The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 438 The Devil Is Falling

Rumble!

The air tremored violently. When Chu Xun turned his head to steal a glimpse, he saw the piece of talismanic strip rising up into the air and immolated.

A scary vortex of winds and clouds spiraled in the sky like a behemothic beast baring its fangs to devour Nether Mountain whole.

The enormous force pulling from inside the aerial maelstrom caused the entire mountain to shake as terrifying cracks split open and rocks fell in all directions.

“You’ll never kill me, Devil! I said that before! No one in this world can!” Wu Kejin screamed amid the tumult, his body being drawn by the invisible force up into the air gradually.

Chu Xun’s eyes gleamed with opportunity. He stomped and launched himself into the air, chasing after Wu Kejin with Dragon’s Wrath grasped firmly in his hand. He injected a huge burst of Hong Meng Immortal Qi into the golden saber and he attacked.

The purplish scythe-like energy bolt rocketed with a dazzling trail of glitters in its wake.

“ARRGGHH!”

Blood sprayed like a fountain. The energy bolt slashed through Wu Kejin’s legs, severing his legs below his knees.

“AHHHH!”

The son of the Immortals let loose an anguished scream, his face contorting grotesquely with pain and his eyes blazed with grudge and rancor.

Chu Xun gave Dragon’s Wrath another swing. The golden saber hummed in his grasp and came down with a heavy blow, firing another energy bolt that aimed at Wu Kejin’s throat.

“HOW DARE YOU, DEVIL!?” Wu Kejin howled, visibly afraid out of his wits. Chu Xun was trying to kill him for real!? With his badly battered self and his weakened strength, there was zero chance that he would survive this blow.

Suddenly, an astonishingly huge and gargantuan hand appeared from within the vortex.

Ivory-fair and divine the hand looked, yet Chu Xun could feel how dangerous it was through the hairs standing on ends all over him.

The gigantic hand flicked a finger at the energy bolt that he fired using Dragon’s Wrath, easily destroying it in a little puff.

Surprised and delighted, Wu Kejin yelled hoarsely, “I am Wu Kejin, a descendant of the Immortals! I thank you for your saving grace!”

The gigantic hand groped at Chu Xun. As it drew near, he could feel its tremendous pressure and weight bearing in, threatening to squash Nether Mountain whole.

Chu Xun could feel the hairs on his back standing as his blood raced. Every bone in him was groaning at the indescribable weight coming in on him that even droplets of blood were oozing out of the pores on his skin.

The gigantic hand came down, its colossal size and girth blotting out the sun and sky overhead as Chu Xun stood in its shadow. It was not only aiming for Chu Xun but to level the entire mountain too!

Without any time to think, Chu Xun quickly took out a jade flask and upended it. A droplet of blood dropped on Chu Xun’s palm, bursting a brilliant surge of light when it first appeared that engulfed every inch of Nether Mountain in its sudden pulse of radiance.

Emperor Ao’s True Blood!

There was a need to even think. Chu Xun swallowed the blood readily and felt the huge energy from it coursing through every artery to his limbs as his aura soared.

Chu Xun’s power levels skyrocketed to the latter Golden Core stages and more. But the gigantic hand was only too terrible; it came down on Chu Xun with what seemed like a vicious swat, clubbing Chu Xun off the sky and into the ground in a huge crater.

Demon-slain Finger — Scaring All the Gods and Ghosts by the Third Finger!

Demon-slain Finger — Shaking the Sky by the Fourth Finger!

Rumble!

An ancient and suffocating aura swept across the area and two huge monoliths appeared like mountains that scraped the skies, rising up like pillars to stop the gigantic hand from coming down.

The gargantuan hand crushed down on the monoliths with hardly any slow in its pace. Instead, cracks began spreading all around the twin monoliths, and finally, they crumbled under its unstoppable force. The gigantic hand could not be stopped at all.

Chu Xun’s powers had risen to the Grand Completion of the Golden Core Stage.

He activated his powers with his mind.

The Celestial Upheaval – The Thirty-Sixth!

Thirty-six energy bolts – each shaped like fists – rained down in a horrendous barrage at the falling giant hand.

Rumble! Rumble!

The hails of lights fell like a meteor rain, peppering the gigantic hand with clusters of explosions.

But it was not enough. Despite the large explosions, the gigantic hand emerged utterly unscathed, looking still smooth and fair as if the explosions hardly occurred at all.

Chu Xun stared with shock. Reaching the Great Completion of the Golden Core Stage meant that he could have easily killed Wu Kejin by lifting only a finger.

The Eternal Phoenix Scripture magic!

An ear-splitting screech of a phoenix tore through the higher strata of the skies and a fiery bird more than thirty meters in the full splendor of its wings bore down on the gargantuan hand in a razing inferno.

Rumble!

Flames swept everywhere in incessant pulses with eruptions that shook and rock the earth. But that hardly stopped the hand; it paused for one second but continued its fall.

The Azure Dragon’s Nine Transformations Technique!

The roar of a dragon resonated up into the skies and nine gold-purplish silhouettes resembling majestic dragons thundered like the noble beasts which likeness they took and charged at the gigantic hand.

Rumble! Rumble!

Another knot of explosions erupted on the hand. Still, the hand continued its fall and the crushing force that heralded its fall was already squashing Nether Mountain like a hydraulic press. The explosions had but merely stopped the hand for one brief moment, like the ones before, but they dealt no actual damage to it without even a bruise on its skin.

Chu Xun jerked his head around. The human warriors had sped down the mountain, but they stood near the outer peripherals to watch, thinking that they would be safe there.

“RUN! GO!” Chu Xun roared at them.

Realizing how foolish they were, the warriors wheeled around and fled.

It was too late for him, however. He could muster his quickest speed and he would still never be able to make it out of Nether Mountain.

“AHHHH!”

Chu Xun let loose a defiant howl of his own and launched every trick in his playbook at the gargantuan hand.

But it was like building a castle on sand; the gigantic hand just wouldn’t stop.

Crack!

Chu Xun sank. The invisible force from the hand hammered all of Nether Mountain that it teetered on the brink of collapsing and Chu Xun’s feet plunged into the earth. His bones whined with agony as the gargantuan hand loomed as near as three meters overhead.

“ARRGGGHH!” Chu Xun roared, summoning every bit of Hong Meng Immortal Qi he could muster. The dual Golden Cores in his body whirled rapidly to churn out more powers for him to resist the gargantuan hand.

All around the world, people watching the live broadcast leaped up in uproar. The Devil threw everything at the gargantuan hand and nothing had worked. This could be his doom!

“Launch an airstrike at that bloody thing!” the Chief Official bellowed at his desk, pounding a fist into it.

“I’m afraid it’s too late,” said a voice solemnly. It was too late for a nuclear missile to save the Devil now.

“Chu Xun, my brother!” Yue Fandie screamed, with red veins lining his scleras in his distress. He and his son had been watching the live broadcast at the Sanctuary of Tetrarchy and they were all fuming.

But around the world, people lurched with the comprehension of an Immortal’s might. “Is this the power of the Assembly of Immortals!? What terror and destruction they wield!”

“This is your price for defying the Assembly, Devil! Prepare for your death!” announced Wu Kejin triumphantly as he was about to enter the vortex.

“ARRGGHH!”

Blood poured out of Chu Xun’s mouth. His bones were on the brink of snapping from the tremendous pressure and blood spatters mottled every part of his glazed-white robes.

The gargantuan hand was trying to force him to kneel, he realized. Both his legs were already deep into the rock underneath him with only his upper body still visible.

Rumble!

Part of Nether Mountain toppled and it sank one-third of its full height.

“ARGGGHH!” A terrified howl allowed Chu Xun a moment’s worth of distraction. He peered around to find the mutants of the alien races fleeing for their lives, albeit slower than the human warriors. A hand of those who had been too slow were crushed into pulps of meat by the invisible force of the gargantuan hand.

“STOP THEM! KILL THEM ALL! LEAVE NONE OF THEM ALIVE!” burst out Chu Xun suddenly.

The human warriors who had been darting to safety turned back at Chu Xun’s calls and they saw the alien races fleeing.

“Kill them!”

They had only the deepest loathing for the alien race mutants. Luo Yuan led the charge with the rest peeling just after him as they dove at the fleeing mutants.

No one could dispute that Chu Xun was now fending off the gargantuan hand only because he had been buying them time to flee. Or else, with his great speeds, he could have easily bolted off into safety himself.

Elsewhere, all around the world, people reeled in silence. They saw how ruthless Chu Xun could be. Even in his critical moment, he never stopped thinking of how to defeat the enemy. This really was the Devil.

Clamors and battle cries filled the air with blood splashing and severed limbs falling everywhere as combatants from both sides struggled to slaughter one another.

At the top of Nether Mountain, Chu Xun was still groaning and grunting in pain. Suddenly, he remembered his staff. He conjured it and the golden staff appeared, bright and shiny as always. It grew at a visible rate and turned into a golden column protruding on the top of Nether Mountain, a monolith so thick that not even ten men could wrap their arms around it.

Bang!

The giant hand smashed into the top end of the golden column that was the dragonbone staff, sending a shock that tremored more of Nether Mountain into further collapse. But the staff endured; it managed to withstand a blow from the giant hand!

Chu Xun breathed easier, relieved to find that the dragonbone staff working. The bone of the Ancestral Dragon was still every bit as dependable even in the face of such a formidable opponent!

But the gargantuan hand did not stop. Before he could even catch his breath, Nether Mountain sank further with another huge eruption and the golden column had been pounded deep inside the mountain!

Rumble!

The ancient dragonbone staff being piledriven into the mountain was the last straw; all of Nether Mountain began to crumble by piecemeal bits. But that did not stop the gargantuan hand. It continued hammering at the dragonbone staff until two meters of its tip was visible, the rest of it inside the mountain itself.

“Assembly of Immortals, you bunch of trash!” Chu Xun bellowed. The gargantuan hand was really trying to kill him!

“Speck of filth,” remarked a deep, rumbling voice that boomed from inside the vortex, a voice strong enough to rock the rings of summits all around them, “To think that Earth would reemerge after millions of years. Mere slaves like you would do well to await your true masters.”

Chu Xun could have not been any more frustrated. So the Assembly of Immortals was not yet informed about the anomalies now going on all over Earth! He could have quickly used Emperor Ao’s True Blood to quickly deal with Wu Kejin to prevent all this and now, the Immortals were coming!

“Bunch of wretched filth! Come! If you dare set foot on Earth, I’ll slay every single one of you myself!” Chu Xun roared.

“Speck of dirt. After millions of years since our departure, vermins like you have no recollection of the Assembly’s greatness and majesty.”

“Greatness and majesty my arse! You’re just a bunch of turncoats who had deserted Earth!” Chu Xun, in a rare streak lashed out with expletives.

“For this contempt, you shall pay, vermin. May this be an example to every Earthling for any defiance to the Assembly’s rule,” said the voice with evident disgust.

Before the voice was gone, the gigantic hand gave another punch at the dragonbone staff for good measure as if to demonstrate his point by further pounding the golden staff deeper into the ground. It bore down again on Chu Xun, this time very close to reaching his head, who was still resisting with every shred of his will and might.

“ARRGGHH!”

Blood trickled from every pore all around him and his eyes were bloodshot from the pressure now assailing him. The Hong Meng Immortal Qi bursting in neverending surges out of him was the only thing now still keeping him up.

Then, the deep rumbling voice gave what was an unmistakable gasp of surprise. “There’s more to this column than meets the eye,” it commented and it clawed at the dragonbone staff.

Chu Xun’s face fell in despair. Losing the dragonbone staff from his hands would come worse a shame than death itself.

“Come back!”

He quickly magically summoned it back and stowed it away before the gargantuan hand could take it.

“You are hereby sentenced to death, you unworthy insect!” the disembodied voice rumbled with rage.

It slammed down on Chu Xun again. This time, without the Ancestral Dragon’s bone to defend himself, it came sure and swift like a hammer.

Rumble!

The blow struck Chu Xun squarely, driving him into the earth before the gigantic hand withdrew for a second blow rapidly.

Crack!

All of Nether Mountain shook with boulders being crushed into bits of gravel.

“Xun!” At Qianlong Mountain, Chu Tianhe and his wife howled and fainted at the horror of seeing their son being crushed to his death.

All around the world, people roared in grief and indignation.

Deep in the halls of the Fire Dragon Palace, the Rock Sect, and the Sanctuary of Tetrarchy, terror and dismay gripped everyone as they cried with their eyes reddening in extreme distress.

The entire cyberspace was as quiet as a crypt. “The Devil is falling today.” There was no doubt of it.

Rumble!

Nether Mountain was still toppling to its last stone, the once tall and towering mountain now not more than half its full height.

Rumble!

Another deafening boom sent tremors everywhere. The earth shook and so did the rings of summits around them as if the Apocalypse was at hand. Nether Mountain was utterly gone. The gigantic hand’s work was done and all that remained were only heaps and mounds of countless rocks and stones.

“Such is the fate of a vermin who tried to resist the divine might of the Assembly,” observed the booming voice from within the vortex.

The gargantuan hand then began digging through the rocks, flipping over as if searching for something. It was looking to recover Chu Xun’s corpse to loot the golden staff.

Virtually every human watching the live broadcast snarled with indignation. “This is blatant humiliation! He’s defiling Chu Xun’s corpse by looting his belongings!”

All of a sudden, a strange, inexplicable sensation made every head turned towards the faraway horizons.

The figure of a stranger streaked across the sky with speeds comparable to a lightning bolt. Along with it came the indomitable air of a god that even air and space distorted in his wake as if quaking to his presence.