Chapter 653: I'm Back...
"You... who are you... why are you attacking my Shenhuang Army..."
As the supreme commander of the Shenhuang Army, Qi Zhencang had seen every kind of major scene in his life. Even when facing the monarchs of great nations like Canglan or Heisha, he would hold his head high and roar with a voice that shook the heavens. But the voice he roared out now carried a tremor he simply could not suppress. On the last few words, he himself heard the chattering of his teeth.
That aura of profound force was terrifying enough, but what made him tremble even more was that suffocating aura of rage, as if it blotted out the sky and covered the sun. Under this rage, the vast battlefield felt as if it were shrouded by a pitch-black iron cauldron... He was certain that even tens of thousands of desperate jackals could not release such a terrifying aura... and it came from a single person!
And it was the appearance of this one person that made the massive battlefield, in an instant, as cold and still as the nine Netherworld abyss.
Rage boiled wildly. Yun Che felt every cell in his body on the verge of exploding. He had come carrying longing, joy, and urgency, expecting to immediately see the people he had been thinking of day and night, and have a wonderful reunion with them... but he never imagined that what awaited him would be his homeland, trampled, riddled with thousands of scars!
This was the second time Yun Che had completely lost control of his emotions on the Tian Xuan Continent... the first time was back when Xiao Lie and Xiao Lingxi were captured by the Fen Tian Gate, but this time was even worse! His rage burned violently with his flames, and even the world he saw was tinged with a layer of crimson.
In the distance, Qi Zhencang's voice came. Yun Che's flames shook violently as he suddenly plummeted from the air, landing straight into the vanguard of the Shenhuang Army.
Boom!!!!
The earth for over ten miles around trembled violently. Yun Che's flames, accompanied by a storm of profound force so strong it reached the extreme, erupted outward. Countless Shenhuang soldiers were knocked to the ground in terrified howls, and the mounts of the cavalry let out frightened neighs. As they scrambled back to their feet and looked at the figure descending from the sky, every single person's pupils dilated to nearly bursting...
Because they saw the most horrifying scene of their lives.
The ground for a full ten-plus miles was heavily cracked. Countless fissures radiated outward from under Yun Che's feet, the longest stretching to the edge of sight, a full zhang wide. And within a thousand zhang around him, the originally dense Shenhuang soldiers had all vanished, along with the densely piled corpses, disappearing without a trace... Then, piece after piece of armor and fragments of corpses rained down from the sky, turning into a true rain of blood!
"All of you... will... die!!"
Countless Shenhuang soldiers trembled and collapsed in extreme shock and fear. Tens of thousands of companions could not give them the slightest sense of safety. The voice they heard... it seemed not to come from a human at all, but from the death curse of the Grim Reaper himself.
"This is... the power of an Emperor Lord!" Feng Feiheng said with a trembling voice. He could not understand how an Emperor Lord could appear on the soil of the Cang Feng Kingdom! His aura, and all his actions, clearly sided with the Cang Feng Kingdom... a small Cang Feng Kingdom, whose peak of the profound way was only the Throne realm. How could they possibly have an Emperor Lord as a backer—or rather, how could an Emperor Lord, an existence that looked down on the universe, stoop to help a tiny Cang Feng Kingdom!
"What? An... Emperor Lord!?" Qi Zhencang and Duan Qinghang both turned pale with shock at Feng Feiheng's words. Though the two of them were Thrones, they clearly knew what the term "Emperor Lord" meant! The Phoenix Sect Master of their Shenhuang Kingdom, Feng Hengkong, was only at the peak of Overlord Emperor, and all the fifty-six elders were only mid to late Overlord Emperor... In the entire Fenghuang God Sect, only among the former sect masters and supreme elders were there a limited dozen or so Emperor Lords, and these people,
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were the true foundation of the Fenghuang God Sect, existences transcendent above the world, hardly ever showing their faces normally. Even Feng Hengkong would treat them with utmost respect when meeting them.
A million Shenhuang soldiers were enough to sweep through Cang Feng, but before a true Emperor Lord, they were fundamentally no different from a million ants.
"Commander Qi, what do we do... if he really is an Emperor Lord..." Duan Qinghang said with a trembling voice. He had spent most of his life on the battlefield, and even facing an enemy ten times his own number, he would never panic. But if the person before him was truly an Emperor Lord, that was something no "army" could contend with!
Because when it came to this supreme realm that looked down on the heavens... so-called numbers, equipment, formations, morale, clever stratagems... were all meaningless jokes.
"It shouldn't be... absolutely shouldn't! How could a tiny Cang Feng Kingdom have an Emperor Lord aiding them!" Feng Feiheng gritted his teeth. "Let me go and—"
Feng Feiheng's voice cut off abruptly, because as the flames on Yun Che's body dissipated and the rain of blood stopped, he saw Yun Che's face... In an instant, his pupils contracted sharply and he roared in shock: "Yun... Yun Che!!"
Though Qi Zhencang and Duan Qinghang had heard of Yun Che's name like thunder, they had never seen him. But Feng Feiheng, as an elder of the Fenghuang God Sect, had naturally been present at the Seven Nations Ranking Battle three years ago... Anyone who personally experienced that battle could never forget Yun Che's face for a lifetime.
At the moment Feng Feiheng shouted Yun Che's name, Cang Yue's gaze, fixed on Yun Che's back, had already gone blank. Her eyes trembled, her lips quivered, but no sound could escape. She stared blankly, reaching her arm toward Yun Che, her feet involuntarily wanting to draw closer. But her vision grew blurrier, and all the strength in her body silently faded away, causing her body to slowly fall...
"Your Majesty!" Dongfang Xiu and Qin Wushang hurriedly tried to support her, but suddenly a golden shadow flashed before them, and a fiercely violent aura surged over, causing them to stagger backward, nearly falling. The falling Cang Yue was already caught in the arms of a golden-robed man. As they steadied themselves and looked at the person holding Cang Yue, their eyes widened to the maximum in that instant.
"Yun... Yun Che!?"
"Is it really you!?"
Yun Che held Cang Yue in his arms, and the rage that had been on the verge of losing control was suddenly enveloped by a deep warmth and satisfaction, slowly calming down. Just now, he had been facing away from her, but at the moment she began to fall, it was as if a voice called out in the depths of his heart, making him instinctively turn and rush toward her.
"Yue'er..." He held her delicate body, thinner than three years ago, and his heart ached fiercely, unsure whether to hate or to be grateful. He hated that such a calamity had descended upon Cang Feng Kingdom—the crushing weight of a lost kingdom for three full years pressing down on her. He was grateful that he could return at this last moment and still hold her like this in his arms.
If he had returned even a little later... he dared not think of the consequences.
Cang Yue's eyes were misty and hazy, staring blankly at Yun Che, so close. There was not a trace of her usual authority and resolve, only a heartbreaking softness. Her lips moved gently, her voice like a dream: "Husband... is it really... you..."
"It's me! It's me!" Yun Che nodded desperately. "I'm back..."
"Am I... dreaming..."
"Of course not!" Yun Che hurriedly lifted Cang Yue's hand and pressed it against his own face, letting her feel his body's warmth. "I'm right here, completely right here... Look at me carefully. This is not a dream. I didn't die... I never died..."
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"My Yue'er is still waiting for me to come back; how could I bear to die..."
The warm temperature, the soul-haunting silhouette and aura—Cang Yue's tears burst forth like a broken dam. At this moment, the Shenhuang, the war, the fallen kingdom, the determination, the resentment—everything, everything no longer mattered. The figure before her, returning like a dream, completely filled her entire soul. She greedily touched Yun Che's face, her eyes blurred, her voice like a dream: "My junior Yun... my husband didn't die... wonderful... wonderful..."
She whispered repeatedly, crying, her arm slowly falling, her eyelids gradually closing... Under the immense impact on her soul, she simply fell unconscious in Yun Che's arms, with only tears at the corners of her eyes still silently sliding down.
Yun Che gently pressed his palm to her chest and slowly infused a strand of world energy into her body. Her inner breath was extremely weak. Yun Che could imagine she might not have slept for days.
"Yue'er, rest well... Leave everything else to me." Yun Che murmured softly. Holding Cang Yue, he slowly stood up, facing Dongfang Xiu and Qin Wushang, whose faces were now completely flushed. He bowed slightly and said, "Dongfang Mansion Master, Qin Mansion Master, thank you for protecting my Yue'er... You've worked hard during this time."
"This is our... duty." Looking at Yun Che, Dongfang Xiu's emotions could not calm down. Three years ago, he had fallen into the Primordial Mystic Ark, with no hope of survival. Cang Feng Kingdom had lost its consort, and also its brightest pearl in history. But... he had returned alive! And his power had increased by more than "earth-shaking"!
He did not dare to speculate on Yun Che's current strength, but to kill an elder-level figure of the Fenghuang God Sect in just a few breaths, the Yun Che before him—this youth who had once shaken the Cangfeng Mystic Palace—his profound power level now was something Dongfang Xiu could not even look up to.
"It's good that you're back. It's good that you're back." Qin Wushang nodded forcefully, so excited he didn't know what else to say.
Xiao Yun and the others descended from the sky and came behind Yun Che. Yun Che gently placed Cang Yue in Tianxia Diqi's arms and said, "Seventh Sister, protect her for me. She is my wife."
Tianxia Diqi nodded solemnly: "Brother Yun, rest assured. Unless I die, no one will come near her."
"Mm." Yun Che nodded slightly, his face expressionless, calm to the point of being chilling. He turned his gaze to Xiao Yun and suddenly said, "Xiao Yun, have you ever killed anyone?"
"Ah?" Xiao Yun was taken aback, then shook his head. "No... never."
Yun Che turned around, looking at the black mass of the Shenhuang army in the north. Rage and murderous intent once again boiled wildly in his pupils. "If you want to grow into a real man, start today by staining your hands with the blood of the enemy!"
With those words, Yun Che's body shot forward, charging toward the Shenhuang army that had driven the entire Cang Feng Kingdom into the abyss of despair, carrying boundless hatred.
Xiao Yun stood there, lost for a moment, not knowing what to do.
"Although our Elf clan detests killing and war above all else," Tianxia Diyi slowly spoke, "today, if I were you, I would definitely cover myself in the blood of these people... Take a good look at this originally peaceful land. Now it is trampled by enemies, soaked in the blood of its own people—a land full of scars, tens of millions buried... For such unforgivable, inhuman enemies, mercy and kindness are not only cheap, but foolish!"
"Don't forget, this is not only Yun Che's homeland... it is also your homeland!"
Xiao Yun: "!!!!"
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