Chapter 643: Escaping After Being Beaten
“Beheading a saint? You’ve not the ability!” The Saint Ruler spat malevolently. Disappearing from the three’s line of sight, the Saint Ruler then reappeared a hundred meters away by using the powers of space.
His figure now was a haphazard one. His hair was a mess, his face was pale from blood loss, and his previously white robes were torn and dyed red from his blood. No longer was he the same elegant figure from before the battle.
Utilizing the Illusionary Flash, Jian Chen caught up to the Saint Ruler and began to attack him again so as to avoid giving the Saint Ruler any time to breathe. Nubis and Jiede Tai soon afterwards caught up to surround the Saint Ruler.
Vehemently, the Saint Ruler glowered at Jian Chen. “Jian Chen, I’ll remember this day.” He spat between gritted teeth.
“There’ll be a day in the future that I’ll return this twofold onto you!” Without further ado, the Saint Ruler disappeared into thin air to escape from the area, disappearing from sight and leaving behind the Heaven Saint Masters.
Having seen the Saint Ruler run away, Jian Chen let out a sigh of regret. “He’s escaped, what a shame. Today was a great chance to kill him!”
Staring off into the direction in which the Saint Ruler rain, Nubis spoke, “How could a Saint Ruler be that easy to be killed? Unless in front of an indomitable might, a Saint Ruler can escape without a worry. His strength was of the Fourth Heavenly Layer, a tier higher than both Jiede Tai and I. If his comprehension of the mysteries of the world is far better, there would be no way for us to chase up to him.”
Jian Chen looked to Nubis. As a Golden-Striped Silver Snake, Nubis’ fighting strength was unbelievable. Those of the same rank of it wouldn’t be able to fight Nubis, and even those of a rank higher than Nubis would find themselves at a stalemate. Furthermore, as a Golden-Striped Silver Snake, Nubis had access to a venom that was known as one of the three strongests on the continent.
Throughout the entire battle, Nubis hadn’t bothered to use his venom and still managed to injure the Saint Ruler. Infact, Nubis had only shown a mediocre amount of his strength so that he would be seen as equal to Jiede Tai in strength. But it was because of this deception that Jian Chen felt rather unhappy, but he didn’t say anything about it.
“A Saint Ruler is hard to kill. If they wished to run, then it’ll be hard to give chase to one that can leap a thousand kilometers if they wished. Without a tracing seal of some sort, they’d be able to escape from the normal range of detection. But even then this way of running requires a hefty price.” Jiede Tai spoke in agreement with Nubis.
Narrowing his eyes, Jian Chen asked, “Then how would we kill him?”
For a while, the two of them were quite. It was Jiede Tai that spoke up first, however. “To kill a Fourth Heavenly Layer Saint Ruler requires one of the two conditions. The first is to have a Saint Tier Battle Skill. The second is to be a Seventh Heavenly Layer Saint Ruler at the very least. With a Saint Ruler of that might, a Fourth Heavenly Layer Saint Ruler has no means of escape.”
“Then killing a Saint Ruler isn’t as easy as I thought.” Jian Chen muttered under his breath. According to this knowledge, killing a Saint Ruler wouldn’t be as easy as he thought.
From far away, the ten Heaven Saint Masters saw that their Saint Ruler had ran away in defeat. Turning pale in fright, each one of them immediately made a hasty retreat away from the area as well.
Noticing their movements, a sharp glint entered Jian Chen’s eye. “Since you’re here, leaving now won’t be as easy as you think!” Swinging his palm, a tremendous amount of energy flew towards the Heaven Saint Master and locked the space around them. Then, the energy slammed into several of them without further ado.
“Boom!” When the energy slammed into them, several of the Heaven Saint Masters were killed instantaneously and fell back down to the ground as a result. For the Sixth Cycle Heaven Saint Master sectmaster Kris, the Fifth Cycle Heaven Saint Master vice-sectmaster and another elder, they were able to escape death with serious wounds. But flight was still capable for them.
“We’re going!” Kris let out a raspy cry as he wielded the wind element in the world to encircle his body and hasten his speed out of the area with the other two.
Jian Chen didn’t bother to give chase or kill them all. With the power he had now, he felt disinclined to try to attack them again.
“Let’s head back now!” Jian Chen spoke. With the two Saint Rulers, Jian Chen returned to where Ming Dong and the rest were on the mountain.
“Jian Chen, don’t tell me you’ve made a breakthrough into the Saint Ruler realm in the few months you were away?”
“Brother, you’re hurt--are you okay?!”
The simultaneous voices of Ming Dong and seven other voices called out at once in great concern and relief. As it were, Jian Chen’s strength caused a great deal of conflicting emotions in them.
Not too far away, the several Heaven Saint Masters of the Flame Mercenaries stared at the young Jian Chen with a strange expression. He was far younger than they were, but the battle between him and the Saint Ruler of the Sect of Dragon and Tiger had left them in amazement.
In the short times they didn’t see each other, Jian Chen had managed to step onto the realms of the Saint Rulers. This was the realm that many of them saw as the ultimate finish line, the realm that they all coveted. But Jian Chen had somehow managed to arrive there with barely any trouble at all.
For a while, each one of them could barely hide their jealous admiration. Some of them were even a little envious, but still respected him.
The distance between a Heaven Saint Master and a Saint Ruler was separated by the river as wide as the cosmic river. As he was now, Jian Chen was a figure that Heaven Saint Masters should respect.
But what they didn’t know was that Jian Chen was still a Heaven Saint Master and not an actual Saint Ruler.
After this one battle, the strengths of Jian Chen, Jiede Tai, and Nubis were shown to the entirety of the Flame Mercenaries. With three Saint Rulers presiding over them, the status of the Flame Mercenaries would flourish even more. Even the problem that arised with the leak of the tungsten alloy deposit would be completely suppressed by this.
They personally saw Jian Chen, Jiede Tai, and Nubis beat a Saint Ruler into retreating. Then, they saw Jian Chen personally kill nearly ten Heaven Saint Masters with a single strike. From what they witnessed today, they all knew that the Flame Mercenaries had what it took to be able to able to overlook the entire continent.
With Jian Chen’s revealed skill, they couldn’t even possibly imagine just what height his strength would reach in just a small amount of time.
Having successfully beaten back the Sect of Dragon and Tiger, the Flame Mercenaries returned to the palace.
Within the palace, each of the highest ranking members of the Flame Mercenaries were gathered for a conference.
“Since the tungsten alloy is revealed, we’ll have no need to hide it anymore. Start mining it without the secrecy so we can mine them all out as swiftly as we can. We can avoid another unforeseen accident this way.” Jian Chen spoke seriously. Although the Flame Mercenaries now had the strength to equal even the Shi family, tungsten alloy was far too valuable to be left alone on the continent. With such a tremendous deposit, he was worried that another force as strong as the Sect of Dragon and Tiger would show up.
“We’ve already starting the mining process, but progress is very slow due to the density and amount of ores. Even now, we’ve gone a slow way and only managed a small amount. We’ve even employed the finest artisans to construct the best tungsten armor to be made for our Flame Mercenaries to use however.” You Yue reported.
Nodding his head in satisfaction, Jian Chen spoke, “With how large the deposit is, it’d be best if we get more people to work on it. This is a matter that shouldn’t be delayed.”
As Jian Chen was conducting the meeting over the tungsten alloy, news of what had transpired between the Sect of Dragon and Tiger and the Flame Mercenaries flowed across the continent like wildfire. The energy that had been blasted away from the area could be felt by Heaven Saint Masters within a certain proximity, and each one of them were shocked by the sensation.
A battle between Saint Rulers was not often seen on the continent. That was due to the fact that most Saint Rulers were hermits that barely ventured out, let alone fought.
News like this had caught the eye of the strongest in other areas. Many Heaven Saint Masters had even gathered around the battlefield in interest and inquired the members of the Flame Mercenaries of what happened in great detail.
With them making their inquiries, they’ve quickly learned that the leader of the Flame Mercenaries had reached the Saint Ruler realm and had also two other Saint Rulers acting with him in the group. The outsiders had been astounded by that and how strong the Flame Mercenaries were in general.
Thousands of kilometers away within a deep cave, the Saint Ruler of the Sect of Dragon and Tiger sat within it with blood pooling around his body. With the help of a continuous supply of Sixth Class Radiant Spirit Pills, his wounds were already healed to a substantial degree.
“Jian Chen, the Flame Mercenaries, I’ll make you regret this day. Just you wait. Don’t think that having three Saint Rulers makes you invincible. There’ll be a day where this old man will repay this humiliation tenfold! Forget about the tungsten alloy!” The elder spoke ominously.