31 The Emperor

Wang popped a pill into his mouth and took the shaken Li Jing's hand to run away once again.

'I'm too slow, we can't escape if it keeps going like this...' he thought as he tended to his wounds while flying at the highest speed he could muster.

''Brother?''

Jing realized something was wrong but kept her mouth shut with some hesitation as she saw the determined look in her elder brother's eyes.

'I don't think he would listen to me at this moment...'

*COUGH*

Wang coughed out blood once again despite all his efforts to heal himself. Half of his stomach was already gone and the edges of his wounds were full of red ash as if they were still burning.

'It's spreading faster and faster.' he shook his head in annoyance as he felt his injuries get worse and worse despite all the 'legendary' pills he ate in bulk.

''Here you are!''

They both turned their heads in shock to their backs.

There, stood 3 Peak Dao level beings were standing in front of him, looking at them with furious eyes.

''Where is my brother?!'' the tallest and the strongest of them all shouted.

Even though he had the face of a calm and rational ruler, his eyes gave away his fury and frustration.

'All of them are weaker than the guy before, but they are still Peak Dao level beings...'

Wang desperately tried to find a way to get out of the situation.

Their speed was hindered much more than he thought and the reinforcements from the Glorious Yang Empire had already arrived.

'Even the Emperor himself is here.'

Wang eyed the Golden Dragon-robed man that talked just now. Even though he seemed to be weaker than his brother, he was still one of the 10 strongest beings in the whole known world.

''A-'' Wang opened his mouth to stall for some time as he thought of methods to get out of the situation, but before even he could say a single word, another voice interrupted him.

''I'm here.'' the ragged voice of a tired middle-aged man came.

Li Yan slowly flew towards his brother but there was something wrong with him.

''You... YOU!'' the Emperor took one look at his brother in shock and quickly lost his facade of calmness as he pointed his shaking finger towards Wang with anger full of terrifying killing intent.

His brother who supported him through everything despite being more talented than him, the only thing left of him was his soul!

Thankfully he was at the Peak of Dao stage and his soul was strong enough to survive without the protection from his physical body, he could even reconstruct his body as long as his soul was fine.

But he would not only lose many years from his life span but also lose some of his talent and cultivation. The loss of a physical body that carried and merged with the soul ever since its birth was immense, even the cultivators at the Peak of Dao could simply come back to life just because they wished to do so.

Li Yan's tired eyes were full of resentment as he stared at Wang. ''He is the one who killed your son... And he is the one who destroyed my body.'' He didn't point any fingers, yet there was no need to. All three members of the royal family turned their furious eyes toward Wang.

''Fuck...''

----

''According to my observations, that young hero is indeed fucked.''

''As expected of the hero! He has great observation skills, he even deduced that he is fu-''

''You think you are funny?''

''I mean, it was kind of unexpected how he survived, but isn't it obvious what is going to happen now?''

''No, it's not, shut the fuck up and let us enjoy it for a second.'' an annoyed viewer tried to shut him up as it was hard to enjoy it with smartasses like these.

''Have some dignity, you are a... who are you again?'' a woman supported him.

''Heh, I'm yours truly H-''

--

Above those meaningless conversations, another meaningless conversation was going on.

''So, wanna give me some spoilers? How did you get out of there..?'' Space Empress tried to take Ice Empress's attention.

''...''

''Okay, never mind. I don't like spoilers anyways. Ha-aha-hahhah-ha...'' she awkwardly laughed.

'I was just trying to lighten the atmosphere... Why are all the Empresses here so damn weird? Can't a normal one come here already?'

-----

'I have to do 'that', don't I?' Wang looked around him.

3 Peak Dao-level beings surrounded him and little Jing. Each of them were stronger than the Supreme Elder he killed before and exuded the auras of several strong artifacts on themselves.

Li Jing on the other hand still looked a little bit out of it.

'Is she really that shaken? I thought her mentality was stronger than this.' Wang couldn't help but be disappointed in her.

She looked as if she was about to throw up. Her aura kept functioning wildly as if she was having a mental breakdown and her eyes kept going between worried and aloof.

'Somehow, it seems as if she is getting more terrifying and stronger each second, but it also seems like she will be useless.'

His eyes darted around wildly as he tried to make a plan but nothing that didn't permanently damage him came up.

''If you surrender, I will only torture your souls for a few thousand years. Take my mercy before I change my mind.'' the Emperor's cold voice reached into his ears, tempting him to give up.

''That sounds too good to be true.'' he grinned as he looked directly into the eyes of the Glorious Yang Emperor. ''Do I have any other option?'' he said as his blood essence inside his body started burning.

He hid it to the best of his abilities as his hidden aura kept getting stronger and stronger. He was burning essence blood, meaning he was giving up on some of his talent and life span, but all of that meant nothing if he couldn't survive this hurdle.

''You can also choose to attack us and get executed. We will do a mock execution for you in the capital with your soul and proceed to place you in the Thousand Torture Pagoda to be tortured until your soul inevitably scatters. Looking at you, it should take only a few thousand years, maybe fifty thousand at most. What do you say?''

'Yeah, I'm gonna pass on that.' Wang could only say inside his mind as he tried to come up with ways to stall them even further.

----

[An: Sorry for disappearing for a week. I moved to another city once again for personal reasons and I didn't have internet until now (Of course, I still have my phone with me, but I just couldn't bother dealing with the wn app). I got things in order friday and decided to post at the start of the week. Once again, I'm sorry. I should have given a notice somehow.]