Chapter 2008: Someone in the Shadows

The starry sky was filled with flashing lightning and constant thunder.

Gazing into the distance, more than a dozen figures darted through the chaos, some in human form, others as ancient primordial beasts. They trampled the star domains, causing them to collapse and ancient stars to explode, with all sorts of halos radiating in unmatched destruction.

As Ye Chen observed, the ones engaged in this melee were the Honghuang quasi-emperors who had previously attended the auction.

At that moment, the one under siege was Gui Ji. He had transformed into his true form, a colossal body like a mountain covered in scales. His massive eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, so red they seemed about to bleed.

This creature was extraordinarily fearsome.

His enormous body charged through the starry sky, making it rumble as he spewed flames and shot thunder from his eyes. A layer of illusory armor enveloped him, his aura dominating the heavens and earth.

However, even with his strength, he could not withstand the assault of over a dozen quasi-emperors.

These opponents were not ordinary human cultivators but Honghuang quasi-emperors, on the same level as him, and some even slightly superior. As powerful as he was, Gui Ji was beaten until blood and bones flew everywhere. The starry sky was dyed red with his blood, a gruesome and striking sight.

In the void space, Ye Chen watched quietly, revealing no trace of his presence.

Honghuang quasi-emperors were far more formidable than human ones; each was incredibly tough in direct combat, so strategy was essential.

All Ye Chen could do was wait for both sides to exhaust each other.

“Will you fight to the death?”

As Ye Chen watched, Gui Ji spat blood again, his roar echoing through the starry sky. His eyes were blood-red with rage, his insides churning with fury. Every time he tried to escape, he was blocked and driven back. Since leaving the You Ming Pavilion six days ago, he had been relentlessly pursued, driving him to the brink of madness.

“Hand over the Xian Jin, and you may live.”

Qiong Qi sneered wickedly.

“If you want it that badly, take it!”

Gui Ji roared in anger, opening his mouth to spit out a treasure box that flew toward the quasi-emperors. Then, he turned and fled. To outsiders, it appeared the Xian Jin was inside the box.

Remarkably, the Honghuang quasi-emperors actually believed it. Their eyes gleamed with fiery greed.

Qiong Qi quasi-emperor was the fastest, reaching out with a massive hand to grab the box.

But awkwardly, before he could touch it, Tao Wu charged in and slashed him away with a sword. Fortunately, Qiong Qi was tough enough to withstand it; otherwise, that strike could have split him in two.

“Tao Wu, you’re asking for death!”

Qiong Qi thundered in fury, instantly transforming into his true form.

“The Xian Jin is mine!”

Tao Wu laughed coldly, ignoring Qiong Qi and rushing straight for the box.

However, he also failed to reach it.

Kui Ba quasi-emperor had arrived, fusing thousands of secret techniques into a single finger that pierced right through him.

In that instant, the other Honghuang quasi-emperors swarmed in without hesitation.

The brawl erupted again as the Honghuang quasi-emperors fought fiercely over the treasure box, unleashing deadly techniques left and right.

“This intelligence...”

Ye Chen rubbed his brow.

While the Honghuang quasi-emperors couldn’t see through it, he could clearly tell that the box contained no Xian Jin at all—just a powerful talisman. In short, Gui Ji was tricking them.

Glancing over, Ye Chen saw that Gui Ji had already escaped several thousand zhang, his eyes flashing with cunning.

From the void space, Ye Chen stealthily followed Gui Ji. He wasn’t trying to snatch the Xian Jin; instead, he wanted to hold Gui Ji back and prevent his escape, letting the other Honghuang quasi-emperors deal with him. Ye Chen’s role was simply to play the part of the fisherman waiting for the catch.

Sure enough, the treasure box exploded.

More precisely, the talisman inside it detonated. The explosion was terrifyingly destructive, centered on that point and rapidly spreading a halo of annihilation in all directions. Everywhere it touched, Honghuang quasi-emperors were flung back, and numerous ancient stars were obliterated.

“Damn it!”

Realizing they’d been tricked, the Honghuang quasi-emperors erupted in rage.

Thus, those who had been fighting each other to the death moments ago formed an alliance and chased after Gui Ji in one direction.

Meanwhile, Gui Ji had already summoned a domain gate and leaped into it.

“Not so fast!”

Ye Chen chuckled coldly and struck with a sword, severing the domain gate’s passage.

Thud!

Gui Ji was wounded, tumbling out of the passage. Already gravely injured, this added insult to injury, and he plummeted through the starry sky, his blood-soaked form painfully vivid.

“Who is it?”

Gui Ji roared in anger, certain that someone was ambushing him from the shadows.

Ye Chen, hidden in the space, offered no response.

But his silence didn’t mean others wouldn’t respond. Behind him, the Honghuang quasi-emperors arrived, their killing intent soaring as they saw Gui Ji. Without a word, they launched a collective assault.

Gui Ji was done for; in a single exchange, his divine body shattered.

The Honghuang quasi-emperors were like wild beasts, charging across the starry sky and pummeling him with deadly techniques.

“Stop! There’s someone in the dark!”

Gui Ji shrieked.

“Do you think we’ll fall for your lies again?”

The quasi-emperors snorted coldly. Far from stopping, they attacked even more fiercely, their coordination flawless. Qiong Qi, with his robust physical form, led the charge to assault the body, while Jin Ni targeted the primordial spirit to lock onto Gui Ji’s true form. The others showed no mercy.

Thud!

The starry sky trembled violently as blood sprayed. Gui Ji collapsed inevitably; his newly healed body shattered again, and he vomited blood in large gulps. It was unclear if it was from injury or rage. He knew full well there was someone lurking to profit from their fight, yet no one believed him.

“If I were them, I wouldn’t believe it either.”

Ye Chen muttered with a smirk.

Anyone in their position would feel the same. Having just tricked them, Gui Ji’s credibility was shot.

“Ah...!”

Gui Ji’s howl was shrill and furious. No matter how he warned them, the Honghuang quasi-emperors refused to listen, their attacks unrelenting. All they wanted was to reduce him to ashes.

Gui Ji was utterly finished; nothing he said mattered now.

Even as a spectator, Ye Chen couldn’t bear to watch any longer. The Honghuang quasi-emperors were relentless, blasting Gui Ji’s body to pieces, severing his primordial spirit, and dismembering his true form.

The scene was gruesomely red, with blood mist filling the entire starry sky.

“Ah...!”

With Gui Ji’s final scream, his primordial spirit exploded completely, truly turning to dust. In his dying moments, he didn’t bother warning them anymore, only letting out a roar laced with fury and a sinister laugh that echoed through the starry sky.

“On the road to the Yellow Springs, I’ll be waiting for you all.”

Before the words faded, this Honghuang quasi-emperor was utterly destroyed.

Though he was dead, the Honghuang quasi-emperors continued their battle, still fighting over the Xian Jin.

The slyest among them was Jin Ni quasi-emperor.

His agility was unmatched; he had disrupted the spatial laws to seize the Xian Jin and flee in an instant.

“You think you can escape?”

Tao Wu quasi-emperor bellowed, activating a heaven-swapping secret technique that pulled Jin Ni back.

Caught off guard, Jin Ni barely steadied himself.

But to his despair, the Honghuang quasi-emperors’ attacks were already raining down—palm strikes, fists, sword beams, blade lights, array diagrams, and magical tools filled the sky, overwhelming him completely.

Thud!

Jin Ni’s divine body exploded, blood and bones scattering. He had wanted to flee, but it was too late.

Another quasi-emperor met his end, even more unjustly than Gui Ji, without so much as a scream.

When the smoke cleared, only a piece of golden Xian Jin remained.

Tian Xie quasi-emperor was quick, snatching the Xian Jin and soaring into the sky, summoning a domain gate to enter it.

This time, Ye Chen didn’t intervene.

Such tricks were Qiong Qi’s specialty too. Tian Xie had just entered the domain gate when Qiong Qi arrived, unleashing a palm that blocked out the sky and crushed the starry space, shattering the domain gate’s passage.

Thud!

Tian Xie vomited blood and was hurled out, now a bloody mess.

The Honghuang quasi-emperors were efficient; before Tian Xie could stop, they unleashed a barrage of attacks. By the time he regained his footing, all he saw was a wave of apocalyptic radiance.

The third Honghuang quasi-emperor was obliterated on the spot.

With three quasi-emperors fallen in quick succession, the battle showed no signs of stopping; the group fought even more fiercely.

In the space, Ye Chen stood with his hands clasped, his eyes darting around.

The quasi-emperors moved too fast for him to follow easily.

What was clear was that the indestructible Xian Jin, that supreme treasure, had become a hot potato. Whoever grabbed it became the next target, and they wouldn’t stop until the victim was dead. Counting the earlier three, seven quasi-emperors had already perished because of it.

Treasures can bring ruin!

Ye Chen couldn’t help but sigh. At this rate, the Honghuang quasi-emperors would likely all meet their end.

Thud!

Even as he spoke, another quasi-emperor burst into a spray of blood, his primordial spirit extinguished.

It was Tao Wu quasi-emperor. He had seized the Xian Jin but was swarmed and killed before he could even hold it.

Now, only six Honghuang quasi-emperors remained in the fray.

With Tao Wu quasi-emperor dead, the Xian Jin was once again unclaimed, gleaming gold and eye-catching. The more ownerless it was, the more desperately they fought for it, and without learning their lesson—they grabbed it and tried to flee, only to fail and lose their lives in the process.

Ye Chen wasn’t in a hurry; he was still waiting.

He might not be anxious, but the Hun Dun Ding and the Purple Gold Xiao Hu Lu were restless, eager to emerge.

Ye Chen wouldn’t allow it; the timing wasn’t right yet.

Elsewhere, the Xian Jin fell into another’s hands—it was Taotie quasi-emperor.

The other five quasi-emperors snorted coldly, their eyes flashing with cold light as they attacked from all sides, aiming for a decisive kill.

Taotie transformed into his true form.

The Taotie clan had an overwhelmingly powerful body and actually withstood the onslaught.

“Hand over the Xian Jin!”

Kui Ba quasi-emperor roared, gripping the forces of heaven and earth, manipulating yin and yang with an unparalleled secret technique. Ancient scripts etched his palm, and before it even landed, the starry sky collapsed under its might.

“Hand over the Xian Jin!”

The other four quasi-emperors charged in unison, positioning themselves at the four corners. One wielded an immortal sword, another a divine blade, one deployed an array diagram, and another controlled a magical tool, trapping Taotie firmly in that stretch of starry sky.

Taotie steadied himself and wiped away the blood, baring his fangs in a grin.

His smile was ferocious and somewhat cunning. Strange divine patterns appeared on his body—or rather, array patterns—that spread across his form, interweaving and outlining.

“Reverse summoning?”

Ye Chen raised an eyebrow, surprised. He recognized those array patterns as a type of summoning array. Taotie must have formed a contract with someone, allowing him to be reverse-summoned through the contract’s array.

“Stop him!”

The five quasi-emperors shouted, hastily sealing the space.

But it was too late. The surrounded Taotie quasi-emperor vanished in an instant.

“Damn it!”

The five quasi-emperors exploded in fury, their roars like ancient thunderclaps that shattered the starry sky. After fighting for so long, they had lost the Xian Jin. They had anticipated many twists, but not that Taotie quasi-emperor would escape via reverse summoning. Even with their cultivation, they couldn’t track where he had gone.

They might not see it, but Ye Chen could.

Though his Lun Hui Eye was in a sealed state, his vision remained sharp, enhanced by Zhou Tian’s evolution. He could pinpoint Taotie’s location accurately. Once found, everything would fall into place. A half-dead quasi-emperor’s power was greatly diminished, and with a full-on assault, Ye Chen could send him straight to the Yellow Springs road.