Elder Guangdu had retreated!
In almost everyone's eyes, a look of utter disbelief surfaced.
Even Divine Venerable Kasyapa, watching the direction Elder Guangdu had fled through the void, remained silent for a long while. He had never imagined that the tyrannical Elder Guangdu of the Endless Prison would actually withdraw.
Only Jiang Chen wore a faint, serene smile from beginning to end. Clearly, he was entirely calm about all of this—as if everything were firmly within his grasp.
"Good lad, you've really got something!" Divine Venerable Kasyapa clicked his tongue in admiration.
At this point, the other cultivators who had participated in the battle also returned to Jiang Chen one after another. It was evident that each of them was still shaken.
Clearly, everyone had entered this battle with the conviction that it would be their last. Now, impossibly—like something out of a dream—they had won.
The four great half-god cultivators, including Feng, Xue, and Yue, were also filled with admiration for Jiang Chen. The way they looked at him had completely changed from before.
This Jiang Chen's combat power had visibly improved by a significant margin since their last encounter. The speed of his progress was truly both astonishing and admirable.
The two Divine Dao captives were also brought before Jiang Chen. Both the tumorous cultivator and Yuan Zijing wore dark, ashen expressions—they clearly understood their situation perfectly well.
The tumorous cultivator looked up and, catching sight of Divine Venerable Kasyapa and the bald cultivator Yu Gong, his eyes lit up: "Fellow Daoist An, Fellow Daoist Yu—since we parted in the Endless Prison, who would have thought that those of us who once suffered together there would now become enemies on the battlefield? Why must it be this way?"
Divine Venerable Kasyapa sneered without a word. He could naturally read the subtext—the man was simply looking to surrender, hoping for a chance at a cowardly survival.
Yu Gong, being a bit thinner-skinned, simply turned his head away, pretending not to recognize them.
Seeing the tumorous cultivator's obsequious attitude, Yuan Zijing said unhappily: "Fellow Daoist, the victor takes the throne and the loser becomes a bandit. Since we've lost, accept your fate. Why prattle on, trying to build rapport? You think if you get chummy with them, they'll go easy on you?"
The tumorous cultivator paused, then muttered: "We're all Divine Dao cultivators—must we really throw away our lives over this pointless conflict?"
Divine Venerable Kasyapa laughed in anger: "You think you can still survive?"
The tumorous cultivator's face turned ghastly: "Brother An, back in the Endless Prison, I held you in the highest regard. What happened today was our fault—we were blinded. Please, put in a good word for us. I'm willing to renounce darkness and join the Eternal Sacred Land."
Divine Venerable Kasyapa laughed heartily: "The way you betrayed us to Elder Guangdu back then is the same way you'd join the Eternal Sacred Land now. Give you half a chance and you'd flip again soon enough. Do you really think the Eternal Sacred Land has any use for someone like you?"
The tumorous cultivator's face turned ashen—he had clearly been hit right where it hurt.
Yuan Zijing snorted coldly: "If you're going to kill us, just do it. The fact that we got to leave the Endless Prison and see this world is enough. One day, Lord Guangdu will avenge us."
"Avenge you?" Jiang Chen smiled upon hearing this. "You certainly have faith in that Elder Guangdu. If he had the power to avenge anything, why did he flee in panic today?"
Though Elder Guangdu had retreated voluntarily, it did carry a certain air of fleeing in disarray. Yuan Zijing gave a cold hum: "Today you simply relied on your tricks and schemes to ambush us. Once Lord Guangdu gathers his army and arrives with a horde of Divine Dao cultivators, that will be the day your Eternal Sacred Land meets its end."
Jiang Chen smiled leisurely: "Perhaps that day has some probability of arriving, but you two definitely won't be around to see it. The Left and Right Protectors haven't gone far down the Yellow Springs Road. If you set off now, you should still be able to catch up with them—having company on the road to the underworld won't be so lonely!"
Jiang Chen had no desire to waste words with these two. They were nothing like Yu Gong. Yu Gong had been forced into following Elder Guangdu against his will, and in the preceding battle, Yu Gong had indeed gone through the motions without much enthusiasm.