Chapter 718: Why Must You Force Me?

It was not just the Shi Meng Mo feeding on him; there was an even more despair-inducing existence staring at him, altering his perception.

"Heh... how miserable, yet it makes me so delighted to watch."

Chen Lanqiu chuckled softly; in truth, even in Chen Prefecture, few people cared about Chen Changyuan, and most felt only disdain and contempt.

Yet, she had no idea that the existence currently causing Chen Changyuan such terror was none other than Chen Yan, whom she was on her way to exterminate.

It was at this very moment.

A strange sensation suddenly emerged from within Chen Lanqiu's heart, as if her heart had been tickled for an instant by a light feather.

Chen Lanqiu did not pay it any mind, but Chen He narrowed his eyes and looked toward Chen Lanqiu.

"Why are you looking at me?" Chen Lanqiu blinked, saying coquettishly:

"I am over three thousand years older than you; if you like..."

Chen He shook his head and turned his head away:

"A person over three thousand years old still caring about so-called romantic feelings—this is something only those of low status care about."

He chuckled softly:

"Whether it is carnal desire or base emotions, these are the reasons why those of low status remain in low positions. In this world, no powerhouse would ever care about so-called romantic feelings or physical desires.

Lu Xunyang is like this, the Xia Master is like this, the Chen Master is like this, and even that Chen Yan is the same.

If they were to indulge in matters between men and women, how could there be any talk of rapid strengthening?"

Chen Lanqiu said with a touch of pity:

"So this is the reason why you are so much younger than me, yet can rank twenty-fifth on the World Eight-Tier Ranking?

But haven't you also been pursuing Lu Jianxia all this time?"

Chen He's eyes were calm:

"Do you think I pursue her for romantic feelings or even baser physical desires?

Beauty is the lowest and most burdensome thing for the Martial Dao.

She is the daughter of the Lu Master and a future powerhouse of the Eight-Tier; whether it is the assistance she can provide in terms of status or the cultivation and Dao-discussion regarding the future, she is undoubtedly the most suitable for me.

This is a resource, and even more so, an opportunity!"

He stated his purpose quite candidly, not caring at all that the Eighth Elder of Lu Prefecture, Lu Zhiwei, was right beside him.

The heart of Chen He was known to all under heaven.

"Currently, Chen Prefecture is flourishing, and my chances of successfully pursuing her are great; otherwise, I would not repeatedly offer a warm face to a cold backside.

If it truly proves impossible to pursue her, I will let go and seek something else; you could wait for me.

Although you are not as good as Lu Jianxia, you are also an excellent opportunity.

However, Elder Lu Zhiwei is clearly even better than you."

Chen He looked at Lu Zhiwei with an extremely aggressive gaze.

Lu Zhiwei's body trembled slightly, then she smiled:

"I will consider it."

She was not joking; Chen He was the youngest elder in the history of Chen Prefecture, and now he was the Third Elder, with a future that was limitless.

Chen He stood with his hands behind his back and waved one hand, and that blood-dripping formation disk appeared in his hand once more.

On the formation disk, the blood drop pointed in one direction.

Chen He's expression was calm as he stepped toward that direction, and the next instant, he had already appeared on the other side of the mountain.

"Truly..."

Chen Lanqiu watched Chen He's back and chuckled: "How boring."

"You are not the fish, how can you know the joy of the fish?" Lu Zhiwei spoke indifferently from the side, following closely behind.

Beneath the black cloth strip, a formation disk manifested deep within Lu Zhiwei's eyes, revealing a shimmering purple light.

She was using a method unique to the direct bloodline of Lu Prefecture to perceive the surroundings.

Suddenly, her body trembled.

She sensed the aura of Lu Wuyi, and this aura...

It was everywhere.

Lu Zhiwei gritted her teeth; did Lu Wuyi die here, self-destruct, or was he beaten to death by someone?

She continued to perceive, her eyes flickering again.

At the same time.

On a mountain peak, a woman in golden robes opened her eyes, speaking with surprise:

"Eighth Elder?"

Lu Jianxia sensed the anomaly arising deep within her mind and suddenly showed joy.

"Is Lu Wuyi dead?" Lu Zhiwei's voice came through.

Sadness appeared in Lu Jianxia's eyes:

"Yes."

"How did he die?" Lu Zhiwei asked.

Lu Jianxia recounted what had happened.

A long while later.

Lu Zhiwei spoke with uncertainty:

"Chen Yan can already slay an Eight-Tier?"

"Yes," Lu Jianxia transmitted her voice:

"If it weren't for him..."

"Jianxia, leave Chen Yan. I will give you the coordinates; just hurry toward my side," Lu Zhiwei continued to transmit via voice.

Lu Jianxia knitted her brows:

"You want to kill Chen Yan?"

"What else?" Lu Zhiwei calmly transmitted:

"Do not delay, just leave directly. A little deception toward Chen Yan will suffice; you do not need to act as an inside contact. Chen Yan will undoubtedly die."

Lu Jianxia's expression flickered:

"Eighth Elder, perhaps I didn't make myself clear just now. Today's Chen Lord is not Chen Sheng. The death of my elder brother, Lu Wuyi, was caused by the Chen Lord's avatar, Chen Changyuan.

The Chen Lord has already awakened the Ancient God Fanni."

After Lu Jianxia's voice fell, there was silence on Lu Zhiwei's end for a long time.

Lu Jianxia pondered inwardly.

Lu Zhiwei already knew of Chen Yan's power, yet she still had not changed her mind about exterminating Chen Yan.

Then there was only one possibility: it was not just Lu Zhiwei coming to exterminate Chen Yan.

Lu Jianxia's expression was complex.

Lu Province and Great Xia were already enemies, but the Chen Lord had such a conspiracy; it would be more accurate to say her brother died at the hands of the Chen Lord rather than Chen Changyuan.

So many Lu Province Creation Realm experts had died at the hands of the other side.

"Eighth Elder."

Lu Jianxia spoke:

"Lu Province is walking on a completely wrong path, I..."

"Jianxia." Lu Zhiwei's voice came through:

"I know."

Lu Jianxia transmitted:

"Then what are you going to..."

"I will persuade the experts who came with me to leave this place," Lu Zhiwei smiled as she transmitted.

"Who came with you?" Lu Jianxia asked.

Silence.

Lu Zhiwei transmitted:

"The Fifth Elder and the Sixth Elder.

These two, as you know, do not like you very much."

Lu Jianxia's eyes trembled:

"Alright."

The communication ended.

Lu Jianxia's expression was icy.

"Although the Fifth Elder usually seems harsh toward me, he is actually the elder brother of the Young Master. His harshness is actually to protect me from being affected by internal strife.

If the Fifth Elder were coming, he would definitely have contacted me in advance."

How could she not know that Lu Zhiwei had lied to her?

Once Lu Zhiwei sensed that Lu Jianxia might interfere with the plan, she had already regarded Lu Jianxia as an enemy.

There were Five Clans experts arriving.

Lu Jianxia's eyes trembled as she looked toward the high sky:

"Brother, what should I do?"

She was struggling immensely.

If she informed Chen Yan, it would be sabotaging the Five Clans' plan and creating a formidable enemy for the Five Clans.

Chen Yan's strength made her realize that if given more time, the future could be changed.

If she did not inform him, she had clearly already sensed the Chen Province's conspiracy and had already shared life and death with Chen Yan's side.

Why?

Why, when she had already told Lu Zhiwei everything she knew, did Lu Zhiwei still insist on going her own way?

Why must she always be in this dilemma?

Lu Jianxia bit her silver teeth together.

Lu Zhiwei's actions could only mean that Lu Province had no way back.

To what extent had the chaos in the outside world reached?

Lu Jianxia clenched her fists, her teeth trembling slightly.

"Is this human world truly already without hope?

Ancient Gods wreak havoc on the world, the people are plunged into misery, yet the human race still insists on internal strife, still insists on exterminating one another."

She murmured, not knowing what she should do.

…………

Inside the mountain cave.

Chen Yan unleashed 【Royal Decay - Holy Intent Bewilderment】 to begin influencing Chen Lanqiu.

This person's strength was the weakest, but still stronger than the Ascenders.

According to the eighth-rank grading, this person should be at the peak of the early eighth rank.

And that woman in the white robe, named Lu Zhiwei, was already stronger than the giant beast born from the fusion of the five Ascenders.

This was definitely the mid-eighth rank.

As for that Chen He, he is definitely at the late stage of the Eighth Rank.

His strength is even higher than that of Lu Zhiwei.

Therefore, Chen Yan decided to start by picking the soft persimmon, choosing Chen Lanqiu to influence her first.

"This is... getting a bit interesting.

If I don't reach the Eighth Rank, I don't think I can beat him."

A smile appeared on the corner of Chen Yan's mouth, an aura of life and death circulating around his body as his consciousness returned to the Magnetic Storm Thunder Domain.

"Xiaoyu." Chen Yan murmured, summoning Chen Yu.

Immediately, the Heavenly God Armor detached itself from Chen Yu's body.

As the Heavenly God Armor fell away, Chen Yu's consciousness was once again drawn into the Pure True Yang Realm, where she would use the Space Array Disk to find Chen Yan.

Hum, hum, hum...

The Heavenly God Armor and the Ash-Evil Spear appeared before Chen Yan, ringing out with a metallic clang.

"You two take my original physical body to the Ancient God Forbidden Land; when the time comes, I will break open the Pure True Yang Realm once again."

Chen Yan chuckled.

Ever since the Ash-Evil Spear and the Heavenly God Armor were forged by over two thousand three hundred Counter-Fire Crystals inside the Counter-Fire Furnace, they had long since surpassed their initial power.

With these two divine artifacts, Chen Yan's strength had increased by at least a hundredfold.

That's right.

A hundredfold!

Even if Chen He is as powerful as he is, how could he compare to Chen Yan's hundredfold improvement?

It was not that Chen Yan was overly confident.

It was simply that the situation was exactly as it was.

The 【Blood Battle State】 of the Heavenly God Armor alone had already evolved.

【Blood Battle State】:

Within ten minutes, it allows Chen Yan to ignore all attacks from the early Eighth Rank and below, and it also reduces the damage Chen Yan takes from attacks by Eighth Rank martial artists at or below the early Eighth Rank to one-tenth.

And within these ten minutes, Chen Yan's speed increases sevenfold, his strength increases sevenfold, and his blood-energy combat power increases sevenfold.

Originally, the duration of the Blood Battle State was only five minutes, but after Chen Yan forged it with the final Counter-Fire Crystals.

The duration of the 【Blood Battle State】 increased to ten minutes.

It was upgraded from ignoring Creation Realm attacks to ignoring early Eighth Rank attacks.

Furthermore, it directly increased Chen Yan's speed, strength, and blood-energy combat power from a twofold increase to a sevenfold increase, which is not much different from directly increasing Chen Yan's combat power sevenfold.

The enemy's damage is reduced tenfold, and one's own power is increased sevenfold.

What is the difference between this and Chen Yan's combat power directly increasing seventyfold?

And this is just the improvement of the Heavenly God Armor, not even counting the Ash-Evil Spear.

With the help of these two, Chen Yan's strength is unimaginable.

"Once I've absorbed enough from the Shi Meng Mo, can I directly commit an act of insubordination?" Chen Yan murmured:

"I don't want to rely on external forces; I want to change everything with my own power, but why must you force me?"

The arrival of Chen He did not give him even the slightest bit of pressure.

On the contrary, it only added a touch of irritation to his dull cultivation.

It was just like being bitten by a bug.

He, Chen Yan, is not the type of person who likes to rely on external objects.

If one can explode someone's head with their own fists, who would like to use weapons?

The feeling of exploding a head with a punch is the most satisfying.

Moreover, because Chen Yan was constantly draining the energy of the Shi Meng Mo, the speed at which the Shi Meng Mo drained the Ancient God aura from Chen Changyuan's body also slowed down significantly.

Calculating it now, perhaps Chen Yan could still have three days.

Three days is enough for Chen Yan to do many things.

With a flash of thought, the Ash-Evil Spear wrapped around Chen Yan's original body, and together with the Heavenly God Armor, they turned into two streams of light and flew toward the Ancient God Forbidden Land.

He had a natural conscious connection with the two divine artifacts; the moment Chen Yan shattered the Pure True Yang Realm, he had sensed the two divine artifacts.

At the same time, he naturally knew the location of the Shi Meng Mo.

The next moment, Chen Yan returned to the Pure True Yang Realm once again.

And outside the cave, a figure was already waiting.

It was Lu Jianxia.

At this moment, Lu Jianxia was standing quietly outside the cave, her expression extremely complex.

She walked over slowly.

It was also at this moment.

On the rock wall of the cave, streaks of pitch-black thunder light appeared.

The thunder light gathered in front of her and transformed into a figure.

"Heavenly God General." Lu Jianxia pursed her lips, staring at Chen Yan:

"Speak my heart to the heavens and earth..."

Her heart pounded; she had guessed for a long time, and this sentence had always influenced her, always entangling itself in the depths of her heart.

Until that day, when she was about to die, she said it.

When the ascenders were all mocking her, someone responded to her.

Is this just a sentence?

This is a dream.

A dream possessing endless power, a promise, a future.

These are words that an ordinary person could absolutely not say.

She had always wanted to ask, and even now, her heart was beating violently.

Yet she saw, opposite her.

The youth condensed from lightning light looked at her calmly:

"These words were spoken by me."

Silence.

Silence.

For an instant, Lu Jianxia seemed to have forgotten the words she had originally intended to say, standing rooted to the spot in a daze.