Chapter 872: Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze

Jiang Xiaohua was really troubled.

Before departing from the Boundless Realm, the wizards had assured him that he only needed to lie still like an emotionless corpse, all the way to the Celestial Axis Realm. However, he was inexplicably dropped into this wretched place midway and couldn't rest peacefully anywhere.

Had he known, perhaps he shouldn't have intervened to save those children. Lying stiffly in the Gray Realm would have been much quieter than this.

Jiang Xiaohua turned his head to look in the direction where the detachment of soldiers had just departed.

He saw a figure in a Tang suit, carrying a lion dance head, sprinting through the void at an astonishing speed. Even the faint golden emperor's wraith couldn't catch him, so enraged that it kicked off the head of a nearby imperial guard before continuing its full-throttle pursuit.

"I don't invite disaster, disaster doesn't invite me... If I invite disaster, disaster can't catch me, can't catch me, can't catch me, can't catch me..."

Sun Bumian muttered something under his breath while pushing his Cloud Steps to their limit.

He had been dragged into this by Chen Ling and had no intention of directly confronting the successive emperors. He merely used his speed advantage to continuously evade the emperor. Compared to Chen Ling, his Cloud Steps were different and perfected, making him much faster. Perhaps only his master or senior disciple Ning Ruyu could truly contend with him in speed.

Jiang Xiaohua slowly turned his head.

On the other side of the battlefield, a figure wielding a blood-red longsword, like an unstoppable Asura, forcefully cut through a squad of imperial guards, emerging from the edge of the formation, covered in blood.

The direction Jian Changsheng burst out in was directly facing Jiang Xiaohua. After finally carving a bloody path, he immediately spotted the inert mummy standing by the pit, and was momentarily stunned:

"Holy crap!! He's alive!!"

Before he could finish speaking, the emperor's wraith pursuing him raised a hand, and a massive golden stele descended from the sky, directly smashing the dazed Little Jian headfirst into the ground, sending clouds of dust billowing upwards.

Little Jian's warm blood, mixed with the whirlwind, splattered onto the bandages on Jiang Xiaohua's cheek nearby. He silently wiped it with snow water, his movements full of disdain.

The imperial guards and armies of the three emperors, personally leading their campaigns, had completely taken over this area. In every direction, there was endless warfare and conflict. Jiang Xiaohua stood blankly, momentarily unsure where to go.

Meanwhile, above the snowy plains, another four or five emperor wraiths appeared, each leading their own armies to personally join the campaign!

The vast armies, seemingly endless, surged towards them. The more than four hundred emperor wraiths from the depths of the Imperial Dao Repository had all developed murderous intent towards the Actor Emperor. One after another, they were determined to annihilate Chen Ling in "Latent Dragon in the Abyss" today!

A large red opera robe streaked across the sky, followed closely by a golden dragon made of paper money.

Chen Ling looked up and saw several emperors charging towards him, his heart sinking immediately. If he had to fight, he wasn't incapable of defeating the emperor's wraith behind him, but killing this one would only lead to a continuous stream of emperors personally leading campaigns. In the worst-case scenario, "Latent Dragon in the Abyss" could accommodate a battle involving a hundred emperors.

No matter how skilled Chen Ling and his two companions were in combat, they couldn't possibly carve out a path under such overwhelming numerical superiority.

Chen Ling could use some of the Imperial Dao Repository's power to directly enter the second level, "Ascending from the Abyss". But the problem was that the second level was entirely comprised of imperial guards; entering it would undoubtedly provoke more emperors to besiege him, which would be tantamount to suicide.

And even if he wanted to leave, he would first have to find Jian Changsheng and Sun Bumian and take them with him.

"Damn it..."

Chen Ling activated the Tribunal, shooting off a claw of the pursuing golden dragon made of paper money, gaining a brief moment to breathe. Before he could even search for Jian Changsheng and Sun Bumian, three faint golden emperor wraiths descended from the sky, completely blocking all his escape routes!

Boom—!!

Four imperial pressures overlapped, locking down Chen Ling's agile form. The damaged golden dragon slowly rose before him, roaring at Chen Ling!

Audience Anticipation: 3Current Anticipation: 48

Overwhelming armies filled every corner of the snowy plain.

Jiang Xiaohua seemed to find his surroundings too noisy and chaotic, so chaotic that it felt stifling to breathe... Oh, though he didn't actually need to breathe.

"So troublesome... all three of them are so troublesome," Jiang Xiaohua murmured. "If this continues, I'll get dragged into it too..."

After a brief hesitation, Jiang Xiaohua finally made up his mind, lowering his head to carefully search for something in the snow.

By the pit where he had just been buried, he sequentially found the spots where Chen Ling and the other two had stood when they buried him. He dug a handful of snow from beneath each spot, and then, bit by bit, unwound the bandages from his hands.

A pair of pale, slender hands were revealed, like white jade.

Jiang Xiaohua carefully kneaded the three clumps of snow between his ten fingers.

Knead, knead, knead.

A few seconds later, he placed three small snow figures in front of him, one by one.

Jiang Xiaohua's hands were like a master carver's chisel. With a few casual pinches, he captured the essence of the three individuals, even meticulously molding Little Jian's wolf tail, Chen Ling's opera robe, and Sun Bumian's small round sunglasses.

Jiang Xiaohua sat cross-legged in the snow. After molding them, he looked at the three small figures with satisfaction, then formed a mysterious hand seal in front of him.

"Spell."

The next moment, the three small snow figures trembled slightly.

Almost simultaneously, Chen Ling felt a mysterious power surge from the void. After his vision blurred, he instantly vanished from his spot!

A wave of dizziness washed over Chen Ling. He instinctively opened his eyes again, finding himself sitting cross-legged in a patch of snow, lightly covered by a thin layer of scattered snowflakes.

In the spot where he had originally stood, a small, cute snowman was smashed to pieces by the roaring golden dragon made of paper money.

The four emperor wraiths, who had been besieging him, all paused in surprise.

Equally stunned were Jian Changsheng and Sun Bumian, who had appeared out of thin air beside Chen Ling.

One was covered in blood, holding his sword, seemingly ready for another major fight; the other's legs trembled, nearly launching him directly from his spot to continue running into the sky. Both of them, upon realizing they had suddenly arrived in this snowy area, had deep bewilderment in their eyes.

The three exchanged glances, their gazes simultaneously falling upon the "mummy" in front of them, whose hands were now free of bandages.

"You..."

"Hush."

Jiang Xiaohua raised his slender fingertips, making a shushing gesture to everyone.

Then he opened his arms, and under the bewildered gazes of Chen Ling and the other two, he embraced all three of them in front of him, as if putting his arms around good brothers.

Bandages fell away from his wrists, revealing large areas of pale skin.

As his skin was exposed, an inexplicable power spread through the air. The presence of Chen Ling and his two companions seemed to be shielded by something, completely disappearing amidst the vast wind and snow.