunger and thirst as if the Dragon Qi still needed the stimulation and a certain force’s supplement to complete its due transformation and upgrade.

Li Ye’s understanding of the way to be an emperor awakened the Dragon Qi’s tremendous courage and gave it the desire for an upgrade. But this was not enough. Li Ye also needed strength, whether it was motivation or pressure.

After he realized this, Li Ye cast his eyes to the Qinzhou City and went back to look at Li Sizhao, again.

...

Ever since Li Ye joined the war, the Holy Child fixed his eyes on him. As a Grand Prince in the mortal world, Li Ye had gained the demon clan’s recognition and had made a defense alliance with them. However, the Holy Child knew little about him, so he was very curious.

Before coming here, the Holy Child was only a little curious about Li Ye. After all, Li Ye was only a Yang Spiritual Master in the mortal world. It was unnecessary for the Holy Child at that time to take the trouble to consider what Li Ye was like. As long as Li Ye was obedient and did not hinder the alliance’s overall situation, the Holy Child would pay no attention to him. But when he met Li Ye, the Holy Child fell into Li Ye’s trap and suffered losses. Thus, the Holy Child was extremely upset in his heart. It looked that he promised to obey Li Ye’s order, but in fact, he never stopped trying to find a chance to completely alter the situation and recapture the commanding rights of the alliance.

In the final analysis, Li Ye did not truly convince the Holy Child. The gap between them was too big. It was somewhat difficult for the Holy Child to totally willingly obey a person who was obviously much weaker than him.

It was a great shock for the Holy Child to see with his own eyes that Li Ye killed Dragon-subduing Arhat. After all, the arhat was a Ground Immortal Realm master. After the fight with Li Ye, the Holy Child knew that Li Ye had a relatively strong strength so that he could confront a Ground Immortal Realm master. But at that time, the Holy Child only thought that though Li Ye was able to fight with a Ground Immortal Realm master, he could not ensure the victory. But it had never occurred to him that Li Ye killed the Dragon-subduing Arhat at an amazing speed right after they met. Only by using the cultivation power, Li Ye managed to defeat the Dragon-subduing Arhat, just like how Li Ye had dealt with him before.

The death of Dragon-subduing Arhat surprised the Holy Child. But it was just a surprise; it was far from a shock to the Holy Child. He could still find an excuse for himself. Li Ye could defeat the Dragon-subduing Arhat in such a short time only because he attacked the arhat by surprise. Also, the Dragon-subduing Arhat didn’t know Li Ye’s real strength and was not prepared.

Like Feihong Bodhisattva, the Holy Child didn’t think that Li Ye could always win. Since the Deer-sitting Arhat came out to fight, the Holy Child assumed that Li Ye would fall into an arduous struggle.

However, he didn’t expect that the Deer-sitting Arhat died even faster. Anyhow, the Dragon-subduing Arhat had launched a palm attack to Li Ye. But as the leader of the 18 arhats, the Deer-sitting Arhat took the initiative to rushed over to Li Ye. Then, spreading his hands, he instantly gave up resistance and placed his neck right under Li Ye’s sword—from the perspective of others, it was exactly what had happened in the battle just now. Of course, the Son of God knew very clearly that it was because Li Ye destroyed the Deer-sitting Arhat’s Immortal Area, and then the arhat suffered a large back reaction.

The Holy Child was utterly shocked this time and was stunned for a long time.

He had heard that Li Ye had gained Yuan Tiangang’s inheritance and stole the green lotus that the Taoist sect prepared for Huang Chao. Thus, his cultivation power was more vigorous and stronger than ordinary people, so Li Ye was capable of challenging opponents whose realm level was higher than him. The Holy Child could understand all of this. But how could Li Ye ruin the Deer-sitting Arhat’s Immortal Area? What the h*ll was going on? Li Ye broke the Immortal Area in an instant! To achieve such a victory, Li Ye should have a much deeper understanding of the Great Tao than the Deer-sitting Arhat, which could give him an overwhelming advantage. Meanwhile, he must find his own way of Tao.

Only when he had a firm heart of Tao could he keep himself from being deceived by the Deer-sitting Arhat. Then, in turn, Li Ye could get the chance to injure the Deer-sitting Arhat seriously.

“This guy, he has obtained such a profound understanding of the Great Tao only when he is in the Spiritual Master Realm. Moreover, he won an overwhelming victory against the Deer-sitting Arhat, the leader of the 18 arhats...” The Holy Child looked at Li Ye with a very complicated look. “What the h*ll is this freak? Isn’t he an ordinary person at all but an Immortal after the reincarnation?”

Thinking of this, the Holy Child nodded secretly. For the time being, it might be the only answer that could explain Li Ye’s powerful strength and excellent performances.

On the top of Qinzhou City’s wall, when Li Keyong witnessed that the Deer-sitting Arhat went to his doom, a touch of undetectable delight flashed across his eyes because the arhat’s death helped to vent his hatred. However, this trace of happiness vanished soon. It was not because Li Keyong could hide his emotion well, but because his delight feeling disappeared for real. The death of the Deer-sitting Arhat was indeed a great satisfaction to Li Keyong, but the strength that Li Ye showed in the battle was incredibly strong.

Li Keyong clearly realized that it would be as simple as killing an ant if Li Ye wanted to kill him. Without Land Buddhism’s protection, he could possibly be killed at any time.

With this in his mind, Li Keyong’s eyes gradually were covered with blood streaks. As the jealousy in Li Keyong’s eyes became increasingly intense, the deep envy turned into resentment at last.

He felt that it was unfair. Why could Li Ye become so strong in such a short time?

Why wasn’t he the person who defeated the Immortal Realm master? Since he was a child, Li Keyong was chosen and cultivated by Buddhism. He stepped on the battlefield to fight early when he was still a teenager. Since then, he lived in half a lifetime’s military life till now and had gone through countless ups and downs. He was one of those people who put down Huang Chao. His ability was no worse than others, but why wasn’t it him that killed the Immortal Realm master and towered over others?

“Bodhisattva, this...” Sudhana looked at Feihong Bodhisattva. He was about to speak but then hesitated.

Feihong Bodhisattva covered her wine pot and sat upright. Without a blink, she looked at Li Ye horizontally, frowning slightly.

Li Keyong also threw a glance at Feihong Bodhisattva with a bit complicated look. After all these things, he also wanted to know if Feihong Bodhisattva was going to deal with Li Ye by herself.

Feihong Bodhisattva did not intend to attack Li Ye because Li Ye had seriously injured her before, and her injury was far from well. If she forced herself to fight at this time, she was not sure that she could defeat him.

“Bodhisattva, how about asking all the other available arhats to besiege Li Ye?” Sudhana suggested. Feihong Bodhisattva’s wound had not yet healed. Beyond that, the Red Boy on Li Ye’s side could make a diversion to her. Thus, Feihong Bodhisattva could not go out to fight. Now that only those remaining arhats in the Ground Immortal Realm could have the ability to handle Li Ye.

Sudhana was quite sensible. He guessed that maybe Li Ye had resorted to trickery to defeat Ground Immortal Realm masters quickly. Li Ye’s fighting capability might be strong enough to kill any arhat. But if two or three arhats joined their hands to fight against him, Li Ye certainly would not be unable to win, and he would also fall into a dangerous situation.

Feihong Bodhisattva waved her hand. “Let them go fighting!”

Both Li Keyong and Sudhana breathed a sigh of relief.

Initially, Li Ye was on his way to attack Li Sizhao. But Deer-sitting Arhat arrived in time to save Li Sizhao and stopped him. Now, after Li Ye killed the Deer-sitting Arhat in an instant with only a slight effort, everyone on the spot saw that Li Ye was quite nearly to Li Sizhao now.

After the death of the Deer-sitting Arhat, Li Ye gazed at Li Sizhao once again. He was very clear that only by killing Li Sizhao could the Pinglu Army occupy the military camp quickly.

However, before Li Ye took any further action, several Spiritual Master Realm monks rushed out from different directions. They took the initiative to attack Li Ye, turning from the defensive into the offensive.

After glancing around quickly, Li Ye looked around and had all his rivals in sight. Three enemies launched their attacks, and they were all Spiritual Master Realm masters. Li Ye assumed that it must be the fixed configuration that Land Buddhism used to protect the military camp’s chief commander. Behind the three Yang Spiritual Masters, a few more arhats showed up in Qinzhou City. There were about at least six to seven Immortals who were ready to come over to Li Ye.

The current situation was evident. There were too many opponents for Li Ye to fight against. He should withdraw quickly. Or else, those Ground Immortal Realm arhats would besiege him. However, Li Ye came out this time to capture the military camp. If he retreated now, it meant that he failed to accomplish his goal.

In fact, Li Ye had already revealed almost all his strength and caused much fear of his opponents. After the retreat this time, it would be impossible for him to create an unexpected effect when he attacked the next time. After this battle, both Feihong Bodhisattva and Li Keyong would never look down up him and would be strictly on guard. Li Ye could know the result even without thinking.

After this battle, they would send several Ground Immortal Realm arhats to protect one crucial person and would give no chance for Li Ye to kill those important persons or arhats. If all became true, Land Buddhism would hold the initiative of this war because they had more cultivators that had reached the Ground Immortal Realm than Li Ye’s side. Then, Li Ye could never break through the Qinzhou City’s defense line, let alone occupy Taiyuan.

The difficulty of this war was that Li Ye was the attacker. Thus, he must lead his army to Taiyuan City to compete for the Luck of heaven, but what Li Keyong and Land Buddhism needed to do was only to defend.

In short, Li Ye could not miss this opportunity to kill Li Sizhao. Once he misses it, it would be much more difficult for him to take Qinzhou City.

If Li Ye wanted to capture the Qinzhou City, he must kill Li Sizhao first and seize the military camp.

But if he chose to kill Li Sizhao, he would miss the great opportunity to retreat. Only a moment’s delay could give those cultivators in the Spiritual Master Realm or Ground Immortal Realm a chance to lay siege to Li Ye.

Li Ye decided in a flash.

Li Sizhao had always kept his eyes on Li Ye’s movements in midair. He was also a high-level Qi-refining cultivator, so he certainly knew what happened on the battlefield. Now the monks from Land Buddhism came out in succession. If Li Ye continued to fight with them, he would fall into the ring of encirclement. Thus, he could only choose to withdraw because the siege of Ground Immortal Realm masters was quite powerful. Li Ye had shown his strength. Although his cultivation power was strong and he had a deep understanding of the Great Tao, he could never defeat the several arhats who came to besiege him.

With this in mind, Li Sizhao laughed twice. Looking askance at Li Ye, he sneered and said, “D*mned Li Ye! You even dared to break into my military camp. It is suicide! If you are bold enough, don’t run away and fight till death with me! I will show you the strength of the Hedong Army!”

Li Sizhao said with a thunderous voice, and his tone sounded quite arrogant, which was full of sarcasm and provocation. Without knowing the fact, those people who just heard his words would think that Li Sizhao was invincible now and Li Ye a coward. His words had spread through half of the military camp, and almost all the Hedong Army’s soldiers heard it.

Li Sizhao deliberately did it. As the chief commander, he must always keep the fighting will of the soldiers.

Standing in the Military Formation, Li Sizhao was in shining armor, looking at Li Ye. His head was erect, and his back was straight. In high and vigorous spirits, he looked quite valiant and heroic in bearing. He deserved to be one of the few generals of the Hedong Army.

“Since you are looking for death, then let me help you.” Li Ye chuckled and raised his Spiritual Qi Shield to surround him. As he was speaking, his Luke Sword had become a stream of short and sharp flying light and already came at Li Sizhao’s throat.

As a warrior of Militarism, Li Sizhao had already integrated himself with the formation. The formation’s force helped Li Sizhao to block any attack against him. With the intact formation there, Li Sizhao would never be fatally injured.

However, the light that came out of Li Ye’s sword flew across and cut the misty brilliance lingering around the formation into pieces as if it were a bubble. The brilliance failed to work as a defense. In unison, thousands of soldiers in the formation fell to the ground on one side, just like the wheat that was blown down by a hurricane.

In Li Sizhao’s horrified and puzzled eyes, the stream of light plunged into his body. He heard a bang. Immediately after that, he felt as if he was flying, and his body was as light as a swallow.

But when he looked down, he found that his entire body had exploded into blood mists and broken flesh bits which no longer existed. Only his head flew high in the air. But by grabbing the hair, Li Ye took this head.

Till his death, Li Sizhao was staring at Li Ye as if he were a ghost because Li Ye’s action puzzled him. Li Ye was a noble Grand Prince of the Tang Empire, so his life must be precious. Moreover, Li Ye had reached the Yang Spiritual Master realm. He was much superior to him and was never the kind of person at his level. But why was Li Ye willing to put himself in danger only to kill him?

Li Sizhao never felt that he was important enough, nor did he thought that he was qualified to be killed by Li Ye. Hence, he had never expected that Li Ye would bear him a grudge and kill him. Because of that, he dared to sneer at Li Ye. However, to everyone’s surprise, Li Ye acted so fast and blew Li Sizhao to a blood mist in the blink of an eye without giving him any chance to regret and beg for mercy. After that, he even lifted Li Sizhao’s head and showed it to the public.

“Devil! You are d*mned!”

“You could take the way to heaven, but you chose to die here!”

“Let’s kill him together. Don’t give him any chance to escape!”

Seeing that Li Sizhao was beheaded by Li Ye, the three Yang Spiritual Masters felt that Li Ye had much insulted all of them. In a rage, they decided to use their techniques at the same time and came at Li Ye together.

Behind them, about six or seven arhats also were in place. They began to send out golden light all over their bodies with their hands making Incantation Gestures and his mouth muttering incantations. Dark clouds were rumbling in the vast sky, and the sun gave forth no more of its light. Only the golden light from those arhats was shining over the earth. It looked as if all the gods and Buddhas were going to descend to the world!

Not moving a muscle of his countenance, Li Ye raised high into the air like a sharp arrow with Li Sizhao’s head in his hand.

Acting extremely fast, he successfully avoided the attacks from three Spiritual Master Realm masters. But finally, he fell into the ring of encirclement of the six or seven Ground Immortal Realm monks, which was also the central zone of the techniques’ attack range.

Nangong Diyi, Su Emei, the Son of God, and others were not far away from Li Ye. When they saw that Li Ye became a beam of light and rushed up high to the sky, they were greatly surprised. All of them saw it very clear that Li Ye flew directly into the encirclement of those arhats.

“This guy Li Ye, what is he going to do? Is he crazy?” The Son of God was stunned for quite a while.

“He must have known that he could not escape from the attacks of techniques from his opponents. Does he plan to perish with them?” It was the first possibility that came to Nangong Diyi’s mind.

“He had a chance to escape before, but why didn’t he run away? To kill a mortal general, he put himself in danger. Was he out of his mind?” Among the crowd, only the nine-tail Demon Fox witnessed the whole process of the battle because she didn’t fight attentively.

“Li Ye took off Li Sizhao’s head and broke the formation of Militarism, which was used to guard the outer gate. Then, Zhao Polu can easily fight his way into the military camp. But if Li Ye is hurt, our gains cannot make up for the loss. What’s worse, they will possibly kill Zhao Polu too!” The Son of God made an incisive analysis of their present situation. “If they catch Li Ye, he will be bound to die!”

“Shut up!” His words sent Nangong Diyi into a rage. “Li Ye will never draw ruin upon himself. Let’s look and see!”

Above the vast sky, the golden clouds covered the earth. These clouds moved like a torrential river, rolling and stretching. A great deal of golden light seeped from those rifted clouds. All of a sudden, the figures of the six or seven Ground Immortal Realm arhats grew at fantastic speed until they were 300 meters high. Now that even their skin had become golden and each of them looked like a sun, emitting eye-piercing light.

These six or seven golden arhats who were now hundreds of meters in height gathered around in a circle. In unison, they stretched out and pressed down at Li Ye in the middle! Each hand was a cloud. In the center of these palms, golden light looked as bright as the sun, which could reach as far as 300 meters. Anywhere the light went, it would turn everything it touched into flying ashes.

Among the seven arhats, Li Ye appeared to be extremely small. He looked as vulnerable as an ant. Even the golden light could melt and make him flying ashes once it touched him. No one could imagine what would happen if those palms slapped him.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were fighting fiercely above the ground. They had never stopped for a moment. Everywhere on the ground, dust swirled in the air, and there were always people falling down dead with their blood bursting out. But those normal soldiers didn’t think the scene above their heads were mysterious. With their eyesight, they could not see the scene above the cloud layers.

Only Spiritual Master Realm cultivators could see the scene vividly. The magnificent scene made every cultivator who spotted it feel an upsurge of excitement. They were greatly shocked by the work of Ground Immortal Realm arhats, who indeed had the power to remove mountains and fill seas.

In the face of the siege of those arhats, Li Ye still remained calm. There was a will in Li Ye that could enable him to undergo the most severe trials as easily as walking on firm earth. Li Ye had already thrown Li Sizhao’s head to the top of Qinzhou City’s wall. At this moment, he stood the Luke Sword before his brows. Slightly lowering his eyebrows and closing his eyes, he uttered Formulas in his mind to activate his cultivation methods.

In his body, the red Dragon Qi was still expanding and shrinking with a strong rhythm.

Together, the seven arhats bowed their heads and cast their angry eyes at Li Ye, who stood in the middle. In their eyes, the tiny cultivator from the mortal world was not panic at all. He looked as serene as the forests and as deep as the oceans. Now that he appeared like a whirlpool in the sea. Those purple clouds of Qi lingered around him and burned like flames. One by one, countless glimmers of light disappeared and reappeared again among the purple belt of clouds. These glimmers shone like morning dew. It seemed that they were guiding something to bloom.

But these arhats did not stop. In fact, just when Li Ye’s figure emerged in their eyes, they pressed down without hesitation. The golden light in the center of their palms was as bright as the scorching sun. With Li Ye as the center, all the light from their palms gathered together. The light became much brighter and more dazzling. It soon engulfed Li Ye’s figure, so they could not see what was happening below the light now.

As those arhats’ palms folded, the golden light between their palms became more and more intense. Beams of light reflected off their fingers and overflowed in all directions.

In succession, the arhats’ palms closed up. The flowing light gradually disappeared because there were no gaps that those beams of light could get out. With the power of seven arhats, they forcibly created a nearly closed space in which had only the brightest rays of light. For those arhats, the light could purify everything because it was Buddha’s will which no one could go against. Such light could even wipe out Immortals.

Once all the gaps disappeared, they would finish making this enchantment.

The seven arhats glanced at each other, and all of them noticed the pride and relief in the others’ eyes. At the moment, the last inch of the gap was going to close up finally. Through it, everyone could see the golden light which was bright to the extreme inside. The light had no impurity because it would purify anything that was inside. Li Ye was strong, but he would die at last.

“I’m afraid that the light must have burned this devil to ashes,” the Happy Arhat said in haste.

“No one can survive there. Even Immortals have to go to his doom. How can the devil be an exception?” said Bowl-rising Arhat proudly.

“This devil is arrogant and conceited. Obviously, he had seen us launching our attacks together, but he still dared to come at us. Did he think that he could withstand our attacks? He really didn’t know how powerful our force could be! How could Senior Brother Deer-sitting, Junior Brother Crouching-tiger, and Junior Brother Dragon-subduing die in the hands of such a stupid guy! I feel extremely wronged for them!” Tower-uplifting Arhat scorned with anger.

“This devil has a pretty good cultivation power. Also, he has a deep understanding of the Great Tao. But after all, he has only lived for decades and is too young and aggressive. Inevitably, after he achieved a little success, he became rampant. And he looked down his nose at everyone when he got a few achievements. After he conquered Dragon-subduing and Deer-sitting in a row, he turned very arrogant and wilful. Thus, it was no wonder at all that he would court death!” The Still-sitting Arhat said this sober and profound analysis.

Speaking of this, every arhat calmed down and focused their attention. After they uttered a low cry, the last trace of light giving out from the last gap disappeared, and the whole enchantment was completed!

“The result is certain. This devil is now dead...” Showing a delighted face, the River-crossing Arhat said with certainty. Upon hearing his words, everyone looked relaxed.

But at this moment, Happy Arhat’s expression changed dramatically. He shouted out loud in a hurry. “Be careful!”

Before everyone came to reason, they saw many cracks reappeared around their closed enchantment. Like a continually expanding balloon, the enchantment pressed against their palms, pushing outward. But this time, no ray of golden light gave off from inside. Instead, it was the purple light from the purple belt of clouds!

“Press it down!”

“Close the enchantment!”

“Don’t step back!”

The seven arhats’ expressions greatly changed. One after another, they roared. But as their palms were separated from each other, more and more purple clouds overflowed and lingered around the palms of everyone. The arhats exerted all their cultivation power, trying to push the enchantment back.

Their arms could not help trembling, their necks’ veins bulging. They felt that the thing that was fighting against them was not a small ball of a purple cloud, but an enormous raging bull. No matter how hard they tried, they could not reverse the situation. They could only watch the purple clouds growing bigger and bigger, and it pushed their palms farther and farther away.

Bowl-rising Arhat could not resist roaring. Crawling on the surface of his body like earthworms, the blue veins in his arms stood out. Even his golden skin began to crack inch by inch. One could imagine how much pressure he was facing at this moment.

Other arhats were not much better than the Bowl-rising Arhat. Green and white colors went and gone from their faces, and blood constantly overflowed from some arhats’ mouth corners. Some others were shivering all over as if they were suffering from malaria.

“How can this happen?” In shock, the Happy Arhat stared at the abnormal vision before him. Gradually, panic climbed up onto his face. “Li Ye is only a Yang Spiritual Master. How can he resist the force of the seven of us?”

No arhat could answer him because they had the same thoughts in their minds.

Suddenly, an indifferent voice without the slightest emotion sounded in each arhat’s ears. “If I cannot defeat the seven of you at the same time, how could I give you the chance to besiege me?”

When the arhats heard this voice, their hands and feet became ice-cold as if Li Ye had poured a basin of cold water to their heads. Previous to this, Li Ye didn’t say a word so that they still had a little hope. They wished that Li Ye only attacked in retaliation, and he would make no more movements after this. However, Li Ye’s voice sounded surprisingly smooth. It seemed that he was not in the dying situation, and he hadn’t been hurt at all.

The looks of these arhats greatly changed, and they felt unimaginably queer. After Li Ye’s words, the purple clouds under their palms abruptly exploded before those arhats could respond. Then, there came a soaring dragon cry, bursting in everyone’s ears. The dragon cry was full of ancient vicissitudes. It sounded as if it had undergone many brutal slaughters and numerous ferocious killings in the past tens of thousands of years.

In the center of the golden light, a beam of purple Dragon Qi shot up to the sky. It lifted hundreds of layers of cloud waves and stirred three thousand meters of wind and cloud. Under the impact, those arhats whose arms were covered with bulging blue veins and chapped skin burst open all of a sudden and became balls of blood mist! No blood or flesh was attached to their arms. There were only ghastly white bones left. One after another, they flew backward as if someone heavily hammered them!

The exploded purple cloud instantly blocked the sky, and it engulfed the places where the golden light covered. The purple cloud filled the whole space within the few hundred meters. The lofty atmosphere of the Purple Clouds from the East between heaven and earth made this place a fairyland.

From the center of the explosion, Li Ye, whose hair and clothes were dancing wildly, rushed out in an imposing manner with his sword.

An unprecedented strong force surrounded him, giving out an ancient atmosphere. Sometimes, the force was sharp and overbearing. Sometimes, it was as gentle as breezes. Altering between the two states, the two kinds of forces added radiance and beauty to each other, getting increasingly strong. Surrounded by the force, Li Ye looked like a fathomable god of war who was walking out of the savage and wild times of great antiquity.

Li Ye’s gaze swept across these arhats. After he saw clear each of their positions, Li Ye slightly lifted his mouth corners, showing a light ice-cold smile. “Step-by-step lotus!”

Those arhats were now running for their lives, but they felt that their hearts abruptly fluttered with deep terrors. Under the powerful beams of light, they were like rats running across the street that everybody wanted to cut off their retreating way and kill them. In an instant, they lost all of their confidence and strength. Their courage to struggle for survival had been wiped out clean, and there left only the instinct as prey—get ready to be killed.

They had accepted their tragic fates. But once this dispirited feeling appeared, the Spiritual Qi in their bodies began to run in difficulty as if it was going to dry up in no time. However, the 18 arhats were not ordinary persons, and they came to senses after only a moment of blank. But they did not feel relaxed. Instead, they felt much colder in their hearts because the purple lotuses had already blossomed in front of them.

In the territory of Li Ye’s Morning Purple Shower, he could teleport a distance at a time, plus the power of the Sword Method Step-by-step lotus. Thus, those arhats who were already seriously injured by the Dragon Qi could not ward off Li Ye’s further attacks. One by one, they were beheaded by Li Ye with his Luke Sword. After their heads separated from their bodies, both parts of them fell to the ground from the midair!

In the place where the seven Ground Immortal Realm masters fell, Li Ye showed up, standing with his sword and looking proudly down to the heaven and earth.

His Dragon Qi was still moving at a regular rhythm, but it was no longer red and scorching hot. Now that it looked less terrible and ferocious. Its original green and white color turned into purple. Beyond that, its posture looked more robust and powerful, just like an ordinary person whose body became perfect and full of strength after a period of training.

Li Ye’s previous Dragon Qi was powerful but not outstandingly powerful. With the power of Dragon Qi, Li Ye was only capable of challenging the opponents who were one level above him. Then, only by making use of the green lotus’s force and the cultivation method “Purple Clouds from the East” could he defeat the opponents who were two levels above him. But now, his Dragon Qi had completed its first transformation, the strength of which was substantially enhanced.

Not only that, but having the Dragon Qi meant Li Ye was qualified to be a Hidden Dragon, and his ultimate goal was to become a True Dragon. After Li Ye comprehended and touched the threshold of the Way of Emperor—the way to be an emperor, he awakened a part of his Dragon Qi’s spirituality. Now the Dragon Qi had gotten its own consciousness.

But Li Ye hadn’t had the time to communicate with this consciousness. But he felt that it was also his self-awareness which belonged to the Li Ye, who had a firm heart of Tao and had vowed to become an emperor.

What was the Way of Emperor? Li Ye had now touched the Way of Emperor’s threshold and got some understanding. Frankly, the Way of Emperor’s first characteristic could be described in only two words—never obey!

He would not obey anyone.

It was what an emperor would do!

The emperor would only obey his own will.

Li Ye thought, “I will never obey Buddhas, nor will I obey the Immortals. I even refuse to obey my destiny!”

“Since I am not willing to obey anyone, I will never give up. I don’t want to listen to others’ orders, so I have to be the one with the supreme power!”

The first time Li Ye used the purple dragon’s power, he severely wounded the seven Ground Immortal Realm arhats. Thus, he was busy arranging his strength and would not make any move without careful thought.

When he stood still, the purple clouds in the air slowly cleared away. All the cultivators above the Spiritual Master Realm looked up, and they saw an intact, overbearing figure which stood straight with a sword.

The Holy Child slumped down to the ground. Looking at Li Ye, who was floating in midair like a god or an immortal, he wiped his forehead where there was no sweat. Still in shock, he said, “Holy sh*t! This guy could defeat ten persons for real. What kind of monster is he?”

Just now, the Holy Child had witnessed the whole process of the fighting between Li Ye and the arhats. He didn’t miss any details. At last, these arhats put their palms together to attack Li Ye. How powerful could such an attack be? The Holy Child thought that he could never withstand such an attack without being injured. After all, the arhats had pressed Li Ye into the center of their palms. But usually, the Holy Child would not allow himself to fall into that desperate situation.

But Li Ye not only endured the attack but also took the advantage to fight back and directly wounded the seven arhats. Then, he went on to destroy them. In the Holy Child’s eyes, such a series of Li Ye’s actions was amazing enough and was rare in the world.

“It looks like that this guy is not injured...” The Holy Child carefully looked Li Ye up and down, hoping to find any clues. “No, he is absolutely pretending. He must have been injured... If he managed to come out safe and sound, does it meant that he is much stronger than me? No! It must be unreal. If he is much more awesome than me, what is the fu*king point of coming here to help him? I have reached the Sky Immortal Realm!”

When he was thinking, the face of the Holy Child gradually turned pale. He remembered that just when he arrived here, he had fought with Li Ye. At that time, he fought against Li Ye merely by strength after he took the initiative to reduce his realm. But in the end, Li Ye defeated him. The whole time, the Holy Child thought that he fell into Li Ye’s trap at that time. But now, seeing the strength that Li Ye showed in this battle, the Holy Child believed that Li Ye didn’t need to plot against him because Li Ye could directly defeat him by his strength... How powerful was Li Ye? Where was the limit of him?

But the Holy Child did not have the time to think about these questions because something new happened on the battlefield.

Now that Li Ye killed the seven arhats. No matter how indifferent Feihong Bodhisattva was, the news greatly shocked her, and she directly jumped off the parapet wall. She stared at Li Ye with her eyes wide open. How she wished she could see him through!

In Feihong Bodhisattva’s opinion, life and death were nothing but fate. She would live when she was alive and die when it was time to die. Just like the growth and reincarnation of all things, life and death were also the laws of the world that needn’t be paid attention to.

Feihong Bodhisattva didn’t care about the death of the arhats. She made such a panic scene only because the arhats died too fast.

Feihong Bodhisattva landed her eyes on Li Ye. In previous, she had never thought that the seven arhats would die in Li Ye’s hands, which was also the reason for her astonishment.

“How much have you kept from us? Where are your limits?” Gazing at Li Ye, Feihong Bodhisattva whispered to herself.

Li Keyong could barely stand straight. Holding the parapet wall with one hand, he finally managed to stabilize his figure by clawing deep into the bricks and stones of the wall with his five fingers.

He no longer looked at Li Ye because he didn’t know he could look at him in what kind of manner. Li Keyong stared at a fixed point on the parapet wall and tried hard to calm down his almost collapsed mood.

Li Ye was mighty. He was so unreasonably powerful that no one could defeat him. When such an enemy came to attack, anyone would feel powerless, panic, and pretty crushed.

In Li Keyong’s view, he thought it wasn’t worthwhile to fear any opponents that he could defeat by paying more effort because he was willing to pay any effort to win. But after he saw Li Ye’s performance, especially his performance today, Li Keyong believed that no matter how hard he tried, there would be no way for him to conquer him.

The gap between them was so big that Li Keyong knew he could never defeat Li Ye by making more effort. This was the reason why Li Keyong felt desperate.

“Are there only such a few people on your side? Send more masters to kill him! You stood there and watched Li Ye killing your people. After all of this, can you still be shameless enough to put on airs and look down on others?” Suddenly, Li Keyong turned around and stared at Feihong Bodhisattva.

Earlier, when Li Keyong saw Li Ye launch his first attack to deal with Dragon-subduing Arhat, he even felt a little happy because he hated to see Dragon-subduing Arhat’s excessively arrogant acts.

When facing his powerful enemy, Li Keyong could still feel happy after witnessing the death of his comrade only because he was sure to win. As far as Li Keyong was concerned, these Immortals from the Land Buddhism could certainly kill Li Ye if they dealt with him seriously. After all, Li Ye was merely a mortal who could never be capable of resisting Immortals. Thus, he was not worried at all.

He firmly believed that Li Ye would die and would be killed right in front of Qinzhou City. In that case, Li Keyong certainly felt pleased if Li Ye killed some people that he loathed before he died.

But the situation was totally different now. Together, the seven arhats in the Ground Immortal Realm took the initiative to besiege and attack Li Ye, but they didn’t do any damage to him at all. Instead, Li Ye slaughtered all of them, which was too scary.

Feihong Bodhisattva gave Li Keyong a light glance. “Are you afraid?”

“Afraid?” Li Keyong went blank for a little while, and then he actually nodded earnestly. It seemed that he didn’t mind admitting his fear at all. “I’m afraid of him. Isn’t such a powerful Li Ye worthy of my fear? Do you still have any way to deal with him?” “If you don’t, then this matter is no longer something about my fear because we will all die!”

Feihong Bodhisattva chuckled. “Prince of Longxi, at first I thought that your bearing was out of the ordinary and you had the majestic appearance of a ruler, which fascinated me. But now, when I compared you with Li Ye, it seems that you are far worse than him. The distance between you and him is as large as the gap between clouds and mud.”

Li Keyong flushed instantly and wanted to growl. But he didn’t want to behave rudely because he would lose all his dignity, and others would despise him even more. But if he didn’t flare up, he would appear too weak, which was not a prince’s proper character. Being entangled with such a dilemma, Li Keyong looked pretty awkward, his hands trembling and muscles on his face twisting from time to time.

But Li Keyong hadn’t stayed in the embarrassing situation for a long time because Feihong Bodhisattva quickly left the city wall and flew to the sky. She went straight to Li Ye. Behind her, two monks from Land Buddhism followed. The cultivation level of each of them was much higher than the 18 arhats. All of them had already reached the Sky Immortal Realm!

They moved fast and came to Li Ye in an instant.

As Sky Immortal Realm masters, it was easy for them to destroy Li Ye. Well, at least they thought it would be easy. Although Feihong Bodhisattva could not join the battle because she hadn’t yet recovered after she was seriously injured, two Sky Immortal Realm masters were enough to kill Li Ye.

However, Feihong Bodhisattva and the other two did not do anything to Li Ye.

Because the Holy Child also arrived there with his men. In no particular order, people from the two sides came up to Li Ye almost at the same time.

Feihong Bodhisattva looked perfectly calm. It seemed that she was not in the situation ready for war at all. She looked so relax as if she were only coming to exchange a few words with the friends she came across on a spring outing. Gazing steadily at Li Ye, she never intended to hide her intense interest to him. Her red lips moved slightly and then even curved into a lovely smile. Then, she asked, “Prince An Li Ye?”

In a moment, Li Ye’s face turned gloomy.

Prince An Li Ye, of course, Li Ye was certainly very familiar with this greeting. The last time they fought with each other, she called him like this when she planned to get him into her mutton-fat jade pot.

The mutton-fat jade pot was undoubtedly still in Feihong Bodhisattva’s hands.

But naturally and easily, she stood before him with a smile of teasing hanging on her mouth corners. Upon hearing such a greeting, would Li Ye answer her or not?