Everyone believed that the White Emperor is the only Paramount Cultivator in the siege of the Ku Kang Camp. After all, to have more than one fighter of his class presiding over such a formidable stronghold is too frightening. Yet the truth is, there are three Emperors here, and they brought two of them over unknowingly.

Rurik Slavik, the Crimson Emperor. A loyal retainer of the Great Khan Yesugei-in Temujin who ended the once-great northern empire for his lord, earned his title by ripping apart an entire palace and all of its inhabitants with his bare hands and sent waves of horror across Gaia.

Legends say that he is more beast than man, savage and cunning, but absolutely loyal to his master. They could guess from a glance that he is the man they called Avgust Arthur, one of the Three Great Generals from the Saint Empire frontlines.

The identity of the Black Emperor, on the other hand, is a complete mystery. Even his existence was uncertain. Some say that several powerful individuals share that title while others claim that the Black Emperor is the Great Khan himself.

A snidely smile erupted on Reynold’s face when he looked at Lord Yue as if saying that he had won.

He did not suppress the Walls of Jericho and secure the exit only as a safety measure, but was awaiting the two other Emperors to arrive. Because sometimes, the deciding factor of an entire battle rests on a few individuals.

The White Emperor frowned slightly for he did not see the body of the East Wind. The Crimson Emperor and the Black Emperor wouldn’t let him off, and since the two appeared unharmed, it is most likely that Esley had successfully retreated.

The two emperors had put in unmeasurable effort for this assassination attempt, especially the Crimson Emperor who joined Saint Empire for over a century for this purpose.

For the East Wind to escape is a tremendous loss for Frosthral. When his Nine Parallel Soul fully established links with Contract Beasts his fighting potential will exceed many top Paramount Cultivators and become a dangerous enemy.

To tame nine Triple S beasts, he will instantly acquire ten Paramount units, and that is only the beginning. One day if Esley and all his tamed creatures become fully grown, he has the potential to become the only hundred Paramount unit cultivator on Gaia.

For the sake of the Frosthral Feudal State, such an individual must die, therefore it wasn’t one Emperor but two that acted.

Although it is hard to kill a Paramount Cultivator, Esley only become one recently while the Crimson Emperor is at seven Paramount unit and the Black Emperor is rumoured to be at ten Paramount unit.

For them to have failed, the East Wind must’ve possessed a formidable lifesaving treasure. The Restrio family of the Sun & Moon clan undoubtedly would’ve opened its vaults to Esley Restrio, if not to a Paramount cultivator with limitless potential like him then no one is worthy. As one of the three great noble houses of Saint Empire, the Sun & Moon clan possesses artefacts that no one could imagine; even immortal treasures are possible.

However Luciette and Lorelei’s Baixue family is significantly less powerful. While Esley escaped, Lorelei didn’t have a powerful enough artefact to save her life.

She never expect that despite years of them fighting alongside, the two other Great Generals would suddenly attack her. Their every move were deadly and aimed to drive her into a corner. Even after using every trick in her book, Lorelei died an excruciating death with all her limbs broken, her chest compressed into a quarter of its size and her neck nearly torn off.

Kairos carefully scrutinised her remains from afar using his Soul Perception, “She was caught off-guard in a bear hug and then she broke her right hand against her attacker’s armour. Both her arms are destroyed by using a combat art far too powerful for her to withstand, likely because her opponent is too strong for her and left her without a choice.

Her torso was crushed but a cultivator of her level doesn’t die easily. They broke both her legs to prevent her from escaping then threw her to the ground and proceeded to slowly twist her head off.”

Lorelei’s expressions were twisted gruesomely from the manner she was murdered but none of the boys turned their eyes away.

The Black Emperor wanted to wave Lorelei’s corpse around to drive fear into his enemies but the dead is a treasure trove of information on the killer and the boys spared no time to study it.

“The one who restrained her should be Avgust, or perhaps we should call him Rurik Slavik now.”

“To crush her ribs he will need at least eight Paramount Unit of strength. Any lesser and he wouldn’t be able to do it with such ease.”

The information on the Crimson Emperor says that he is seven Paramount Units, but the data was gathered more than a hundred years ago and long since outdated.

“Not only that. He seemed to have attained the Titan physique, otherwise an attack with such power that it broke her hand would’ve left a large wound on his chest even if he is an eight units Paramount Cultivator.”

“The technique used to break her legs is in the darkness element but it is filled with an exceedingly evil force.”

The transcendent elements Holy & Darkness is named thus because it is both good and evil, light and darkness.

“From the angle it was the Black Emperor who destroyed her kneecaps. The strength he used was precise to a fault that it merely snipped off the tendons of both legs and did not harm any of the muscles around. Even her skin wasn’t cut.”

The last five words spoken drove fear into their spines. Just how much control the Black Emperor has over his Ki to do this?

Of course, to be able to discover this much information is a testimony of how potent is the Soul Perception. It could only cover the surface of things within a certain area or travel through tiny openings with some effort, but its advantage lies in how much it could glean.

Having her tendon snapped displays a different outcome than both muscles and tendons sliced and even the tiniest detail will not be missed by the Soul Perception.

However, one’s focus is limited, thus the eleven of them were quickly exchanging what they found out.

The faces of all three emperors darkened. As Paramount Cultivators, they have exceptional hearing, and the group wasn’t trying to whisper.

For their skills be taken apart piece by piece like this, the plan of frightening them had backfired so hard that the Black Emperor could feel his cheeks flaming hot despite not being slapped.

The White Emperor and the Crimson Emperor looked to each other speechlessly but otherwise had no expressions on their faces.

The Black Emperor said silently, “It doesn’t change anything. Yue Chang Ming alone cannot stop the inevitable. Today, the north will surely reign.”

Fully confident that they will win, the Black Emperor gave Reynold a pointed look. The latter knowingly changed the suppressive strength that held back the barrier’s opening into an enforcement state.

The Walls of Jericho is a closed energy system that does not allow the transfer of energy with its control with Lee Hei to suspend or stop this isolation barrier.

What the White Emperor did to prevent the barrier from closing is like adding door stoppers, but Ki is not a fixed form and a power strong enough to act as a stopper is adequate in overloading the barrier.

Lee Hei quickly felt his control over the formation being ripped away. The White Emperor’s energy rushed into the Walls of Jericho, strengthening the formation and driving it wild. It became so strong that the isolation barrier became a swirling spiral that no one can control.

“At the rate the energy is bleeding, it will take two hours to regain control,” Lee Hei shouted.

“Plenty of time to kill all of you while my soldiers retake the camp,” the Black Emperor smiled.

Lord Yue looked at him without an ounce of fear in his eyes despite being surrounded by three emperors and asked, “What happened to Esley?”

The Black Emperor did not bother to lie and he answered in no hurry, “He used a Time-lapse treasure and escaped the moment we killed Lorelai.”

Time-lapse in Cultivator terms is for hiding a small section of time away from one’s opponent and using that instance to attack or escape. It can be done by making everyone unaware, forget, or even sniping off a second of time from the world. Although the method is different the effect is the same and any artefact that could do this is an incredible treasure.

“Clever,” Lord Yue conceded. To immediately judge the strength of his enemies and make a split-second decision to escape is a sign of greatness. Those who proudly believes that they are beyond death are usually buried young.

Lord Yue continued, “Black Emperor, return the bodies of Lorelai and Diao Ling.”

“You can tell that I am not Diao Ling? I’m impressed. It must be those eyes of yours that allowed you to see past my disguise. I wonder if I can use them after I plucked them out of your head.”

The ability to see the point of destruction of things allowed the duke to tell instantly that this person isn’t the real Diao Ling. While points of destruction may become less as a cultivator becomes stronger, the weak spots should not differ from the original too greatly unless one changes the Cultivation Method or completely turn into a different person.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The actual Diao Ling who is the Angelheart family’s last head had long been killed by the Black Emperor. The north plotted to assassinate Esley since over a hundred years ago when the Crimson Emperor joined Saint Empire as Avgust Arthur. When the time was ripe, Avgust who had earned the trust of Diao Ling, called him to a secluded place and murdered him to let the Black Emperor take his place.

The Black Emperor waved away Lord Yue’s request saying, “I do have their corpses. If you beat us, you may have them back.”

Lord Yue nodded in agreement and prepared to fight.

The Crimson Emperor however was enraged, “You really think you can face three emperors at the same time? We don’t even need two hours! Just a quarter hour is enough for us to have you kneeling and begging for mercy!”

Without another word, the bear-like man rushed forward towards the Duke. His speed was most unlike his stature, and in the blink of an eye he had reached right before Lord Yue.

The Duke is considerably tall at a hundred ninety centimetres but the Crimson Emperor who is two hundred and fifty centimetres easily looked down at the man.

A fist like a boulder came at him but Lord Yue lifted up a finger to meet the attack.

The large man suddenly felt as if he was about to strike a sword tip and sweated profusely. He stopped his hand in mid-swing and rapidly fell back.

At the same time, the Black Emperor appeared from above and pointed at Lord Yue’s forehead with two fingers. A black light shot down from his fingertips at blinding speed. It was the technique that destroyed Lorelai’s legs but a thousand times more powerful.

Lord Yue turned finger into fist and punched into the air. The black light had yet to reach the Duke but the space around it started cracking and a void appeared that absorbed the attack with a whoosh.

The two Emperors were stunned by how easy the Duke stopped their attack and now re-evaluated him as a dangerous opponent. Even if the Duke cannot dodge or defend, he can break the space around and create a void that nullify their attacks.

He is a difficult opponent that cannot be underestimated. And that frightening expression he has on his face is as though he wanted nothing more in this world than to murder the three emperors in the most gruesome manner possible. They couldn’t help but shiver uncontrollably from time to time when facing him in battle.

The White Emperor Reynold gritted his teeth. To see both the Crimson and Black Emperor act in accord yet the fight remaining as difficult as before was a hit on his confidence.

Reynold warned, “He needs but a faction of the power we use against him to neutralise our attacks. Use your best moves, only martial techniques and weapons of the highest tier can work against him.”

After fighting the Duke for a while, the White Emperor had largely figured out that the ability he use. It gave him greater ease to destroy things, so much that it only takes a single blow for Lord Yue to break most weapons and destroy most combat techniques, but Reynold noticed that the difficulty increases for the Duke to handle the stronger attacks.

The three emperors took action immediately, bringing out their personal weapons or gathering strength to unleash their ultimate techniques.

They timed to attack at the same time so that even if Lord Yue wouldn’t be able to stop all of them. Once they get a single solid hit in, they can chain attacks non-stop and bury the Duke under a barrage.

Even a ten Paramount Cultivator will be killed if trapped by the three emperors, but against the Duke they must use such excessive force to feel assured.

The Crimson Emperor took out his strongest weapon, two Pseudo-immortal rank hammers, and activated the runes on the weapon.

Originally the twin weapons were one. He had found it in a strange ruin deep underneath the ground and after much research he determined it to be the guardian weapon of a long lost civilization. A powerful weapon that persisted through the ages.

Embedded in the hammer is a set of crystals that gave it incredible power. However, the metal is so dense and heavy, and the crystals’ fearsome Ki absorption from the cultivator made it impossible to wield even for Rurik Slavik.

The hammer’s energy source, the mysterious crystals, seemed to be of divine origin but the weapon is only immortal ranked.

Whoever forged the hammer did not have the skills to bring it to its full potential, yet it is already powerful beyond what any Paramount Cultivator could handle.

Rurik had to cut it in two from the top and reforge it into twin hammers. Expectedly, the grade fell to Pseudo-Immortal rank but it no longer threatens to completely drain the Crimson Emperor of Ki when wielding them. Its considerable weight, however, forced the Crimson Emperor to reach a higher level of External Cultivation before it became usable. He took a hundred years to attain Titan Physique and since then this pair of hammers become his most trusted partner in battle. Taking them out now is an indication that he is treating the Duke as a serious opponent despite it was three against one. Despite it being Pseudo-Immortal Rank, its material is far more exotic and will take the Duke much more effort to destroy.

The Black Emperor also took out a weapon, a frightening long blade that he channelled a third of his Ki into. Eerie red runic glyphs light up along the weapon’s body. Its edge is made of purplish metal while the flat of the blade is made of a purely black metal. Both the materials and grade of the sword are of an unknown grade but it was used to slice the hammer Rurik found in two thus it couldn’t be a normal weapon either.

The length of the weapon made it look cumbersome and rather impracticable yet because the runes allowed it to have an unearthly sharpness that could slice through rocks as though it was swung through air; exceptionally deadly in the hands of an expert.

The Black Emperor has a hobby of collecting prized blades, and this is one of his three top favourites.

The White Emperor, however, had already lost his garrotte weapon, the Ice Threads, in the previous battle and was not about to risk another. Even as a Paramount Cultivator, he didn’t have that many Pseudo-Immortal weapons. If he lost one more, even if he kills the Duke, he will utterly regret.

Reynold gathered power between his palms and roared, “Oh Khione, daughter of the north, princess of Athens, the north wind!

Your presence is needed. The White Emperor, lord of the frozen lands bid you, manifest and destroy, Grand Illusion: Blizzard Heart!”

A mirage image of a beautiful woman dressed in white fur appeared above their heads.

The temperature dropped rapidly as the sound of a pounding heartbeat thrummed from the White Emperor’s hands and blasted everyone’s ears like a war drum. Instead of an illusion, it was like a sound attack. Victims of this technique will be knocked senseless by the repeating blasts as their blood quickly turn into ice.

Ice crystals will form their veins becoming a kind of frost poison that can immobile and eventually kill his targets.

This is the White Emperor’s Secret Art, the epitome of his Dao Heart.

There is no place to hide from it, no way to defend against the cold, and impossible to destroy even for the great Lord of Death because once it is activated, the Greater Frost Elemental Khione will continue to maintain the spell from the spirit realm.

Lord Yue stood quietly waiting for them. The pressure from their weapons and Secret Art pressed down on the teenagers nearby, almost forcing them to their knees.

The Duke could feel Reynold’s Secret Art starting to mess with his concentration, and if given time, he will temporarily lose conscious.

As the White Emperor expected, Lord Yue had no way to destroy technique that is formless and covers everything. Of course, if he could destroy the source, it will stop, but the White Emperor isn’t generating the attack.

Reynold is merely the activator that starts the grand illusion, while Khione whom he had called upon is the power source and she is in another realm.

It was a perfect counter against the Duke’s ability and it isn’t a coincidence that the White Emperor had such a skill up his sleeve. Almost all Secret Art call upon the powers of another being, and many of them are offensive skills that changes a terrain into something favourable for the caster or a deathblow that cannot easily be neutralised.

After all, Secret Arts are the ultimate combat skill and trump card for Cultivators, if they are too easily dispelled then it would become useless.

While the grand illusion hinders Lord Yue, the Crimson and Black Emperors prepared their weapon for an attack.

The two charged forward in a pincer-like assault. The Black Emperor struck towards, aiming to cut him in two while the Crimson Emperor swung his hammers from left and right to stop him from dodging to the sides.

Suddenly, the unnatural coldness lifted. The roaring heart that drowned out all sounds stopped.

The two Emperors hesitated slightly in mid-charge as they wondered what happened to the Grand Illusion: Blizzard Heart.

But, they are merely a step away from their target and had no way to back off. Instead, both Paramount Cultivators chose to increase the ferocity of their attack. They threw all their strength and speed in so that even without the support of the White Emperor, they would still be able to deal a deadly blow to Lord Yue.

"You think I cannot kill you and then split your measly trapping array? Behold, the true power of my treasured sword..."

At the same time, the Crimson Emperor also roared, “Black Emperor! We will end them today, even if I must overload my axes!”

*SWOOSH*

The two emperors danced before the Duke. Their figures gallant and magnificent as swung their weapons at their enemy.

*CRAAAACK*

Three sticks struck Lord Yue with frightening force. If the Duke is a normal person, he might be shredded by the unreasonable power, but now he only looked like he was stung by a fly and started laughing.

At some point when the emperors hadn’t notice, their weapons had been replaced.

“G-give them back!” Rurik stammered helplessly.

Even the stoic Black Emperor looked like he was about to cry.

Those are very expensive equipment.

A frightening sense of dread struck their hearts like a cold poison.

The long blade and the twin hammers had disappeared from their hands and yet they did not feel anything.

Behind the two, the White Emperor stared at his hands. His Secret Art had also disappeared without knowing how it happened.

Suddenly, Reynold coughed out mouthfuls of blood and was forced to take a knee and balance himself.

Somehow or rather, he had been wounded.

He wiped his lips and looked up.

A man in black stood there holding two hammers and a long blade and is admiring them. Behind this man is another person, a dashing man who looked like a high-noble of great esteem. However, the emperor couldn’t come up with the name of the person.

Reynold turned his eyes to his two partners, and was shocked to discover that both the Black and Crimson Emperors have also taken a knee in the exact same manner he is in. Fresh blood lay in a pool before each of them.

Kairos and his group were sweat-drenched from the pressure they bore as the three emperors attacked, but their faces are filled with joy.

The Duke, Yue Chang Ming, is not the only reinforcement they were expected.

The person who looked like a high-noble is Vouno, and expectedly he had taken the White Emperor’s Secret Art. His years of training had been fruitful. Now his Dantian has enough capacity that he could retain an attack or two from Paramount Cultivators.

With his participation, this match will become far easier.

Vouno smiled at Kairos saying, “Looks like you boys need my help?”

Kairos nodded, “Of course, you are the one who slain Syriong. How can we fight emperors without you?”

The two are exchanging words with ease and confidence but it caused the three emperors to turn grim. It is terrible news that someone else here besides the Duke can kill Paramount Cultivators.

Yet, the other man who is clad in black is not less fantastic.

He looked at Jim with great interest, “Boy, I’ve been taking notice of you in your battles before. Will you become my protégé and take my robes?”

Jim’s eyes lighted up like a Christmas tree, to be asked by someone like him to become his student is a great honour, and he answered without a shred of hesitation, “The King of Thieves, Rielon. I humbly wish to become your disciple.”

“Good! Then from this day on, you will learn my arts as my third disciple. I will give you the abilities to steal even the sun and the moon if you so wish! When this fight is over, I will bring you to visit your two elder disciple brothers.”

The three emperors remained completely still as Rielon accepted a new apprentice. They dared not speak and disrupt him.

This might be their first meeting but the Thief King’s reputation precedes him.

No doubt the two emperors are now feeling unspeakable amounts of frustration. The personal weapons of the two Emperors had already changed ownership yet they couldn’t act carelessly right now.

While Vouno will make the fight easier, Rielon will secure the victory. It is because of the Lord of Death, King of Thief, and his father, the Chaos Sea that Kairos had the confidence to open up the Walls of Jericho.