"This is a forbidden area. Without our leader’s permission, no one is allowed to step in…Not even the human emperor!"
In the dark path, two middle-aged men in black dragon-skin armors blocked Ji Hao’s way, with long and thin blades held in their hands. They slightly bent their knees, lowered their bodies, and gripped the blade hilts with both hands, fixing their eyes on Ji Hao like beasts staring at their prey. If Ji Hao dared to take another step forward, they would put up a desperate fight.
"Emperor Shun is right here. I am Marquis Yao Ji Hao, and we are here to talk to Rock Dragon, your leader." said Ji Hao with a deep and strong voice, "Clear the way!"
Emperor Shun was wearing a royal robe, followed by a troop of heavily armored human warriors. These warriors were from Emperor Shun’s family, and were his most trusted warriors.
The two middle-aged man didn’t say another word. They breathed deeply, then thick stripes emerged on their white skins. Along with there heavy breaths, their heads quickly transformed into black tiger heads.
Ji Hao’s eye corners twitched intensely — This was a rare cultivation method created by beast Magi from Southern Wasteland. With a dedicated method, the soul of a carefully selected, powerful beast could merge with a young human being. As the young human being grows up, his or her soul would be gradually nourished by the beast’s soul. As a result, in terms of strength, agility, life-force, this young human being could go beyond the limitations of the humankind in all aspects.
However, in the process of growth, this young human being would be constantly threatened by the beast soul, as his or her soul could be devoured by the beast soul at any time. After that, this young human being would become a half-human and half-beast monster. Therefore, this beast Magi cultivation method was forbidden by Zhu Rong long ago, and was rarely used at present. Except for some uncivilized beast Magi clans, only extra powerful clans would use it to train reliable warriors.
These two warriors, who were called ‘star guards’ by Emperor Shun, had the souls of tigers sealed in their bodies!
Buzz! The long blades in the two warriors’ hands spurted wisps of black mist, while countless black spell symbols emerged on those blades. Meanwhile, streams of dark mist surged out of the rock walls on both sides, being speedily absorbed by the two blades.
"Evil ghosts merging with human bodies." Ji Hao looked at the two middle-aged human warriors with a dark face. They had not only sealed fierce tiger souls in their bodies. The cultivation methods they used were mostly evil and cruel, and highly harmful to themselves.
This evil ghost magic is incredibly powerful, but even more dangerous than the beast souls inside their bodies. During the cultivation process, with slight carelessness, the evil ghosts could devour all of the cultivator’s spirit blood.
These two were dare-to-die warriors!
"Clear the way!" Glancing at the two middle-aged warriors whose eyes had turned pasty, Ji Hao didn’t want to waste any more time. He gave a long shout, leaned his body forward, and pressed his hands on the two warriors’ chests, releasing a soft yet strong power through his palms.
The two middle-aged warriors were both powerful Divine Magi. Because of their life-risking cultivation style, even though they were newly promoted Divine Magi, they were even stronger than ordinary high-level Divine Magi.
Nevertheless, the power released from Ji Hao’s palms was unstoppable. These two warriors failed to steady their bodies and were forced back for hundreds of meters.
Tens of star guards with black dragon-skin armors were behind the two warriors. They boosted up their strengths together and attempted to stop the two warriors, but failed, and ended up being thrown back by Ji Hao’s torrent of power.
Staggering back for hundreds of meters, a bone-piercing cold power erupted before these star guards could even steady their bodies. Puff! Beams of cold light burst from their bodies and froze these star guards in a giant deep blue ice block, which had a faint silver luster.
Following a series of cracking noise, complicated white stripes emerged in the ice block, sparkling. Judging by these stripes, this ice block was not an ordinary one. Instead, it contained the great Dao power, and could only be melted by some rare divine fires and spirit flames.
People walking in the path stopped in shock. Unlike those armored warriors, these people were the ‘seeds of civilization’. They had wide ranges of knowledge and great capacities of information kept in their heads. Any of them could largely improve the level of civilization development of a clan. However, they were all awfully weak physically.
"Seal this place. Whoever dares to move without permission…" Emperor Shun tightened his face and breathed deeply, then slowly gave the order. Remaining silent for quite a while, he let out the last few words, "…will be executed summarily!"
‘Whoever dares to move without permission will be executed summarily’!
Normally, Emperor Shun would never give such a cruel order. Not every star guard was guilty. They didn’t all choose the side of sky devils and betray the humankind. Normally, Emperor Shun would give everyone a chance to explain themselves; he would interrogate each of them carefully to get results.
But today, he was enraged; he was also confused.
He panicked. He worried that something even worse might happen. Therefore, he gave this cruel order.
The troop of human warriors rushed in speedily. They broke all closed bronze doors one after another, sealed the path and every branch, took over all defensive magic formations, and set up new magic seals, firmly blocking the whole valley area.
Ji Hao took the lead, with Emperor Shun followed closely behind him. They swept across the path with over a thousand strong human warriors from Emperor Shun’s family.
All the way, star guards had been showing up, attempting to stop them. Yet, Ji Hao sealed all of them in the dark-blue ice by using his power of Taiji. None of these star guards could take even one strike from Ji Hao.
Bang! Ji Hao violently kicked open the halfway closed gate of the palace at the end of the path and generated a strong gale, which raised the hair of people in the palace.
Those people raised their heads and looked at Ji Hao in shock and confusion.
Ever since the beginning of Star Guards, when this secret palace was built, no one dared, nor could to set foot in this place without permission, not to mention violently kicking the gate like Ji Hao just did.
"Shun, it’s been a while. Hmm, you don’t look so good. Are you ill? You are the emperor of our humankind. Please, take care of yourself." Rock Dragon old man sat on the bronze board and calmly greeted to Emperor Shun.
"I want a reason!" Emperor Sun slowly took a few steps forward, raised his head, and looked at Rock Dragon old man, saying with a deep voice.
Rock Dragon old man glanced at Ji Hao, then looked at those heavily armored warriors, who had been nimbly scattering around Emperor Shun. Next, he turned around and glanced at the two young men behind him, sighed slowly and said, "You know…My life is ending, even though you, and the few former emperors before you, have tried your best to find me all kinds of precious things to prolong my life. Fire jujubes from the East Sea, gold pears from Southern Wasteland, green lotus roots from Southern Wasteland, jade mushrooms from Western Wasteland…"
Shaking his head, Rock Dragon old man continued, "I’m afraid of death. That’s all."