The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 365 Astral Projection

Yan Fandie was so enraged that he had Yue Jingchou apologize to Chu Xun and Yan Wushuang on his knees.

But Chu Xun hardly looked any more assuaged.

“YOU WORTHLESS WRETCH! OF ALL PEOPLE YOU COULD’VE OFFEND! YOUR UNCLE?!” So was Yue Fandie’s anger – hardly subsided not one bit – as he jabbed his finger at Yue Jingchou and said, “And, how dare you strike Master Yan?!”

“Easy, Brother,” said Chu Xun, “Dealing with Yan Wushuang was my idea.”

“Heavens, Brother, quit speaking on behalf of this worthless whelp.” Yue Fandie glowered at his youngest son. “I sentence you to one hundred strokes of lashes and an indefinite stay in the dungeons to reflect on what you did! You’re not to come out without my say-so and GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!”

The “one hundred strokes of lashes” filled the faces of Yue Hongbo and his brothers with horror. Yue Jingchou would most undoubtedly be flogged raw by the end of it – if he survived it.

“Father...” Yue Changle was about to plea but Yue Fandie cut him off sharply, “NO MORE! I’LL HEAR NO MORE WORDS ON HIS BEHALF OR YOU CAN VERY WELL ENJOY THE SAME SENTENCE TOO!”

Chu Xun peered at him with a frosty and grim stare, his forehead creasing into a grave frown.

Meanwhile, Jing Hong was also studying Yue Fandie intensely. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but Chu Xun quickly stopped her using telepathy.

Yan Wushuang looked terribly embarrassed. He had only wanted to pull a prank on Yue Jingchou; he had not wished for him to endure such a heavy penalty.

Chu Xun got up suddenly and strode to the center of the hall where he quickly performed several hand seals before firing little spurts of purplish rays of light at all directions around him.

Buzz!

The air trembled and barriers of light shot up from the ground and encased the space they stood in, their surfaces shimmering with bright dazzles resembling twinkling stars.

“What’s the meaning of this, Brother?” a confused Yue Fandie demanded.

Chu Xun chuckled, his eyes shining as if scheming something. “This is the Field of Divine Incarceration.”

“What is going on?”

“All of you,” Chu Xun looked at everyone and said, “Stand behind me. NOW.”

Yue Hongbo and his brothers stuck where they stood – paralyzed and dazed. But Yan Wushuang immediately realized Chu Xun was on to something and he quickly stepped behind him.

“What’s the meaning of this, Brother?” Yue Fandie glowered, turning visibly vexed.

Chu Xun looked at him with a look of disdain and contempt. Suddenly, he spat, “GET OUT!”

Yue Fandie staggered backward as if he had been hit by just as many sledgehammers as the number of words that escaped Chu Xun’s lips. The invisible force smashed into him like a battering ram that no one could see as he winced and his face contorted with pain.

“Uncle, what on earth are you doing?!” Yue Hongbo cried.

“Stand back, all of you,” barked Chu Xun strongly, “I’ll explain later.”

As soon as he finished, his eyes flared with flashes of purple and he activated his Divine Sense and the astral projection of himself lunged at Yue Fandie like a raging wave.

With no corporeal form, Yue Hongbo and his brothers could not see Chu Xun’s astral projection and they were none the wiser about what was going on.

But Yue Fandie lurched unsteadily as if he had been hit by lightning. With a sickening belch, he spewed a mass of blood and his face recoiled with agony and malice.

“Father!” Yue Hongbo cried again, panicking beyond comprehension.

“Still stubbornly resisting, eh?”

Chu Xun fixed Yue Fandie in a penetrating glare and bellowed again, his voice sweeping at the Lord of the Sanctuary with the force of a tidal wave and the ferocity of dragons and tigers. The sonic boom of his voice obliterated every piece of furniture in the hall, reducing them all to dust while sending Yue Hongbo and his brothers all hurtling into the far corners of the space.

Then the most unbelievable scene unfolded: from Yue Fandie’s back emerged a plume of pitch-black fume resembling the shape of a human as if an unseeable arm was forcibly tearing it out of his back.

“GET OUT!” Yue Fandie thundered.

The black humanoid silhouette convulsed violently as if in agony.

“And you really think I can do nothing to you, eh?” hissed Chu Xun coldly at the dark silhouette.

His astral projection turned into a gigantic fist that seized the dark silhouette and yanked it out of Yue Fandie.

When the dark silhouette had finally been torn away from him, the momentum threw Yue Fandie into a forward lurch and Chu Xun reached him just in time and injected a spurt of Hong Meng Immortal Qi into him.

Yue Fandie jerked his head back and saw the dark, gesticulating substance hovering in the air and gasped, “What in the world is that, Brother?!”

“You were under a spell. If my guess is correct, this is some devilry concocted by the Subterranean Devils Clan.”

“Screech... Screech...” the dark shape slowly turned more humanoid while emitting strange squealing noises.

“It’s a sort of spiritual possession spell,” observed Jing Hong.

“Indeed,” Chu Xun nodded and said, “And its use here is an indication that the Subterranean Devils are still in captivity – for now.”

“But how did this thing latch itself unto me?” asked Yue Fandie, visibly distressed.

“It’s a form of magical manipulation by the Subterranean Devils that allows them to control foul aura and use it to possess you,” explained Chu Xun. He paused for a second before going on, “Fortunately, you were able to resist much of its influence all thanks to your great powers. I noticed your temper worsening and began to wonder if this was the case.”

Yue Fandie chuckled feebly. “Well, for starters, stop fussing over me. Anyway, I have you to thank. Heaven knows what horrors I could have wrought in my unbridled wrath.”

Chu Xun peered at Yue Jingchou and muttered in jest, “Your boy might have his backside whipped until he’s raw and tender, I guess.”

“Then I’ll say he had it coming,” snorted Yue Fandie at his youngest son.

Yue Jingchou’s head seemed to duck even lower with shame.

“So what is this anyway?” muttered an inquisitive Yan Wushuang, swinging his sword to fire a Sword Qi bolt at the black shadow.

Woosh!

The Sword Qi bolt sliced the dark shadow into halves, barely dealing any more damage before the dark plumes rejoined back into one again.

Yan Wushuang gawked with disbelief. “Is this thingamajig indestructible?!”

“Useless thing, begone,” scowled Chu Xun, about to shove Yan Wushuang sideways.

“What useless?!” Yan Wushuang growled, grabbing Chu Xun’s arm and stopping him, “Just wait till you see! I don’t believe I can’t even destroy something as puny as a glob of fumes!”

Chu Xun relented and stepped back, giving him some space.

Yan Wushuang gathered his Internal Breath, focusing them into a sphere, and hurled it forth like he would with a grenade.

Boom!

The ball of compressed Internal Breath detonated, dispersing the black shadow into bits that lingered everywhere.

But that seemed to hardly damage the dark plume of foul aura, not one bit; every bit of it quickly rejoined back together again and it returned back to its full size. Only this time, it began screeching wildly at Yan Wushuang, as if taunting him.

Yan Wushuang looked embarrassed. His eyes narrowed as he stared icily at the dark humanoid-shaped silhouette and he raised a hand, firing an energy bolt at it.

The dark shadow burst into bits and pieces again before they reassembled as if with minds of their own. But Yan Wushuang had used much of his force and would have destroyed even the walls of the hall if not for Chu Xun’s magically-conjured bounded field.

Feeling ashamed and angered, Yan Wushuang decided to use his weapon again, seeing as his Internal Breath failed to work. He ripped his sword out of its sheathe. He activated his weapon, its blade glowing with deadly force, and he lunged, slashing his sword at the black silhouette.

Woosh!

The energy-saturated blade sank deep into the dark smog and he whisked at the dark formless shadow as he would with an egg, ripping it to smaller bits and shreds with a flurry of Sword Qi bolts. Still, he failed yet again to utterly destroy it.

He retreated for now, cautious to prevent any of the smaller bits from latching to him, and he stopped to think.

He stood quietly for moments, pondering until he finally looked up. He channeled his Internal Breath and fired ropes of energy to spin around the dark shadow like a cocoon.

The dark smog writhed inside the white cocoon of pure Internal Breath like a giant black sesame rice dumpling.

“BURST!”

With a deep bark, Yan Wushuang detonated the sphere of Internal Breath, causing a huge explosion that caused pulses of shock waves as keen as blades.

Puff!

The dark shadow was completely destroyed – at last.

Yan Wushuang’s eyes twinkled with triumph and he turned back to look at Chu Xun, his chin raised with pride. “So,” he asked, “What do you think about it?”

“Not bad,” Chu Xun nodded gently with approval, “Slow and easy does it. Very slow.”

Yan Wushuang broke into a broad and satisfied grin at “Not bad” before his face turned long and sallow after hearing the next half of Chu Xun’s appraisal.

Chu Xun ignored his sour look and said to Yue Fandie, “Am I right in guessing that something is wrong with the Tetrarchy Cauldron, Brother?”

“You’re right,” Yue Fandie bobbed his head, “The Cauldron has never stopped shaking since yesterday. I had tried using my powers to suppress the vibrations; I guess that was the time when the foul aura entered me.”

“Let’s have a look then,” said Chu Xun, waving a hand to dispel the magic of his bounded field. The Field of Divine Incarceration was cast just as a precaution as he could not yet discern the strength of the foul aura before removing it from Yue Fandie’s body.

Everyone moved to the Hall of Tetrarchy.

Once inside, Chu Xun’s eyes blazed with purplish flashes as he studied the Cauldron. Sure enough, wisps of black fume-like aura were creeping up the quadpod legs of the Cauldron.

“Find anything wrong?” asked Yue Fandie. “The Cauldron was shaking so badly that I almost failed to hold it back.”

“It would seem that the Cauldron’s seal could no longer keep the Subterranean Devils restrained for long,” Chu Xun uttered gravely.

“Heavens, what should we do then?” gasped Yue Fandie grimly. References of the Subterranean Devil Clan in the Lost History reached no more than a footnote, but they were enough to depict them as one of the strongest races ever to walk the face of Earth, and that alone showed how formidable a foe they could be.

“I’m going down to have a look,” said Chu Xun suddenly.

“Going down?!”

Yue Fandie and everyone else exchanged strange and amazed stares. “How is he going down?! Is he going to burrow a hole all the way down?!”

But Chu Xun did not care to explain. He performed several hand seals and conjured another magical barrier around the Hall.

“Look after my physical body, or I’ll really end up as a ghost doomed to wander in the wild for an eternity,” joked Chu Xun.

Then he strode to the center of the bounded field and sat cross-legged on the floor before closing his eyes.

Instantly, Yue Fandie and everyone else gasped, their faces fraught with horror. Chu Xun’s aura had all but gone – utterly gone as if he had just died.

“Brother...” Yue Fandie hurried forward to check on him.

“Don’t worry,” Jing Hong stepped into his way and stopped him, “This is his astral projection magic.”

“Astral projection?! Are you saying that my brother’s soul has left his body?!” Yue Fandie jabbered, his face convulsing strangely with disbelief.

Jing Hong could only nod her head softly.

“You’re pulling our leg, aren’t you?” shouted Yan Wushuang doubtfully, “His soul’s gone. That means he’s dead, innit?!”

“Only if it’s you,” Jing Hong responded brusquely.

Exasperated by that scathing remark, Yan Wushuang rolled his eyes.

“Chu Xun has left instructions to guard his body,” muttered Yue Fandie as he moved towards the main entrance of the hall and stood guard there, “We’d better listen to him and refrain from any rash movements.”

“Good Heavens Almighty! Astral projection?! As if such things exist! I bet this is just one of his tricks! This should be some technique to play dead!” grumbled Yan Wushuang as he studied Chu Xun’s body from head to heel like a curious child.

“How can I try it myself?” He asked Jing Hong suddenly.

But Jing Hong remained silent, ignoring his question.

Yan Wushuang pursed his lips with mild annoyance, and then he bolted. He raced up to Chu Xun’s body and yelled into his ears with a voice so loud that everyone’s ears rang.

Still, Chu Xun hardly responded at all.

“Enough of your mischiefs, Master Yan,” barked a shocked Yue Fandie sharply.

“Gods in Heaven, that’s very good playacting,” Yan Wushuang muttered under his breath as he lifted a hand to scratch Chu Xun’s flesh.

But his finger barely grazed Chu Xun’s skin when a deathly chill shot up his finger, making him jump with fright.

“Heavens be good... He’s really gone... His soul’s really gone...” he whimpered with visible terror.

“Enough messing around, Master Yan. This is a matter of life and death,” scowled Yue Fandie sternly, truly afraid that Yan Wushuang’s misbehavior might jeopardize Chu Xun’s safety.

Jing Hong looked rather calm.

She understood very well that as long as no damage came to Chu Xun’s body during his astral projection, then he would be fine.

Yan Wushuang first made sure that Chu Xun was not breathing, and then he touched his chest, hoping to feel his heartbeat.

Swoosh!

White cloth shot like a spear at Yan Wushuang, threatening to skewer through him.

Startled, Yan Wushuang ducked and leaped away with a quick whoosh.

Jing Hong withdrew her long ream of white silk with an icy glare.

“Gods in Heaven, you’re awfully protective of your husband, eh?” mumbled an irate Yan Wushuang through his pouted lips.

But he knew that Jing Hong merely wanted to warn him. Otherwise, she would not have missed so easily.

Jing Hong ignored his remarks as if she had hardly heard a word and sat down beside Chu Xun.

“For Heaven’s sake, Master Yan! Why can’t you stop your pranks for just one moment!” hissed an upset Yue Fandie after pulling Yan Wushuang aside.

“But aren’t you all curious? Is that really astral projection?” Yan Wushuang groaned like a mischievous boy.

“It’s not the first time you know Chu Xun has a plethora of secret techniques hidden up his sleeve,” said Yue Fandie.

“I’m just curious. There’s just so little we know about him,” said Yan Wushuang with his eyes flashing artfully at Yue Fandie. “I say we cut him up while he’s not back yet. Let’s see if he’s a monster inside.”

Yue Fandie was not the only one rolling his eyes with utmost exasperation this time; even his sons all rolled their eyes too speechlessly.