Chapter 319 - 172: An Unexpected Joy: Martial Scripture, Array -

Seeing Li Chang’an appear on the battlefield, the Cultivators high in the sky were all somewhat surprised.

The reason was simple: before coming here, they had all received word from the Great Yuan that Li Chang’an and Lu Shang had gone to their capital.

That was precisely why they had rushed to the battlefield without a moment’s rest.

But now, the Emperor of the Great Zhou, who should have vanished without a trace, had reappeared on the front lines... ’What could this mean?’

None of the Cultivators dared to dwell on the implications.

To get a clear picture of the situation, they didn’t attack rashly. Instead, they sized up Li Chang’an and one of them called out, "Junior, why have you appeared here?"

Li Chang’an held a long saber.

The blade was pitch-black. Wisps of flame slowly rose from it, yet they remained condensed and did not dissipate. This was Soul Fire, but Li Chang’an had altered its form to be more covert.

It had to be said that his control over the Soul Fire had long since surpassed that of its creator, Lu Shang. Lu Shang couldn’t even manage to contain the flames on a weapon like a saber.

But Li Chang’an could already control it with enough stability to slay his foes.

Hearing the Cultivator in the sky ask him in that condescending tone,

Li Chang’an didn’t rush to attack. He sneered and said, "I am the Emperor of the Great Zhou. It’s only natural for me to be on the battlefield. Do I need a reason?"

The Cultivators in the sky were unsure of what had transpired between Li Chang’an and the ambush at the Da Yuan Imperial Palace, so they dared not act rashly.

Hearing this evasive answer,

a burly Cultivator with a thick beard clearly lacked patience. He snorted coldly. "You reckless fool. I’ll give you one last chance to answer. Weren’t you at the Da Yuan Imperial Palace? Why are you here now?"

Li Chang’an smiled, a brilliant grin spreading across his face. "Ah, so that’s what you’re asking? I did indeed go to the Da Yuan Imperial Palace. The reason I’m able to be here now is quite simple..."

He paused, his expression suddenly turning cold as he stated flatly, "Because I killed all seven of them."

The moment he said this,

the twelve Cultivators fell silent.

They looked at each other, clearly in disbelief.

After a moment, the bearded man was the first to react, letting out a cold laugh. "Brat, aren’t you afraid to bite your tongue with such boasts? Someone like you dares to compare yourself to a Cultivator?"

The others also snapped out of it.

They also turned to Li Chang’an, chiming in, "A snot-nosed brat like you? Any one of us could crush you with a single finger!"

Of course, that was just talk.

The expressions on the Cultivators’ faces had still grown wary.

Because regardless of how much of what Li Chang’an said was true or false, at least one detail from his statement was correct.

There had been seven Cultivators lying in ambush at the Da Yuan Imperial Palace!

The fact that Li Chang’an could state this number clearly meant he had, at the very least, encountered the ambush force set by the Great Yuan!

He had run into the trap meticulously laid by the Great Yuan and returned unscathed. Regardless of what unknown factors were at play, it proved one thing: the young man before them was nowhere near as simple as they had imagined!

Having gleaned this information, they fell silent. Their gazes, now fixed on Li Chang’an, were brimming with killing intent.

’It was this bastard who had so blatantly exposed their existence to the natives of this world.’

’Now they had to expend enormous resources and energy to clean up the mess...’

’If they captured him alive, they would flay him, rip out his tendons, shatter his bones inch by inch, and toss him into an Alchemy Furnace to be refined!’

With this thought in mind,

one of the Cultivators above the clouds finally lost their patience and made a move.

"WHOOSH!"

With a wave of one hand, a Cultivator in green robes summoned a gale that instantly enveloped Li Chang’an.

The gale howled, but it didn’t seem to cause Li Chang’an any harm.

’The real killing blow obviously wasn’t the wind, but something else.’

Li Chang’an glanced down and discovered weeds and saplings sprouting from his skin at a visible rate.

Like parasites, the saplings thrashed their roots wildly, treating his body as a seedbed as they tried to burrow into his skin and flesh.

Seeing this,

Li Chang’an fully circulated the *Martial Scripture*. His immense vitality and impossibly tough physique forcefully blocked the saplings’ roots.

The saplings writhed madly on his skin but were unable to penetrate his body. From a distance, the sight was utterly horrifying.

Seeing that the saplings couldn’t pierce Li Chang’an’s body,

"Oh? How interesting!" The green-robed Cultivator’s brow furrowed. He was clearly surprised that Li Chang’an could resist the parasitic saplings.

But he had no intention of stopping. He stepped on an Array Pattern again, and a massive amount of Spiritual Power coalesced into a rain cloud that burst forth over Li Chang’an.

Li Chang’an tried to escape the rain’s downpour.

But the roots, as if possessing life and a mind of their own, all tensed at the exact moment he tried to flee, forcefully restraining his movements!

"SPLASH!"

Rainwater poured down from the sky. Nourished by the downpour, the saplings’ vitality became even more terrifying. In an instant, hundreds, even thousands of roots sharpened into blades, poised to plunge directly into Li Chang’an’s body.