ASER - Chapter 225
Chapter 225: Unexpected
A'Diao didn't come looking for Yan Xi to persuade him to submit or to negotiate any deals with him.
Previously, time was tight, and she had no leisure to deal with him meticulously. After all, he was a Great Corpse King from the Primordial Era. Don't be fooled by A'Diao's playful and superior demeanor when she first entered; in reality, she was quite alarmed: this scoundrel, even after being enslaved by her, could still stubbornly maintain his rationality until now, which indicated his firm will.
Toilet: "After all, it's your first time enslaving someone, and such a high-caliber slave at that. It's best to be cautious."
Toilet: "Enslavement has two aspects, internal and external: will and mental strength. Since he's strong in will, let's strengthen the will-based enslavement. It's troublesome, but it's safer."
It actually knew A'Diao would definitely do this, but it still nagged a reminder, afraid A'Diao might capsize in a deep ditch.
"I know." After A'Diao approached, she stared at Yan Xi with both eyes and said, "Kneel."
Yan Xi gritted his teeth, unwilling, but his body... his knees trembled, and finally, with a crack, as if his bones were broken, he was forced to kneel.
Humiliation, absolute humiliation.
"You... are courting death!!" Yan Xi raised his head, his eyes crimson, even revealing the bloodthirsty fangs of a Great Corpse King.
He was handsome, usually appearing like a weak scholar with no strength to truss a chicken. But once these fangs appeared, an aura of wicked beauty and madness emerged, and his ruby-like eyes were shot with blood...
Bang!
A'Diao raised her hand, holding Toilet which had transformed into a hammer, and whacked his head askew.
The man fell to the ground. A'Diao stepped on his stomach and hammered him repeatedly.
"Courting death, are you?"
"Trying to scare me?"
"Am I, Chen A'Diao, someone who gets scared?"
"Go out and ask around who Chen A'Diao is within these three nations!"
Both were legends of an era. He had once led the trends, but he couldn't compare to Kunlun and the others.
But she could be benchmarked against Kunlun.
Damn! Beating a Great Corpse King to death was nothing.
The cave was incredibly bloody. After the hammer, various terrifying poisons were applied in turn, the pain far exceeding what Yan Xi had suffered when he became a Corpse King.
Was he facing a simple butcher?
No, she was actually a cultured individual with technical skills.
Toilet watched, alarmed... even suspecting if the recent series of killings and pressure had made A'Diao violent with no outlet for her aggression.
But soon, when Yan Xi was on the verge of death, A'Diao split off a clone. One performed a secondary will-based enslavement on him, while the other...
When Yan Xi sensed A'Diao's purpose, his pupils trembled. He wanted to resist, but he was too weak, unable to even muster the will to resist... A'Diao directly invaded his memories.
Soul-searching!
She was understanding everything about the Primordial Era from Yan Xi's perspective.
However, he was, after all, a Corpse King at the peak of the Great Spirit King realm. His spiritual body had been severely damaged due to the splitting of his original core, making it weaker than A'Diao's. But his foundation was still there, so A'Diao, to be cautious, focused only on searching his memories from before his death – specifically, the memories of when they attacked the Guixu Ruins.
In an instant, her vision shifted.
A'Diao seemed to pass through a tunnel of time and space, seeing fireworks scattering above the Guixu Ruins. These were not the splendid bursts of fireworks, but streaks of light from energy attacks exploding and flying.
The lights were colorful, burning, falling, and rampant.
Fighting raged in the sky and on the ground.
She saw a Langya clansman flying high in the sky, his elegant green robe fluttering in the wind, the orchid family totem on it slowly drifting. And then... he resolutely perished in a self-detonation amidst the encircling Imperial Family members.
Other Langya clansmen saw this, despair and pity in their eyes.
But because of this, the enemy's advance temporarily slowed. Ahead, the grand armies of the three Imperial Families, along with the vast corpse army led by Yan Xi, had already slaughtered their way through layers of defenses since landing on the island.
However, the biggest battle was still...
A'Diao saw Yan Xi making a move, a joint attack!
Three figures darted through the high sky. These three were the most terrifying in strength, each leading a group of people, slaughtering from different directions.
They were using all their power to besiege and kill a man.
Lord Changting!
Four peerless experts at the peak of the Great Spirit King realm, some even reaching the limit, were frantically besieging two people.
"Changting!"
"Changting, you betrayed the human race, prepare to die!"
"Changting, if you surrender and hand over the Key to the Celestial Gate given to you by the Celestial Clan, allowing us to open the Celestial Gate, we can overlook your past transgressions."
Lord Changting didn't speak, but the man beside him did.
"If you want to condemn someone, you can always find a pretext. For the treasures of the Celestial Clan and worldly power, you have schemed well. Since you've already schemed, why say more."
Who was this person?
Chen Gui.
He stood beside Lord Changting, fighting shoulder to shoulder. Though his style was not as world-stunningly brilliant as the former's, he wasn't much weaker, possessing a flawless, battle-worn scholarly air.
So Chen Gui and Lord Changting were fighting together?
Toilet: "Then did we misunderstand him?"
Just as Toilet finished speaking, they saw three supreme experts of the Imperial Families and Yan Xi launch a combined attack instantly. With this joint attack, Chen Gui would be instantly killed – because even if the four of them joined forces, they didn't have an overwhelming advantage against Lord Changting, but it was a different story for Chen Gui.
It was said before that Chen Gui was not skilled in combat, and his cultivation talent was far inferior to Lord Changting and Kunlun. Therefore, if he was targeted by a combined attack, he would surely die!
So... Lord Changting protected him, shielding him from the blow.
At this moment, A'Diao's brow twitched; she had almost predicted it... Sure enough, in the next second, Chen Gui delivered a swift backstab.
Moreover, A'Diao could see that the dagger he used for the backstab was no ordinary item. It glowed emerald green, and a liquid seemed to flow within its blade. Logically, with Chen Gui's attack power, he shouldn't have been able to penetrate Lord Changting's defenses, but this dagger did – with a mysterious ability to ignore armor, it directly pierced Lord Changting's heart and released the liquid within the blade.
Damn, A'Diao and Toilet were stunned when they saw this. Isn't this sun-form material?
However, it wasn't venom, because the Primordial Era didn't seem to have the technological level for certain equipment. A'Diao's extraction of sun-form material was largely based on contemporary technology, but the liquid in Chen Gui's dagger was clearly infinitely compressed and liquefied sun-form material.
And there was also a perfect preservation technology for it.
This...
A'Diao suddenly realized that although the Primordial Era lacked modern technology, it possessed certain high-end, secret techniques – sun-form material was also used by these people.
But Chen Gui couldn't be redeemed; he truly acted like a dog who betrayed his brother.
Successfully backstabbed, Lord Changting's pupils trembled in disbelief... Boom!! Green flames began to burn from his chest.
Yan Xi and the other three attacked together again.
This time, Lord Changting's leg was broken. Bones exposed, he knelt on the ground, drenched in blood. He raised his head, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins, looking at the fleeing Chen Gui.
This Chen Gui, how cunning he was; he fled as soon as he succeeded.
He fled to the camp of the Imperial Family and others.
Everything was clear at a glance.
The Langya clansmen were infinitely shocked and tried to come to the rescue, but they were frantically slaughtered by the allied forces whose morale was greatly boosted...
In the sky and on the ground, corpses littered the fields.
Only one woman, with a gentle face and temperament, was about to fight her way to Lord Changting's side, but she was intercepted and even controlled.
Starting with her, most of the Langya clansmen were brought under control. The inner protective shield was broken, and the youngest children, women, and elders of the Langya Clan were dragged out.
These people were not directly killed.
In the middle of the sky, a man in a black and gold imperial robe and a crown, wearing a golden half-mask, had eyes as blue as the sea. He appeared gentle and refined, yet he held her by the neck in his embrace, and the words he spoke were exceedingly cruel.
"Langya Xuyu, your younger brother Lord Changting betrayed our human race to curry favor with a Celestial Clan goddess. As the acting clan leader, you should uphold righteousness, support the righteous path of our human race, and return the Langya Clan to our human race. How can you rebel like him?"
"I will give you one more chance. Lay down your weapons and surrender."
"I am willing to honor you as the Empress of my Tang Song Nation."
Who was this person?
A'Diao sensed immense royal authority and terrifying karmic luck from him.
The king of the Dantai clan, also the great monarch of Tang Song during the Primordial Era, and acclaimed as the strongest monarch of the Tang Song Empire after its founding emperor.
Could this person be Dantai Yunwu?
This person's reign as king lasted until the end of the Primordial Era, later recorded in historical annals as ending with his death.
But at this moment, he was powerful and alive.
From Yan Xi's perspective on the ground, A'Diao saw his rampant arrogance and cruelty in controlling everything.
Cruelty beneath a facade of hypocritical affection.
He wasn't giving Langya Xuyu a way out, but using her and all the Langya clansmen to pressure Lord Changting.
To make him open the Celestial Gate.
Langya Xuyu's pale face had a wound just below her eye. Blood seeped from it, flowing down her flawless skin, pooling on her delicate chin, like a teardrop.
She looked at the silent and taciturn Lord Changting.
Her younger brother, a shining gentleman of the world, always firm and unyielding, but at this moment, there was wavering and pain in his eyes.
Was it betrayal, or...
Langya Xuyu suddenly smiled. With this smile, her jade-like face rippled slightly, and the drop of blood fell.
The ways of the world...
Boom!!!
Langya Xuyu ignited her soul and self-detonated.
Brilliant radiance.
Starting with her, almost all Langya clansmen followed suit, even the children and elders silently joined in. It was like a kind of undeclared, collective fanaticism of the clan.
The deceased sang their burning song, the living sacrificed their souls.
This radiance burned into Lord Changting's eyes and also severely wounded many in the allied forces, including Dantai Yunwu, who was injured by Langya Xuyu's self-detonation.
Lord Changting's eyelashes seemed to tremble. Amidst the radiance of all his relatives' deaths, he propped himself up on his broken, exposed bones and stood.
From A'Diao's perspective, she saw this critically injured First Gentleman grip his longsword tightly.
He didn't say a word, maintaining an almost fanatical silence. Even though Chen Gui had betrayed him, he didn't question it, because everything was in his eyes at the moment he was backstabbed...
And his everything was on that blood-dripping sword.
"Kill him!"
"Kill!"
"Attack!!!"
Next, A'Diao saw this gentleman alone face countless experts in the sky and on the ground.
Dantai Yunwu's body was blasted apart, and Yan Xi's neck was snapped by him with one hand... beaten until his corpse and bones separated.
Brutal.
This was an extremely bloody battle, and also a lonely one.
Finally, in the dilapidated Guixu Ruins, only Lord Changting, with half a shoulder and half a head remaining, stood alone among many fallen corpses. In the final siege by the remaining experts, he was left with only one bleeding eye.
But he looked up, ignoring the overwhelming destructive attacks from the front, his gaze sparsely fixed on the sky.
That brilliant sky.
The boundless land.
His faith, he had never betrayed.
It was this world that had betrayed him.
After the destructive radiance.
Yan Xi and the others didn't die; they survived.
But Lord Changting was devoured by the radiance... turning into countless specks of ash.
A'Diao was stunned when she saw these ashes. Damn it, this is?
Before Yan Xi could even process this outcome, he was backstabbed by the three Imperial Families.
It was his turn to die.
"You promised to give me the Undead Celestial Lantern..."
"Fool!"
Before Yan Xi died, he also saw Chen Gui watching him coldly from not far away.
He realized that this series of plans was all related to Chen Gui, including using the Undead Celestial Lantern to lure him, who had always been hostile to the Imperial Families, into the besieging camp.
Heh!
In his mind, the image of a delicate and pretty woman holding flowers and smiling flashed for the last time.
A'Diao felt a tremor in her spiritual body and immediately retracted the soul-searching spiritual entity. She looked coldly at the fainted Yan Xi while digesting these memories.
As for Yan Xi's past affairs, she had little interest. If she had time, she could perhaps peek into the cultivation methods of the Primordial Era's Corpse Spirit King to win favor with her great-aunt.
How could this scoundrel of a man be as appealing as her beautiful and exceptionally intelligent great-aunt?
Toilet: "I originally thought you weren't interested in these past events, I didn't expect..."
A'Diao: "I'm not interested. What did you think?"
Toilet: "?"
A'Diao said calmly: "I only want to know information about the experts of the three Imperial Families, whether dead or alive, as well as their combat methods and strengths. However, there were some other unexpected surprises."
Damn!
Toilet finally understood A'Diao's purpose. Her foresight was quite long-term. To deal with the Imperial Families, she naturally had to prepare for the worst-case scenario, and the worst-case scenario was that all the experts from the Primordial Era would be revived, using the experts of the three Imperial Families who appeared in the Guixu Ruins as a database.
"What were the unexpected surprises?"
A'Diao narrowed her eyes and said thoughtfully: "There were two unexpected surprises. One is that Lord Changting might not be dead, at least not in the battle of the Guixu Ruins. The technique he used to turn into ashes involved two parts: one part is the Soul-Shifting Ash Technique from the 19th chapter of the 20 Fish Token Treatises, and the other part involves the Langya clansmen who self-detonated by burning their souls. They didn't self-immolate and self-detonate because they didn't want to become hostages, but rather to offer themselves as a sacrifice to Lord Changting."
If she hadn't mastered the contents of the Fish Token Treatises, she wouldn't have been able to see through it.
So at that time... there was pain in Lord Changting's eyes, but this pain wasn't because his clansmen had died heroically. It was because he had to live on. Even if abandoned by the world and condemned by all, his clansmen, the entire Langya Clan, still trusted him, hoping he would fight for his own beliefs, not yield to the ways of the world, and certainly not abandon his faith for their sake.
What kind of trust was this?
But Lord Changting endured it all, truly becoming the loneliest existence.
However, in the secret knowledge of some people, including Kunlun's, Lord Changting was recorded as having died in the battle of the Guixu Ruins. This meant Lord Changting had completely vanished afterward.
Either he later died in a battle against the Celestial Clan, or...?
Anyway, A'Diao's imagination ran wild about this.
Toilet was shocked and subconsciously asked: "Then what about the second unexpected surprise?"
A'Diao: "The Imperial Family or Chen Gui might possess accumulated resources of sun-form material from past eras."
Sun-form material is a result of the universe's rules and operations, a resource that even she, or any living being cultivated to the extreme, currently cannot seize. But time is precious. Every 'descent' encountered in the Primordial Era would leave behind vast resources of sun-form material, like the Orchid Abyss, for example...
Toilet: "Damn, right! If you get these sun-form material resources, then you... Whose hands do you think they're in? Anyway, it's impossible for both of them to share it."
Whether it was the cunning of the Imperial Family or the insidiousness of Chen Gui, they could cooperate to cause trouble, but they would never share such an extraordinary means.
"I don't know. I need to go back and rummage through the Chen family's old secrets first, see if Chen Gui left anything behind. This man was extremely insidious. If it was his doing, he definitely would have made arrangements. You know, he wasn't a nobody in the human world back then; he held high status and power, and had strong followers."
After A'Diao obtained this information, she woke Yan Xi up. When he woke, much of his hostility had subsided. He wasn't numb and still possessed his former demeanor, but A'Diao curled her lips into a smile.
"Kneel."
He lowered his proud head and knelt.
A'Diao looked at the person kneeling on the ground and suddenly thought: This is the allure of power. So she never criticized Chen Gui and these Imperial Families for their sordid pursuit of power; she would only disdain the success or failure, or the strength or weakness, of their methods.
Humans, driven by desire.
"From now on, you'll be called Xiao Xi."
"Xiao Xi, you go to Huaiguang and develop sneakily for now. Wait until your master has been thoroughly cursed out, then I'll bring you out to join the battle."
"Let the bullets fly for a while."
Yan Xi hadn't lost his memory or reason. He was still himself, just unable to disobey any of A'Diao's commands or harm her. But he could ponder her words.
Actually, she could act now, but she wouldn't.
The time was not yet right, and she also needed to punish these worldly people.
She, Chen A'Diao, never indulged others.
Anyone!
A'Diao left the planet. Her main body returned to the secret chamber in Lushan, brought some pastries for Kunlun, and asked for his help.
Kunlun looked at A'Diao, who had returned again.
How long had she been gone? She was back already...
Wasn't she just putting on an act before?
"What is it?"
"Help me fix up the secret chamber. Can't they be merged?"
A'Diao took out both secret chambers.
Kunlun frowned, "You can do it yourself."
"Aiya, to save time! I'm so tired from being outside, Old Ancestor~~~" She propped her cheeks with her hands. Her face, beautiful beyond human standards, faintly showed a trace of the Celestial Clan women's elegance she had glimpsed back then.
Kunlun ignored her: "Speak properly."
She didn't speak, but eagerly tugged at his sleeve, her eyes like stars shedding tears. What a fat panda, and quite shy too; he even managed to conjure up a black and white robe for himself.
Master Panda's refined temperament was perfectly captured.
Though still very cute.
But she could be cuter than him...
Kunlun looked very uncomfortable, as if extremely disgusted. He slapped the book in his hand onto her face, pulled back his sleeve, but took the two secret chambers to work on.
A'Diao took the book off her face, cunningly delighted. Just as she was about to happily sip her milk tea and binge-watch dramas, she was pulled by a force on her collar, dragged over, almost bumping into Master Panda, but stopped. In her surprise, to steady the milk tea in her hand, she subconsciously wrapped one arm around Master Panda's waist. No, pandas don't have waists; it's all flesh and fur.
At that moment, Kunlun was shocked, as if in disbelief: Treasonous, wicked grand-disciple, lecher!
A'Diao was also shocked: The skin I made back then wasn't this comfortable. He said he didn't like it, but he actually secretly improved this panda body, making it so perfectly fleshy?
Their eyes met, the atmosphere tense. In this suffocating atmosphere, A'Diao couldn't hold back; her paw couldn't resist a little caress...
It felt too good; she couldn't resist.
No woman could resist it, okay!
But this touch made Kunlun's body feel like it was on fire. He grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, lifted her to the side, and said coldly, "Insolent!"
From Langya Kunlun +50 stars!
A'Diao: "..."
Just this? I thought he would scold me. Why did he give me 50 stars of mental power instead?
He likes me even more than I estimated... Hehehe!
He has good taste.
Toilet: "..."
There was a reason it chose to bind with her. This woman was a siren, incredibly seductive.
Even the supremely ascetic Old Ancestor... It was simply outrageous.
However, with the old and young cooperating, the secret chamber was fixed in no time. A'Diao had to give up pursuing the matter and started cultivating with her milk tea.
After Kunlun went out, he looked at the drama series that had been opened but not played. He pondered for a moment, thinking to himself: She seems unrestrained and not focused on proper business, but in reality, she has a strong sense of urgency. Is she nervous because she discovered something? Otherwise, with her current status and strength, there's no need to work so hard.
She had grasped all the benefits of the Guixu Ruins, which meant Yan Xi was also under her control; otherwise, he wouldn't cooperate. Then it was also very likely she had invaded his memories and seen the slaughter at the Guixu Ruins back then.
I'm afraid many from the Imperial Family side survived the battle of the Guixu Ruins back then.
Did she also see Lord Changting's death?
Kunlun felt a little uneasy and wanted to ask her, but he gave up the idea.
Everyone has their own destiny.
Lord Changting adhered to his faith.
And I adhere to my own judgment.
They both had no designs on this world, but she was different.
The news in the world was indeed like boiling water. The internet was full of suspicion, which intensified due to A'Diao and Lushan Academy's silence. But the fuse was the continuous crushing defeats in the Huaiguang campaign.
The whereabouts of that demonic den were unknown, and the human race had no way to concentrate its forces for precise strikes. But Demonic Spirits emerged endlessly, constantly ambushing human forces everywhere, causing heavy casualties.
But A'Diao not only didn't explain the previous events, she also didn't even join the battle for the human race!
"Does it still need explanation?"
"This is irrefutable proof!"
Traitor!
Countless people cursed her as a traitor to the human race.
Even many who originally believed in her, when their own safety was involved, successively unfollowed her and turned from fans to critics.
Her number of fans plummeted by half and was still dropping rapidly.
The entire comment section was filled with abuse... Seeing this abuse made the people of Lushan Academy extremely uncomfortable. Some even wanted to argue online, but were stopped by Shen Huajing and others.
Why stop them?
It must be because these geniuses couldn't wait to see Chen A'Diao fall to this state, right?
On the Imperial Family's side, Dantai Sheng and the other person who were also participating in the Huaiguang campaign, felt that this was Lushan Academy's stance. The less they debated and the less they stated about how to deal with A'Diao, the more it showed a firm conviction. Moreover, they were certain that people like Handan Jidao would not side with the netizens.
Why?
Because of the dignity of the strong.
The strong are the strong, not saints or beasts of burden naturally born for the world.
They identified with their own factions and circles.
But ordinary people in this world mostly cared about immediate life-and-death interests, forgetting the past: the heroic deeds of this person they now frantically cursed, who had repeatedly turned the tide in crises on the frontiers and elsewhere.
Human memory can be worse than a fish's.
And did Chen A'Diao really betray Tang Song? Was she really the incarnation of a demon king?
Anyway, the current situation was fatal for Chen A'Diao, Lushan Academy, and even the Chen family. The foundation of public opinion had collapsed, and her karmic luck was weakening.
A'Diao ignored this matter. Her main body was in the secret chamber, cultivating frantically at 80 times the normal speed, while Toilet was also accelerating the fusion of new transcendent equipment. Meanwhile, one of her clones appeared invisibly at the Chen family residence.
The current Chen family... had closed its doors again.
It seemed that whenever there was turmoil, the Chen family's tradition was to close its doors. Anyway, no one could offend them here. A'Diao was a Royal Vassal. Because she hadn't established her own manor, the Chen family residence had long been designated as a Royal Vassal's Mansion, protected by royal laws, unless the Imperial Family stripped her of her title.
So, even though the Chen family was also being cursed to hell and back, and even Chen Yang had stopped going to school, probably afraid of being beaten to death, in the vast residence, were the Chen family members trembling with fear and resentful of A'Diao?
When A'Diao slipped into the Chen residence, being invisible, she wasn't afraid of being discovered. But as soon as she entered the main hall, she heard Chen Yang shout.
"This damn idiot, does she think I can't find her just because she's invisible?!"
A'Diao: "?"
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