Chapter 739: You Should Know Why I Can Bear the Name Southern Emperor

In Liuli Prefecture, at the city gate.

Two rows of soldiers clad in imperial qi stood ready for battle; demon-catchers with iron tablets hanging at their waists leaned against the city wall, arms crossed, eyes lowered, absorbing the faces of all passersby into their gaze.

Not just here; now all twenty-seven prefectures of Da Nanzhou were in this same formation.

Because the General Who Suppresses the South had suspended operations in Liuli Prefecture, less than twenty zhang inside the city gate, two titled generals sat beneath the tree shade; they appeared to converse casually, yet their qi already enveloped the entire long street.

Not to mention, in places no one noticed, the entire Da Nanzhou was being watched closely by those silent suppression stones, among which were even third-rank great demons comparable to Great Luo Immortal Venerables.

Amidst such strict defense and desperate guarding.

Two porters in disguise, one tall and sturdy carrying a shoulder pole, the other thin and hunched, head bowed following behind, after undergoing the soldiers' questioning, stepped steadily into the prefectural city.

The two entered right under the demon-catchers' noses, passed by the two seated titled generals, lips moving, obviously conversing about something.

Yet those titled generals noticed not the slightest anomaly, let alone heard any sound.

"Why have we come here?"

The thin porter's eyes held a trace of confusion.

The entire long journey, measured by two legs, without casting any divine arts or spells; though not exactly tiring, it was far too troublesome.

With the two of them's strength, to break through Da Nanzhou, did they really need to choose a specific location?

"Liuli Prefecture lies in the center of Da Nanzhou's twenty-seven prefectures. The Divine Dynasty's experts long knew of this Emperor's existence; having just dealt with that group of trash, their thoughts must now be fixed entirely on this Emperor. If they intend to make preparations, they will concentrate all their power in one place; this location is perfectly suited for them to control the entire situation."

The tall porter's gaze never strayed sideways; only those mud-stained bare feet stepped faster and faster.

Those two fourth-rank cultivators sitting opposite just now also verified his thoughts from the side; other prefectural cities did not receive such treatment.

"And also..."

He drew out his voice, tone calm, without any concealment: "This Emperor trusts neither you, nor them."

Hearing this, the thin porter frowned slightly, yet dared not offend the other party.

After all, the "them" in the other party's mouth most likely referred to the Puti Sect and the Sanxian Sect; compared to these two great sects, what did it matter that he didn't trust himself?

Moments later.

The Southern Emperor slightly tugged the brim of his bamboo hat, footsteps slowly halting, gazing at that magnificent prefectural government office.

It deliberately brought along this remaining Demon Venerable, wandering aimlessly through the twenty-seven prefectures of Nanzhou as if entering an empty world; this was not to flaunt strength, nor was it cowardice deliberately stalling time.

After all, although the Southern Emperor, prompted by the incense-stamp handprint, was forced to move to the Divine Dynasty, what it feared was only the Great Selfless Pure World Bodhisattva.

As long as the Sumeru Mountain does not emerge, within this Da Nanzhou, it remains that emperor who looks down upon the world.

But the losses it suffered previously were absolutely not something the Divine Dynasty had the strength to accomplish; most likely they stemmed from the open and covert struggles between the two sects.

The Southern Emperor could accept taking risks to break the Zhou, but this time, no one would be able to grasp its movements, including those so-called Bodhisattvas and Immortal Venerables.

Where to strike, when to strike; only it alone must know.

"Hoo."

The tall porter took the shoulder pole from his shoulder, the other end casually resting on the ground.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and a profound intoxication surfaced on his face.

"Found it."

Shhh... The shoulder pole dragged across the stone-brick ground; this tall porter, eyes still closed, calmly stepped up the stairs, crossed the threshold, and walked into that government office.

Everyone seemed to ignore his figure.

A Bai Shan woman brushed past him; having just reached the doorway, preparing to leave the government office, she suddenly stood frozen as if struck by lightning.

Ye Lan instinctively clutched her chest, feeling her heart pound violently.

Her other hand instinctively gripped the Demon-Slaying Token at her waist; under her dazed gaze, the jade tablet containing the power of the Three-Three Transformations suddenly saw its yellow mist erupt into turmoil.

Crack, crack.

A crisp sound rang in her ears; the Demon-Slaying Token in Ye Lan's palm shattered into several pieces.

Her back was instantly soaked with cold sweat; she suddenly turned her head, seeing people coming and going within the hall, laughter and chatter unceasing; everything was no different from usual.

But Ye Lan's body trembled slightly, pupils constricted, as if she saw the corpses of Shen Yidi ahead.

It... has come!

Deep within the government office, in Cheng Xiaoyuan.

The three Generals Who Suppress the South, their expressions solemn, flipped through the daily messages transmitted from the various prefectural cities, refusing to miss any clue.

Yang Mingli rubbed his eye sockets, directing his gaze toward the map on the table, his vision constantly scanning over the twenty-seven prefectures; he bitterly smiled, saying, "Whether it comes or not, we cannot act; if we just wait idly like this, I fear before it even arrives, this old man will first perish from mental exhaustion and physical depletion."

Even for a third-rank expert, keeping that string of the heart so tense all the time is simply not right.

"If it truly comes, you won't be happy either."

Lady Lady Feng Xi glanced at him reproachfully, while Yan Lanting carefully organized the booklet he had just finished reading, then pulled out a new one.

Seeing this, Yang Mingli clicked his tongue; even this old villain had no mind to quarrel with him, which was enough to show how great the pressure in everyone's hearts truly was.

He helplessly stared at the map, hoping to discern some clue from it: "Whether it comes or not, what this old man says doesn't count."

Just then, a shoulder pole as thick as a bowl rim protruded from behind his shoulder, lightly tapping the middle of the map, on the spot belonging to Liuli Prefecture City.

A soft whisper sounded by his ear.

"It has come; right here."

In an instant, Yang Mingli's body hair stood on end; since becoming a General Who Suppresses the South, no one had been able to approach him so closely without a sound for many years.

His entire body erupted with calamity qi; instinctively, he wanted to turn his head to look.

However, that shoulder pole顺势 pressed down on Yang Mingli's shoulder; an utterly ordinary mortal object actually pinned a third-rank expert firmly to his chair.

"Do not move."

The whisper still sounded like a mosquito, yet the three of them heard a thread of resentment within it.

That was the unwillingness of being controlled by others.

This resentment urgently needs an outlet.

"Move again... and I'll beat you to death."

The tall porter held a carrying pole in one hand and gently removed his bamboo hat with the other; he split his mouth, licked his bone-white teeth with his tongue, and a cruel smile gradually spread across his stubbled face.

A threat coarser and more brutal than any street ruffian's, yet when it came from the mouth of a great demon of long-standing fame in Da Nanzhou, no one would question its authenticity.

Yang Mingli felt his brain tremble; after a brief scattering of thoughts, his entire focus concentrated as never before, frantically pondering countermeasures.

Yet even so, his breathing, growing ever heavier due to tension, was an instinctive reaction his body made beyond his brain's control.

"Along this journey, this Emperor has heard many rumors."

"Among them, the two characters 'Nanyang' are the most familiar."

"May I ask which of the three is General Nanyang?"

The tall porter casually tossed his bamboo hat to the ground; now deep within the central region of the Divine Dynasty's Da Nanzhou, enveloped by the imperial qi of the heavens, surrounded by the Divine Dynasty's most elite experts, yet he appeared as if strolling leisurely, calm and unhurried, even having the mood to resolve the confusion in his heart.

After all, based on the observations from this crossing of Nanzhou, every failure he had arranged seemed inextricably linked to this title.

The Southern Emperor was truly curious: what divine being could possess such power while also achieving flawless calculation?

Simply disrupting his plans, forcing him into the current situation of being compelled to come to Pozhou.

It slowly swept its gaze over the three before it: "None of you speak?"

The stubble on this man's face trembled slightly; that was his silent laughter: "In that case, I shall temporarily consider all three of you to be Nanyang."

This question did not require an answer.

If one truly possessed the capability, one would naturally see it at a glance; if dead, then whether one was Nanyang or not would be irrelevant.

It had clearly used the carrying pole to restrain Yang Mingli; yet now, under the three's deathly stares, it simply and decisively released that pole.

Immediately after, this man, before the three's eyes, lazily stretched, while emitting from his mouth a deep yawn like rolling heavenly thunder.

"Haa—"

Accompanying this dull sound, an indigo luster suddenly rose upon his powerful body; his originally tight skin rippled like water waves, transforming into layered folds, and his entire body swelled wildly as if being inflated!

"Act!"

Yan Lanting suddenly let out a fierce roar.

What was recorded most frequently in those ancient texts was this great demon's terrifyingly immense form.

In other words, this beast needed not employ any means; merely revealing its true form could turn the entire Liuli Songfeng Fucheng into ruins!

【76】 The three Southern Pacifying Generals simultaneously summoned their Demon-Slaying Tokens.

The three Southern Pacification Generals simultaneously summoned their Demon-Slaying Tokens.

The imperial qi within those tokens far surpassed the one held by Ye Lan.

They were colleagues who had cooperated for many years; at this moment, no communication was needed, as each understood the other's thoughts; without the slightest hesitation, Yang Mingli and Lady Lady Feng Xi each embraced the porter's left and right arms, while Yan Lanting circled the opponent's waist.

They simultaneously mobilized their calamity force, intending to send it skyward.

"..."

Wushan, arriving upon hearing the sound, walked with hurried and frantic steps, yet the instant he reached the courtyard entrance, he stopped for no apparent reason.

He stared blankly into the courtyard.

He saw that in the previous breath, the three my lords still seemed to have restrained the porter, but in the next breath, as that indigo mountain of flesh rapidly swelled, the three were like three ants hanging from the branches of a sky-supporting giant tree, drifting with the wind.

Wushan's gaze, which had been level just moments ago, instantly became a slightly foolish upward look.

This familiar figure seemed to suddenly transport him back to his childhood, to the day his family was utterly exterminated, when he looked up and saw that fleeting yet unforgettable, terrifying shadow in the sky.

Wushan had cultivated bitterly for many years; through countless days and nights, he had imagined that when the day came he stood before that figure again, what bold words he would speak to relieve his heart's resentment.

But when this moment truly arrived, he merely shifted from gazing up from that unreachable position of the past to standing slightly closer to gaze up in the present.

Those bold words prepared for so long, amidst his body's uncontrollable trembling, dissolved into a few words carrying a tremor.

"S-Southern Emperor!"

Before the words had fully fallen, that indigo mountain of flesh had already grown as large as the entire Songfeng Fucheng, hanging over the myriad living beings of Liuli Songfeng Fucheng, blocking the sun and moon, scattering the clouds across the heavens, and its shadow swallowing the earth in an instant.

"Rise for me!!"

Even when facing the Thousand-Armed Bodhisattva back then, Yan Lanting had managed to force his body out of the main hall.

But now, the Southern Emperor had not even moved, yet this old man let out a voice-breaking scream!

He was the only one among the three cultivators who had completed the Three-Three Transformation; furthermore, holding the Demon-Slaying Token, such a profound object, its dense imperial qi nearly wrapped his entire body, transforming into a golden-yellow robe.

These three Southern Pacifying Generals pressed their palms hard into the flesh, yet could only with extreme difficulty push that indigo mountain of flesh slightly higher into the air; before the true battle of spells had even begun, they already showed signs of exhaustion!

The earlier yawn had turned into waves of laughter.

The Southern Emperor finally withdrew its arms from stretching; it glanced indifferently at Yan Lanting, who was like an ant upon its body, and shook its head: "You should not be Nanyang."

Then, it looked at Lady Lady Feng Xi: "Nor are you."

Until finally, this mountain of flesh glanced disdainfully at Yang Mingli: "You are even less likely."

In a single breath, it suddenly sank downward.

With this simple motion, the imperial qi upon the three Southern Pacifying Generals instantly scattered; their faces all flushed red to the point of nearly dripping blood, and according to their cultivation levels, they spat out blood in sequence.

"Pfft!"

They did not even have the chance to summon their respective techniques; if they did not let go now, it seemed they would be directly suppressed and killed.

Except for the terrifying, overwhelming immense force surging through their bodies.

That laughter beside their ears, like wild thunder, shook their souls as if they were about to split, even filling the whites of their eyes with blood vessels.

Just as the Southern Emperor, feeling slightly bored, prepared to directly suppress and kill the three, its eyelids suddenly lifted; it saw that ripples had abruptly appeared in the air, like an invisible great mouth, swallowing the three entirely.

"..."

The Southern Emperor stopped laughing and silently gazed down at the earth below.

Soon, its gaze returned to that courtyard.

At some unknown time, those three cultivators had already returned to the ground; supported by a slender back, they sat back on their chairs with faint breaths.

The ink-black robe swayed slightly as the man bent down, casually dispelling the residual force from Yan Lanting's body, then straightened up again. Silently, he turned his head to gaze at the indigo flesh-mountain in the sky.

This was the first time the two had locked eyes within the Glazed Pavilion.

The Southern Emperor saw that clean, handsome face clearly; he had seen it only once before, yet the memory remained vivid to this day.

From the Seven Sages Marsh to their reunion in Da Nanzhou, what remained unchanged was the contempt and cold arrogance lingering in those eyes and brows.

"Hahaha..."

The Southern Emperor forced a laugh from his throat, the sound containing the same unwillingness as before, but that unwillingness quickly faded, replaced by a rage anyone could hear.

He had thought the problem lay in the conflict between the two sects, that he had been swept up in it, but he never imagined—

The same Nan Xumi.

Some forced him to come to Pozhou, while others used the demon race to build their reputation.

The Southern Emperor had originally thought he had carelessly become a dog driven by those Monks; only now did he suddenly realize that he wasn't even a hunting dog, but merely a toy locked in a cage by those Monks to be played with.

"So, ha, so the Bodhisattva is Nan Yang!"

Perhaps due to being too fat and strong, he laughed until he was out of breath, but soon, the expression of this flesh-mountain twisted and became hideous under Shen Yi's aloof posture.

Relying on a great sect allowed such arrogance, yet he forgot the hardest truth in this world.

"The Bodhisattva will soon understand why this Seat dares to take the name Southern Emperor and still survive to this day."

Before the words had fully left his mouth, the Southern Emperor's eyes were already filled with mockery; when he no longer cared about those matters, the great tree the Monk thought he leaned on, those things that made him so arrogant before him, were utterly insignificant.

Just a petty clown.

(End of this chapter)