The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 387 Rout of the Winged Legion

Tiny red veins filled Chu Xun’s eyes. Exuding a presence that resembled a god – or more aptly, a true Devil – as he rode on the back of a Winged imperiously like a conquering hero.

The Winged, horrified and frightened, could do nothing save to flap his wings desperately for dear life.

Chu Xun grabbed the mane of his hair and jerked it left and right to make him fly in whichever direction he chose like a horse.

Crack!

Another Winged came from behind to intercept. But Chu Xun needed only to lean forward to deliver a kick backward.

Snap!

The blow shattered the blade of the Winged’s golden sword into countless shards before barreling into him, leaving him crashing into several more of his kin, knocking them off the sky like bowling pins spraying blood and froth from their mouths with bones broken and fractured.

Chu Xun stomped and smashed the spine of the Winged he was riding on, kicking him down to a precipitous fall.

That gave him the thrust he needed to launch himself into the air and he found another Winged to land on, fracturing more backbones than the other and he began plummeting with a long trail of frothy blood from his mouth.

Chu Xun jumped again and found himself another prey, swooping down on him like a lightning bolt while caving in his back, bludgeoning him off the sky.

Like a grasshopper, Chu Xun leaped from the back of one Winged to another.

And one after another, the Wingeds unfortunate enough to have been chosen by him plummeted to their deaths from the sky.

Bang! Bang!

The hail of Wingeds pounded the ground like an airstrike bombardment, opening smoldering craters wide open everywhere.

Hardly any of the Wingeds could survive the deadly stomps of Chu Xun’s foot and by the time they hit the ground, the impact easily reduced them all into minced meat.

Like a flock of terrified birds, the Winged Legion was tossed into utter disarray. Every single Winged legionnaire flapped their wings wildly to escape. All they wanted was to put as much distance between them and the monster who has been Doodle-Jumping with them while killing more than two dozen of their number.

Chu Xun conjured his Reincarnation Whip and flung it viciously forward. The end of the Whip coiled around the ankle of a fleeing Winged and Chu Xun pulled hard, drawing the Winged back.

With a quick stomp to send the Winged he was riding on to his pitiful death, he leaped to the new Winged’s back.

Then he flung the Whip again for another prey to pull this new Winged back too.

Bang!

He kicked again, blasting the back of this second Winged wide open into a sickening muck of blood and viscera, and springboarded himself to another new Winged he drew over using his whip.

Amusingly, this new Winged turned so scared that he soiled his own breeches. Convulsing wildly with panic, his eyes rolled white and he fainted. Then he began losing altitude.

That almost caused Chu Xun to lose his footing and fell off the sky.

Not far away, the Tenth Presbyter of the Winged race could only watch and groan like a wounded beast. But his wounds were just too grievous for him to do anything to the monster now picking his kinsmen off one by one.

“Weren’t you all high and mighty?! Did you all always look down on us humans?! And how are you any different from wretched insects now!?” cried Chu Xun loudly as he roped in one Winged after another, and not before stomping every one of them to their deaths.

Crack!

The Reincarnation Whip lashed open the back of another Winged, destroying his wings enough to have him plunging to his death with a trailing howl.

Cold chill shot up the backs of every single person watching this live, their hands as cold as a corpse’s but trembling with fear.

The Winged race, a race of deadly warriors whose very name could easily incite fear and respect, now utterly decimated by a human whose very presence now made them flee and screech with panic.

Terrified beyond their wits, the legionnaires of the Winged Legion scrambled for their lives, screaming at the top of their lungs and their feathers now worn and ragged.

When the pandemonium began to settle, all that was left of the Legion were only a dozen or so Wingeds who had managed to escape unscathed, who owed their survival not to their speed, but rather Chu Xun’s reluctance to give chase or the Legion would have been utterly slaughtered.

But one remained – with Chu Xun still riding on him. Convulsing wildly with terror, he feebly flapped his wings to no avail as tears and snot streaming down his face.

Petrified by fear, he could hardly remember how to fly and all that filled that brain of his was how Chu Xun could easily pestle him into ground meat.

“Land,” said Chu Xun flatly.

The Winged fought to keep himself steady despite the waves of fear sweeping through him, trying not to cause any turbulence in his descent that might anger Chu Xun and spell his doom.

And instead of landing normally on both feet, the Winged remained prone and skidded to a stop like a surfboard, allowing Chu Xun to step off him.

“You’ll make a good steed,” remarked Chu Xun dryly.

The Winged remained flat on the ground, not daring to move an inch.

No one dared to speak. All they could do was watch Chu Xun. “Heavens, he’s no human. He’s a monster! He’s more brutal than those other races and even more powerful than them!”

One man – that was all it took to rout an entire legion of Wingeds.

The rest of the other races all drifted into bewildered silence.

“Speak. How many Wingeds had emerged this time?” Chu Xun asked the last Winged.

“About three hundred of us, led by the Ninth Presbyter.”

“Where is this lair that you’ve been hiding for so long?”

With a fleeting glance at the Tenth Presbyter still moaning and howling in a distance away, the Winged hung his head over his shoulder and said, “In the mountains far North. The magical seal that held us became weak suddenly and those equal or below Ninth-grade Winged Kings were able to come out. Those of us who were more powerful could still not yet come out.”

“Wretched scum!” roared the Tenth Presbyter with indignance.

That caused this Winged to shudder nervously.

Chu Xun swiveled and casually fired a jet of purplish energy.

Bang!

That was the end of the Tenth Presbyter of the Winged race with his head blasted wide open.

Chu Xun peered at the Winged once more, who still remained strewn on the ground, “What of the rest of you?”

“They are besieging the Fire Dragon Palace,” he said, not without another shiver.

Hearing that filled Chu Xun with distress. He hopped onto his back and ordered, “Go. To the Fire Dragon Palace at once.”

Knowing better than to refuse, the Winged quickly beat his wing and soared into the air with Chu Xun on his back.

Before they got away, Chu Xun looked down and yelled with a thunderous voice at the warriors recording the live broadcast, “Listen, all you alien races! We humans are the true rulers of Earth and you’d do well to toe the line we set. May woe betide anyone who defies us!”

The loud and clear message struck fear into everyone who heard him that some even felt their scalps going numb.

The crowd watched as Chu Xun rode off on the Winged’s back into the sunset and all of a sudden they felt as if an invisible weight had been lifted off their chests.

“Goodbye, sir!”

Jiang Tao and his men saluted Chu Xun’s leaving back.

“Check for any intact bodies and collect them,” he ordered.

The corpses of the Winged race would surely carry great value for research.

“And you there! Halt!” he barked suddenly.

As it turned out, a few warriors were going to loot the golden swords used by the Winged legionnaires. Fashion from a strange gold-like substance, these golden swords were as deadly as Sacred Relics, making them highly desirable to any warrior.

And Jiang Tao’s loud cry to them made them stop.

“Come on, man, there are so many golden swords here. I want only one of them. The rest is enough for your research,” said a warrior who was unhappy to surrender the powerful weapons.

“You want them, you ask for them – from the Major General just now,” said Jiang Tao firmly.

Chu Xun’s intrepid rout of the Wingeds had lifted the confidence of humans all around the world and he was not going to admit defeat just yet.

“Now wait a minute, that man just now said nothing about stopping us,” sneered another warrior.

Knowing how fast Wingeds could fly, he knew that Chu Xun must be far by now. He could easily snatch one of these golden swords and flee and no one would be able to stop him.

“You have seen enough of the Major General’s temperament earlier. I’m warning you,” said Jiang Tao coldly.

“And what he did was avenge us humans. I don’t see what’s wrong in us taking some for ourselves,” retorted another, a formidable Fifth-grade Human King, as he bent down to pick up one of the golden swords. With a disdainful look at Jiang Tao, he said, “I’m taking one, whether you like it or not, and I’d like to see you stop me.”

Bang!

Without a moment’s hesitation, Jiang Tao fired his weapon, discharging bullets of lead at the warrior.

That angered the Fifth-grade Human King who activated the golden sword. Shiny brightly in a coat of golden shimmer, it came down furiously, slicing a bullet into half like paper.

Yet before he could grin, a purple sliver of energy shot from inside the halved bullet.

Crack!

The tiny ray of light perforated the warrior’s forehead, leaving a red little dot right over his eyes. His face froze with disbelief and he tumbled backward, as dead as a doornail.

That terrified the rest of the warriors enough that they gave up wanting the swords and every one of them retreated at once.

“Shoot anyone who dares to resist!” yelled Jiang Tao loudly without mercy.

“Eliminate any resistance on sight!”

All eight men of his squad barked a crisp acknowledgment as they loaded their weapons and aimed their rifles at the crowd.

Daunted, the warriors immediately turned away and left.

The reluctant but fearful withdrawal of the warriors filled the guards with immense pride and confidence.

“Heavens, the Major General must be a god! What he did was incredible!”

“He must be! What he did to our bullets allows us to hurt even warriors!”

“For so long the warriors only view us with ridicule and contempt. But look at just now! They were genuinely afraid! That really was great!”

Jiang Tao guffawed happily himself. What happened today was like a dream.

“Who was he anyway, Captain? Surely you know who he is,” muttered one of the brighter of his men, his face flushed with curiosity.

Jiang Tao furtively looked around to make sure no one was listening and he waved his men to form up as if he was going to allow them in on this secret.

“All right. It’s this: I want all this mess cleaned up tonight. No buts.”

That left his men fuming with exasperation. Instead of revealing his secret, Jiang Tao was pulling their leg.

“All right. Enough jokes. Get back to work,” he sniggered.

Having been instructed by Chu Xun to keep his identity a secret, Jiang Tao knew better than to renege on that promise.

A figure appeared out of nowhere, closing in with great speed.

“Who goes there!” barked Jiang Tao at once, raising his rifle.

So did the rest of his men, who aimed the muzzles of their weapons at the newcomer.

“How dare you! One more step and we’ll fire!” Jiang Tao bellowed loudly when he realized the newcomer must also be a warrior, thinking that he was one of those earlier who coveted the golden swords. Jiang Tao was especially miffed by the fact that none of them had even tried to help just now, and yet after the dust settled, how dare they demand their share of the loot!?

Zhong Ren could have not been any more indignant. “How dare these fools aim their guns at me?!” Nevertheless he knew better than to provoke the soldiers. Knowing how these guns carried bullets that could kill even Wingeds, the soldiers possessed the ability to hurt him too.

“I’m here by orders of the Chief Official!” he cried, offering his credentials.

Jiang Tao stared blankly at him before he shared a long, silent look with his squadmates and they all burst into laughter.

“Come on, old man! What a feeble excuse! To think you even use the Chief Official as a joke just only you could run off with one of these golden swords!?” said Jiang Tao in jest.

Zhong Ren seethed with frustration. For all the respect and dignity he enjoyed as the advisor to the Chief Official himself, Zhong Ren never before suffered such insult as being called a thief!

“Do you know who I am, you bunch of foolish whelps!?”

Jiang Tao and his men only seemed to laugh more.

“All right, old man. I’m showing you a courtesy by letting you off the hook for today. Now scram!” giggled Jiang Tao.

Scram?! Zhong Ren glared at the captain with eyes as large as eggs, his anger now boiling over the top of his head, “You idiotic fools! You really need some good walloping!”

“That’s enough, old man! We defeated even the Wingeds! Now be on your way immediately or I’ll have you shot here and now for obstructing with our duties!” cried Jiang Tao smugly, handling his rifle like it was a scepter of power.

Bursting with such rage that his beard was practically quivering to every breath, Zhong Ren rummaged for his ID card and tossed it to Jiang Tao.

Jiang Tao motioned for his men to be on guard as he retrieved the ID card. He peered at it, muttered under his breath, “You’ve made good preparations, old man, and I’ll give you that. This might look real but if you think this is going to fool me, you—”

But when he registered the authenticity of the identification he was holding, his voice broke. His eyes shot so wide when he straightened up immediately, snapping to a hasty salute, hooting loudly, “Good day, sir!”

“Idiots,” scowled Zhong Ren angrily, “Now stand straight all of you!” He could still remember the days when he fought with blood, sweat, and tears when these young fools were not even born yet. “How dare they show me such disrespect!”

Jiang Tao had them all stand up straight as he delivered heavy kicks into their backsides as punishment.