Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 31

In Xie Yan’s eyes, Yuan Yao was covered almost head to toe in mud, dust, and blood. As she sprinted toward him, pain contorted her face into a grimace. She truly looked…

Filthy and ugly.

Yuan Yao saw the youth as well and recognized him.

“Fellow Daoist Xie!”

Xie Yan frowned at her voice. Naturally, he had also noticed the six hideous, foul-smelling tomb guardian corpses behind her.

Seeing Yuan Yao in such a wretched state filled him with an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

“Run!” Yuan Yao saw him standing foolishly at the passage exit like a wooden post and shouted through gritted teeth, nearly frantic with urgency.

Xie Yan raised an eyebrow.

She really was stupid. She had apparently forgotten their earlier grievances and was warning him to escape.

But he did not want to leave.

Nor did he intend to save her.

When he still refused to move, Yuan Yao wanted to kick him in the backside eight hundred times.

“Xie Yan, get out of the way! You’re blocking me!”

His expression stiffened.

Two seconds passed before he drawled, “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

Yuan Yao ground her teeth in hatred.

She charged straight at him.

Xie Yan calmly drew his sword and pointed its sharp edge at her.

His meaning was obvious: if she dared come any closer, she could not blame him for showing no mercy.

Yuan Yao was speechless. She had never met anyone so hateful!

Her anger broke into a smile, and she rushed at him without hesitation.

“If you kill me, I’ll become your inner demon and haunt you for all eternity! Come on, then! Who’s afraid of you?”

The smile at the corner of Xie Yan’s mouth faded.

He refused to believe she was unafraid of death.

But as the distance between them closed, he realized that Yuan Yao truly was running straight at the point of his sword.

Did she really want to die?

His expression chilled. At the critical instant, he turned the blade aside, raised his right hand, gathered spiritual power, and struck at her instead.

Yuan Yao had expected precisely that. She twisted sideways, and the palm strike grazed her shoulder.

Her shoulder sank under the force, followed by a flare of pain.

“Little trash.”

Deathly pale, Yuan Yao whipped her head around and glared at him.

Xie Yan had already flashed away. He swung his sword at the six tomb guardian corpses.

Boom!

The sword flowed like a river, and thunder cracked across level ground. All six corpses were blasted off their feet.

The youth was very tall, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs. His hair swayed behind him as he moved.

He held his sword in his left hand.

His exposed skin was almost sickly pale, faint blue veins visible beneath it.

Merely standing there, he radiated such terrifying pressure that it nearly suffocated everyone present.

Suddenly, the six tomb guardian corpses moved again.

They continued toward Yuan Yao, ignoring Xie Yan entirely.

Xie Yan stared at them.

Yuan Yao’s expression shifted. She immediately raised the Phantom Spirit Sword to block their attack.

Before she could strike, however, all six corpses stopped with eerie abruptness.

Then each plunged a hand into its own chest, pulled out a key wrapped in green light, and offered it to Yuan Yao.

She retreated two steps.

The six corpses advanced two steps and continued holding out the keys in their withered hands.

Yuan Yao was utterly bewildered.

Song Yan, Cang Li, and Ying Wuji arrived at that moment. They too froze at the strange sight, then stared in shock.

The tomb guardian corpses were giving every secret-treasure key to their Little Junior Sister?!

No.

These were not secret-treasure keys.

They were legacy keys!

Secret treasures were the precious wealth a tomb’s master had accumulated over a lifetime—gold and jewels, peerless divine weapons, rare pills, and much more.

A legacy, however, was an opportunity deliberately left for future generations. It might contain a powerful cultivation art, a precious memory, or some extraordinary ability.

Anyone chosen to receive a legacy key had to be a promising successor recognized by the remnant will left behind by the tomb’s master.

Secret treasures, on the other hand, had to be fought over and seized.

Xie Yan narrowed his eyes.

“Yaoyao, don’t hesitate,” Song Yan said softly. “Follow your heart. Choose one legacy key, or several if you wish.”

Yuan Yao looked up at her three senior brothers.

All three nodded to her.

Only then did she relax and reach out to select one key.

Unexpectedly—

All six keys flew into her palm at once.

Yuan Yao instinctively shook her hand.

They would not come off!

At that moment, the six tomb guardian corpses abruptly turned around. Their fingers hooked into claws as they attacked Xie Yan, Song Yan, Cang Li, and Ying Wuji at tremendous speed.

“Careful!” Yuan Yao’s expression changed.

Clang!

The six corpses threw themselves furiously at the four men.

Xie Yan faced the early Soul Transformation Realm corpse. One slash from his sword shattered its defense.

After exchanging dozens of moves, he drove his blade into its skull and split its head apart.

Boom!

Azure light flashed.

Xie Yan caught the secret-treasure key glowing within it.

In that instant, the key erupted with dazzling radiance. A secret-treasure vortex gate opened in the blink of an eye and began dragging him toward another place.

Xie Yan sensed someone behind him and spun around.

Yuan Yao was taking advantage of the moment to kick him in the backside.

He swiftly caught her ankle again and yanked her toward him.

“Little Junior Sister—”

By the time Ying Wuji and the others reached them, Xie Yan and Yuan Yao had vanished. Their expressions turned grave.

Their Little Junior Sister seemed to have a grudge against that ghost-masked youth.

Was she in danger?

The three exchanged an anxious look, but they had no way to enter the secret-treasure realm. Each realm could be opened only by its corresponding key, and the key they needed was in the ghost-masked youth’s hand.

Lu Xiangxiang, who had witnessed everything, looked grim.

She had not expected that madman Xie Yan to enter the Wuduan Secret Realm too. If he had also entered in her previous life, then he was very likely the mysterious person who had taken the Saint-grade sword manual and every other secret treasure.

Lu Xiangxiang pressed her lips together. She could no longer stand by and watch.

She could not have come all this way for nothing!

She had to become stronger as quickly as possible. Only then could she kill every person obstructing her path before they became impossible to defeat—whether it was the young Xie Yan or the entire Xiaoyao Sect.

She did not take Yuan Yao seriously at all.

In her eyes, Yuan Yao was nothing but a dodder flower sheltered by everyone around her. Once that protection disappeared, she would wither.

Lu Xiangxiang drew a deep breath, summoned her sword, and rushed toward Song Yan and the others.