Chapter 697 Returning

Nine Star Hegemon Body Art

Long Chen’s saber was pointed toward the sky, and a huge saber-image pierced through the clouds.

A powerful aura locked down Fang Mingyuan and the others. They were all horrified. They had never seen such a terrifying move.

Long Chen had previously used the first form of Split the Heavens. Now that he was using the second form, and the residual energy of the first form was absorbed by it.

This was Long Chen’s first time using the second form of Split the Heavens against enemies. Currently, three stars had appeared in his eyes. His saber mercilessly slashed down.

“Nine Revolution Flame Shield!”

Fang Mingyuan and Chai Gaoyang both activated the same technique, condensing all their Pill Flame into a huge shield in front of them.

Their flame shields weren’t large. They only covered the two of them. Obviously, they had abandoned the others in favor of increasing their shield’s power as high as possible. The two shields layered before them.

BOOM!

The huge saber-image slashed down like an apocalyptic blade. All of heaven and earth was cut in two, and a bottomless ditch appeared before Long Chen.

Long Chen spat out a breath of turbid air. This attack was incomparably fierce, but it had also used up all his spiritual yuan.

He felt like the second form of Split the Heavens could never be satisfied. No matter how much spiritual yuan he had, using this move would use up all of it.

But the more spiritual yuan he had, the greater its power. Looking at the huge ditch that extended so far and so deep that he couldn’t see the end, he was filled with shock.

Long Chen had seen those Sea Expansion experts do their best to resist. But when they had encountered that saber-image they had been directly blown apart.

Suddenly, two miserable figures crawled out of the ground. As soon as they did, they began to wildly vomit blood.

These two were Fang Mingyuan and Chai Gaoyang. Having condensed all their Pill Flame in front of them to form their greatest defense, they had managed to survive.

But although they were alive, it had come at a terrible price. They no longer even appeared human. They were like two piles of flesh. All their meridians had already been destroyed. They only had a few more breaths of life compared to dead men.

“Save… save me… I don’t… want to die…” Chai Gaoyang looked at Long Chen, extending one half-destroyed arm, begging.

“Sorry, I obviously can’t. I already said that I can accept anything, anything except betrayal!” said Long Chen.

CRACK!

Long Chen had only just finished speaking when his saber suddenly exploded, causing him to jump in shock.

Just now, having continuously used Split the Heavens, the power had been too fierce. Even this saber, which was an Enchanted item, was unable to endure that explosive force.

“Long Chen… because of Liehuo… save me…” Chai Gaoyang no longer possessed an air of an expert. He looked like an ordinary elder begging for life. He didn’t want to die.

“Originally, we shouldn’t have ended up like this. Because of Fang Chang and Chai Liehuo, you two were once respected elders in my eyes. I trusted you that much. But what did you do? You not only betrayed me, but you also betrayed your descendants, as well as betrayed your conscience. Your greed clouded your eyes, and you attacked someone on the same side as you. You have only yourselves to blame,” sighed Long Chen.

“Save…”

Chai Gaoyang’s flame of life was unable to continue burning. A Pill Ancestor fell just like that.

If only his physical body had been destroyed, then relying on his Spiritual Strength, he could still survive as a soul. In the future, he could find a suitable physical body to snatch. That was what the Huo family’s elder had done in the chaos region.

However, having gone all-out to create his flame shield, he had poured all his Spiritual Strength into the shield. As a result, Long Chen’s attack hadn’t just broken the flame shield, it had also broken his soul.

“Cough… really, why bother?” Fang Mingyuan looked at the dead Chai Gaoyang with a self-mocking expression.

He was slightly better off than Chai Gaoyang, but only slightly. He had also reached his final moments.

Long Chen didn’t say anything. He just looked at him. In this situation, there was nothing to say.

“Long Chen, I know I don’t have the qualifications to ask you for anything… But still, please. It was Chai Gaoyang and I that made this plan. Fang Chang and Chai Liehuo had no idea. I hope you won’t release your anger on them.” Fang Mingyuan’s state improved slightly for a brief moment. That was the final radiance of the setting sun.

“Don’t worry. They didn’t betray me, so I definitely won’t betray them. Originally, we never should have fought like this, but after today, I won’t be able to face the two of them. I will return to my identity as Long Chen. As for Long San, he is dead. Our brotherhood is also over.”

Hearing this, Fang Mingyuan felt a bit of comfort. Long Chen wasn’t going to find trouble for the Fang family. They would be safe.

But then hearing his last sentence, he felt a burst of regret. Everything had been caused by him and Chai Gaoyang. They had allowed their greed to control them.

Otherwise, if the Fang family had an alliance with a person like Long Chen, one with limitless potential, just how perfect would that have been? But there was no way to go back in time.

“Many… thanks…”

Fang Mingyuan said these final two words before closing his eyes. Another generation’s expert fell.

Long Chen sighed. He felt extremely uncomfortable inside. He rarely trusted others, but anyone who he trusted, he trusted completely. This was his first time feeling so betrayed. He felt a stabbing pain.

He went to their corpses. He dug a large hole and buried the two of them. He didn’t even touch their treasures. He buried them all.

Long Chen merely took Chai Gaoyang’s identity plate before leaving. All he left behind was a chaotic battlefield.

Looking from an aerial point of view, it seemed as if something had cut a long wound into the earth. A cool breeze blew by, desolate and bleak.

Long Chen rushed off. Just now, Fang Mingyuan and Chai Gaoyang had activated a transportation formation to bring him several thousand miles away. He reckoned that they had wanted to kill him in a secluded place.

He was going straight toward Pill Yang City. Taking advantage of the night, he changed his face and used Chai Gaoyang’s identity plate to enter the Seven Treasure Jewel Tower’s storehouse. He directly went to where the beast flames were kept.

The guards here all recognized his identity plate. Long Chen easily went in.

Long Chen directly released Huo Long, and it didn’t stand on courtesy. It directly devoured hundreds of beast flames.

Now Huo Long was truly satisfied. Only then did Long Chen stealthily leave the Seven Treasure Jewel Tower.

He found that Pill Yang City was in a complete mess. The Huo family had been destroyed, while the Fang and Chai families had suffered a sneak attack. Danger was everywhere. Some people were hiding, while others were fleeing.

Long Chen switched into some ordinary robes, acting the part of an ordinary martial cultivator. Looking at the Fang Manor from a distance, he saw Fang Chang and Chai Liehuo nervously waiting.

Long Chen sighed and left. His figure disappeared into the night…

When the day came, the news that the Huo, Fang, and Chai families had undergone an all-out war with each other shook all of Pill Yang Prefecture. The Huo family’s destruction caused countless people’s jaws to drop.

The result of their battle had been the destruction of the Huo family, but the Fang and Chai families had also taken grievous losses. Both their families heads, as well as the Fang family’s legendary Long San, had disappeared.

The Fang and Chai families underwent a large scale search. Half a month later, they finally found scars of a terrifying battle in a barren land. Then, after searching through the soil, they found their two families heads’ corpses.

At the same time, they found a half destroyed body wearing Long San’s robes. Those robes proved this semi-destroyed corpse was Long San.

They concluded that Long San and the others had run into shockingly powerful enemies here, and as a result, both sides had lost their lives to take down their opponents. That was because they found all kinds of broken body pieces around. It was impossible to tell exactly how many people there had been.

Fang Chang and Chai Liehuo had burst into tears right then and there. In this one day, they had not only lost the pillars of their families, but they had also lost a good brother.

They had immediately brought Long San’s corpse back into the Fang family and buried it in their ancestral land.

When the alchemy world learned that Long San, a generation’s top genius, had died, there was not one person that didn’t sigh in lament. He had only just become the champion of the Pill Emperor Competition and had just been about to dazzle the world when he fell.

This news caused Pill Valley to send someone to take a look. But they only did take one look before leaving.

Before leaving, all they had said was that the Seven Treasure Jewel Tower’s beast flames had been stolen, and that damage would have to be compensated by the Fang and Chai families. As for the destruction of the Huo family, as long as the sales of medicinal pills didn’t decline, they wouldn’t investigate this matter any further.

In truth, to Pill Valley, the Pill Towers were just ways for them to interact with the mundane world. They didn’t care who came to look after these strongholds. All they cared about was that this stronghold didn’t look bad and made money.

This was also why the three families had dared to fight so openly. 

Originally, the Huo family had been the rising star, waiting for the moment to completely devour the other two families. But that plan had been ruined by Long San. As a result, before the decisive battle, their strength had sharply fallen, and it was them that were devoured by the other two families instead.

Currently, the Pill Tower was truly the land of the Fang and Chai families. But Fang Chang and Chai Liehuo didn’t feel any happiness. Instead, they felt endless pressure.

All the heavy responsibilities had fallen on their shoulders overnight. But the name of Pill Valley was something no one could provoke. No one dared to do anything to the Pill Tower.

Provoking Pill Valley? In this world, there really were few powers that dared to be that crazy. So despite the Huo family’s destruction, the rest of the Pill Tower was completely safe.

As for Long Chen, the one who had caused this chaotic conclusion, he had long since stepped onto a transportation formation and returned to Su Prefecture, rushing back to the Xuantian Supermonastery.

When he saw that familiar mountain gate, Long Chen finally had a feeling of a loafer son returning home. Here were his loved ones, here were his brothers, here were the ones he wanted to protect.

“Brothers, I, Long Chen, have returned!” Long Chen suddenly roared, his roar shaking the sky.