Chapter 560: How Have You Been, Nether River Patriarch?

At Biyou Palace of the Jie Sect…

“Are you sure you want to leave, Brother Jiang He?”

Clothed in full-black, the Grandmaster of Heaven had a look of utter concern as he persuaded, “The Gods and Demons have not given up on killing you, and Lord Swelling Sky would definitely attack once you leave Three Realms’ territory.”

“It’s fine.”

Jiang He smiled. “Don’t worry, Brother… like you’ve said, Lord Swelling Sky is a bottom-feeder among Saints, and more or less equal in ability to the Western Sect’s Lesser Saint and the Nine-Heads Saint of the insectoid race.

“If I do run into him, I could escape even if I can’t win, can’t I?”

“Don’t be reckless!”

The Grandmaster of Heaven’s expression was solemn as he said seriously, “In the end, he’s a Saint. How weak could he be?”

“Moreover, innate soul treasures would affect all abilities significantly at this level. If the Patriarch of the Gods lend him his, he would possess immense power.”

“Don’t worry, Brother.”

Jiang He merely laughed out loud. “I’ll ask you for help if I can’t beat him… there was nothing in the Saint’s agreement that forbids rescuing.”

Ever since he returned from Spirit Mountain, he worked without sleeping to farm day and night, and eventually harvested all the medicinal pellets and mystic treasures he received from the Western Sect in ten days.

After passing all those items to Puti Zushi, Jiang He confined himself to train in the Fist of the Six Paths of Reincarnation and the Esoteric Nine.

For the former, he skipped the first and second style, choosing to cultivate the third style—Twilight of the Gods—right away.

It cost more Farm Points than the previous two styles put together, and was naturally the strongest, costing a total of 500 billion Farm Points.

The remaining Farm Points he had were only enough for Jiang He to cultivate two out of the Esoteric Nine.

He did not have to hesitate, however, since he would most certainly learn ‘Power’, which would supposedly multiply his power by ten times… but he had altered it so that it was now a hundredfold.

And yet, it was after the learned it that he realized he was being excessive when he revamped the Esoteric Nine, since it did not multiply his power up to a hundredfold.

“Right now, ‘Power’ only multiplies my abilities by thirty-three times, but that’s not for certain… after I become Saint, I would at most be able to multiply my power by ten times.”

Jiang He estimated that when it comes to being bared-fists, he would be peerless beneath Saints. After all, he had cultivated both immortal arts and martial arts to full-fledged Demi-Saint, not to mention that the Scripture of the Chaos Thundersword was unique in that it improved his body, spirit, and mystic energy in tandem.

The Nether River Patriarch, the Stoner’s patriarch, and even the Grand Mage of Xuandu would never best him.

Of course, things would be different if the Grand Mage had the Three Treasures.

Whoosh!

A flying raft streaked through the cosmos beyond the speed of light, occasionally bounding with spatial jumps to traverse more than several light years.

On the deck, Jiang He was sitting cross-legged.

At the same time, Dumbo had got himself a pirate costume from somewhere, and was standing two-legged, holding up a sword as he barked randomly at the stars.

“Steer the ship and stopped yapping,” Jiang He snapped.

Then, he began to extend his senses over his own body.

“With my current ability, once I cast Esoteric Power to unleash thirty-threefold worth of power, the Grand Mage of Xuandu himself would be crippled if I got close and let loose a string of combos on him.”

Everyone knows that the Grand Mage of Xuandu was equal in power to a Saint if he wielded the Eight Trigrams Canvas, the Golden Pagoda, and the Flags of Five Elements. In fact, he could hand bottom-feeders such as the Western Sect’s Lesser Saint a beatdown.

“Judging from that… right now, I would be stronger than bottom-feeder Saints, but their abilities are difficult to fathom since they could even control time… I need to fight them for real to know the outcome.”

Aside from Power, Jiang He had also cultivated Esoteric Healing.

Mastery of that Esoteric Power earned Jiang He terrific abilities of regeneration. Matched with his powers of recovering from Eternal-tier in martial arts, Jiang He had the feeling that he could instantly recovery from any injury as long as he was not instakilled.

“Eh?”

That was when he felt a stir in his mind.

He turned towards the dark, cold cosmos, unable to help smiling just then…

Lord Swelling Sky was coming?

“Dumbo, full-speed ahead. Destination, Sura!”

Jiang He barked the order, rising to his feet.

In an instant, the raft disappeared in a flash.

Oom…

Space itself rippled, and it was ten light years away when it finally reappeared.

The cosmos was vast, and not even Lord Swelling Sky could cover so much ground immediately.

***

Since Sura’s constellation was around thirteen thousand light-years away from the Celestial Battlefield, all it took was half a day to travel there.

And upon Sura’s churning Blood Sea, another layer of Blood Sea had appeared on top of it.

It was another manifestation of the Nether River Patriarch’s godly technique… upon a closer look, one could see that the Blood Sea over the horizon was shrinking visibly.

At the heart of it all, the Nether River Patriarch’s will was working strenuously.

“The Primeval Lord of Heaven’s godly technique is too powerful… I have to break it bit by bit…”

The Blood Sea in the skies was shrinking, and it was the Primeval Lord of Heaven’s godly technique given form, which he left casually.

The Nether River Patriarch would only be able to assume a form after the Blood Sea shrank completely, and escape the Primeval Lord of Heaven’s suppression.

“Are all Saints really this terrific…”

“Since my birth, I created the Suras in imitation of Nüwa herself, as well as Guidance, Heaven, Primeval in founding my own sect… Why can’t I become Saint?”

“Eh?”

The Nether River Patriarch suddenly felt a sense of danger.

“What’s going on?”

“Someone is coming to fight me? Could it be Primeval? Or is it someone else?”

“Like… Jiang He?”

The Nether River Patriarch’s heart skipped a beat.

He may have been subjugated, but he was aware of the news, since Grand Luo Suras would report to him every day.

As such, he was aware that Jiang He was now a Demi-Saint, stirring waves across worlds and cutting down over twenty Demi-Saint Gods and Demons.

“No!”

“It shouldn’t be Jiang He… isn’t he afraid of Lord Swelling Sky attacking him if he dares to come to my world?”

At that thought, the Nether River Patriarch felt utter regret right then.

Back when Jiang He said that he would return the Yuan Killer Sword once he was a Saint, he should have agreed to it immediately.

How many years had it only been since then? Not only would he regain the Yuan Killer Sword, he would get on Jiang He’s good side, too…

Kaboom!

A frightened spatial ripple raged then, followed by a dog’s bark and a cat’s purr.

“Ah…”

A Grand Luo Sura cried out in shock, yelling as he flew to the Blood Sea, “This is bad, Patriarch! Jiang He has come, and his pets are plundering our treasure vault… he has even brought along a weird plant that is as big as a star, and it’s too powerful…”

Shunk.

Even before the Sura could finish, he felt an iciness over his chest.

He looked down to find the tip of a sword, dripping with his own blood, protruding over his chest.

Its edge was quite familiar, too…

Wasn’t that their patriarch’s Yuan Killer Sword?

A frightening energy was rampaging over the edge of the sword, destroying his life force, psyche and soul… The Grand Luo turned his head in difficulty then and tried to look at the legendary ‘Late Bloomer’ of the Three Realms, but was left in pieces by a punch before he could do so.

After smashing the Grand Luo Sura’s cheek, he gently shoved to push the Sura off his sword.

Then, he smiled toward the Blood Sea hanging over the horizon and said, “How have you been, Nether River Patriarch?”