Chapter 157: The Zhen Family's Quasi-Emperor, The Hero's Curtain Falls

The sea of clouds boiled over completely.

The entire flying ship split into pieces, its expensive materials shattering and scattering in all directions.

Many cultivators aboard the ship were sent flying like bundles of debris, blasted outward in every direction.

Jiang Yunli remained as composed as ever, though a flicker of astonishment passed through her eyes. She pushed off lightly and leaped into the firmament, forming a sharp contrast with the cultivators behind her who were flung about amid ceaseless screams.

In the void space, two presences with terrifying auras emerged, baring cruel smiles as they looked at Jiang Yunli.

“The Zhen family.”

Jiang Yunli narrowed her eyes slightly, a cold light flashing in them. “How dare you all do this!”

Gu Changqing also stood proudly among the ruins of the ship, and as the two words ‘Zhen family’ left Jiang Yunli’s mouth, many doubts in his mind were resolved in that instant.

The Jiang, Zhen, and Ji clans all belonged to the Xuanyuan lineage.

Only the Jiang family was the orthodox line, their bloodline the purest. The other two families followed behind.

The Jiang family’s marriage alliance with the Ji family aroused the Zhen family’s dissatisfaction, giving them a reason to sabotage the union.

After all, if the Jiang and Ji families truly allied in marriage, the Zhen family would inevitably fall into crisis.

Gu Changqing had not expected that the Zhen family had come with murderous intent.

The two terrifying presences said little and suddenly struck.

A brutal imperial might erupted, engulfing the firmament.

Quasi-Emperor!!

And their targets were obvious: one moved to deal with the guest officials, the other headed straight for Jiang Yunli.

Boom!

The clash was imminent. Jiang Yunli and that Quasi-Emperor collided with a roar, the sea of clouds exploding and spacetime suddenly collapsing.

The other charged toward Gu Changqing and the guest officials.

None of the guest officials could even exchange a single match with this Quasi-Emperor.

Gu Changqing’s eyes narrowed slightly. Although his cultivation had plummeted, he could still sense that the two Quasi-Emperors’ terrifying auras were even above the Quasi-Emperors of the Dragon Clan.

“Heh heh…”

The old man sneered, his sharp laughter piercing the eardrums.

In an instant, among the guest officials, only Gu Changqing remained.

The man shifted his posture and suddenly launched a punch that slammed toward Gu Changqing.

That punch condensed the boundless momentum of heaven and earth, surging like a tsunami, overturning mountains and seas, obliterating myriad strands of spacetime.

After the punch was thrown, the old man’s figure halted and did not advance further, as if certain Gu Changqing would be annihilated by it.

“Come!”

Gu Changqing thrust his palm into the void. At the edge of that endless spacetime, a violent detonation resounded.

Boundless spacetime suddenly collapsed.

A dark-yellow ancient bell flew out from that spacetime and landed in Gu Changqing’s palm.

Clang!

Gu Changqing flipped his palm and slapped it out with force.

The Heaven Burying Bell unleashed a terrifying sonic wave that shook mountains and rivers, rattled sun and moon, and erased boundless spacetime in its wake.

Dong!

The punch and the Heaven Burying Bell’s strike collided.

A colossal force poured forth like an overturning sea, ripples expanding and splashing in all directions. Above the nine heavens, the sea of clouds was instantly swept away.

Boom!

There was a momentary stalemate, then the divine might completely erupted.

The Heaven Burying Bell was blasted backward. Gu Changqing forcibly leapt, hugging the bell and smashing it to send the attacker retreating tens of millions of miles.

The old man was likewise struck by the divine might, his form violently pushed back, taking tens of millions of miles before he could stop!

The old man halted, and at that moment his eyes were filled with intense astonishment.

Because he could feel that the person before him was merely a Supreme.

Moreover, one whose foundation was unstable, barely reaching the Supreme realm.

Even Supremes were like ants before him, so how much less this one with an unstable foundation?

The old man was astonished, but he quickly found the source of it. Staring at the ancient bell in Gu Changqing’s arms, a blazing divine light erupted in his eyes. “An imperial weapon!!”

Gu Changqing also paused.

He did not have as many emotional fluctuations as the old man. He only felt pain. Extreme pain!

His internal organs felt as if they were about to explode!

The backlash from the former burning of his essence surged all at once through this strike. Gu Changqing felt his body was about to be shattered by that backlash!

“Kid, what a lucky chance you’ve had. You actually possess an imperial weapon to protect yourself!”

A feral grin spread across the old man’s face, baring a mouth of yellow teeth. “Heaven favors this old man! Today I actually stumble upon such a divine treasure!”

He laughed loudly, tore open the endless spacetime, and charged toward Gu Changqing again.

His palm reached directly for the ancient bell in Gu Changqing’s arms. “Hand it over!”

“I’ll give it to you!”

A fierce light flashed in Gu Changqing’s eyes as he thunderously struck the Heaven Burying Bell outward.

This Heaven Burying Bell had followed Gu Changqing in battles across the heavens, stained with unknown amounts of imperial blood and the divine minds of Half-Step to Immortals.

Although it was a defensive-type imperial weapon, its killing might was terrifying.

Even a Supreme like Gu Changqing, with the bell’s blessing, could go toe-to-toe with a Quasi-Emperor!

Bang!

A violent detonation echoed at the horizon, its shockwave shaking the vast sky.

The old man actually intended to catch the bell with his bare hands.

Terrifying divine might kept erupting from the Heaven Burying Bell like a relentless tsunami.

Even with his overwhelming imperial might, the old man could not subdue the ancient bell.

In an instant his palm became mangled, flesh torn and bloody, imperial blood spraying like heavenly rain.

“You’re asking for death!”

The old man, enraged and humiliated, blasted the Heaven Burying Bell away.

His hand plunged into the void, transforming into a sky-covering great palm that came crashing down toward Gu Changqing.

The palm was terrifying, like a giant hand of gods or demons reaching out. With a single strike, the heavens could be obliterated and the cosmos sundered.

Boom!

A world-shaking pressure radiated from the palm, as if it intended to crush Gu Changqing to death with one strike!

Gu Changqing narrowed his eyes and slapped out a palm in response.

Boundless true might of demonic dao condensed within his body and poured out through his palm.

A pitch-black giant palm illusion erupted, like a demon-god’s strike. Intense killing aura rolling forth, murderous intent overflowing, pressure supreme.

Bang!

Their methods mirrored each other, and so did their divine auras.

When the two palms met, there was no crisp impact. Only a terrifying muffled roar of sonic waves.

The earth suddenly burst open with ten thousand fissures, the ninefold heavens’ spacetime thundered and split, endless ripples surged up, sweeping across the sky.

The old man was struck by the ripples, his long beard whipped upward as he was sent hurtling backward.

Pfft!

Gu Changqing also spat out a mouthful of blood.

His body uncontrollably fell to the ground.

With a tremendous crash, the ground was gouged into an abyss. The terrifying divine might corroded his body and lingered for a long time.

…

Outside the mirror.

At that moment, the gathered cultivators were filled with boundless sadness and a crushing weight.

In their impression, the Heavenly Emperor had never had a worthy one-on-one rival in his life.

Reviewing his past, they found that the Heavenly Emperor had crushed powerful foes even in adversity, his dominance unparalleled!

Not long before, in the outer domain, he alone suppressed and slew many Half-Step to Immortals and Great Emperors.

But now, facing a single Quasi-Emperor, he was in such a disgraceful state!

“Sigh.”

The cultivators fell silent, only heavy sighs breaking the quiet.

If not for the sake of guarding the Beixuan Continent, how could the Heavenly Emperor have fallen to such a pitiable state?

At this moment, in everyone’s hearts rose the sorrow of a hero’s curtain falling.