Nine Star Hegemon Body Arts

Chapter 5521 Sinister Intentions

The elder’s words drew a chuckle from Long Chen. “Your longevity is already at its end. Basically, you’ve got one foot in the grave. What do you mean by ‘fight to the death’?”

However, Long Chen’s amusement quickly turned to vigilance as he noticed something peculiar. A faint, indistinct black qi had appeared on the foreheads of the three Divine Emperors.

The black qi was death qi, a clear sign that their lives were about to end. In the mortal world, those skilled in face reading could use this qi to tell when a person was about to kick the bucket.

While Long Chen might not be a face-reader, he could tell something was amiss. After all, when experts of this caliber died, they would always choose to undergo a Dao transformation in their ancestral land. So, even if their physical bodies died, their souls would linger to protect their ancestral land, boosting its karmic luck.

Yet here they stood, far from their ancestral lands, with death qi ominously spreading from their foreheads. The anomaly immediately heightened Long Chen’s alarm.

“Hahaha!”

The three Divine Emperors suddenly began to laugh, their expressions twisting into something malevolent.

“Then we’ll destroy your Wind God Sea Pavilion’s dragon veins so that you can’t enter the Heaven Vein Mystic Realm either!” one of them declared with glee.

The three of them formed a series of hand seals, and the black qi on their foreheads exploded outward, spreading rapidly.

“A curse art?” Long Chen was baffled.

Something didn’t add up. The three of them were near death. How much power could they possibly muster with a curse art?

The death qi swirled and expanded. Suddenly, agonized screams echoed through the battlefield. To everyone’s shock, the black qi engulfed all the experts who had cwith the three Divine Emperors. Their bodies decayed in moments, and their Yuan Spirits ignited, which turned them into living torches of agony.

Long Chen and the others were baffled. Did they lose control of the curse art? Why were they cursing their own people?

“Bastards!” Ye Lingkong roared, hastily forming hand seals to counteract the curse.

“It’s too late,” sneered the Divine Emperor from the demonic beast race, his rotten face grotesquely grinning. “We have sacrificed all our lives to curse your dragon veins. For the next hundred years, your Wind God Sea Pavilion will be unable to use them, and your disciples will be plagued with endless misfortune. Unless you hide in your pavilion forever, calamity will haunt you! Hahaha!”

“And that’s not all,” added the Brahma Pill Valley elder, his tone dripping with malice. “You’ll bear the blfor the deaths of the millions of experts from our eighty-seven factions. The world will see you as filthy murderers. Everyone will be your enemy!”

This revelation shocked Tang Wan-er and her sisters. So, their true purpose in sending these decrepit elders wasn’t to scare them but to activate this insidious curse. Moreover, other than these three Divine Emperors, the rest of their experts hadn’t known about this. They screamed and tried to run away, but they quickly turned into black smoke.

“How hateful!” Tang Wan-er exclaimed, gritting her teeth furiously.

The curse energy, born from the sacrifice of millions, forced her and the others to retreat. They had never expected these old coots to be so sinister, scheming even against their own people. Moreover, the Wind God Sea Pavilion would be the one to take the blame.

Long Chen’s fury seethed when he saw the terrifying curse energy, but he didn’t dare to touch it.

Once all enemies turned into black qi and it looked like it was going to merge into the earth, Long Chen gritted his teeth, readying himself to call upon Lei Linger. Though he had no guarantee Lei Linger’s power could disperse this cursed energy, it was their only option.

However, he hesitated. After all, this curse was fueled by divine energy, and if Lei Linger were contaminated by it, the consequences could be dire.

Just as Long Chen prepared to act, a faint quiver from the primal chaos space drew his attention. The mysterious vine within stirred, emanating a powerful summons that resonated deep within him.

The next moment, Long Chen’s palm trembled, and a black mark identical to the mysterious vine appeared on it. It conjured a tiny whirlpool with an incredible suction force.

In an instant, the death qi in the air was drawn into the whirlpool, disappearing entirely. The world instantly cleared up as if there had never been any curse.

Long Chen stared at his palm, bewildered. As the image of the mysterious vine on it vanished, Long Chen turned his attention to the primal chaos space.

The three-foot vine had undergone a dramatic transformation. Its leaves shimmered like emerald jade, and the dense black lightning coursing through it crackled with newfound vigor. What astounded him most was its rapid growth. In mere moments, it had stretched another foot taller, exuding wild vitality.

When Long Chen probed it with his divine sense, the vine waved its leaves, as though attempting to communicate. Regrettably, Long Chen couldn’t understand what it was implying.

“That curse energy was nourishment for you?” Long Chen muttered, his shock mingled with awe. “Just what kind of existence are you?”

The vine’s black lightning continued to swirl as it absorbed the remnants of the curse energy. Since the Heavenly Dao Tree and the Seven Treasure Colored Glass Tree within the primal chaos space were unaffected, Long Chen sighed with relief. Satisfied, he withdrew his focus.

Back in the real world, the battlefield felt eerily empty. The colossal army that had just stood opposite them had vanished, leaving only the chilling memory of what had happened.

Long Chen and Yue Zifeng walked forward to greet the others. Introducing Yue Zifeng to Ye Lingkong, Long Chen was amused to see Ye Lingkong lose his composure. After all, he had never seen such a powerful sword cultivator before.

Yue Zifeng’s sharp and boundless aura was like an unsheathed blade, leaving an unforgettable impression on everyone. The Wind God Sea Pavilion disciples gazed at him with awe and reverence, as though he were a celestial being from the heavens.

When Long Chen looked at Tang Wan-er, she got it directly and introduced the Hidden Dragon warriors to Yue Zifeng. Upon learning that he was the Dragonblood Legion’s fourth captain, they couldn’t contain their astonishment. Whispers of excitement rippled through their ranks.

“Let’s go. Elder Xinyue is waiting for you,” said Ye Lingkong.

With Ye Lingkong leading the way, they entered the Wind God Palace, leaving the battlefield and its sinister echoes behind.