308: Chapter 308 Chase? Check if he has any powerful backers.

The anomaly in the night sky continued to intensify. The pitch-black crack spanning above the Xu Family's Star Observation Platform seemed to be violently torn open by a prehistoric behemoth, erupting with a tooth-aching sound of space shattering.

Endless blood-colored lightning roamed wildly at the edge of the crack, transforming into a violent sea of thunder.

Immediately following, accompanied by a burst of arrogant, wild laughter, a figure enveloped in blood-colored light squeezed out from the depths of the crack, enduring the crushing force of the Upper Realm's terrifying spatial Law.

A loud bang echoed.

The figure smashed heavily onto the white jade floor of the Star Observation Platform. The Starfall White Jade, which had already been cracked by Lin Qingxue, collapsed across a large area, with stone fragments shooting out in all directions like hidden weapons.

Amidst the sky-filling dust, a young male cultivator with handsome features but a face full of ferocity slowly stood upright.

He wore a damaged green robe, and his entire body was surrounded by a thick, golden light of Luck, as if he were favored by a certain world. This golden light allowed him to erupt with the powerful aura of the Early Stage of the Quasi-Saint Realm, even under the heavy Law suppression of the Upper Realm.

This was none other than the Child of Luck who had pursued Lin Qingxue all the way from the Lower Realm, Ye Chen.

The moment Ye Chen landed, he didn't bother to look at his surroundings, nor did he notice Xu Chen and Su Qingge standing not far away. His eyes, filled with madness and greed, were deadlocked on Lin Qingxue, who was half-kneeling on the ground and coughing up blood incessantly.

"Run, Lin Qingxue! Why aren't you running anymore?"

Ye Chen pressed forward step by step, a long saber burning with black flames appearing in his hand. The tip of the blade drew a piercing spark across the white jade floor.

"To escape my pursuit, you didn't hesitate to sacrifice the Divine Soul foundations of tens of thousands of Disciples from your Supreme Sword Sect to forcibly activate this Ascension Formation. Did you really think that by escaping to this so-called Upper Realm, you could slip through my fingers?"

Ye Chen's laughter carried a morbid zeal, and the way he looked at Lin Qingxue was as if he were looking at a peerless treasure.

"You possess a Supreme Sword Embryo that is rare even in ten thousand years; it's a perfect Cultivation Furnace nurtured by heaven and earth. As long as I drain your Sword Heart Origin, my Heavenly Demon Blood Transformation Divine Art will reach Major Achievement. At that time, never mind the Lower Realm, even the prodigies of this Upper Realm will be trampled under my feet."

Hearing Ye Chen's insane words, Lin Qingxue, half-kneeling on the ground, vomited another large mouthful of blood.

In her cold eyes, waves of sky-toppling hatred and insoluble despair surged. She knew Ye Chen's methods all too well; this Devil Head, who rose by consuming the Origins of others, was simply a lunatic without any bottom line.

Lin Qingxue gripped the remaining half of her broken sword tightly, her nails digging deep into her palm as blood dripped down the hilt onto the white jade steps.

She knew she had reached the end of her rope. Her Meridians were shattered and her spiritual power was exhausted. Forget about killing Ye Chen, she couldn't even stand up to run.

Even so, she would absolutely not allow herself to become someone else's Cultivation Furnace.

Lin Qingxue secretly mobilized the last sliver of Divine Soul power in her mind, preparing to reverse her Supreme Sword Embryo. Even if she had to self-detonate her Divine Soul on the spot and suffer the fate of Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, she would never let Ye Chen have his way.

At this critical juncture...

Less than ten zhang away from the two, Xu Chen still maintained a relaxed posture, with one arm around Su Qingge.

Logically speaking, when a bumpkin who just ascended from the Lower Realm reaches the Upper Realm where experts are as common as clouds, his first reaction should be to keep his head down and cautiously observe the surroundings.

But this Ye Chen, as soon as he came out, dared to shout so loudly and even claimed he would trample the Upper Realm's prodigies under his feet.

When things are abnormal, there must be a catch.

A cold arc curled at the corner of Xu Chen's mouth.

If he acted rashly without figuring out the background, and hitting the small one brought out the old one—while the Xu Family wasn't afraid—it would still be a hassle after all.

With a thought from Xu Chen...

The terrifying Divine Thought belonging to the Saint King Realm gushed out from his brow like an invisible tsunami.

He controlled this Divine Thought with extreme precision, not leaking a single shred of pressure. Instead, it turned into thousands of invisible tentacles, quietly and completely enveloping Ye Chen and the Void crack behind him.

Xu Chen's Divine Thought carefully permeated into Ye Chen's Sea of Consciousness.

No remnant soul of a sleeping ancient powerhouse.

No hidden mark of an Emperor Realm Dao Protector.

Xu Chen's Divine Thought then swept over the Storage Ring on Ye Chen's finger. Inside, besides a few tattered Lower Realm weapons and a pile of low-level Spiritual Plants that even dogs wouldn't eat in the Upper Realm, there was absolutely no token that could prove his background.

Subsequently, Xu Chen's Divine Thought followed the Void crack and spread out over the surrounding millions of miles of Void.

After a few breaths, Xu Chen slowly withdrew his Divine Thought.

There was no reception Formation from any Upper Realm force, and no spatial marker from any expert.

This was a lone wolf who had purely relied on that bit of meager Luck from the Lower Realm to stumble and force his way in.

A pauper from the Lower Realm with no background, no backer, and not even a decent Magic Treasure on him.

Having investigated Ye Chen's background, the caution in the depths of Xu Chen's eyes was instantly replaced by a thick layer of mockery and playfulness.

After all that, it turns out he really is just a brainless idiot.

Without a background, what are you pretending to be a peerless master for?

The moment Xu Chen withdrew his Divine Thought, the incessantly laughing Ye Chen finally noticed something was wrong in the surroundings.

Only then did he snap his head around and see Xu Chen and Su Qingge standing at the edge of the Star Observation Platform.

The moment he saw Su Qingge, Ye Chen's breathing instantly became heavy, and his ferocious eyes erupted with greed and stunning light.

He had seen countless women in the Lower Realm, but he had never seen a woman with such refined temperament and peerless beauty as Su Qingge. The dignity and ethereal aura of a superior being on Su Qingge was thousands of times more charming than all the Saintesses he had ever seen.

As for Xu Chen, who was standing beside Su Qingge and holding her slender waist, he was completely ignored by Ye Chen.

In Ye Chen's perception, Xu Chen's body didn't emit any powerful spiritual power fluctuations. This wasn't surprising, as the state of returning to basics of the Saint King Realm was not something an ant at the Early Stage of the Quasi-Saint Realm could peer into.

In Ye Chen's view, this handsome youth was likely just a Mortal noble son of some declining Family in the Upper Realm, relying entirely on the protection of the peerless woman beside him.

"Kid."

Ye Chen pointed his long saber at Xu Chen, speaking with a bestowed arrogance as if he were high and mighty.

"I don't care what place this is, nor do I care who you are. That woman with the sword is my prey; you'd better not mind other people's business."

Ye Chen paused, his gaze wandering wantonly over Su Qingge, his greedy smile deepening.

"However, if you are willing to obediently offer me this woman beside you, I might consider being merciful and leave you an intact corpse. A waste like you, who doesn't even have spiritual power, is simply not worthy of such beauty."

Hearing these extremely arrogant words, the heart of Lin Qingxue, who was half-kneeling on the ground, sank violently.

She knew Ye Chen was a lunatic, but she didn't expect him to be so crazy that he would dare to provoke this unfathomable Upper Realm Young Master.

Lin Qingxue's attempt to self-detonate her Divine Soul stopped abruptly. She looked up at Xu Chen, wanting to know how this man—who was still worried about the floor tiles when facing her—would react to such an arrogant provocation.

Stared at by Ye Chen's nauseating gaze, Su Qingge's peerless face showed no sign of anger; instead, it was as if she had heard a funny joke.

She leaned gently against Xu Chen's shoulder, her smooth hair brushing against his cheek, her voice soft and melodious.

"Husband, this guest from the Lower Realm seems very interested in me. He even said he would leave you an intact corpse."

Hearing this, Xu Chen sighed somewhat helplessly and reached out to pinch Su Qingge's delicate cheek.

"I thought I had encountered a thorny, tough character just now. After all that, it's just an idiot who dared to ascend without even bringing a brain. The threshold for being a Child of Luck these days is really getting lower and lower."

Xu Chen released his hand from Su Qingge's waist and gently pushed her to a relatively safe position to the side.

Then, he slowly turned around, his deep gaze falling upon Lin Qingxue's swaying figure.

He noticed the Sword Qi wildly reversing at the center of Lin Qingxue's brow, which was a precursor to her wanting to self-detonate her Sword Heart Origin.

Xu Chen's brow twitched slightly; this wild little cat's temperament was indeed fierce enough. However, since she had already been tagged with a high score of ninety-three by his System, she was a trophy he, Xu Chen, had set his sights on. How could he allow her to commit suicide here?

Xu Chen casually took a step forward.

With just this one step, his figure was like Shrinking the Earth into Inches, instantly crossing the ten-zhang distance and blocking Lin Qingxue's front with precision.

Xu Chen's tall and straight back was like an insurmountable primordial divine mountain, directly blocking all the violent killing intent and ferocity emitted by Ye Chen.

The strong wind blew against Xu Chen's black python robe, making it flutter loudly.

He held his hands behind his back, looking down from a height at the stunned Ye Chen a few steps away, a hint of undisguised mockery curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Never mind that you ran into my Family's courtyard shouting and screaming, ruining my wife's mood for stargazing. Those dog eyes of yours... you actually dared to look around recklessly."

Xu Chen's voice wasn't loud, yet it carried the unique laziness and coldness of a superior, each word smashing into the Void like a heavy hammer.

He turned his head slightly, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the shocked Lin Qingxue behind him.

"Furthermore, this woman just broke my Family's ancestral floor tiles, and the compensation hasn't been settled yet. She is now a debtor of my Xu Family. Who gave you the dog-like gall to dare touch my debtor?"

As soon as Xu Chen said this, the air on the entire Star Observation Platform seemed to freeze.

Lin Qingxue, half-kneeling behind Xu Chen, was completely stunned.

She stared blankly at the broad back in front of her. In the Lower Realm, she was used to deception and seeing people betray each other for profit. Under Ye Chen's tyranny, everyone either chose to submit or watched coldly from the sidelines.

She had thought that this indifferent Upper Realm Young Master wouldn't care at all about the life or death of an ascender met by chance.

But now, this unfathomable man had stood in front of her without hesitation.

And the reason he acted wasn't some cliché justice of helping those in need, but because Ye Chen had disturbed his wife's stargazing and because she owed him money for those few broken floor tiles.

In Lin Qingxue's cold eyes, the lone wolf color that kept others thousands of miles away faded for the first time. It was replaced by a strong sense of curiosity and a strange dependence on this man who called himself a debt collector.

She bit her lower lip tightly, her fingers holding the broken sword slowly loosening, and that reversing Sword Qi that wanted to self-detonate also quietly subsided before Xu Chen's majestic back.

On the opposite side, after a brief moment of shock, Ye Chen's face instantly turned the color of pig liver, and the veins on his forehead bulged one by one.

"You're looking for death!"

Ye Chen was completely enraged by Xu Chen's high-and-mighty contempt.

He frantically activated the Heavenly Demon Blood Transformation Divine Art within his body. His Luck and blood-qi burned violently, and a terrifying power that even distorted the surrounding space gathered frantically toward the black long saber in his hand.

"Since a waste like you, who doesn't even have spiritual power, wants to play the hero, then I'll fulfill your wish. I'll hack you into a pulp first, then slowly enjoy your woman."

Ye Chen let out a beast-like roar, his legs violently shattering the white jade floor beneath him. His entire being transformed into a piercing blood-colored saber light, carrying a terrifying power that could tear heaven and earth as it slashed down toward Xu Chen's face.

The blood-colored saber light illuminated half the night sky, carrying a destructive aura that instantly and completely sealed off Xu Chen's path of retreat.