The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 365 The Center of the Secret Region

Let someone else control his own destiny. That was not Li Ye’s style. Even if Feihong Bodhisattva promised to allow him and the demon clan cultivators to enter the secret region with them, he would not ever hand over all the copper pieces.

But only after Li Ye gave her all the copper pieces would Feihong Bodhisattva let Nangong Diyi and Su Emei go. Now Li Ye refused her, which meant their negotiations broke down. It signified that Li Ye chose a life and death struggle with Feihong Bodhisattva.

A life and death struggle showed his determination to fight Feihong Bodhisattva to death. Whoever still alive in the end would be the winner. The winner could get all the copper pieces and enter the secret region.

But Li Ye made no move.

Nor did Feihong Bodhisattva.

Li Ye took no immediate action because he cared about Nangong Diyi and Su Emei. Once he launched his attack, those Land Buddhism monks would first kill them.

Feihong Bodhisattva didn’t act immediately, either.

She made no move because some people came.

This was the only entrance to enter the dense fog forest. People must use the battleax here to split open the door. Thus, everyone with copper pieces would be guided to this place eventually.

The people who came were Immortal Court cultivators.

There were only a dozen people.

When all of them entered the secret region at the beginning, both the combat capability and the quantity of Immortal Court cultivators obviously outstripped the demon clan and Land Buddhism. But now, they had only a dozen people left. The reason was naturally that they had lost both their leader and their strongest high-end combat power.

It was not easy for these dozen people to get here.

Apparently, they didn’t intend to give up.

They were determined to enter the secret region and fight for the Luck of heaven.

They were now led by the Earth Grandeur City’s Lu Xiude, a middle-aged man who looked honest and sincere.

They did not appear abruptly. Instead, after they found the demon clan and those Land Buddhism monks, they hid behind the nearby woods. Since they were alone and weak now, they would never show up rashly. To be frank, profiting by disturbances was their best strategy under the current circumstances.

But it was a pity that neither Li Ye nor Feihong Bodhisattva was an easy target. To prevent their enemies from taking them by surprise, they had dispatched scouts to check the situations in all directions. Therefore, as soon as those Immortal Court cultivators appeared, Li Ye and Feihong Bodhisattva received the news.

At this time, the strength of the dozen Immortal Court monks could be regarded as pretty good. Up till now, each ruin had become the tomb of many cultivators. Most cultivators of the three sides were dead. Now that there were only less than twenty Land Buddhism monks under Feihong Bodhisattva’s command. Hence, the dozen cultivators’ strength was enough to affect the overall situation.

Looking at Feihong Bodhisattva, Li Ye said, “It seems that we should cooperate again.”

Feihong Bodhisattva asked, “Are we going to exterminate these Immortal Court cultivators once and for all?”

Li Ye answered, “As long as they are alive, they will always get in our way.”

Feihong Bodhisattva said, “But I may not do it as you wish.”

Li Ye asked, “Will you cooperate with them?”

Feihong Bodhisattva said, “At present, your demon clan is a more powerful force than the Land Buddhism and the Immortal Court. Why can’t we weaker ones join forces?”

Li Ye said, “But things change.”

Feihong Bodhisattva said, “I only chose to go with the tide.”

Li Ye said nothing more.

In the past, the Immortal Court was the most powerful one. If the demon clan and the Land Buddhism wanted to survive, they had to cooperate.

But now that the demon clan became the most powerful one. As long as the Land Buddhism and the Immortal Court wanted to achieve something, they had no choice but to gang up on the demon clan.

There was no perpetual enemy, only perpetual interest. In fact, Lu Xiude from the Immortal Court and Feihong Bodhisattva from the Land Buddhism, they had few other options no matter how deep their previous grudge was.

Moreover, the so-called grudges came from the contestation of interests. To be honest, they didn’t care about the debt of gratitude or old grudges. Interest was their real goal which guided all their actions.

In the face of such an overall situation, what would Li Ye do?

He was ready to start fighting.

The intention to kill flashed past his eyes. With a sudden ray of green light flying across, the Luke Sword was already in Li Ye’s hands.

Li Ye abandoned all the distracting thoughts and stared directly at Feihong Bodhisattva with a strong will to fight.

There seemed to be lightning between Feihong Bodhisattva’s eyebrows. All of a sudden, the expression in her eyes became fierce and pitiless while her Jade Vase began trembling and humming. Her whole person was like a snow mountain that was about to erupt. She looked so dignified that others even dared not to look at her directly.

The struggle between Li Ye and Feihong Bodhisattva as well as the battle between the demon clan and the Land Buddhism would have a winner finally.

The arrow was on the string and had to be fired.

Only the winner would have the chance to enter the dense fog forest and get the Luck of heaven.

However, they still did not start a fight.

Some people came.

The seven or eight demon clan cultivators rushed down the mountain path opposite those Immortal Court cultivators.

When the leader saw Li Ye, an exaggerated, brilliant smile appeared on his face. Spreading his arms out, the leader ran toward Li Ye. “Li Ye, I knew you would be fine and would come here to meet us! I was right about you!”

Seeing the person coming at him, Li Ye was a little stunned at first, but then a light smile flashed across his eyes. “Big bird?”

The man who ran up to him suddenly braked with a rattling noise coming from his feet. Behind him raised a wisp of smoke and dust in the air.

His face flushed bright red, and he jumped about furiously. “Don’t call me big bird. How many times have I told you about? My name is You Daxiao, not You Daniao! ‘Xiao’ means I am a fierce and ambitious hero while ‘niao’ is used to describe a wisp of smoke! And even so, it is much better than the character ‘niao,’ which means a big bird!”

The people who came were the Son of God, You Daxiao, and the Holy Child, Red Boy.

Feihong Bodhisattva stopped when she was on the point of attacking. Then she cast a glance at You Daxiao and Red Boy.

Li Ye smiled. “Whatever you say, big bird.”

You Daxiao felt like weeping. “You completely ruined my illustrious name!”

Red Boy exclaimed, “Li Ye, you did not let me down! With your current realm, you managed to go through such a dangerous secret region with your men. It was really a miracle! And you are the one who created such a miracle!”

Before Li Ye could say anything, Feihong Bodhisattva, who was in front of him, squinted at Red Boy.

It was unknown what an embarrassing past event he recalled. After Feihong Bodhisattva’s glance, Red Boy, who was alive and kicking, drew back his neck with fear and dared not to say anything more. Swiftly, he ran to Li Ye and hid behind him. Throughout, he did not dare to look at Feihong Bodhisattva again.

He behaved like a naughty boy, but the Holy-child King was not supposed to act like that.

In any case, after the Son of God and the Holy Child joined the demon clan, its strength got enhanced once again. At the moment, even if the Immortal Court and the Land Buddhism joined hands with each other, they might not win.

Once again, Li Ye got the initiative.

After all, Li Ye had killed too many cultivators from the Immortal Court and Land Buddhism in the previous battles.

As someone transmigrated from the earth, Li Ye had experienced the era of the great information explosion. Even though he was not a soldier, he also had gained some understanding of the special forces’ tactics. In the secret region, only he could apply these military strategies with great facilities.

Li Ye looked at Feihong Bodhisattva and smiled. “I have a suggestion for you. Do you want to hear it, Bodhisattva?”

It seemed that Feihong Bodhisattva could see through Li Ye’s mind. “Do you want me to attach to you?”

Li Ye said very seriously, “I am not asking you to depend on me. Instead, I want to continue our previous cooperation.”

Wearing an expressionless face, Feihong Bodhisattva still looked so enigmatic. She asked, “How can I make sure that you will not go back on your promise?”

Li Ye said, “I can swear to you by Taoist’s Heart.”

Feihong Bodhisattva smiled lightly. “I will never agree unless all of you swear by your Taoist’s Heart.”

Li Ye said, “How hard can that be?”

The low-grade cultivators practiced techniques while the high-grade cultivators cultivated the Great Tao. As long as those cultivators who were above the Spiritual Master Realm wanted to make further progress, the Great Tao was the most important pursuit for them. Thus, cultivators would swear by the Taoist’s Heart when they made the most important oaths.

All beings in this world were afraid of something. Human beings considered themselves to be the wisest of all creatures. Immortals called themselves the lord of the world. Both of them had few things to fear. However, not a single one of them dared to despise the Great Tao. They revered it because the Great Tao was the goal that Great Cultivators struggled for all their lives.

“Li Ye (demon clan cultivator) vows by the Taoist’s Heart. I would like to enter the dense fog forest with Land Buddhism cultivators. The Great Tao will not tolerate anyone who betrays the vow. May heaven strike me dead if I go against my vow!”

After a short while, Li Ye and the demon clan cultivators finished taking the oath.

Feihong Bodhisattva asked, “Then what shall we do to those Immortal Court cultivators?”

Li Ye said, “Kill them all.”

After that, all the demon clan cultivators and Land Buddhism monks immediately rushed out and pounced at Lu Xiude and others who thought they were safe hiding in the forest.

Those Land Buddhism monks took the eighteen arhats as the core force. Likewise, a core of 72 Earth Devils was sent by the Immortal Court this time to the human world, and there were fewer other cultivators.

Up until the last moment, the demon clan cultivators and Land Buddhism monks were confronting each other. But then they came to fight against Lu Xiude and others unexpectedly. More surprisingly, Li Ye and Feihong Bodhisattva had found the hiding place of Lu Xiude and others long ago, although they thought they found a perfect hiding place.

When Lu Xiude and others confronted both the demon clan cultivators and the Land Buddhism monks, they struggled hard.

But they didn’t need to struggle for too long.

There were altogether 50 demon clan cultivators and Land Buddhism monks. They finished besieging and killed all those Immortal Court cultivators in only half a quarter.

Lu Xiude and others were all killed.

“Four battleax pieces.” Li Ye took the Immortal Court cultivators’ copper pieces. He couldn’t help chuckling. “You guys even wanted to get the other 45 pieces by your 4 pieces. How ambitious you were!”

After that, Li Ye looked at Feihong Bodhisattva. “Bodhisattva?”

Feihong Bodhisattva said, “Go to the secret region.”

All of them came to the dense fog forest.

The fog was so dense that it became creamy white now, like milk floating in the air.

When they looked deep into the forest, they found they could only see things within less than 9 meters around them. At the end of the road under their feet, there was a cloud of grey fog as high as 30 meters, rolling and twisting like a vortex between the two rows of towering trees. It seemed as if it could swallow people’s souls.

Standing before the vortex, they felt they were as small as ants.

Li Ye glanced at Feihong Bodhisattva but didn’t urge her.

There was no need to urge her at this time.

The demon clan had nearly 40 cultivators, but the Land Buddhism had only more than 10. There was a quite remarkable disparity of strength between them. Li Ye thought to himself that even if they fought a fierce battle, he had the confidence to defeat Feihong Bodhisattva theoretically.

However, it was only in theory. The Immortal Court believed the theory, and so Huang Jingyuan and Chen Jizhen died.

After all, she was Feihong Bodhisattva.

Feihong Bodhisattva raised her hand. A dozen copper pieces came up to Li Ye.

Her moves were free and easy, which were natural and smooth like flowing water. She did all of this without any hesitation.

She knew Li Ye would do nothing because Nangong Diyi and Su Emei were still in those Land Buddhism monks’ hands.

Li Ye accepted the copper pieces.

In fact, he knew it very clear. As soon as they entered the dense fog forest, the two sides would become enemies again. After all, all of them were here to fight for the Luck of heaven. It was true that they vowed by the Taoist’s Heart. But they only promised not to have any evil intention in the process of entering the secret region.

Obviously, Feihong Bodhisattva had acquiesced in this.