Chapter 3290
Chapter 3290: Xia Jianming
The senses of Jian Chen’s soul spread out and immediately reached millions of kilometres away. Immediately, over a dozen cities of various sizes appeared in the range of his senses.
Among them, two cities were particularly large. They both had more than one Primordial realm expert.
One of the two cities was White Emperor city.
The second city was Sword Emperor city.
Apart from those two cities that possessed a certain level of scale and prosperity, the remaining cities seemed more like towns. Their strongest experts were only Godkings, and there were very few of them too.
As his soul had yet to heal completely, Jian Chen did not dare to use the senses of his soul for too long. He withdrew it very soon and thought, “White Emperor city should be where Bai Yurou’s clan is located, but it’s quite far from where I am.”
“Sword Emperor city is instead closer to me.”
Jian Chen did not make his way towards White Emperor city. He adjusted his direction and rode straight for Sword Emperor city with the Saint Emperor spiritual beast under him.
In a lower world like the Tian Yuan Continent, Saint Emperors were capable of ripping open space freely and constructing Spatial Gates to travel.
The space in the Wood Spirits World was not on par with higher worlds, but it was still much stronger than lower worlds. As such, despite the Saint Emperor strength of the spiritual beast under Jian Chen, it could only race along the ground at a very high speed.
Jian Chen was not in a hurry either. He sat on the spiritual beast’s back with his eyes shut and approached Sword Emperor city at a speed that was virtually no different from a snail’s crawl to him.
The Wood Spirits World was not entirely peaceful. There were also various kinds of dangers in the wilderness, not just the threat from various spiritual beasts, but also groups of Wood Spirits that robbed and killed weaker cultivators.
Along the way, Jian Chen obviously could not avoid these obstructions, but he resolved them all easily.
In the blink of an eye, three days had passed already. The spiritual beast had only covered half of the journey in that time.
At this moment, the space nearby suddenly split open, and an old man in black fell out. He was covered in blood with many frightening wounds on his body. His face was pale-white, clearly extremely heavily injured.
As soon as he appeared, blood sprayed from his mouth uncontrollably. Each mouthful of blood he produced was filled with pieces of his organs. He did not dare to remain there for a second longer, flying off into the distance like he was fleeing for his life.
“Hahaha, union leader Xia, you’ve already reached the end of your rope. You can’t escape today.” At this moment, a powerful voice rang out. Two middle-aged men appeared, radiating with surging presences. They struck out at the same time. One of them condensed a jade-green sword from the power of laws, while the other conjured a towering tree from the power of laws. With great pulses of energy, they slammed their attacks into the old man in black up ahead.
Spurt! Blood filled the air. The old man was smashed right into the ground, leaving behind a huge pit.
The old man was only a hundred metres away from Jian Chen, which immediately frightened the spiritual beast into trembling. It directly fell on the ground limply and lost control over its bowels and bladder.
Whether it was the old man in black or the two middle-aged men chasing him, they were all Infinite Primes, far, far more powerful than the group of Godkings it had encountered earlier.
Jian Chen opened his eyes slowly on the back of the spiritual beast, gazing at the three of them calmly.
At this moment, the old man stood up while coughing up blood, staring at the two middle-aged men resentfully. He ground his teeth. “Do you think you can successfully swallow the Xia Merchant Union just by killing me? Hmph, I’ve anticipated your Xiong family and Zhan family’s ambitions a long time ago and made arrangements exactly for this. Even if you kill me, my Xia Merchant Union won’t let your clans have it easy. You’ll definitely suffer tremendous losses.”
“Hahahaha, Xia Jianming, you don’t need to worry about the matter of swallowing the Xia Merchant Union. Once you’re dead, our Zhan family and Xiong family will obviously possess plenty of methods and strategies to take over everything your merchant union possesses.” The middle-aged man from the Zhan family sneered before glancing at Jian Chen nearby and immediately furrowing his brows.
“The adults are talking and a brat like you wants to eavesdrop? You’re asking to die.” The Primordial realm expert from the Zhan family snorted coldly and extended a finger. A beam of power of laws immediately turned into a streak of light and shot towards Jian Chen’s forehead.
Afterwards, he did not even look at Jian Chen again. His eyes were fixed on Xia Jianming, approaching him step by step.
Jian Chen did not even try to dodge. The attack from the Primordial realm expert of the Zhan family struck his forehead with lightning speed, but it failed to injure him at all.
His attack as an Infinite Prime had actually failed to even leave a scratch.
“Hmm?” The Primordial realm expert from the Zhan family quickly realised that something was amiss. He stopped and subconsciously turned towards Jian Chen, except when he saw how Jian Chen sat on the back of the spiritual beast, the same as before without any wounds, his eyes immediately narrowed.
The Infinite Prime from the Xiong family also looked at Jian Chen, staring straight at his unscathed forehead. He became stern and asked solemnly, “Sir, who may you be?”
As he said that, the Primordial realm expert of the Xiong family studied the spiritual beast under Jian Chen, but it made him wonder. He was unable to tell what Jian Chen’s strength was, but according to the quality of Jian Chen’s mount, he jumped to the conclusion that he was a weak cultivator.
After all, only Origin realm juniors would normally use Saint Emperor spiritual beasts as mounts.
Jian Chen ignored the Infinite Primes from the Xiong family and the Zhan family. He looked at the old man in black and asked, “You’re called Xia Jianming? You’re in control of a merchant union?”
Xia Jianming coughed up some blood and clasped his fist towards Jian Chen. He said weakly, “I am Xia Jianming, the leader of the Xia Merchant Union. May I ask who you are?”
“Who I am is not important. What is important is I’m giving you a chance right now, a chance for you to survive.” Jian Chen stared at Xia Jianming in interest and said seriously, “Pledge yourself to me!”
Xia Jianming’s expression immediately changed. He stared at Jian Chen slightly coldly and sneered. “Pledge myself to you? Sir, are you really capable enough for a Primordial realm expert to pledge himself to you?”
“If pledging myself to someone is the only way for me to survive today, I might as well just pledge myself to the Zhan family and the Xiong family. Why would I bother with someone I don’t even know?”
“If you pledge yourself to them, they’ll only annex you. If you pledge yourself to me, I will only make you serve me for a thousand years. During that millennium, you will still be the union leader of the Xia Merchant Union. I won’t interfere with anything regarding your merchant union. After those thousand years, you’re free to leave.”
“As for whether I possess that right, someone of your strength doesn’t normally interest me.”
“You will spend a thousand years in exchange for your life today, as well as a thousand years of peace. How you choose is for you to consider.”
Jian Chen spoke indifferently, without demonstrating much enthusiasm. Telling Xia Jianming to pledge himself to him was only an idea he had come up with on a whim.