Chapter 488: Desperate

No matter how much blood essence Ye Chen used, he couldn’t regrow his hand. His right arm remained a stump. His thoughts flashed toward the moment he was injured. Before he cut off his arm, the black ray had already disintegrated his entire hand, and it was crawling up his wrist before he cut it off.

Was it related to the black ray?

Ye Chen halted his recovering actions and sealed the vial. He diagnosed his body, but he couldn’t find any traces of the black ray that struck him, no matter how hard he tried. By all accounts, he should have nothing stopping him from regrowing his hand.

‘Unless my soul was injured?’ Ye Chen forced his expression to remain neutral, even if no one was looking at him, but he still couldn’t stop his face from paling. If it really was a soul injury, then it would become a problem. Unless Ye Chen solved the soul injury, he would not be able to heal himself.

He diagnosed his soul, and afterward, sweat coated his back. Ye Chen hadn’t noticed until now, but his soul was also missing its right hand. The dragon king’s attack was a material and a soul attack. The more terrifying nature was that the soul aspect was incredibly secretive. Unless one actively searched, they wouldn’t notice the soul injury.

Of course, it could because the soul injury wasn’t that major, but it didn’t make it any less terrifying.

Ye Chen exited his chamber and arrived at the Merit Exchange Hall. Here, he could exchange his military merits for items, resources, and artifacts. He had his eyes on an emperor-level artifact, but that could wait. He used most of his military merits to exchange for true dragon blood essence, so Ye Chen could only exchange for a monarch-rank soul recovery pill.

After returning to his assigned chambers, Ye Chen immediately ingested the soul recovery pill. A cool sensation filled his soul, and he let out a sigh of relief he didn’t know he was holding. He could feel a phantom pain, one that resembled a freeze burn in his right stump.

He closed his eyes and focused all the pill’s effect into the right arm of his soul. The burning sensation intensified. It ended forty days later, but Ye Chen’s expression was dark. His soul only had a tenth of its hand regrown.

Ye Chen sighed. He didn’t have enough military merit to exchange for an emperor-rank soul recovery pill. Nor could he afford nine more monarch-rank soul recovery pills. He had to accumulate more military merit, which meant returning to battle.

There was some regret in Ye Chen’s eyes. If he was in the Seamless Immortal Realm, how could a demon emperor harm his soul so easily? Even if he was an immortal lord, he was ultimately not an immortal monarch, and did not have the pure power or defenses of one. He couldn’t even become an immortal monarch now. If he really became an immortal monarch, his soul would never recover and he would remain disfigured forever.

No, Ye Chen discarded his regret. He remembered his original purpose. He would master the Law of Spacetime and embarked on a perilous but invincible path. His name would forever be engraved into everyone’s mind.

Ye Chen signed up for another battle. His right arm could no longer hold a sword, but he still had the combat power of an immortal monarch with his left hand.

The war between the Demon Clans and the humans was heating up, so it didn’t take long for him to join the next battle. Ye Chen stood among the center with eight immortal monarchs, surrounded by over four hundred true immortals. He wasn’t the only other true immortal in the center. There stood another.

Her name was Hu Landie.

Ye Chen noticed her at first glance. He could feel the temporal fluctuations around her, but he was sure that she had not mastered the Law of Time like himself. Still, she exuded a unique temperament, one that seemed detached from all things.

He couldn’t help but wonder how such a person would get married. Ye Chen glanced toward Hu Landie’s husband, Ba Shifang. He sneered inwardly.

Word of Ba Shifang’s status as Xi Tianyi’s clone had already spread to the Numinous Sword Sect. What did Xi Tianyi mean by letting his clone marry Hu Landie? And people called him loyal for only having Jiang Daoyi as his wife. What a farce. What difference did it make if Hu Landie was Ba Shifang’s wife or Xi Tianyi’s wife? How hypocritical.

In Ye Chen’s eyes, Xi Tianyi must have used force. Otherwise, why would someone as detached as Hu Landie marry a mere clone?

Hu Landie seemed to have sensed his gaze and looked toward him. The two shared a glance, and Ye Chen nodded. Hu Landie reciprocated.

Soon, Ye Chen felt another gaze. He looked slightly left to see Ba Shifang looking at him with wariness. He could feel the powerful qi submerged below Ba Shifang’s skin. No wonder others praised him so much as a junior emperor. Still, Ye Chen had the confidence to surpass Ba Shifang once he stepped into the Seamless Immortal Realm.

According to Ye Chen’s information, Ba Shifang was the most skilled in the Law of Fire, the Law of Water, the Law of Earth, the Law of Wood, the Law of Metal, and the Law of Lightning. He must have mastered one of those six laws and stepped into the Seamless Immortal Realm. Because he dabbled in the other elemental laws, he immediately became a fifth-step monarch in a short time.

However, how could those six wordly laws compare to the Law of Spacetime? Ye Chen had the confidence to become comparable to an immortal emperor immediately after stepping into the Seamless Immortal Realm.

Their gaze did not intersect for long, and Ba Shifang clapped his hands, drawing everyone’s attention. A force of over ten monarch-level combatants was nothing to scoff at. Except for the first battle and the siege on Shangri-La, this was the most powerful squad ever gathered.

“All of you should know the purpose of this operation,” Ba Shifang said. Although he was one of the youngest, if not the youngest, one present, none of them dared to take him lightly. “Our goal is to capture a high-rank realm, and not just any high rank realm, but one of the more powerful ones.”

“I won’t lie to you. There will be at least three demon kings guarding the realm, and reinforcement will arrive fast. A demon emperor might arrive, but you don’t have to worry,” Ba Shifang said, his eyes exuding confidence. “I will block the demon emperor if one arrives. Our goal is to capture the high-rank realm as soon as possible and seal it off, so that the Demon Clan cannot enter.”

“Once we have successfully sealed it off, we will eliminate all the demons there, and then,” Ba Shifang smiled. “Well, it’s a surprise. Because of confidentiality, I’m afraid I can’t tell you.”

Ye Chen pursed his brows. He wasn’t the only one, as monarchs from both the Immortal Court and the Numinous Sword Sect sent questioning gazes. Ye Chen wanted to ask, but figured it was better to let others be the spearhead.

“If you cannot accept this, you can forfeit this mission with no repercussions. I’ll just find new teammates, but until then, you can’t leave Shangri-La,” Ba Shifang said.

“You can’t do this,” a monarch from the Numinous Sword Sect said. Although the monarchs from the Immortal Court didn’t say anything, they obviously agreed with the speaker’s words.

Ba Shifang shrugged. “If you don’t agree, ask your superiors. See what the emperors say. After all, they are in on it, too.”

The monarchs didn’t take any visible actions, but each of them secretly contacted the emperor behind them. Ye Chen was no different. When he regained his talent, an emperor took a fancy to him. Although the emperor didn’t accept him as a disciple, he became part of the emperor’s faction.

All the replies they received amounted to “cooperate with the Realm Link Monarch.”

Even if they were unwilling, what could they do? The top brass obviously knew the goal of the operation. What other opinions could they have? They could only obey Ba Shifang’s orders.

Ba Shifang took out a pearl that exuded five colors. “Everyone, I’m going to have to ask you to enter my Five Planet Pearl until we arrive at the high-rank realm.”

Ye Chen’s eyes zeroed in on the seemingly harmless pearl. His gaze became hot as he guessed what the pearl was. Not just him, but even the other monarchs showed envy.

“Is that a realm artifact?” a monarch asked.

Ba Shifang didn’t hide anything and nodded. “I was allowed to borrow it for the duration of this mission.”

All the monarchs and even knowledgeable true immortals felt envy. A realm artifact was available for exchange, but the amount of military merit was impossible to accumulate. The only way they could gather the necessary amount was to kill this generation’s Four Divine Beasts. Even then, the realm artifact bestowed would only be a pseudo realm artifact.

The sword monarchs weren’t really willing to enter. After all, entering meant putting themselves at Ba Shifang’s mercy, but they had orders from above. So they could only pinch their noses and obey. At the very least, they had confidence that the Immortal Court wouldn’t backstab them with so many people present. If they did, they had no way of covering it up.

Ba Shifang didn’t care about their thoughts and left Shangri-La. Once he neared the front lines, he took out a translucent scarf. He wrapped the surrounding scarf, and the scarf took on the texture of the void, making him disappear.

Of course, even with the scarf, Ba Shifang had to travel through the weak points of the barriers to make sure his concealment wasn’t noticed or destroyed. Thankfully, they had an insider providing information regarding most of the barrier’s weak points.

Ba Shifang arrived in less than a week. He had no choice. There are no eternal secrets in the world. Although the Immortal Court and Numinous Sword Sect did its best to prevent any leaks, it didn’t mean that the Demon Clan wouldn’t sense anything.

Once he arrived, Ba Shifang told the immortals inside the Five Planet Pearl to prepare themselves. He raised his palm and a massive amount of qi condensed in it. Because he condensed qi into Yu, all the qi he used contained the energy of five elements, shortening the time he needed to prepare some techniques.

A miniature black hole appeared in his palm. Five miniature planets revolved around it. It appeared similar to Tianyi’s Constellation Cessation, but it was created using different principles, ones that suited himself more.

He flicked one of the miniature planets toward the high-rank plane. The miniature planet enlarged itself and reflected the light of the solar star, making it resemble a moon. Not long later, several demon lords and a demon king flew out of the high-rank realm.

“Human, how dare you trespass here!” the demon king shouted.

Ba Shifang didn’t care. He flicked the other four miniature planets toward the high-rank realm. Their momentum resembled the meteorite that ended the era of dinosaurs. The demons trembled when they saw the colossal size of five miniature planets, but they did not yield.

The demons used all sorts of spells to attack the five planets. Their intuition told them that if they got close to it, it would spell their dooms. The demons’ spells all landed on the planets. Even if the spell’s trajectory would graze the planets, the gravity would suck it toward the planet.

Suddenly, the planets expanded ten times, and their gravity increased a hundredfold. The demon lords wanted to fly away, but the gravity latched onto them and wouldn’t release them. They could only watch in fear as their body inched closer to the planet, little by little.

The only one unaffected was the demon king, but before he could do anything, Ba Shifang threw the miniature black hole in his palm. The five planets’ gravity increased further, and even the demon king could not move freely. As the first one to check out the situation, the demon king’s strongest ability was in defense, not speed.

So, no matter what he did, the gravity pulled him further away from the high-rank realm. He felt his body twist and distort as he neared the black hole. The black hole remained the same size, but the demon king felt his body become a noodle as the world around him slowed down.

The five planets that seemed intent on crashing into the realm halted and drew closer to the black hole. As they neared, they broke down, along with the demons trapped in them, and contributed to the black hole’s growing mass. When the black hole reached its peak size and the planets disappeared, tranquility returned to the void. Seconds later, the back hole disintegrated into dust.

The eight monarchs and over four hundred true immortals, who had been released by Ba Shifang, charged into the high-rank realm.

However, the one that broke in first wasn’t an immortal monarch, but Ye Chen. With eyes tinted in madness and his face pale, Ye Chen acted as if he did not have long to live.

When he broke through the realm, his eyes zeroed in on two demon kings in the sky. He roared and charged at them with his sword unsheathed. But before he could reach them, the space around him froze, as if the world was targeting him.

“Realmlord?!”