The young man in blood-red robes narrowed his eyes. His vast divine sense swept over the young man in green robes, examining him from head to toe.
First level of the Great Sage Realm. An unremarkable aura!
Aside from his rather strange entrance, there seemed to be nothing special about him.
The blood-robed young man felt a little more at ease and sneered. "He's only a Great Sage. What the hell are you afraid of? Hurry up and go faster!"
"That bitch Chen Yue Ru must die!"
"Whoever gets in my way, I'll take their life!"
A Great Sage was no weakling, but the force he had brought this time included three Saint King Realm elders alone.
What kind of waves could a mere first-level Great Sage make, even if he really was from the Chen Family?
And at that moment—
Lin Yue Ru stared blankly at the figure in green robes before her.
She had not even seen how he had appeared.
One moment, she had been crying out in despair.
The next, this man had been standing beside her, as though he had grown out of the void itself.
The firelight from the explosion flickered across his face. He was so handsome that she forgot to breathe for a moment.
She had met plenty of prodigies who fancied themselves handsome.
But compared with the man before her, they were crude stone carvings beside a piece of jade shaped by nature itself.
More important was the air about him—
It held a tranquility she had never sensed in any cultivator, as though even the collapse of heaven and earth could not make him furrow his brow.
Could this be a senior from the Chen Family?
She opened her mouth to speak, only to find her voice caught in her throat. She could not get a single word out.
Chen Changqing did not look at her at all.
From the moment he appeared, his gaze had remained on the Purple Azure Token in Lin Yue Ru's hand.
His divine sense had swept over every grain of the token, and he recognized its material.
It was a fragment of Lin Wan'er's bonded Dao sword, melted down afterward and forged into this token.
But—
Right now!
That was not what truly held his attention.
A moment ago, he seemed to have sensed a wisp of an incredibly familiar soul aura.
It was exceedingly faint. If his spiritual perception had not grown so powerful, he might never have detected it.
Most important of all!
That wisp of soul aura seemed to belong to the foolish girl from a million years ago!
Could it be... Wan'er was still in this world?
Chen Changqing suppressed the excitement in his heart and withdrew his divine sense. At last, he looked at the young woman's face.
Her small face was smeared with blood, but her eyes were startlingly clear. Though she was covered in wounds, hatred and the will to live still burned fiercely within them.
This girl's stubbornness does resemble Wan'er's back then.
Chen Changqing said nothing more. He simply pointed to the token in Lin Yue Ru's hand and spoke gently. "Let me see the token."
Lin Yue Ru froze.
Instinctively, she gripped the token tighter.
This token was no ordinary thing. It was her tremendous fortuitous opportunity, and it held the remnant soul of the Lin Family's ancestor.
But for some reason, after hearing Chen Changqing's gentle voice, she soon loosened her grip without meaning to.
A powerful instinct told her she could trust the man before her.
In truth, she had no one else she could trust now.
"Here... take it..."
Lin Yue Ru bit her lip and carefully opened her fingers.
The Purple Azure Token slipped from her bloodstained palm, traced an arc through the void, and landed in Chen Changqing's hand.
The token felt slightly cool. The dried blood along its edges had yet to fade completely.
Chen Changqing lowered his gaze to the token, and his vast divine sense poured into it like a tide.
The space inside the token was dim and fractured, as though something had split it apart from within.
His divine sense pierced layer after layer of broken restrictions. At the deepest point, he finally sensed a soul pulse so faint it was almost imperceptible.
A remnant soul lay curled in the token's depths, like the last spark of a candle guttering in the wind, liable to go out at any moment.
The outline of her soul had grown so blurred that her features were nearly impossible to make out. Yet her stubborn, never-surrendering will was unmistakably familiar to Chen Changqing.
It really was Wan'er!
Chen Changqing's heart gave a violent tremor.
A million years had passed.
Could the girl in green who had once knelt before him clutching a sword and said, "I wish to follow the Divine Son," still be in this world?
As a mere remnant soul, she had somehow endured a million years inside a token forged from fragments of her own bonded Dao sword.
But now!
Her remnant soul was like a lamp whose oil had run dry.
Its outline was growing more transparent bit by bit—a sign that she was about to dissipate.
Had he arrived even a moment later, perhaps not even this final trace of her would have remained.
Fortunately.
He had come just in time.
Chen Changqing drew a deep breath. With a thought, azure light flowed from his palm.
That wisp of light was gentle and pure, brimming with boundless vitality!
It was the Longevity Dao Resonance he had condensed through his Origin Divine Ability.
Ordinary life force could affect only a living being's body. It could do nothing for a remnant soul that had lost its body.
But his Immortality Divine Ability was a Dao of origin, reaching directly into the mysteries at the source of life and death.
It could also restore a damaged soul to some extent.
Whoosh!
The azure glow of the Longevity Dao Resonance flowed into the token's depths like spring water, gently enveloping Lin Wan'er's remnant soul on the verge of dissipating.
Nourished by the Longevity Dao Resonance, her soul, once so faint its outline was barely visible, began to solidify at a rate visible to the naked eye.
The contours of her face were being drawn back out of nothingness, bit by bit.
Even a soul injury this severe would take no more than fifteen minutes to heal.
Then Lin Wan'er would no longer be a remnant soul in danger of dissipating at any moment. Her soul would be whole again.
Watching Chen Changqing, Lin Yue Ru blinked in bewilderment, unable to understand what she was seeing.
All she knew was that after taking the token, this Chen Family senior had kept his head lowered, studying it. An azure light had appeared in his palm that made her whole body feel at ease just from looking at it.
Had this senior discovered the ancestor inside?
Lin Yue Ru was anxious and at a loss.
At last, she summoned her courage. Looking at Chen Changqing, she spoke in a trembling voice. "This junior is Lin Yue Ru of the Lin Family. May I ask, s-senior... are you from the Chen Family?"
"If you are a Chen Family senior, please save my family..."
Chen Changqing looked up at her and nodded.
"The token is useful to me. I'll keep it for now."
"As for those people, I'll deal with them for you."
Lin Yue Ru stared at him, her eyes suddenly reddening.
She had lost count of how long she had fled alone since the Lin Family's destruction, and how many times she had come within a hair's breadth of death.
She thought she had cried all the tears she had left. Yet at this casually spoken promise, tears spilled from her eyes despite herself.
She opened her mouth to thank him, but her throat tightened so much that she could make no sound.
Rumble—
In that brief span of time, the seven blood-red warships had already torn through the void and arrived.
The blood-red banner on each ship snapped in the void, giving off a thick scent of blood.
The seven warships spread into an encircling formation, trapping Chen Changqing and Lin Yue Ru at its center.
At the bow of the lead warship, the blood-robed young man stood with his hands behind his back, a sneer of certain victory on his lips.
Behind him, the three Saint King Realm elders of the Blood God Palace unleashed their pressure at once. It bore down on Chen Changqing like three mountains.
"Boy—"
One of the Saint King Realm elders stepped forward, blood qi surging around him as he looked down at Chen Changqing with open arrogance.
"The Blood God Palace is conducting its business. If you know what's good for you, hand over that woman."
"Otherwise, no matter who you are, death is your only way out."
As his words fell,
the auras of all three Saint Kings erupted together. Their blood-red pressure turned almost tangible as it descended straight onto Chen Changqing's head.
To the Blood God Palace, the combined pressure of three Saint Kings would be enough on its own to force a first-level Great Sage to his knees.
Yet—
Chen Changqing merely raised his eyes. The corners of his lips lifted in the hint of a smile.
"Is that so?"
Before you continue