Read Novel Full Chapter 497: LET THEM COME
Chapter 497: LET THEM COME
The enemy struggled, muscles straining against an invisible force.
He found himself rooted in place, limbs locked as though forged from stone.
His body no longer obeyed him.
It felt alien, distant, like a puppet whose strings had been cut from his grasp and claimed by another. Panic flickered in his eyes as he lifted his head.
Chen Mo stood above him, gazing down with the same calm, unreadable stare he had worn from the very first clash. No triumph. No pity. Just quiet inevitability.
The leader tried to shout, to curse, but his jaw clamped shut against his will.
His tongue lay heavy and useless in his mouth.
Chen Mo said nothing.
He simply raised his sword.
The blade shimmered with a dark, devouring energy, black-purple veins of destructive power coiling along the steel.
It was the essence of the slain Destructive Dragon’s core, now within Chen Mo, a force that hungered to unmake whatever it touched.
The air around the edge warped faintly, as though reality itself recoiled.
"Hah," the enemy forced out. Chen Mo had released just enough control over his tongue to allow these final words.
"Even if you kill me here... it changes nothing. They will come for you. When they do, your end is already written."
His voice dripped with hatred, but also a twisted satisfaction. In his mind, Chen Mo’s fate was sealed long before this moment.
Chen Mo met his gaze evenly.
"Let them come."
His tone was soft, almost gentle.
"They will all suffer the same fate as you."
Without another word, he drove the sword forward.
The blade pierced clean through the enemy’s chest.
A wet, final sound echoed briefly.
Blood welled dark and thick, soaking robes that had once gleamed with arrogance.
The light faded from the man’s eyes in an instant, hatred snuffed out like a candle in the wind.
Chen Mo withdrew the sword in one smooth motion.
Crimson droplets slid along the edge and fell to the cracked earth.
He bent, retrieved the fallen leader’s blade, and used its flat side to wipe his own clean.
The metallic scrape was the only sound for a long moment.
Then he sheathed his weapon with a soft click.
Turning away from the corpse, Chen Mo limped onward, each step sending fresh spikes of pain through the cut on his back.
Blood still seeped warm against his skin. He needed shelter. Healing. Time.
Higher along the ridge, he found what he sought: a narrow cave mouth half-hidden behind jagged boulders.
The interior was cool and dim, smelling faintly of damp stone and old moss.
With a thought, he called on the white tiger core’s power.
Metal essence flowed from his palm, thin silver threads that stretched and hardened.
They wove across the entrance like living chains, sealing the opening into an impenetrable wall of gleaming alloy. No crack remained for wind or light.
To strengthen his refuge further, he knelt and began to work.
Observation talismans, delicate paper slips inscribed with watchful inscriptions, floated into place along the outer perimeter.
Alarm talismans pulsed with faint red light, ready to scream at any approach.
Explosive ones waited in silent menace, their golden characters coiled like springs.
A temporary time-freeze array shimmered into existence last, a fragile but deadly web that could halt intruders for precious seconds.
Only when every layer was set did Chen Mo allow himself to sit.
Legs crossed, back straight despite the ache, he closed his eyes and sank into meditation.
The vermilion bird core within him stirred.
Warm, regenerative flames, soft as dawn light, spread through his meridians.
They soothed torn flesh, knit muscle, eased the fire of his wounds. Breath by breath, the pain receded.
"Su Yueqing," he whispered into the quiet dark. "I promise... I’m coming."
His sword rested across his knees like a silent vow.
In the stillness of the sealed cave, he let himself feel the ache, not of injury, but of longing. For her smile. Her voice. The life that had been torn from him.
He would reclaim it.
No matter the cost.
---
Past...
Young Chen Mo ascended to the immortal realm from the mortal realm.
He became the first immortal to step into the Immortal Realm in over a century.
The moment he crossed the threshold, he understood that every ancient scroll in the mortal realm had fallen short in description.
The qi here was not merely abundant,.it was alive. Pure. Crystalline. It flowed into his body like cool spring water after a lifetime of drinking dust. Every breath filled him with clarity, strength, vitality.
The people were no less striking.
Ascension had refined them all. Skin glowed with an inner luminescence. Features carried an otherworldly grace, sharp yet harmonious, beautiful in ways mortal eyes could only dream of approximating.
Even children born to immortals inherited flawless genes, raised in an environment that sculpted perfection.
As the first new ascendant in so long, Chen Mo drew attention like a falling star.
Invitations arrived almost immediately, elegant jade slips from proud clans, golden letters from storied sects. Each offered discipleship, resources, status. All sought to claim the rarity of his achievement.
Chen Mo considered them carefully.
In the end, he chose the strongest.
The Heaven Ascension Clan.
It stood at the heart of the Orthodox Alliance, a coalition dedicated to order, law, and the preservation of celestial harmony.
The Orthodox Alliance comprised five great sects:
Heaven Ascension Sect, Ninefold Sword Pavilion, Verdant Spirit Valley, Celestial River Monastery, and Radiant Sun Temple.
Backing them were four ancient clans: Long, Bai, Mu, and Shen.
Together, they upheld structure in the Immortal Realm. Rules were enforced. Transgressors punished.
Opposing them were the Unorthodox Alliance, five sects and five clans that bowed to no law save their own desires.
Nether Abyss Sect. Crimson Veil Hall. Thousand Poison Pavilion. Bone Scripture Temple. Storm Devouring Palace.
Gu Clan. Yan Clan. Luo Clan. Tie Clan. Xue Clan.
Between the two sides lay a history of deep-rooted wars, silent grudges and open battles that flared across centuries.
Chen Mo entered Heaven Ascension Sect as an outer disciple.
His talent, however, refused to remain hidden.
He rose swiftly, outer to inner, then, almost impossibly, to personal disciple of the sect master himself.
Envy followed in his wake. Whispers. Glances of resentment. But also awe.
Chen Mo paid them no mind.
He trained. He cultivated. He earned every scrap of approval from his master. All so he could stand worthy of one person: Su Yueqing, the sect master’s daughter.
Along the way, something deeper bloomed between them.
Love.
Quiet at first, then undeniable. They became the sect’s favorite couple, two radiant figures whose every shared glance drew sighs from younger disciples.
But fate is rarely kind to the unsupported.
During a brutal clash between the Orthodox and Unorthodox Alliances, the sect master fell.
In the power vacuum that followed, the grand elder seized control. Politics moved faster than blades.
The new sect master’s first act was personal.
Chen Mo’s cultivation root, shattered.
His legs, crippled beyond mortal healing.
Banished.
And then the final cruelty: Su Yueqing was wed, by force, to the new sect master’s son.
Chen Mo, once a rising star, became nothing.
A legless beggar on the fringes of immortal cities. Mocked by those who had once envied him. Watched helplessly as the woman he loved ascended to higher realms with another man at her side.
Decades dragged by, twenty years of humiliation, pain, and simmering rage.
He had become the laughingstock of immortals.
Yet in the depths of his despair, he never gave up seeking revenge, and something answered to his hunger.
Not Heaven itself, Chen Mo refused to believe the same indifferent sky that had allowed his ruin would now show mercy.
But something heard.
Something answered.