Your Emperor, Qin Xuanyang, Has Arrived

"What? He actually came so quickly?"

King Ji Yonghao shot to his feet, his expression changing drastically.

Qin Xuanyang had arrived two days earlier than he had expected.

"Eee...!" An extremely piercing cry came from high above.

"He came from the sky, so naturally he's a bit faster than ordinary people." An Bulang rose to his feet and looked up with a smile.

King Ji Yonghao came to his senses and urgently ordered the old eunuch, "Quick! Clear out everyone near here! Within two hundred meters... no, within three hundred meters, there must not be a living soul!"

The old eunuch immediately went to carry out the order.

At that moment, hearty laughter rang out from the sky once more.

"Hahaha... Where is An Bulang? Come out at once!"

"I want to see just how formidable the expert protecting my daughter truly is."

His voice was like a thunderclap, resounding across heaven and earth.

An Bulang and King Ji Yonghao pushed open the door and stepped outside. Looking up, they saw a crimson peng bird three zhang in size circling overhead.

The feathers all over its body stood erect like sharp swords. Scorching, blood-red flames occasionally spilled from its pointed beak, and with one beat of its wings, it could whip up gust after gust of wild wind.

"This is... a flying beast? And a terrestrial-grade flying beast at that, the Bloodfire Peng!" The moment King Ji Yonghao saw the peng bird in the sky, he recognized it.

Though he was not part of the cultivation world, the Bloodfire Peng was a flying beast infamous throughout the neighboring nations, so he had naturally seen it in illustrated records. The Bloodfire Peng possessed the strength of the Spirit Attunement Realm. It often brought disaster upon the human world and was extremely difficult to tame. He had never expected Qin Xuanyang to have tamed it as a mount.

A middle-aged man clad in black crystal armor, looking every inch the valiant warrior, stood atop the Bloodfire Peng's back with his arms folded, gazing down at the two below.

Behind him stood ten gray-robed cultivators in silence, all with powerful auras.

These cultivators were all elders of the Soaring Dragon Empire's imperial family, each possessing Spirit Attunement Realm cultivation.

"Father Emperor, you've finally come..."

Qin Shiyue stepped out of the courtyard. Her eyes were red-rimmed as she looked up at the man in the sky, both aggrieved and reassured.

His figure was still as imposing as ever, still so dependable. So long as he appeared, he could suppress everything.

Qin Xuanyang quickly focused his attention on the White-robed Youth below. His eyes narrowed as he spoke with overwhelming authority, "You are An Bulang?!"

Rather than answering, An Bulang said softly, "I don't like people flying over my head while talking to me."

Qin Xuanyang was taken aback for a moment, then burst into laughter. "I'm speaking to you like this. So what?"

Strange syllables suddenly spilled from An Bulang's lips: "(.-ω-)zzz?,??︿??.?"

"Hm?" Before Qin Xuanyang could react, the Bloodfire Peng suddenly let out a terrified shriek and rapidly plummeted toward the ground.

Qin Xuanyang immediately used his levitation power.

But the other ten Spirit Attunement Realm experts on the Bloodfire Peng were in for a miserable time. Their emperor could fly, but they could not!

"BOOM!"

The earth shook violently.

The Bloodfire Peng lay plastered against the smashed ground as though it had been crippled.

The other ten elders had fallen from the sky and were sprawled in every direction, utterly disheveled.

"An Bulang! What exactly did you do to my Bloodfire Peng?!"

Qin Xuanyang drifted gracefully to the ground, his face turning completely grim. All his earlier ease and arrogance had vanished.

"This feels much better." An Bulang met Qin Xuanyang's gaze at eye level, a smile appearing on his face.

"Hahaha... Emperor Qin has come from afar. I failed to welcome you properly, so please do not take offense." Seeing how tense the atmosphere had become right from the start, King Ji Yonghao immediately stepped forward with a cheerful grin, attempting to ease the tension. After all, the royal palace was so beautiful—if a fight really broke out and damaged its buildings, that would be truly heartbreaking.

Qin Xuanyang looked coldly at King Ji Yonghao. "You think you're worthy of calling yourself 'I, the Emperor'?"

King Ji Yonghao: "..."

"Bulang, I'll leave this place to you. Fight however you like."

With that expressionless remark, King Ji Yonghao quickly retreated.

He had originally hoped that harmony would prevail, but now it seemed a fight was the more practical option.

Qin Xuanyang reached out with one hand and made a grasping motion toward the Bloodfire Peng's back. An incomparably huge black chest was drawn by an immense force and slowly rose into the air.

"Didn't you want ten thousand spirit stones as protection money?" Qin Xuanyang said flatly.

As he spoke, streams of dark-golden energy suddenly surged from his body, forming a dark-golden energy dragon that coiled around him.

The dense energy condensed into tangible might, crushing wildly outward in every direction.

The gale began to howl, and the sky began to change color.

"I would very much like to see whether you can take these ten thousand spirit stones." Qin Xuanyang's pupils also took on a golden hue, and the corners of his lips lifted slightly.

Feeling the enormous power emanating from afar, Qin Shiyue's pretty face turned slightly pale before delight immediately surfaced in her eyes. "That is... the Heavenly Golden Black Dragon Art! I never imagined Father Emperor had already cultivated it to the perfected ninth level and condensed the Heavenly Golden Black Dragon!"

The Heavenly Golden Black Dragon was the supreme art passed down through generations of the Soaring Dragon Empire's imperial family. It was said that a corporeal Heavenly Golden Black Dragon possessed power nearly equal to that of its caster. In other words, it was now the equivalent of two Qin Xuanyangs fighting one An Bulang.

This should be enough to restrain An Bulang now...

Qin Shiyue clenched her fists tightly, watching the scene before her with immense anticipation.

"Roar!" The Heavenly Golden Black Dragon let out a thunderous bellow.

A terrifying aura, mingled with dragon might, pressed relentlessly toward An Bulang like a massive mountain. Even the ground was crushed into a sunken, cracked ruin beneath the pressure.

"Oh? Not bad. You can actually keep a straight face under my pressure." Seeing that An Bulang's expression had not changed in the slightest, Qin Xuanyang showed a hint of admiration. "Then if you want spirit stones, come over and take them."

With a sweep of one hand, a huge black chest crashed down beside him.

"The dragon's cry is wrong," An Bulang suddenly said.

"Hm? What?" Qin Xuanyang froze again.

"A dragon roaring like a tiger or lion, roaring and growling all day... only mongrel dragons call like that. What a disgrace to dragonkind..." An Bulang sighed.

Now Qin Xuanyang understood. The hell—was this brat looking down on the Heavenly Golden Black Dragon he had summoned?

Qin Shiyue was startled as well. Had An Bulang gone mad? He was even provoking the cultivation art itself? What right did he have to look down on their imperial family's top-tier cultivation art?

Though the Heavenly Golden Black Dragon was merely a projection of power, how could it be insulted by a mere junior? It immediately let out another furious roar: "Roar!!!"

The dragon's roar transformed into a devastating soundwave that surged toward An Bulang. Wherever it passed, the earth split apart, and even the stone tiles were swept up by the shockwave and hurled at the White-robed Youth nearby.

"I told you already, dragons don't sound like that. The roar of a pure-blooded dragon should be a chant..."

"Azure Dragon Leaps Sky Chant!"

An Bulang drew a deep breath and opened his mouth once more.

"Moo...!!!"

An exceedingly strange cry burst from An Bulang's mouth.

It resembled the bellow of a divine ox, yet it was more ethereal and crisp than any divine ox's call—more majestic and overbearing—and carried an uncanny penetrating force!

The two soundwaves collided, and the stone tiles caught between them were instantly blasted into powder.

Then, as if endowed with an innate suppression, An Bulang's dragon chant instantly tore through Qin Xuanyang's soundwave. Before Qin Xuanyang's disbelieving eyes, it slammed into the Heavenly Golden Black Dragon coiled around him and violently shattered it!!