Ten guards stepped forward and broke the seals on the boxes.
The seals were clearly not meant for defense—they posed no threat and were removed with ease.
The boxes slowly opened.
"What?"
"What is this?"
The ten guards who opened the boxes all changed expression almost in unison. Their faces drained of color, their bodies jerked involuntarily, and they stood there as though they had been struck by lightning—utterly shaken.
Inside each box, row upon row of severed heads were neatly arranged. Every single box contained twenty or thirty of them, all drenched in blood.
Each and every box held a full twenty to thirty heads.
Every head had been specially preserved—none showed any sign of decay. They looked startlingly lifelike, as if they had been cut only moments ago. Eyes wide open, every face frozen in the same expression of horror and despair.
They had died with their eyes open!
The Red Cauldron Emperor was the lord of an entire domain. He held supreme power, sat high above all others, and in his rise to this position he had killed countless people and witnessed battles beyond number. The dead who had perished because of him numbered not merely in the millions—five million at the very least.
Yet in this moment, even a man with a heart of iron could not help but be shaken. His entire body shuddered violently, and every pore bristled.
It was not that he was timid, nor that he was afraid of seeing corpses.
It was because every single one of these dead was someone he knew all too well.
The very first head in the very first box belonged to none other than
There were sect masters from various sects, powerhouses from those same sects, and the elite experts he had dispatched from the royal court's inner circle. Every single one, every last face—he recognized them all with absolute certainty.
And now, all that remained of these people were their heads, sent back to him, delivered right before his eyes!
What was this?
A slap in the face.
A show of defiance.
A warning.
The Red Cauldron Emperor's expression turned utterly grim in an instant, his eyes blazing as though they might spill blood. His hands, hidden within his sleeves, trembled uncontrollably.
He knew this must have been arranged by
Though he had never laid eyes on Jiang Chen, in this very moment, a flicker of fear had stirred deep within the Red Cauldron Emperor's heart. Yes—genuine fear.
Invading the Myriad Domains—he did not regret it.
Annihilating the sects of the Myriad Domains—he had felt a sense of accomplishment.
But right now, he truly regretted it all.
A premonition gripped him: the Red Cauldron Central Domain had gone too far this time. They had provoked a truly terrifying force.
When word of Jiang Chen had first reached him, he had dismissed the youth as nothing more than a slightly more energetic minor character—a mere nuisance, easily dealt with.
But now, he finally understood. This was a prodigy of limitless potential, one whose depth even his own discerning eyes could not fathom.
This was a genius who, given time, would most certainly make the Red Cauldron Central Domain pay a devastating price.
For reasons he could not quite explain, a vision from six hundred years ago surfaced unbidden in the Red Cauldron Emperor's mind—the destruction of the Myriad Domains Empire.
If… if one day Jiang Chen returned in force, would the fate of the old Myriad Domains Empire become the future of the Red Cauldron Empire?
No. He absolutely could not allow that to happen!
Though the Red Cauldron Emperor did everything in his power to suppress the news, the sects of the Red Cauldron Central Domain came to visit him almost daily, pressing him for information.
Clearly, the sects had heard the rumors too, and they wanted answers.
In short order, the entire Red Cauldron Central Domain was gripped by unease.
The enmity between Jiang Chen and the two great sects continued to ferment during this period, giving rise to all manner of speculation and street gossip that simply would not die down.
All of this, in turn, added fresh obstacles to the journey Jiang Chen and Huang'er were undertaking.
On this day, after a long stretch of arduous travel, the two of them were finally drawing closer and closer to the Glazed King City.
Spreading open the map, they saw that the Glazed King City was at most half a month's journey away.
However, that half-month stretch was without question the final hurdle. Whether they could enter the Glazed King City safely would depend entirely on getting past this last barrier.
On the map, the Glazed King City was located in the northern portion.
Jiang Chen and Huang'er's current position lay to the south of the Glazed King City. To reach the city, there were three possible routes.
And every single one of these three routes required passing through a specific city.
Beyond those three cities, they would enter territory under the Glazed King City's jurisdiction. From there, the core urban center of the Glazed King City was only ten days away.
But those three cities did not belong to the Glazed King City.
Without a doubt, those three cities would be the final defensive line where the two sects would attempt to intercept him. Once past that line, they would be on Glazed King City soil. On the Glazed King City's own turf, neither the Indestructible Heavenly Capital nor the Nine Yang Heavenly Sect would dare act rashly.
Studying the three cities along the route to the Glazed King City, Jiang Chen frowned. "We have to pass through one of these three cities. There's no way around it, no matter how we try to detour. If I were the Indestructible Heavenly Capital and the Nine Yang Heavenly Sect, I would station tight defenses in all three."
Huang'er nodded. "The journey has been peaceful so far. I'd wager they've placed all their hopes on these three cities."
Though none of these cities belonged to either the Nine Yang Heavenly Sect or the Indestructible Heavenly Capital, a first-rate sect could certainly persuade the local powers to yield.