Li Celong went to seek out the Toxin Sovereign.
As a cost for being released, the Toxin Sovereign was made to take a heavenly oath. After that, Li Celong took out the wooden box and opened it, revealing twelve green needles inside.
Channeling his spiritual energy into the needles, Li Celong pierced them into the Toxin Sovereign's body.
In an instant, an incredibly horrifying surge of spiritual power erupted from the Toxin Sovereign, and a green needle, as thick as a finger, was gradually forced out from his neck. Once it was pushed out, it shattered into pieces.
With the Wood Dragon Needle gone, the Toxin Sovereign's aura increased even more.
As such, the whole mountain started to tremble.
Even the six chains holding him in place started to rumble as the runes swirling on it flickered. However, that was not enough to suppress the Toxin Sovereign.
After an explosion, the chains broke, allowing the Toxin Sovereign to break free!
"Boy, tell me the name of the one you want me to kill."
"Chu Kuangren!"
Li Celong replied out loud through gritted teeth.
Following that, he tossed out a colorful jade order. "This is the Divine Pardon Order I've gotten from the Forbidden Barren Wasteland. Go and kill that person once you've fully refined this."
The Toxin Sovereign's eyes lit up with delight upon seeing the Divine Pardon Order. However, he then said with surprise, "The one you want to kill is a sky-pride it seems."
"That's right. He might be the most horrifying sky-pride in this era— no, ever since time immemorial!!" Li Celong said in a grim tone.
No matter how much he resented Chu Kuangren, he still had to acknowledge this fact.
"Hm, interesting."
…
Holy Light Religion.
After Chu Kuangren's rampage, the Holy Light's Ancestral Land was nothing but an empty husk now that its holy energy had been depleted.
A golden-haired elder was sitting there with his legs crossed.
It was the Holy Light's Chief Sovereign who was recovering from his wounds.
Meanwhile, the Holy Light Religion's operation was left in the hands of the elders to manage. It would not fall apart in such a short time.
After all, faith still existed in the religion.
As long as there was faith, the Holy Light Religion would never perish.
Hum…
Suddenly, a gentle ripple appeared in the void above the ancestral land.
The Holy Light's Chief Sovereign opened his eyes and looked towards the void. "This aura… Oh, it's you. It looks like you've fully refined the Divine Pardon Order too."
A figure slowly walked out from the void.
The person who came was wearing grey robes with a simple sword tied to his waist. He had a chilling and razor-sharp aura that felt as if it could slash open the fabric of space at any moment.
"Long time no see, Holy Light's Chief Sovereign."
The one who came was the Sword Tribe's Tempest Sword Sovereign.
The two of them did not belong to the same era but have met each other before. There was no friendship nor grudges between them.
"What brings you here?"
"I want to ask you about someone."
"Who is it?"
"Chu Kuangren."
An uncontrollable murderous qi emanated from the Holy Light's Chief Sovereign as swirls of holy divine fire ignited on his body.
After asking a few of the elders, he had already found out that the heretic who caused such a great mess in the Holy Light's Ancestral Land was called Chu Kuangren.
He could hardly contain his rage whenever he thought of that person.
"What for?"
"My Sword Tribe has a grudge against this person too. He has killed our outlawed sky-pride. I heard that you've fought against him, so I came to you to ask about him."
The Tempest Sword Sovereign said.
Upon learning that Chu Kuangren was also an enemy of the Sword Tribe, the Holy Light's Chief Sovereign relaxed a little, and his gaze toward the Tempest Sword Sovereign softened. "This person is indeed incredibly strong!"
"How powerful is he?"
"When it comes to one-on-one combat, even I might not be his match."
The Holy Light's Chief Sovereign paused for a while before he said.
Those words immediately surprised the Tempest Sword Sovereign. After all, the Holy Light's Chief Sovereign was an outlawed sky-pride back then too.
His level of strength currently was on par with the Tempest Sword Sovereign as well. Yet, the Holy Light's Chief Sovereign admitted that he might not be able to defeat a young sky-pride of this era.
"Is he really that powerful?"
"This person is an anomaly and can't be comprehended by common logic." The Holy Light's Chief Sovereign explained while recalling the scene of Chu Kuangren destroying the God of Light's phantom.
Such a level of power had truly frightened him.
"Since he's an anomaly, he should not remain in this world."
The Tempest Sword Sovereign uttered.
"What do you want to do about it?"
"Join forces to annihilate this person. No one else will have a chance to become an Emperor with him alive. I believe that the other Sovereigns will not allow someone like him to live too."
"Join forces, huh? Besides you and me, who else is there?"
"The Demonic Tribe's and Dark Shadow's outlawed sky-prides died in this person's hand as well. I'll go seek out the Sovereigns from those orthodoxies to discuss this."
"What? You want me to work with the Dark Shadow Religion? Are you kidding me?" The Holy Light's Chief Sovereign suddenly erupted with rage.
The Dark Shadow's Chief Sovereign had just caused a mess here with Chu Kuangren, and the Tempest Sword Sovereign wanted him to work with those people? Who was he kidding?
Was there anything crazier than this?
"The most important thing at hand now is to get rid of Chu Kuangren. I'm sure you must've sensed it by now too, that the energy waves from the Emperor Mountain have been getting stronger by the day. This means that the Emperor's Throne is going to appear soon. Once Chu Kuangren becomes an Emperor, it'll be hard to execute our revenge."
"Hmph, so what if that happens? It's not as if your Sword Tribe and my Holy Light Religion have no Emperors." The Holy Light's Chief Sovereign snorted.
"The Emperors are all in the Nine Heavens, so they can't intervene in this matter. Besides, if we don't do it now, it'll become harder for us to kill him once he becomes an Emperor."
The Holy Light's Chief Sovereign took a deep breath and pondered.
At last, he replied with his teeth gritted. "Very well, we shall focus on killing Chu Kuangren first. As for the Dark Shadow Religion, I'll deal with them after this."
Compared to the Dark Shadow's Chief Sovereign, he despised Chu Kuangren even more.
"Excellent."
The Tempest Sword Sovereign nodded slightly.
After some discussion, the Tempest Sword Sovereign left.
An operation to kill Chu Kuangren was starting to unfold behind the scenes.
…
Inside a city somewhere.
At this moment, Chu Kuangren was recovering his spiritual power in a Cultivation Pagoda, a location specifically provided for cultivators to conduct closed-door meditations.
Besides that, he had also taken out the several Ancestral Land Foundations that he obtained from the Holy Light's Ancestral Land.
It was in the form of several crystals that were beaming with the Power of Light. The amount of power contained in them was extremely dense and terrifying.
"For cultivators specializing in Holy Light Dao, this Power of Light's amount will provide great help to them. Just nice, I'll give it to Lan Yu then."
However, a single piece of crystal would take Lan Yu a long time to refine, and Chu Kuangren had four of those crystals with him at that time.
Hence, he pondered for a while and decided to refine the three remaining crystals. "After the journey in the Forbidden Barren Wasteland, I reckon many orthodoxies have obtained Divine Pardon Orders. It's time for those Sovereigns to appear soon."
"As for me, now that I'm inside the eye of a storm, those people will never let me go that easily. Since I have no background or orthodoxies to rely on in Emperor Road, if I want to go toe to toe against them, I must become stronger as soon as possible!"
"I can't let any chance to improve myself slip by."
Chu Kuangren mumbled as he refined the three remaining Light Crystals. The total energy gained from those three Light Crystals was no less than the Primeval Daoist Gem, so he managed to produce two more strands of Emperor qi.
At this point, he had nine strands of Emperor qi within him!
That was the highest amount of Emperor qi that those below the level of an Emperor could produce. Due to the restrictions imposed by the laws of the heavens, it would be difficult to progress beyond that point.
The next step would be to become an Emperor.
Once he had nine strands of Emperor qi, Chu Kuangren's strength increased once more. Since he was in a great mood, he opened the Fantasy Roulette and spun it.
"Congratulations, host. You have obtained a Legendary-grade item, Everchanging Nine Dragon Rune!"
A rune?
An Everchanging Nine Dragon Rune?
Chu Kuangren opened the rune, immediately retrieving that item. Upon seeing that it was a rune that could forcibly increase its user's strength, Chu Kuangren's eyes lit up with surprise.
Gathering the natural qi of the world, converting it into dragon qi, and channeling it into the user's body, this rune would allow the user's strength to skyrocket. The best part about this was that there were no side effects at all.
As such, it was several times better compared to the Nine Deaths Blazing Blood Art Technique.