Invincible Dad-Chapter 711: Xu Lai Was Extorted_1

There were many reasons for this. The primary reason was that a prodigy had once emerged from the Divine Thunder Pavilion. In just 10,000 years, he had cultivated to the peak of the Immortal Venerable Realm. The Sect Gate poured all its resources into nurturing this Great Emperor in the making, even exhausting several million-year-old Holy Medicines to empower his cultivation and cleanse his marrow.

This prodigy lived up to all expectations, stepping into the first heaven of the Quasi-Emperor Realm and becoming a leading contender in the race for the Emperor Realm Dao Fruit.

Later on, in a certain forbidden land, the Divine Thunder Pavilion’s prodigy slew three Quasi-Emperors in a row over an unowned Emperor Artifact embryo. It sent shockwaves through the Immortal Domain! Some even claimed this prodigy was the second incarnation of a Great Emperor, providing all sorts of seemingly irrefutable evidence.

Just as the prodigy’s fame reached its zenith, he was slain with a single sword strike by Xu Lai, who was also a Quasi-Emperor of the first heaven. Blood splattered for 30,000 miles, staining the entire sky red!

Afterward, Xu Lai became an Emperor. The renowned Holy Lands, Tao Lineages, and Ancient Families across the Immortal Domain all sent congratulatory gifts. The Divine Thunder Pavilion was one of the few powers that did not.

Xu Lai simply laughed it off. He did not, as many in the Immortal Domain speculated, choose to annihilate the Divine Thunder Pavilion and other disrespectful powers to establish his authority. Neither Xu Lai nor the Heavenly Court ever deliberately suppressed the Divine Thunder Pavilion. The Divine Thunder Pavilion, in turn, never showed the slightest sycophancy toward Emperor Qingfeng, maintaining an attitude of complete indifference from beginning to end.

Therefore, Lei Fengyun had opportunities to meet Xu Lai but never took them.

...

"Now that Saint Master Xiong has said so, I think I do have some impression of this human cultivator."

"He looks somewhat familiar."

"But I just can’t recall the specifics..."

Several Holy Masters fell into contemplation.

"Forget it," Lei Fengyun said with a frown. "The pressing matter now is the Snowflower’s fruit. The news won’t stay secret for long."

The other Immortal Venerables nodded. Indeed, if Xu Lai could get the news, then so could other Immortal Venerables.

"Fortunately, the fruit is finally about to mature. With the offering, we can speed up the process," said the Holy Master of the Immortal Terrace from the Fifth Domain.

Shen Qing was utterly despondent. In the presence of ten Immortal Venerables, she was trapped with no hope of escape.

She lost all track of time. Her spirit shattered, she suddenly sensed that the injuries inside her body were slowly healing. The very air she breathed was filled with a refreshing Spiritual Energy.

The Pearl of the Shen Family looked up. She saw a vast, breathtakingly beautiful, snow-white flower standing in the void. Points of light from swirling ice crystals surrounded it, creating a bewitching sight.

The flower was immense. Its roots were hidden beneath the ice, while its trunk stretched across half the starry sky, its ten massive leaves blotting out the heavens.

Shen Qing knew this was the Snowflower. This was the first time she had ever seen it. She felt that standing before the Snowflower, she and her group were as insignificant as ants.

Oh, right. Everyone else is at the peak of the Immortal Venerable Realm... Never mind, then. It’s probably just me.

This was also Xu Lai’s first time seeing the Snowflower, and he was even more stunned than Shen Qing, but not because of its massive size. It was the overwhelming sense of primordial age that washed over him.

Having flourished through one hundred epochs, every glistening snow-white branch and leaf of the Snowflower bore the profound weight of time itself. Xu Lai’s expression grew distant. The Spiritual Energy within his body began to circulate on its own. If he hadn’t forcefully suppressed it, his Emperor Realm aura would have undoubtedly pierced the heavens.

A gentle breeze blew past. It wasn’t the Demonic Wind that had slain countless cultivators, but a soft gust carrying innumerable ice crystals that swirled toward Xu Lai.

"The Snowflower is making a move!"

"Something’s not right with that man."

"..."

The pupils of the other nine Holy Masters constricted in unison as their gazes locked onto Xu Lai. They had come here dozens, if not hundreds, of times, but the Snowflower had never once shown any unusual activity, let alone sent ice crystals to revolve around them.

...

A soft wind touched his face, and Xu Lai instinctively closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he found that his Divine Sense had left his body. He had entered a spiritual world.

To be precise, he had entered the Snowflower’s spiritual world.

In this ethereal space, the Snowflower’s form was tiny, no taller than a five-year-old child. On its delicate white leaves, it supported snow-white fruits that looked utterly delectable.

Of course, Xu Lai’s gaze didn’t linger on this soul-form of the Snowflower but swept over its surroundings. A multitude of figures stood all around, the Divine Sense imprints left by those who had once visited this place. Unfortunately, their faces were indistinct; he could only vaguely sense the elusive Emperor Realm pressure they emitted.

Each figure was performing the same strange action: biting their fingertip. A drop of blood would then float toward the young Snowflower.

Xu Lai’s gaze narrowed. He had given the figures a quick count. Including himself, there were exactly one hundred of them here. Except for him, every single one had offered a drop of blood.

Xu Lai suddenly smiled. It seemed the other ninety-nine Great Emperors of this cycle had all been here before. The reason he had been brought in was because this Snowflower was demanding a drop of his Great Emperor’s Essence Blood!

"And what if I say no?" Xu Lai asked calmly.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

Ninety-nine gazes, each carrying terrifying pressure, fixed on him. The Snowflower was actually manipulating the Divine Sense imprints of other Great Emperors to coerce Xu Lai into surrendering his Essence Blood.

The pressure from ninety-nine Emperor Realm imprints... had it been any other cultivator, they would have likely exploded on the spot. Even a Quasi-Emperor of the Ninth Heaven could not have withstood it.

"Are you threatening me?" Xu Lai’s smile was laced with sarcasm. "They may have come here, but your deception is too obvious."

"With the Thief Emperor’s rebellious nature, a man who has looted hundreds of thousands of tombs in the Immortal Domain, the fact he didn’t uproot you was a mercy. You dare ask for his blood?"

"And then there’s Dongfang Youming. He is Great Emperor Youming and also the Corpse Emperor. Both of his incarnations are here."

"If you were Dongfang Youming, would you be stupid enough to come here and give a blood donation, not once, but twice?"

"You’ve got some nerve. He probably came twice to extort you, didn’t he?"

"..."

The Snowflower’s branches and leaves froze, ceasing their sway.

"Besides, I met Emperor Wanyun a few days ago. Want to guess what she told me?"

"I also had a brief chat with the remnant will of Great Emperor Yin Yang. Want to guess what we talked about?"

"I won’t extort you. Give me four fruits. Otherwise, I will have a taste of Snowflower today." Xu Lai mused aloud, "Seeing as how white you are, would you taste better steamed or stewed in a soup? You can pick one."

"..."

There was no response. Everything went black as Xu Lai was unceremoniously ejected from the spiritual world by the Snowflower.

When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer facing the young soul-form of the Snowflower but its colossal physical body. The Emperor Realm imprints around him were gone. Instead, he was met with the sight of a dumbstruck Shen Qing and nine Immortal Venerables with various expressions on their faces.

Lei Fengyun forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. "May I ask, fellow human cultivator, did you experience some kind of epiphany just now?"

Xu Lai ignored him. Under everyone’s bewildered gaze, he strode forward a hundred zhang and viciously kicked the Snowflower’s trunk!

"You dare to extort me?"

"If you don’t give me four fruits today, believe it or not, I’ll chop you into pieces and brew you into a soup!"

"..."

The Holy Masters were completely stunned. What was this human expert doing? That was the Snowflower, a terrifying being that had survived for one hundred epochs, a place where even Quasi-Emperors had fallen. And he had the audacity to attack it...

"RETREAT!!!" Lei Fengyun shrieked, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

In truth, he didn’t need to say anything. The other eight Holy Masters had already turned to flee without hesitation. Only Shen Qing, whose cultivation Boundary was too low to fly, was left behind, lying on the ground and trembling in fear.

The next moment, snowflakes as large as goose feathers began to fall from the sky, a scene of unearthly beauty.

The sight brought no pleasure to Lei Fengyun and the other Holy Masters, only a soul-deep terror. How did the last Immortal Venerable die here? Because of one careless move. He had tried to catch a snowflake to study it and was instantly turned into an ice sculpture. His body still stood a hundred miles away, his eyes forever open in death.

SWOOSH, SWOOSH, SWOOSH, SWOOSH—

They pushed their speed to the absolute limit, but they were still not fast enough to outrun the falling snow. A single snowflake landed on the arm of the Immortal Terrace Holy Master from the Fifth Domain. This Holy Master, who had been immersed in the Immortal Venerable Realm for 30,000 years and had always remained unshakably calm, saw his face twist into a mask of ultimate horror.

"Human expert, I damn your entire immortal lineage!"

The Immortal Terrace Holy Master’s cry of despairing grief echoed for a hundred miles. Without a shred of hesitation, he hacked off his own left arm.

BANG!

The severed arm, already frozen solid, crashed heavily onto the ground. Having saved his life, the Holy Master spat out several mouthfuls of his heart’s blood and, daring not to delay a second longer, used a secret technique that consumed his lifespan to escape. Although he didn’t have much lifespan left—just under 30,000 years—sacrificing a thousand years was infinitely better than dying here.

SWOOSH! SWOOSH! SWOOSH!

It wasn’t just the Immortal Terrace Holy Master. The other Holy Masters also began burning their lifespans to accelerate their retreat.

...

Snowflakes fluttered as the cold wind howled.

Xu Lai paid no attention to the fleeing Holy Masters. Instead, he looked at the snow landing on his body and said slowly, "You have a problem with me?"

"..."

Of course, it had a problem. That was obvious from its snowy retaliation after he kicked it. But against Xu Lai, it was useless!

"MMM! MMM! MMM!"

Shen Qing struggled on the ground. Her eyes widened in terror, tears welling up as she saw a snowflake about to land on her. She had seen snow before, but never snow where a single flake could force a Holy Master to sever his own arm. She was only in the Divine Bridge realm. If a snowflake touched her, wouldn’t she perish instantly?

Xu Lai gestured with his hand, and all the snowflakes scattered around Shen Qing vanished into thin air. The Pearl of the Shen Family offered no thanks; she had fainted from terror a moment earlier.

Xu Lai shook his head. What a timid girl.

His voice became lazy. "Don’t play dead. You’ve lived for one hundred epochs; you must have gained sentience by now. Speak."

"..."

The Snowflower remained silent. It slowly lowered four of its leaves, each bearing a snow-white fruit, seemingly offering them to Xu Lai in a gesture of surrender.

Hmm?

Xu Lai was a little surprised. He actually couldn’t fathom the Snowflower’s true depths; the kick had just been a probe. He never would have imagined it would be so cowardly as to actually offer four fruits to ensure its own safety...

But Xu Lai felt he fully deserved them. Great Emperor’s Essence Blood was incredibly precious. After all, it was the Snowflower that had threatened him first.

However, just as Xu Lai reached out to take the Spiritual fruits, something strange happened.

The moment he lightly touched one of the snow-white Spiritual fruits that exuded a refreshing fragrance, a wisp of smoke drifted up from it. When the smoke cleared, the Spiritual fruit on the leaf was gone, leaving only a snowball in its place.

Xu Lai froze.

When he reached for the other three Spiritual fruits, they too turned into snowballs the instant he touched them.

"..."