Chapter 462: Self-Detonation! Overlord Emperor Awakens (Part 2)
"What is that?" Feng Feiyan, who was about to deliver a fatal blow to Xia Yuanba, stopped in his tracks and asked doubtfully.
The golden light suddenly shining from Xia Yuanba's chest made Ye Xinghan pause, and then his expression drastically changed. Even his usually lazy, half-closed eyes instantly widened to their maximum, filling with deep terror: "Over… Overlord Emperor Divine Meridian!!"
"Overlord Emperor Divine Meridian? What does that mean?" Feng Feiyan turned his head to look at Ye Xinghan, puzzled. The legend of the Overlord Emperor Divine Meridian only existed in the records of the Sacred Domains. Although Feng Feiyan was the Grand Elder of the Fenghuang God Sect, he had never heard of it.
When his face turned toward Ye Xinghan, he naturally saw the drastic change in his expression, and his heart immediately skipped a beat. He quickly looked back at Xia Yuanba… and the moment his gaze landed on him again, his pupils sharply contracted.
Xia Yuanba, who had been on the verge of death and barely breathing, actually slowly stood up at that moment. Golden light rapidly spread from his chest area, gradually enveloping his entire body, turning his torso, arms, and even his hair into a dazzling golden-yellow. And when this golden color spread to his left arm, the light suddenly intensified, and then abruptly extended… In an instant, his missing arm, along with his hand, actually grew back!! Restored completely intact.
"Wh… what… what!?" Feng Feiyan's eyeballs nearly burst from shock. This was absolutely the most horrifying and unbelievable sight he had ever seen in his life.
It wasn't just his severed arm. As the golden light spread, all the wounds on Xia Yuanba's body healed at an incredible speed. Within just a few breaths, hundreds of wounds, large and small, all over his body disappeared without a trace. He straightened his body and opened his eyes… his pupils were also dazzling golden-yellow! From his muscles to his blood, to his hair, to his eyes… every part of him, without exception, was gold!
This unprecedented mutation, never before seen or even heard of, left Feng Feiyan's expression as horrified as if he had witnessed the legendary descent of a demon god. He swallowed hard and said in a trembling voice: "Young… Young Palace Master? What is this? Could it be some kind of… special profound art from the Huangji Sacred Domain?"
After he finished speaking, he received no response from Ye Xinghan. He turned his head and was shocked to find that Ye Xinghan, who had been right beside him, was now several hundred zhang away and fleeing at an astonishing speed… that speed had already surpassed the limit a mid-stage Overlord Emperor could achieve! And he had been so stunned by Xia Yuanba's incredible transformation that he hadn't even noticed Ye Xinghan's frantic escape.
The direction he fled was definitely not the path Yun Che and Feng Xue'er had taken earlier, but the complete opposite direction, away from Xia Yuanba!
Although Feng Feiyan had no idea what was happening to Xia Yuanba, nor did he understand the concept of "Overlord Emperor Divine Meridian" that Ye Xinghan had shouted, even a fool could understand that something that could scare Ye Xinghan out of his wits must be terrifyingly powerful. He stepped back, violently gathering his energy, and prepared to flee with all his might… but then his body trembled, and his feet didn't move an inch.
Because in that instant, he felt his body being locked in place by an indescribably vast aura. An immeasurable, fierce, and extremely heavy pressure, like ten thousand overlapping mountains, slammed down on him, rendering him, a powerful eighth-level Overlord Emperor, completely immobile… He felt that under this immense force, even the surrounding space, the sky, and the earth were utterly sealed.
What… kind of power is this!
Impossible… impossible! He was about to die! He was clearly a spent, half-dead mid-stage Overlord Emperor who had been beaten to a pulp—how could he possibly possess such a power aura… how could this happen!
Endless shock and terror filled Feng Feiyan's soul. No matter how frantically he channeled his profound energy, he couldn't move an inch… It felt like being nailed to an iron rack, a prisoner awaiting death! He could only stare with increasingly horrified eyes at Xia Yuanba, who was entirely golden, his pupils alternately dilating and contracting.
All the pain on Xia Yuanba's face vanished, replaced by an expression of calm—so calm that it seemed devoid of any emotion. His eyes were completely golden, so pure that no pupils were visible. Slowly, he raised his right fist…
Si!!
The space was violently torn by a golden light, and Xia Yuanba's golden body appeared in front of Feng Feiyan… Feng Feiyan's eyes widened to the limit, countless bloodshot veins rapidly spreading like cracks across his eyeballs. Slowly, he lowered his head, and his unfocused gaze clearly saw a pair of thick golden arms completely plunged into his body… His body, which was countless times harder than refined steel, was pierced like tofu before his golden arms.
"You… what… monster… are… you…"
These were the last words Feng Feiyan uttered in this world. Xia Yuanba's face was expressionless. His lips did not move, but a voice low poured from his throat: "A lowly creature like you dares to provoke me… Die!!"
The violent power exploded within Feng Feiyan's body, instantly destroying his internal organs and profound veins. Then, with a "bang," Feng Feiyan's entire body burst apart, scattering minced flesh and blood into the air, with some pieces flying hundreds of zhang away… Not even a complete corpse, not even a whole finger, remained.
As soon as the blood touched Xia Yuanba's golden body, it instantly vanished, and even his entire right arm was left spotless. His arm slowly lowered, and his indifferent gaze turned toward the direction Ye Xinghan had fled, but he did not pursue. Then, his tall figure fell straight forward…
Pfft… Xia Yuanba crashed heavily to the ground. The golden light on his body completely disappeared, and the pressure that had made heaven and earth hold its breath dissipated entirely the moment he fell.
Xia Yuanba's fallen body lay motionless, without even the strength to twitch. It was a long time before his fingers faintly moved, and his arm slowly lifted bit by bit… an action that was simple for even an infant, but he took a full several dozen breaths. Finally, his hand grasped the jade pendant hanging around his neck and, using all his remaining strength, crushed it.
Zheng!!
The broken jade released a faint glimmer, and quickly formed a small profound array around Xia Yuanba's body. As the array rotated, Xia Yuanba's body, along with the array, disappeared from that spot in an instant.
The surroundings grew quiet, but the thick smell of blood in the air lingered for a long time. High above, at a thousand zhang altitude, a snow-white figure withdrew his gaze and murmured: "Overlord Emperor Divine Meridian? That's quite something… Oh?"
Just after Xia Yuanba disappeared, Ye Xinghan, who had fled far away, swiftly returned. Clearly, once the aura from Xia Yuanba's sudden burst had vanished, he no longer needed to keep fleeing.
Ye Xinghan's speed was like a meteor, and in the blink of an eye, he was back at the previous location. He still looked somewhat shaken. His cold, sinister gaze swept around, seeing only the bloodstains and shattered flesh on the ground. The faint aura of the Phoenix bloodline remaining on these corpse fragments confirmed that Feng Feiyan was dead… and dead thoroughly, miserably. But he wasn't sure if any of these remnants belonged to Xia Yuanba. Thinking about how Xia Yuanba had previously self-detonated to force out the power of the Overlord Emperor Divine Meridian, and now that his body was nowhere to be seen… it was highly likely that he had also perished there. Because forcibly awakening the power of the Overlord Emperor Divine Meridian was akin to suicide, extremely likely to cause one to explode and die; even if one survived, they wouldn't have the strength to escape.
"To think… the legendary Overlord Emperor Divine Meridian actually appeared!" Ye Xinghan's face twitched with lingering fear. If he hadn't heard of the Overlord Emperor Divine Meridian's legend and fled in panic, the one lying dead now might have been him, not Feng Feiyan.
"No wonder that old fool Gu Cang valued this person so much… If he hadn't died, once he grew up, the position of the Huangji Sacred Domain would be even more unshakable! But fortunately, he's dead! If my father knew I inadvertently killed a hidden trump card of the Huangji Sacred Domain, he would definitely praise me greatly!"
After muttering to himself, Ye Xinghan was certain that the only possibility was that Xia Yuanba was dead. He completely relaxed. As for Feng Feiyan… although there was a little regret, his value had been mostly used up, and he had already helped achieve his greatest goal. Dying wasn't a big loss!
Ye Xinghan turned his gaze toward the direction Yun Che and Feng Xue'er had fled, sneered, put away his jade fan, and shot off like flowing light. His speed was at least five to six times faster than Yun Che, leaving a howling storm of wind in his wake.
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Phoenix City.
Feng Xichen sometimes looked up at the Primordial Mystic Ark that had already opened in the sky, and sometimes paced back and forth, his entire being restless to the extreme. After the Seven Nation Ranking War, it was time to explore the Primordial Mystic Ark, so Feng Hengkong had no leisure to deal with his affairs. But he knew very well that after the Primordial Mystic Ark exploration was over, Feng Hengkong would definitely not let him off easily. From yesterday evening to this morning, he had also noticed that the looks from other princes, and even ordinary Phoenix disciples, carried various shades of strangeness.
At that moment, right in front of him, a profound light flickered, and a small profound array appeared out of thin air. Within the array, a particularly sturdy figure emerged.
"Who goes there!"
Feng Xichen, already irritable, was startled and shouted sternly. But immediately, he saw that the suddenly appearing person had his eyes closed, motionless, his face extremely pale, and his aura so weak it was almost no different from a dead person. Taking two steps forward, he immediately recognized him—this was clearly the disciple brought by Gu Cang Zhenren of the Huangji Sacred Domain!
Feng Xichen's earlier shout brought two protectors stationed outside rushing in. Seeing Xia Yuanba, they exclaimed in shock: "This… isn't this the disciple of Gu Cang Zhenren? He clearly boarded the Primordial Mystic Ark this morning—how could he be here, and seemingly severely injured?"
Xia Yuanba's aura was frighteningly weak, and he could die at any moment. If Gu Cang Zhenren's disciple died in Phoenix City, that would be a huge problem. Cold sweat broke out on Feng Xichen's forehead, and he said urgently: "Quick! Take him to the alchemy room! Instruct Ten Thousand Healing Elder to spare no expense to save him! This is Gu Cang Zhenren's personal disciple. If he dies here, and the Huangji Sacred Domain takes it out on us, you two will be blamed and buried with him!"
"Yes… yes!" The two protectors stiffened, then hurriedly nodded, tremblingly lifted Xia Yuanba, and dashed straight for the alchemy room.
[Starting to make up for the backlog of updates.]