Chapter 257: Imprisoned (1)

Silence settled over the smoke.

Robbed of both arms without warning and then kicked squarely in the backside, Nalar Veyr lost his balance and crashed to the ground. Blood gushed from the stumps of his shoulders, rapidly staining the floor red.

Disbelief lingered in his eyes. His breath trembled from the pain. “Aah... m-my arms! This prince’s arms! I-I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you, you bastards!”

By then, Wang Chengping and Gong Yuanzeng, who had spent the better part of the evening being beaten black and blue, had finally recovered from their shock. They slowly walked over to Xu Yuan, their expressions decidedly strange. “Changtian, what exactly is this…?”

Xu Yuan smiled and waved them off. “All right, you two go find Junwu. I just finished explaining everything to her.”

Gong Yuanzeng glanced at the Darchai prince. He knew this was neither the time nor the place to discuss the matter in detail. “Fine. But afterward, you’d better give the rest of us a proper explanation.”

“You got it.” Xu Yuan nodded with a smile.

After the two of them left, Xu Yuan turned his attention back to the Darchai prince. Nalar Veyr had distinctly foreign features, a high nose, curly hair, and a small decorative goatee beneath his chin.

At the moment, however, not a shred of his former bearing remained. Armless, he kicked against the ground to drag himself backward while shouting toothless threats.

Xu Yuan watched him for a while before suddenly speaking. “All right, stop howling. No one outside can hear you.”

Nalar Veyr froze. The naked malice in his eyes was impossible to miss. “Judging by the way you carry yourself, your family must wield considerable influence. But you truly chose the worst possible moment to lay a hand on me.”

He bared his teeth in a vicious smile. “Your Emperor personally invited me here. After what you’ve done, he will be forced to give me an accounting!”

“An accounting for what?” Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow. He remained exactly where he was, chuckling softly. “Come now. Don’t bother trying to bait me with that nonsense. I’m not coming any closer, so you can forget about catching me off guard.”

Nalar Veyr fell silent. A moment later, he circulated his qi and completely sealed the bleeding from his severed shoulders. He slowly forced himself upright, narrowing his eyes at the young man in embroidered robes across from him. “Who are you?”

Watching Nalar Veyr suddenly regain his composure, Xu Yuan sighed inwardly. Just as he had expected. The Great Desert had come to negotiate affairs of state. There was no chance they would send some useless sack of wine and rice as their representative.

Besides, although Xu Yuan knew little about the cultivation arts of the Great Desert, the Sage’s remnant soul knew a thing or two. Luo Daofan had spent his life pursuing immortality. He had studied practically every cultivation path beneath the Heavens at least once.

For cultivators beneath the second rank, having an arm severed in battle was already a potentially fatal wound.

The Great Desert, however, appeared to be different.

The thought had barely crossed Xu Yuan’s mind when the knotted muscles across Nalar Veyr’s chest began to writhe.

With two wet, muffled glugs, a pair of brand-new arms sprouted from his shoulders.

Nalar Veyr’s expression returned to its former calm, as though nothing had happened. “I do not recall there being anyone like you among the Imperial Capital’s younger generation.”

Faced with this bizarre sight, Xu Yuan ignored him and instead asked inwardly, “Luo Daofan, can the Great Desert’s cultivation arts really regenerate severed limbs that easily? Don’t tell me this is connected to the wraithfiends too.”

The ability seemed almost impossible to deal with.

Luo Daofan scoffed. “How could it be? Their method of regenerating severed limbs is tied to some peculiar blood of unknown origin. Wraithfiends won’t die even if you cut off their heads. You could try cutting his off and see what happens.”

Xu Yuan’s interest was piqued. “So that’s what the Great Desert calls divine beast blood?”

Even Luo Daofan sounded somewhat uncertain. “Back when the wraithfiends invaded, I took advantage of the chaos and slipped into the Great Desert’s royal court, hoping to steal one of their divine beasts. Didn’t find so much as a hair. My guess is that this so-called divine beast blood is actually some bloodlike concoction they refined using special ingredients and methods.”

Xu Yuan couldn’t help remarking, “The world was facing a great calamity, and you old bastard were still off doing anything but decent work.”

The Sage's remnant soul sounded utterly unconcerned. “What the hell do you know, brat? It’s just a shame I never found the formula for their divine beast blood.”

Xu Yuan did not respond, though he found the whole thing rather amusing. The Great Desert’s divine beast truly did exist. It was called the Kirin Wolf. It had appeared once in Azure Point as a final boss.

At that thought, he glanced at the Darchai prince, contemplation flickering through his eyes.

Assuming the plot had not yet affected the Great Desert, a Saintess should have already appeared there, one whose fate was deeply bound to that divine beast. She was one of Azure Point’s heroines. And her existence was also one of the reasons the Great Desert dared launch such a massive invasion of the Central Plains.

Seeing Xu Yuan staring at his newly regrown arms, Nalar Veyr calmly flexed his hands and said in a low voice, “The Great Desert is an exceedingly harsh land. We Darchai must temper our bodies from childhood merely to survive—”

“Did this young master ask?”

Nalar Veyr fell silent.

Xu Yuan exhaled and slowly advanced, sword in hand. “I don’t know why you deliberately came to the Imperial Capital looking for trouble, but since you’ve managed to piss me off, you can consider yourself unlucky. Now, I’ll give a mongrel like you two choices. First, kneel down and apologize to this young master. As for the second… I’d like to see whether that well-tempered body of yours can grow back a head after I cut it off.”

As he walked forward, the sleeves of his robe began to billow despite the complete absence of wind.

Nalar Veyr stared at him while slowly retreating. A trace of fighting spirit gradually entered his eyes. “I do not know how you appeared behind me without making a sound, but challenging someone above your rank in a direct confrontation takes courage. This prince will show you the respect you deserve.”

Xu Yuan burst out laughing. “Don’t make it sound so noble. With Your Highness’s experience, surely you can tell that the cultivation I’m using isn’t actually my own?”

He raised his eyes toward the sky. “You’re simply betting that the City Defense Office’s high-ranking cultivators are nearly here. The city’s grand defensive formation has already been activated as well. The people above won’t stand by and watch you die.”

The commotion had long since alerted the City Defense Office.

High above, beneath the full moon, a thin veil of light had already spread across the night sky. Part of the imperial capital’s grand defensive formation had already been activated.

After a brief pause, Xu Yuan swept his gaze back toward Nalar Veyr. “I’ve wasted this much time talking to you because I needed to confirm a few things. Now that I have, let me make this perfectly clear. If I decide to kill you, not even the Crown Prince could save you if he showed up right now.”

Nalar Veyr remained perfectly calm. He gave a dismissive sneer. “You?”

Then he turned around and ran.

Xu Yuan stared after him.