Nine Star Hegemon Body Art (WN)
chapter-72

A luxurious carriage pulled by a Savage Bull Magical Beast was slowly traveling through the southern pass’s valley. There were a dozen guards around the carriage.

Suddenly, the carriage paused. Inside the carriage, Xia Changfeng frowned and irritably asked, “Why have we stopped?”

The reason Xia Changfeng was returning back to the Grand Xia was due to two reasons. Not only did he want to prepare for his wedding with Phoenix Cry’s third princess, but the white-robed man had also ordered him to prepare for more important matters.

That was why Xia Changfeng had ordered his subordinates to travel throughout the day and night as quickly as possible. They had only used one day and one night’s time to arrive at the southern pass’s valley.

With another half a day of travel, they would exit the valley and arrive in the Grand Xia.

Traveling on a flying Magical Beast would be much faster, but due to how many people he had, that was not an option. Furthermore, flying Magical Beasts were large targets. If they ended up running into a stronger group of flying Magical Beasts, they would definitely die without the slightest chance of fleeing.

“Prince, there are people blocking the path,” reported one of the guards outside the carriage.

“Who?” Xia Changfeng was startled.

“People you’re familiar with.”

Xia Changfeng frowned and exited his carriage. The valley was extremely narrow here. If they wanted to get through this pass, they had to go through that junction.

But at that narrow opening were two figures standing there calmly. When he saw who they were, Xia Changfeng laughed, and a dark light flashed in his eyes.

“Long Chen, are you waiting here to say goodbye?” Xia Changfeng waved his hand and his guards all spread out, quickly forming a half-ring around Long Chen and Wilde.

Long Chen looked at Xia Changfeng and nodded. “You’re right. Seeing how arduous your travels are, I decided to get here a step earlier and help send you on your way.”

“Don’t tell me you two are here because you think you can assassinate me?” Xia Changfeng sneered.

“Well, I don’t think assassinate is the right word. We’re slaughtering today.”^[1] His face turned icy cold as he pointed at Xia Changfeng. “I won’t play any more meaningless word games with you. You bastard, was the hidden energy within Chu Yao’s body your doing?”

Being reminded of Chu Yao’s experiences, Long Chen’s killing intent soared. Currently, Chu Yao could essentially count as his woman, so he was completely unable to accept such a thing.

At the same time, Chu Yao’s experiences reminded him of his own. If what had happened to his body was related to Xia Changfeng, then Xia Changfeng was his greatest chance of finding the true person behind this.

Xia Changfeng’s expression changed slightly. Obviously, Long Chen’s words startled him, but he coldly replied, “It seems you actually know quite a bit. But that’s not a problem. A dead man can know as much as he wants without any harm.”

This reply was extremely vague and wasn’t what Long Chen had been hoping to hear. However, he could now confirm for sure that Xia Changfeng knew many things.

Long Chen laughed. Perhaps he would be able to learn many of those secrets from Xia Changfeng today.

“Long Chen, I originally thought that you were a smart guy. But today I find that I was wrong. Nonetheless, I’m actually pretty happy that I was wrong. You actually dared to come here to assassinate me with just the two of you? I don’t know whether to praise you for your boldness or to laugh at your stupidity. Looks like after killing Huang Chang, your appetite has really grown without limit. Do you think you are unmatched under the heavens? Wang Mang, weren’t you always complaining I didn’t give you a chance to display your feelings? Here, the chance has come. Go cut off that arrogant kid’s head,” said Xia Changfeng disdainfully.

Xia Changfeng’s last sentence was towards one of his guards. That Wang Mang was extremely tall and strong, and his face was as black as coal.

Hearing Xia Changfeng’s command, he sneered, revealing a set of sinister white teeth, appearing just like a bloodthirsty animal.

Wang Mang was also one of his guards that was just like Huang Chang. He was one of Xia Changfeng’s secret weapons.

However, Huang Chang was in the sun while he was in the dark. Anyone who knew Xia Changfeng had known about Huang Chang, but no one had known about this black-faced guard.

“Don’t worry master; I can crush him in less than ten exchanges.” Wang Mang laughed and rushed forward.

A long broadsword was pulled out of its sheath in Wang Mang’s hands, causing Long Chen’s eyes to narrow slightly.

Most broadswords were only slightly wider than regular swords, a width of around four fingers. That was because as the width increased, the thickness also had to increase. In the end, a broadsword was many times heavier than a regular sword.

Most cultivators that could use broadswords were those specialized in power. And as for Wang Mang, his broadsword had reached a shocking width of seven inches.

Seven inches wide and three inches thick. Its weight was definitely shocking. Before the sword even reached, a terrifying whistling gale had already blown over. The air revolved around it as it chopped down at Long Chen.

“You’re mine!” Long Chen didn’t move. Behind him, Wilde shouted and the Mountain Splitting Battle-Ax in his hand cut through the air. It turned into a whistling golden light that clashed with Wang Mang’s broadsword.

Sparks shot everywhere and an ear-ringing explosion rang out. Some of the guards had their eardrums split from the explosive ringing. Blood slowly flowed out of their ears, and they were unable to hear anything after.

Both sides were blown back. Wilde thudded back three steps before stabilizing.

But Wang Mang was blown ten meters back despite doing his best to stabilize himself. His legs left behind two deep scars on the ground.

After just that one earth-shattering exchange, all of Xia Changfeng’s men looked at the giant Wilde with horror.

When Xia Changfeng saw Wilde’s Mountain Splitting Battle-Ax, his pupils shrunk as he recognized it from the auction. That was something that weighed over two tons!

Looking at Wilde’s stature and huge hands, it was as if that battle-ax had been custom made for him! It wasn’t heavy at all to him.

While Xia Changfeng was shocked, Wang Mang was even more shocked. Ever since he had been a child, he had always possessed an extremely great innate strength. That broadsword in his hand weighed over a ton, and by using it in combat, there were extremely few people in the same realm as him who could manage to endure even three exchanges.

Although Huang Chang was also one of Xia Changfeng’s secret weapons, Wang Mang would still be able to defeat him in ten exchanges even if he used his beast transformation.

However, now he was forced back by a blockhead who didn’t have the slightest fluctuations of a cultivation base. Not only was he shocked, but he was also infuriated.

Wang Mang roared and Blood Qi soared from his body. He had originally been planning on fighting Long Chen, so he hadn’t wanted to display his full strength. Reserving his strength was simply his habit from being raised with Huang Chang as one of Xia Changfeng’s secret weapons.

But now there was someone who might actually surpass him in terms of brute strength. His anger soared; he definitely would not allow such a person to emerge!

The sword in his hand shivered and space began to rumble. This time the gale winds released from his broadsword sounded even more mournful, almost as if Yama King of Hell was demanding lives.

This kind of harsh and cold attack was extremely terrifying. But while Long Chen was shocked, he was also relieved.

Wang Mang was someone who focused on pure power and didn’t like skillful techniques. Although his style was simple, his killing power was also great.

Luckily, this kind of attack was the easiest for the simple Wilde to handle. That was because Wilde also didn’t understand any skilled techniques.

BOOM!

They once more collided fiercely, intensely shaking the earth and releasing terrifying qi waves that spread out, withering the vegetation and causing destruction everywhere.

If it had just been the withering of the grass and the earth being crushed, then it would have been fine. However, there were also many boulders and smaller stones that were split and sent flying out.

Due to the earlier collision being so intense that many of the guards could no longer hear, one of them was actually directly shot through the head with one of those flying rock fragments. The terrifying force behind it made the rock shoot straight through his head, causing his corpse to fall silently to the ground.

The others all hastily retreated when they saw that. Such a battle was too intimidating. To die like that without even knowing what happened was truly too meaningless.

Explosive collisions continued to ring out as one huge broadsword and one huge battle-ax continuously crashed. Sparks shot wildly every time they collided, and even the earth would shake as well.

Looking at Wilde who seemed to be possessed by a god of war, a bit of excitement rose in Long Chen’s heart. Wilde had finally started to show off his might.

Although this currently still wasn’t his full strength, in any case, at least his sweat and tears in training him weren’t completely wasted.

But that was also because they had been lucky enough to run into Wang Mang. If it had been Huang Chang, Wilde probably would not have been able to hold on.

Wilde had no fighting experience. Any experiences he had were only from going hunting with Long Chen these few days.

Furthermore, Wilde had no idea how to properly attack. Even up until this point, Wilde would only react defensively after seeing his opponent’s attack.

If Wilde really did strike, that would completely reveal his fatal weak point. But Wang Mang’s wild series of attacks had actually masked Wilde’s weak points.

If it had been Huang Chang, he would definitely have first probed out his opponent’s weak spots before delivering a killing blow.

But Wang Mang didn’t have any information on Wilde. Otherwise, no matter how much strength Wilde had, he would probably have been defeated in just a couple of exchanges.

Wang Mang was actually provoked to see that Wilde only defended without attacking. In fact, he even became angry, thinking Wilde was playing around with him. His attacks became more and more aggressive.

In just the blink of an eye, a dozen exchanges passed. But what surprised Long Chen was that Wilde’s skill with the battle-ax was actually increasing. He no longer seemed like a beginner.

When it came to battle-ax techniques or skills, Long Chen had never taught a single one to Wilde. That was because even if he had, it would have been useless. And furthermore, it wasn’t as if Long Chen knew any of them anyways.

Wilde seemed to have a kind of innate instinct for battle. As the battle progressed, he could actually automatically comprehend things.

It was just like how his body didn’t need to cultivate and would just automatically absorb spiritual qi from the world.

Seeing that Wilde was capable of holding his own under Wang Mang’s torrential blows, Long Chen thanked his luck.

Wang Mang’s luck truly was terrible. He was actually suppressed by Wilde who didn’t have any fighting experience. His broadsword’s focus was not on skillful techniques, but on using brute force to smash the opponent. Unfortunately, the result was that under Wilde’s might, he was unable to display that kind of power.

If it had been a different expert skilled in softer techniques, Wilde would have been quickly defeated. The world truly was marvelous. He had made the right choice to bring Wilde along.

Seeing Wilde was temporarily not in any danger, Long Chen didn’t wait any longer. It was time for him to take advantage of the shock Wilde had caused everyone.

Looking at the stunned Xia Changfeng, Long Chen shot forward, smashing his fist down.

^[1] There’s a joke based on phonetics here. Xia Changfeng calls himself ‘this king’ ‘王’ (wang). The particle for ending a question is ‘吧’ (ba). Long Chen then takes it for ‘八’ (ba), which combines to form ‘this owner of a brothel’ (王八, wang ba). So the exchange is as follows: Xia Changfeng says ‘you’re here to kill this king?’ and Long Chen says ‘this owner of a brothel? That’s a good name for you.’ It doesn’t really translate. In the next line, he calls Xia Changfeng a bastard, which is also a follow up on ‘wang ba’, except its ‘wang ba dan’ (王八蛋). Isn’t Chinese fun guys. That’s the main reason he says they were playing word games.