A Will Eternal

How could he not take revenge on someone who had attempted to kill his wives and children?!

How could he not take revenge on someone who had attempted to extract the blood of tens of thousands of Heavenspan cultivators?!?!

How could he not take revenge for the death of Song Que?!?!

Murderous aura raging, he blurred into motion, locking onto the panicked, fleeing Vile-Prince.

“You… shall die!” he growled, his eyes glowing with bizarre red light. Taking a step forward, he vanished, to reappear right in front of the Vile-Prince.

Waving his hand, he sent a frigid wind out that seemed capable of cleaving flesh from bone. It was like an enormous mouth that lunged toward the Vile-Prince as if to devour him.

The Vile-Prince simply didn’t have time to react. Almost before Bai Xiaochun’s figure even became completely clear, everything around him was filled with deadly, frigid cold.

“Father, save me!” he shouted in alarm. Before the cold wind could touch him, a terrifying energy suddenly erupted from within the imperial palace.

Instantly, the clouds up above swirled, forming together into an enormous face. It was threatening without being angry, and wore an imperial crown. It was none other than… the Vile-Emperor!!

“How dare you, Bai Xiaochun!” Although he spoke in a calm voice, it contained energy that shook all creation, and cast fear into the hearts of all living beings. Even Bai Xiaochun felt as though he were being suffocated.

Bai Xiaochun knew that he was taking a big risk. Trying to kill the Vile-Prince was a big gamble. Not only was he gambling that the Vile-Emperor had certain plans and schemes that no one knew about… but he was also gambling that the Vile-Prince wasn’t actually very important to the Vile-Emperor!

After all, this Vile-Emperor… was not really the Vile-Emperor!

Although the words the Vile-Emperor had just spoken shook all the lands, Bai Xiaochun gritted his teeth and, instead of slowing down or fleeing, pushed his cultivation base even harder. Waving his hand, he unleashed an even more shocking wind, which instantly overwhelmed the Vile-Prince!

The wind began to flay his skin, and assail his bones with intense pain. The screams which echoed out from inside the wind almost didn’t sound human….

Up in the sky, the Vile-Emperor’s face looked down at Bai Xiaochun with cold, narrowed eyes, and flickering killing intent. Then, the face distorted as a huge hand appeared that shot down toward Bai Xiaochun!

“Since you want to die, I’ll accommodate you!”

This was a palm strike from an archaean, and it instantly struck fear into the hearts of everyone, even Virūpākṣa and Reverend Devourer.

As the palm descended, everything around Bai Xiaochun was completely locked down due to the immense energy involved!

From what the onlookers could tell, he only had one option. He had to give up on trying to kill the Vile-Prince, and then do his best to flee.

If he obstinately persisted, then perhaps he might be able to kill the Vile-Prince, but he himself would surely die in the process!

Before passing the ninety-ninth level of the damaged fan, Bai Xiaochun might have struggled about what to do. But now that he had passed that level… he had already suffered a blow from an archaean!

“Archaeans are strong, but if he wants to kill me… he won’t be able to do it that way!” Looking up, Bai Xiaochun let out a shout at the top of his lungs, drawing on all of his fleshly body power, and rotating his cultivation base at top speed. He also unleashed a bevy of divine abilities, although he didn’t resort to pulling out his turtle-wok. After all, this was only an illusory palm strike that he was dealing with, and after his experiences on the damaged fan, he was confident! After that ninety-ninth level, he felt mentally prepared to deal with an attack from an archaean expert!

Without any hesitation, he used his Sutra of Former Reincarnation, causing numerous magical symbols to surround the archaean palm. The multitude of images that appeared within them caused the Vile-Emperor’s pupils to constrict as he negated their effect. However, in that short moment of time that he spent doing so, Bai Xiaochun summoned the Gates of Life and Death!

As the hand closed in, it grew weaker and weaker, as though it were passing from life into death! It all happened in the time it takes to think, and then, the palm struck.

Intense rumbling sounds filled all heaven and earth, causing both the imperial palace and Vile-Emperor City as a whole to shake physically. Many buildings in the area even collapsed.

Countless onlookers cried out in shock and alarm. Meanwhile, Bai Xiaochun’s divine abilities were crushed and destroyed; his cultivation base and his fleshly body were simply not capable of standing up to an archaean attack!

However, the attack was visibly weaker than it should have been, especially after being struck by the Sutra of Former Reincarnation and the Gates of Life and Death. Despite the deafening boom, and despite the blood which sprayed out of his mouth, Bai Xiaochun was still standing!

“Impossible!!” Celestial Virūpākṣa gasped.

The other celestials were struck speechless, much less the demigods and devas. Almost no one could believe what they were witnessing there in Vile-Emperor City.

As for the Vile-Emperor’s true self, a serious expression flickered in his eyes as he sat there thoughtfully in his private chamber in the imperial palace. Then, a bizarre smile spread out on his face.

As all of that was happening, the frigid wind Bai Xiaochun had deployed against the Vile-Prince continued to rip his skin and flesh off of his bones, and whittle his bones into nothing!!

The pain was literally impossible to describe!

Screams echoed out as he was flayed alive, and his bones destroyed!

Soon, only his soul remained, which Bai Xiaochun reached out and grabbed.

He had originally planned to simply kill the Vile-Prince, but then changed his mind. That was too easy. Vengeance demanded that the Vile-Prince not die such a simple death!

There were too many things to atone for: the Heavenspan corpse puppets in the imperial palace; the gaze of the Arch-Emperor in his final moments; the tens of thousands of Heavenspan Realm cultivators trapped in the spell formation; the mortal danger Bai Xiaochun’s wives and children had been placed in; and finally, Song Que’s death!

Because of all of those things, there was no way he would give the Vile-Prince a quick and easy death!!

Therefore, he efficiently extracted the Vile-Prince’s soul!

“You like to switch bodies with people, don’t you? You like to make puppets, don’t you? You like to torture people to death, don’t you?” As the words left Bai Xiaochun’s mouth, a look of profound horror appeared on the face of the Vile-Prince’s soul.

“Father, save me!!” Apparently, those were the only words he was capable of speaking now. And yet, before he could even finish saying them, Bai Xiaochun tossed the soul into his bag of holding. Only then did the time come to retreat. After all, he knew that he had caused a major disaster in the Eternal Immortal Domains.

It was a disaster the likes of which would shake all cultivators in existence! He had killed Deadfall, and captured both Ur-Demon and the Vile-Prince!

As of this point, there was no way he could be allowed to remain alive within the Vile-Emperor Dynasty. Although he wasn’t sure if and when the Vile-Emperor would actually show up in person, he knew that he couldn’t wait around to find out!

“Time to go back to the damaged fan!!” Having made his decision, he sent out a thought, and began to vanish. However, as he did, a whistling sound echoed out from the imperial palace.

Rumbling sounds filled the area as the doors of the imperial palace’s grand hall exploded, and a stream of light shot out. There, wearing imperial robes and an imperial crown, was none other than the Vile-Emperor!

He moved as quickly as lightning to appear right in front of Bai Xiaochun, his eyes glittering as he performed an incantation gesture and waved his finger!

“I know you got your hands on the sovereign’s fan, Bai Xiaochun. I've been watching you for quite some time, waiting for this very moment…. Please, take me back with you to the sovereign’s fan!” Although no one but Bai Xiaochun could hear the words, they immediately caused his mind to spin.

As the Vile-Emperor’s finger waved through the air, a strange connection sprang up between him and Bai Xiaochun. Even as Bai Xiaochun’s face fell, he faded away, as did the Vile-Emperor, whose face shone with greed and anticipation.