"It’s either you kill the three of us, or we kill you."
Tian Ci’s words finally revealed their stance.
They no longer believed Jiang Chen at all and were preparing to fight him.
At that moment, Ao Xi also glared furiously at Jiang Chen.
"We have the evidence in hand."
"How long are you going to keep making excuses?"
A chilling aura emanated from Ao Xi’s hands; she was clearly about to strike.
Tang Yuan also stood beside Ao Xi.
"Kill him."
"Only by killing him can we survive."
But Tang Yuan’s hatred for Jiang Chen ran deepest of all.
He was bent on seeing Jiang Chen dead.
"Brother Tian Ci, please believe me."
"There wasn’t just one man in black. I really did see two of them just now."
Jiang Chen tried to explain further.
But Tian Ci cut him off coldly.
"Jiang Chen, you know full well what’s right and wrong."
"Now, let’s fight."
As soon as Tian Ci finished speaking, he flew toward Jiang Chen, the green Chang Mao in his hand glinting with a deadly light.
Ao Xi gestured, and streams of frigid energy descended from the sky. Snowflakes fluttered down, swirling toward Jiang Chen like a dragon.
Tang Yuan let out a furious roar.
With his Great Sea Waves technique, one massive wave after another crashed down upon Jiang Chen.
The three of them attacked in unison.
Jiang Chen fought hard against the trio.
A great battle erupted in an instant.
For the first time, Jiang Chen truly felt Tian Ci’s power.
As a master of the Martial Arts Sect Fifth Heaven, Tian Ci’s attack carried boundless killing intent through his Chang Mao.
It was clear that the usually taciturn Tian Ci was a terrifyingly strong expert.
Jiang Chen knew that if he went all out, he wouldn’t necessarily lose to their combined might.
However, a plan began to form in his mind.
He didn’t use his full strength.
BANG!
Tian Ci’s Chang Mao viciously knocked the Radiant Sun Sword from Jiang Chen’s hand.
Immediately after, Ao Xi’s chilling energy and ice morphed into sharp spikes.
PFFT! PFFT! PFFT!...
Countless icy spikes pierced through the defenseless Jiang Chen’s body, running him through completely.
Blood gushed from his wounds.
Tang Yuan’s final attack then struck Jiang Chen, whose body convulsed before being sent flying, crashing onto the ground in the distance.
"You..."
Jiang Chen pointed at the three of them, then his eyes dimmed, and he died in an instant.
Tang Yuan walked over to Jiang Chen’s corpse and checked it.
He immediately sneered. "He’s dead."
He had been hoping for Jiang Chen’s death all along, and now, he had finally been killed.
Thus, he was ecstatic.
In his excitement, Tang Yuan was about to take the treasures Jiang Chen had left behind.
But Tian Ci called out coldly, "Stop, Tang Yuan."
"The dead are gone. Please respect his final dignity."
Tian Ci was an extremely proud man. Even if a dead person had treasures on them, he would normally not be tempted to take them.
This made Tang Yuan, who was just about to act, freeze with his hand outstretched.
He gave a sheepish smile.
"I just felt it would be a waste, but... fine, I won’t take them..."
He couldn’t act too conspicuously right now, or Tian Ci and Ao Xi might see through his plot.
Besides, Jiang Chen’s death had already fulfilled his wish.
Tian Ci turned and walked away.
He seemed unwilling to linger.
Hai Xunyi was dead, and now Jiang Chen was dead. The Five Nations Alliance had lost two of its geniuses.
Ao Xi took one last look at the bodies of Hai Xunyi and Jiang Chen on the ground, shook her head, and turned to leave.
’What a pity. I’m afraid my sister won’t get her revenge now.’
She glanced in the direction Tian Ci had gone, a peculiar look in her eyes.
’Is he really that strong?’
She knew that their easy victory over Jiang Chen was all thanks to Tian Ci. He was simply too powerful, which was why they had been able to kill Jiang Chen so easily.
However, Ao Xi did not follow Tian Ci, instead leaving on her own.
Tang Yuan didn’t stay long either and turned to leave.
Even if he didn’t take Jiang Chen’s things himself, people from his Tang Kingdom would soon appear to retrieve them.
Of course, besides that, the people from the Tang Kingdom were also supposed to kill Ao Xi and Tian Ci. Only by achieving a quadruple kill would their plan be complete.
「After everyone had left.」
On the ground, the wounds on Jiang Chen’s "corpse" began to twitch faintly.
Suddenly, they started to heal on their own.
And Jiang Chen’s eyes cracked open just a sliver.
But he didn’t get up right away. Instead, he lay there, thinking.
’Who could it be?’
He still couldn’t figure out who had brought the man in black.
’Was it Ao Xi? But it didn’t seem like her.’
SWISH!
Just as Jiang Chen was lying on the ground, a faint sound came from the forest.
Jiang Chen immediately blanketed the area with his Nine Heavens Spirit-Seizing Technique.
He quickly sensed a man in black stealthily approaching.
Finally, the man appeared beside him.
The man in black vigilantly scanned his surroundings, then crouched down and began searching Jiang Chen’s body.
SWISH!
The man in black had no guard up against Jiang Chen, because he knew Jiang Chen was already dead. What was there to fear from a dead man?
But just as his hand touched Jiang Chen, Jiang Chen’s own hand shot out with incredible speed, abruptly seizing the man’s head.
With a sudden twist.
CRACK!
The sound of a bone snapping echoed. Caught completely off guard by Jiang Chen’s sudden move, the man in black’s neck was instantly broken.
The man in black was stunned. The dead had come back to life.
Without a second thought, he tried to break free from Jiang Chen and escape.
After all, Jiang Chen’s previous attack hadn’t killed him.
BOOM!
Just as he was struggling to flee, a coffin smashed down violently from above.
It crashed onto the man in black.
No matter how powerful the man in black was, the Yang Coffin was a Supreme-Grade Treasure Artifact, a Magical Treasure of terrifying might.
The man’s vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground.
Jiang Chen dragged the unconscious man in black aside and climbed to his feet.
He dusted the dirt and debris off his clothes.
Then he went over and pulled off the man’s mask, only to find he didn’t recognize him at all.
But Jiang Chen wasn’t about to let it go. He quickly searched the man, eventually finding a Spatial Ring. After forcibly opening it...
...Jiang Chen found a Jade Talisman.
"Tang!"
Just a single character was carved on it.
It revealed the man’s identity.
’The Tang Kingdom?’
Jiang Chen muttered to himself, staring at the Jade Talisman.
It was obvious. Everything had become clear.
The true mastermind was someone from the Tang Kingdom. And if it was the Tang Kingdom, that meant it was Tang Yuan.
"Hmph, so that’s how it is."
’So that was the plan. A classic sacrificial gambit to fool everyone.’
After sealing the man’s Cultivation, Jiang Chen took the unconscious captive and sped off in pursuit.
Now that he had discovered it was Tang Yuan, Jiang Chen naturally had to expose his conspiracy.
He didn’t follow Tang Yuan, but instead set out to find Ao Xi and Tian Ci.
He chose to pursue Ao Xi’s direction first.
After using the Ten Directions Calculation to deduce Ao Xi’s location, Jiang Chen gave chase at top speed.
BANG...
Just as Jiang Chen was racing along, a Signal Flare shot into the sky from Ao Xi’s direction and exploded.
’Damn it, Ao Xi is done for...’