Chapter 342: Forever My Brother

Xue Feng was an exceptional talent from Yuanchu Mountain. When I first joined, he was already renowned throughout the world.

In the World Gap, Meng Chuan had witnessed Xue Feng's talent and his affection for his younger brother, Yan Jin, which earned his deep admiration.

Such a powerful Godfiend, dead just like that?

"Demon Monarch," Meng Chuan muttered. His figure suddenly moved, approaching the yellow-robed man at a speed of fifteen miles per flash.

“Its strength is above King An Hai, perhaps even approaching King Zhen Wu,” many thoughts flashed through Meng Chuan's mind. “Beings of this caliber can unleash immense power within ten miles. King An Hai can attack from a hundred miles away, but the power of his moves is greatly reduced, and the sword light appearing from empty space is still avoidable with my movement technique.”

“King Zhen Wu's True Martial Domain allows him to unleash peak strength within five miles. Beyond five miles but within ten, the power is significantly diminished. If the distance is too great… the threat is very low. Clearly, his long-range attacks are inferior to King An Hai’s.”

“For dealing with this Demon Monarch, within ten miles is a forbidden zone.”

“I have a protective stone charm, so I can take a slight risk and maintain a twenty-mile distance, intentionally luring it.”

“If I can stall for some time, Yuanchu Mountain's reinforcements might arrive.”

This was the only immediate way Meng Chuan could think of to avenge Xue Feng.

"Hmm?"

After slaying Xue Feng with a single strike, the yellow-robed man's lips curled slightly. Then he noticed Meng Chuan approaching from afar.

“A mere Marquis Godfiend dares to provoke me, relying on his movement technique? Fine, this Meng Chuan is no less valuable than Xue Feng; I'll just kill him too,” the yellow-robed man thought, standing still and waiting for the right moment. “At a ten-mile range, one strike from me can unleash sixty percent of my power, which is enough to kill him.”

Meng Chuan deliberately maintained his speed of fifteen miles per flash. After two breaths of flight, he stopped in mid-air, twenty miles away from the yellow-robed man.

“Who are you?” Meng Chuan demanded coldly, standing in mid-air and looking at the yellow-robed man.

“He stopped at twenty miles?” The yellow-robed man frowned. His figure blurred and vanished with a single movement.

Meng Chuan's 'Thunder God Eye' opened in his brow, and his electromagnetic domain could perceive thirty miles. Waves of electromagnetic fluctuations swept in all directions, passing over the yellow-robed man and revealing his figure. The yellow-robed man was approaching Meng Chuan at extremely high speed.

“Hmm?” Meng Chuan feigned a tense expression and immediately retreated using his movement technique.

The yellow-robed man frowned. “What speed!” he muttered, then swung his blade.

The blade light transformed into a surging river, bringing an onslaught of death. Even from seventeen or eighteen miles away, Meng Chuan felt his physical body and primordial spirit become extremely uncomfortable, as if being 'dragged' into a world of death. However, he managed to withstand it.

His movement technique flashed, unpredictable.

The blade light swept past Meng Chuan several tens of feet away. Meng Chuan, meanwhile, continued his pretense, appearing to struggle against the aura of death.

“Ten breaths are up,”

the yellow-robed man calmly stated. “Go.”

Without hesitation, he plunged directly downwards, burrowing into the earth. Only a single voice echoed through the world: “Marquis Qingping, Xue Feng, is just the beginning.”

“He fled?” Meng Chuan wondered, remaining in mid-air as his electromagnetic domain scanned all directions. He dared not burrow into the earth himself.

“Underground, I would need to get within three miles to track him.”

“And within three miles, with its strength, one strike would kill me.” Meng Chuan had witnessed that previous strike; even from seventeen or eighteen miles away, it had shocked him. Within three miles? That would be suicidal. The protective stone charm… Yuanchu Mountain possessed only one such charm, and it hadn't been given to King Godfiends or anyone else, only to him.

He absolutely could not act recklessly.

Standing motionless in mid-air for several breaths, Meng Chuan turned his head and saw a shadowy streak of light flying from afar, moving at a speed of over twenty miles per flash.

“It's Venerable Li Guan's Primordial Spirit avatar,” Meng Chuan recognized at a glance. “A Primordial Spirit avatar, without the constraints of a physical body, is said to fly even faster.”

Pure energy like 'True Essence threads' could tear through the air at astonishing speeds, far surpassing Meng Chuan's movement technique.

A Primordial Spirit avatar, without a physical body, is faster than the main body, but its combat strength is inferior.

“The Demon Monarch left?” The shadowy figure flew to Meng Chuan's side and stopped. It was indeed Li Guan's Primordial Spirit avatar.

“He fled five breaths ago,” Meng Chuan replied.

“I used a treasure and arrived in just over ten breaths, but it was still too late,” Li Guan sighed softly. He had learned of Xue Feng's death via a token on his way there.

“That Demon Monarch was very cautious,” Meng Chuan explained. “I appeared to lure it, but it only attacked me once before burrowing away.” Meng Chuan pointed into the distance. “Xue Feng fell in battle there.”

Both flew to the location in the wilderness.

There was only a gully left by the blade light, with no trace of a body; nothing remained.

“Xue Feng had protective treasures, yet he couldn't hold out for even such a short time,” Li Guan sighed softly. “I will now attempt to peer into time and space. Do not disturb me.”

“Understood,” Meng Chuan nodded.

Li Guan stood there, his gaze profound, peering through time and space to observe what had happened in that brief period.

Scene after scene appeared.

He saw it.

He saw Xue Feng and the yellow-robed patriarch, one fleeing and one pursuing, emerge from underground. Xue Feng's protective treasure's power was completely depleted. At that moment, Meng Chuan appeared a hundred miles away to intentionally distract the enemy, but the yellow-robed patriarch still struck at Xue Feng with his blade…

“Whoosh.” “Whoosh.” Yan Jin and Lu Cheng also arrived, descending onto the spot.

From afar within the city, they had witnessed the battle and Xue Feng's demise at the hands of the yellow-robed man.

“Brother Xue didn't want to implicate us or the mortals in the city, so he fled with all his might to outside the city,” Lu Cheng said softly. Yan Jin, however, stared blankly at the gully left by the blade light.

“The culprit is Demon Saint Huang Yao,” Li Guan announced.

“Demon Saint Huang Yao?” Meng Chuan, Yan Jin, and Lu Cheng all committed the name to memory.

Lu Cheng pressed, “According to the intelligence scrolls issued by Yuanchu Mountain concerning Demon Saints, doesn't Patriarch Huang Yao have two horns and a body covered in black scales?”

“He concealed his demonic appearance in the human world, disguising himself as a human. While appearances can change, techniques cannot,” Venerable Li Guan explained. “He used the Nether River Blade Art. In the demon world, only ‘Patriarch Huang Yao’ can wield it to such a degree.”

Li Guan stood there, gazing at the gully.

It was utterly clean, with no remnants whatsoever.

“We can only establish a cenotaph for him,” Li Guan shook his head gently. “Over the past three years, with the Demon Monarchs attacking cities repeatedly, Marquis Qingping Xue Feng is already the sixth Marquis Godfiend to fall in battle.”

“I will temporarily guard Safeng City, and Yuanchu Mountain will soon make new arrangements for it.” Li Guan glanced at Lu Cheng and Yan Jin, then transformed into a streak of light and flew towards Safeng City.

Lu Cheng gently patted Yan Jin's shoulder and whispered, “Brother Yan, please accept my condolences. As we are tasked with guarding cities, each of us is prepared to die in battle. Brother Xue is a hero for dying in defense of the city.”

After speaking, he flew towards Safeng City.

None of them were children; there was no need for many words. Everyone had witnessed too much horror in the war so far.

Meng Chuan and Yan Jin both stood before the blade-light gully, silently commemorating Xue Feng.

“Yan Jin,” Meng Chuan said, looking at the gully before them. “Your brother is gone; there are some things you should know.”

Yan Jin looked at Meng Chuan.

“That ice lotus was obtained by your brother. He wanted to give it to you but was afraid you would refuse, so he asked me to deliver it and keep it a secret,” Meng Chuan explained. “Now that he's gone, I believe you should know everything he did for you.”

“Mmm,”

Yan Jin's eyes reddened slightly as he whispered, “He was my brother, and he will always be my brother. Being his younger brother was the fortune of my life.”

“He is a hero,” Meng Chuan said. “It is only because there are heroes like your brother in this world that we can resist the demon race and protect all living beings.”

Yan Jin looked at the gully and softly said, “What he didn't finish, I will continue to do.”

Meng Chuan nodded. “I'll be leaving now.”

He transformed into a bolt of lightning and departed.

He still needed to continue his underground search for Demon Monarchs to slay.

Only Yan Jin remained, standing silently and alone in the wilderness before the blade-light gully.