Nine Nether Heavenly Emperor
Chapter 217 Four-Star Martial Sovereign

Chapter 217: Chapter 217 Four-Star Martial Sovereign

Stabbed in the chest and filled with disbelief, Gu Jiang suddenly realized something, and he quickly turned back, shouting at the astonished Qin Ao behind him, "Qin Ao, run, tell the Heavenly Sword Alliance it was him who killed me! Run... fast!"

Before Gu Jiang’s words could trail off, his consciousness retreated like an ebb tide. His body, like a deflated ball, quickly withered away, and all his blood, through the wound in his chest, flowed into the Bloodthirsty Sword and from there into Shi Feng’s hand, being absorbed by him.

Qin Ao also jolted awake from his astonishment. Gu Jiang, who was on par with him in terms of realm and strength, had been defeated in just a few moves by this youngster, who was apparently just at the Three-star Martial Monarch Level, and in this brief moment, Qin Ao watched in horror as Gu Jiang’s robust body suddenly became withered and yellow, like a weathered corpse.

No longer hesitating, Qin Ao reached out and plucked the Blood Fruit, tossing it into his Storage Ring before shooting straight up into the sky.

"Hmph! Trying to escape?" Shi Feng’s lips curled into a cold smirk. He brushed a hand across his face and the Ghost Face Mask appeared, followed promptly by a soul attack, the Nine Nether Soul-Shocking Seal rushing forward.

"Ah!" Just as Qin Ao was about to break through the thick blood-colored foliage above, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head as if struck by a massive hammer. With a painful cry, his body, like a wounded eagle, crashed towards the ground. However, mid-fall, the consciousness he had just lost surged back into his mind.

In that brief moment of distraction, Qin Ao saw a young face, cold and smirking mockingly. The Blood Sword was quickly thrusting towards him— "Netherworld One Sword!"

"Open Mountain!" Qin Ao roared lowly, grasping the Golden Saber with both hands, which lit up with a dazzling golden glow that remained focused, carrying the might to split mountains and the ground as he slashed outward. Beneath the Golden Saber, it seemed as if everything would be cleaved in two.

"Clang!" Sword met saber, and the tip of the Bloodthirsty Sword struck the blade of the saber. Yet, that seemingly casual strike halted the advance of the Golden Saber. "How can this be?" As Qin Ao came to his senses, the Blood Sword, which had just clashed with his Golden Saber, was already piercing through his chest.

He didn’t see how the sword had penetrated his chest at all, just as he hadn’t seen how that same Blood Sword had stabbed into Gu Jiang’s chest when he stood behind him moments earlier.

"No!" Qin Ao bellowed in despair, for he could feel his blood crazily surging inside his body, boiling like scalding water. Then, his blood began to flow backward, entering the Bloodthirsty Sword from his chest, and flowing into Shi Feng’s hand, being devoured by him, and Qin Ao’s body became withered and shriveled like Gu Jiang’s had before.

After stripping Qin Ao’s Storage Ring off, Shi Feng pulled the Bloodthirsty Sword from Qin Ao’s withered corpse. He paid no more attention to the dry husk, instead taking out the Blood Fruit from the newly acquired Storage Ring and taking a bite.

After swallowing the Blood Fruit, Shi Feng’s body suddenly flashed with white light, advancing to the Four-star Martial Sovereign Realm.

Following his successful advancement, Shi Feng looked up, towards the white figure above, and said, "Didn’t find the person?" Right when Qin Ao had swung his saber, Shi Feng had noticed Ding Yu, standing above them, watching their fight.

"You... advanced?" Ding Yu looked down at Shi Feng, saying with some disbelief, "Just now at the Three-star Martial Monarch Level, now at the Four-star Martial Sovereign Realm, could it be that you... are really just at the Martial King Level?"

"You’ve seen it for yourself, haven’t you?" Shi Feng said, unimpressed.

"Three-star Martial Monarch! At the Three-star Martial Monarch level, you defeated me, killed Guh Jiang, killed Qin Ao, and bested Senior Brother Zhen. It turns out you’re the true genius. Compared to your talent, we really don’t amount to much."

Ding Yu said with a self-deprecating tone. They had indeed provoked such an evil demon. If she hadn’t witnessed it with her own eyes, it would be hard to believe that a mere Three-star Martial Monarch could defeat Zhen Chuan, a Two-star Martial Sect, effectively leaping a whole major combat class. It contradicted all she knew about the Martial Arts. She added, now that he had entered the Four-star Martial Sovereign Realm, his battle power must have increased, right?

"Do you recognize these two?" Shi Feng asked, pointing his sword toward the two mummified corpses lying on the ground.

Ding Yu landed beside Shi Feng and pointed at the two mummies on the ground, "Guh Jiang, a prodigy of the Heavenly Sword Alliance, ranked third in battle prowess among the alliance’s younger generation.

Qin Ao, the son of Qin Shihu, the Great General of the Heavenly Mist Empire."

"Oh, from the way you tell it, they seem to have some significance." Shi Feng remarked. To him, these two were no different from any bystanders "A" or "B."

Ding Yu shifted her gaze back from elsewhere and looked at Shi Feng again, "You are not from our Heavenly Mist Empire, are you? Moreover, I’ve never heard of a genius evil demon like you before. I’ve heard that in other regions of Tianheng Continent, geniuses abound, and what we call ’genius’ in our Heavenly Mist Empire doesn’t count for much elsewhere."

"Um!" Shi Feng nodded. "I come from the Yunlai Empire."

"Yunlai Empire!" Ding Yu exclaimed in surprise. "Is it the Yunlai Empire from our Eastern Domain? That shouldn’t be possible. Could there be another country called Yunlai Empire in a different region? Which area of Tianheng Continent is the Yunlai Empire you come from?"

"The very same Yunlai Empire adjacent to your Heavenly Mist Empire," Shi Feng answered casually.

But to Ding Yu, this was utterly shocking. She had heard of this small country before, and in her memory, it was a trivial little nation that didn’t even have a Martial Sect level expert, and was an affiliated country of the Heavenly Mist Great Empire.

"Heroes don’t ask where another hero comes from." Seeing Ding Yu’s reaction, Shi Feng slowly said, "Don’t use regions to judge someone. A small country, a small village, they too can produce a Martial Emperor. And someone born into a Martial Emperor’s household can also turn out to be a useless waste. Genius doesn’t depend on the region; it depends on the individual." Just think, Shi Feng himself actually came from a small village.

"Uh-huh." Ding Yu nodded, agreeing with Shi Feng’s words.

"So, did you find or discover anything during your search in this forest?" Shi Feng asked Ding Yu. She had split up from him earlier and now had returned alone. That meant she surely hadn’t found the so-called Senior Brother Zhen or her "young and naïve" brother. However, Shi Feng wanted to know if she had discovered anything else in this world.

"In the forest ahead, I saw a dozen silhouettes, but I didn’t find any trace of our Spirit Dark Sect disciples. I don’t know if anyone else from our sect entered here. However, in the forest up ahead, I found a mysterious water pond..."