As Yue Chang Ming expected, the Black Emperor called out to him, “Wait.”

He secretly breathed a sigh of relief, “Hah… I hate to admit it but my face never fails me in such situations…”

In his career as a cultivator, his frightening visage is a boon, although it works inversely for his love life.

Temujin continued, “Besides Reynold’s life, is there something else you want?”

The Duke looked at him with a deadly glint in his eyes.

The Great Khan almost shrunk back but his powerful self-control kicked in and held him steady.

Lord Yue is frankly furious. Doesn’t the Great Khan know how to speak properly? What should he do after receiving offers like this?

If he easily accepted it, his words will become suspicious, but no one here can truly fight a 15 Paramount Cultivator even if the Black Emperor just randomly fire off attacks.

The difference between them is too big.

At this time, the thief king who haven’t spoken much said, “I wonder, is it truly because you have a use for Reynold that you want him alive? Why don’t you try to absorb him too and kill all of us?”

“NICE SAVE!” Lord Yue thought as he shot an approving glint over.

Rielon crossed his arms and lightly nodded his hands.

No way are they going to clash with this monster.

Getting exposed set Temujin’s emotions to run wild. The Great Khan here is a mere shadow of his true character and did not have to self-control he should have. Even his thoughts and mental capacity is functioning but a fraction of his true body’s due to the burden from split-controlling.

This is the cost of controlling multiple bodies.

He is rash, overbearing, and without the restraints an overlord should display.

Those who are bad at controlling themselves tend to do one thing: They act guilty over the things they do not want others to know about them.

The Black Emperor was deliberate in proving his incredible control over Ki causing him to display that ability when breaking Lorelai’s legs and turning the sealing stones into dust.

It hid the way his Ki goes out of control in an actual fight due to his dampened mental abilities, which is made worse after acquiring a large portion of foreign Ki from Rurik.

Instead of responding to Rielon like a normal person, the emotionally handicapped overlord decided to prove himself.

He turned to Reynold and lifted an arm towards him. Darkness started gathering into a sphere in the middle of his palm while the White Emperor screamed like a girl.

“YOU… Y… YOU STILL NEED ME!”

The Black Emperor visibly hesitated. Despite his surging feelings, he had not lost his wit and forcefully curbed his rashness.

“White Emperor Reynold, its time you prove that you are worth more alive than dead.”

Reynold’s hand trembled slightly before he got it under control.

He had six and a half lives after fighting with the teenagers. Lord Yue’s battle with him left him with six, and he then sacrificed another life to use his Noble Art.

With five lives left, he believes he still have a chance.

He attacked suddenly like a viper.

The Duke and Thief King immediately noticed he was charging towards the teenagers and they went to stop him.

Almost immediately, Lord Yue smashed a hole through Reynold’s chest while Rielon stole his head away.

The White Emperor’s body landed before Edward’s feet in a heap. The archer did not hesitate and jumped back, but it was still too late.

The headless body reached out an arm at Edward’s heart with blinding speed. In such a close distance, even Paramount Cultivators couldn’t avoid. Just as the finger tips were about to reach, Edward did not feel the piercing pain he expected but instead a light blue glow covered him.

At the same time, everyone had the same blue barrier covering themselves and they felt a tiny portion of their Ki drawn away.

Temujin, of course, was not included since he could easily reject the barrier from being placed on him.

Reynold’s head turned into dust in Rielon’s hands and regrew on the headless body while the hole in his chest is closing up with incredible speed.

He stood up and looked around in alarm. There is only four layers of lives left, and he couldn’t spend it recklessly.

The White Emperor had calculated the thing he must do to survive, and that is to show his ability to kill the enemy and use their lives to trade for his own.

The teens led by Sihala managed to defeat his soldiers while Tommy could fight the Crimson Emperor with his Heaven Titan physique.

Therefore he wanted to kill Edward, who seemed the most vulnerable and then threaten Kairos who is one of the leaders of the army and his main target.

As Reynold scanned the training hall, he discovered a strange disturbance in the air, and then a loud retching sound.

*Splat*

A splash of liquid hitting the smooth polished ground as they saw a pool of crimson blood covering the floor.

The air above the blood wavered then the figures of two persons appeared, Alan and Vouno.

Since they couldn’t hide anymore, there is no point in staying invisible. Alan removed the invisible talisman and Vouno stopped trying to conceal their presence by absorbing their naturally emitted Ki.

Both of them looked worn and haggard; one from exhaustion and the other due to the backlash from trying to contain a Noble Art.

The damage that Vouno took was extensive, and deadly if not attended to immediately. It was enough to unnerve his son, despite the boy is an army’s commander. It’s only because Kairos had rightly guessed Alan would be nearby to share life force with his father that he managed to suppress his rashness.

At this time, Vouno’s combat ability had been reduced to zero and while Alan is still maintaining Minerva’s barrier he is already at his last legs.

Despite all the fighters were cautious and standing between the White Emperor and Alan, the attack came so swift that not one person had time to react.

Even Rielon who is fast enough to steal stuff right under the noses of other Paramount Cultivators could not catch up.

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A thundering blow struck Alan causing the latter to fly away and bounce off the isolation barrier heavily.

The attack was so ferocious that no one had seen how Reynold struck Alan.

The floor around cracked, the Walls of Jericho shook terribly and a thousand High-Grade Spirit Stones turned into dust.

“Three layers of True War God blessings left,” Reynold thought darkly.

His core techniques is built around his ability to sacrifice his life. When he was younger and still had a lion’s heart, Reynold found interest in self-sacrificing combat arts. He was fascinated by the overwhelming power one could unlock in exchange for one’s lifeblood.

In most clans and families, such skills are forbidden and locked up because the consequences are too heavy to endure.

The purpose of forbidden arts is to find a way to survive in dire situations but it extracts such a cost that even if the person survives he will be rendered unable to progress in his cultivation and live a shortened lifespan.

Yet, the allure of power enticed the White Emperor to maximise the potency of Forbidden arts while searching for safe methods to use such dangerous skills.

He succeeded in both his endeavours, creating a series of devastating suicidal combat arts to compliment the incredible True War God’s Tattoo that granted him multiple layers of lives.

Each layer of life is exchanged by a tenth of his cultivation, but only extracted when the technique is broken. It allowed him to fight at full strength until spending all of his additional lives.

At that time while finalising the True War God’s Tattoo, Reynold held back at the last instance and chose nine layers of protection instead of ten. It was then that fear took root in his Dao Heart and he headed down the wrong path.

By choosing to sacrifice only a maximum of nine-tenth of his cultivation for nine lives, Reynold gave himself a chance to survive after the True War God’s Tattoo breaks.

After losing a layer of life, it becomes permanent as the True War God’s Tattoo fades a little. Normally it will be impossible to recover his losses, however, Reynold can still retrain his cultivation after the technique is broken.

Yet, a true cultivator will never choose such a path.

An enemy that could take one of his lives will never let him run away when he is only left with a-tenth of his cultivation. And, even if he could use one of his techniques to get out of the situation, others will get to him while he is weakened. Which cultivator can avoid making enemies over the years?

Of course, the technique is still incredibly valuable if the practitioner avoids all the pitfalls and use all his cultivation as the bond to grant himself the full ten layers of lives.

When the time comes that all the layers were broken, a true cultivator will stand properly on both feet and receive death as a warrior should.

Because of one wrong decision, the seed of fear was planted and as time passed Reynold’s cowardice only increased. The techniques that exchanges one of his lives for power was sealed up, never to be used, and for a hundred years after the creation of the True War God’s Tattoo not one of his lives were lost. The White Emperor had cowered in his little stronghold, picking on enemies that were weak and satisfying his illusion of power.

Fear is not a bad thing, for it curbs unnecessary arrogance and helps one stay alive longer. But after fear took root in the heart, it will start determining one’s actions, and once good sense is gone trouble will come swiftly.

Most Paramount Cultivators will know that fear is to be mastered because those who treats fear as their master are already dead along the way.

Unfortunately, there are exceptions in all things and Reynold is one in particular.

When faced with the threat of death, he finally used the sacrificing techniques he conceived. Giving up one of his lives in exchange for a speed that even Rielon could not intercept, he had attacked Alan, but the latter survived with Minerva’s barrier. The White Emperor noticed how near-death the boy is from exhaustion. Just one more hit should do the trick but he couldn’t feel a shred of happiness, he had already spent two lives for the attack.

Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and readied his next attack.

The Ki Centre lying within his core muscles trembled slightly and the pale, snow-like, skin of the White Emperor instantly turned red and green with countless pulsating blood veins.

Everyone, including the Black Emperor, looked at him with horror. The Paramount Cultivator is ready to destabilise his Dantian and kill everyone in this place with a gigantic explosion.

The power of a Dantian’s detonation is far stronger than what a cultivator of the rank could unleash. There are several esteemed research papers explaining how a stable energy body, like one’s Ki Centre, can create unspeakable devastation when it discharges. As locking bonds are broken, the energy particles will spiral out of control gaining in speed until it can obliterate anything nearby.

If a Paramount Cultivator self-destructs, he can easily level a mountain, turning it into a lake.

The Black Emperor was the first to react. He reached out towards Reynold and tried to overwhelm and seize control of his mind. He couldn’t take over the White Emperor’s mind immediately but interfering with it is still possible. At this point of time, it is his only option, yet when Temujin touched the surface of Reynold’s consciousness, he immediately understood… it was pointless.

The White Emperor had made his self-destruction an irreversible process. Most cultivators will overload their Dantian by applying pressure on it until it implodes. It takes time to execute this, and if person’s enemies retreats quickly it is possible to stop mid-way with some luck.

Reynold, however, had in mind to destroy his enemies when he formulated his self-destruction. After all, with his multiple layers of lives it made more sense to go all out, and to do so, he must prevent all possible interventions including his own.

Once activated, his Dantian will start collapsing, at this time even immortals couldn’t do anything but run.

A Paramount Cultivator’s suicidal explosion is no joke.

Of course, Reynold choosing to do this right now is also an attempt to kill the Black Emperor. Although it wouldn’t free him from the Darkness Seed, he can accomplish a few things vital for his survival.

Firstly, he can weaken the Black Emperor. There are only two known ways of escape and that is to transcend into an immortal or kill the Darkness Seed originator.

Since Reynold estimate it will take himself at least centuries to transcend, he chose the latter option. In Frosthral, there are only ten Emperors. If he can take this Black Emperor’s clone out, there will only be seven left. Moreover, except for two Emperors, the rest are around his level of strength or weaker.

It will be difficult, but not impossible to assassinate all the emperors, especially when Frosthral has made some powerful enemies recently.

With his cultivation Reynold is certain that he will be welcomed in most other countries.

Secondly, after losing the Crimson Emperor and if he can take down this clone, the Frosthral Feudal state will have a lack of Emperors and his value will increase. Before he truly defects to Saint Empire, Temujin must think twice before absorbing him. As long as he can convince the Great Khan that he was pressed by the situation to implode his Dantian and he has more value alive than dead, he can still buy some time.

Thirdly, and perhaps the most important reason, his self-destruction will attack both sides and will determine his next steps.

If he took out the Saint Empire leaders and the Great Khan somehow survived, he will have accomplished his task. If not many or none from Kairos’ side perished while Temujin’s clone was the one killed, he can surrender immediately and ask for political refuge. If there were many deaths with the Great Khan’s clone dead as well, he can use the heads of two Paramount Cultivator and beg for forgiveness. By claiming he was forced, and convincing them he is more valuable alive to assassinate the Great Khan, he still have a way to live.

Everything is over if he dies.

Even if he needs to give them a Soul Jade it didn’t matter.

Unfortunately, while his plans seemed flawless in his mind, Kairos could not plainly watch his friends and family die.

Only those who have the protection of the True Heavenly Armour can survive such a disaster, except for Alan.

Although he still has all three runic symbols safeguarding him, he is already at the brink of death from exhaustion. Taking one more blow is definitely going to make his heart go out.

In his mind, Aisa is rapidly trying to stop him, but Kairos had made his choice.

Kairos, you can’t eat it!

“It’s the only choice.”

But… You don’t know if it will work.

“I’ve asked it. It has the power.”

No! It can destroy even a planet, how can you control it before getting God’s Tongue? You have never tested it before!

“I know I might fail… In that case, Aisa, please remove my body from Gaia before it takes root.”

No, Kai…!

Kairos closed his eyes and reopened them.

In the time it took, he had finished a conversation of the Primordial One.

No, instead of a conversation, it was more like a will he passed on to her.

A determined light shone brightly in his eyes.

In the young man’s hands is a small oval seed with traces of water sprites dancing around. The water elements are attracted by the Yggdrasil seed to nourish it once planted. Although it isn’t uncommon to find similar seed like this in the markets, those with powerful affinity to wood would fall flat on their faces when they felt its immense life force.

Over the years, Kairos had developed two supernatural abilities even for Practitioners. The first ability he unlocked was eyes that can see through illusions and understand the nature of any kind of runes. Aisa called that the Veritable Sight which allowed him to see the truth of all matters.

The second ability are ears that can hear the voices of all things created. It is called the Heart’s Echo where information cannot be hidden from him.

After learning from Aisa that he can still unlock three more abilities, he chose to focus on God’s Tongue. It allowed him to speak the language of all things and even apply his will upon them.

Of course, each of these abilities requires practice to master and will slowly improve over time.

Unfortunately, till date Kairos had found little success to apply his will upon anything.

He brought the Yggdrasil seed on his palm close to his face and muttered, “Lend me your power.”

Barely anyone could hear him before he swallowed it down his gullet.