Chapter 291: Monarch not Emperor

Chapter 291: Monarch not Emperor

Monarch Soulfish still felt uneasy. Ever since Begonia Tower fell, his life had been full of hardship, but because of this, he developed an acute sense for danger. He had no proof that someone was eyeing him, just a sixth sense.

The sense of danger continued to follow him while he was on the Mortal Continent. ‘Could it be the Cultivator Alliance’s immortal sovereign?’

The only person Monarch Soulfish could think of who had the ability to tail him without him sensing anything was Emperor Ouroborus. However, why was he only tailing and not directly attacking?

Monarch Soulfish had broken into one of the thirteen zodiac cities and stolen precious materials. Spirit Nourishing Root, Soul Returning Leaf, Heartlift Pearl, Silver Crescent Nut, and many more. Each one was related to the soul, specifically healing or making up the deficiency of the soul.

For hundreds of years, Monarch Soulfish had not once forgotten his goal of reviving Chun. Even when he managed to grab the Soul Pagoda, he only saw it as an extension of means to resurrect his childhood friend.

With his mindset, it was a wonder that his obsession didn’t turn into an inner devil. But it was also perhaps of his single-minded pursuit that he was able to cultivate to his current level of strength.

Even after leaving the Mortal Continent, the sense of danger did not decrease; it only increased.

Monarch Soulfish suddenly stopped in his tracks above the water. He turned around and saw the empty expanse as if he was truly alone.

Suddenly, Monarch Soulfish’s body began to bloat like a balloon. Just like a balloon, his body soon reached a point where it could no longer be contained and burst. However, there was no explosion of blood and innards. Instead, tens of dolphin-like, red-colored fish burst forth. To be precise, they were the mature Redstar Spectral Fishes. Some swam through the clouds, and others dived into the water, but each one moved in a different direction.

Monarch Soulfish didn’t know if his tactics worked, but the sense of danger in his heart decreased. But that didn’t mean he could release his breath yet. Before returning to the Soul Pagoda, he used several techniques to hide his tracks and even made false ones like before, just in case.

He continuously delayed his return for over two months. Only after the mysterious sensation disappeared did Monarch Soulfish return to the last place he hid, the Soul Pagoda.

Monarch Soulfish hid the Soul Pagoda underwater and linked the spiritual veins to the immortal artifact. This increased the risk of discovery, but he only needed a little bit of the spiritual qi, so unless he were really unlucky, no one would notice the change in spiritual veins.

In addition, the water of the Endless Seas was the domain of monsters and demons. He had set up a formation to deceive the senses of monsters who didn’t even have the intelligence of a three-year-old.

As for demons, they all kept their heads low after the Human-Divine Beast War. If any of them discovered the Soul Pagoda, they would choose to avoid it, lest they suffer the siege of unending cultivators. Of course, Monarch Soulfish didn’t have any subordinates or a force behind him, but the demons didn’t necessarily know that.

Monarch Soulfish entered the Soul Pagoda and released the breath he had been holding. Without waiting, he immediately moved to the Soul Pool. Above the Soul Pool, a fish bowl-like artifact floated, and inside was the fuzzy soul of a girl, Chun.

He had been using the spiritual qi of the spiritual vein to nourish Chun’s fragmented soul. Normally, soul essence would be the best, but after being discovered and chased the first time he attempted to harvest souls, Monarch Soulfish had sought other methods.

It was not that he didn’t dare to, but it was too inefficient. Before, Begonia Tower had many disciples carrying out this task. If Monarch Soulfish wanted to gather souls, it would be too noticeable, and if he took care not to be discovered, then it would be too slow. In this way, he could only wait for wars to break out before harvesting, and even then, there was still a risk of discovery.

Without delay, Monarch Soulfish took out a cauldron and lit an eerie blue-colored flame underneath. Slowly, he dropped the materials he had stolen from the Cultivator Alliance. He didn’t have talent in alchemy, but at his current level of strength, he still mastered the basics.

Slowly, the essence of each material was extracted. With a wave of his hand, the essence flew into Chun’s soul, and the fuzziness diminished slightly.

Monarch Soulfish sighed. “It’s a pity. If only I had something to stabilize and nourish the soul. The best would be the Sovereign Nine Yin Lotus, but even a Three Essence Yin Lotus would be good.”

Unfortunately, those two treasures were rarer than qilin horns or phoenix feathers. The situation that resulted in their birth was very demanding, and not even the Buzhou Immortal Sect dared to claim the ability to cultivate these two wondrous treasures.

Without warning, the ground and walls began to shake. Monarch Soulfish immediately formed a hand seal to stabilize the Soul Pagoda.

“Who is it, who attacked the Soul Pagoda?” Monarch Soulfish immediately thought of the dangerous feeling he felt when returning. ‘Could it be him?’

The Soul Pagoda shook a few more times. He judged that the attacker’s strength barely reached the Seamless Immortal Realm. After a few seconds of deliberation, Monarch Soulfish left to see who had attacked him. He didn’t want to leave and abandon the spiritual vein unless he had to.

Outside, Monarch Soulfish saw the scene of a ninety-nine-meter-long dragon tackling the Soul Pagoda. The dragon had pitch-black scales darker than the deep sea, but it glowed with tiny lights like the night sky.

He hadn’t expected there to still be a dragon in the Huang Realm. The ones that lived in the Huang Realm had almost all left, killed, or subdued by the hegemonic sects.

“Stop, foolish demon!” Monarch Soulfish shouted using his immortal sense. He reached out, and a silver wave rushed towards the unknown black dragon.

The silver wave drowned the black dragon, and Monarch Soulfish squeezed his fist. A moment later, his expression changed as a dark light exploded, dispersing his soul attack. In the middle, the black dragon appeared once more.

He could see that the black dragon had gained a bit of wariness towards him. “Leave now, and I won’t pursue this matter. If you don’t, I’m afraid you won’t have a chance to once the others come.”

To Monarch Soulfish’s surprise, the black dragon started to chuckle. “Don’t try to trick me. Do you think I’m someone who knows nothing? What others, what comrades, you’re alone. Compared to me, if another cultivator comes, they’ll be more interested in that pagoda of yours, right?”

Hearing this, a dark look flashed across Monarch Soulfish’s face. He did not expect the true dragon to have such a grasp on him. Monarch Soulfish didn’t waste any more time and unleashed his domain technique.

The black dragon found himself trapped in a sea within a sea. The only difference was that when he looked around, he felt his senses lying to him like everything was an illusion. Without warning, he flinched as he felt something impact him. He roared, causing the surrounding waters to vibrate. However, that roar was cut short as something slammed into his bottom jaw, shutting him up. He didn’t have time to get angry as his body constantly twisted under the barrage of invisible attacks.

The invisible attacks were annoying, but the drowsiness constantly attacking him was even more so.

From Monarch Soulfish’s view, he could see his phantom fished-shaped soulbeasts barraging the dragon. Not only that, he was constantly influencing the dragon using soul attacks to draw him into an illusion, but with little success.

According to his analysis, the dragon possessed a tyrannical flesh that exceeded most cultivators, but his soul should not be so strong. The dragon’s comprehension should be around the level of an immortal lord that had yet to master a worldly law.

However, the worldly law that the dragon practiced was extremely dangerous and destructive, and Monarch Soulfish had no wish to test his body against it. But what made him puzzled was how the dragon prevented itself from falling into his technique.

Every time it seemed that the black dragon was about to fall into his illusion, the dragon always seemed to wake before he completely fell. Feeling the queerness of the dragon, Monarch Soulfish wanted to solve him and leave quickly. Dragons were creatures of yang, but their dragon core was primary yin, which was good nourishment for souls. At least, it would be far better than Chun’s current container.

As Monarch Soulfish prepared a killer move, his eyes widened, and he felt like he had been dumped into an ice bath. “Chun!”

He ignored everything and left his soul sea domain. He could no longer detect the Soul Pagoda, and it was only then he realized that someone had erected a spatial barrier separating his domain from the outside.

Ignoring the cost, Monarch Soulfish directly used the fastest and crudest method to shatter the spatial domain. Once outside, he saw the Soul Pagoda, but he still couldn’t sense it, akin to reaching for the moon in a lake’s reflection.

Monarch Soulfish zeroed in on the outsider, a man wearing black armored robes with white hair and a mask covering his face.

“Who are you?!”

“Did he sense me?” Tianyi asked no one in particular.

Monarch Soulfish suddenly used a technique and split into numerous horned red fishes. Even with Tianyi’s senses, it was challenging to catch Monarch Soulfish’s traces.

He didn’t want to make Monarch Soulfish even more suspicious, so Tianyi could only do his best to follow the real one. Actually, he failed, and he sent out his stellar incarnations. They didn’t have the same power as Tianyi, but their numbers were high. Thanks to his carpet search, he actually discovered a trace of Monarch Soulfish.

What Tianyi didn’t expect was for Monarch Soulfish to repeat his tricks again. If he hadn’t been lucky and prepared himself, Tianyi felt that he really would have lost Monarch Soulfish’s trace.

He waited until Monarch Soulfish entered the Soul Pagoda before taking action. He really wanted to kill Monarch Soulfish, but even if he did, so what? It was not like killing the Silent Lightning Timeline’s Monarch Soulfish would help him against his own timeline’s Emperor Soulfish.

Although Tianyi had to admit it would feel very satisfying.

His true goal was the Soul Pagoda. Even for the Buzhou Immortal Sect, the Soul Pagoda should be something coveted. He didn’t know how it compared to the three immortal palaces in the Vast Void outside of the Huang Realm, but it should at least have half the value. Who knows, maybe it will have the chance to become the fourth palace.

However, there was something puzzling Tianyi. Thanks to Emperor Soulfish’s action against Mengfei in his timeline, she lost an arm, so Tianyi memorized as much information about him as possible. Logically, Monarch Soulfish should have reached the Extremity Immortal Realm now, but according to his analysis, this wasn’t the case.

Unless he was pretending?

Tianyi didn’t have confidence, so he sent out Longhai Dongzi, who had yet to master the Law of Destruction, to attack the Soul Pagoda and force out Monarch Soulfish. Of course, he wasn’t going to sacrifice Donghai Longzi. He had his Past Incarnation hide inside Donghai Longzi in case anything happened.

Thanks to this, his Past Incarnation was able to prevent Donghai Longzi from falling into the illusion. During this time, Tianyi went to work. He didn’t dare to make too big of a move unless he made Monarch Souflish realize something was wrong.

Thankfully, Tianyi always had excess energy and qi. Things that took a lot of time that could be solved with brute strength were not a problem with Tianyi. After making sure everything was ready, he directly sealed the space containing the Soul Pagoda into another layer of space, cutting off Monarch Soulfish’s connection.

Monarch Soulfish directly exited his soul sea domain, and Tianyi took this chance to transfer his clone back into the Nine Heavens Universe. Monarch Soulfish directly used his most powerful move and attacked Tianyi. A giant whale-like fish over a thousand meters wide appeared. It opened its maw and swallowed Tianyi.

Tianyi could sense something was trying to drag him into an illusion. If it were anyone else, they would have to fight the suppression of Monarch Soulfish’s attack and resist the illusion, but Tianyi’s flesh was too powerful. And his connection with his inner universe directly prevented most illusions.

His will was powerful to control a whole universe. Unless Monarch Soulfish reached the realm of divinity, Tianyi didn’t think he would fall into an illusion.

Tianyi used Stellar Silence and directly exploded the phantom whale. As a result, Monarch Soulfish spat out a mouthful of blood. This puzzled Tianyi. ‘Is he really only in the Seamless Immortal Realm? just what is different in this timeline and mine that resulted in him reaching the Extremity Immortal Realm?’

He decided to use his stellar incarnations to suicide bomb Monarch Soulfish to buy time in case Monarch Soulfish was pretending. Tianyi shifted his position to the same space as the Soul Pagoda and used his powerful immortal sense to refine the immortal artifact.

Even if Monarch Soulfish really reached the Extremity Immortal Realm, Tianyi had the confidence to escape. Even if he couldn’t, couldn’t he hide in his inner universe and wait out?

While continuously sending stellar incarnations, Tianyi started to refine the Soul Pagoda. However, when he erased Monarch Soulfish’s immortal sense, a powerful willpower rejected Tianyi. Not only that, the Soul Pagoda exuded a powerful aura that shattered Tianyi’s spatial technique and brought it back into the Huang Realm.

“Fuck,” Tianyi cursed. ‘Does Monarch Souflish also have an elder behind him like Lei Jingye?! Damn it.’

The space above the vortex twisted, and an elder with begonia patterns on his red robes appeared.

“Tower Lord?!” Monarch Soulfish cried out in surprise.