"Who's there?!" Reacting solely by his instincts, Jun Meng Chen whirled behind him, only to find nobody there.
"Who…domain…dare?"
The faint voice echoed in the narrow corridor, and Jun Meng Chen felt the same sensation once again. One of being spied upon, as if someone was directly behind him.
"Who…domain…dare?"
The voice repeated once more, this time from Jun Meng Chen's right. Fiercely turning around, a dagger firmly grasped in his left hand, Jun Meng Chen attempted to locate the source. That a presence couldn't be detected even with his perception inundating the corridor was rather unsettling.
The voice was fleeting and hoarse, and from listening to the fragmented speech, Jun Meng Chen deducted the speaker to be quite elderly. It was just that he didn't know why the voice was fragmented or why he was hearing it directly behind him, and Jun Meng Chen immediately rushed towards the exit of the hallway.
Swiftly navigating through the winding corridors and hallways, guided by his memory, Jun Meng Chen soon stood before a set of wooden doors, with elegant carvings of roses and begonia leaves. Giving little regard about why the set of doors existed in the mansion whilst he had found none since he entered, Jun Meng Chen infused divine essence into his right foot. Bursting the doors open with a single powerful kick, he rushed out onto the wide, open street.
As expected, immortal constructs were strewn onto the ground like candy. Most were damaged and unrecognizable had it not been for the faintest fluctuations of divine essence. However, Jun Meng Chen noted with curiosity that he was not alone on the street.
A plethora of ghosts were feasting on the nearby constructs, something that was not present when he explored the road the previous time.
Bang!
The doors of the mansion slammed shut, startling Jun Meng Chen. As he gazed at the mansion's main gates close before him, Jun Meng Chen gave a start before a chill ran down his spine.
There had not been an entrance gate to the mansion when he had first encountered it, nor a set of wooden doors. Just when did them appear? Or was this perhaps another entrance?
"Who…domain…dare?"
The mysterious, aged voice rasped behind Jun Meng Chen for the third time. His pupils constricting, Jun Meng Chen whirled towards his back to find an old man gazing blankly towards the sky.
Dressed in a light grey robe, the old man sported a ragged beard with a bald head. As his fingers tremblingly stroked his beard, the man repeated once more.
"Who…domain…dare?"
Curious, Jun Meng Chen gazed at the old man mutter nonsensically to himself. Carefully muffling his steps to observe from a distance, Jun Meng Chen left behind a weak thread of divine essence as he walked away. As he got further, the old man's words traveled through the thread of divine essence and projected before his ear.
"My…ruined... All ruined…"
The broken words of the old man confused Jun Meng Chen. What was ruined? His immortal construct, or something else?
Infusing divine essence into his eyes to actively perceive the fluctuating undercurrents of the world before him, Jun Meng Chen was given quite the scare when he attempted to examine the old man trapped in a mental haze, standing in the middle of the street.
The old man didn't have an immortal's construct, as if he were some ordinary mortal who had suffered from a delusion. Not to mention, a simple glance at the body revealed terribly distorted meridians, blood veins, and the heart alongside of its arteries had been twisted akin to a bowstring.
However, when Jun Meng Chen thoroughly examined the old man's soul, he noticed something peculiar.
The old man's soul was a pale-blue cluster of light, lacking any traces of divine essence or a fundamental construct. At periodic intervals, Jun Meng Chen could even see a small crystal orb flicker within the cluster, which confused him even further.
If the orb was the actual soul of the old man, such wan flickering would ultimately lead to an indefinite slumber. Just how was he still standing, mumbling incoherently with his raspy voice?
"You again…dare you! Return…life!"
Just then, the old man groaned, his body swaying as his aged and broken voice displayed hints of anger. As Jun Meng Chen watched, the old man's body trembled before a dark mist escaped from him.
Once the mist had left his body, the old man suddenly relaxed, and Jun Meng Chen felt a cold trickle flow down his neck. His senses tingling with danger, Jun Meng Chen retracted the thread of divine essence with haste.
"Three…no, four. Four have entered…" the old man rasped once more. However, the removal of the mist allowed for Jun Meng Chen to hear his words more coherently, and he inched closer to hear the man speak.
"To think they returned with such anger…has the Divine Palace found out?" the old man whispered, his elderly and thin frame reflecting a deep solitude and weariness. "And I was so close, so close! If only…I had another century…" he spoke.
For some reason, Jun Meng Chen felt an unknown anger well within him. He did not know why, but the urge to attack and destroy the man stoked and blazed by itself, perplexing Jun Meng Chen.
"Immortality…immortality…" the old man whispered. Without any preemptive warning or time allotted to Jun Meng Chen to react, the old man suddenly turned in his direction, the raspy voice accompanied by an eerie tone.
Hidden behind a nearby building, Jun Meng Chen could only see the side of the old man.
"One of them…is here! How dare you, to transgress on my domain!!"
Seeing the old man's lips move, Jun Meng Chen strained his ears to eavesdrop after recalling his probing thread of divine essence. However, it turned out to have not been needed at all, for the old man's whisper evolved into an enraged howl.
"Since you've come without paying greetings, don't think about leaving!"
With a fierce howl, the old man appeared directly before Jun Meng Chen, the wizened, ancient palm grasping for Jun Meng Chen's neck. Before his eyes had even registered the old man's presence, Jun Meng Chen's right leg had already kicked at the wall, propelling him to the left and barely evading the old man's vice grip.
Fiercely backpedaling, Jun Meng Chen conjured a set of snow-white daggers, forgoing his customary steel sword.
Just from how the old man had successfully ambushed him, Jun Meng Chen was well aware that a longsword would instantly consign him to a massive disadvantage if he attempted to combat the old man. The longsword indeed far surpassed a dagger in striking strength and allowed for a far easier impetus in wide-arc swings, but given the old man's sheer speed, a longsword would instead handicap Jun Meng Chen.
The daggers appeared to be made of snow, without a single blemish on its surface, be it blade or hilt. With a rectangular handle guard with the edges curved, the daggers were a total of one and a half chi in length. When grasping the hilts, they were slightly cool to the touch, instantly sobering Jun Meng Chen from his earlier daze.
The old man lightly snorted, instantly appearing before Jun Meng Chen once more. Reacting purely by instinct, Jun Meng Chen crossed his wrists before his chest, sliding and locking the dagger blades against each other in reverse grips, the right before the left.
Imbuing divine essence into his wrists and feet, and sliding his right foot back by a step, the dagger blades released a scarlet light, almost imperceptible in the monochrome world.
Clang!
A wizened palm firmly struck the locked dagger blades, the impulse and linear momentum of the strike fully transferring to Jun Meng Chen and causing him to stagger. The blow was far too heavy, with his fists striking heavily onto his own chest from the sheer weight behind the strike.
However, Jun Meng Chen's guarding technique was not fully dispelled, and he slightly bent his knees as his muscles and joints distributed the momentum onto the ground. Taking advantage of his fists recoiling after thudding against his own chest, Jun Meng Chen quickly reverted his grip on the daggers before slashing towards his sides, leaning forwards to maximize the distance covered.
"Oh?"
Lightly musing, the old man nimbly leaped backwards, and Jun Meng Chen's counterattack barely grazed the tip of his robes. Dusting off his right palm and craning downwards to check his damaged robe, the old man smiled.
"Not bad of a defensive technique!" he spoke. "A bit on the finesse style, but for someone who is not even ten thousand years in age, very good indeed. This elder is proud of the Divine Palace's talents."
Hearing the old man's words, Jun Meng Chen's eyes narrowed as he gazed at the old man with a guarded look. Merely his tone when mentioning the Divine Palace was enough for Jun Meng Chen to guess that the old man before him was either someone unrelated to the Divine Palace, or one of its elders.
He just didn't know if it was the Ghost King rumored to have perished, as Jun Meng Chen had never seen his portrait before. Maintaining a respectable distance between him and the old man, Jun Meng Chen didn't lower his guard when he inquired.
"May I ask who this elder is? Do you know anything regarding what transpired in this place?"
"Who I am? Huh. Did they not inform you who I was when you entered my domain?"
Hearing Jun Meng Chen's question, the old man displayed a disheartened expression, as if his expressions had been let down. Although his response was spoken in a casual manner, the contents were enough to cause Jun Meng Chen to worry.
"If I only had a few more, just a few more, I wouldn't have had to worry about that old fool's prophecy…oh well. This old man still has some time left. The older fellows, I can't help but ignore, but the two younglings here…I'll just make do with you!"
Softly muttering to himself, the Ghost King rubbed his beard before carefully scrutinizing Jun Meng Chen with narrowed eyes, an unsettling gleam in his eyes. Though he couldn't exactly hear the old man's quiet murmuring, Jun Meng Chen was instantly alarmed by the odd gaze he received.
The white daggers grasped in a reverse grip and poised before his chest, Jun Meng Chen carefully watched every move of the Ghost King.
"…not running? That's quite interesting, although it makes things much easier as well."
Raising his eyebrow at Jun Meng Chen, the Ghost King released a toothy smile, barely hiding his glee. Spreading his arms to his sides, the old man released a sharp howl, an unknown strength surging within, billowing his robe and causing his beard to flutter.
Jun Meng Chen felt a sudden spike of danger strike his senses and struck out with his daggers, utilizing the <Pulsar Blade Technique> to unleash countless piercing vertical shockwaves that rushed towards the old man. However, they were unable to even near the old man, deflected from their course by an invisible aura.
"Come! Come, for this King calls thee!"
With the Ghost King's cry, Jun Meng Chen heard a shrill scream echo throughout the entire domain. The ground and air vibrated as numerous, countless ghosts streamed towards the old man, completely rendering him invisible under the enormous screen of ghosts. As each ghost was assimilated by the old man, Jun Meng Chen could feel the aura emanating from the Ghost King become denser and more imposing, evil and sinister intent sweeping forth.
Suddenly, the screen of ghosts morphed into a menacing black mist covering the Ghost King and Jun Meng Chen. With visibility crippled, unable to see beyond his hands, Jun Meng Chen quickly inundated his body with divine essence. Just then, the Ghost King's snide voice resounded from all directions, accompanied by a fierce palm strike to the back.
"Keke, little junior, just let yourself be painlessly devoured like the rest. Although this elder is indeed nothing but a remnant of my true self, it is far more than capable in contending against a spiritual core!"
The palm strike, its presence complete shrouded within the chaotic storm of ghosts, heavily slammed onto Jun Meng Chen's back, causing him to stumble forward, the beige bubble instantly shattered. Lurching while spitting a thin stream of blood, Jun Meng Chen ground his left heel against the ground as he instantly whirled to his back, sweeping his daggers.
Unfortunately, they sliced through nothing but air, the Ghost King's snide laughter ringing in his ears.
"Little junior, your speed is a little too slow, don't you think? Bumbling around with those two toothpicks of yours, when will you ever land a hit?"
Gritting his teeth, Jun Meng Chen spun the daggers into a reverse grip, before channeling divine essence into their structures. With a pitched whine, the Deity Core within Jun Meng Chen trembled as it released even more divine essence, with the inscriptions on the core's surface glowing brilliantly.
With the induction of divine essence, the daggers began to tremble, cyan engravings forming on the blades. Without warning, the daggers shot out from Jun Meng Chen's hands, escaping the range of the black mist.
Stepping backwards, Jun Meng Chen conjured a steel dagger and longsword, firmly grasping them as he crossed the dagger behind his back. Allowing the longsword's tip to drag on the ground, Jun Meng Chen distributed as much of his weight to his right leg, divine essence circulating within his body to enhance his reactions.
Whoosh!
Only the faintest whisper could be heard as the Ghost King's palm shot out from a different angle, this time for Jun Meng Chen's left side. Constricting and layering his perception to only extend to a zhang's radius around him, Jun Meng Chen barely perceived the incoming palm.
Closing his eyes, his left arm shot out, the dagger grasped with a reverse grip. With a solid collision, the aged palm struck the flat of the blade, causing the Ghost King to chuckle once more.
"Defending with such a flimsy blade, aren't you just wasting your dagger…oh?" he spoke, surprise flashing on his face.
No matter the amount of strength he infused into his palm, the dagger refused to give an inch, as if the two of them were simply demonstrating fighting techniques.
Stopping the palm strike with the dagger, Jun Meng Chen instantly stepped to his right, causing the old man to lurch forward from the uncontrollable momentum from his own attack. Inverting his wrist and turning counter-clockwise as he slashed with the longsword, the blade blazing with a dense, teal brilliance as it rushed directly for the Ghost King's exposed chest.
With a quick hiss, the Ghost King leaned back, accelerating his movements with divine essence to barely escape the blade's trajectory. Not minding the large rip in his robes, the old man reversed his movements, taking advantage of his body's torque to explode forth with his right fist aimed at Jun Meng Chen's throat.
Faced with an iron fist striking directly at him, Jun Meng Chen rushed forward towards the Ghost King. Dragging the longsword on the floor to generate a flurry of sparks, he leaned to the right, just barely allowing the fist to graze his left side. His left arm shot out towards the old man, leaving a deep cut in the Ghost King's extended right arm.
As the old man yowled in pain, Jun Meng Chen brought the dagger hurtling downwards towards the old man's chest, and flooded his body with divine essence as he secretly bent his knees slightly.
"As if something like that will work on me!"
Peng!
With a dull smack, the Ghost King slapped the dagger from Jun Meng Chen's grip with his free left arm, sending the steel dagger spiraling onto the ground to be devoured by the increasing swarm of ghosts. Palming his right fist before his chest, the Ghost King howled as divine essence surged within his body.
"Combust! <Panzer>!"
The old man slightly hunched his shoulders forward, turning the palmed fist a hundred and eighty degrees while still clasped in his palm. The turn completed in an instant, and a golden light exploded from the Ghost King's body, innumerable strings of words in the Divine Script revolving around the old man as they emitted a paralyzing pressure within the area encased by ghosts and the black mist.
In face of this, Jun Meng Chen gritted his teeth at the uncomfortable sensation of rigor mortis settling in his body, before deciding to similarly erupt with divine essence.
"The sun sets, and flowers wilt."
With his gentle whisper, his right arm swung the longsword at an imperceptible speed, indistinct afterimages trailing behind. The longsword cut towards the left at an upward slant, bisecting one of the strings of words revolving around the old man.
Jun Meng Chen rotated his wrist, and the longsword shot towards the floor in a perfectly vertical slash, followed by a horizontal sweep to the left. Stepping forward with his left foot and lowering his body to stabilize his center of mass, Jun Meng Chen unleashed a diagonal, upwards sweep to the right.
Each cut had severed a strand of words, and before the Ghost King could even react, he was already sent careening backwards from Jun Meng Chen's last strike.
Jun Meng Chen dashed towards the stumbling Ghost King, the longsword held in a reverse grip to reduce strain. The instant he had crossed to a distance of three meters away from the old man, Jun Meng Chen stomped heavily on the ground with his left foot.
Reverting his grip, Jun Meng Chen swung the longsword to his left in at a slanted angle, leaving a large gash on the old man's torso. Right before completing his swing, Jun Meng Chen whirled in a clockwise direction before slashing towards the left, marking a diagonal cross of blood on the old man.
Leaning his body back as far as he could without losing balance, Jun Meng Chen raised the longsword level with his shoulder, before springing back with great momentum, the sword cutting before him. As the longsword blazed towards the Ghost King's chest with enraged sparks ricocheting off of the blade, Jun Meng Chen willed his Deity Core to rotate, infusing tremendous amounts of divine essence into the sword.
"[Pierce]!"
Bang!
Following Jun Meng Chen's cry, black chains descended from the skies with a massive roar, wrapping around the steel longsword. The translucent and fragile appearing chains also coiled around the Ghost King's limbs, locking him in place and barring any defense to be fortified.
The chains wrapping around the longsword guided the sword's point to plunge deeply into the center of the Ghost King's chest with a dull thud.
"Oh? The Divine Script, you actually used it. Then, this elder won't hold back!"
With a roar, the Ghost King's body unleashed a powerful pulse of divine essence, effortlessly dislodging the longsword embedded in his chest, hurling Jun Meng Chen away. Watching the black chains vanish after achieving their objective, the old man grunted before sweeping his hands to his sides, and the black mist surrounded the old man before merging with his body.
As the mixture of ghosts, wraiths, and divine essence surged into the Ghost King's body, Jun Meng Chen could see the wounds on the old man vanish, the only trace being the ripped clothing.
"Brat, you're not that bad, managing to injure me like that," snarled the Ghost King, patting the area where he had been impaled by Jun Meng Chen's sword. "Incorporating the Divine Script into a physical technique, rather ingenious of an immortal of the Divine Palace."
"However!" he thundered, his aura imposing and indomitable, the buildings nearby crumbling from the sheer might of his voice. "the thought of even attempting to kill someone in his own domain is atrocious!"
Raising his right hand into the air, the Ghost King displayed a stern expression on his face as he glared at Jun Meng Chen. His voice thundering, the old man spoke while surrounded by a powerful current of divine essence.
"I've changed my mind of processing your immortal construct, you've earned that little respect, brat. Experience the Divine Script for yourself! [Bind. Pierce through, obliterate!]"
As he spoke, the Ghost King savagely slammed his hand down, cutting through the air as the currents of divine essence spilled forth, covering the entire street. With the familiar bang, the black chains exploded from the skies towards Jun Meng Chen.
Rooted to the spot by an unknown, omniscient force, Jun Meng Chen gazed at the chains descending towards him, panic and terror coursing through his veins. The mere fractions of a second felt like eternity, the chains descending at a slow yet unstoppable pace. Jun Meng Chen could sense an intention to restrain and combust the body within the metallic links, an attenuated grey light leaking from within.
He had to do something, either to throw off the oppressive pressure, or to block the incoming chains. If he didn't ward them off or allowed them to successfully bind him, Jun Meng Chen would face enormous trouble. His Deity Core screamed massive volumes of panic, the core's pulses of divine essence fluctuating at an intense and chaotic rate.
In a desperate, almost insane attempt, words spilled from Jun Meng Chen as the chains locked around his arms, an ice-cold sensation sweeping through his body.
"For my resentment, I cry!"
Clink!
Clink!
It was unknown whether those words were taboo in the Immortal Realm, or whether they possessed some intrinsic value over the Divine Script. Jun Meng Chen had merely thrown out those words in a desperate, fleeting hope for the infinitesimal chance that a phenomenon would occur if he treated them like an incantation.
However, the chains that had just sealed Jun Meng Chen jumped off of him as if bouncing off hot lava, scattering in all directions. As the Ghost King and Jun Meng Chen both gaped in astonishment, the chains of the Divine Script outright ignored Jun Meng Chen as they rampantly demolished the Ghost King's Domain from the roots.
"No! My precious domain, how could you!?"
Amidst the Ghost King's cry of anguish, the first spear of the <Seven Falls of Tribulation> had already finished forming, the grey spear primed with golden, pulsing inscriptions of the Divine Script spiraling down its length and blade. Without any hesitation, Jun Meng Chen willed the arrays to detonate, hurtling the spear towards the old man with tremendous velocity.
The Ghost King could only spot a thin spark of light before a spear slammed into the ground before him, catapulting him into the air from the impulse.
"Just how did you break free-argh!"
Just as he regained his balance and furiously shouted at Jun Meng Chen, the spear embedded into the ground trembled, an incisive shockwave knocking the Ghost King to the ground once more. However, the old main discovered with shock and displeasure that not only was he unable to imbue strength into his legs, the channels within his body that he had circulated divine essence throughout had crippled themselves.
"Just when did he strike…!!"
The Ghost King muttered to himself in confusion. Having been distracted by the oddity of the Divine Script's failure on Jun Meng Chen, he had completely ignored the presence of the unassuming gray spear hovering in the sky. Hence, he was befuddled on how Jun Meng Chen had even attacked him with such ferocity and strength in an instant.
Clink.
Suddenly, the sound of chains rubbing each other aroused the Ghost King from his reverie, an infinite terror replacing his confusion. As Jun Meng Chen spectated from the side while panting heavily, he noticed the Ghost King clutching his chest in agony, dry heaving as the old man gazed into the distance with boundless fear and unwillingness.
"AH! No! Stop, stop, stop! Argh!"
The old man's cries resounded throughout the street, the diminished echoes akin to the wailing of ghosts. Unexpectedly, the Ghost King's chest swelled before bursting with a faint pop, as the black chains of the Divine Script rushed from within, encasing and devouring the old man.
With horror sufficing his mind, Jun Meng Chen watched the Ghost King fluctuate between tangible and illusionary until disappearing, not even an immortal's construct remaining. The old man's final words with his light sigh, however, both unnerved and interested Jun Meng Chen.
"…no wonder, no wonder! So it was that spear, tsk, tsk. First was that girl, and now this young fellow as well…"
Watching the black chains vanish after expunging the Ghost King, Jun Meng Chen stood in a daze, unable to believe what had happened. His mouth moved slightly, but no words were formed.
"Girl? A girl who had used the <Seven Falls of Tribulation> as well…?" Jun Meng Chen repeated the old man's words, pondering on their contents.
Suddenly, a person's figure appeared in his mind, and Jun Meng Chen froze in shock. That girl he had met on the unusual disk in a spatial tear! Was it or was it not a dream, then?
Before Jun Meng Chen could give much further though, the entirety of the Ghost King's Domain trembled with a massive groan as the edges of the horizon began to fray, slowly but surely collapsing onto itself.
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