Invincible Dad-Chapter 553: The Emperor’s Assassination!_1
"Hiss!"
Sensing the terrifying, world-destroying aura from the two eyeballs, the Heavenly Dao gasped. Its scalp tingled instantly. "Ruthless. Great Emperor Yin Yang is truly ruthless."
Xu Lai was also slightly moved. When Great Emperor Yin Yang sealed away his son, Shang Yuan, he had actually gouged out his own eyes and given them to him. No wonder the Immortal Domain's chronicles contained no record of Great Emperor Yin Yang's Emperor Artifact. He refused to open his eyes even at death, obviously fearing that future generations would discover and seek the Emperor Artifact.
"You cracked the Tree of Eternal Life, so you must know I have the key," Shang Yuan's expression gradually grew ferocious. "Don't pretend you'll spare me. Do you even believe that yourself? In that case, I might as well kill you, an Emperor, today and take your Dao Fruit! The heavens of this era... will bear the surname Yin Yang!"
The key! The Heavenly Dao Sikong Jiu's pupils constricted sharply.
Could that be the key Jing Ke searched thousands of years for—the one that grants entry to the Nine Kings' Palace? he mused. No wonder I couldn't find the Quasi-Emperor's Tomb that holds the key. The tomb has been on Earth all along. But the tomb isn't a dead Quasi-Emperor; it's a living one. I've been deceived this entire time. If not for today's lucky discovery, I would have been fooled for who knows how many more years!
Xu Lai narrowed his eyes. "You have the key to the Nine Kings' Palace?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶
"You didn't know?" Shang Yuan, whose killing intent had been running rampant, was taken aback.
"I know now."
"..."
A sense of foreboding, accompanied by a tinge of regret, suddenly surged in Shang Yuan's heart. He had a sudden, sinking feeling. That Great Emperor Qingfeng... he probably really was planning to let me go just now.
If he could, he wouldn't want to fight an Emperor from a disadvantageous position. After all, as the son of an Emperor, Shang Yuan knew better than anyone just how terrifying Emperor Realm powerhouses were.
After much hesitation, Shang Yuan gritted his teeth. "Great Emperor Qingfeng, for my father's sake, can I leave now?"
"You can. Hand over the key," Xu Lai nodded.
"Dream on."
Shang Yuan crushed his father's two eyeballs. The endless Yin Yang Laws unexpectedly transformed into a white longbow. He drew the bowstring, a black arrow nocked and ready.
The Heavenly Dao swished behind Xu Lai, knowing that once the arrow was loosed, their entire star system—which contained hundreds of billions of stars—would collapse. Such was the power of an Emperor Artifact. Even before being fully awakened, its destructive power already surpassed the Quasi-Emperor Realm!
"It seems you truly wish to battle me," Xu Lai sighed softly.
"I didn't want this," Shang Yuan said, enunciating each word. "Let me leave, and we can avoid a devastating battle. Otherwise, I don't mind slaying an Emperor!"
From the moment he learned Xu Lai was an Emperor, Shang Yuan had mistakenly assumed Xu Lai was targeting him for the key. Otherwise, he would never have provoked a contemporary Great Emperor. He didn't actually care if life was devastated; that was purely a threat aimed at Xu Lai.
As for slaying an Emperor... countless Quasi-Emperors throughout history had tried. Unfortunately, they had all failed and died miserably. But Shang Yuan was confident he had a chance of success because he possessed his father's Emperor Artifact! As the descendant of Great Emperor Yin Yang, he could fully awaken the Emperor Artifact. At its peak state, he was sure he could kill an Emperor who had only held the title for eighty thousand years! Besides, he still had an ace up his sleeve.
...
Xu Lai said no more. He had given the other party too many chances. If Shang Yuan didn't want to live, then he could die.
Xu Lai's figure suddenly vanished.
Greatly alarmed, Shang Yuan felt the Yin Yang Laws swirling around him erupt outward as he spun around and fired an arrow behind him.
TING—
The arrow didn't explode. Instead, it was caught in the hand of a figure. It was Xu Lai.
"What?!"
Shang Yuan's pupils shrank.
The Heavenly Dao was also stunned, and its very core trembled. My god. Just how strong has this Xu Lai become? To catch the Emperor Artifact of Great Emperor Yin Yang from forty-three eons ago with his bare hands... this is simply unimaginable!
"Your father was very strong," Xu Lai stated calmly. "Of the one hundred emperors from the last one hundred eons in the Immortal Domain, he could probably rank in the top ten. But I stand at the absolute summit!"
"How presumptuous!" Shang Yuan raged, his purple robe fluttering in a nonexistent wind.
Beings in the Emperor Realm stood unrivalled across the eons, unmatched in the world. The relative strengths of Great Emperors could not truly be compared, as they did not belong to the same era. However, Great Emperor Qingfeng of the one-hundredth eon was called The Supreme Emperor by those ancient Tao Lineages and Holy Lands whose legacies stretched back dozens of eons. This was because Xu Lai was so strong that he had overturned their understanding of the Emperor Realm time and again. Whether it was shattering the cultivation shackles of the Human Race to establish their destiny, or conquering three of the Immortal Domain's forbidden lands where even Emperors had previously fallen and turning them into Cultivation Holy Lands for all cultivators—these and his many other deeds were magnificent achievements that would be praised for a hundred eons to come.
But Shang Yuan didn't know this. Even if he did, he would never allow anyone to denigrate his father, the invincible emperor of the Universe—not even another being from the Emperor Realm! In Shang Yuan's heart, his father, Great Emperor Yin Yang, was the strongest Emperor there had ever been, unmatched before or since. This so-called Great Emperor Qingfeng dares to call himself supreme? How laughable!
"In the name of my father, Great Emperor Yin Yang, I swear that today, I, Shang Yuan... will slay an Emperor!" Shang Yuan roared, and with his furious cry, countless stars fell from the sky.
"Ridiculous. The gap between a Quasi-Emperor and the Emperor Realm cannot be bridged by a single Emperor Artifact." Xu Lai shook his head. His palm tightened, and the arrow in his hand shattered, not harming him in the slightest.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
With a gloomy expression, Shang Yuan drew his bowstring, firing thirty-nine arrows in the blink of an eye. As he fired, a gigantic, indistinct figure seemed to manifest, standing between heaven and earth. It wore the sun and moon like a crown—the mark of the Great Emperor Yin Yang!
The Heavenly Dao, Sikong Jiu, watched with a trembling heart. Why hasn't Xu Lai drawn his Emperor Artifact, the Qingfeng Sword, to fight back?
In the next moment, he saw Xu Lai form a sword with two fingers and casually sweep them through the air. The thirty-nine arrows, each capable of destroying dozens of star systems, exploded silently, dissipating like ash on the wind.
"You—"
Shang Yuan was horrified and instinctively gripped the Emperor Artifact in his hand. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"I told you," Xu Lai said, "the gap between us cannot be bridged by a single Emperor Artifact. Besides..." He paused, then finished, "Your father is no match for me."
With a single step, Xu Lai appeared before Shang Yuan, ignoring the swirling Yin Yang Laws as he pointed a finger.
Shang Yuan's heart quaked. This single finger carries the intent to both kill me and search my soul! He doesn't just want to kill me, he wants to plunder my memories first!
Shang Yuan bellowed, "You're forcing my hand!!!"
His voice was immense, spreading throughout the starry expanse. All cultivators above the Immortal Venerable Realm sensed it, but few dared to show themselves, for they too sensed the aura of the Emperor Realm.
The Supreme Emperor is battling that powerhouse of the Nine Heavens of the Quasi-Emperor. To show your face at a time like this? Are you trying to die even faster?
But there were always those unafraid of death. For example, there was the Sect Master of the Green Sect from the Eastern Immortal Domain, and the Twelve-winged Archangel who had come to Earth only to stay in some Western country, basking in the sun.
And there was one other...
An old man, hidden in the darkness of the Universe, standing on a Single-Leaf Bamboo Boat.
Beneath the boat flowed the river of the Netherworld.
