The Border of the Ancient Battlefield. The Grey Mist.
The Black Warship of the Divine Dragon Sect had vanished. The golden barrier rippled and stilled, sealing Ye Kai, Su Ling, and the three thousand elites inside the Emperor's domain.
Jiang Chen was alone.
He stood suspended in the freezing void, a solitary speck of white against the backdrop of a broken cosmos. To his back was the golden wall that rejected his Sovereign existence. To his front was a horizon of death—three armies, totaling three hundred thousand cultivators, darkening the sky.
Leading them were three entities whose mere presence warped the fabric of reality.
To the North, the Blood Ancestor floated within a crimson storm. To the West, the Golden Arhat stood like a statue of judgement. To the East, the Abyssal Kraken hovered in a sphere of suspended ocean water.
They watched him with the cold, calculating gaze of apex predators. They had watched him send his army away. They had watched him stay behind. And now, they watched with amusement as he sat on a chair of Void Qi, blocking the only entrance.
"Gentlemen," Jiang Chen's voice rolled across the battlefield. "The door is open. But the toll booth is active. Ten million Spirit Stones per sect. Pay the toll, or I turn this entrance into a graveyard."
The Predator's Calculus
The battlefield fell into a suffocating silence. The Blood Ancestor did not reach for his wallet. Instead, his ruby eyes narrowed.
"You are bold, Junior," the Ancestor rasped. "You sent your army inside. You are gambling that we will fear your Sovereign title and pay to avoid a fight."
The Golden Arhat stepped forward, his massive metal feet crushing the air. "But we watched your breakthrough. There was no Tribulation Lightning. Your foundation is shaky. You are a hollow house waiting to collapse."
The Kraken roared, a soundless telepathic blast. "He... smells... alone."
Jiang Chen didn't flinch. "I am alone because I don't need help to kill trash. Do you want to test that theory?"
"Yes," The Blood Ancestor said simply. "He is stalling. KILL HIM!"
BOOM!
There was no countdown. The explosion of killing intent was instantaneous.
The Blood Ancestor dissolved into a Sea of Blood, a tsunami of corrosive fluid miles wide that crashed toward Jiang Chen. The Golden Arhat grew to the size of a mountain, his Titan Palm descending like a falling sky, etched with sealing runes. The Kraken unleashed a Hydro-Cannon, a beam of pressurized water aiming for Jiang Chen's heart.
Three Sovereign-level attacks. All converging on one point.
"System!" Jiang Chen screamed internally. "Probability Edit! Change their hit rate to zero! Now!"
[Error: Insufficient Points.] [Targeting three Dao Sovereigns simultaneously requires massive calculation power.] [Cost: 50,000,000 Points.] [Edit Failed.]
"Shit."
The bluff shattered. The System couldn't save him. Jiang Chen kicked the void chair away. There was nowhere to run.
He drew the World-Severing Sword.
SHING.
"Sword Dao," Jiang Chen roared. "First Form: The River Styx."
He spun his wrist, painting a circle of azure light. The circle expanded into a vortex of Sword Intent. He stepped directly into the Sea of Blood. The corrosive wave crashed over him, but the moment the blood touched the azure vortex, it was shredded by millions of micro-cuts.
He carved a tunnel through the tsunami, bursting out the other side. But the Golden Arhat's palm was already falling.
Jiang Chen looked up. He changed his grip, holding the sword with both hands, the tip pointing up. "Second Form: Piercing the Heavens!"
CLANG!
The tip of the sword met the center of the giant palm. The sound wave shattered the windows of the ships miles below. For a second, time froze. Then, a hairline fracture appeared in the Arhat's golden hand. CRACK. Jiang Chen launched himself upward, drilling through the golden metal. He shot through the back of the Arhat's hand, exiting in a shower of golden sparks.
The Arhat howled, pulling his wounded hand back. "He cut my body?! My body is harder than Star-Steel!"
Jiang Chen hovered in the sky, panting. That thrust had cost him thirty percent of his Qi. And he had forgotten the third enemy.
SPLAT.
The Kraken's Hydro-Cannon hit him in the ribs. Jiang Chen was blasted sideways. He smashed into the golden barrier of the Ancient Battlefield. CRUNCH. Three ribs shattered. He coughed a mouthful of golden blood.
"He bleeds!" The Blood Ancestor reformed his body, laughing ecstatically. "He is mortal! Don't give him space! Close the distance!"
The Three Old Monsters didn't take turns. They coordinated.
The Kraken moved first. Ten massive tentacles, each as thick as a redwood tree, shot out from the water sphere. They didn't strike; they wrapped. Jiang Chen tried to dodge, but the space was locked down by the Arhat's pressure. SNAP. A tentacle coiled around his left leg. Another around his waist. The Kraken pulled, trying to tear him in half.
"Got you, little mouse!" The Kraken's telepathic voice jeered.
At the same time, the Golden Arhat charged. He didn't use a palm strike this time. He used his shoulder. [Vajra Mountain Charge.] He slammed into the pinned Jiang Chen with the force of a meteor.
BOOM!
Jiang Chen felt his internal organs shift. If he didn't have the Titan Golden Body, he would have been paste. As it was, his vision went white.
"Die!" The Blood Ancestor materialized behind Jiang Chen. He turned his hand into a blood-spike and aimed for the back of Jiang Chen's neck.
Jiang Chen was pinned, crushed, and about to be executed. "System... mute pain receptors." [Pain Receptors Muted.]
Jiang Chen's eyes snapped open. They were completely white. No iris. No pupil. Just raw fury. He dropped his sword. He grabbed the tentacle wrapped around his waist with his bare hands. [Titan Golden Body: Overdrive.]
"Get... OFF!"
RRRRRIP.
With a primal scream, Jiang Chen physically tore the Kraken's tentacle in half. The Kraken shrieked in shock. Freed for a microsecond, Jiang Chen spun around. He didn't dodge the Blood Ancestor's spike. He let it stab into his shoulder. THUNK. The spike pierced his flesh, pinning him.
"Caught you," the Blood Ancestor sneered. "My blood poison is—"
"I'm not trapped with you," Jiang Chen whispered, grabbing the Ancestor's wrist, locking him in place. "You're trapped with me."
Jiang Chen headbutted him. THWACK. Diamond bone met rotten flesh. The Ancestor's nose exploded. Jiang Chen headbutted him again. And again. THWACK. THWACK.
The Ancestor screamed, trying to turn into mist, but Jiang Chen's grip was infused with Order Qi, preventing the transformation.
The Golden Arhat tried to intervene, swinging a massive fist. Jiang Chen swung the dazed Blood Ancestor like a club, slamming him into the Arhat's fist. CRUNCH. The Ancestor took the punch for him.
Jiang Chen kicked the Ancestor away and recalled his sword with a thought. SHING. The World-Severing Sword flew back into his hand.
He was a mess. His shoulder was leaking black blood from the poison. His ribs were grinding together. But the Old Monsters were wary now. They backed off, forming a triangle around him.
"He's a berserker," The Golden Arhat spat, nursing his hand. "He fights like a beast."
Jiang Chen wiped the blood from his eyes. He looked at the 300,000 troops below. The disciples of the three sects were watching in terror. They wanted to enter the barrier, but the sky was filled with chaotic energy. If they tried to fly up now, the shockwaves would kill them.
"I told you," Jiang Chen panted, his voice ragged. "This is a toll booth."
He raised his sword. [Domain Expansion: The Celestial Sword Grid.]
HUMMM.
A blue grid expanded from Jiang Chen, covering the entire entrance. "Sword Dao... Third Form: Dragon Tooth."
He didn't aim at the monsters. He aimed at the space around them. He slashed a thousand times in a single second. The grid ignited. The air turned into a blender of invisible blades.
"You want to pass?" Jiang Chen roared, pointing his sword at the shivering disciples below. "TRY IT!"
He turned back to the three Sovereigns. "Come on! I have enough blood left to kill one of you! Who wants to be the sacrifice? You? Or the Squid?"
The Blood Ancestor clutched his broken nose, his eyes darting around. The Golden Arhat hesitated, his invincibility broken. The Kraken retreated into its ink, nursing its torn tentacle.
It was a standoff. A stalemate born of pure violence. Jiang Chen hovered in front of the gate, a bloody god of war. The Old Monsters surrounded him, but none dared to make the first move for the final kill, fearing they would be the one he took with him to hell.
Below them, the captains of the Youth Expedition ships looked at the chaotic battle, then at the closed barrier. "We... we can't enter," a disciple of the Blood Soul Sect whispered, trembling. "The energy turbulence is too high. If we fly up there, we'll be shredded."
Jiang Chen heard them. He grinned, his teeth stained crimson. "That's right, kids. The park is closed." "Until your grandfathers pay the admission fee... NO ONE PASSES."