Tales of lingering romances between humans and demons had been praised by busybodies since antiquity, and naturally, Cangyuan had laid down plenty of lore about Guyuan. For that reason, when Xu Yuan had fought his way before the Dragon Emperor, the White Emperor, back then, he had once looked forward to seeing just how impressive this world boss would be. Yet that anticipation had ultimately devolved into sheer exasperation.
It wasn't that the White Emperor wasn't a difficult boss. Ranked among the hundreds of bosses in Cangyuan, the White Emperor belonged to the hardest tier. On his first encounter, Xu Yuan had fought him repeatedly for two whole hours before finally wearing him to death.
What left Xu Yuan so exasperated was that the White Emperor's difficulty didn't stem from an ingenious, varied skill kit—it was entirely raw stat-padding.
The skill sets across his first two phases didn't change at all; the stats were simply pumped higher. Even if a player maxed out defense and health, taking a full combo would send them straight to reincarnation.
By the time he reached the third and final phase, Xu Yuan thought there ought to be some change. After all, great demon bosses typically revealed their true forms at the end, or at the very least showed some physical transformation like a dragon tail.
Yet there wasn't any.
In phase three, the White Emperor's appearance remained identical, and the change in strength was just like phase one transitioning into phase two—purely juiced-up stats.
And they were boosted to an extent that left one completely at a loss.
Double the strength.
Double the speed.
Double the defense.
Double the damage.
Now that all of this was manifesting right before his eyes, Xu Yuan realized the game in his past life had actually been too conservative.
Staring at the figure surrounded by draconic silhouettes, Xu Yuan noticed that some of the scales on the White Emperor's body had lost their luster.
Evidently, Mu Nuo hadn't been entirely useless; the black smoke that had enveloped the White Emperor just now had inflicted a degree of damage.
Taking a deep breath, he said with a slow smile, "This junior was worried for you just now, Demon Emperor, thinking you would have to reveal your true form to deal with the father and son Insect Saints. I never imagined that even combined, they wouldn't last a single exchange against you."
"The art of shapeshifting exists to seek the human form. Far too many old relics in Guyuan put the cart before the horse."
Clutching the head in his hand, the White Emperor lifted it before Xu Yuan and asked placidly, "Xu Changtian, you should have a way to kill it, do you not?"
Well, just as expected, he came for this.
Driven by instinct, or perhaps by the law within its eyes, Mu Nuo's body continuously attempted to regenerate. Yet every time a portion of its body took shape, a flickering arc of golden lightning would scatter it.
Though the White Emperor could incapacitate Mu Nuo, he could not kill it. Still, it remained unclear why Mu Nuo didn't use the flickering movement technique from when he first awakened to reconstruct his body.
Under the intense glare of the dragon eyes just inches away, Xu Yuan thought it over and didn't hide it, speaking slowly, "There is indeed a way to kill this brat, but this junior isn't very confident."
The White Emperor cast his gaze down at the head in his grasp. "Devour?"
"Yes, but..."
"Do it."
"..." Xu Yuan didn't reply.
Looking at the young man who bore a fifty-to-sixty percent resemblance to the Great Yan Prime Minister in his youth, the White Emperor's voice was calm and brooked no refusal: "Unless your father arrives in person right this moment, you have no choice."
Xu Yuan grinned slightly and murmured, "Demon Emperor, you cannot hurt me..."
Before the words had even settled,
An afterimage swept past, and Xu Yuan's figure flickered erratically for an instant.
The White Emperor lowered his gaze to his palm and murmured to himself, "It was like this back then, and it is like this today. Is this the talent of your bloodline?"
Feeling the Void Flash triggered within his body, Xu Yuan asked softly, "Bloodline talent... It seems the Dragon Emperor has a history with my father?"
The White Emperor glanced toward the northeast and mused, "Xu Yinhe once journeyed to Guyuan as an envoy of Great Yan. The thing I regret most in my life, and also the thing I feel most fortunate about, is that I failed to keep your father in Guyuan back then."
That Prime Minister father of his actually clashed with the White Emperor in his youth?
Just as Xu Yuan was pondering this, the White Emperor's voice sounded again:
"Yet this time, there likely will be no more cause to feel fortunate, nor any more regret."
Oh no.
His eyelid twitched, and Xu Yuan bowed with cupped hands. "That is truly an overwhelming assessment. This junior is hardly fit to be compared with my father."
"Perhaps."
Smoothing his expression, the White Emperor's gaze turned aloof as he saw straight through Xu Yuan's thoughts. "The Overseeing Heaven Pavilion Master is no mediocre mortal like Qin Ke. The Sword Saint cannot arrive so quickly, so there is no need for further stalling words."
Xu Yuan kept his posture very humble—after all, a gun was pointed at his forehead, so to speak—yet he still said, "This junior just mentioned, Demon Emperor, you—"
"Ngh—"
Before he could finish,
The White Emperor reached out and clamped a hand around the neck of the armored woman. Even with the empowerment of the city-protecting array, Li Junwu remained entirely powerless to resist in the White Emperor's grip.
Ignoring the woman's struggles, with one hand strangling her neck and the other dangling Mu Nuo's head under the cascading sunlight, the White Emperor stared directly into Xu Yuan's eyes, enunciating each word: "I disdain to stoop to such despicable methods, but the matter of the dragon's remnant intent was a cause you planted yourself. Now that the fruit has ripened, it naturally falls to you to pay for it."
With that said,
The White Emperor seemed to sense something. He suddenly turned his gaze toward the armored woman, who kept her mouth clamped shut without uttering a word, straining with all her might to pry his fingers open. A flicker of hesitation appeared in the dragon's eyes.
The gauntlet with which Li Junwu gripped the White Emperor's wrist trembled ceaselessly, yet as the aura around her surged higher and higher, the trembling gradually ceased, replaced by a sheer contest of strength.
Inch by inch, she was forcefully prying apart the Dragon Emperor's grip.
Yet as the dragon eyes narrowed, the force in the White Emperor's hand erupted once more, instantly unleashing a shockwave that whistled outward.
*Crack!—*
The sound of metal shattering rang out.
Li Junwu's gauntlet burst apart under the strain, blood welling out from beneath, while the flying iron shards left a noticeable bloody gash across her pale neck.
The White Emperor's gaze upon Li Junwu took on a touch of approval, but promptly turned cold once more. "To possess such resolve, you are not quite as useless as that human surnamed Wen claimed. Yet even if you trade for power through such means, the only outcome will be your death and demise."
Li Junwu bit her lip, wisps of blood seeping out. It was hard to tell whether it came from a cut on her crimson lips or stagnant blood surging up from internal injuries.
"Heh... damn demonic dragon, how would you know without trying..."
"Junwu, stop."
This idiot actually wanted to sacrifice her life again with a secret art to mobilize the power of the military array.
Without preparing a military array elixir like Jinqi Powder in advance, defeating the White Emperor with a twenty-thousand-man military array was virtually impossible even for Li Qingyan and Marquis Wucheng, let alone Li Junwu, who was far inferior to either of them.
Xu Yuan sighed inwardly and said, "Let her go. I'll agree to your terms."
With those words, Xu Yuan immediately shot a calm glance at Li Junwu, who seemed about to speak: "Don't play the melodrama here. I know what I'm doing."
"..."
The woman's breath trembled. Several times she opened her mouth only to stop herself, ultimately swallowing her words beneath his calm gaze. Clenching her fists, she dispersed her art.
Seeing this, the White Emperor simply released his grip without offering a single word of warning, because given the current state of Zhenxi Prefectural City, Li Junwu had nowhere to run.
Looking at Xu Yuan, the White Emperor held out Mu Nuo's head:
"Begin, Xu Changtian."
Chapter 681