Chapter 00474: Ambush
# Ambush
Chapter 474
Novel: Abandon The Universe
Chapter 474: Ambush
"If you had known it would come to this, why did you act so recklessly in the first place?" A sudden voice echoed from outside the grand hall.
By the time everyone turned to look, a man had already appeared in the center of the hall without anyone noticing.
"Five Universe King..."
Zhi Zhen'e abruptly stood up, her face paling.
Lan Xiaobu was her nightmare.
Back when she was chasing Yan Xuan in the Ancient Battlefield of Mo Xuan, it was because of Lan Xiaobu that she nearly lost her life.
And that was just the beginning.
By the time they reached the entrance of the Chaotic Secret Realm on Void Island, she realized just how terrifyingly fast Lan Xiaobu's growth was.
At that point, killing her would have been as easy as crushing an ant for him.
Deep down, Zhi Zhen'e truly didn’t want to destroy Star Ascension Immortal Court and take over as the ruler of Zhiyu Immortal Court.
In truth, after Teng Jilou disappeared, countless factions could have seized Star Ascension Immortal Court.
So why hadn’t any of them acted?
Take the Four Emperor Palace, for instance—any one of them could have easily taken over Star Ascension Immortal Court when they returned from the Chaotic Secret Realm on Void Island.
Yet none of them made a move.
The reason was simple: everyone knew Star Ascension Immortal Court was under Lan Xiaobu’s protection.
Zhi Zhen'e was desperately trying to figure out how to distance herself from this situation as much as possible.
Even if she couldn’t completely absolve herself, she at least wanted Lan Xiaobu to know that she had been forced into it.
But before she could speak, a dark streak of light tore through the air, followed by an overwhelming spatial pressure that locked onto Lan Xiaobu.
The dark streak, riding on this oppressive force, aimed straight for the space between his brows.
Zhi Zhen'e froze.
For a moment, she even forgot to shout for them to stop or to intervene.
Her mind went blank.
As the strongest Immortal Emperor in the Zhi Family, how could she not recognize who was behind this ambush? It was Zhi Ang, the family head.
Had he forgotten how Zhi Yisha had died?
Back during a family meeting, Zhi Ang, newly appointed as the family head, had declared confidently, "Lan Xiaobu is indeed formidable, but no matter how strong he is, he’s just an Immortal King. His master has been silent lately—most likely ascended to the higher realms. A mere Immortal King relying on a void trapping and killing array to slay numerous Immortal Emperors and intimidate so many Immortal Court Kings? That’s only because he had the advantage of time and terrain. If he hadn’t been given days to set up that formation, would he still be so invincible?"
"My stance is this: the moment Lan Xiaobu appears, we strike immediately, giving him no chance to set up any arrays. No matter how strong an Immortal King is, even if he can contend with late-stage Immortal Sovereigns, he’s nothing before an Immortal Emperor."
Shockingly, many of the Zhi Family elders had agreed with Zhi Ang’s view.
This terrified Zhi Zhen'e.
She had wanted to remove Zhi Ang from his position, but while her strength far surpassed his, her status within the family had already fallen below his.
After becoming the Immortal Court King, she had been too afraid to alter Star Ascension Immortal Court’s existing structure, leaving her isolated with no strong allies.
She suspected that if not for her overwhelming strength, Zhi Ang might have already kicked her out of the position.
Truthfully, Zhi Zhen'e didn’t even want to be the Immortal Court King.
But she knew better than anyone that if she stepped down and another member of the Zhi Family took over, the first thing they would do was slaughter all of Lan Xiaobu’s friends.
If that happened, the Zhi Family would plunge into an abyss with no hope of return.
She had planned to gradually correct Zhi Ang’s thinking, but before she could, Lan Xiaobu appeared—and Zhi Ang actually chose to strike.
She didn’t know whether Zhi Ang’s reasoning was sound.
She only knew one thing: if Lan Xiaobu were so easy to kill, why would it be Zhi Ang’s turn? In the vast Immortal World, there were countless people smarter and stronger than Zhi Ang.
Why hadn’t any of them killed Lan Xiaobu?
Lan Xiaobu didn’t even move.
The crushing pressure of the Immortal Emperor’s aura seemed to freeze in place.
Then, with a sudden punch, the dark streak of light that had nearly reached him shattered into countless fragments.
In the next instant, Lan Xiaobu took a single step forward and slapped out with his palm.
Zhi Ang suddenly felt as though space no longer belonged to him.
It was as if he were trapped in someone else’s domain, his entire body stiff and unnatural.
The violent energy from Lan Xiaobu’s punch, though not directed at him, still made it hard to breathe.
When that slap came down, Zhi Ang found himself unable to dodge.
A flicker of fear flashed in his eyes.
**Smack!**
The slap landed squarely on his face, obliterating half of it in an instant.
The sheer force sent him flying backward.
**Boom!**
Zhi Ang crashed into his seat—right where a young man was sitting.
Though he knew he shouldn’t crush his own son, he couldn’t control his body.
A bloodcurdling scream erupted as Zhi Ti’s body was torn apart, his life extinguished on the spot.
Feeling his dantian and sea of consciousness shatter, Zhi Ang was filled with despair.
At this moment, he finally understood why Zhi Zhen'e had refused to kill any of Lan Xiaobu’s associates and why she had been so reluctant to take over Star Ascension Immortal Court.
Compared to what Zhi Zhen'e had described, Lan Xiaobu’s strength was far beyond that of an Immortal King.
Even without relying on formations, he could annihilate the Zhi Family effortlessly.
"You could have lived peacefully. Why did you have to seek death?" Lan Xiaobu shook his head and walked toward Zhi Zhen'e, who sat at the head of the hall.
Zhi Zhen'e had already forced herself to calm down.
She rose from her seat and bowed deeply to Lan Xiaobu.
"Five Universe King, this matter truly has nothing to do with me. It was all Gu Xu who forced me into it. If not for him, I would never have come to Star Ascension Immortal Court. My Zhi Family has always lived in Moon Mirror Immortal Court. Even if we wanted to claim an Immortal Court King’s throne, we would never have targeted Star Ascension Immortal Court."
The other members of the Zhi Family were trembling with fear.
The fact that Zhi Zhen'e would openly admit they had once sought the throne of Moon Mirror Immortal Court showed just how insignificant the Zhi Family was in Lan Xiaobu’s eyes.
And it was true.
Aside from Zhi Zhen'e, the strongest in the Zhi Family had been Zhi Ang.
Yet even with a sneak attack, he couldn’t withstand a single casual slap from Lan Xiaobu.
Lan Xiaobu walked over and sat down on the Immortal Court King’s throne.
"If you hadn’t refrained from harming my friends, do you think your Zhi Family would still exist?"
Zhi Zhen'e and the rest of the Zhi Family didn’t dare to even breathe loudly.
Just a dozen breaths ago, every member of the Zhi Family had been dissatisfied with Zhi Zhen'e’s passive approach and lack of action.
Many felt that despite being the family’s strongest, she was unworthy of sitting on the throne of the Immortal Court they had established.
Now, just a dozen breaths later, they all regretted ever coveting Star Ascension Immortal Court’s throne.
"Those of the Zhi Family who killed members of Star Ascension Immortal Court, step forward now. You have ten breaths. After that, there will be no more chances."
Lan Xiaobu’s voice was calm.
The elders of the Zhi Family exchanged uneasy glances.
Among those present, fewer than five hadn’t killed anyone from Star Ascension Immortal Court.
Seeing that no one moved, Zhi Zhen'e spoke up.
"Zhi Xun, Zhi Wugong, Zhi Zhiyuan, Zhi Fang—the four of you, step forward."
"But… we never killed anyone from Star Ascension Immortal Court," one of the men protested, his face pale with fear.
Zhi Zhen'e sighed.
"I know you didn’t. That’s why I called you out."
She was certain that if no one stepped forward within ten breaths, Lan Xiaobu would slaughter them all.
She had personally witnessed his ruthlessness before.
Lan Xiaobu said indifferently, "So the rest of you have blood from Star Ascension Immortal Court on your hands?"
"Yes," Zhi Zhen'e replied after taking a deep breath.
She knew that one wrong answer today would mean the complete annihilation of the Zhi Family.
"You four, go release all the prisoners your Zhi Family has taken."
Lan Xiaobu ordered the four who had been called out.
"Yes."
After the four left, Lan Xiaobu turned his gaze back to Zhi Zhen'e.
"Tell me, who has the Heavenly Gang Formation Flag from Mo Xuan Immortal Domain?"
Zhi Zhen'e quickly replied, "Gu Xu has it. He claimed to have a Divine Being backing him and even brought a powerful divine imprint. After learning of your ties to Star Ascension Immortal Court, he demanded that my Zhi Family seize control. He promised that if we took over, within a thousand years, he would ensure our family produced a hundred Immortal Emperors. Not only that, he said he could help our family members ascend to the Divine Realm."
Lan Xiaobu sneered.
"If he’s so capable, why hasn’t he gone to the Divine Realm himself? Continue."
"Yes," Zhi Zhen'e said.
"That Divine Being is imprisoned, his cultivation heavily suppressed. He needs the essence blood of cultivators to slowly recover. So he ordered me to control an entire realm’s worth of cultivators and gradually restore his strength..."
Lan Xiaobu nodded.
That much was true.
Back in the depths of Mo Xuan Immortal Valley, Yu Ruo had offered her blood as a sacrifice.
However, since he had taken the Reincarnation Pot, how was the sacrificial blood reaching the being behind Gu Xu?
"Control an entire realm’s worth of cultivators? What arrogance."
Lan Xiaobu scoffed.
"So your Zhi Family taking over Star Ascension Immortal Court was just the first step? There were more to follow, weren’t there? Until you dominated the entire Mo Xuan Immortal Domain?"
He despised these kinds of people.
Just like Silent God Valley, which had sought to refine an entire immortal domain and control the essence blood of its cultivators.
No matter how powerful Silent God Valley had been, he had still wiped them out completely.
Zhi Zhen'e said fearfully, "That’s correct. But I never truly agreed to it—you can tell from my actions. What I did wasn’t the behavior of someone trying to conquer Mo Xuan Immortal Domain. Unfortunately, I was too weak to resist. I knew you would return, so I could only wait for you."
"You said you gave the Heavenly Gang Formation Flag to Gu Xu, but I didn’t find it in his ring."
Lan Xiaobu pressed further.
He had already searched Gu Xu’s storage ring.
While there were many valuable items inside, the formation flag wasn’t among them.
"Ah…" Zhi Zhen'e stared at Lan Xiaobu in shock.
Gu Xu’s ring? Did that mean Lan Xiaobu had captured Gu Xu? Otherwise, how could he speak of his ring?
But she quickly snapped out of it.
Right now, her focus shouldn’t be on that—it should be on whether the Zhi Family could survive this ordeal.
(End of Chapter)