Chapter 159
Chapter 159: Ruan Hong's Sect Crisis Part 2
In the center of the ruins, a howling yin wind raged.
Driven by overwhelming curiosity.
Jiang Nan held the Sovereign Lantern and yanked Master Wang's soul right back out of it.
"Ahhhhh!"
Master Wang's soul let out a wail, twisting and writhing in the palm of Jiang Nan's hand.
Jiang Nan's expression was blank.
He had absolutely no intention of conserving his Word Spirit Reserve right now.
Once he packed up all these draft-horse scholars and masters down below and shipped them into his factory to work the sewing machines—
He'd have all the Grand Love Points and Word Spirit Reserve he could ever want!
"Who is the Ancestral Dragon Emperor?"
With his fate gripped by the scruff of its neck, Master Wang first froze—then his soul began to tremble violently.
"Y-Your Majesty!"
"P-Please… don't toy with this old one!"
Master Wang stared at Jiang Nan with quivering dread, wailing with a face full of misery.
"That Sovereign Lantern hanging at your waist—the one that suppresses the ten thousand clans…"
"Under heaven and earth, who else could it possibly belong to, if not you, the Supreme Sovereign of the Human Race?!"
Hearing this, Jiang Nan frowned.
‘This thing actually recognizes the Sovereign Lantern?’
‘And it's calling me the Ancestral Dragon Emperor?!’
Based on the fragmented flashes of memory passing through his mind—
Combined with the various causes and effects he had encountered along the way—
He had, in truth, already worked out the identity of his past life deep in his heart long ago.
It was absolutely someone of extraordinarily high standing within the Dragon Race.
An existence that towered even above the Dragon King!
But… the Ancestral Dragon Emperor?
This didn't quite match the identity he had deduced!
He first pulled up the Sovereign Lantern's information.
【Item】: Sovereign Lantern
【Description】: A Cursed Object forged by a great ancient artificer of the Human Race in the Savage Realm.
……
Then, combining that with Master Wang's reaction upon seeing this equipment—
That absolute certainty of seeing the real owner, that terror—
A hypothesis for the truth assembled itself in Jiang Nan's mind!
‘The Ancestral Dragon Emperor must be that great artificer!’
It just so happens that this piece of equipment ended up in my, Jiang Nan's, hands.
‘So this blind old fool, recognizing only the equipment and not the person, mistook me for the Ancestral Dragon Emperor.’
"I see…"
After sorting out that layer of truth.
A flash of killing intent crossed the depths of Jiang Nan's eyes.
He was just about to continue speaking—to interrogate Master Wang further about the Ancestral Dragon Emperor—
But at that very moment! The next instant!
BOOM!!!
A furious roar erupted from deep within the dojo, cutting off Jiang Nan's interrogation!
"Scoundrel!"
"How dare you lay hands on the people of our dojo!"
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
3 streaks of light shot skyward from the depths of the dojo, accompanying the enraged shout.
Carrying yin and malevolent energy, they crashed down onto the shattered ruins of the main hall!
The dust settled, revealing 3 eerie silhouettes.
The 2 figures on the left and right wore tattered, yellowed Daoist robes.
They gripped Copper Coin Swords in their hands, with 2 skull heads perched atop their necks!
The figure standing in the center wore Confucian robes identical to those of the masters on the ground.
Likewise topped with a skull head, radiating the oppressive aura of a superior entity!
Upon seeing these 3 figures descend.
Master Wang instantly lit up like he'd just spotted his saviors, struggling with frantic excitement!
"Daoist Hou! Daoist Lu! Scholar Chun!!!"
Master Wang's voice cracked with emotion.
"Quickly! Save me!"
"He is the Ances—Ahhhhh!"
But his cry for help had barely made it halfway.
Jiang Nan let out a cold smile.
"Hmph! You're already at death's door, and you still dare betray me to my face?"
Crack!
Jiang Nan didn't waste a single word. His 5 fingers clenched shut!
Amid the sound of a soul shattering, Master Wang's soul was crushed on the spot, shattered to pieces.
It transformed into warm Grand Love Points and surged into the Sovereign Lantern!
"My apologies."
Jiang Nan dusted off his hands.
"My Grand Love Factory's production line has no use for double-crossing trash like you."
"You…!!!"
Witnessing this, Scholar Chun standing in the center erupted into absolute fury!
The 2 hollow eye sockets of his skull blazed with jets of yin fire!
"How dare you act so brazenly, you insolent wretch!!!"
Scholar Chun pointed at Jiang Nan.
"How dare you, before our very eyes, ruthlessly murder a member of our Confucian order!"
"Do you have any idea what kind of capital crime you have committed within this Scholar's Dojo?!!!"
However, Daoist Hou and Daoist Lu standing beside him—
At this moment, both were staring fixedly at the Sovereign Lantern in Jiang Nan's hand, their 2 skull heads filled with suspicion and unease.
"Scholar Chun, hold on…"
Daoist Hou's hand gripping the Copper Coin Sword trembled slightly. "That lantern… it's definitely the Sovereign Lantern, no mistake!"
"Could it be that he's the Ancestral Dragon Emperor?!"
"No!"
Daoist Lu immediately countered.
"The aura and build beneath that armor are completely unlike the Ancestral Dragon Emperor!"
"The Ancestral Dragon Emperor carried far more composure and imperial presence!"
"Whereas this person's aura is more of… pure carnage!"
The 2 old Daoist ghosts hesitated for a moment, retreating half a step.
If they truly ran into the Ancestral Dragon Emperor's resurrection—
These 2 sorcerers would likely be used as torch fuel!
But Scholar Chun raised his ruler with a sweep and bellowed harshly.
"What are you panicking for?! Even if he truly is the Ancestral Dragon Emperor, so what?!"
Scholar Chun gave a cold snort, just as recklessly fearless as he had been in his lifetime.
"Don't forget—we are now the favored servants of the Great Evil God!"
"We have spent a thousand years within this dojo condensing our Corrupted Righteous Aura—something that acts as the natural bane of all living creatures!"
"As long as we join forces, even if he truly is the Ancestral Dragon Emperor today, this old scholar will carve a piece of flesh from him!"
The 2 ghosts heard this, and the ghostfire in their eye sockets blazed up at once!
They thought it made a great deal of sense!
They had numbers on their side now. What was there to fear?!
"All masters! All scholars! Form formation!"
Scholar Chun raised his ruler high and unleashed a roar. "Use the Corrupted Righteous Aura to execute this thief!"
"KILL!!!"
In an instant, the thousands of remaining Dried-Corpse Scholars and skull-headed masters still inside the dojo erupted simultaneously!
A sky-blotting expanse of sickly green Righteous Aura blotted out the heavens as it came crashing toward Jiang Nan!
"Hehehe… Whether you're the Ancestral Dragon Emperor or not, die for this Daoist today!"
Daoist Hou and Daoist Lu grinned with sinister joy, simultaneously unleashing a sky-filling barrage of poison talismans that mixed into that green torrent!
This overwhelming all-or-nothing strike was enough to instantly kill any peak S-Grade powerhouse!
And yet…
BOOOOM!!!
The terrifying green torrent slammed into Jiang Nan's body—and couldn't even raise a single ripple!
The instant it made contact with the No Entry Forbidden Domain layering the Dragon God Imperial Armor—
That so-called Corrupted Righteous Aura couldn't even let out a single fart.
It was completely neutralized by the domain's rules, wiped clean without a trace!
"This… how is this possible?!"
Scholar Chun and the 2 ghosts' laughter died abruptly.
Every Dried-Corpse Scholar in the hall froze in place, paralyzed with horror.
That had been their trump card accumulated over a thousand years!
While the assembled ghosts questioned their very existence—
‘Now… it's my turn.’
Jiang Nan had never intended to spare this pack of prime draft-horses.
He gave his wrist a flick—the Sovereign Lantern was swung like a meteor hammer!
Whirr~BANG!!!
The Sovereign Lantern's immense weight drove it into the corpse-mass with the force of ten thousand catties!
In an instant, bones snapped and tendons shattered, chunks of flesh flying in all directions!
A massive swathe of Dried-Corpse Scholars didn't even get the chance to scream before being smashed on the spot into piles of mangled paste!
Immediately after, countless chains erupted from the lamp's wick!
Piercing through the souls attempting to flee, dragging them back imprisoned!
"Ahhhhh! Daoist, save me!"
"Scholar Chun! Help!!!"
Watching this unfold, the 3 ghosts were equally stunned, hearts pounding wildly.
But they hadn't backed down, because this savage style of fighting made them all the more certain—
This was definitely not the Ancestral Dragon Emperor!
That tyrant never fought this dirty!
"Don't be afraid! He must just be a high-bloodline Dragon kin who got lucky!"
"Who managed to get his hands on the Sovereign Lantern!"
"Everyone give it everything! Fight him to the death!"
Scholar Chun screeched hysterically.
But Jiang Nan, in the midst of the slaughter, had spotted a phenomenon that made his eyes light up!
He noticed that the Dried-Corpse Scholars, just before death—
Were actually capable of transferring all of their own Righteous Aura to their surviving comrades!
This eerie transmission was actually forcibly stacking a few masters who had originally been only A-Grade—
To a brief, temporary S-Grade!
‘Holy shit? This is fantastic!’
The eyes beneath Jiang Nan's armor lit up in an instant!
What he was most troubled about right now was that upgrading the Sovereign Lantern required imprisoning massive numbers of S-Grade Cursed Creatures' souls.
These scholars—they were the perfect S-Grade power banks!
But it was quite clear that this pack of draft-horses still had their own leadership. They weren't very obedient and were all fighting to the death.
‘Since you all enjoy grouping up so much, I'll go out of my way.’
‘And give you a little reenactment.’
‘Except mine won't be called the Burning of Books and Burial of Scholars—it'll be the Burning and Burial of Corpse-Scholars!’
Hmmm!
"With this as my torch, I offer you the rest of your days—burn, until nothing remains."
Jiang Nan raised his left hand, and the Tribulation Flame ignited at his fingertip!
With a casual sweep of his hand, the Tribulation Flame transformed into a sky-engulfing sea of fire that swallowed all the stubborn old masters whole!
The 2 Daoist ghosts were close enough to be burned to ash on the spot!
"AHHHHH! You cursed tyrant!!!"
Scholar Chun had half his body engulfed by the Tribulation Flame and frantically jabbed his ruler at Jiang Nan, screaming curses.
‘Thank you for the compliment.’
Jiang Nan held the Sovereign Lantern, shaking his head leisurely as he admired the fiery spectacle.
Honestly, he had always thought the Ancestral Dragon Emperor's methods were somewhat foolish.
Burning all those Confucian scholars and burying them alive—what a complete waste of perfectly good resources.
‘If it were him, I'd only kill the ringleader old bastards.’
‘Then round up all the remaining young scholars and drag them back!’
‘Chain them up and have them work the sewing machines in my Grand Love Factory!’
‘As long as they're not dead, keep pedaling until they're old!’
‘Once they're too old to pedal, toss them straight into the grinder and turn them into fertilizer for the plants.’
‘Now that—that's what real maximum resource utilization looks like.’
Jiang Nan wisely did not say any of this aloud.
But the muffled laughter coming from beneath his armor was enough to make every surviving scholar in the hall go cold to the bone.
Their very souls were shaking.
"You… you demon lurking behind helmet and armor…"
Scholar Chun's body had begun to collapse under the Tribulation Flame's scorching.
"Do you dare reveal your true face?!"
"Let this old scholar see—who exactly dares humiliate our Confucian order like this?!!!"
‘Fine. I'll grant this stubborn old relic his final wish.’
Jiang Nan gave an indifferent shrug, and with a thought—
The helmet portion of the Dragon God Imperial Armor retracted, revealing that face of absolute cold detachment.
The instant they saw this face clearly.
Scholar Chun, still struggling in the flames, froze completely in place!
Even the pain was forgotten!
As though he were witnessing the most inconceivable sight in all the world.
"No wonder…"
"No wonder our Scholar's Dojo faces such utter annihilation today…"
"So it was you…"
Scholar Chun's voice trembled violently. "The Dragon God!!!"
Hearing that title—one powerful enough to awe ten thousand ages—Jiang Nan's eyes didn't even stir.
Based on all the clues accumulated thus far, he had long since seen through his past life's true identity.
In this moment, there was even a part of him that felt like laughing.
But Scholar Chun, after a brief daze, burst into unbridled laughter!
Under the Tribulation Flame's scorching, his skeletal form began to crumble.
Dissolving back into the appearance of the stubborn old man he had been in life.
"Hahaha! You, the Tyrant's most loyal accomplice!"
"This old scholar should have realized long ago it would be a madman like you!"
Scholar Chun's half-burned face was filled with hate.
"Though this old scholar does not know how you managed to survive the hands of the great Evil God back then!"
"Or how you even escaped to this Savage Realm!"
"But…"
"It is all too late now!!!"
"Dragon God! You are already utterly isolated, without a single ally! The era you protected has long since perished!"
"Cling to life while you can—and wait with anticipation for your former comrades…"
"Your kin…"
"And your beloved!"
"To personally descend, and deliver upon you the most complete and thorough destruction of all!"
"Hahahahaha!!!"
Accompanying that final burst of laughter, Scholar Chun's soul was utterly burned to ash by the Tribulation Flame!
Jiang Nan stood where he was, his expression cold.
He made no move to activate the Sovereign Lantern to absorb Scholar Chun's soul.
The first reason was that this old thing held too much authority among the scholars.
The second was the fear that the Tribulation Flame might follow the soul's path and spread into the Sovereign Lantern.
In any case, the ringleader had to die—and the intelligence he had wanted to confirm had already been obtained.
His past life was indeed the Dragon God.
Thud! Thud!
The tree had fallen, and the monkeys scattered.
With Scholar Chun and the 2 Daoist masters turned to ash and smoke—
The remaining scholars in the dojo lost every last shred of their will to resist.
They collapsed to their knees in terror, shaking uncontrollably.
Like a flock of lambs awaiting slaughter, they allowed Jiang Nan to wrap them up one by one with the Sovereign Lantern's chains and imprison them.
Only a handful of stubborn troublemaker masters who still mounted futile last-ditch resistance were incinerated on the spot by Jiang Nan with the Tribulation Flame.
‘That's a wrap.’
Jiang Nan rehung the now thoroughly stuffed Sovereign Lantern back at his waist.
Looking at the Scholar's Dojo—now reduced entirely to rubble—he dusted off his hands with satisfaction.
‘Finally… the Grand Love Factory's production line has no shortage of draft-horses.’
Although Ruan Hong was too far away to hear anything, he could still see it all.
That armored figure had slaughtered the upper echelon of the Scholar's Dojo to the last.
The brutality of the methods!
The terror of the aura!
Absolutely horrifying!
‘This is absolutely that tyrant Ancestral Dragon Emperor coming to settle scores with the Scholar's Dojo!’
Ruan Hong howled internally, yet couldn't help feeling smug at the same time.
‘See? What did I tell you, you bunch of sour Confucians, you idiots!’
‘Couldn't even rest in peace after dying—had to keep shitting on that person, and now look, you've all been stuffed into the lantern to be used as torch fuel!’
Though he was trembling with fright, the next thought that came to him was…
He was a Child of Destiny!
Based on years of reading web novels, the plot was absolutely going to unfold exactly like this:
This terrifying armored figure couldn't find him, searched around fruitlessly, then left.
Then he'd crawl out from the rubble, and by chance trigger the Scholar's Dojo's hidden opportunity!
Like some remnant soul elder seeing potential in his endurance, taking him as a disciple, and passing him a supreme divine technique!
With the only price being to avenge the dojo.
And finally, after achieving mastery of the technique, he'd overcome all obstacles, stomp the Ancestral Dragon Emperor underfoot, hold the Phoenix Sovereign in his arms, and ascend to the pinnacle of existence!
"Hehehehe…"
"That's how it's always written in the novels—trashy web fiction never lies to me."
Ruan Hong fantasized blissfully, his heart blooming with joy, continuing to hunker down in place and be a perfect stone.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Jiang Nan held the Sovereign Lantern as he cleared out the remaining scholars from the dojo.
At the same time, he searched the ruins for any trace of that little Sakura Nation soldier.
As long as he found that soldier, he could get hold of the key intelligence about the situation inside Soul-Return Town.
Soon, he searched room by room, and with a single kick—
Jiang Nan swung open the door of the thatched hut where Ruan Hong had previously been hiding.
Jiang Nan crouched down and yanked the Sakura Nation soldier's body out from beneath the bed in one motion.
The body's eyes were open and unwilling. A through-and-through fatal wound punctured the neck.
Quite obviously—an assassination.
‘Oh? Someone got to it first?’
Jiang Nan's brow lifted slightly.
He quickly patted down the body.
Aside from some useless scraps, there was no special item to be found.
But when Jiang Nan noticed the body's 2 hands were clasped over its chest, displaying a posture of protection—
He let out a cold laugh.
‘Interesting. Looks like the rat that cut in line hasn't gone far.’
Jiang Nan stood up, dusted off his hands, and walked out of the thatched hut without a backward glance.
He strode directly toward the outside of the dojo, his figure soon disappearing from within the Scholar's Dojo.
From the distant hillside, Ruan Hong watched this unfold, and the tight string in his heart finally released completely!
"Yes!!! I knew I was the main character!"
"That blind armored idiot didn't find me at all! Hehehehe!"
Watching the direction Jiang Nan had vanished in, Ruan Hong couldn't help letting out a soft hum of satisfaction.
But the very next second, he nearly scared the life right out of his bowels!
Because—a foot, encased in a battle boot—
Without a sound, stepped into the mud not even half a meter from this "stone" of his.
Following that foot upward…
That armored figure, without anyone knowing when, was standing right behind him!
Bunny-Bunny