Zhao Han no longer concealed his own aura while speaking. He released his earth immortal might, making it difficult for the others present to even breathe. His body swirled with brilliance. Previously, there had been some faint black runes binding him, but now, none of them could be seen anymore. The curse Wu Wuyan had sacrificed her entire life to apply had clearly lost its effects.

Zu An felt a bit down. He had planned to come in to reap all the benefits after the two sides killed each other, but why was he now facing Zhao Han at his strongest?

King Qi, didn’t you fight against the emperor for so many years? And yet now, you’ve already had your body and soul destroyed. Not only was the damage you inflicted negligible, you even helped him recover to his peak! How useless…

Still, he knew that wasn’t King Qi’s fault. Zhao Han, that cunning bastard, had already thought of many ways to give King Qi a fake skill over the past few decades, and yet he had acted as if it all hinged on Zu An giving King Qi the fake ‘Phoenix Nirvana Sutra’. Even Zu An had been fooled, so it wasn’t surprising that King Qi had fallen for Zhao Han’s trap.

Ruhua immediately turned tail to run the moment he saw what was happening. He knew that with how things stood, their plans had already gone down the drain. For the sake of seriously injuring Zhao Han, he had sustained quite intense injuries himself. He was definitely not a match for Zhao Han in his current condition. Of course, even at his strongest, he still wouldn’t be a match.

“You want to run?” Zhao Han remarked with a sneer. Ruhua had made him suffer so much. If he let the monk get away, his name wouldn’t be Zhao Han. Thus, he vanished from his original location. A second later, many Zhao Han clones appeared around Ruhua.

Zu An had witnessed the dark elves’ space-leaping methods, and he had seen Xuan Bajing’s lightning skills. But compared to Zhao Han, all of them seemed like mere child’s play. He had been watching the whole situation closely, and yet he hadn’t noticed any traces of Zhao Han flying at all. It was as if the emperor had directly warped through space! He had heard that as the world’s strongest, Zhao Han had already comprehended the laws of space. Now, he saw that it was true.

Ruhua’s expression was grave. His monk robes fluttered as he did his best to defend himself. The two earth immortals seemed to have left the bounds of spatial laws. The onlookers only saw afterimages several seconds old, while their real bodies couldn't be sensed at all.

Zu An sighed in pity. For some reason, Zhao Han didn’t send out his primordial spirit, and instead fought against Monk Ruhua with his physical body.

Xie Daoyun was bewildered. She tugged on Zu An’s clothes and asked him through ki transmission, “Big brother Zu, should we help his majesty or not?”

Her instincts told her to help the emperor, but when she saw King Qi’s miserable end and remembered how her father seemed to have been really close to King Qi, she realized that if the emperor won, he would get his revenge. The Xie clan would probably be in trouble then.

Zu An remained quiet. Qiu Honglei suddenly said, “Ah Zu, it’s far too dangerous here. We should use this chance while that monk is holding up the emperor to run.”

The Devil Sect viewed the emperor as their enemy. She knew that once the battle was decided, there was no way he would let the Devil Sect’s people go. Furthermore, the emperor appeared to have the advantage right now. It wasn’t something their participation could affect at all.

However, Yun Jianyue seemed eager to pick a fight, saying, “Brat, this emperor is probably not as strong as he’s making himself out to be. He was definitely at least a bit affected by the earlier battles. Why don’t we just use that earth immortal rank monk as our main force and go for broke? What was that thing you said before? Try to turn a bike into a motorcycle or something?”

Unlike her disciple Qiu Honglei, she had fought a great battle against an earth immortal in the Fiend Races' secret dungeon. Together with how much their cultivation ranks had increased, earth immortals were no longer completely invincible beings to her.

Zu An couldn't help but laugh. This woman really did love her risks. In the past, she had dared to assault the palace. Even after all this time, her nature hadn’t changed in the slightest! Still, he wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. After all, Ruhua would certainly be defeated, while he couldn't see any openings left by Zhao Han. Even if he took out the Sun Slaying Bow, he didn’t have any way of targeting Zhao Han, which made it completely meaningless. It would only alert Zhao Han to the existence of that trump card.

However, if he retreated here, he would really feel that giving up this opportunity was a huge waste. After today, perhaps he would never have such a good chance to bring down Zhao Han. On top of that, after the day’s events, there was no way Zhao Han would tolerate his existence in this world.

While he was feeling conflicted, Yan Xuehen’s voice manifested in his ear, saying, “No matter what choice you make, I will always stand by your side.”

Zu An was shocked and happy to hear that. He had never expected Yan Xuehen to say such a thing! After all, she had always been cool and indifferent, and she had never publicly stated her love. Even now, he wasn’t sure about their relationship.

Those words were more convincing than anything else, however. If there hadn’t been other people around, Zu An would almost certainly have been unable to resist taking her hand.

When she sensed his excitement, Yan Xuehen became a bit embarrassed. She looked away on purpose, avoiding eye contact.

Of course, her feelings weren’t the only reason for her decision. Li Changsheng was her senior brother and had considerable status in the White Jade Sect. Now that he had joined in on the plot, the White Jade Sect had already been placed at the crossroads of danger. There was no way Zhao Han wouldn’t try to get revenge on the sect after the fact!

And yet, the way she had lived for so many made her unable to decide on something like rebellion. As such, she decided to just give the power of choice to Zu An, and she would just follow him.

…

At that moment, however, victory was already decided. Zhao Han passed through Ruhua’s body like a streak of light.

However, it was surprising that there were no holes left in Ruhua’s body. Normally, after all, such a large person passing through an opponent’s body would definitely leave a large wound.

Upon closer inspection, though, there were many fine injuries on Ruhua instead. Every wound was rather peculiar. There were no traces of blood, and they seemed to have been left by some kind of destructive power.

Normally, once cultivators passed the seventh rank, they gained powerful regenerative abilities. For earth immortals, both the strength of their flesh or their regeneration ability were at a terrifying level. They could usually recover quickly from such small wounds.

And yet, those wounds remained, completely covering Ruhua. The flesh around them was trying to heal, but was stopped by some kind of invisible force that made it collapse and break apart. Such a sight was incredibly uncomfortable to see.

Yan Xuehen and Yun Jianyue had grave expressions. They both explained at the same time, “This is the result of Zhao Han using his spatial abilities, causing those wounds to remain in that state. Without removing his aura from one’s body, the wounds would only grow larger and eventually devour the whole person.”

Zu An frowned. This ability seemed to counter his own regenerative abilities that he was quite proud of. Back when he was in Westhound Tomb, he had faced Zhao Han, but that was just a split soul. It was still quite far from the real body. Furthermore, he had taken advantage of the situation in that fight. There wouldn’t necessarily be such a good opportunity this time.

Zhao Han didn’t continue attacking, and stood with his hands behind his back. He said proudly, “You’ve lost!”

Ruhua’s once bright eyes were now a bit dim. He said, “You’re right. I’ve lost. All those bitter decades of effort, and yet fate supersedes our efforts…” His voice was full of regret and disappointment. Afterward, his head slumped, and no signs of life remained.

Zhao Han then looked at Zu An and said, “It should be your turn now. Should I call you the Fiend races’ Regent or Zu An?”

In that instant, Zu An felt as if he were being stared at by a massive primordial beast. All the fine hairs on his body stood on end. Earlier, this man had been calling him marquis in such an intimate manner, and yet now, it was just a chilly ‘Zu An’.

Xie Daoyun said in a trembling voice, “Your majesty, Sir Zu has cautiously and conscientiously eliminated all kinds of dangers on Violet Mountain, but this is an earth immortal level battle, so it is pardonable that he could not uncover anything. I hope that your majesty can be lenient out of thought for his hard work.”

Most of the people present had all sorts of ulterior motives; only Xie Daoyun was on the purer side. Furthermore, she had always been a proper citizen and was an academy student, one who didn’t have any thoughts of going against the emperor. The only thing she was worried about was her big brother Zu’s safety.

She had the lowest cultivation rank out of those present. She was clearly frightened out of her mind and even her voice was shaking, but she summoned her courage and pleaded with the demon king-like emperor.