Chapter 448 – Fighting the Imperial Emperor
Jiang Chen showed no politeness when speaking to the Imperial Emperor. They were mortal enemies after all. In the end, one of them would have to die. Thus, he had no intentions of being polite.
“Father, please save me!”
When the Crown Prince saw the Imperial Emperor, it was like seeing a life-saving straw. He immediately cried out in surprise. In his mind, he was safe now that the Imperial Emperor was here, as his father was an existence who was capable of achieving anything; not someone a tiny Jiang Chen could deal with. Since Jiang Chen was brave enough to come to the Martial Saint Dynasty all alone, he was just seeking death for himself.
“Shut up you useless fool!”
The Imperial Emperor glared at the Crown Prince and shouted in a cold manner. The son he had high hopes for had become the most useless one. If not for the Crown Prince’s lust, the situation today would not have happened. The human heads that were floating in mid-air all wore ferocious expressions on their face, causing the Imperial Emperor to feel bad. Not only because these emperors represented the face of the Martial Saint Dynasty, but also because they were the Imperial Emperor’s brothers. Now, all his brothers were dead, and he had become a lonely man.
“Jiang Chen, I’ll give you a chance now; hand over the Crown Prince and those emperors to me.”
The Imperial Emperor said.
“Haha, Imperial Emperor, those words are truly funny. With the hatred between me and you, you can’t just make such a request. From the day you passed down the Imperial Decree to have all my family and friends killed, the war between me and the Martial Saint Dynasty was destined. Cut all the crap; release my dad, my father-in-law, and brother Jiu, and I’ll give you the Crown Prince and all the heads.”
Jiang Chen started laughing, finally revealing his purpose for coming here.
“You’re threatening me.”
A sharp light flickered in the Imperial Emperor’s eyes, and his fury became even stronger. As a man who held the imperial throne, no one had ever dared threaten him like this; Jiang Chen was definitely the first one.
“Naturally, I’m threatening you.”
Jiang Chen casually shrugged his shoulders and continued, “In fact, this is just a trade. The Crown Prince’s life is extremely precious to you, and the heads of all the emperors will have to be buried in the imperial graveyard. If not, if I simply bury their heads in the ground somewhere random on a desolate mountain… I really don’t think that will look nice for the Martial Saint Dynasty’s face.”
This was simply a plain threat, and there was nothing wrong with what Jiang Chen did. Conversely, the reason why the Imperial Emperor imprisoned Jiang Zhenhai was to threaten Jiang Chen as well.
“Nobody dares to threaten me. Jiang Chen, since you’re here today, don’t think you can leave! Once I’ve killed you; I will kill all your friends and family as well.”
The Imperial Emperor said with an extremely cold voice. As the most distinguished man of the Eastern Continent, he would never allow anyone to challenge his authority, much less threaten him.
“Is that so? Why don’t you just give it a shot? Let’s see who can move faster. I promise, before you can strike, I will kill the Crown Prince and destroy all those heads.”
Jiang Chen replied with an equally cold voice. He didn’t seem to feel threatened by the Imperial Emperor’s words at all. Comparing their temperament, there was no doubt Jiang Chen was steadier than the Imperial Emperor. He knew the Imperial Emperor would definitely compromise today, because no matter what happened to the Crown Prince, he was still the Crown Prince of the Martial Saint Dynasty. In the Imperial Emperor’s mind, the Crown Prince was much more precious than Jiang Zhenhai. Besides that, all the emperors’ heads represented the Martial Saint Dynasty’s face, and their deaths had brought a disgrace to the Martial Saint Dynasty. If someone really destroyed these heads in front of the Imperial Emperor, it wouldn’t just be a matter of losing face.
Most importantly, they were all emperors; the Imperial Emperor’s blood brothers. Since they were now dead, if their heads couldn’t be buried in the imperial graveyard, the Imperial Emperor would be a complete failure.
“Do not think for a second that I am joking with you, as I only joke around with my friends. I’ll now count to three, and if I don’t see my father, the Crown Prince will lose an arm.”
Jiang Chen continued with an indifferent tone and place his palm on the Crown Prince’s shoulder. The Crown Prince’s face immediately turned pale. He was scared, as he knew how frightening Jiang Chen was. As long as Jiang Chen casually used some force, his arm would disappear.
The Imperial Emperor clenched his fist so tightly that bone cracking sounds could be heard. He had never been so angry before.
However, the Imperial Emperor could tell that Jiang Chen was not joking.
“Hmph!”
The Imperial Emperor coldly harrumphed, then he waved his hand, directly tearing the void, causing a crack to appear. A shivering wind immediately leaked out from the other side of the gap. This was the frightening ability of a Combat King warrior. As they had mastered the Spatial Powers, they were able to tear space.
The Imperial Emperor stretched his arm into the spatial crack and pulled out four men who were all in messy states. These four men were none other than Wu Jiu, Xuan Ye, Jiang Zhenhai and Yan Zhanyun who had been imprisoned in the Martial Saint Dynasty.
The four men staggered and could barely stand straight. When they finally stabilized their bodies, they immediately saw Jiang Chen who was standing right in front of them. The few of them were startled, but joyful expressions quickly emerged on their faces.
“Chen’er!”
Jiang Zhenhai and Yan Zhanyun cried out in surprise at the same time. During the time where they had been imprisoned, their faith had always remained strong, and that faith had supported them through the hardships. That faith was their precious son and son-in-law. They firmly believed that Jiang Chen could definitely come and save them.
“Brother, what is this?!”
Wu Jiu saw Jiang Chen as well, but his glance immediately fell onto those floating heads. When he saw the faces of those heads, Wu Jiu didn’t feel any joy, but he just let out a long and heavy sigh. No matter what, these men were his blood brothers. Although they had always given him trouble when he was still alive; treating him as their enemy, Wu Jiu still felt pity for them when he saw their miserable ending.
Of course, Wu Jiu only felt pity. Since the Imperial Emperor had passed down the Imperial Decree, and didn’t even let go of Wu Jiu’s son, he had broken off all relationships with the Martial Saint Dynasty in his mind.
However, Wu Jiu and Xuan Ye’s minds were still raging with shock. The reason for these surging emotions was naturally Jiang Chen. When Jiang Chen left them, he was only a peak Divine Core warrior, not even close to the Combat Soul realm. However, in such a short amount of time, not only had he broken through to the Combat Soul realm, his combat strength had become even more incredibly heavenly defying, as he was able to kill so many mighty warriors of the Martial Saint Dynasty. Judging from the miserable endings of these emperors, without guessing, they were able to see that Shangguan Sheng and Tiangang Yi had ended up worse.
“Wu Jiu, look at this. This is the man you’ve called your brother, and he has killed all your blood brother. I’m betting you’re regretting your decision now.”
The Imperial Emperor threw a cold glance at Wu Jiu.
“Hmph! Regret? You’re the one responsible for all this! I told you before; do not offend Jiang Chen. When he just came to the Martial Saint Dynasty, if we could have treated him like an important guest, perhaps he would have joined us and worked with us. If that had happened, not only would the Martial Saint Dynasty have one less enemies, it would become stronger as well. But you and everyone else didn’t like Jiang Chen, so you created all sorts of trouble for him, and that is the cause for today’s tragedy. As for the blood brothers you mentioned, I’m sorry, but when you decided to kill me, and the moment they deliberately planned to kill me; the ties between us broke!”
Wu Jiu coldly harrumphed. The Imperial Emperor and the other emperors had long ago hurt him. He had no doubts, if not for Jiang Chen, he would already have become a dead man, and his son would have become a criminal who was wanted by the Martial Saint Dynasty.
“Good, very good! I will let all of you know what the consequences of becoming the Martial Saint Dynasty’s enemy are!”
The Imperial Emperor said with a hideous smile visible on his face.
“Imperial Emperor, save your brath. Set all four of them free, and I’ll give you the Crown Prince and all those heads.”
Jiang Chen interrupted the conversation and said. Today, he was here to trade.
“The Crown Prince can be exchanged for one man. Those heads can be exchanged for another. Out of these four men, you can only bring two away.”
The Imperial Emperor said.
“No, I want all of them; not one left behind.”
Under no circumstances would Jiang Chen give in. What a joke, with the Imperial Emperor current anger, he might perhaps kill those left behind.
“Jiang Chen, don’t push your luck, this is my bottom line.”
The Imperial Emperor was guarding his last bit of imperial authority.
“You have long ago crossed my bottom line. I must bring all four men with me; there are no rooms for negotiation.”
Jiang Chen said in a resolute tone, leaving no room for discussion.
Seeing Jiang Chen holding onto his position so firmly, the Imperial Emperor’s imperial robes started shaking, as his body was trembling with anger. However, in the follow moment, his eyes lit up. He suddenly realized that it didn’t matter if he gave all these men to Jiang Chen. Under the current circumstances, could Jiang Chen really escape from this place? As long as he could get the Crown Prince and those heads back, all of these men would still die, including Jiang Chen.
“I’ll say it one last time; the Crown Prince can be exchanged for one person, the heads for another. However, Jiang Chen, since you have the power to slaughter so many peak Combat Soul warriors, I wonder if you have the courage to fight with me? If you can take three strikes from me without being killed, I will let all of you go freely.”
A scornful smile appeared on the Imperial Emperor’s face.
“Alright.”
Out of the Imperial Emperor’s expectations, Jiang Chen actually accepted his challenge straightaway, showing no signs of hesitation.
“Since you’re seeking death, I won’t be polite with you.”
A ridiculing look leaked out from the Imperial Emperor’s eyes. He never thought that Jiang Chen would accept his challenge so easily. It looked like this young man’s confident had exploded forth as the result of his own strength; he thought he was invincible, and had no idea about the massive gap between the Combat Soul realm and Combat King realm, as that was something that Jiang Chen would never be able to imagine.
Let alone three strikes, the Imperial Emperor believed he would be able to crushed Jiang Chen into shredded meat with just a single strike. Once he killed Jiang Chen, he would proceed to kill all of Jiang Chen’s family and friends, avenging all the emperors.
This was the Imperial Emperor’s thoughts. Certainly, Jiang Chen had his own plan as well. In fact, he had been waiting for the Imperial Emperor to come out with the words saying that he would let them all go free. If not, with Jiang Zhenhai and the other three men as burdens, it would be really difficult for him to leave this place today.
“Come!”
Jiang Chen leapt forward and arrived in mid-air. At the same time, he placed all the floating heads into his storage ring, as well as the Crown Prince. Although the space within his storage ring was an isolated it, and it was used to place non-living items, the Crown Prince was a Combat Soul warrior, so he wouldn’t suffocate to death in such a short period of time.
“Chen’er, be careful!”
“Brother, be careful!”
Jiang Zhenhai and Wu Jiu gave out words of caution at the same time, especially Wu Jiu. His face was covered with worry. He certainly knew how incredible Jiang Chen was, but the Imperial Emperor was a real Combat King warrior, not someone a young man who was only at the Combat Soul realm could deal with. Three strikes from the Imperial Emperor could really kill him.