Chapter 2552: Facing the Abbess

“Hmph, you sure are bold to eye the soul of the Spatial Insect Emperor.” The Rain Abbess stood outside the forbidden grounds as the power of clouds and rain revolved around her, flickering with lightning. She reached out with her hand, and Jian Chen immediately flew out from the frozen space and entered her hands.

“Ye Yizhan!” The Rain Abbess called out gently. Her cold voice directly rang out in the head of the emperor of the Cloudsurge Empire.

In dragon robes, Ye Yizhan quickly appeared before the Rain Abbess. He, the emperor, who normally held his head up high, did not even dare to raise his head now. He was even afraid of breathing too loudly. With his knees on the ground, he said politely, “Greetings to the Abbess!”

“I’ll leave this person to you,” the Rain Abbess said. She did not even glance at Ye Yizhan, directly tossing Jian Chen to him.

Currently, Jian Chen’s eyes were closed, and blood oozed out from the corner of his eyes. His soul was already injured, and all of his concentration was focused on his sea of consciousness. He faced the Spatial Insect Emperor, so he was in no state to pay any attention to the outside world.

Originally, the Spatial Insect Emperor should have fallen into a slumber from the Soul-numbing Pill. However, at a critical moment, it actually recovered some of its intelligence, increasing its resistance to the pill. It did not fall unconscious immediately, which caused great trouble for Jian Chen.

In the end, when the Spatial Insect Emperor completely fell quiet from the effects of the pill, the power of Jian Chen’s soul had been over exhausted as well, causing him to fall unconscious.

“The soul of the Spatial Insect Emperor is just too powerful. In a short amount of time, it drained the power of my soul completely.” That was Jian Chen’s last thought. With the power of his soul depleted and his soul injured, his resistance to the Soul-numbing Pill had dropped to a bare minimum as well.

In the end, he was unable to stop himself from falling unconscious, and he completely lost contact with the outside world. He did not even know that he had fallen into the hands of the Rain Abbess.

The emperor of the Cloudsurge Empire looked at Jian Chen, and a sliver of cold killing intent flickered through his eyes. The sudden attack from the Empyrean Demon Cult had made the empire suffer extremely great losses. They had lost many elites and even some Chaotic Primes. Naturally, he hated the Empyrean Demon Cult to the core, so he was filled with killing intent.

“Abbess, please do not worry. I will definitely deal with this person appropriately. We have many ways to treat prisoners of war,” Ye Yizhan said coldly. His voice was filled with a repressed coldness. He did not dare to show it before the Rain Abbess.

Ye Yizhan looked at Jian Chen. After staring at him for a while, he easily saw that Jian Chen was disguised by a mask. He immediately removed the mask.

As soon as the mask was removed, Jian Chen’s presence changed. He regained his original presence.

“Hmm?” Ye Yizhan was surprised. He no longer paid any attention to Jian Chen. Instead, he studied the mask in his hand. As the ruler of an empire, Ye Yizhan’s insight was extraordinary. He could tell that the mask was extraordinary with a single glance. It was something extremely precious.

Afterwards, he passed the mask to the Rain Abbess politely and said, “Abbess, this mask is rather special. Please see.”

The mask flew into the Rain Abbess’ hands by itself. After studying the mask carefully, she said, “This mask is indeed extraordinary. It can conceal the presence of anyone who wears it. Even I can’t see through it.” The Rain Abbess turned around slightly and glanced at the unconscious Jian Chen casually with her cold eyes hidden within the mist and clouds.

She had performed this glance casually, but it was not because she was interested in Jian Chen. In reality, with Jian Chen’s level of cultivation, he was no different from an ant in the eyes of an expert like the Rain Abbess. If it were not for that one feature that stood out, the mask, he would not have been able to attract her attention.

However, when the Rain Abbess saw Jian Chen’s face, her cold eyes suddenly narrowed.

“Why would it be you?” The Rain Abbess murmured to herself. It was very gentle but filled with surprise.

Ye Yizhan was confused. He only dared to stare at Jian Chen and study him. He did not have the courage to look up. He was filled with doubt.

The Rain Abbess’ words made Ye Yizhan think of many things. Did the Rain Abbess know this person?

However, even though he was filled with suspicion, Ye Yizhan did not dare to ask anything.

“You are dismissed,” said the Rain Abbess. Her voice had returned to its previous coldness. Afterwards, she lifted up Jian Chen with one hand and carried him into the forbidden grounds.

The black divine hall of the Empyrean Demon Cult hovered quietly in an unknown region of space within the Saints’ World.

On the highest floor of the divine hall, the grand elder, Cheng Ming, stood alone within a secret room. An extremely complicated and profound formation was engraved on the ground.

Cheng Ming tossed in a few supreme grade divine crystals and activated the formation.

Immediately, the formation shone with a dazzling glow before condensing into a screen of light in the end. A blurry figure appeared within it, and it gradually grew clearer.

He was the great elder of the Empyrean Demon Cult, Mo Tianyun.

“Greetings, master!” Cheng Ming kneeled on the floor and lowered his head solemnly. He was extremely polite.

“Cheng Ming, are all the materials prepared?” Mo Tianyun’s voice rang out from within the screen of light. He was calm.

“Master, all the materials have been collected. Even a sufficient amount of Innate Spiritual Mud and Liquid has been collected from the Cloudsurge Empire,” said Cheng Ming.

“Good.” Mo Tianyun was happy. There was even a vague sliver of eagerness and excitement. He said, “Cheng Ming, go reconstruct your body first. Contact me after that, and I’ll give you my location. Personally deliver the materials I need.”

“Yes, master!” After a moment of hesitation, Cheng Ming continued, “But master, a slight accident happened when we attacked the Cloudsurge Empire, which caused Jian Chen to be trapped there. He faces constant danger now.”

Mo Tianyun frowned when he heard that. After a moment of thought, he said slowly, “Fu Yu has returned to the Cloudsurge Empire, right?”

“The Rain Abbess has returned,” replied Cheng Ming.

“Since Fu Yu has returned, there’s no need to worry about Jian Chen’s safety. Jian Chen has Fan Yun behind him. For the sake of Fan Yun, Fu Yu won’t touch Jian Chen.”

TL Note: Something I must add—Fu Yu and Fan Yun seem to be names here, but if translated literally, they correspond to Rainflood and Clousdsurge. Do you see the connection with the formation and empire? Also, when the two phrases are combined (Fan Yun Fu Yu or Cloudsurge Rainflood), it actually forms an idiom for unpredictability in Chinese. That’s clearly not describing anything in the novel, which was why I avoided it as well, but it does form a kind of match that’s supposed to go together. You might infer certain things from it, but I’ll leave that up to you.

…

Jian Chen slowly awakened within the forbidden grounds of the imperial palace of the Cloudsurge Empire. As soon as he woke up, he felt a sharp pain from his soul, immediately making him pale.

This pain came from his soul.

Jian Chen checked his Space Ring and discovered that it was still on his finger. As a result, he immediately took out a few pills and heavenly resources that could heal the soul to relieve the pain slightly.

However, this was only pain relief. Injuries to the soul were the most difficult to deal with. If he wanted to make a full recovery, it would be far more difficult than recovering from injuries to the body.

“Fortunately, the Spatial Insect Emperor is still slumbering.” After checking his sea of consciousness again, Jian Chen was temporarily relieved. However, he also knew that the Spatial Insect Emperor would wake up soon. He needed to find a way to refine it before it woke up, or there would be dire consequences once it started acting up.

Originally, he would have had the assistance of the grand elder of the Empyrean Demon Cult to refine the beast soul, but he was on his own now.

Jian Chen struggled to sit up. He began to observe his surroundings. Gradually, his expression became strange. In the end, his face became extremely ugly.

Everything in the surroundings seemed so familiar. Was this not where the Rain Abbess cultivated?”

Jian Chen’s heart completely sank when he realised that he had returned to where the Rain Abbess cultivated after waking up.

“Do you know how rare, how precious that Innate Orchid of Five Elements is?” At this moment, a woman’s voice rang out.

Jian Chen’s heart tightened when he heard the voice. He slowly looked behind him. He saw a graceful woman standing beside the pond where the Innate Orchid of Five Elements used to be planted.

She was dressed in pure-white clothes. Her otherworldly presence made her seem like a goddess who had transcended worldly affairs. She created a beautiful scene just by standing there.

At this moment, she stood with her back to Jian Chen. He could not see her face. Her long, black, glossy hair was not embellished at all, casually draped down her back all the way to her waist.