Hades, the Urban Legend

Chapter 737: Chapter 740: Fresh and Tender

Poseidon, Christine, and the others, hundreds of miles away, had no options left. As they watched the final strike of the Taiqing Divine Lightning descend, they all silently closed their eyes.

Yang Chen, submerged in the icy, bone-chilling water, was completely unconscious. He might as well have been dead—his body showed no signs of life except for the Wang Nian Derivation Sutra desperately operating within his dantian, even his heartbeat had become faint.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Finally, from within the thunderclouds, a Taiqing Divine Lightning several times more powerful than before roared like a thunder dragon, opening its bloody maw and plunging down toward the tiny figure deep within the ocean!

Under the blue glow, the seawater appeared even more profoundly blue than the sky itself! The clouds were tinged with a vivid blue-white hue, like radiant silk draping the entire sky!

A shockwave powerful enough to uproot a small island rolled out, sending towering waves hundreds of feet high surging across the sea, howling as they swept through the ocean for thousands of miles!

At that moment, the Pacific Ocean turned ashen gray. At that moment, the Pacific Ocean was deathly still.

After more than a minute, the storm subsided. The thunderclouds in the sky quietly dispersed, revealing a bright, flawless moon, shining serenely.

A gentle breeze carried a faint scent of the sea; no one could have imagined the terrifying spectacle that had taken place here just a minute earlier.

"It's over," Poseidon said calmly, standing in midair without any expression.

Christine, who had been kneeling and sobbing, suddenly looked up, glaring fiercely at Poseidon. "It's all your fault, Neptune! Look at what you've done! Why did you start fighting without listening to reason? Even if you didn't recognize him as Hades, did you have to push him into reincarnation to be satisfied? What good does this do you?"

Poseidon removed his tall chef's hat, revealing a head of gray-brown curls. Tossing the hat away, it drifted off into the distance on the sea breeze. Turning back, Poseidon replied indifferently, "Aphrodite, watch your words. I merely demonstrated through strength that the laws of space are not inferior to the cultivators of Yanxia. As for bringing about the heavenly tribulation, that was due to his own cultivation. Since his cultivation had already reached the peak of the Transformation stage and was entering the Tribulation stage, the heavenly tribulation was inevitable. What does that have to do with me?"

"If you hadn't forced him to go all out, how could the tribulation have come so quickly?!" Christine retorted angrily.

"Hmph, if he had conceded earlier, this wouldn't have happened. Besides, how was I supposed to know the extent of his cultivation? It was simply inexplicable."

"Alright, alright!" Alice quickly intervened, trying to mediate. "You've been friends for tens of thousands of years, and you're really going to argue at a time like this? Let's go check on Yang Chen."

"What's there to check? After being struck by three Taiqing Divine Lightning bolts, even the top tribulation experts from tens of thousands of years ago, with all their protective treasures, would have been severely injured. He's lucky if he even has a chance at reincarnation," Poseidon said coldly.

Christine shot him a vicious glare but said nothing more, instantly teleporting to Yang Chen's location. Stern and his sister, along with Poseidon, followed closely behind.

When they arrived at the core of the lightning strike, the four of them were left speechless.

Floating slowly on the ocean's surface was a charred human figure. The owner of this body was undoubtedly Yang Chen, but his current state was as if he had been roasted in an oven—his skin was blackened and split, and his entire body was covered in burns.

"His body... is still intact?!" Poseidon couldn't help but exclaim in amazement.

In truth, none of them had much hope of finding Yang Chen's "body" intact.

They had all experienced the great war tens of thousands of years ago, and although they hadn't cultivated the techniques of Yanxia themselves, they were somewhat familiar with them. Such terrifying divine lightning, without any protective treasure, should have obliterated Yang Chen entirely, yet here he was, miraculously still intact. It was simply unbelievable.

"Strange," Stern furrowed his brow. "Why do I sense no energy within him?"

"You're right," Poseidon's gray-blue eyes flickered with doubt. "He still has some life left in him, but it seems his cultivation has been completely destroyed."

"But that doesn't make sense," Alice interjected, pointing out, "If all his cultivation was wiped out by the divine lightning, he should be no different from an ordinary person. But his body is clearly self-repairing..."

"Self-repairing?"

They all examined Yang Chen closely and indeed noticed that, although his body was completely charred, the tissue beneath his skin was rapidly regenerating and transforming, replacing the dead cells with new ones at a visible rate.

Since he was completely naked, the process of regeneration was strikingly clear.

"What's going on? How can his body be healing when there's no trace of energy? Could there be something inside him that we can't detect?" Stern wondered aloud.

Christine, however, couldn't wait any longer. She gracefully descended to the water's surface, gently lifted Yang Chen's body with a wave of her hand, and cradled him in her arms.

As she felt the faint pulse of life in Yang Chen's body, tears welled up in Christine's eyes, and she softly chided, "Always so stubborn, now look at the trouble you've gotten yourself into."

Yang Chen lay in the arms of the blonde beauty, his face already shedding most of its burnt skin to reveal a new, pale complexion. His expression seemed peaceful, with no sign of pain.

Seeing his familiar face, Christine smiled and teased, "Not even the lightning could make you any less handsome—what rotten luck you have."

Stern and his sister landed beside her, gazing at the unconscious Yang Chen with puzzled expressions but also smiles, relieved that he had survived.

"Aphrodite, don't tell me you've fallen for Hades? What, you like your little brother fresh and tender?" Alice teased with a laugh.

Christine raised her eyebrows playfully. "Unlike you, Artemis, I'm not into sibling love."

"Hmph!" Alice wrinkled her delicate nose and snuggled closer to her brother's arm, adopting a coy and dependent posture, clearly disdainful of Christine's teasing.

Stern chuckled dryly, patting his sister's silver hair. "It seems it's just the few of us here—aside from Ares, it doesn't seem like the others have awakened yet."

"Who knows? After all, we're near Sam's country. Even if they did awaken, they might not bother coming all this way, especially with this heartless guy around. There's no point," Christine said, casting a sarcastic glance at Poseidon.

Poseidon, however, was deep in thought, staring at Yang Chen in Christine's arms, clearly puzzled by the miraculous state Yang Chen was in.

"Aphrodite, where do you plan to take Hades? You can't just send him back to Yanxia like this, can you?" Stern asked.

Christine nodded. "I'll take him to where I live and wait for him to wake up. We'll figure it out from there."

"But the person who wiped out the U.S. fleet—" Alice hesitated, unsure how to phrase her question.

"It wasn't him," Poseidon interjected this time, speaking calmly. "The way he used the laws of space is different from what we saw in the video. Plus, his demeanor doesn't match the person in the video. And if he was willing to fight me with all his might, he's not someone plotting some elaborate scheme. He knows full well he's no match for me."

"So, it wasn't him? Then who is it? How could someone look exactly like Hades and also wield the laws of space? I thought only the twelve of us were left on Earth," Stern wondered aloud, clearly confused.

Poseidon shook his head. "I don't know either."

Christine, still furious, snapped, "Neptune! What do you mean by that?! You knew it wasn't Yang Chen, yet you still beat him like this!"

Poseidon turned his head away, looking disinterested and not bothering to explain.

Stern quickly stepped in to diffuse the situation. "Aphrodite, calm down. It's been tens of thousands of years—you should know what he's like by now. Aside from Zeus and Athena, he doesn't respect anyone, as stubborn as a piece of wood. You should take Yang Chen to rest and clean up. He has no energy left in him, and it's a miracle his body is recovering. We don't want any unexpected aftereffects to arise."

To read the manga version, please click the YouTube link https://youtu.be/GnU613H6xm8