Chapter 174 The Sacred Relic Flip-Flops and the Shock of the War God Committee

Northern Territory, Third Fortress, the morning after the battle.

Sunlight slanted across the cracked city walls. The military camp, usually filled with a murderous aura, now exuded an almost fanatical, sacred religious atmosphere.

In the center of the fortress's main training ground, a display case made of special alloy, bulletproof, and even installed with a miniature spiritual gathering Formation, rose from the ground.

Inside the case, there were no peerless divine weapons, nor were there any Heaven And Earth Treasure.

There was only a size 43 blue plastic flip-flop, frayed at the edges, with a bit of the dark red frozen soil of the Northern Territory on the sole, looking completely ordinary.

"Attention! Salute!"

Following a roar from Regiment Commander Lei Heng, an entire phalanx of elite garrison troops snapped into a standard military salute toward the slipper.

Lei Heng's single eye was filled with fanaticism, and even the tip of his nose trembled with excitement.

He stretched out his rough, large hand, and through the glass, he stroked the air above the slipper as gently as if he were caressing the face of his first love.

"Brothers, remember this," Lei Heng said, his voice hoarse with the devotion of a missionary. "This is the Holy Object that last night, while Consultant Jiang was in his sleep, crossed thousands of miles and with one strike crushed the Clone of the Old Ancestor of the hidden Lin family!"

"Look at the tread on the sole. Are these just anti-slip patterns? These are clearly lines of Law that secretly correspond to the supreme truths of Heaven and Earth! That strike last night didn't just crush the Lin family's face; it struck out three years of Luck for our Northern Territory garrison!"

The soldiers below stared with wide eyes, their breathing rapid.

"Regiment Commander, I saw it with my own eyes last night! When that slipper flew out, it was followed by a ten-thousand-foot-tall phantom of an Empress! With that one slap, the sky went black!"

"I saw it too! That sound shook my ears until they're still ringing, but I feel like the Bottleneck that has stuck me for three years has actually been loosened by that sound!"

"This is a miracle! This is the favor of the Great Xia Sleep God!"

For a time, a craze of "viewing the Holy Object" swept through the entire fortress. There were even rumors that as long as one took a deep breath in front of this size 43 slipper, one could comprehend a peerless movement technique.

Lei Heng had even planned that once Jiang Chen woke up, he would ask him to take off the other one to make a pair, serving as the town-guarding treasure of the Third Fortress.

Meanwhile, in the Great Xia Imperial Capital, inside a top-secret conference room buried a thousand meters underground.

The lights were dim, and a huge holographic projection was repeatedly playing a segment that was extremely blurry, yet so terrifying that it made the air freeze.

In the footage, a purple flip-flop tore through the Void Realm, and amidst the screams of Lin Overthrow Heaven's Clone, it slapped him into golden light filling the sky.

Sitting around the conference table were six top War Gods of Great Xia, whose auras were like abysses, and any one of them could make the earth's crust shake.

"Everyone, what do you think?"

Sitting at the head of the table was the rotating chairman of the Great Xia War God Committee—Long Zhantian.

His flamboyant golden hair seemed heavy at this moment, and the tea in the white porcelain cup in front of him rippled slightly due to his uncontrollable True Qi fluctuations.

"That strike was not martial arts, nor was it an ability," God of War Tian Shu said, his voice dry, pointing to the purple-gold afterimage that flashed across the screen. "It is Law. It is the materialization of Mental Energy at an extremely high dimension."

"The key is that phantom." Another female War God frowned, her eyes filled with dread. "The status displayed by that Empress phantom has already surpassed all the remnant souls of gods we currently know. Although Lin Overthrow Heaven was only a Peak War God Clone, in front of that phantom, he was as weak as a child who hasn't been weaned."

The conference room fell into a long, dead silence.

After a long time, Long Zhantian suddenly tapped the table, a flash of determination in his eyes.

"I have a bold hypothesis," Long Zhantian took a deep breath. "This child, Jiang Chen, is not some 'naturally gifted with Divine Power.' Behind him... there is very likely an Emperor Realm master from the ancient era, or even an even more distant age! And his 'sleeping' is not laziness, but receiving the cross-temporal transmission of power from that Emperor Realm powerhouse!"

"Hiss—!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the sound of gasping echoed one after another.

"An Emperor Realm master... No wonder, no wonder his strength undergoes a qualitative change every time he wakes up!"

"That explains it! The 'Waking Up Anger' he has when sleeping is actually a defensive instinct planted in his Sea of Consciousness by that Emperor Realm powerhouse to protect his Disciple!"

The big shots became more and more excited as they talked, and at this moment, their thinking synchronized into "all-member brain-supplementing" mode.

"Quick! Issue the order immediately!" Long Zhantian stood up abruptly, his tone solemn. "From now on, list Jiang Chen as a Great Xia SSS-level protected target, with priority higher than any national project! While he is in the Northern Territory, Lei Heng's unit must guard him twenty-four hours a day!"

"The point is: Strictly forbid anyone from disturbing his sleep for any reason! Even if the sky falls, wait for him to wake up naturally!"

"Violators will be treated as traitors!"

An urgent red-headed document, carrying the highest-level authorization signal, instantly pierced through the wind and snow of the Northern Territory.

At this moment, Northern Territory, Third Fortress, Area A special barracks.

This place had already been designated as an "absolute restricted zone" by Lei Heng, with guards every three steps and sentries every five, all heavy weapons turned to aim at the perimeter of the barracks to prevent any flies from flying in.

Inside the barracks, ripples of faint gold were emanating from the center of the "myriad heavens formless bed."

Jiang Chen was sleeping very deeply at this moment.

[Ding! Detected that the host's Mental Energy has entered a deep protection period due to forcibly invoking "Emperors Might."]

[System is automatically extracting nutrient from spoils: absorbing Lin Overthrow Heaven Clone's Divine Soul fragments... Progress 15%...]

[host's current status: Due to dreaming about helping the Empress scrub her back and being stiffed on the payment, Waking Up Anger charging: 15% (slowly recovering).]

Jiang Chen smacked his lips, turned over, and his large hand reached out quite naturally, just in time to wrap around the slender waist of Su Qingyue, who was guarding by the bed.

Su Qingyue's delicate body trembled slightly, but she did not resist at all; instead, she leaned her cheek against the back of Jiang Chen's hand.

She had just awakened her Heavenly Phoenix Bloodline, and the warm feeling lingering around her body was exactly the most comfortable "constant temperature regulator" in Jiang Chen's dreams.

"Brother Jiang Chen..." Su Qingyue murmured softly, her eyes full of almost blind worship. That battle last night had been completely carved into her Divine Soul.

On the other side, Mu Qingxue was sitting cross-legged by the bed, her hands folded on her knees, her ice-blue long dress spread out.

Her beautiful eyes were fixed on the shadows of the barracks, the ice crystal Sword Qi condensed in her hands held back but not unleashed.

She was at the Early Stage of the Great Grandmaster, and she had sensed that ominous presence in the darkness earlier than Su Qingyue.

"The rats have come in." Mu Qingxue's voice was as cold as frost.

In the shadows outside the barracks, dozens of nearly transparent phantoms were sticking to the wall roots, infiltrating silently like mercury.

The Lin family's second wave of assassination troops—the Shadow Guards.

These people had no names, only code names. They were all at the Peak of the Grandmaster Realm, and one was even at the Great Grandmaster Realm. They practiced the Lin family's secret "Dead Wood Zen," which could lower life fluctuations to an extreme degree by holding their breath, even capable of deceiving detectors.

And leading the team was a woman with a hot figure, wearing a deep purple tight-fitting night suit.

The Lin family's eldest daughter, Lin Yan, at the Peak of the Great Grandmaster Realm.

Her phoenix eyes, full of heroic spirit, were now filled with disdain and anger.

"This is the Jiang Chen who used sorcery to bewitch our family's Old Ancestor?"

Lin Yan looked at the young man on the bed who was sprawled out and even drooling, the corners of her mouth curling into a mocking arc.

In her view, the fall of the Old Ancestor's Clone last night must have been this brat utilizing some ancient ruin killing Formation in the Third Fortress, or the Great Xia officials playing tricks behind the scenes. As for Jiang Chen himself? Looking at this sleeping posture of a piece of Trash that couldn't be helped, he was clearly a useless Trash hollowed out by wine and lust!

"The Saintess and the Ice Mountain Mentor are here too?" Lin Yan glanced at Su Qingyue and Mu Qingxue, sneering in her heart. "Two women who have degenerated, actually guarding a piece of Trash like a treasure. Tonight, I will extract this Trash's Divine Soul and take it back to the Lin family ancestral hall to kneel for a hundred years!"

"Everyone, move! Try to catch him alive; I want him to admit with his own mouth what despicable means he used to harm my Old Ancestor!"

Lin Yan waved her slender hand, and dozens of black chains shot out like poisonous snakes, instantly locking onto the bed.

The killing intent exploded in an instant!