1820 Golden
To Alex's eyes, it all happened in an instant.
The moment he sent Zhou Linfan away, he saw a distance grow between him and the Emperor that he quickly covered and swung his sword down.
Alex saw the Golden Dragon shield appear out of the Dragon Emperor's storage ring, but it seemed useless as Zhou Linfan cut through it and the slash landed on the Dragon Emperor's chest and then…
A bright golden glow covered his eyes.
* * * * * *
The sudden glow that appeared in the battle was bright enough that it forced every single cultivator to shade their eyes from the glint, unable to see exactly what it was.
It was only when the light disappeared that they saw what had happened.
* * * * * *
Zhou Linfan was right about to cut the Dragon Emperor's heart when he felt some sort of disturbance right in front of him.
The shield that he had cut through suddenly started glowing. Within a split second after being cut, they glowed so bright that Zhou Linfan could not see anything before him.
At the same moment, he felt as though he was blinded, the light turned into a force that pushed him back at the same time.
The pushback came with a power that terrified Zhou Linfan. Had it not been for the power his body had generated at the moment, he was sure that he would have died.
He stumbled through the air and barely managed to keep himself from tumbling further as he looked back at the bright glow of light.
What had happened?
Zhou Linfan felt his death approaching. He could feel the power in his body slowly leaving him as there was nothing more of him for the energy to devour to empower him.
He was dying.
He started falling through the sky as he didn't even have anything to keep him afloat. As he did, he saw a golden sphere that had appeared where the Dragon Emperor had been.
A golden sphere with a golden dragon that swam around it.
'Did he die or not?' Zhou Linfan wondered. 'I cut through his heart, didn't I?'
He was certain he had gotten to the heart, but the bright light made it impossible to tell if he had actually cut through it or not.
His senses were already diminished due to the pill, so telling what had happened on top of that was damn near impossible for Zhou Linfan.
Yan Yating caught Zhou Linfan as he fell and felt his body burn hot with energy, the yellow in his swollen veins slowly subsiding, leaving behind a badly injured and skinny Zhou Linfan.
Yan Yating was horrified to see what was happening to him. He knew not about the plans involving the pills.
Zhou Linfan was caught, but he was still dying. He could feel his mind become slow to process things, the world seemed more hazed than anything. And all that remained in his mind was the question of whether he killed the Emperor or not.
His own mortality came second place to the desire to know if he had completed his lifelong dream or not. He prayed that he had.
Alex teleported right next to Zhou Linfan and brought out a pill from his Soul Space. He didn't know if this pill would in any way help the old man or not, but he hoped it would.
It was a nullification pill, meant to remove any effect from any pill that one might have eaten. It was a simple pill meant for situations such as when one ate a face-changing pill, or when one needed to stop cultivating halfway through while their cultivation enhancement pill was still continuing.
Stopping a pill that gave someone the power to become Immortal was not in its repertoire.
Still, Alex fed the old man the pill, forcing it down his throat so he could swallow it as Zhou Linfan seemed unable to do so.
Zhou Linfan's body calmed a lot after eating the pill, but the state in which it was in didn't make the situation any better.
Alex grabbed his skinny wrist, touching bone through the skin, and felt his heartbeat.
There was barely any blood in the man, so the heartbeat his body produced was very faint as well.
"How… did I do?" Zhou Linfan's voice rasped as he tried looking up toward the sphere.
Flecks of light swam in his vision constantly, making it hard to see.
"I…" Yan Yating looked at the golden sphere as well. He tried forcing his senses into the sphere, but he couldn't see anything inside. He could not notice anything at all.
"You did well," Alex said and looked up as well, less so to look at the sphere, and more so to hide his grimace.
He had no idea what had happened at the final moment when Zhou Linfan used his attack, so he didn't yet know if the Emperor was dead or not.
Something had clearly protected him, but it could very well be true that the Dragon Emperor was dead on the inside. Alex wondered if there was any way to find the truth at all.
"Hold him," Yan Yating said. "I'll finish this."
Alex took hold of Zhou Linfan and watched as Yan Yating flew toward the golden sphere and let out a fiery slash, combined with the powers of his Immortal Qi.
The crescent fire hit the barrier and the golden dragon that swam around the sphere roared as it fought back, destroying the attack before it could land.
Everyone who was looking at it was surprised.
Yan Yating couldn't believe what he witnessed, so he continued attacking again and again, only to be blocked by the barrier.
Yan Yating sensed more attacks from behind him and moved away so as to give a clear field for everyone else to attack.
Every single attack that landed on the barrier was somehow defended against completely.
Alex took Zhou Linfan back to regroup with everyone else.
"What is that?" Alex asked as soon as he arrived, looking toward Long Huan for any sort of answer.
"I… I do not know," Long Huan said. "I have never heard about any techniques of this sort."
Alex frowned. How could he have this strong of a technique that he could stand against hundreds of attacks from everyone?
Attacks drowned out the sky in multicolored explosions, and yet at the end of it all, the golden sphere still stood.
"Not technique," Zhou Linfan said in a low rasping voice as he drew in some breath. "Artifact. Shield."
Alex heard those words and realized what had happened. "The shield you cut apart?" he asked. Was it what had activated?
He looked down at the old man who was now near death and remembered that he needed to help him heal. With his body, as it was, nearly dead and crippled, a healing pill would kill him.
As such, Alex teleported into the ship and let the old man rest near the Phoenix fire.
"Please… tell me I killed him," Zhou Linfan said. "I must… I must have…"
"Worry not," Alex said as he rested his palm on the man's chest to help him calm down. "I'm sure he is dead. If not, he should be at death's door because of you. As for the rest, we can take it from here."
