The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 266 Execution

The next day.

All of Haiqing City – warriors and even common folk alike – simmered with commotion, all because of one story.

Be it warriors or common folk, everyone thronged the streets, heading towards the community plaza of the city.

At the square, a sea of black swarmed like a mass of black ants undulating erratically.

Tens of soldiers, all of them armed to the teeth, standing at attention at the center of the plaza with their weapons all fully loaded.

A line of prisoners, all of them with their heads hooded, knelt on the ground in a straight file.

“Is this a shooting execution?”

“Looks like it. What have these people done to warrant such a punishment, I wonder?”

“Well, it’s carried out by soldiers. You can bet the prisoners aren’t our usual garden-variety thieves. They must be some heinous villains or something.”

A drone of hushed murmurs rose over the mob of spectators. They had come only after seeing the news that reported about a shooting execution here at the plaza today.

“Look at their attire. They look like members of the Broken Souls Cult.”

“You’re right. But isn’t the army strangely brazen these days? They dare execute these Cultists so publicly. Don’t they fear any reprisals from the Cult?”

“The army has been buzzing quite a lot lately. In the past, you won’t even see them doing anything against warriors and their battle pets. But look at the past few days. So many animals had been slaughtered by scores. I bet the army must have found help maybe?”

“They might have invented some powerful weapons that they no longer have to fear warriors, I guess.”

Even warriors whispered among themselves keenly.

Pan Zihao stepped forward. He surveyed the crowd of onlookers and addressed them loudly.

“Citizens! Do you know who these people are?”

Warriors or common folk, neither of them knew and everyone shook their heads.

“Unhood them,” Pan Zihao ordered.

Some soldiers stepped front and yanked the hoods off the captives.

Blinded by the sudden light at first, the captives then realized where they were and they began screaming and shrieking belligerently.

“@#￥%...” one of the Fusang captives howled with protest.

The door of a military car opened. Chu Xun disembarked the vehicle with Jiu You and the others in tow.

The common folk only watched the entrance of Jiu You and Lei Bao and the others with mild interest. But the warriors, on the other hand, burst into uproar.

Lei Bao, Jiu You, and Winsome Widow had been stalking the streets just days before, slaughtering every battle pet that crossed their path while injuring their masters. Hardly any of the warriors could ever fail to recognize them.

The roaring crowd parted to let Chu Xun and his companions pass.

The Fusang wandering warriors saw Chu Xun coming nearer, and he writhed and convulsed against the chains holding him.

“What is he saying?” asked Chu Xun.

The soldier who understood the Fusang tongue marched to Chu Xun and explained, “He is saying that you promised to spare him, sir.”

“Tell him this, I promised to spare him. But I’m not responsible for what others might do to him,” muttered Chu Xun slyly.

Chu Xun’s message was relayed to the Fusang captive, rendering him stunned for seconds before he burst into a long clarion of expletives that hardly needed any translation; his sentiments were well-reflected by his outrage.

Bang!

A rifle fired, and the Fusang captive’s head burst with blood spraying from the back of his head and so ended his protests.

“He’s from Fusang?!” a voice from the crowd gasped aloud.

The mob of onlookers had erupted into boisterous chatter when the Fusang captive first began bellowing his outcry.

“That is correct,” declared Pan Zihao at Chu Xun’s signal, “These prisoners include members of the Broken Souls Cult and Fusang wandering warriors. It was these villains who had attacked the army garrison days ago and caused the deaths of more than a dozen of our finest.”

More exclamation rumbled through the crowd. Small wonder that these prisoners were to be executed – these were the ones who had assaulted the army encampment in the night.

However, the warriors had an altogether different perception. These wandering warriors and Cultists had been able to launch an assault on a military installation and retreated cleanly without so much as a wounded man. That was testament enough of their prowess. But how were they apprehended? The warriors’ gaze shifted towards Lei Bao and the others, wondering if they were the answer.

“Who are these people?” Some of the warriors thought quietly, having sampled enough of Lei Bao’s and his companions’ might and ruthlessness in battle. “Will the authorities grant amnesty to such irascible people,” they wondered.

“Additionally, these prisoners are the perpetrators behind the disappearances of young girls happening around the city,” announced Pan Zihao further.

WHAT?!

As if everyone was uttering the same word, a loud gasp rolled across the crowd like a wave. So these captives had been the ones responsible for abducting those young girls.

“You beastly animals...” a middle-aged man growled; his daughter was still lying on her sickbed at the hospital.

“Kill them! Kill these scums!”

More cries and bellows came from the crowd as tensions began to flare.

None of the warriors said a word. It was only the common people who demanded justice with an unruly fervor, despite knowing how terrible and dangerous the Broken Souls Cult was.

Chu Xun could not help feeling dismayed and disappointed. Gone was the code of a warrior’s ethos to repay the kindness by virtue and the aggression by justice as he beheld the cowardice and indifference of the warriors before him to the plight of the common people. To think that they would rather keep mum in the face of the Fusang wandering warriors who had massacred and butchered their own compatriots.

“Fire!” Chu Xun barked.

Bang! Bang!...

Red flames spurted from the muzzles of the rifles and blood splotched everywhere as the executed men tumbled one after another. In mere instances, the Cultists and the Fusang captives were all shot dead.

The entire plaza fell into utter silence.

The warriors however wore ugly looks on their faces. None of them had expected the army to take on such a forceful stance suddenly.

“Hmph. I’d like to see how the Cult would respond to this,” a voice sneered in a hushed voice.

That did not go unnoticed by Lei Bao, who turned infuriated. “Craven fools!” he bellowed, “Do you think the Cult is scary?! Let them come! Let them come and fight me in open combat!”

No one dared utter a syllable. Yet some gloated with glee and anticipation. The lion’s share of the soldiers had lost their battle pets at the hands of Lei Bao and his companions, so they were rather happy to expect some retribution.

“The Broken Souls Cult is just a ragtag group of dastardly bandits and villains! Their members had just been shot, but where are they? Why did they not show themselves?” Lei Bao taunted loudly.

He had only just finished speaking when the air screamed with a sharp, vociferous whistle. Something as quick as a lightning shot came straight at Lei Bao.

The mob of spectators were stunned, while many more took pleasure in Lei Bao’s impending misfortune. The Cult acted!

Lei Bao snorted icily, brandishing aloft his sword breaker, glowing its perpetual dark radiance, and he smote his weapon hard on the incoming projectile.

Clang!

Spark erupted from the clash and the object clattered to the ground and everyone saw what it was: a steel arrow.

“YOU DARE PUT TO DEATH FEW OF OURS... DEATH SHALL COME UPON YOU...” a deep booming voice thundered, resounding from every direction, although they couldn’t find from whom it came.

“Sniveling coward! Show yourself!” roared Lei Bao.

“Come nightfall tomorrow, that shall be the hour of your reckoning, Chu the Devil,” the voice rumbled again with stark fury and impetus.

Chu the Devil?!

The warriors below could not quite believe what they heard. Some staggered unconsciously with shock and trepidation as they gazed at the young figure standing at the top of the platform.

Chu Xun, or more commonly known as Chu the Devil, whose penchant for viciousness and callousness was all but public knowledge to everyone.

Small wonder that the army took a new highhanded stance and carried out the brazen execution of the captives! They had found a new benefactor and proponent, who was the most dangerous man in this domain!

Many began to sulk with regret. Had they known that it was him behind the threats of the purge, they would have quickly escaped the city with their battle pets.

“With just you?” Chu Xun asked audibly, his face as smooth as glass, but it sounded powerful and stern in the ears of those standing below.

“You’re overconfident, Chu the Devil. Come nightfall tomorrow. The ancient ruins outside the city will reappear and that shall be the hour of your reckoning.”

“What makes you think I’m allowing you to leave?” Chu Xun muttered flatly.

Yet before his voice faded, Chu Xun vanished into thin air.

Perched atop a twenty-two-story building thousands of meters away was a man clothed fully in black. His fingers grasped tightly his steel bow’s riser, watching Chu Xun drawing nearer with headlong speed.

“As I said before, Chu the Devil, your hubris is misplaced. Do you really think you are invincible and undefeatable? I come and go if I will, and nothing you do will stop me,” said the stranger pompously.

Covering the distance of a thousand meters took only two breaths for a person like Chu Xun. His speed hardly reduced when he reached the foot of the building, and he stomped into the ground, crushing the earth beneath his feet as he rocketed himself into the air, zipping several tens of meters in split-seconds. With a powerful kick, he drove a foot into the wall, blasting a hole in it, using it as a foothold to propel himself further upwards.

The stranger on top moved to the edge where he saw Chu Xun racing up like a panther. With a snort, he nocked an arrow and drew his bow.

Swoosh!

The arrow screamed through the air with a shrill cry, tearing towards Chu Xun with a force that could easily spear through thick iron slabs.

But Chu Xun needed only to hold out a hand, and he easily caught the arrow with two fingers. With a raspy crack, he snapped the steel arrow into halves.

The eyes of the stranger perched atop gleamed with surprise, and he quickly bolted to the far side of the roof.

At the same time, Chu Xun shot above the roof sharply before dropping to a landing on the roof.

“I told you, Chu the Devil, that if I so choose to leave, no one stops me,” the stranger’s voice came with a mocking timbre in the strong breeze.

Swoosh!

Behind his back, a pair of wings stretched out of nowhere with a mechanical whirr.

A pair of man-made wings! A jetpack with exoskeletal retractable wings!

“Farewell, Chu the Devil. Flee for your life if you will, or tomorrow is the last day you draw breath, hahaha...” his imperious and smug laughter boomed like an echo that reverberated across the horizons as the stranger initiated the afterburners of his jetpack, belching violent tongues of flames that thrust him off the roof.

At the same time far below, the rest of the warriors from the plaza had reached the foot of the building and were all looking up.

The man did not leave. Instead, he hovered in midair, turning around and glared at Chu Xun derisively. “My fellow warriors, on this time tomorrow at the ancient ruins, we of the Broken Souls Cult shall dispense judgment upon Chu the Devil. We cordially welcome you all to attend as witnesses.”

He looked at Chu Xun and sneered again, “So what if you have extraordinary might and power, Chu the Devil? What can you do to stop me now?”

“I did say that you’re not leaving,” Chu Xun hissed calmly, his eyes as still as the surface of a frozen lake.

“Hahahahaha... You jest. I don’t suppose you can fly!” boomed the stranger, his eyes flaring with mockery, “I shall leave, and let’s see how you intend to keep me here.”

“Look closely then,” said Chu Xun softly.

In an instant, tens of thousands of Reincarnation Lines shot forth, weaving through each other and forming into a long whip.

Chu Xun swung and flailed it forward, and the Reincarnation Whip shrieked as it tore through the air.

The stranger’s expression changed. He frantically nocked another arrow and fired. The steel arrow screamed and struck the Reincarnation Whip hard on the stem and the sheer accuracy of the shot itself was awesome enough.

Swoosh!

The arrow pummeled through the Reincarnation Whip, reducing it into a deluge of purple sparkles, before continuing to barrel away out of sight.

The purple sparkles now heavily mottling the whole of the sky were in fact tens of thousands of thin gossamer Reincarnation Line threads.

Feeling slightly giddy and a strange prickly sensation of foreboding, the stranger turned around, wanting to flee as his jetpack began blasting jets of flames from its exhaust.

A hint of scorn flashed in Chu Xun’s eyes. With a flick of his finger, the tens of thousands of Reincarnation Lines burst with the intensity of a bursting dam.

Yet no matter how great an acceleration the jetpack could yield, its speed was no match to Chu Xun’s Reincarnation Lines.

In the blink of an eye, the aerial tidal wave of millions of Reincarnation Lines swept forth and devoured him.

Clink! Clink! Clink!

The air chimed with a perpetual string of metallic rings caused by the Reincarnation Lines hitting the jetpack, with some crackling into flames from the jet exhaust heat.

Boom!

A powerful burst of Internal Breath erupted, and the tens of thousands of Reincarnation Lines swarming the stranger were hammered back by an invisible force before they crumbled and dissipated into nothing.

Three domes of light sprang into existence from nowhere, creating a brightly-lighted cocoon-like shield that prevented any other Reincarnation Lines from getting near to him.

He glowered at Chu Xun unkindly and sneered, “So, Chu the Devil, what else can you do now?”

“A Third-grade Human King,” Chu Xun observed dryly.

“You’re well informed,” the stranger remarked derisively, “Now you know why I am not afraid of you even in single combat. Or rather, if not for the fact that there are too many people who want to deal the killing blow too, I would have already killed you myself.”

Chu Xun made no reply. Instead, with a taunting glare, he vanished into a bolt of light that hurtled off the roof into the air as he quickly weaved several hand signs, and he smote.

He sent a blast of energy that took on the shape of his fists, forged with a condensed amount of his Hong Meng Immortal Qi that zoomed at the stranger with the force of a mountain, and the air quivered whenever it passed by.

Caught off guard at first, the stranger guffawed, “Are you a fool, Chu the Devil? Do you wish for death so much?”

He clasped his hands together and his Internal Breath surged inside him before he channeled and released it with a slap, firing a bolt of Internal Breath energy of his own.

The energy bolts met and collided, then a terrible explosion ensued, causing a shock wave so powerful that it rippled so violently with a loud swoosh, shattering all the glass panes of every building in the vicinity.