A World Worth Protecting

The Ink Dragon Legion’s commander made the right guess. Wang Baole was indeed headed for Divine Sovereign Justice Sect territory. He knew that the relationship between the Violet Gold New Dao Sect and the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect ensured that the former wouldn’t dare to venture into the latter’s territory so easily.

They were rivals, after all. Their rivalry might not have reached the point of outright hostility, but trespassing into the other’s territory would be construed as an open provocation, regardless of the reason.

As soon as the female cultivator realized what Wang Baole was up to, a vicious glint flickered in her eyes. She snorted, then lifted her right hand and formed a hand seal. Then, she suddenly bit the tip of her tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood!

The burst of fresh, crimson blood rippled and morphed into a blood-colored dragonfly!

Both the dragonfly’s body and wings were blood red, and the creature exuded a murderous aura. It appeared to be the physical manifestation of someone’s will. It dashed out as soon as it materialized, shooting through space like a piercing arrow. Its speed exceeded that of a False Immortal realm cultivator one step away from the true Spirit Immortal realm, and it swiftly matched that of a true Spirit Immortal realm cultivator.

Everything happened within the blink of an eye. The blood-colored dragonfly traveled at a shocking speed, thundering as it shot through space and headed straight for Wang Baole.

Wang Baole, who had teleported a distance away, suddenly turned pale with alarm. When he reappeared in the next moment, alarm bells were ringing in his head. He had no time to think at all, and he turned into mist immediately and scattered outward.

It was too late. Just as he turned into his mist-like state, the blood-colored dragonfly appeared behind him and stabbed him without hesitation.

Upon entry into his mist-like form, the dragonfly melted away into a pool of blood-colored liquid, infecting Wang Baole’s mist-like form and turning the mist a similar blood-red color!

A deafening thunder erupted in space, and Wang Baole’s mist-like form began to churn and boil rapidly. It gathered and formed into a humanoid shape in the distance, trembled, then spat out a mouthful of blood. The blood was the essence of his vitality. Wang Baole’s face was pale, and on his chest was a wound in the shape of a dragonfly, one which wasn’t healing at all!

Countless thin, blood-colored veins were spreading out from the dragonfly-shaped wound and across his body. They drained him of his vitality as they wriggled all over his skin, like a toxic tumor that was killing him in order to keep itself alive!

A curse? Wang Baole’s face darkened, and he immediately summoned his Dark Fire to seal the curse as best as he could. That was the best he could do at the moment. After all, he didn’t currently have the luxury to remove the curse completely. He knew that the wound served as both a curse and a device that could lock down his coordinates. Without wasting any time, he raised his right hand in a wave and pulled out numerous Dharmic Artifacts from his storage bracelet.

These Dharmic Armaments weren’t from the Federation but components that he had crafted during his time in the Divine Eye civilization. They had been pieces that he had practiced refining while researching how to build his own battleship. Each one of them had their own specific use. Wang Baole had two particular habits he kept when he refined artifacts. The first was to create a contingency plan for each artifact, while the second was to equip each artifact with a unique self-destruct mechanism.

The force of such self-destructive explosions might not be that powerful if one only blew up a couple of artifacts at the same time, but if he were to activate the self-destruct inscription on thousands of artifacts and blow them up in one go, the resultant explosion would be overpowering.

Just as he was about to activate the self-destruct mechanisms, the skies behind him rippled as a tear in the cosmos appeared. The Ink Dragon Legion commander was ready to step out of the tear when the look on her face shifted to that of alarm. She had sensed the waves of self-destructive energy emanating from Wang Baole’s Dharmic Artifacts. With a swift movement of her right hand and a flurry of hand seals, she attempted to counter the impending attack as she made a hasty retreat.

Thunderous explosions erupted and reverberated in the cosmos at the same instant. The force of thousands of Dharmic Artifacts exploding at the same time swept across the entire cosmic region, creating an ultra-strong tornado in its wake.

Wang Baole didn’t escape from the growing tornado unscathed. He spat out another mouthful of blood—blood that was the essence of his vitality—before clenching his jaw tight. He didn’t slow down and instead continued his escape, vanishing yet again with another teleportation.

Three seconds after his disappearance, the Ink Dragon Legion commander pulled her disciple out from the center of the tornado. They had dodged the brunt of the earlier explosion, but the look on her face was thunderous. She gritted her teeth as a dark look flashed in her eyes.

Wang Baole’s retaliatory attack had shocked her on two levels. Firstly, he had appeared relatively unaffected by her curse. The blood-colored dragonfly had carried blood within it that had been extracted from the tip of her tongue, and the curse that the dragonfly had embodied was especially effective on the living and the living’s flesh and blood. It was a mystic technique that she had acquired from a Planet realm patriarch in the Violet Gold New Dao Sect. Unless one had reached the Spirit Immortal realm or beyond, death was imminent if they were to be inflicted with the curse!

Then came the second shock. She wasn’t that bothered with the curse’s apparent lack of effect on her target. However, she couldn’t believe how quickly he had reacted. She had locked down his coordinates and teleported herself over almost immediately after the blood-colored dragonfly had imprinted the curse on the other party. Regardless, she had still been ambushed, and he had successfully thwarted her pursuit momentarily.

We can’t leave this kid alive! Murder flashed in the Ink Dragon Legion commander’s eyes. She formed a series of hand seals with her right hand, prepared to make another teleportation to her target’s exact location based on her connection with the blood-colored dragonfly. Next to her was her disciple, the young man who had almost died at Wang Baole’s hand. He was shaking with nervous energy. He had followed his master closely the entire time and had seen the thunderous look on her face growing darker throughout their pursuit, causing the fear he felt towards Wang Baole to intensify. Then, he saw the look on his master’s face turn a darker shade. It appeared that she had lost sight of Wang Baole. His pupils contracted instantly.

It’s been sealed? The commander gritted her teeth. She began to give chase again. She might have failed to track down the exact location of the target, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t sense the general direction that Wang Baole was moving. Their chase had brought them near the border between public cosmic territory and Divine Sovereign Justice Sect territory. Wang Baole was currently racing at full speed, rushing through space like a shooting star.

His face was deathly pale. He might have sealed the wound inflicted by the dragonfly inside his body with his Dark Fire, but as long as the dragonfly remained and wasn’t removed, it would continue to inflict extreme agony on his body. Wang Baole shook violently from the pain. It was a pain that went deep into one’s soul and went so far as to affect his true form.

Luckily, despite the obstacles along the way, Wang Baole still managed to keep his speed up. The pace that he was setting brought him closer and closer to Divine Sovereign Justice Sect territory. In fact, he could see a glowing line of light ahead of him!

The white light divided the cosmos into two regions, and on the inner side of the white light were dozens of enormous battleships!

Behind the fleet floated numerous air bubbles. There were hundreds of them clustered together, crowding the cosmos. Within each of the air bubbles was a small world, where cultivators could be seen flickering in and out of sight.

Finally, behind the clusters of air bubbles was a rainbow-colored air bubble. Seemingly sealed within it was a black-colored armored beetle. The beetle’s eyes were shut, but it still managed to exude a terrifying aura that surged outward and flooded the region. Lying on the head of the Black Armored Beetle was an old man. He was resting his cheek on his palm and staring in Wang Baole’s direction with mockery in his eyes!

The fifth most powerful army in the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect… the Black Armor Legion! Wang Baole’s eyes flashed as he studied the air bubbles hovering beyond the glowing line of light. He had learned quite a lot about the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect through De Kunzi, so he knew that the Black Armor Legion was the current fleet guarding the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect’s borders.

He also knew that he had approached the Black Armor Legion’s temporary base camp. The glowing line of light was the border, and only members of the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect or members of affiliated sects could pass through the borders unharmed. Outsiders… were strictly forbidden entry!

Wang Baole didn’t show any signs of relief as he approached the border. Instead, he gritted his teeth and activated his cultivation, pushing himself to go faster. A dozen or so counts later, he heard a thunderous rumbling behind him. The commander of the Ink Dragon Legion finally caught up with Wang Baole. It was at that moment that Wang Baole made a huge leap and landed on the other side of the glowing line, in Divine Sovereign Justice Sect territory!

As soon as he crossed over to the other side of the border, Long Nanzi’s identity token, which had been resting inside his storage bracelet all this while, flashed with a brilliant light. It appeared that his identity had just been verified, permitting safe entry.

The Black Armor Legion didn’t react to Wang Baole’s entry at all. The cultivators in the fleet turned their eyes towards him momentarily, but none stopped him. It was as if they were simply watching a performance unfold before them. As the audience, they would neither stop nor help him.

The commander of the Ink Dragon Legion, a fleet under the Violet Gold New Dao Sect, had to stop right outside the glowing line of light. Her face darkened, then paled, then darkened again repeatedly as a myriad of emotions flitted across her face. She lifted her head and looked beyond the Black Armor Legion, straight at the elder lying atop the armored beetle in the rainbow-colored air bubble. Her voice traveled loud and clear across the cosmos.

“Fellow Daoist Xu Feizi, how about an Ink Dragon Fish in exchange for his life?”