Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation

An Ethereal Immortal Palace key!

Xiao Chen was surprised to see the Ethereal Immortal Palace key in Chu Chaoyun’s hand. Given that, were Wenren Yu and the others here for the Ethereal Immortal Palace key as well?

“Did you find this in the Final Blood Battlefield?” Xiao Chen asked softly as he looked at Chu Chaoyun.

Chu Chaoyun nodded slightly and raised his eyebrows. He understood the implied meaning in Xiao Chen’s words. “You seem to be familiar with the Ethereal Immortal Palace key.”

Without saying anything, Xiao Chen took out the two Ethereal Immortal Palace keys he had. The Peach Blossom Sovereign Emperor had given him one, and the other was the one he “temporarily” held for Yuan Zhen.

“Two keys?”

“One is mine, and I am holding the other in trust.”

Lin Feng said, “Let’s leave first. This place is not safe.”

“Right.”

The three soared into the air and sat on the Demon Blood Vulture, flying far away. Xiao Chen and Chu Chaoyun showed calm expressions, entirely undisturbed. Only Lin Feng kept looking back at the ten-odd corpses on the ground and frowning.

As a former member of the Underworld God Hall, Lin Feng knew how major an incident ten-odd Underworld God Guards dying was, so his brows furrowed in secret worry.

--

Four hours after the three left, Yan Cangming and Zhen Yuan led a group of Underworld God Guards over. When they saw the sorry sight of the Underworld God Guard corpses, their expressions changed drastically.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

The Underworld God Guards behind advanced extremely professionally to check the corpses and examine the injuries for the cause of death and whether they could save anyone.

After a while, an Underworld God Guard stepped forward and reported, “Lord Yan, the eighteen Underworld God Guards are all dead. They died within ten hours. There are sword wounds, arrow wounds, and a lingering aura of the Death Dao Domain. It seems like a Demonic Dao expert came by and sacrificed their souls to a ghost pennant; no souls remain.”

The injuries were very messy and not easy to analyze. Just thinking about it induced a headache.

Yan Cangming asked, “Zhen Yuan, what do you think is needed to kill eighteen Underworld God Guards?”

Zhen Yuan thought for a while before replying, “It would take at least a 3-Vein Sovereign Emperor expert to create a suppressive advantage, preventing them from fleeing. However, the possibility of that is slim. Existences above 3-Vein Sovereign Emperor are Great Perfection Sovereign Emperors. If such an opponent appeared, they would not escape the Underworld God Hall’s attention.”

The place turned silent; no one spoke. Everyone had a somewhat unsightly expression.

Eighteen Sovereign Emperors died despite there being no war. The Underworld God Hall rarely had such casualties.

Everyone knew that someone would be suffering from misfortune soon.

Yan Cangming said indifferently, “Let’s do this, then: continue to search for Chu Chaoyun, and I will report this incident. I’ll get the Vice Hall Master to send the Underworld God Protectors to the Final Blood Battlefield to reinforce us.”

“Yes.”

The others felt somewhat confused upon seeing Yan Cangming so calm. However, they still obeyed their orders and scattered.

Zhen Yuan murmured, “I thought that you would fly into a rage.”

Yan Cangming’s expression did not change as he said seriously, “The ones who died are the people of the Underworld God Hall, none of whom are Flood Dragon Humans. They have no connection to me. This problem cannot be blamed on me, either. A Righteous Dao Great Perfection Sovereign Emperor must have sneaked in. The one responsible is the Underworld God Hall. What does it have to do with me?”

Zhen Yuan felt stunned but quickly understood. Yan Cangming intended to pin the blame on the Underworld God Hall’s intelligence department.

--

The Demon Blood Vulture flew for half a day before stopping near the periphery of the Final Blood Battlefield.

With the Demon Blood Vulture protecting them, the three closed their eyes and circulated their energies, recovering their drained Divine Energy and Soul Energy.

Chu Chaoyun had consumed the least energy. After one hour, he opened his eyes—the first to do so.

Chu Chaoyun looked around and fixed his gaze on Xiao Chen, who circulated a Demonic Dao Cultivation Technique. A strange look flashed in his eyes as he pondered this.

Dual cultivating the demonic and righteous. To think that Xiao Chen chose to dual cultivate! Those that took this path never had a good end.

After a while, Xiao Chen and Lin Feng opened their eyes.

“I’ll go ahead and scout,” Lin Feng said after some thought. He knew that Xiao Chen and Chu Chaoyun were old friends and probably had many things to say to each other.

Xiao Chen chatted with Chu Chaoyun for quite a while.

The first topic naturally was the Ethereal Immortal Palace key. Xiao Chen was very interested in these keys.

Back in Peach Blossom City, the Profound Heaven’s Holy Son had put in all possible effort to obtain the key. When in the Faux God World, Yuan Zhen had done the same.

Now, Chu Chaoyun took the risk to come to the Final Blood Battlefield.

“When speaking of the Ethereal Immortal Palace keys, naturally, what everyone is interested in, in the Ethereal Immortal Palace, is the Wings of Time.”

Xiao Chen knew all these and gestured for Chu Chaoyun to continue.

“No one knows where precisely the Ethereal Immortal Palace is. However, after the previous great war between the righteous and demonic factions, there would be diviners who swore that the Ethereal Immortal Palace would be appearing. At first, the news would cause a huge commotion in the entire Great Thousand Realms. Each time, experts of both the Righteous Dao and Demonic Dao would make a move. However, everyone would return with nothing to show for their efforts. Over time, everyone became indifferent to this news.

“Furthermore, even if the Ethereal Immortal Palace appeared and we gathered all seven keys, it would be useless without the inheritance key.”

Chu Chaoyun paused here before continuing, “It is the same this time. The diviners of the four dynasties—the Tianwu Dynasty, the Shenwu Dynasty, the Yanwu Dynasty, and the Xuewu Dynasty—made another prediction about the appearance of the Ethereal Immortal Palace.”

Xiao Chen suddenly understood. It did not matter whether it was true or not; the four dynasties had to make a move.

After carefully thinking about it, he concluded that Yuan Zhen and the Hidden Spirit Temple represented the Yanwu Dynasty, the Profound Heaven Holy Son Wenren Yu represented the Shenwu Dynasty, and Chu Chaoyun represented the Tianwu Dynasty. With this, that would be the three dynasties of the Righteous Dao.

Chu Chaoyun smiled and said, “It looks like you figured it out. Although the predictions are not reliable, this involves the Wings of Time. The three dynasties have to make a move. So, they sent us to collect the keys. I snatched this key from Wenren Yu.”

Xiao Chen said after some thought, “I still somewhat do not understand. What is the point of obtaining the key? If you cannot find the inheritance key, it is useless.”

Chu Chaoyun said lightly with a smile, “That’s right. It is useless. However, with a key, one would be qualified to enter the Ethereal Immortal Palace; those without a key are not even qualified. So, we still need to fight for it. Even if it is useless, we would have the capital to counter each other once we obtain it.”

Xiao Chen was not stupid. After Chu Chaoyun explained a little, he understood the principle.

It was to grasp the initiative and counter each other just in case. Without a key, one would end up very passive if one wanted to fight over the Ethereal Immortal Palace.

Chu Chaoyun took a sip of wine before suddenly saying, “Actually, I also have some information about the inheritance key. Speaking of which, it is somewhat connected to your Dragon Race.”

“Oh?”

Xiao Chen first felt slightly surprised, then some interest. Incidentally, the person that used the Wings of Time was the Blood-Soaked Dragon Emperor.

It was not unexpected that the inheritance key had something to do with the Dragon Race.

“There is a rumor—only a rumor—that only one person knows the location of the inheritance key. That person is from your Dragon Race.”

When Xiao Chen heard this, he immediately thought of a person. He blurted out, “The Heavenly Dragon!”

Chu Chaoyun nodded and said, “That’s right. It is him. It is rumored that the Purple Gold Dragon Emperor did not kill the Heavenly Dragon because he wanted to force him to reveal the inheritance key’s location. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any result.”

The tragic scene of the Heavenly Dragon locked up in the Starry Heavens Dragon Prison appeared in Xiao Chen’s mind. It was not just the body but also the soul being tortured at all times.

Given that, it did seem like the Purple Gold Dragon Emperor was trying to force information out of the Heavenly Dragon.

Chu Chaoyun smiled and said, “Let’s not talk about this. How have you been since leaving the Kunlun Realm?”

“Me? It’s a long story.” Xiao Chen thought back to the days when he just left the Kunlun Realm and how he climbed to where he was today step by step. He had suffered a lot.

At first, Xiao Chen wandered the outer regions for five years, suffering a lot of difficulties and facing fatal danger countless times.

After entering the Central Great Realm, he should have settled down in the Heavenly Dragon Palace. However, he got chased out in a sorry state in the end.

Fortunately, Xiao Chen managed to become a Sovereign Emperor, pulling through all the suffering.

However, he still did not know when he could tell Liu Ruyue the truth.

He summarized his experiences before saying, “Let’s talk about you now. I am even more curious about how you have been these years.”

Chu Chaoyun smiled as he said, “I was luckier. As I have the bloodline of the Tianwu Dynasty’s Royal Clan, the Tianwu Dynasty’s old ancestor sensed my bloodline after I left the Kunlun Realm. The four dynasties place heavy emphasis on bloodline. Once they discover any lost Royal Clan descendants outside, they do their best to find them.

“I wandered around for one year before being received into the Tianwu Dynasty. After verifying my bloodline, acknowledging my ancestors, returning to my ancestral home, and having my name listed in the genealogical record, I learned that the prince that came to the Kunlun Realm in a pique back then was actually an incredible existence. After he left the Kunlun Realm, he returned to the Tianwu Dynasty and became the emperor, and eventually the Universe Origin Sect’s Sect Master.”

Xiao Chen knew that Chu Chaoyun was referring to the first Tianwu Emperor of the Kunlun Realm. “Do you still want revenge, then?”

Chu Chaoyun shook his head. “That fellow died long ago. He ran into a bad age. Despite being very talented and powerful, there was no way to become a True God. Now, that group of old fellows of the Royal Court thinks that I will become a second him, so they give me practically unlimited resources. Speaking of which, it is amusing. I hated that fellow to the point of wishing his death. However, people now see me as a second him.”

When Xiao Chen heard that, he kept silent for a while. Fate was unpredictable; it frequently played jokes on people.

Chu Chaoyun had done his best to come out from the Kunlun Realm, all so that he could ask that fellow who left at the drop of a hat, ignoring the Tianwu Dynasty’s destruction, why he was so heartless.

Who knew, the first-generation Tianwu Emperor had died long ago. Now, because Chu Chaoyun was of his bloodline and came from the same world as him, Chu Chaoyun became seen as the person he hated the most.

The helplessness that came with this was indescribable.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

A figure flashed. Lin Feng returned and said seriously, “We have to leave tonight. Otherwise, it will be hard to escape when the Underworld God Protectors charge over.”