The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 434 Edict of the Assembly of Immortals

Rumble!

The ground sank beneath everyone’s feet as a huge wave of shock pulsed and destroyed every piece of rock in its path into dust.

Wu Kejin and Chu Xun staggered backward again.

Wu Kejin looked not at all pleased. In fact, he looked rather furious. He had spoken loudly for the benefit of all the world that he could kill Chu Xun as easily as lifting a finger. Yet now… the outcome seemed rather contrary, if not humiliating.

Without tearing his eyes off Chu Xun, he performed several hand seals.

Rumble!

The air around the battlefield felt suffocatingly tense as the incredible duels sent ripples of shock waves that caused the air to tremble with echoing reverberations.

“Thirty-two Strokes of Decimation!”

A gigantic battleax the size of a mountain appeared in mid-air, looking dangerously real and corporeal. With shafts of sunlight glinting off its surface and a deadly hum that never stopped ringing, it came down furiously at Chu Xun’s head.

“Consider this an honor that you should die under the deadly stroke of my Immortal powers, Devil!” gloated Wu Kejin loudly.

“Immortal powers?!”

Chu Xun smirked and stared at the incoming attack of the swinging battleax.

He activated his own brand of Immortal powers using only his mind.

Rumble!

The ground shook and the air popped and crackled as a huge burst of Hong Meng Immortal Qi poured forth from inside Chu Xun.

Celestial Upheaval – The Thirty-Sixth of the Hong Meng Scripture!

There were numerous spells and techniques that Chu Xun hardly had the chance to use from the discipline of the Hong Meng Scripture. But that did not mean that he knew not to use them.

The silhouette of a fist, sparkling purple like a mass of stars with an immensely asphyxiating aura.

Chu Xun steered the gigantic fist with his mind.

And it wheeled around and attacked the falling battleax.

The fist hammered into the blade of the ax and a huge eruption of light blinded everything before a heavy tremor shook even the clouds in the sky.

The terrible shock wave spread across the grounds like a supernova, causing all of Nether Mountain to shake to its very bedrock that boulders rolled off its slopes.

The Thirty-two Strokes of Decimation and this was only the first.

Rumble!

The air quivered again, and the destroyed battle ax came into form once more.

Rumble!

Another star-studded silhouette of purple in the shape of a fist appeared once more, streaking through the air like a comet and it charged again with trails of purplish halos in its wake.

Another earth-rocking eruption ensued as the fist collided with the battleax once more, and a scary-looking mass of fume and steam from the exchange mushroomed up into the sky.

Rumble! Rumble!

The process repeated itself again and again; the purplish, glittery fist appeared nonstop to destroy the battleax whenever it appeared and the explosions from every impact sent all of Nether Mountain into one long run of violent tremors that rocks never stopped crashing down.

In the blink of an eye, the purplish fist forged by Chu Xun using his magic demolished the battleax in every one of the thirty times it reformed, creating a spectacle both incredible and unbelievable.

Wu Kejin’s face was as dark as charcoal. Evidently, Chu Xun’s might had well exceeded his anticipation.

Rumble! Rumble!

Two more explosions erupted in the sky as a couple more mushroom clouds ballooned into the air. That was it; so ended the final two strokes of the Thirty-two Strokes of Decimation.

“Immortal powers, eh? Feeble.”

Chu Xun uttered with contempt and frost.

Invisible to everyone else but himself, his astral projection form appeared and pointed a finger at Wu Kejin, tapping the air gently and currents of ripples burst out like the broken surface of a lake.

Four purplish deathrays burst from his fingers, moving together as one and charged furiously at Wu Kejin.

Wu Kejin let loose an angry roar.

All four deathrays – each tipped with fist-like protrusions like battering rams – slammed into Wu Kejin with huge purplish blasts like nuclear eruptions, engulfing Wu Kejin inside.

“Awful… That’s very awful indeed…” The Lost Races mutants all grimaced with trembling limbs.

In contrast, the human warriors were all cheering with whoops of joy.

“A son of Immortals my arse! He can be a true Immortal and still the Devil can easily give his sorry backside a good beating!”

Chu Xun stared at the epicenter of the explosion with a brow furrowed with amusement.

It took five to six minutes before the dust and fumes finally settled.

Then what everyone saw made the humans fall silent, while the Lost Races mutants cried out with joy.

Wu Kejin was fine. Standing right in the center of a crater more than ten meters wide, he was enveloped in a soft white glow that appeared to be an energy shield that protected him from the attacks.

Chu Xun looked unfazed. He had foreseen this earlier.

Wu Kejin stood in the bottom of the crater, staring up at Chu Xun with burning rage and boiling malice.

“You’re powerful,” he remarked.

“Killing you won’t be too hard,” chuckled Chu Xun.

Wu Kejin grinned wickedly. “I said you’re powerful, Devil. Not unkillable.”

“You’d be surprised how many times I have heard that, yet here I am, still alive and kicking,” smirked Chu Xun with disdain.

But it was true; every enemy he has faced off against seemed to love telling this into his face. Since when did the process of killing someone include a long sermon?

“Millions of years ago, the Assembly of Immortals ruled Earth and humans served them as slaves. And now, after so many years, it appears that you humans no longer respect and fear them. And worse, you wish to claim Earth as yours and proclaim yourself as rulers of these lands! This is sacrilege!” pronounced Wu Kejin proudly.

“Sacrilege?” Chu Xun threw him a nasty look, “Don’t make me laugh. Humans have been rulers of Earth even hundreds of million years before. The Assembly deserted Earth when it was ravaged by ruin. They were the ones who had turned their backs on Earth and they better not come back at all!”

“What? You dare defy the great and powerful Assembly of Immortals?!” Wu Kejin lashed out viciously.

“Nope, I’m giving you all a warning,” Chu Xun shook his head, glaring at him with ice, “On behalf of all humans on Earth, I’m saying this to the Assembly: Never step foot on Earth, or I’ll destroy every one of you.”

“How dare you!” glowered Wu Kejin with venom.

Chu Xun scoffed. “As I said,” he reiterated once more, “Never step foot on Earth again, or I’ll destroy you all.”

“The memories of the greatness and majesty of the race of Immortals have been long forgotten, it seems,” Wu Kejin uttered with sudden melancholy, “Very well, it seems that when the Assembly returns, a cleansing shall be in order.”

“You’d do well to remember what I say today, Wu Kejin,” declared Chu Xun with supremacy and power that no one could dare offend, “Any Immortals dare come here, I’ll make it my life’s goal to make sure that they become extinct.”

“You…” Wu Kejin’s eyes flared with wrath, “That’s below the belt, Devil! The Assembly will suffer no such disrespect!”

“So what if I’m disrespecting you lot?” Chu Xun boomed imperiously, “And since I said I won’t let any Immortal survive for having to come here, I’ll start with you, a son of the Immortals!”

Wu Kejin’s face contorted with disbelief and humiliation. He had been glorious and triumphant since coming here with an unbroken string of victories against every single foe he had faced before.

And here was Chu Xun, who, in his much-feared and terrorizing fury and storm, had declared humans as the true rulers of Earth, and to drive his point home, he had been trampling on every opposition the Lost Races had hurled his way and had conquered them all finely.

As a progeny of the Assembly of Immortals, Wu Kejin believed that it was his calling to keep Earth as it should be until the Immortals returned.

That would mean any defiers or rebel elements to the rule of the Immortals should be eliminated, and in such ways, that would send a message to the whole world that the Assembly would and always be the true sovereigns of Earth. That was the purpose of the Crusade Against Evil: a publicized execution of the Devil as a warning to the world.

Yet, nothing seemed to be working as he wished. The whole world was now watching how his attempts to defeat Chu Xun invariably failed and that could have not been any more a disgrace to him.

And to make things worse, here was Chu Xun, proclaiming so openly that if any Immortals dare to come back to Earth, he would eliminate every single one of them himself.

Things had really turned out to be abysmally awry for him.

Instead of building his name as a champion for the Assembly of Immortals and winning glory for them, he had not only made himself a fool, he had just dragged the name of the Assembly into the mud.

That left only one way to remedy the situation: slaying the Devil. He needed to kill Chu Xun to change everyone’s perspectives and salvage the good name of the Assembly.

“For your impertinence to the Assembly of Immortals, Devil, I hereby sentence you to the most painful of punishments,” Wu Kejin snarled dangerously.

A burst of golden light erupted right in front of him and what seemed like a tattered piece of parchment bathed in blinding lights of gold hovered before him.

One could almost feel an inexplicable but yet terrible force pouring forth from inside the piece of paper with the force and weight of a tidal wave crashing down on everyone’s backs.

The Lost Races mutants who failed to endure the invisible force fell to their knees at once.

Human warriors looked hardly all right themselves; it was all they could do from bending down from the gargantuan weight pressing down on their backs like gigantic boulders and each reeled with nauseousness from their blood churning and their auras coursing uncontrollably inside.

“ARRGGHH!”

A number of lower-tiered Human Kings crashed to their knees with the ground splitting under their kneecaps, no longer being able to resist the pressure.

The rest, while they were able to remain on their feet, were still struggling with their faces utterly the shade of tomatoes and their legs teetering on the brink of buckling.

“ARRGGHH!” In the end, they too fell down.

All around the world, people watching from the safety and comfort of their computer and cell phone screens did not know what was going on, but they were shocked to find everyone falling involuntarily to their knees.

“Kneel humbly, mortal races! Submit yourselves to the will of the Assembly of Immortals!

Wu Kejin’s voice thundered as if the strata of Heavens was collapsing down on humanity and the very fabric of Nature was resonating to it as the skies groaned ominously overhead.

Chu Xun was not spared from the invisible force crushing down on his shoulders too; the ground beneath his feet was cracking as the force tried to squash him down.

“Will of the Assembly my arse!” Chu Xun bellowed defiantly.

Once an Immortal Emperor, he would never bend his knees to anyone. He would never take orders from anyone!

“I will not be coerced by the likes of you, Assembly of Immortals!” Chu Xun howled at the top of his voice. For one moment, he looked like the Immortal Emperor he once was, his very presence imbued with the authority and majesty he once wielded like a scepter of power even as he no longer had the same invincible might.

The regality that when he spoke, every word was law and all trembled in his presence.

“Here I stand, between Heaven and Earth! Who dares to compel me to submit!” Chu Xun boomed boldly like a lion, staring up at the sky sternly that the air quivered as if in fear.

The majestic presence of the godly rank and might he once held and wielded mysteriously returned and defended him from the inexplicable pressure of the Edict of the Assembly of Immortals.

Chu Xun’s rediscovered powers helped lift the gargantuan weight off the backs of the human warriors. Feeling a soothing relaxation suddenly, they were all able to stand up straight.

They peered up quickly and saw Chu Xun, standing proud and tall. “That must be it,” thought all of them with amazement. “Only he could do this. The Devil!”

“How dare you defy the will of the Assembly of Immortals! On your knees at once!” bellowed Wu Kejin.

Another burst of force came from nowhere like the weight of a mountain bore down on Chu Xun as if Heaven itself had collapsed.

Bang!

The pressure came without warning, threatening to flatten Chu Xun into a pulp, but he straightened up. That the ground beneath his feet burst and crack showed how great a force was trampling down on him.

Yet still, he looked unperturbed with his hands held behind his back. He panned his gaze sharply up into the sky.

“BEGONE! BEGONE! BEGONE!”

Chu Xun let loose those words in quick succession, and his voice blared like the intimidating trumpets of Armageddon, causing the very air to shake once more with panic.

Sizzle!

The parchment hovering before Wu Kejin, the Edict of the Assembly of Immortals, had one of its corners broken into crisps.

Wu Kejin turned horrified. No one had ever successfully defied the Edict of the Assembly of Immortals before! Many a great year ago, when the Edict was first used, all mortal races of Earth bowed obediently before it and none could resist its might.

“What is he?! What monster is the Devil actually is?! How could he resist the powers of the Edict and even caused it damage!?”

“With one scrap paper, you wish to rule over humans? What a lousy joke.”

Sizzle!

Chu Xun barely finished when another corner of the Edict disintegrated into ashes again.

IMPOSSIBLE! Wu Kejin could not believe his eyes now. “This is the Edict of the Assembly! The last surviving piece still fully intact! Yet instead of taming the Devil, it is now being damaged!?

“ENOUGH OF YOUR BLASPHEMY, DEVIL!” Wu Kejin roared.

“So what if I am!? I’ll say this again even if the whole Assembly of Immortals is here, never mind a lousy piece of paper!” howled Chu Xun, throwing his head back as if to make sure his voice reaches the higher strata of Heavens.

Sizzle!

Another corner of the glimmering piece of parchment burst into flames, burning off a part as large as a man’s hand this time.

Every human warrior present burst into applause and cries of support. Having felt its powers firsthand, they knew how powerful one must be to resist it.

With only a few howls and roars, Chu Xun had magically caused the magical object to burst into flames on its own. That really was incredible!

Meanwhile, Wu Kejin could have not looked any worse. His face was as dark as the color of coal in his bitter fury.

“Even if the Lord of the Assembly of Immortals himself stands before me, I’ll make him submit to me, never mind one lousy scrap of parchment!”

Sizzle!

The Edict lost another portion again.

“You pitiful orphan boy of the Immortals, Wu Kejin. To think that after being abandoned like some dingy pup, you think that you can rule us by using one lousy scrap of paper like that! You’re a miserable clown!”

Sizzle!

Another portion as large as a fist turned to ashes again.

It looked absolutely terrible now. The proud and illustrious object of potent magic, the Edict of the Assembly of Immortals now being reduced to no more than pieces of scraps people used to clean their backsides.

Wu Kejin’s face was twisted grotesquely with shame, resentment, and hatred.

“You have disrespected the name of the Assembly of Immortals, Devil! You’ll pay for this!”

Wu Kejin bit on his fingers and used his own blood to write on what was left of the Edict.

He was trying to pull off one last desperate trick to kill Chu Xun!