Jiang Chen staggered forward, burning every last shred of strength remaining in his body to plunge deeper into the Fourth Layer space. At this moment, he no longer cared about any forbidden zone, no longer cared about the danger of entering but never returning.
He could die — but he absolutely would not die at the hands of the Long siblings!
He would never accept the image of the Long siblings carrying his severed head back to the Royal Capital to boast and gloat before his father!
If he could not control how he lived, then at the very least, he would control how he died!
So Jiang Chen did not stop. He pressed on with relentless steps, unsure how long he had been running. He only felt his whole body growing heavier, his head sinking deeper, his stride growing more unsteady, his consciousness fading further into blur.
Thud!
He collapsed — a body drenched in blood, crumpling to the ground.
He did not know how much time had passed before a sliver of light seemed to pierce through the endless darkness of his consciousness.
He felt as though he had awakened, yet it seemed he was still dreaming.
He dreamed that he had returned to his previous life — back to the glory of being the Son of the Heavenly Emperor, back to the helplessness of guarding a barren existence for a million years...
In the blink of an eye, the dream shifted. He seemed to be back in the Royal Capital, watching as masses upon masses of armored soldiers from the Marquis Tenglong estate charged into the Marquis Jianghan estate and dragged his father out in chains.
Then aexecutioner's Ghost Head Blade rose high and came sweeping down toward his father Jiang Feng's neck.
"No!" Jiang Chen felt a sharp pain in his chest and snapped his eyes open.
"Chirp!"
A Golden-Winged Sword Bird, its entire body gleaming with golden light, fluttered its wings in what looked like a fright and flew off to the side.
Jiang Chen looked down and discovered that his clothes had already been sliced open by the bird's razor-sharp beak. Fortunately, the Heavenly Silkworm Giant Whale soft armor beneath had protected him.
Otherwise, that single peck would likely have torn his abdomen wide open.
"Golden-Winged Sword Bird?" Jiang Chen was utterly weak. The moment he tried circulating his meridians, his entire body felt as though it was going to fall apart — his meridians on the verge of snapping.
Jiang Chen coughed lightly a few times, expelling a small amount of residual fluid from his chest, and felt his breathing ease slightly.
He reached into his pouch and pulled out a Divine Show Creation Pill, about to place it in his mouth, when his hand suddenly froze.
His eyes went almost rigid.
Glancing left and right, every hair on his body stood on end involuntarily.
In every direction, packed in a dense black mass — they were all Sword Birds!
On the rock walls, atop the bizarre stones, across the marshes, scattered through the thickets, dotting the muddy pools...
Wherever there was footing, it was virtually overflowing with Sword Birds!
People spoke of thousands and tens of thousands, but the Sword Birds before him numbered far beyond that!
Jiang Chen swept his gaze across the scene and could not see the end of it — nothing but Sword Birds as far as the eye could reach, their sharp and orderly wings gleaming, the spirit pearls atop their heads glowing, and their beaks as keen as any blade.
"Have I... stumbled into the Sword Bird stronghold?"
A single Sword Bird or two posed no threat whatsoever, but this scene before him was an ocean of Sword Birds!
Even if Jiang Chen were in perfect condition right now — even if his strength increased tenfold — in this ocean of Sword Birds, he would surely only be shredded to mincemeat!
One or two, you could kill.
Ten or a hundred, you could still fight.
A thousand or ten thousand — you cannot kill them all, but you might escape.
But when every direction you looked was nothing but Sword Birds, no matter where you went or which way you fled, there were Sword Birds — so how could you escape? There was not even space to run!
And among these Sword Birds, interspersed here and there stood several Silver-Winged Sword Birds, and even no fewer than ten Golden-Winged Sword Birds!
A single Golden-Winged Sword Bird was already comparable to a True Qi Grandmaster in combat power!
Jiang Chen smiled bitterly. It seemed that even without encountering any fierce monster in this Fourth Layer space, this immeasurable ocean of Sword Birds was more than enough to drown him.
"What a pity — why didn't the Long siblings take the risk to chase me in?" Jiang Chen no longer even entertained thoughts of escape. All he felt was regret that he could not drag the Long siblings down with him to perish together.
He popped the Divine Show Creation Pill into his mouth and swallowed it, then decided to stop overthinking.
Yet he found it somewhat strange — these Sword Birds were all watching him with predatory eyes, so why had none of them made a move?
Given his current combat power, even an ordinary Cyan-Winged Sword Bird would be more than enough to carve him into shreds, piece by piece.
Whoosh!
A Golden-Winged Sword Bird swooped over the top of Jiang Chen's head.
Whoosh!
Another streaked past from the opposite side, leaving a trail of golden afterimage.
These golden-winged Sword Birds truly deserved to be called rivals of True Qi Grandmasters. Their flawless wings, their perfect aerodynamic form, and the terrifying aura they radiated — they did not fall short of human True Qi Grandmasters in the slightest.
In terms of sheer wildness, they may even surpass them.
One Golden-Winged Sword Bird after another circled and soared above Jiang Chen's head.
Jiang Chen found the whole thing baffling. These Golden-Winged Sword Birds kept circling and sweeping overhead as if dancing through the air. Though he could clearly sense their hostility, he could equally feel that they seemed to be suppressing their killing intent.
"What exactly are these Golden-Winged Sword Birds hesitating about?" Jiang Chen was bewildered. This state was the most agonizing of all — like a death-row prisoner bound at the execution ground, waiting for the executioner's blade to fall.
Only here, that blade simply refused to come down, which made it all the more maddening.
"You flat-feathered brutes — if you're going to attack, then just do it! What's the point of flying around over my head nonstop?"