Chapter 217: Tracking

“Is that the power of darkness? What a familiar feeling. This seems to be a darkness domain,” Su Chen began to laugh after recovering from his momentary shock.

So the Scarlet Heart’s darkness-type Origin Skill actually primarily utilized Darkness Origin Substance.

No one understood this kind of energy more than Su Chen.

Even the Scarlet Heart’s understanding of Darkness Origin Substance

“You really aren’t lucky today, are you?” Su Chen chuckled.

The glove on his left hand glowed imperceptibly with a dark luster. As this dark light flickered, Su Chen’s figure disappeared without a trace.

Darkness Concealment.

Su Chen didn’t have any hope that this concealment would allow him to escape the lock-on that the Scarlet Heart had on him, but no other individual would be able to attack him apart from the Scarlet Heart himself. The effectiveness of activating this concealment while his entire being was immersed in a realm of darkness made the effect much greater.

And while he was within this realm, he began to absorb Darkness Origin Substance.

At this point, he had already managed to sense the source of the Darkness Origin Substance - it was coming from the Scarlet Heart himself. Obviously, however, the Scarlet Heart was not the original possessor of that Origin Substance; most likely, he had probably opened some pathway to a place where Darkness Origin Substance was extremely abundant, then drawing out large quantities of that substance and storing it in his own body. As such, he was essentially using his physical body as a conduit for this Darkness Origin Substance.

In other words, using this Origin Skill required him to pay a tremendous price. Su Chen very quickly realized this point.

“He can actually use his physical body as a conduit to a different dimension? He really is very strong,” Su Chen couldn’t help but mutter to himself. However, this realization also gave him a further direction to explore: “These Demonic Emperors are all like this. They are all aware of what is happening but are unaware of why it is happening. Their physical bodies are all treasures in and of themselves, and possess an incredible affinity for using the power contained in the environment. If I can get my hands on its body......”

The flames of desire burned ever more brightly in Su Chen’s eyes.

Under normal circumstances, Su Chen wouldn’t have dared to pick a fight against a Demonic Emperor even if someone had multiplied his courage tenfold. After all, he was three cultivation realms lower than a Demonic Emperor. However, the Scarlet Heart before his eyes was obviously very different.

He had been wounded, wounded badly.

This meant that he had an opportunity.

Su Chen stared intently at the Scarlet Heart as he carefully began to move.

The instant the Scarlet Heart saw Su Chen’s figure fade into the darkness, he knew that he had lost his opportunity.

In the end, he still valued his life more. After failing yet again, the Scarlet Heart could only stare angrily at Su Chen, as if he was trying to imprint Su Chen’s face in his memory, then flew off into the distance.

He went back to escaping.

At that moment, Su Chen suddenly pounced.

He pounced in the direction of the Scarlet Heart, cleaving his Mountain-Beheading Blade right at the Scarlet Heart.

The Scarlet Heart actually felt excitement rather than anger as he unleashed a claw behind him.

However, Su Chen didn’t wait for this attack to connect before causing his figure to disappear.

He had suddenly leapt away from the battlefield again with a Whitetower Teleportation.

He never had any intention of killing the Scarlet Heart in the first place.

He just wanted to use the Scarlet Heart’s hesitation and unwillingness to delay him for just a moment.

Indeed, as soon as the Scarlet Heart paused, another round of Ravager attacks began to rain down fiercely on him.

“ROAR!”

The Scarlet Heart howled with rage. Torrents of energy rolled off its body, blocking all of these attacks, but his face also turned much paler. His figure swayed slightly, as if it was getting harder and harder for him to remain standing.

“Bastard, I’ll remember you! After today, I swear I will kill you even if I have to chase you all the way to the horizon!” the Scarlet Heart howled with rage as he resumed his escape.

This time, Su Chen didn’t chase after him.

He watched the Scarlet Heart fly away as he said slowly, “No worries. I will remember you too.”

The darkness realm disappeared, and Su Chen reappeared from the midst of the darkness.

At this moment, he had assumed the appearance of a Ravager yet again, allowing him to wander through the tens of thousands of Ravager soldiers easily.

This time, no other incidents occurred, and Su Chen easily walked out of the battlefield.

He continued to advance. Finally, after walking through a forest, he arrived at a mountain slope near the River Gazing Plains. Here, it was possible to see the large river flowing powerfully downstream. This place was the rendezvous point that Su Chen had set with everyone else.

By the time Su Chen arrived, Le Feng and the others had been waiting for him for a long time.

When they saw Su Chen’s arrival, everyone was extremely excited and said, “Commander is fine!”

Yan Kai and the others immediately knelt. “Many thanks for Commander’s saving us!”

“Alright, you can get up. This isn’t the first time I’ve saved you all anyways; you should be used to it by now,” Su Chen chuckled.

Everyone else began to laugh when he said that.

“Since Commander is here, we can leave now,” Jiang Liu said.

Su Chen said, “You guys go first. I have already told you all which path to take, so I don’t necessarily need to come along with you.”

Everyone was stunned. “You’re not going to leave?”

“Yes, there’s still something I need to take care of. Don’t worry about it. The Ravagers have no way of catching me here,” Su Chen said.

This statement of Su Chen’s was quite true. With his current camouflage ability, even the Ravager Clairvoyants wouldn’t be able to spot him. As such, he could wander around Ravager territory as he pleased. In comparison, Le Feng, Jiang Liu, and the others could only trick a few of the lower-status Ravagers. They would be immediately exposed as soon as they encountered any Clairvoyants, so it was better for them to leave as soon as possible.

Once they realized that Su Chen had made his decision, they could only return the Silver Moon Shuttle and Raging Sun Shuttle to Su Chen and bid their goodbyes.

Su Chen turned around to leave, but he hadn’t gotten far when he suddenly heard someone say, “Commander Su, remember to find us when you return to Long Sang Country. We will always be your subordinates!”

Su Chen turned around to find a large group of soldiers staring at him fervently, down on one knee.

Su Chen smiled slightly and said, “Fine by me!”

After leaving Le Feng and the others, Su Chen continued to walk forwards.

He seemed to be meandering quite casually, not in a hurry to get anywhere anytime soon.

From time to time, he would run into some Ravager deserters. As long as those deserters didn’t bother him, he let them be.

A day later, Su Chen encountered a Ravager captain. The latter was trying to gather defeated soldiers, but Su Chen easily took care of him.

Su Chen managed to gather from that captain’s mouth that the Beasts had still lost that giant battle from yesterday.

Nearly a hundred thousand Beasts had died in battle, but the Inferno Tribe wasn’t much better off. Thirty thousand or so of the two hundred thousand soldiers had died in the battle. Most of the ones who had died were Ancestors. Gucha had been killed, and Goncourt was badly injured from expending far too much life force. He probably wouldn’t survive for much longer. It was quite clear that they had paid a significant price to obtain this victory, and they had actually still lost in the end.

Finally, the Origin Bone Scepter and the Vitality Totem had both been lost.

A greater danger was probably waiting for Anubi once he returned to Gullan Castle.

However, this no longer had anything to do with Su Chen.

Having taken care of the captain, Su Chen continued to head west. Two days later, he arrived at a small forest.

He whistled, and the white paper doll floated out.

“Master!”

Origin Rings could not store living creatures, so Su Chen had instructed the white paper doll to wait here before he went to Gullan Castle. He had left behind a transmission method as well, so they were able to communicate after Su Chen had left Gullan Castle.

“How’s the Heavenly Might Battalion doing?” Su Chen asked.

“Master, they have already safely crossed the Heavenly River Ancient Road. Iron Cliff did everything well.”

“So you met with Iron Cliff already?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How is he doing?”

“He’s already become the leader of the Hurricane Stoneskins and helped open a way for the Heavenly Might Battalion. However, the Hurricane Stoneskins paid quite a price for this to happen; twelve of them were sacrificed, and thirty of them were wounded. He hopes that Master can reward them for their contributions.”

“That’s not a problem. What does he want?”

“A piece of land suitable for them to live on.”

Su Chen nodded. “He will get that.”

Iron Cliff’s thought process had obviously matured after he had become a chieftain.

Hurricane Canyon was not a place that could support lots of life. Iron Cliff’s request was not excessive, so Su Chen was obviously going to agree to it. And finding a place suitable for them to live was not a problem either, because Stoneskins could live anywhere. The main issue was that they needed to protect them. Wherever someone protected them, that was their safe haven. Otherwise, they could only live in a place like the Hurricane Canyon.

In addition, Stoneskins were incredibly resilient. With Iron Cliff there, Su Chen was more than happy to take them in.

“So are we going back now?” The white paper doll glanced at Su Chen.

“No, I need to do something before that,” Su Chen replied.

“What is it?”

Su Chen didn’t bother replying. He stared up at the sky and said, “I’m not in a hurry.”

As he spoke, he walked off. When the white paper doll saw this, he only felt that the situation was slightly strange, but he didn’t think about it too much and followed after Su Chen.

They traveled for another two days.

Two days later, Su Chen arrived at a small mountain.

This mountain was covered in lush green vegetation.

When he saw this mountain, Su Chen muttered, “It should be here. Seems like it’s about the right time anyways.”

As he spoke, he stepped inside the mountainous forest.

As they walked forwards, they very quickly came to an open clearing.

This clearing was extremely strange. There should have been plenty of vegetation there, but for some reason all of the large trees there had all withered and died, leaving behind an extremely round circle.

At the center of this circle was a depression. Because it was covered in dust, it was impossible to see what was in the depression.

Su Chen smiled slightly as he stood off to the side.

“Death Shadow of a Youth, you go and take a look.”

“Yes, Master.” The white paper doll walked forwards. He couldn’t sense an aura, so he walked over to the depression and began to absorb some of the dust there.

At the very same instant, however, a lofty aura blasted past him.

“Who is it? Who dares interrupt this sovereign’s sleep?”

This aura!

:The white paper doll was shocked.

It was the might of an emperor.

The white paper doll shrieked and attempted to hurriedly retreat, but Su Chen grabbed him firmly. “Did I say you could go?”

“That’s an Emperor..... an Emperor......” The white paper doll was so scared that it couldn’t even form a coherent thought.

“I know,” Su Chen replied coolly as he tossed the white paper doll out.

“AHH!” the white paper doll shrieked shrilly.

Boom!

A violent wave of energy washed over the white paper doll, sending him flying into midair. He flew quite a distance before slamming into the ground violently.

The white paper doll wanted to run as soon as he hit the ground, but Su Chen called him back. The consciousness restrictions placed on him forced the white paper doll to return to Su Chen’s side.

“Master, that’s an...... Emperor!” the white paper doll said with great difficulty.

“I know that. But do you not feel that this emperor is a bit weak?” Su Chen asked with a slight smile.

The white paper doll was stunned. He finally realized that, given the normal strength of an emperor, he should have died instantly.

What was happening?

“It seems like there is no way around it now, Your Majesty,” Su Chen said calmly.