“Hiss!”

As he flew through the air, he watched as the face on the back on Lin Mengze’s head bared its teeth at him. That evil, sinister aura deeply penetrated his body.

At that moment, Lin Zuiliu attacked at the same time. Streaks of light began to rain down from the sky/

Upon closer inspection, those raining lights were actually individual razor-sharp blades. Their edges were incomparably sharp, as if they could cut through anything standing in their way.

This was the combination of the White Fang and Dragon Centipede Bloodlines. The blades themselves were quite destructive in and of themselves, but because of the Dragon Centipede, Lin Zuiliu was capable of unleashing thousands of these blades all at once.

Of course, with so many razor-sharp blades descending, the might of this attack was far superior to that of a single one. Even if each of the blades only had one-hundredth the power of the actual blades on their own, that was still a tenfold increase in power. In addition, because Lin Zuiliu was extremely practiced with this skill, the power of his blades was actually greater than one-hundredth that of the original.

Each of the blades carried a kind of vicious aura to them. This was clearly Lin Zuiliu’s most powerful attack.

At the same time that he attacked, Lin Mengze suddenly turned around.

The face on the back of his head hissed at Lin Zuiliu. The thousand blades descending from the sky actually froze, unable to descend any further.

Lin Mengze took advantage of the opportunity to retreat, at the same time forming a giant hand and reaching out to grab Long Pojun. Even now, he was unwilling to let Long Pojun to go.

Just as he was about to grab Long Pojun, Long Pojun roared, and a blood-red light began to shine brilliantly from his body.

This ferocious roar drew out all of the strength in his body. A massive blood-red vortex slammed into Lin Mengze’s hand, causing him to let out a rare groan of pain and fly off.

“Don’t even think about running!” Long Pojun could tell that Lin Mengze was thinking of escaping and yelled loudly.

Lin Mengze harrumphed. “If I want to leave, who can stop me? Long Pojun, I’ll come back to collect your life some other time.”

“I’m afraid you won’t have the opportunity to,” Lin Zuiliu said as he jabbed out with his finger.

A massive eagle appeared in the sky.

The eagle drilled its beak downwards!

This was the Cloud Rising Du Clan’s Cloudpeck Bloodline, but it was not mixed with the Dragon Centipede Bloodline this time - using those techniques was simply too exhausting, and even Lin Zuiliu would have a hard time using them in rapid succession.

Even so, this simple finger jab carried incredible penetrative ability. It collided with Lin Mengze’s back. Lin Mengze groaned with pain and flew off into the distance without even looking backwards.

Lin Zuiliu didn’t bother to chase and watched him fly off into the distance.

“Why aren’t you chasing him?” Long Pojun asked angrily.

Lin Zuiliu shook his head. “There’s no point. I know this guy the best. He is always cautious to the uttermost, and there are too many ways that he has of escaping. Instead of killing him, it would be better to destroy a portion of his strength.

As he spoke, he turned to glance at the Heart-Slaying Sword and the Raised Sifting Umbrella.

This sword was still fighting with the Star-Fixating Pearl, while the Raised Sifting Umbrella was still fending off Lin Zuiliu’s Dragon Centipede skills.

Lin Zuiliu hadn’t bothered chasing after Lin Mengze because he needed to focus more of his energy on suppressing the umbrella so that Lin Mengze wouldn’t be able to call it back to him. Now that Lin Mengze was far away, the umbrella’s resistance had greatly decreased. Finally, the umbrella closed and fell from the sky into Lin Zuiliu’s hands.

The same happened to the Heart-Slaying Sword.

As for the Soul Rending Jade and the Raining Smoke, Lin Mengze had taken them away with him. After all, they belonged to him in the first place, so it was relatively easy for him to retrieve them.

Lin Zuiliu didn’t mind. Instead, he chuckled, “With these two treasures, Lin Mengze won’t have a chance in the future. Hahahaha!”

“I’m afraid that we missed the opportunity to kill him!” Long Pojun said, clutching at his chest. “He is being attacked by those nightmares constantly. Who knows when he will die?”

“Isn’t that even better? Then I don’t have to waste my time and energy,” Lin Zuiliu said, staring at Long Pojun quizzically.

Long Pojun harrumphed. “He murdered my Yaoyao. How could I let him get away with that?”

“So that’s how it is. You were willing to betray your country for the sake of a woman? Indeed, your loyalty leaves much to be desired,” Lin Zuiliu sighed.

Long Pojun was infuriated. “What do you mean?”

“What do I mean?” Lin Zuiliu laughed loudly. “I am not like you. My goal is just to become the ruler of Long Sang. As for how I get there, I couldn’t care less. And if I am to become the emperor, I would hope that my subordinates obey me. Now, it seems that you are not as useful to me as I thought you would be.”

As he spoke, he reached out to grab Long Pojun.

“You!” Long Pojun never would have expected Lin Zuiliu to make a move on him, and his shock was immeasurable. “I am a close ally of the Heavenly Might Battalion. If you do this, Su Chen will never forgive you.”

“Do you think I’m afraid of him?” Lin Zuiliu’s expression grew grave.

Lin Zuiliu had an ambition of his own, and he clearly wanted to rule the world. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have worked so hard to research mixing the seven bloodlines. His cooperation with Su Chen was utilitarian in nature, and it in no way indicated that he was Su Chen’s subordinate. Otherwise, Ye Fenghan and Chang He wouldn’t have needed to take action on his “behalf.”

However, when Lin Zuiliu thought about the Boundless Sect’s ten thousand Light Shaking Realm cultivators, his heart involuntarily trembled.

He was an Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivator who had mixed many powerful bloodlines and had mastered many secret techniques. Slowly but surely, he had become one of the most powerful individuals on the continent.

Even so, he had no confidence that he could deal with tens of thousands of Light Shaking Realm cultivators all at once.

As such, Lin Zuiliu added on, “In any case, even if I kill you here, no one will know. I can just push the blame onto Lin Mengze.”

Long Pojun saw through the facade and recognized that Lin Zuiliu was still cautious of Su Chen. He harrumphed, “You forget that Su Chen has the Origin Bone Scepter. There is no secret in this world that can hide from his eyes.

Lin Zuiliu frowned.

It was true that very few secrets could escape Su Chen’s notice as long as he had the Origin Bone Scepter.

After a moment’s thought, he chuckled, “I was only joking with you. There’s no need to take me so seriously, General Long. Now that I am beginning to gain some power, I am in need of capable commanders like you. I haven’t even had a chance to use you yet. How could I kill you?”

Long Pojun glared at him. “I don’t believe you for a second. There is one thing you got right, which is that my loyalty does leave much to desire. If you want a loyal dog, you go and find one yourself. I’m not the guy you’re looking for.”

Lin Zuiliu squinted his eyes. “You mean......”

“From this day onwards, you will go your own way, while I will go my own. This time was the last time we will work together. We will not see each other in the future,” Long Pojun said.

“Is that so.” Lin Zuiliu glanced at him coldly. After a long while, he suddenly said, “You have fallen under the influence of Lin Mengze’s Soul-Assimilating Ghost. This curse will eat away at you and destroy your physical body. Without my assistance, you will die in an hour.”

Long Pojun smiled slightly when he heard this. “So that’s how it is. If that’s the case, it seems that I am going to the Yellow Springs even without your aid. That is the way it should be. I should have died a long time ago, and now my wish of seeing Yaoyao again will be granted. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to witness Lin Mengze’s death personally, but what does that matter? He will die sooner or later. Whether I see it with my own eyes or not, his fate has been settled. I am more than willing to meet death.”

As he spoke, he shoved Lin Zuiliu aside and began to fly away.

Lin Zuiliu was taken aback by his actions. After a moment’s thought, he sighed. “Well, whatever. Even though you are arrogant and obstinate, you are still a close friend of the Boundless Sect. Seeing that you have a good relationship with Su Chen, I’ll help you out just a bit.”

He reached out and tapped Long Pojun’s back with an illusory finger. The black Qi beginning to creep up his face faded ever so slightly.

He didn’t even turn around. Instead, he cupped his hands and bowed, expressing his thanks.

Lin Zuiliu said, “Lin Mengze’s Soul-Assimilating Ghost is extremely troublesome. Even if I wanted to save you, I would have to pay a tremendous price. Right now, I have only helped you control its spread so that you can live a bit longer. If you really want me to cure you, I will need to sacrifice quite a bit of my cultivation base as a price. If you become my loyal dog, I can do this for you. If you won’t, then I can only let nature take its course. I don’t think Su Chen would have much to say about that.”

“This is enough,” Long Pojun replied and flew off.

He flew aimlessly.

Since he knew that he was about to die, he didn’t care about where he went. In any case, he had completed his mission at the Flowing Gold Fort, and the debt between him and Lin Mengze had been cleared away. With nothing else chaining his heart down, he began to relax and wander. 

As he gazed at the world around him in all its splendor and glory, he discovered that he had somehow ignored many of the simple beauties in life.

For a number of days, Long Pojun flew wherever he pleased. At the same time, his body continually weakened, and even the Blood Fiend’s Bone wasn’t able to sustain him.

Long Pojun knew that this was due to the Soul-Assimilating Ghost. It was eating away at his consciousness and siphoning away his vitality. However, he didn’t care in the slightest.

He flew onto the top of a mountain and was greeted by a view that had seemingly come out of a painting.

Long Pojun was just admiring his surroundings when he suddenly heard a voice call out, “General Long! General Long!”

Long Pojun glanced to the side and couldn’t help but chuckled. “General Liu.”

General Liu’s name was Liu Sitong. He was one of the soldiers who had served under Long Pojun in the past. During the battle earlier, he had successfully escaped. Somehow, they had run into each other here.

When Liu Sitong saw Long Pojun, he ran over happily and said, “So it is General Long! Thank goodness you’re alright.”

Long Pojun smiled and recounted how Lin Zuiliu had saved him.

Liu Sitong’s expression was filled with regret. “If only I wasn’t so incompetent. When I saw the emperor, my only thought was to save my own life.”

Long Pojun calmly said, “That’s not your fault. That emperor had some strange consciousness techniques. I’m not surprised that you had no will to fight him.”

Apart from the pressure that Lin Mengze had exerted on them, an important reason why everyone had fled was because Lin Mengze had the ability to suppress their battle intent. With Long Pojun ordering them to run away, it was only natural that they had done so.

But after running away, some regained their sobriety and realized that they should have tossed away their fear of death a long time ago. So why had they escaped?

They ran back to the scene as quickly as they could.

Unfortunately, by the time they returned, no one was there any longer.

General Liu was one of the people who had gone back. He thought that Long Pojun had died and was in the process of mourning, but unexpectedly he had run into Long Pojun here. It was only natural that he celebrated.

However, what he did not know was that Long Pojun was going to die anyways.

The two of them sat on the mountain peak, drinking wine and chatting.

Long Pojun rarely spoke much, but at this moment he began to pour out all of his secrets to one of his old subordinates.

He told Liu Sitong about the Blood Fiend’s Bone, about his story with Yaoyao, about his expeditions with the Black Flame, and about how he had run into Su Chen.

“I’m about to die,” Long Pojun said.

Liu Sitong gazed at Long Pojun sadly.

Long Pojun smiled slightly. “But death comes for all men sooner or later. What’s the point in being too concerned about it? The fact that I can have my most trusted aide see me off is more than enough.”

“General!!!” Liu Sitong wept.

Long Pojun glanced up the starry sky. “I’m afraid that there were some things I never was quite able to figure out. Sitong, can you help me with something?”

“Just tell me, general. I will do it even if it costs my life!”

“It’s nothing, really. After I die, take out the Blood Fiend’s Bone from my body and feed it. Then...... Go to the Abyss. Give it to Su Chen. This is the only thing I can do for the Boundless Sect - for the old Heavenly Might Battalion.”

Long Pojun’s voice trailed off as he closed his eyes.

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