Chapter 212: Shocking Change
The moment he put away the Heavenly Truth Songstone, the blood-colored floating palace’s attacks abruptly grew stronger. Dust flew everywhere as the range of its attacks spread yet another hundred feet, storming right at Anubi.
At this moment, the Scarlet Heart no longer needed the Heavenly Truth Songstone’s aid to determine where he should attack - a group of soldiers was rapidly retreating, and the person leading them was Anubi himself.
The Scarlet Heart naturally understood what was happening given its intelligence. Even though he didn’t understand why his opponents would suddenly reveal themselves at this critical juncture, he was clear that this was the real Anubi. Most importantly, Anubi carried the aura of one of his treasures.
It wasn’t the Heavenly Truth Songstone, but a treasure that he had kept in his outer storehouse - the Charming Fragrance Mud. Applying a small amount would greatly stimulate a person’s consciousness energy.
Su Chen had rubbed a bit onto Anubi. With the Heavenly Truth Songstone as the initial attractor and the Charming Fragrance Mud as the sustained homing beacon, as well as Anubi’s identity, that was more than enough for the Scarlet Heart to latch onto Anubi and refuse to let him go.
Having taken care of this matter, Su Chen began to head in the direction of the imperial carriage.
It was indeed time for him to take the treasures and go.
The battle was still incredibly fierce, but the situation had changed somewhat.
The battle had originally been enveloped by a vortex, with the blood-colored floating palace revolving at the center. After the palace had charged towards the rear, the vortex had thinned out significantly, disrupting the revolving energy. As such, the situation on the battlefield had changed significantly. Previously, there had been some semblance of order, but now the battlefield was totally thrown into disarray.
Battles always devolved from being orderly into chaos, and the sudden change in direction by the palace had only accelerated this process.
At this moment, a distinct front line was nowhere to be seen. Ravagers and Demonic Beasts were scattered all across the battlefield, fiercely fighting for their own lives. The Demonic Beasts beat their wings and stomped their hooves, while the Ravagers howled madly. The atmosphere was incredibly harsh and fiery.
Blood spilled everywhere, and life was extinguished callously.
The Beasts and Ravagers were tangled in a war of attrition when it came to vitality, and the scales slowly but surely began to tip in favor of the Ravagers.
This was not actually surprising. The Ravagers were stronger than the Beasts in the first place, and the blood-colored floating palace’s unrelenting advance had weakened its own side.
Even so, wiping out the Beasts in a short period of time was not going to be easy.
Killing was taking place all over the battlefield. There was no longer any formation, and battle tactics had been thrown out the window. Strength and will were everything.
Moving about amidst this kind of environment was not easy to do.
However, after gaining some understanding of how the sea of Origin Energy moved, Su Chen’s ability to move around in this chaos had greatly increased. At this moment, he was like a fish in the sea as he nimbly darted around, his human subordinates following him closely. Everywhere, massive sharks were fighting, but as a small fish he was able to easily avoid the most dangerous areas and travel through the relatively safer areas instead. Occasionally, he would take a risk and run right past two stronger groups fighting it out with each other.
The group moved at a rapid pace, piercing through the chaos. Very quickly, they arrived at a location filled with Demonic Beasts.
“This is where the Demonic Beasts have separated, and where they are the most concentrated. Once we charge past this group, we will have arrived at the carriage. Notify all the soldiers to grab their flying swords. We will charge soon!” Su Chen yelled loudly.
At this point in time, there was no longer a need to hold back.
“Yes, sir!” all of the soldiers following Su Chen yelled.
Seventy or so flying swords were pulled out, transforming into streaks of light that shot forwards with astounding speed. Even Su Chen pulled out a Soul Armament, the Moon Shadow Flowing Frost Sword, and attacked with them. With his current consciousness energy, controlling two Soul Armaments at the same time was no problem.
If his earlier fighting was just to cope with the situation and protect himself, he was now putting his full strength on display.
Everyone’s strength had greatly increased after Su Chen passed along the Immaculate Cultivation Technique and the flying swords. The effects were obvious as soon as they attacked.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! As the streaks of sword light descended, the Demonic Beasts standing at the very front had their hearts pierced immediately.
A few Ravagers actually survived because of this. However, when they turned around to find that the people who had saved them were actually human, they were dumbfounded.
“ROAR!” A massive Iron-Skinned War Rhinoceros charged forwards, Origin Energy virtually pouring off of its body. This War Rhinoceros was actually a Demonic Lord.
“Careful, it’s a Demonic Lord!” one of the Ravager soldiers yelled.
The group of human soldiers, however, charged right at the War Rhinoceros.
The Ravager soldier sighed, believing that this group of human soldiers was in big trouble.
Demonic Lords possessed awe-inspiring strength that these average human soldiers would never be able to defend against.
An instant later, however, a jaw-dropping scene appeared before his very own eyes.
The humans caused their seventy swords to suddenly meld together into a single massive flying sword.
“Descend!” one of the soldiers barked.
The massive sword chopped down, right onto the War Rhinoceros’s body. The War Rhinoceros’s howl of pain was cut short as it was split in two from top to bottom.
The Ravager soldiers were immediately dumbstruck.
That was a Demonic Lord!
A Demonic Lord was taken apart by a group of human soldiers that easily?
The frightening, gigantic sword continued to fall until it slammed into the ground, sending huge chunks of rock flying and leaving behind a deep imprint in the ground.
Any Demonic Beasts that lay in the path of this attack were immediately wiped out.
Even though the massive sword disappeared after this one strike, turning back into countless swords that flew into everyones’ hands, a path forward to the imperial carriage had been cleared.
“Charge!” someone yelled.
The soldiers all simultaneously charged at the imperial carriage.
One of the Ravagers said dumbly when he saw this scene, “These are the humans? The human captives? Our cannon fodder?”
“Yes, they are cannon fodder,” another Ravager said.
“If they are cannon fodder, then what are we?”
“I don’t know. I just know that I’m still alive, and that’s good enough for me,” a Ravager cracked a smile and said.
The blustering sword light slashed through the enemies like they were vegetables, allowing them to rapidly and decisively cleave through this territory.
The imperial carriage rolled towards them at the same time.
In order to save the emperor, many of the Ravager generals who had been protecting the imperial carriage had begun to slaughter their way through the hordes of beasts, so the imperial carriage itself was only manned by the substitute Le Feng and a few Ancestors and guards responsible for keeping an eye on him.
More specifically, to keep an eye on the Origin Bone Scepter and the Vitality Totem.
Su Chen very quickly arrived in front of the carriage.
The few Ancestors standing guard there stopped him. “Sir Lontu, please stop there.”
“His Majesty and the Head Ancestor have sent me here to take the Origin Bone Scepter and the Vitality Totem back to them. Here is the command medallion,” Su Chen said as he pulled out the command medallion, allowing them to inspect it.
The Ancestors accepted it and, after verifying that it was real, allowed him to pass.
Su Chen stepped up to the carriage’s high platform.
When Le Feng saw him, he smiled and said, “You’re here.”
“I’m here,” Su Chen replied with a slight smile as well, taking the Origin Bone Scepter and Vitality Totem from Le Feng’s hands.
They had finally succeeded!
Su Chen’s state of mind was okay as he took the Origin Bone Scepter. All he felt was a profound wave of energy roll over his body. He knew that this was the effect of the time energy of the Origin Bone. However, the moment his finger touched the Vitality Totem, Su Chen felt his entire body go numb as a strange energy began to emanate from the Vitality Totem. He felt his state of mind tremble as his body was filled with lifeforce.
At the same time, the Vitality Totem began to glow hotly, shooting up a streak of light into the sky.
“Hm? This is?” Su Chen was stunned.
This sudden and strange scene rendered everyone present speechless. The Ancestors stared at him in shock, and even Le Feng was dazed.
“This…… What is going on?” Le Feng asked, completely dumbfounded.
“I don’t know,” Su Chen replied as he stared intently at the Vitality Totem in his hand.
Nothing like this had happened when he had taken the Thunder Spirit Totem.
Light flickered continuously across the surface of the totem, as abundant lifeforce began to surge into his body.
Suddenly, Su Chen had the feeling that he could absorb the Vitality Totem.
Su Chen decided to follow this feeling. He tried to open up himself, allowing the energy to fill his entire body. Then, he watched as the totem began to tremble uncontrollably in his hands.
The trembles grew more and more violent, causing Su Chen to feel like he was about to lose his grip.
Su Chen did his best to hold onto it. At this moment, his entire body was linked with the totem, which glowed even more hotly. It actually forced Le Feng to take a few steps backwards.
Then, a shocking scene appeared before them all.
More and more ash began to fall from the Vitality Totem.
“It’s molting!” Le Feng began to yell.
“I know,” Su Chen replied.
If he were to let go, he might be able to stop this scene from unfolding. However, Su Chen didn’t want to do that.
He felt like he was currently undergoing a miraculous experience, one that had never occurred throughout all of known history.
If he were to miss this opportunity, it might not ever come again!
As such, he could not relinquish his grip.
He stared at the totem in his hands, which seemed to be dissolving into tiny grains of sand that fell off of the totem layer by layer.
As it dissolved, a seemingly boundless energy was surging through Su Chen’s body, causing him to feel ecstatic. At the same time, however, there was the pain of feeling like his body’s capacity was being pushed to its limits.
Eventually, Su Chen could endure it no longer and howled in pain.
He could feel that his body was satiated, and that there was nowhere for this energy to go anymore. However, his heart was telling him that at this moment he absolutely could not afford to let go. Otherwise, all the progress that he had made would be lost.
He could only grit his teeth and endure the pain, the veins on his forehead bulging like mad.
“Heavens! What are you doing?” the Ancestors began to yell.
One of the Ancestors muttered to himself, then raised his hand and shot out a streak of arcane light.
However, this streak of arcane light seemed to melt like snow under the hot sun as it came into contact with the column of light, quickly disappearing from existence.
Su Chen, on the other hand, tilted his head back and howled with pain.
He could sense that his body was at its limit. Every cell in his body was filled with energy and was bulging to the point of exploding.
“AHHHH!” Su Chen roared bitterly.
Amidst the incredible pain, he had no way of maintaining his disguise. The Ravager disguise disappeared, and Su Chen returned to his original form.
At the same time, the Vitality Totem was completely turned into powder and dissipated with the wind. The final joule of energy disappeared in through his hand. An instant later, Su Chen felt his chest suddenly turn warm.
He tore open his clothes and glanced at his chest. Another mysterious inscription had appeared on his chest.
The Vitality Totem.
It had actually appeared on his physical body.
As this totem appeared, the congested feeling within his body receded. What replaced it was an incredible hunger.
“Human, he’s a human!” the Ancestors and Ravagers began to shriek.
“So my secret has still been revealed? It’s a bit earlier than I was expecting, but that’s not a problem,” Su Chen said as he turned around, a savage expression on his face.
“Perfect. I’m hungry anyways.”
He attacked.