“That’s right. Imperial Protector, you have indeed made many meritorious contributions to the empire.” The Xi Emperor nodded. He did not deny that fact.

The Imperial Protector’s face softened when he heard that. He thought that the Xi Emperor was going to let him off.

However, the Xi Emperor’s voice suddenly became icy cold at this moment. An extremely frigid killing intent radiated from his body, and it was enough to cause the surroundings to change. All the birds and beasts in the surroundings fell silent, collapsing onto the ground whilst trembling.

“But your great contributions can never make up for what I’ve lost, nor make up for my eternal pain. I can only vent my hatred by killing all the people who tried to hunt me down in the past,” the Xi Emperor said coldly. His icy voice was filled with deep pain.

“Xi Ziyun, although it was dangerous when you and your wife were being hunted down, didn’t you still make it back to the empire safely in the end, just ruffled? You said you lost something. What did you lose? Even if you lost an extremely precious treasure while being hunted down, hasn’t all the people you’ve killed in the past few years been enough?”

“Xi Ziyun, I did take part in this before, but I did not hunt you down. I only pulled strings in the dark and severed your path home. Even if I am guilty, I do not deserve death. I am willing to make it up to you,” the Imperial Protector said rather frantically in an attempt to persuade the Xi Emperor. This was because he could not even flee before the current Xi Emperor.

They were both Primordial realm experts, but the difference between Infinite Prime and Chaotic Prime was just too great. It was literally a chasm.

“Hahahahaha…” The Xi Emperor laughed out loud. He sounded slightly crazy, “Severed my path home. You severed my path home… Imperial Protector, if you had not pulled strings in the dark and severed my path home back then, how would the matters develop like this today?”

“If you had not severed my path home, why would I, Xi Ziyun, be so insane today, killing so many subjects, senior members, and even my own brothers in the empire?”

“Imperial Protector, do you know who I hate the most? Not the ones who tried to hunt me down, but the people who severed my path home. Those people deserve death.”

When he said that last sentence, the Xi Emperor’s voice became extremely cold. He had basically forced those words out through gritted teeth. Immediately, he could no longer resist the fury within him, and he sent his hand flying towards the Imperial Protector.

This was the Xi Emperor’s furious strike. It possessed the cultivation of a Chaotic Prime. From this strike, the world fell silent, origin energy stopped flowing, the laws of the world were disturbed, and even space trembled violently, almost collapsing.

The strike was extremely great, truly enough to destroy worlds. If it were not for the fact that the Xi Emperor had purposefully suppressed it, the terrifying energy would have been enough to destroy the entire region before the attack had even struck.

Obviously, the Imperial Protector would not just wait there for his death. He bellowed out, and a set of god artifact armor appeared on his body, radiating with terrifying pulses of energy. At the same time, a golden and violet duster appeared in his hand. Frightening energy erupted from it like a volcano as he tried to receive the Xi Emperor’s strike with his full strength.

The Imperial Protector was extremely powerful. When he struck out, he erupted with devastating might. If it were not for the fact that layers of defensive formations from the Godsfallen clan protected the surroundings, probably the entire mountain range would have been demolished because of the strike.

After all, he was not as powerful as the Xi Emperor. When the Xi Emperor struck out, he possessed great control over his own energy, and he was able to target his enemies while keeping the surroundings in tact.

However, when the Imperial Protector struck out, he did not even try to control his strength. He used everything he had right from the get go.

The difference between their strength was simply too great. The Xi Emperor knocked away the Imperial Protector’s duster with the strike, and then his hand heavily landed on the Imperial Protector’s god artifact armor.

The armor was a god artifact. However, its glow immediately dimmed, and the Imperial Protector opened his mouth and spat out blood. His face paled.

“Tell me. Aside from the people I’ve killed already, who else was involved in the matter in the past?” The Xi Emperor stared at the Imperial Protector coldly. Powerful killing intent engulfed the Imperial Protector, showing him no mercy at all.

In the past, he had been pushed to the end of his rope. He fled across the entire Cloud Plane, and he did not even know who many of the people who pursued him were. Although he managed to find out about a few of them and eliminated them mercilessly, there were still a few people who hid very well.

“Xi Ziyun, just what was it that made you become so vicious and merciless?” The Imperial Protector asked. He was unwilling to accept the situation. No matter how he tried, he was unable to connect the Xi Ziyun before him to the indifferent prince Ziyun who never desired fame or to better other people.

“Since you won’t speak, I’ll show you what being merciless means. I have my ways of making you speak once I get back to the palace.” A sliver of viciousness appeared in the Xi Emperor’s eyes. He bound the Imperial Protector and picked him up brutally before silently vanishing. He had already left the region.

“Is this an Chaotic Prime? They’re actually so frightening.” Jian Chen did not return to his senses after the Xi Emperor left. He stared at where the Xi Emperor stood before in a daze.

This was the first time he had been so close to a Chaotic Prime, so the shock he felt was greater than anything in the past.

Not only did he feel like he could not breathe when the Xi Emperor struck out earlier, but even his heart had stopped beating. His body was completely frozen.

It was as if an invisble force had restrained his entire body.

The Xi Emperor’s strength was just too frightening. Even when he was not targeting Jian Chen, Jian Chen deeply understood his own insignificance.

“I never though the Xi Emperor would move against an Imperial Protector of the Xi Empire this time. Sigh, that Imperial Protector was an important subject to the Xi Empire. I wonder just what the Xi Emperor lost when he was being hunted down that made him become so mad that he would even kill Imperial Protectors,” Tian Shuang said sternly.

“That’s the problem of the Xi Empire. It has nothing to do with us. Let’s go,” said fairy Hao Yue. With a wave of her hand, moonlight surrounded Jian Chen again, and she took him away.

Before long, Jian Chen had returned to the Xuandao Empire. Due to his connection with fairy Hao Yue, he possessed a rather special status in the empire. The emperor had personally granted him a hall for him to stay in.

Jian Chen settled down in the imperial palace temporarily, but he could not relax at all. He was basically filled with worry. He locked himself up in his hall all day long as he thought long and hard about any way to leave the northern region. He was very worried about the safety of Sacredfeather and so on.

For several days, Jian Chen did not even take a single step out of the imperial palace.

However, no matter how hard Jian Chen wracked his brains, he failed to come up with a single viable method at all. The end conclusion was that unless the Xi Emperor removed the seal over the northern region, he was unable to leave at all.

Jian Chen had mentioned finding the Xi Emperor, but as soon as he said it, Tian Shuang shut him down, as the chances of that happening was even less significant than using the Godsfallen clan’s teleportation formation.

Just as Jian Chen was in a state of complete unease, fairy Hao Yue visited his residence. She also sighed gently when she saw the worry on his face, “It’s all because of me. I shouldn’t have brought you to the northern region.”

“Fairy Hao Yue, you can’t put it like that. If it were not for you, who knows if I’d still be alive right now. I can only hope that the Xi Emperor removes the seal over the northern region as soon as possible,” said Jian Chen.

“The Xi Emperor will probably keep up the seal for a while longer. I’ve just received the news that the Xi Emperor has already gone to one of the peak sects of the Xi Empire, the Heaven-cracking sect. He asked them to hand over two of their great elders.”

“The Heaven-cracking sect is one of the four great organisations in the Xi Empire. The great elders there are all Infinite Primes. Moreover, they have an even more powerful ancestor.”

“The entire sect only has three great elders. The Heaven-cracking sect will naturally refuse to hand over two of the three, so they’ve already locked down the sect. They’re currently locked in a stalemate. Even the ancestor of the sect has come out to plead for mercy, but the Xi Emperor refuses to budge. There probably won’t be a conclusion in the near future,” said fairy Hao Yue.

Jian Chen groaned greatly. The Heaven-cracking sect was a peak organisation in an eternal empire, so they must have been more powerful than the Xuandao Empire. Even the Xuandao Empire had teleportation formations across regions, so it was impossible for the Heaven-cracking sect to not have one.

However, if the situation continued like this, the Xi Emperor would basically maintain the seal over the northern region to prevent the two great elders from escaping.

So when would he be free to leave?

Jian Chen immediately felt a headache. He was distressed.