Zu An was taken aback to hear the content of the message, though he didn’t let anything show on his face.
Xihe’s attack was becoming fiercer. As the Sun Goddess, she commanded the sun’s brilliance. The sun could be gentle and warm, but it could also be wild and destructive. Mountains were crushed wherever they passed.
Zu An faced several close shaves. He would have long been torn into shreds if not for his rich combat experience and arsenal of mystical abilities.
Watching as Zu An was continuously pushed in his direction, Emperor Jun snarled. He finally found a chance to knock Xingtian back and charge out of the Kaiming Six Shamans’ encirclement to hurl a palm strike at Zu An’s back.
It was beneath his standing to attack a human, let alone such an assault. However, not a single person frowned on his action. If anything, they thought that he was too late to make a move.
Xihe radiated a brilliant golden light to seal off the surrounding space, giving Zu An no chance to slip away.
Emperor Jun nodded in glee. She’s my wife, after all. Despite being estranged in recent years, our coordination remains impeccable.
“Be careful!”
The Goddess of Wu Mountain anxiously unleashed the skill she had been channeling. A massive fog suddenly enveloped Emperor Jun in an attempt to stop his attack.
However, the flames around Emperor Jun flared, and the fog was instantly vaporized. The Goddess of Wu Mountain coughed from the backlash and nearly fainted. She was unable to help Zu An despite having depleted the final sliver of her energy.
But the split second she'd bought for Zu An turned out to be invaluable. Zu An was able to pull himself together to flash twenty meters away and dodge Emperor Jun’s palm strike.
But Emperor Jun wasn't that easy to deal with. Like a maggot suckling on a bone, he relentlessly pursued Zu An and unleashed yet another strike. This fellow is slippery like a loach. It’s hard for me to kill him alone, but now that Xihe is cooperating with me, it’ll be much easier.
Suddenly, Emperor Jun’s eyes widened. He abandoned his pursuit of Zu An and instead morphed into a golden light to dodge sideward. However, in his fluster, he forgot that Xihe had already sealed off the surrounding space with her golden light, rendering any teleportation abilities useless.
Excruciating pain assaulted his lower back. Without any hesitation, he thrust his palm to knock away Xihe, who had just assaulted him.
At the same moment, however, Zu An suddenly appeared beside him to plunge a pitch-black dagger at his ribcage. The ominous runes on the dagger alarmed Emperor Jun. Despite his strength and standing, he still felt threatened by the weapon. Golden light flared from his body as he quickly activated all his defensive methods.
But Zu An and Xihe’s cooperation was so impeccable that Emperor Jun couldn’t completely avoid the attack despite unleashing his full strength. He managed to avoid being struck in his vitals, but the pitch-black dagger still cut into his arm.
Emperor Jun used his artifacts to block further attacks from Zu An and Xihe so that he could retreat and catch a breather. He stared at his arm in horror, looking nowhere as relaxed as before. A black aura containing bizarre runes was slowly creeping up his arm.
In retaliation, the divine marks on his arm flickered, and a golden light shone to cleanse away the black runes, but for some reason, it wasn’t working. Instead, the black aura was gradually forcing back his golden light.
Emperor Jun was one of the supreme gods of the Celestial Court. His body was in harmony with the dao, granting him formidable recovery and cleansing abilities. Malevolent energies shouldn’t have been able to breach his defenses!
“What’s wrong with that dagger?!” Horrified, Emperor Jun unhesitatingly sliced off his injured arm.
The black aura devoured his arm as soon as it was severed from his body. It withered at a visible pace and turned into white bones.
Emperor Jun’s eyelids twitched. With his cultivation, his corpse wasn't supposed to wither for a million years after his death. His divine bones should also have been as pristine as the finest jade, emanating a faint divine light and pressure. And yet, his severed arm was already decomposing.
Meanwhile, Zu An and Xihe broke free from Emperor Jun’s defensive artifacts to flank him. What a pity! That was such a good chance to kill Emperor Jun! As expected of the Celestial Emperor. He survived despite being struck by the Poisonous Prick.
Earlier, Xihe had sent him a telepathic message suggesting that the two of them put on a show to deal with Emperor Jun. Since there was no reason for her to turn against Emperor Jun, Zu An couldn’t tell if Xihe was trying to entrap him. If this was her ploy, Zu An could find himself cornered by the celestial couple.
But when he looked into her eyes and remembered the time they had spent together, he'd still decided to trust her once more. It wasn't entirely a reckless decision, but rather, reflecting on the time they had spent together had left him with a guess.
Besides, there was no need for Xihe to resort to such trickery. The combined prowess of the celestial couple was more than enough to corner him. There was no need to do something this superfluous.
So, he'd decided to gamble with his life.
Xihe was surprised at first when Zu An agreed to go along with her, but in the end, they'd succeeded in injuring Emperor Jun.
A divine light shone from Emperor Jun’s severed right arm, and it didn’t take long for a new arm to sprout out. As a Golden Immortal, even if his body and Primordial Spirit were destroyed, he could make a full recovery as long as he had a single droplet of blood essence or soul fragment left; healing an arm was nothing in comparison.
Of course, that came at a price. If he were to sustain such grievous damage, it was unlikely that he would ever reach Sainthood.
This minor injury wouldn’t hinder him from reaching Sainthood, but the effects of that bizarre dagger left him at least 10% weaker than when he was at his peak. His complexion darkened. How could I, the Celestial Emperor, be pushed so far by a mere ant?
Of course, what angered him the most was still his wife’s betrayal. How dare that slut collude with that scoundrel to assassinate me? Turns out I was the laughingstock all along!
The knowledge that Zu An had not only conquered his wife’s body, but also her heart, made Emperor Jun seethe with anger.
You have successfully trolled Emperor Jun for +1024... +1024... +1024...
“Why?!” Emperor Jun glared at his wife. He couldn’t understand why she would do this.
They had been estranged for many years now, but they were still a couple on the surface. On top of that, Zu An had just killed nine of her sons. He couldn’t understand why she would side with Zu An to assassinate him.
Are Zu An’s techniques so great that she can overlook his crimes of killing her sons?
The images that popped into Emperor Jun’s mind made his face darken further.
You have successfully trolled Emperor Jun for +999... +999... +999...
Xihe glared back at Emperor Jun. “You know what you have done better than anyone else!”
“What did I do?” Emperor Jun was so furious that he began laughing manically. “That fellow killed our nine sons! I am trying to avenge our sons now! Instead of helping me, you collude with him to deal with me. You are unworthy of being a mother!”
“Shut your mouth!” Xihe’s mouth trembled. “You know who killed our sons better than anyone!”