Chapter 60: Sword Dao Genius (10) |
Just as Su Chen had anticipated, under the relentless pressure from the Great Jing Dynasty, the ancestor of the Black Nether Dynasty finally emerged and challenged the ancestor of the Great Jing Dynasty to a duel.
Two Void Refining realm powerhouses clashed in the heavens. No one paid any attention to the movements below.
Imperial Sword Manor remained eerily still. Thirteen Sword Guards had vanished. And so had Su Chen.
Leading the thirteen Sword Guards, Su Chen launched a lightning raid on the Black Nether Dynasty's capital. Even the Black Nether Emperor never imagined Su Chen would be so audacious.
With a single swing of Dustreturn, Su Chen beheaded eighteen Profound Connection experts. All thirteen Sword Guards perished in the assault. Now, Su Chen and Hu Mao—one man and one tiger—stood alone against the legendary Black Nether Emperor.
Though the Black Nether Emperor had not reached Void Refining, by drawing on the dynasty's national fortune, he could barely wield the power of Profound Connection ninth layer.
"Shen Chen of Imperial Sword Manor!"
The Black Nether Emperor's expression darkened. He had heard of Shen Chen's reputation—a rising sword dao genius whose future achievements would be extraordinary. No… an instinctive dread gripped him. If he underestimated the man before him, he might actually die!
"Manor Lord Shen, has my Black Nether Dynasty offended you in some way?"
Su Chen thought for a moment, then answered softly, almost wistfully, "This all stems from Your Majesty's own daughter. She demanded the foundation of Imperial Sword Manor… and my life. Unfortunately, neither my foundation nor my life is available to give."
The Black Nether Emperor froze for a heartbeat before his face twisted into utter darkness. Clearly, he understood exactly what had happened.
"This is a misunderstanding!"
Su Chen struck without another word. Misunderstanding or not, it no longer mattered.
Dustreturn was linked to Su Chen's bloodline. Sword qi raged in every direction, and with Hu Mao assisting from the side, the Black Nether Emperor was quickly forced into a desperate defense.
"First Form: Cease Conflict."
Seizing the opening, Su Chen delivered a ferocious slash that cleaved the Black Nether Emperor in half at the waist. A being of this level was extremely difficult to kill outright. The palace had been breached. Masses of Profound Connection experts were rushing back to reinforce.
Su Chen dared not delay. He seized the still-living upper half of the Black Nether Emperor.
"Hu Mao, hold him hostage at the entrance to the grand hall! Do not move a single step until I return!"
Hu Mao's heart pounded wildly. He had actually ascended to the point where he could openly hold an entire human dynasty's emperor hostage.
Su Chen wasted no more words. He sat upon the throne of the realm. The national fortune of the Black Nether Dynasty manifested around him. He immediately circulated the Imperial Apex Shock-the-World Technique, devouring the dynasty's destiny like a starving wolf tearing into fresh meat.
Across the Black Nether Dynasty, disasters erupted everywhere. Seas dried into cracked wasteland stretching for thousands of li. Blazing suns scorched the land while snow fell and ice sealed three feet deep. Countless spirit herbs and treasures suddenly lost their spiritual qi and shattered into nothingness.
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Far away, locked in combat with the Great Jing ancestor, the Black Nether ancestor suddenly let out a furious roar.
"Thief! You dare steal the national fortune of my Black Nether Dynasty?"
The furious shout jolted Su Chen awake. He did not dare linger another second. With Hu Mao in tow, he fled the imperial capital at once. Twenty to thirty Profound Connection experts surrounded him, but with the Black Nether Emperor held hostage, they could only watch helplessly as Su Chen rode away on Hu Mao.
Su Chen fled without pause, racing back toward Imperial Sword Manor at breakneck speed. He abandoned even the Sword Guards and the million-strong army.
"If I become a Sovereign, your deaths will not have been in vain!"
Sensing the theft of the national fortune, the Black Nether ancestor—already gravely wounded—forced his way back to the capital. When he saw the half-dead Black Nether Emperor, rage consumed him.
National fortune was the root of any dynasty. Once shaken, everything crumbled. Now, less than a quarter remained—clear signs of a dying era.
"Even if my Black Nether Dynasty perishes, I will slaughter that thief!"
The Black Nether ancestor burned with hatred. An aging Void Refining powerhouse unleashed indiscriminate slaughter.
A million soldiers turned to ash. Hundreds of Sword Guards fell. The heavily injured, qi-depleted Black Nether ancestor was finally cornered by the Great Jing ancestor at the Black Nether River basin and killed on the spot. Thus, an entire dynasty met its end.
In the aftermath, the Jing Emperor gazed at a beautiful woman before him.
"What a Shen Chen of Imperial Sword Manor. What a fine 'brother'!"
The Jing Emperor laughed in fury. He had never imagined Su Chen could endure so patiently. His true goal had been the Black Nether Dynasty's national fortune all along. He had been used as nothing more than a hired blade—and in the end received only a quarter of the fortune.
With a single sword stroke, the Jing Emperor severed the woman's head. He ordered servants to place it in a brocade box and deliver it to Imperial Sword Manor.
…
Inside Imperial Sword Manor.
Su Chen returned in a rush and immediately entered seclusion. He had snatched chestnuts from the fire. Such a vast quantity of national fortune had to be digested as quickly as possible.
Shen Ping'an was still waiting for his beloved. Instead of his beloved, what arrived was a brocade box containing her severed head.
Shen Ping'an was overwhelmed with grief.
"Little Ping'an, are you really going to turn against your big brother for the sake of one woman?"
Hu Mao blocked Shen Ping'an's path. He found human emotions truly baffling.
Shen Ping'an was exhausted. He wanted to leave Imperial Sword Manor. In his eyes, his big brother was no longer the same person. For the sake of power, for the sake of cultivation… Even he had become a pawn to be calculated against.
The hundred Sword Guards had been treated as disposable pieces—discarded without hesitation. Such cold-blooded ruthlessness.
Hu Mao let Shen Ping'an leave. This was his master's younger brother—he could not simply devour him.
Su Chen remained in closed-door cultivation. It was not until fifty years later that he finally emerged. Every gesture he made seemed capable of dimming the heavens and earth.
An aura of absolute sovereignty rolled outward like tidal waves, like the rising sun itself. Everyone believed that from the seemingly declining Imperial Sword Manor had emerged a Void Refining realm powerhouse.
When Su Chen emerged, he found only Hu Mao waiting for him. Imperial Sword Manor was now reduced to a handful of people. The strongest among them was merely at the Spirit Soul realm.
"Master, you've finally come out!"
Hu Mao's eyes brimmed with tears.
Fifty years! Su Chen had been in seclusion for a full fifty years!
Su Chen asked calmly, "What happened in Imperial Sword Manor during these years?"
For the manor to decline to this extent—even if one developed it blindly with their toes—it should never have fallen so low. Hu Mao recounted everything that had occurred in exhaustive detail.
After Su Chen entered seclusion, the Great Jing Emperor had beheaded the Black Nether princess and sent her head to Imperial Sword Manor in a box.
The act shattered Shen Ping'an's loyalty. He abandoned everything and left Imperial Sword Manor. With the manor lord in seclusion and the second-in-command gone, the manor was leaderless.
The three vassal dynasties—Azure Phoenix, Eternal Joy, and Cloud Abyss—saw that Imperial Sword Manor had lost its foundation and that both manor lords were missing. They promptly executed the manor's envoys and defected elsewhere. In just fifty short years, Imperial Sword Manor withered away. Its territories were lost, its resources plundered.
Hu Mao gnashed his teeth in fury. "If I hadn't been worried about someone disturbing your seclusion, Master, I would have devoured every last one of those traitors long ago."
Having understood what had happened over the decades, Su Chen felt no overwhelming anger. He gathered the few remaining loyal members of Imperial Sword Manor, carefully selected eighteen of them to form a new Sword Guard unit, and bestowed upon them the Blood-Burning Secret Art.
Then Su Chen went to see the mother of this life. The once gentle and beautiful woman now had snow-white hair. When she saw Su Chen arrive, a faint smile appeared on her aged face.
"Chen'er… you've come…"
Su Chen fell silent.
Xue Rou had crippled her own cultivation and become a mortal.