Sovereign of the Three Realms

Jiang Chen wasn't the least intimidated by the bald cultivator. With the Kunpeng Meteoric Escape, he flashed out of the way.

The bald cultivator hadn't forgotten that his job was to keep the sacred beast occupied. He blinked when Jiang Chen backed away and didn't give chase. Instead, he stared doggedly at the Vermilion Bird.

He expected the bird to follow Jiang Chen's footsteps as a contracted spirit. Yet it didn't move at all, its eyes locking with his. It was as if the bird didn't care that Jiang Chen had fled and wasn't interested in protecting the human at all.

This took the bald cultivator by surprise.

Before he could find an explanation, Jiang Chen had drawn his Holy Dragon Bow and emitted a dragon howl. "Take this, Baldy!"

Jiang Chen wasn't the man he'd once been. In battles, he could now rival an initial divine.

His cultivation might fall short, but his experience and agile mind enabled him to make judgements as well as any regular divine cultivator.

The bald man wasn't a particularly powerful god, or he wouldn't have played an assistive role to his sallow companion.

The sound of splitting air foretold the might of the arrow. He took the threat seriously and dodged the arrow with a flash of his form.

A flap of the Vermilion Bird's wings made its tail feathers stand on end. Its body radiated intense light like a blazing sun. A terrifying wave of heat rolled outward, with it as the center.

The bald cultivator suddenly felt too warm.

Even without a real fight, he sensed how much more powerful the sacred beast was compared to him. He was a man who knew when to cut his losses.

Flipping backwards, he landed a good distance away instead of fighting the bird head-on. He tightened his hands around his heavy weapon, staring at the bird warily, dreading it.

The bald cultivator was strongly built, but his reluctance to fight was clear. One could even say that he was afraid of dying.

Jiang Chen was observant enough to tell from the man's reaction that he wasn't devoted to this fight. At least, he wasn't ready to fight to the death at the moment.

As for the reasons why, Jiang Chen didn't really care.

Making a hand seal, Jiang Chen manifested the Taiji Pisces Swords over his head. The yin and yang swords seemed to create a world of their own. They roamed and twisted in the air like fish of opposite colors.

Suddenly, the swords crossed and formed two intersecting slashes, splitting the air and striking at the bald cultivator.

The swords were divine weapons, and this yin yang sword method the most sophisticated in the world, incorporating the most profound of mysteries into it.

The swords were unstoppable. The bald cultivator sucked in a breath at the sight of such terrifying might. With a whip of his heavy weapon, he glided through the sky and dove down.

He knew he couldn't fall into the circle formed by Jiang Chen and the sacred beast. Things wouldn't end well for him otherwise.

Terror overwhelmed him. He'd thought that Jiang Chen wouldn't be that much of a threat, and that the real danger would be from the Vermilion Bird.

How wrong he'd been! Jiang Chen was more than powerful enough to kill him. Even though he was a divine cultivator, the twin swords could casually bisect him if he wasn't careful.

"This young man is something else! His attack can rival a divine cultivator when he himself is but an advanced empyrean cultivator. How does he do that?"

He was curious, but this wasn't the time for such curiosity.

A misstep here might mean the difference between life and death. He didn't dare grow careless.

Neither forwards nor backwards was an option.

Going down was the only way out. He'd forgotten about the two guards' plan, nor did he remember their orders.

He could barely keep himself alive. How could he possibly help the two enforcers take on Divine Kasyapa? Besides, Jiang Chen and the sacred beast wouldn't let him go easily either.

He cursed under his breath. The two enforcers had said they would order the demigod cultivators to keep Jiang Chen and the Vermilion Bird occupied, but the demigods hadn't followed the order. He was the young man and the sacred beast's only target.

The bald cultivator was a big, bulky man. Speed wasn't his forte. As he dove down, he noticed that neither Jiang Chen or the bird were advancing on him.

That ignited a spark of hope in his heart, but very quickly, his excitement gave way to an indescribable fear. His body was becoming heavier and heavier. In the end, his plunge downwards wasn't under his own control anymore.

"Damn it, what's going on?" He was reminded of what had happened to the sallow cultivator. Alarm bells went off in his head.

However, his body already seemed to weigh tens of thousands of kilograms once he realized the problem. When he tried to move up or to the side, he realized with shock that his speed had dropped to one tenth of normal.

The discovery overwhelmed him with horrified fear.

He noticed then that the Vermilion Bird and Jiang Chen had stopped approaching him and instead gone in the opposite direction.

Before he could say anything, a tall wave of angry heat came out of nowhere and devoured him.

The enforcers in gold and silver robes were engaged in an intense fight with Divine Kasyapa. The two brothers had gained the upper hand. If the bald cultivator joined the fight, the three of them would be able to defeat An Kasyapa.

But baldy never showed up. The brothers were furious. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Wondering what was going on, they snuck glances at the direction the bald cultivator should be in. However, they could see nothing but a sea of red waves of terrifying heat. They couldn't even detect anything with their consciousness. It was as if the bald cultivator was fighting in a completely separate world, out of the range of their senses.