Sovereign of the Three Realms

If had been a direct confrontation, spirit qi would've flown out in every direction at the scene if Chu Xinghan’s blow had been directly cancelled out. Any life within several hundred meters would've been affected, with likely nothing remaining alive.

However, for this bout of strength to so effortlessly swallow Chu Xinghan’s blow without raising a single ripple, it was truly too frightening. It was like throwing a huge stone and having it disappear into thin air.

Even if a huge stone was thrown into the water, it would still create a few splashes and give rise to a few ripples.

However, this blow hadn't even kicked up a splash.

What did this mean? This meant that this abruptly interfering person was at least ten times stronger than Chu Xinghan!

Chu Xinghan had started training since he was eight and had met countless rivals and killed countless experts. On his path of training, he had met many strong opponents.

However, Chu Xinghan had never experienced such an overwhelming power even from his honored master Shuiyue. He even suspected that this power didn’t come from one of the sects in the alliance of the sixteen kingdoms.

Jiang Chen’s shock wasn’t any less than that of Chu Xinghan’s.

He was prepared to go down fighting just now, but who would’ve thought that this sudden development would cause the battle to yet again go in a different direction?

“Disciple of the Purple Sun Sect is it? All of you can go back now. Jiang Chen is under my protection.”

A stately voice traveled out through the air. It seemed to be a bit aged and old, and brought with it an undefiable sense of oppression, making listeners have no choice but to obey what it said.

“Senior… who might you be?” Chu Xinghan wasn’t an impetuous sort, as he cupped his hands, made the greeting of a junior to a senior, and asked respectfully.

“You don’t need to ask about my name.”

The stately voice seemed a bit unamused, “Go back and tell both Immortal Zixu and Shuiyue of the Purple Sun Sect that the grudge between Jiang Chen and Long Juxue will be settled by the two of them only. If anyone from the Purple Sun Sect makes a move against Jiang Chen, I wouldn’t mind going for a stroll into the Purple Sun Sect one day.”

Chu Xinghan was someone who knew when to advance and when to retreat. He knew that this great power wasn’t someone that he could contend against at all. He nodded, “Many thanks to our senior for not bothering with us juniors. I will be sure to convey senior’s words verbatim when I return.”

Submitting docilely and honestly in the face of absolute power was the only way. Chu Xinghan wasn’t foolish, he knew that the senior expert was letting him go because the senior couldn’t be bothered in dirtying his hands.

If he didn’t know when to stop and talked back offensively, the senior may destroy him with one finger.

In addition, to be honest, Chu Xinghan didn’t feel any regret in resolving the matter this way, nor did he feel humiliated. Submitting before a stronger person was adapting his actions to the time.

Besides, his own intentions also didn’t really want to kill Jiang Chen.

After all, the feud between Jiang Chen and Long Juxue had nothing to do with him. If he hadn’t been here on the orders of his master, he wouldn’t have even wanted to get involved.

Chu Xinghan’s thoughts were different to those of Yu Jie’s.

Yu Jie had wanted to curry favor with Long Juxue and lay the groundwork for fawning over the genius Long Juxue.

Chu Xinghan was a genius and had the reservation and pride of one. He felt that it was beneath his dignity to curry favor with Long Juxue. Even if she did rise to greater heights with future accomplishments, Chu Xinghan’s personality wasn’t one that would spur him to curry favor with others.

“Junior sister Long, your foolish brother has tried his best in the matters of today.” Chu Xinghan said to Long Juxue as he returned to the ground.

Although Long Juxue felt that it was a pity, she also knew that Chu Xinghan had truly tried his best, given this situation. Who would’ve thought that an unparalleled expert would suddenly appear out of nowhere?

She was a smart person and knew that the only reason that they could leave this place alive was because the mysterious expert valued his status and didn’t wish to bully the weak.

Otherwise, he could kill the three of them as easily as blowing away dust.

Although Yu Jie was a bit unreconciled with this conclusion, he didn’t dare say anything else. He knew even more so than Long Juxue how frighteningly powerful a person who could easily dispel one of senior brother Chu Xinghan’s full strength blow was.

“Let’s go!” Chu Xinghan said lowly as he didn’t dare tarry. He took Long Juxue with him and pushed off with his feet. A cloud of blue frost rippled out like a blue lotus as they flew into the sky and vanished into thin air.

Jiang Chen watched Chu Xinghan and the others leave. Although not resigned to this conclusion, he didn’t say anything.

All sorts of bizarre turns had suffused the events of today. This battle hadn’t been one of Jiang Chen’s accomplishments either. He naturally knew that he didn’t have the ability to make Chu Xinghan leave Long Juxue behind.

In addition, Jiang Chen was someone with moral integrity. He would be inviting insult if he wanted Long Juxue to stay at this moment. He would kill Long Juxue, but not by swaggering about with borrowed influence.

Sighing lightly, he cupped his hands and called out. “May I know senior’s honored name? Jiang Chen will never forget the aid rendered today. Will the senior please leave your name behind? I hope to compensate you should the opportunity presents itself in the future.”

However, Jiang Chen also knew that in the eyes of this kind of expert, the kind of compensation that he could offer as an ordinary practitioner probably had no allure whatsoever.

But Jiang Chen’s words came from his heart and he felt that he had both the potential and foundation to do so.

“Compensation?” The voice in the air chuckled. “Alright Jiang Chen, this old fellow will remember your words from today. I hope there will be a day that you can offer me some compensation.”

After these words had been said, the voice began to roll far away like thunder, vanishing in the distance.

“Honored senior, please hold your steps!” Jiang Chen wanted to say some more words.

But silence greeted him. There were no more responses.

Jiang Chen hadn’t even seen his savior’s face in the midst of all of this. He laughed wryly as he looked at the ravaged landscape with bodies strewn everywhere, sighing lightly in his heart.

Below the Second Crossing, the million strong army was still crouched on the ground. No one had dared moved a single finger until now. Even when just the effects of the great battle had spread to them, it still caused people to die in great swathes. Thus, no one had dared scream or moan in agony.

Jiang Chen felt worn out. He also felt extremely regretful that the head of this evil, Long Juxue, hadn’t been killed. He looked at the great army again. They were all just along for the ride.

Jiang Chen naturally didn’t have the heart to start a slaughter again.

Although Long Juxue hadn’t died, the Soaring Dragon household was basically annihilated. The task of cleaning up the rest of this mess could be returned to the Eastern clan for their attentions.

Back at the Second Crossing, everyone surrounded Jiang Chen and peppered him with questions.

Jiang Chen had suffered in torment throughout his battle, but so had those standing on top of the mountain pass.

Jiang Chen spread out his hands. “The people of the Purple Sun Sect will likely be afraid to create more trouble. The only pity is that Long Juxue got away and will be a source of trouble in the future.”

He waved at Princess Gouyu. “Your Eastern clan should be able to handle the task of cleaning up the aftermath by yourselves?”

Jiang Chen didn’t have the slightest interest in the struggle for power between the royal family and the Long family. He hadn’t gone against the Duke of Soaring Dragon because he supported the royal family, but rather because the Long family had gone too far in bullying others and wanted to end his Jiang family multiple times.

The battle of the Second Crossing had ended in the destruction of the Long family and the Jiang family’s rise to fame.

However, the chaos of the Eastern Kingdom wouldn’t be over as quickly. It was good thing that there was still Princess Gouyu and Eastern Lin as Crown Prince, so that the bloodlines of the royal family hadn’t ended.

Princess Gouyu employed various methods afterwards to gather the armies of the dukes loyal to the royal family and exterminated the remnants of the Long family with swift and ruthless action.

Executing the heads, killing accomplices.

All the dukes that had been coerced by Long Zhaofeng wouldn’t be prosecuted.

These were the rules set by Princess Gouyu.

She also clearly knew that if the fallout was too widespread, the chaos within the kingdom wouldn’t end. Killing a few leaders, exterminating the Soaring Dragon manor, and revitalizing the authority of the royal family would do.

The current Eastern Kingdom couldn’t afford anymore losses.

But of course, this process couldn’t be concluded within a few days.

The Jiang family remained neutral throughout all of this and didn’t participate.

The royal family actually placed the Duke of Jinshan and the Duke of Hubing, people who’d always been friendly with the Jiang family, into important positions at this time, making them the two powers that the royal family depended most heavily on in the rise of royal power again.

As for the Jiang family, whether Jiang Feng, the Duke of Jiang Han or Jiang Chen, who had shown extraordinary talents in the battle of the Second Crossing, they all kept an uncommonly low profile. They remained within the River Wave City, not venturing out of the house and stayed home all day.

At the battle of the Second Crossing, Jiang Chen had managed to retreat relatively unscathed after a few developments, but he felt deeply ashamed inside.

Although he hadn’t submitted or compromised in front of Chu Xinghan, the feeling of not being in control of his own destiny and having his life and death being decided by others made Jiang Chen feel quite angry.

Back in the Jiang Han territory, the first thing that Jiang Chen did was to personally train the Goldwing Swordbirds and pass onto them the mysteries of the “Eight Trigrams Assimilation Formation.”

He also knew full well that to suddenly improve his strength by leaps and bounds within a short period of time was unrealistic.

But expectations could be held for the dao of formations. If several hundred Goldwing Swordbirds could comprehend seventy to eighty percent of the “Eight Trigrams Assimilation Formation”, then they would become a great force to be reckoned with.

In addition, the variations of the “Eight Trigrams Assimilation Formation” were numerous. It could also be broken into countless smaller formations, reassembled into mid-sized formations, and reformed once again into a large formation.

The changes between large, middle, and small were at one’s will and desire. Once seventy to eighty percent of the essence of the formation had been grasped, the power of the formation would be eye-opening.

At the very least, he wouldn’t be at a loss when he met someone on the level of Chu Xinghan again.

Apart from Jiang Chen, all the others were making valiant efforts after experiencing disgrace. Jiang Chen’s eight personal guards had felt the shame of how a subject should die for his liege when his liege experienced humiliation.

Every person put forth their greatest effort as they trained without a thought for themselves.

Two months passed silently by. Jiang Chen’s level of training saw even greater progress as he took another step forward and made it to eleven meridians true qi.

As was common knowledge, entering the realm of an eleven meridians true qi master was almost reaching the limits of the true qi realm.

Within the martial dao arena of the alliance of the sixteen kingdoms, an eleven meridians true qi master would either successfully enter the spirit realm as he advanced, or roam the realm of true qi for the rest of his life.

As for ascending to the level of twelve meridians true qi, no one had ever heard of someone breaking through to this level, at least not in these common kingdoms.

Ever since the dawn of time, there had been no shortage of geniuses within the world of martial dao. They'd all explored the way of twelve meridians true qi, but all ended up missing the best timing to transform to the spirit realm in the end, with no exceptions. They were moody until the end of their days like a resplendent star slowly sinking to the earth.

Logically speaking, Jiang Chen should've been preparing for the transformation to spirit qi.

However, Jiang Chen had no intention of assailing the spirit realm. He had thoroughly assimilated into this world and pretty much established his martial dao foundations.

The next step was to absorb the memories of his past life and begin digging deeper in his exploration.

The so-called twelve meridians of the true qi realm was just a minor way of training.

There were many major ways of training in Jiang Chen’s memories, even divine ways of training.

His foundational skills were in great readiness at this moment, and it was time to break out of the cocoon and become a butterfly!