Chapter 1679: Giving Face But Not Receiving Face
A month later, Long Chen finally came out of seclusion. During this month, he had eaten medicinal pills like they were food. It went without saying that the Swallow the Heavens, Devour the Earth divine ability that Evilmoon had taught him was truly terrifying and worthy of being one of the strongest abilities of the dark evil dragon race. Long Chen’s cultivation base had risen to the fourth Heavenstage of Soul Transformation.
The Soul Transformation realm focused on the Yuan Spirit. At the same time as his Yuan Spirit grew stronger, so did his spiritual yuan. It was a kind of pa.s.sive elevation, but considering that he had four qi seas, he had gained far more spiritual yuan than others.
The thing that delighted Long Chen the most though wasn’t his cultivation base. It was that he had finally managed to merge the power of Star Fall with the World Annihilation Flame Lotus.
However, the failure of the merger was too high, with only a thirty percent chance of success. He was still groping about for how to do it, but the general progression was going in a good direction. All he needed was more time to experiment. After all, to create a perfect magical art required numerous revisions.
This one month of seclusion gave Long Chen immense confidence. He finally felt like he had the power to back himself up again.
During this one month, he had elevated practically every part of his a.r.s.enal. His cultivation base had risen to the fourth Heavenstage, he had developed his World Annihilation Flame Lotus, and Huo Long almost finished absorbing the power of the Black Illusion Dragon Flame.
After absorbing the power of the Black Illusion Dragon Flame, Huo Long finally attained a level of power capable of refining the giant Divine Flame Crystals from the Heaven Dragon Flame Region. Other than the one he had used in the Spirit World as bait, he hadn’t managed to use any of them up.
Huo Long’s power hadn’t been high enough to refine them, but now, its power had risen to the point that it could. Once it finished absorbing Divine Flame Crystals’ energy, it would be even more terrifying than the Black Illusion Dragon Flame.
As for Lei Long, its power had also risen and it had finished devouring the divine lightning. Although completely refining that energy would still take some time, it already possessed some of the power of divine lightning.
Finally, the old conner Evilmoon was no longer conning him. It had finished refining the purgatory evil dragon’s energy and was able to help Long Chen fight. Evilmoon even promised to carry him to the greatest heights.
In this one month, Long Chen had completely transformed. His combat power was completely different from when he had gone into seclusion.
“Boss, you’re finally out. Our Xuantian Dao Sect is being drowned by other people’s spit!” Long Chen had just come out when Guo Ran came running over angrily.
“What’s going on?” Long Chen was startled.
“f.u.c.k, it’s those idiots of Pill Valley, the ancient races, the ancient family alliance, and the Xuan Beasts. They’re as arrogant as ever! Even senior Qu Jianying is being pressured immensely by them. All of them are encouraging the experts of the Righteous path to impeach her,” said Guo Ran.
“It’s that serious? Let’s walk and talk.” Long Chen started walking while listening to Guo Ran’s explanation of what had been happening in the outside world.
When he heard that the Illusive Music Immortal Palace was acting like a good person, taking the initiative to offer to hold the Southern Xuan Region’s Devil Abyss while pus.h.i.+ng the responsibility onto him, Long Chen’s gaze turned cold.
He understood Zi Yan. She definitely wouldn’t do something so shameless. In other words, this had to be the decision of the Illusive Music Immortal Palace’s higher-ups. He hadn’t expected them to be so shameless.
He had had no enmity with Shen Bijun before she had hunted him down across regions. He knew this was definitely arranged by the Illusive Music Immortal Palace.
Now that Shen Bijun died, they put all her sins on his head. That made him disappointed in the Illusive Music Immortal Palace, as well as angry.
The Illusive Music Immortal Palace had pushed the responsibility onto Long Chen, and the ancient family alliance had capitalized on that. Under the banner of fighting for the innocent ancient family experts who had died to Long Chen, they demanded Long Chen be killed as vengeance for those disciples. Thus, they managed to point their spears at Long Chen while still standing on the moral high ground.
With the Illusive Music Immortal Palace leading the way and the ancient family alliance working hand in hand with them, Pill Valley, the ancient races, and the Xuan Beasts all came out, adding pressure on Qu Jianying.
“I don’t get it, the Pill Fairy saw everything! Considering her relations.h.i.+p with you, why doesn’t she say anything? If she just… ugh!”
“Guo Ran, you really are foolish. The Pill Fairy might be my friend, but Pill Valley wants to destroy me. If you were her, would you help me or her father?” Long Chen shook his head.
“I’d help you!” declared Guo Ran without hesitation.
“Tch, scram. You’re not the Pill Fairy so what’s the point? Furthermore, even if she wanted to help me, it’s her father’s word that counts. She doesn’t have the authority to speak. However, your words have reminded me. Maybe Zi Yan is the same as the Pill Fairy, and neither have the freedom to do what they want to do,” sighed Long Chen.
“Boss, it’s not just that. A bunch of so-called ‘justice warriors’ have come from other regions under the signboard of eliminating a threat to society. They’re constantly condemning you, saying you… well, I’m not going to repeat their words, because they’re too infuriating. We haven’t done anything to them, but ten days ago, these idiots directly ran over to our Xuantian Dao Sect to curse at us in front of our very gates! I really want to slaughter them all!” Guo Ran became angrier as he spoke.
“That’s a bit much. Did the Xuan Master say anything?”
“The Xuan Master just said to ignore them and wait for you to come out of seclusion before doing anything. That’s why I’ve been waiting for you every day.”
“Brat, you couldn’t have just been waiting without doing anything, right? You have to raise your own power.” Long Chen glared at Guo Ran.
“Of course I raised my power as high as I could. I’ve reached a bottleneck, and if I force my way through too quickly, it might not be a steady advancement. I’m worried about a heart-devil.” Guo Ran hastily shook his head.
“Tch, what heart-devil? I bet you feel like you’re already bada.s.s enough and want to go show off first. Fine, gather everyone. I’ll test their power in a bit, but I’m going to have a chat with the Xuan Master first. Since these people want to be so shameless, I’ll just have to slap them in the face again.”
Long Chen went off to see Li Tianxuan. Upon finding him, he didn’t say a word. He just took out two photographic jades.
When Li Tianxuan saw the photographic jades, he jumped in shock. He had no idea how Long Chen had managed to do this. He had recorded everything that had happened back then without anyone being aware.
It had to be known that activating photographic jades caused spatial fluctuations. They were fragile existences that could be broken by the slightest shockwave. In an intense battle, it was impossible to record anything with a photographic jade unless they were activated at an extreme distance. But at such distances, things were too blurry to recognize. Usually, it was only possible to estimate who was fighting based on their techniques. That was why most photographic jades weren’t very valuable. Without being able to see the faces clearly, it was impossible to be sure who the person being recorded was. It was all too easy to make up a fake blurry recording.
However, these two photographic jades of Long Chen’s were shockingly clear. Each exchange in the battle was recorded clearly. It was completely unimaginable. Furthermore, he had also recorded how he had killed Di Long’s clone.
“Originally, I wasn’t planning on revealing these. I didn’t want to be too hard on the Illusive Music Immortal Palace or the ancient family alliance. However, since they refuse to give me the same face, I have no need to give them face either. Tomorrow, I will go talk to Zheng Wenlong. I trust that these two photographic jades will spread throughout the entire Martial Heaven Continent in just a few days. At that time, I want to see how the Illusive Music Immortal Palace explains its actions, and how the ancient family alliance explains how they abused their position. Di Long hates me for destroying his clone, yet he came up with such a sanctimonious excuse and criticized the Martial Heaven Alliance as if he was the virtuous one. It seems the last slap I gave him wasn’t resounding enough. This time, I’ll make sure it’s a bit more vicious. I wonder if he’ll still have the face to lead his alliance afterward?”
Due to Mo Nian, Long Chen hadn’t planned on getting too close to the ancient family alliance. The one that infuriated him the most was the Illusive Music Immortal Palace.
A so-called sacred land, one of the protectors of the Marital Heaven Continent, an existence countless people looked up toward, was actually so vile. Long Chen was almost unable to believe it.
The reason why he hadn’t completely exposed Shen Bijun’s sinister and malicious actions was because he didn’t want to become mortal enemies with the Illusive Music Immortal Palace. Perhaps in his heart, he didn’t wish to be enemies with Zi Yan and didn’t want to make things hard on her.
In the Grand Han, she had held back. He knew that. In truth, even if she hadn’t held back, all he would have needed was to use a bit of his divine lightning to kill her.
However, he didn’t think that Zi Yan knew that he had such a trump card. In that kind of scenario, she had still held back and left her life in his hands. At that time, his heart had ached because he had seen the look in her eyes. That expression was one of release. She had actually wished to die to his hands.
At the same time as he had felt pain, he had vaguely felt a touch of shame. Even he didn’t know why he would feel shame because he had never owed her anything. If he forced the argument, then he supposed the only thing was that he had failed to live up to her feelings. During that battle, he had ruthlessly rejected her feelings.
He hadn’t spread the photographic jade of Shen Bijun’s actions because inside, he hoped this would make up for what he had done to Zi Yan. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that it was a way of comforting his own heart.
However, since the Illusive Music Immortal Palace was so shameless, and this had even implicated Qu Jianying, he had no choice. If he still didn’t strike back, he wouldn’t be Long Chen.
“Alright, these two photographic jades of yours can definitely deal a mortal blow to the Illusive Music Immortal Palace and ancient family alliance. All the rumors will naturally be put to rest,” praised Li Tianxuan.
“Since you have no objection, then I’ll go do it. As for those people outside the gates…” probed Long Chen.
“Do what you want. They can no longer do anything to us.” Li Tianxuan smiled.
Long Chen also smiled. He naturally knew what Li Tianxuan was thinking, as it was also what he was thinking.
He left, going straight to the Xuantian Plaza. He loudly announced, “Brothers and sisters of the Xuantian Dao Sect! Everyone, come out. Today, I’ll lead you out for some fun.”