My Journey to Immortality Begins with Hunting-Chapter 537 – The Human Emperor and Li Yuan - Part 1

With a single swing of his sword, the Human Emperor drew on the will of the people as his spine, the mountains and rivers as his courage, and the fire in his gut as the edge of his blade. That sword strike could lay waste to the western invaders, cut down every ghost and demonic beast, and bring order to even the most chaotic of lands.

And yet, this man, the Human Emperor, so tall that his figure vanished into the clouds above, struck only once. After that, he simply held his sword aloft, motionless.

That single sword strike shattered the 20,000-strong force of twin-headed direwolf riders, who had charged forward with bloodthirsty ambition, dreaming of carving their way through the Central Plains and breaking down the gates of the Jade Capital.

Whether they were the fifth rank warriors of the Nine Flames Tribe or the terrifying twin-headed direwolves bred in the icy pits of Kabrol, all of them bled from seven orifices. This was more than just injury. Their very insides had collapsed. Even their hearts had failed.

One strike, 20,000 elite riders, nearly all annihilated. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Only a scattering of barely a thousand remained.

At the front of them stood Khagan Naran, his mane-like hair flaring wildly, gripping the shattered haft of his once-glorious golden axe. His eyes were bloodshot, rage and disbelief roiling through his chest like a storm.

He had become a second stage Earth Soul, which meant he was theoretically unkillable.

But unkillable simply meant he hadn’t died enough yet.

In that one sword strike from the Human Emperor, Naran felt as though every ounce of his life had been drained.

He couldn’t accept it. Why?

“AHHH!!”

After a moment of stunned silence, Naran’s dazed pupils suddenly lit with fury again. He threw his head back and roared like a trapped beast, then clenched his fingers tightly, raised his broken axe high, and pointed it defiantly at the towering figure in the clouds.

“Fight!!” he bellowed, but his roar echoed into a lonely silence.

Even if Naran hadn’t been crushed, the warriors behind him had already lost their will. Fear twisted their faces. Their courage had turned to ash. Their morale shattered. Their army broken. The thousand-foot-tall phantom of the Khagan that once loomed behind them gone without a trace.

All that remained was a single man, small as a speck, standing beneath a giant whose face he could not even see.

Above, the clouds stirred. The Human Emperor gazed down from the heavens.

The sheer weight of his presence pressed down like a mountain. He didn’t lift a finger, and yet the surviving direwolf riders panicked. One after another, they turned and fled. Soon, only Naran remained.

As the direwolf riders bolted, the martial artists from Cloudpeak Province who had once stood proudly behind them, along with the rear supply troops, also began to flee in a frenzy.

A defeated army collapsed like a landslide.

A battlefield that moments ago had raged with blood and thunder now held only two figures, the Human Emperor and the Khagan.

The two stood, separated by clouds, silently staring at one another.

Naran did not flee. After his initial shock, he merely lowered his head in brief silence. Then, still full of rage, he lifted the broken axe once more and pointed it at the giant above.

“Fight!” His voice was hoarse, but he shouted again, preparing to die with dignity.

But just then, the ground beneath him shifted.

Two massive hands, formed from hardened earth and stone, shot up from either side of Naran. They closed in suddenly, like jaws, seizing him in a crushing grip. And in the next instant, they dragged him down into the ground.

Underground, something like a burrowing earth-dragon thrashed and surged. With a rumble, it carried him away, vanishing swiftly into the distance.

The Human Emperor watched it all silently.

He had remained still, silent and unshakable. Until, suddenly, he raised his sword again and, almost casually, tapped it toward the ground.

"Yeoouch!" The little crow perched beside the mirage sparrow let out a heart-wrenching, bloodcurdling screech.

It wasn’t hurt, just overwhelmed with grief.

But down below, one of Sheng’er’s boulder avatars was struck.

Though a single avatar could muster a combat power of 100k, a level that would be considered elite across the continent, it was the equivalent of a child waving a stick in front of the Human Emperor.

That sword strike crushed the boulder avatar like someone squashing an ant. In an instant, it was gone.

But that was just one avatar. There were still 35 more.

And so, one by one, the Rock’ers surged forward, taking turns trying to save Naran, passing him off like a sacred torch in a desperate relay.

The Human Emperor, however, remained composed. He attacked quietly, methodically.

Every strike was deliberate, each blow destroying a single avatar, never touching Naran. Not even once. Only when the last avatar remained did he pause.

That final one was a Glacier’er. It grabbed hold of Naran with icy hands and fled at full speed toward the Eternal Rest River.

The moment its foot touched the water, the surface of the wide, windswept river, which normally churned with the crisp chill of late autumn, suddenly froze.

Sheets of ice coalesced into a long, winding road, wide enough for a carriage to pass, snaking swiftly toward the opposite bank.

And there, upon the ice, Naran was sprawled flat, sliding across with a sharp whoosh.

Above, high in the sky, the little crow seethed with rage, but it wasn’t unwilling to accept defeat. Not after what she had just seen.

Naran’s 20,000 twin-headed direwolf riders had been wiped out in a single strike. Even if she assembled the might of the Heaven Soul Grand Formation, it would still be crushed in one swing.

So now, she poured all her strength into this escape, dragging Naran with her, frantic and breathless.

Any soldiers fast enough to keep up, she allowed to stay on the ice path.

But the path wouldn’t last long.

Those who lagged behind, support troops and supply runners, scrambled madly to crowd onto ferryboats.

The direwolf riders and tribal warriors didn’t even bother with boats. They leapt straight into the river, swimming like mad to flee.

Chaos. Panic. An avalanche-like collapse.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

“Let.. me go,” Naran growled. His body was gripped tightly by frozen hands, but he was still speaking.

“No.” Sheng'er answered.

His chest heaved. Then, tilting his head to the side, he spat out a mouthful of steaming blood and slumped weakly onto the icy path.

The blood hit the river, hissing into mist.

Yet even with death creeping in, his eyes remained wide open.

In a low, rasping voice, he said, “The Khagan may die, but he does not retreat. I lost...but the Nine Flames Tribe has not lost. And it never will. Let me go.”

“No,” Sheng'er said again.

“Let me go! Cough, cough!*”

“No!”

Suddenly, Naran’s voice cracked with desperation, soft and pleading,“Sister!”

Sheng'er shuddered. From above, Li Yuan could see the little crow’s eyes were bloodshot with tears.

But even then, the Sheng'er’s glacier avatar replied stubbornly, “No. I don’t care what you say. I’m not letting go.”

Naran let out a broken laugh. “You won’t let go...and you think the Emperor of the Great Zhou will just give up? You think this ends with me running like a stray dog, only to be slaughtered by him mid-flight? Hah! Cough, cough! If I’m going to die anyway, can’t you at least let me die with some dignity?”

“I’m still not letting go!” Sheng'er snapped.

“...” Naran had nothing left to say. He’d heard the stories about how, over the past decade or so, his wife had spent countless days at the gates of the Deathless Tomb, pleading with his big sister.

Meng Xingxian begged, cried, and bargained. And yet, no matter how she begged, she was never allowed to step foot inside. The moment she even tried, Sheng’er would shut her down cold.

Now Naran understood. Once his sister made up her mind, not even the gods could change it.

“Ha...hahahaha!” Naran suddenly burst out laughing. He stopped struggling and simply lay flat on the icy path, gazing up at the sky above.

The heavens were shimmering gold. Even the clouds had turned to molten sunlight.

Behind that golden glow loomed a vague, indistinct face, one watching the world from above.

Covered in blood, Naran found, unexpectedly, a strange peace settling over him.

Softly, he murmured, “Sister...thank you.”

Then he closed his eyes and waited for death to come.

To him, it was inevitable.

The Human Emperor would never let him live.

The only reason he hadn’t struck yet was simple. He was waiting, waiting to lure out the others hiding in the shadows. And once they appeared? He‘d strike them down one by one, like a man casually squashing ants. What a harvest of slaughter. What satisfaction.

Naran gave a silent sigh. A total of 36 Heaven Souls had been spent just to drag him this far to the river. But what did it matter? It wasn’t worth the cost.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Up on the distant hilltop, the little crow watching from above could hardly bear it anymore. She spread her pitch-black wings wide and clutched the mirage sparrow tightly in a hug.

“He’s going to die! He’s going to die, Papa,” she cried out in anguish, staring at the distant figure.

The mirage sparrow didn’t respond. Instead, it calmly scratched a few words into the dirt with its claw.

“Not necessarily.”

In their line of sight, the Human Emperor had stopped at the riverbank.

That glorious figure, tall enough to pierce the clouds, began to fade...until what remained was only a young Emperor, dressed in humble mourning robes.

The Emperor lowered his sword, then sheathed it.

He Si raised the dragon banner behind him. It fluttered wildly in the wind, a standard of thunder and blood.

Ying Shanxing looked at the boy beneath the banner, clearly puzzled.

Why had the emperor stopped? Why not press the kill?

“I’m tired,” the young Emperor said quietly, eyes closed, one hand raised to his brow in a weary gesture.

Ying Shanxing finally understood. Still, he asked, “Your Majesty, shall we send troops to pursue them?”

“Do as you see fit,” Ji Hu replied lightly.

Ying Shanxing gritted his teeth. “We cannot allow these barbarians to regroup. If they’re given even a sliver of hope, they’ll rise again. Your servant—”

Ji Hu waved a hand, cutting him off mid-sentence. No need to talk. Just act.

Ying Shanxing spurred his horse forward. His voice rang out with a clear command. Signal flags on the heights snapped into motion.

Instantly, the massive army that had been standing still behind the Human Emperor stirred to life.

Battle formations surged forth, forming towering projections a hundred feet high. With renewed morale, they began to chase down the retreating barbarian troops.

The Central Plains were fertile and teeming with strength. In recent years, fifth and sixth rank martial artists had sprung up like bamboo after rain.

Now, they surged forward like a flood, flying through the sky, galloping across the earth, an overwhelming tide of black crashing down upon the shattered remnants of the Nine Flame Tribe’s army, who scattered like stray dogs.

Before even half of Naran’s forces made it across the river, the Great Zhou’s army was already sinking its teeth into the stragglers.

A vicious clash broke out. The terrified tribesmen, along with Cloudpeak Province’s soldiers and non-combatant support units who’d lost all will to fight, were butchered on the spot.

Nearby, someone brought over a grand chair. Ji Hu sat down beneath the dragon banner, watching the distant battle unfold with quiet, hollow eyes. He made no move to intervene.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Back on the Eternal Rest River, Shenger’s glacier avatar paddled swiftly through the wide waters, practically skimming across the surface.

With a few swift strokes, she dragged Naran to the far shore like a sled on ice.

“Sister, you’ve ruined me,” Naran muttered as they reached the opposite bank. “Now I’m a fleeing general, a cowardly ruler abandoning his army.”

“Shut it,” Sheng'er snapped.

Naran sighed and gave a bitter chuckle. “Even if you drag me back, I’m finished. My end’s already written. That young Emperor of Zhou...he’s too strong.”

By now, the two had reached the riverbank.

Sheng’er’s glacier avatar leapt ashore while still gripping Naran, who was now fully encased in a giant block of ice, with only his head sticking out, his face twisted into a helpless, self-deprecating smile.

She then shrunk down and took the form of a gentle-looking young woman, with a massive block of ice strapped to her back. She ran with such speed that her feet became a blur, vanishing into the distance like a streak of wind.