Chapter 1756 — I Am No Sage: A Certain Gentleman

Xing An laughed aloud and shook his head. "From what I know of the Divine Stratagem Left Guard's fighting strength, you can hold out a quarter of an hour and no more, and then you will be wiped out to the last one. You are people of Shanghuang, and you have the corpses of Shanghuang Heaven Emperors. Why would you stake your lives to guard Jingping?"

"It is not Jingping we guard."

A Shanghuang corpse said, "It is this land, and the people on this land."

Something in Xing An was touched, but at once he shook his head and smiled. "You can do nothing. You are only throwing your lives away. Box, let us go!"

He walked on. The box hesitated, took a step after him, then stopped again, standing between Bai Qu'er and him, unable to decide.

Xing An frowned and halted. "Box, come with me."

The box took two steps toward him, then stopped once more. Suddenly it opened, and out of it poured clattering torrents of his collection, heaped up like a mountain.

The box emptied itself, closed its lid, and ran back to Bai Qu'er's side.

Xing An laughed in a fury. "What are you doing? You have no fighting strength. Are you staying here to wait for someone to split you open for firewood? Put those things away and come with me!"

The box did not move.

Xing An flew into a rage. With a wave of his hand he gathered his collection back into his divine treasury and said with a cold laugh, "Fine. I do not prize you. I have always gone my own way; I need no friends. I only took you for a plaything to pass the time. I have long since had no need of you! Go and die with them!"

He turned and left. He had not gone far when he looked back and saw the box snapping open and shut, click-clack, as though saying something to Bai Qu'er.

"I need no friends."

Xing An gave a snort and flicked his sleeve with the utmost ease. "It is nothing but a box whose spirit Sect Master Shen awakened. I have never taken it for a friend. I am not in the least lonely... and I will certainly not be delayed by these so-called foolish great principles of Shanghuang! Hahaha!"

Laughing, he went on his way.

Not long after, Xing An stopped and sat on a mountain rock, chin propped in his hand. The box still had not followed.

A moment later, Xing An stood beside Bai Yuqiong with a dark face, the box at his feet, nuzzling affectionately against his leg.

Xing An's face was gloomy. "Do not touch me! I was not in the least worried about you, do not touch me... All right, you may keep the collection. Do not touch me. Who was worried about you?"

Ahead, the Divine Stratagem Left Guard and the demon army drew nearer and nearer, and the Shanghuang gods were in a fever of dread. Beside him a young junior officer pushed back his visor and gave him a bashful smile. "My name is Luo Shu. My mother wanted a girl, and had the name all picked out, but then she bore me. It was two years ago that I cultivated my way into the divine realm. Senior Xing An, my name is very strange, and your name is very strange too, so I thought the two of us were fellow sufferers. Are you not in a panic?"

The muscles of Xing An's face went stiff. He was not much used to speaking with strangers.

"Afterward I had a little sister, but my name was never changed, and they all laughed at me for having a girl's name. But in this battle, they will not laugh at me anymore."

Luo Shu smiled with full confidence. "I will not be afraid. In this battle I will show them that I am a man!"

Xing An turned his head aside.

At last the army of the Divine Stratagem Left Guard arrived. Shanghuang corpse after corpse shot up into the sky, and the blind Yi Shisheng rushed out as well, forming an array with the nine Shanghuang corpses to meet the Heavenly Court's Divine Stratagem Left Guard.

Boom!

The two sides collided. When You Bijun saw the Shanghuang Heaven Emperors of successive generations, he could not help laughing. "So it is the Shanghuang Heaven Emperors, every one of you dead! Even the Great Brahma Heaven King Buddha was slain by me. Do you pack of corpses think to block my Divine Stratagem Army?"

Whoosh —

The demon army swept over hill after hill like a tide, surging in from both flanks of the Divine Stratagem Left Guard. Bai Qu'er roused her divine sword and cried in a loud voice, "Form up! Hold them!"

Luo Shu's face was red with excitement, and with the other Shanghuang officers and soldiers he shouted, "Fight to the death—"

The two armies crashed together with a roar. Countless demon gods were enormous and hideous of body, terrifying in their martial power, and at the very first clash half of the thousand-odd Shanghuang gods were cut down at once.

Xing An's face was calm, and he said quietly to the box, "Do not go running off after them. Just stay at my side."

Scarcely had he spoken when suddenly a human head rolled to his feet. Xing An was struck dumb; the head was that of the young god who had just called himself Luo Shu.

Luo Shu's eyes were wide, staring sightless at the sky.

Xing An's heart shuddered once, and he turned his head aside. "Tch — I... why will my tears suddenly not stop..."

He clenched his fists. Around him a horde of demons capered wildly, the demon gods' faces twisted.

Xing An looked into Luo Shu's eyes; the youth's clear eyes slowly grew clouded.

"I..."

Xing An's Adam's apple moved with difficulty. Suddenly the box left him and charged into the midst of the horde of demons.

"I am no sage!" Xing An roared, and the box flew open.

His aura burst forth; countless demon gods were sent flying through the air. Xing An soared into the sky, and out of the box rushed a flood of all his terrible treasures.

Hummm —

A dreadful wave of force erupted, hurling countless demon gods head over heels, and Xing An, like the most terrifying demon god in all the world, began a great slaughter.

A day later, Jiang Baigui arrived here at the head of his great army, and saw that for several thousand li around the land had been leveled flat, corpses lay everywhere, and the Divine Stratagem Left Guard and the Youdu demon gods and monsters were all but extinct.

Xing An sat on the box. Beside him a girl in bloodstained clothes leaned on her sword, panting heavily, and a blind old man stood aloof by the corpses of the nine emperors.

The nine Shanghuang corpse demons were utterly dead; their obsession was gone.