ISWI Chapter 1406-1407 (Patreon)

Chapter 1406: The Kings Gather!

"Ancestor, Shi Yi and Shi Er have fallen in the War God Academy."

Shi Jian, patriarch of the Shi family, gazed toward the Forbidden Land with an ashen face. Shi Qi, Shi Ba, and Shi Jiu had also fallen, yet they were merely collateral-line members of only excellent talent. Their deaths mattered little. The Shi family's bloodline was powerful; every century it produced a dozen or so of that level.

Shi Yi and Shi Er were different. They had been the true future core of the Shi family. Barring accidents, they could have become Immortal Kings, even if only flawed ones. Their fall represented an enormous loss for the family, not to mention that Shi Er was his own biological grandson.

Moreover, Shi Er had gone to join the War God Academy this time specifically to kill Shen Qingge. Yet he had fallen instead. What exactly had happened? Had Shen Qingge's Longevity Bone truly recovered, allowing her to counter-kill successfully?

The thought brought back the bloody scene of that year when he had personally dug the Longevity Bone from the body of Shen Qingge, who at the time was still a frail infant that had never grown.

Shi Jian's eyes filled with gloom. Seizing such a bloodline treasure was a feud graver than life and death. If Shen Qingge learned the truth, the matter would never end until one side perished.

Shen Qingge had suddenly and abnormally left the Shen family, fallen out with Shen Qinghuan, and even spoken of reclaiming everything. Shen Qinghuan had not understood those words, yet he and his younger sister understood them all too well.

They suspected Shen Qingge might truly know the truth, or that the infant Shen Qingge of that year had already possessed awareness.

The thought made Shi Jian grow even colder. Such a tiny infant, already conscious yet revealing not the slightest trace and deceiving both him and his sister—it was truly chilling.

Furthermore, Shen Qingge had only recently broken through to the Ancestral Immortal realm. If she had truly relied on the Longevity Bone for a counter-kill, those bones were far too terrifying.

Shen Qinghuan also possessed the Longevity Bone, yet it had never displayed such power. After all, it was grafted rather than innate, lacking sufficient compatibility and thus never revealing its true might.

Shen Qingge, however, was the true master of the Longevity Bone. Therefore, no matter what, she could not be allowed to continue growing. Otherwise, once she achieved Immortal Monarch or even Immortal King and came for revenge, endless trouble would follow.

Thus, Shi Jian had come to the Forbidden Land at the first opportunity to seek the ancestor, hoping the ancestor would go to the War God Academy, force the academy to expel Shen Qingge, then seize her at once, refine her in an instant, and erase every trace of her existence.

Although the act would sour relations with the Shen family and displease Shen Wanshan, it did not matter. His niece Shen Qinghuan was destined to become the highest-achieving prodigy of the Shen family, and she had always been close to the Shi family. Once Shen Qinghuan took power, the two families would still reconcile.

An avatar of the Shi family ancestor soon emerged from the Forbidden Land. Yet he remained indifferent. After hearing the full account, he frowned. "Although my Shi family enjoys illustrious renown across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, the War God Academy falls under the direct jurisdiction of the First Realm. They may not grant me face by breaking their rules."

The Shi family ancestor had no desire to involve himself. Across his long life, he had seen prodigies as numerous as carp crossing a river. Even many who had been evaluated as certain to become Immortal Kings had mostly fallen midway—some through their own recklessness, some seized upon by enemy forces, some whose Dao hearts shattered, who rushed for quick success, or who suffered cultivation deviation. In the end, only a scant few of each generation truly became Immortal Kings.

Shi Yi and Shi Er had possessed decent talent, yet they were already dead. Talent that could not be realized was no talent at all. The ancestor could not be bothered to intervene for their sake, especially when the effort might yield nothing and only cause him to lose face.

Just as Shi Jian was about to persuade further, the Shi family ancestor suddenly raised his eyebrows. "Oh? Why are so many old fossils heading toward the War God Academy? Has the academy lost this many people? With so many forces involved, even the War God Academy cannot ignore the matter. It is time to make a trip…"

With those words, the Shi family ancestor changed his mind. The avatar lightly raised a hand and a black hole appeared. The ancestor strode into it, as if walking against the flow of time, and vanished with a roar.

The same occurred across many other families. Altogether twenty-one illusory yet terrifying figures, as if belonging to another level of life, set out toward the War God Academy—some with high profile, some low-key, some completely silent. For existences of their level, spatial distance no longer held much meaning. In merely an instant, they arrived at their destination.

As one Immortal King phantom after another descended upon the War God Academy, countless disciples and elders of the academy widened their eyes, gazing with instinctive bloodline reverence at those true peak existences.

The vast majority had never in their lives seen so many Immortal Kings. Many disciples were bewildered, unsure what was happening, yet all knew that something major was about to occur in the War God Academy today.

Those elders and disciples who knew of the situation inside the Ancient Relic Species Secret Realm felt their hearts tremble with fear. So many Immortal Kings had not come merely to visit. Whoever the culprit was would certainly have to pay the price. And if that culprit also possessed a powerful background, might it trigger a war among Immortal Kings?

…

At the same time, Immortal King Tuoba sat frowning inside his cave abode. He was deeply worried about Ye Chen. Although he claimed not to care, saying that since Ye Chen was so disobedient he could go court death if he wished, he still could not let go and found himself unable to stop fretting.

Unfortunately, both the vice dean and the dean were in seclusion. With the two of them absent, no one had the authority to clearly observe the situation inside the secret realm. Otherwise, Immortal King Tuoba truly wished to see how Ye Chen was faring now and whether he was being bullied by those prodigies from great families who carried powerful backgrounds.

The moment he imagined Ye Chen possibly under siege, fleeing left and right in a wretched state, Immortal King Tuoba's fists clenched hard. Those prodigies had truly gone too far. Granted, Ye Chen had been besieged this time because he flaunted his wealth too openly and failed to understand the principle of not revealing one's riches, acting far too high-profile.

Yet were those prodigies entirely without fault? Though each of them came from extraordinary origins, they only knew how to fix their eyes on the resources in others' pockets. Truly shortsighted and greedy by nature, they were destined to have no great future.

As a master, he could not go after juniors. Yet when the time came, he could thrash their seniors to vent Ye Chen's anger. Once Ye Chen left the secret realm, he would ask who had struck the hardest, compile a list, and then take revenge on their elders. And if Ye Chen had fallen inside the secret realm?

At that possibility, a gloomy light appeared in Immortal King Tuoba's eyes. He preferred peace, yet that did not mean his immortal weapons were dull or his Immortal King scriptures weak. If his disciple died, someone naturally had to accompany him in death.

While Immortal King Tuoba's mind wandered over these thoughts, he suddenly sensed surging auras of Immortal Kings and slightly raised his eyes.

At the same time, a vast voice transmitted from outside the cave abode. "Fellow Daoist Tuoba, come quickly! Quite a few external Immortal Kings have descended. With the dean and vice dean absent, we must be present!"

Immortal King Tuoba had not expected to be forced into overtime while already troubled. He immediately frowned.

Chapter 1407: Unable to Protect!

His avatar flashed and appeared high in the sky. Beside him stood one of the garrison Immortal Kings who had come to notify him.

Immortal King Tuoba narrowed his eyes toward the distant divine peak and frowned. "More than twenty fellow Daoists have arrived? What are they doing here with nothing better to do? Could the First Realm have issued an order this year to expand the number of garrison Immortal Kings at the War God Academy? Why have I received no word of it?"

He was thoroughly puzzled. Occasionally, an Immortal King would personally deliver a favored descendant or disciple to the War God Academy, seeking favors so that others would look after them and become familiar faces.

At other times, when extraordinary opportunities appeared in the academy, these old fossils would also descend, hoping to take back doors. Plenty of people wanted to take his own back door, after all. Yet so many arriving at once was a first.

The garrison Immortal King beside him swept him with a complicated look. "They have come for their own descendants and juniors. Half an hour ago, the most promising scions of this generation from these families and forces all fell. Nearly all were their absolute core prodigies, the batch most likely to become Immortal Kings. With so many dying at once, how could these people not be anxious?"

Immortal King Tuoba's eyes immediately widened. "How did so many die? Did something go wrong at the core of the secret realm? Or has a lurking Immortal King caused chaos? Which realm's prodigies died? Why did I know nothing of this? As garrison Immortal Kings, if such a matter occurred, we will probably be held accountable, will we not?"

Such incidents had happened before. Although the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths were overwhelmingly powerful and unmatched in their campaigns across the four directions, after destroying so many great worlds, a fair number of enemies had survived by luck and infiltrated. Even now, within the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths themselves, quite a few forces were not truly willing to be integrated and secretly desired independence, seeking to break away.

The War God Academy, as the core place for cultivating disciples across the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, had been attacked several times throughout history. On one occasion, seven Immortal Kings had even infiltrated, intending to wipe out every disciple inside. That particular uprising had been truly terrifying. Only when a great expert from the First Realm personally descended and suppressed it did the chaos subside.

Even so, nearly the entire batch of disciples had fallen, countless secret realms had been destroyed, and the War God Academy had been reduced to ruins with heavy losses. The entire Nine Heavens and Ten Earths had nearly lost a generation and took hundreds of thousands of years to recover.

That was the main reason the great families never sent all their outstanding disciples into the War God Academy to claim two portions of resources. The current rule of twenty Immortal Kings rotating as garrison protectors had also arisen from that incident.

Yet upon hearing Immortal King Tuoba's questions, the garrison Immortal King looked at him with a strange expression. "There was no remnant chaos, and the secret realm did not explode. As for the batch of prodigies who died, they were all Ancestral Immortal realm prodigies. Moreover, it was not only the prodigies of these great families who died. The top one thousand disciples in the Ancestral Immortal sequence have essentially all been wiped out."

Immortal King Tuoba's eyes instantly widened further. "Who did this? Have they gone mad? Even though the War God Academy has its own rules and encourages the strong to prey on the weak, one still cannot disregard everything and slaughter so freely! Which family's junior lacks such awareness of the bigger picture?"

While complaining, he sensed the meaningful gaze from the garrison Immortal King. Feeling that look, a divine thunderbolt suddenly crashed through his mind.

Wait. Those who died were Ancestral Immortals? And the top one thousand of the Ancestral Immortal sequence disciples were all dead? They had entered the same secret realm as Ye Chen, had they not?

Immortal King Tuoba, who had originally held a spectator's attitude, could no longer hide the twitching at the corners of his mouth. "So you are saying…"

The garrison Immortal King nodded seriously. Immortal King Tuoba, who until moments ago had been worrying that Ye Chen might be beaten to death, could not help trying to struggle a little. "Is there any possibility that someone else did it?"

The garrison Immortal King remained expressionless. "Only three people are still alive inside the secret realm now. One is Bogu, ranked beyond eight hundred in the sequence—a complete waste. One is Shen Qingge, the illegitimate daughter of Shen Wanshan. We have all met her. Her aptitude is not bad, yet she still falls short of Shen Qinghuan. The last one is your disciple. So who do you think did it?"

Immortal King Tuoba's eyebrows were twitching along with the corners of his mouth by now. Who else could it have been? Among the three remaining, only Ye Chen could possibly possess such strength. Not to mention that Ye Chen had truly done such things before and already had a record.

Until moments ago, he had been worrying that Ye Chen might be dead. Now his feelings had grown complicated to the extreme. Knowing Ye Chen was still alive brought him relief.

Yet knowing Ye Chen had caused such a massive incident, and then looking at the group of Immortal Kings in the distance radiating low pressure, the heart he had just set down was lifted even higher. How was he supposed to handle this?

Seeing Immortal King Tuoba's headache-stricken appearance, the garrison Immortal King gently shook his head. "Among them are several giant-level existences. Fellow Daoist Tuoba, you cannot protect him. Give up. There will always be better ones in the future."

Immortal King Tuoba felt thoroughly numb. The other party's words made sense and were spoken in sincerity. Although his own face carried some weight, with such a large array of forces, he truly could not stop them. Yet to abandon his own disciple? He could not do it.

Immortal King Tuoba spoke in a low, drawn-out voice. "Forget better ones. Tell me where I could find another who has reached the Ancestral Immortal realm and can still slaughter freely among those of the same level?"

At those words, the garrison Immortal King fell silent. Indeed… Ye Chen's combat record along the way had been far too frightening. Especially this time, with so many absolute top prodigies dead, it was simply outrageous.

Moreover, he knew even more detailed information: the disciple tokens of those absolute top prodigies had shattered one after another, the intervals between their falls lasting only a few breaths. Even Immortal Kings found it shocking. After all, it was impossible that everyone had lined up to let Ye Chen kill them, was it?

Yet if not, why had the speed of their deaths been so fast? Those prodigies had essentially all touched the extreme of the Ancestral Immortal realm. How many upper limits must Ye Chen have broken to annihilate enemies so thoroughly while still only an Ancestral Immortal himself? Even they, true Immortal Kings, could not comprehend it.

Yet no matter what the truth was, he admitted that Ye Chen's talent was indeed monstrously terrifying. However, Ye Chen had been far too arrogant. No matter how strong he was, he should not have killed so many prodigies.

Now that he had drawn so many Immortal Kings together, even with greater talent, Ye Chen would still have to pay the price. And once he fell, all previous brilliance would turn to nothing.

"Tuoba, you truly picked up a treasure, but the problem is that you truly cannot protect him! Give up!"

This garrison Immortal King understood Immortal King Tuoba's reluctance, yet the matter was far too large. No one could protect Ye Chen.

Ye Chen was indeed a monster, yet he had killed too ruthlessly, acted with unrestrained arrogance, and disregarded the bigger picture. He himself still lacked a sufficiently solid backing. Even though Immortal King Tuoba was a supreme Immortal King, he could not protect Ye Chen.