Chapter 1836: Threatening the Gourd

"My Imperial Palace..."

Looking at the palace, which had turned into ruins in the blink of an eye, Spirit Emperor Chen could no longer hold back and spat out a mouthful of blood.

This was a place his ancestors had spent countless efforts to build and establish, and now it had just... exploded. Who can tell me what happened?

"Spirit Emperor..."

Two Ancient Sages, who had previously been fighting Ancient Sage Mo Ling, flew over. One of them, pale-faced, said, "That fellow His Majesty mentioned just now, the one called Zhang Xuan, re-established thousands of formation flags here... And then, the grand formation within the palace was co-opted... Was this explosion also his doing?"

"Re-established the formation?" Spirit Emperor Chen reeled.

The entire Spirit Emperor Palace was layered and intricate, involving tens of thousands of runes and hundreds of formations of varying sizes. It was precisely this reliance that allowed it to withstand Emperor Chen Yong and other experts. Now, with its direct destruction, he was exposed, naked before everyone, without any protection... Coupled with his severe injuries, if Emperor Chen Yong were to truly return, wouldn't he be completely at his mercy?

"Immediately bring all the treasures identified by the appraisers!" His gaze turned cold, and Spirit Emperor Chen gritted his teeth.

"Your Majesty, the exact value of those treasures hasn't been determined yet..." The pale-faced Ancient Sage's eyes were filled with anxiety.

With a wave of his hand, Spirit Emperor Chen said, "There's no time to determine it! By the time they appraise them, I might already be dead!"

"But... Your Majesty should know the rules. If the measurement is inaccurate, I fear it won't just fail to heal your injuries, but will also aggravate them..."

"Stop talking nonsense, bring them all here immediately! There's no time left! It's life or death, this is our only chance!" Spirit Emperor Chen roared.

With the dragon's blood snatched away, he could only resort to risky measures now. Otherwise... it was genuinely unclear whether he could hold onto the fruits of his hard-won victory. The five Ancient Sages in the sky seemed to have agreed to his terms and formed an alliance with him, but if he were truly too weak to resist... they would very likely be the first to devour him!

"Yes..." Seeing His Majesty's stubborn insistence, the pale-faced Ancient Sage hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded. With a flicker of his body, he flew down.

"I will not lose..." A fierce expression flashed across his face as Spirit Emperor Chen clenched his fists.

An unknown distance from the Imperial City, space rippled, and a crack appeared. Immediately, Zhang Xuan tumbled out of it, landing heavily on the ground.

"Hall Master..."

A wisp of witch soul floated beside him. It looked around, found that it had actually escaped, and its face filled with disbelief. It then looked at the young man on the ground, filled with admiration. Despite only being at the Great Perfection of the Undying Realm, he had escaped from so many Ancient Sages and caused such an upheaval... Only he could have done that.

"Where is your physical body?" Zhang Xuan looked over.

"What a witch soul fears most is its physical body being ambushed. So, I specifically created a small space that can fly with my soul..." Ancient Sage Mo Ling chuckled.

Only then did Zhang Xuan notice that on his finger was a ring condensed from soul energy. With a mental command, the physical body appeared before him, and Ancient Sage Mo Ling's witch soul flickered lightly and entered it.

"Impressive..." Zhang Xuan's eyes lit up. With this method, there was indeed no need to worry about the physical body. Especially his own; if he wasn't careful, it would run off to fight others. With this item, it would immediately be much safer.

"This is the Fire Feather Battlefield, already tens of millions of kilometers from the Imperial City. They shouldn't be able to catch up... Hall Master, what do we do now?"

He and Spirit Emperor Chen had completely fallen out, making it impossible to return. He could only follow the Hall Master and await instructions.

"Don't worry. Take a moment to recover your strength, then we'll make a plan!" Zhang Xuan waved his hand.

Just now, setting up the formations and then activating the entire grand formation of the Spirit Emperor Palace had been extremely draining. Most importantly... with the danger averted, he had to have a talk with that idiotic Gourd. Otherwise, no one could stand it constantly popping out and causing such shocks!

"That's true!" As Zhang Xuan said this, Ancient Sage Mo Ling also felt exhausted. He set up a restriction around them, then sat down to recover his depleted soul energy.

Seeing him cultivate, Zhang Xuan put the Tome of Heaven's Path back into the Library, along with the numerous Ancient Sage corpses into his ring, and began to cultivate himself. The Spring and Autumn Grand Canon within the Library provided ten times the cultivation speed. A few minutes later, his spirit, energy, and essence were fully restored.

With a frown, his consciousness entered his Dantian. At this moment, the gourd was still lounging inside, exceptionally comfortable, with no intention of leaving whatsoever.

Seeing the gourd like this, Zhang Xuan was furious. "Spit out the dragon's blood now!"

Although the gourd had snatched the dragon's blood from Spirit Emperor Chen, it was useless to him! If it could be consumed by the Dragonbone Divine Spear, why would he need to escape? He could have fought his way through the Spirit Emperor Palace, and Spirit Emperor Chen himself could very well have been impaled with a single spear thrust.

"Don't get agitated... Your Dantian has pure true qi; it's quite comfortable here. I'll leave once I've digested the dragon's blood..." The gourd wiggled.

"Get out of here right now! When I gave you the Sky-Stepping Stone, I told you not to enter my Dantian again. Are you trying to go back on your word now?" Zhang Xuan was so angry he felt like he would explode. *This is my Dantian, and you're squatting in it... Where's your shame? How did I, a person of such principles, end up with a shameless treasure like you?*

"Fine, I'll go out, little Gourd-y here always keeps his word..." Seeing Zhang Xuan's anger, the gourd grumbled, then flew out of the Dantian.

"Where's the dragon's blood?" Zhang Xuan sighed in relief, then gritted his teeth. "Spit it out, now!"

The gourd shamelessly declared, "I've already refined it!"

"Refined? You just said you'd leave once you'd refined the dragon's blood..."

"Well... I haven't fully refined it, but I've refined part of it. Besides, I swallowed it, so of course it's mine..." The gourd said self-righteously.

"No matter how much you've refined, spit out the rest quickly for the Dragonbone Divine Spear, or don't blame me for getting serious..." Zhang Xuan scoffed.

"I snatched it, so it's mine! How can you threaten me like this? Don't you have any conscience? I'm just a plant..." The gourd wiggled, then suddenly became serious. "I think you're right. Dragon's blood isn't really that useful to me; I just found it annoying and wanted to eat it... I'll spit it out now... See, can you put the knife away now?"

Zhang Xuan snorted, putting away his Demonic Black Saber. *You're asking for trouble. One more word, and I'll split you into a gourd half, believe me.*

Looking rather abashed, the gourd wiggled, and a drop of blood appeared before them. Indeed, just as the gourd had said, a large portion had already been devoured; less than even a fifth of its original amount remained. *A gourd, instead of just lying there, even swallowed dragon's blood... It's truly inhumane!*

Although only a fifth remained, it still exuded a powerful pressure due to its advancement under Spirit Emperor Chen's sacrifice. Zhang Xuan's palm flickered, and the Dragonbone Divine Spear flew out.

"Quickly consume it and see if you can use this opportunity to break the seal!" While it was a small amount, it was better than nothing.