Chapter 332: The End!
After Lin Feng died, Ashen and Shang Wu simply waited for the emperors to finish their fight.
First was the White Flame Empress to die.
Her battered corpse fell to the ground as Shang Long descended in front of Ashen and Shang Wu.
He looked around, his eyes widening slightly upon seeing the corpses of Shi Qingyao and Ye Ming.
As for Lin Feng, he wasn't recognizable in his corpse form.
He looked like a lump of meat burned by wildfire.
Shang Long would never guess that it was Lin Feng.
After a brief silence, Shang Long asked:
"What happened here? Where is Lin Feng?"
Ashen and Shang Wu exchanged excited glances before pointing at the charred lump of meat lying not far from them.
Shang Long traced their fingers, seeing the lump of charred corpse that he had ignored at first.
His eyes widened in surprise.
Even for Shang Long, the death of an upper stage cultivator was surprising.
He couldn't keep his calm expression as he instantly asked:
"Is that Lin Feng's corpse?"
Ashen nodded: "Yes, grandfather."
Upon confirmation from his grandson, Shang Long sighed and asked:
"How did he die?"
For an upper stage emperor realm cultivator to die, there must be a good reason, right?
Ashen bowed and reported respectfully:
"Grandfather, it happened after you left."
He paused and then continued:
"It appears Lin Feng had been using a demonic technique to increase his cultivation to the upper stage from the intermediate stage."
He remained silent for a moment, his tone turning grim as he sighed:
"He reached the limit of that technique and went into a frenzy, attacking everyone without discrimination."
Pointing at Shi Qingyao's corpse, he informed:
"He even killed his own lover, who tried to bring him to his senses."
He then pointed to Ye Ming's corpse and added in a grave tone:
"However, Lord Ye Ming was the one to suffer the most. In his frenzy, Lin Feng first attacked Lord Ye Ming and killed him. It appears he knew that Lord Ye Ming could escape into the darkness and hence, targeted him first."
He paused and then continued:
"As for Lin Feng, he fell to the ground in a frenzy. It appeared as if this demonic technique was sapping his strength away, and that was when that happened."
He shivered, his eyes reflecting fear:
"The Heavens, as if angry, struck him down with purple lightning! Twice!"
Tears welled up in Ashen's eyes as he yelled:
"I apologize, grandfather! I have let you down!"
Shang Long seized Ashen's shoulders and whispered with his gaze matching his grandson's:
"You've done great, Ashen. Everything is fine if you are safe. Leave everything to this grandfather of yours."
He then turned to Shang Wu and said:
"Take Ashen and return to the Shang Clan. I'll ask about you later."
Shang Wu nodded and flew away with Ashen.
Shang Long remained there to explain everything to the Dark Emperor.
His son had died there, so he had to give him an explanation.
Shang Long looked around, matching Ashen's explanation with the clues.
He first looked at Shi Qingyao, who seemed to be running away from Lin Feng when she died.
Hmm… so she went to calm him down, but when he seemed dangerous, she tried to run away from him and was struck down.
He didn't find any fault in that reasoning as his gaze then shifted to Ye Ming's corpse.
This child… He seemed to be in confusion and shock when he died.
It must be because of Lin Feng targeting him first.
Or maybe,
He just couldn't see the attack and was confused and shocked about how he met his demise.
And lastly, he studied Lin Feng's charred corpse.
There wasn't much to study there; however, one thing he could infer from it was that it had been struck with lightning, and that too with very powerful lightning.
Even I saw that purple lightning striking somewhere. So it was on him.
Meanwhile, Ashen and Shang Wu were leaving the place.
They first went to a hidden cave where Zhuji Zetian had been waiting while protecting the array flag.
"We need to leave."
Ashen informed Zhuji Zetian and controlled the array flag to open a small opening in the array around them.
Only he would know where the opening was, so he didn't fear that anyone else would escape the array.
As for the array flag's location, it was only known to his grandfather.
When he would leave, he would come retrieve this flag from here.
They then left the place to return to the Shang Clan.
Now, as to what exactly happened with Lin Feng and Shi Qingyao.
To make Shi Qingyao betray her lover, Ashen used one of the cards he had received after killing the protagonists in the southern region of the empire.
It was—
2 x Memory Rewrite Card—This lets you rewrite the memory of the past 24 hours of a person weaker than you.
He just used this card to rewrite her memory.
As to what he replaced, it was a scene of Lin Feng killing all of her disciples, who were like her own children.
In her memory, Lin Feng had slaughtered all of her disciples when they tried to stop him from taking her away without the sect master's permission.
Afterwards, he ran away when Ashen and all of the other emperor realm cultivators arrived.
After that, Ashen gave her the scarlet sword that he had taken from the Shang Clan's treasury and told her to follow the plan to get her revenge on Lin Feng.
As for how he was alive and well even after getting struck with Lin Feng's attack?
It was also a card—
2 x Defend Card - Blocks a full-powered strike of an emperor. It will activate automatically if the user's life is in threat.
And, as for the purple lightning that killed Lin Feng.
It was, too, a card—
2 x Attack Card—Summons a full-powered strike of an emperor realm expert from the heavens to strike down one enemy. (Note—There is always a chance for the target to dodge the attack; hence, use with caution.)
And since Lin Feng was already injured, he couldn't dodge the attack.
Now, the only thing that remained was to get back and check his rewards!
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(A/N - I will be ending this novel here.
Even though Ashen's journey couldn't complete due to insufficient readers, I'm still glad how it went.
I might re-upload the whole novel in the future with better writing and continue the story ahead.
As to give you a glimpse of what would've happened if the novel went on, I'll tell you—
Ashen would've had a cute daughter, he would've become the emperor, then he would go to the upper realm where he would get to know that the system was not a system, but a will of a higher being who wanted something from him.
The being's will i.e, the system used the protagonist's luck to help Ashen grow stronger so he would come to the upper realm and help him escape from a place he couldn't escape himself.
Well, I think this much is enough.
I thank everyone who has read till here.
And as always—Thanks for reading. ^..^)