Chris stood on the edge of the big crater, bleeding all over his body.

When the cultivation base of a cultivator reached the sixth level, the heavenly energy in the body of the cultivator would have reached a certain phase which was enough to activate the cultivator's last skill - self-destruction!

The power of self-destruction was extremely vast, definitely surpassing the power of the strongest blow of any elemental power cultivator.

Chris Crowell had just reached the late stage of the seventh order, and the power of Jackson's self-destruction was almost comparable to the full-strength blow of a master of the late stage of Great Perfection. So, it was conceivable how powerful this self-destruction was.

Once a cultivator decided to self-destruct, the opponent would never see it coming until it was too late. However, nobody would chose to self-destruct unless it was totally necessary. After all, self-destruction meant death.

Chris underestimated the belief in Jackson's heart - protecting the emperor at all cost. So he didn't guard against self-destruction at all. Nevertheless, he had been in the late seventh order for a long time, very close to the Great Perfection, so his speed was quite fast, and he still managed to escape.

Yet, the scope of the self-destruction severely injured him, and his true combat effectiveness was now temporarily lost. But he was alive, although sober. Whereas, Jackson had lost his life forever and would never come back to life.

Catoril closed his eyes, and two crystal tears flowed from the corners of his eyes, streaked down across his face, and onto the ground.

Jackson followed him for more than ten years, and although they were always based on just leader and follower, Catoril always regarded Jackson as a brother. Now that Jackson was dead, he felt like he had lost a brother, a real brother.

"Kill Chris!" Catoril uttered, opening his eyes. There was no sadness in his eyes, but only a kind of deadly coldness.

There was a rumble in the underground, and then the surface ground sank underneath. Dozens of figures came flying out of it. These people were dressed in golden armor. They wore golden masks on their faces, and held golden war blades in their hands. The golden primordial energy filled their bodies, and they appeared to have been fused together with this essence.

There was an unrest in all direction. Nobody had seen these dozens of people before. Judging from the aura emanating from these people, all of them were seventh-order masters.

There were so many seventh-order masters in the royal family that the nobles felt their hearts could no longer bear the shock of surprise. They knew that the Asian-American Empire had solid backbone, but in their opinion, it was only a little more than other empires.

Under normal circumstances, in kingdoms like the Asian-American Empire, there were ten to fifteen seventh-order masters in the royal family. According to the estimates of the nobles, there were at most, two dozens of seventh-order masters in the imperial family of the Asian-American Empire.

But here alone, there were forty or fifty of seventh-order masters present. These people were probably there to ensure the emperor's safety at any time. The heritage of the Asian-American Empire was definitely more than they thought. If it was calculated in this way, the seventh-order masters of the Royal Lock of the Asian-American Empire were definitely more than one hundred, or even more.

If there were so many seventh-order strong masters in the imperial family of the Asian-American Empire, could there be more higher ranked cultivators than they previously estimated? The nobles couldn't help but wonder.

Dozens of seventh-order masters turned their focus on Chris at the same time without any fanfare. Their murderous intent was undisguised and did not need to be expressed in words.

"It seems that what the hall master said was true, the Asian-American Empire is really formidable." Chris murmured, nodding his head.

In the next second, a golden light appeared where Chris stood, exploding outwards, but Chris figure had vanished. He reappeared thirty meters away, sneering at the dozens of seventh-order masters.

The scope of the attack from the golden seventh-order masters was not massive in size but fatal in power. If the Templar Knight had stayed longer and was hit by the light-explosion, he could have lost his life. Especially now that he was seriously injured, it would have been impossible for him to resist the attack, even in his peak condition. After all, this was a joint strike of dozens of seventh-order masters!

"Do you think we are also few in numbers and easy to bully?" Chris teased.

Then, dozens of powerful Templar Knights emerged from the forest and stood with the dozen or so Templar Squires just now, moving quickly on their feet.

The golden royals had no knowledge of what the Templars were doing, tut one thing was certain, if they were allowed to complete their action, it would definitely be a bad thing for the Asian-American Empire. The seventh-order masters of the Asian-American Empire knew that the actions of the Templars had to be disrupted.

A huge golden crescent moon formed in the air, and with a powerful momentum, it went straight towards the Templar Knights.

Just as the golden crescent moon was about to reach the Templars, a white light suddenly lit up around the Templars. The white light quickly grew larger, eventually forming a translucent shield that protected the Templars.

"Hehe, your speed is too slow!" Chris's laughter came from inside the shield. He took out a small bottle from his space ring, pulled a pill out of it, swallowed it, and quickly circulated the healing energy.

"Heavenly formation?" Catoril asked in surprise.

However, Chris didn't answer him. He just said to the Templars. "Start the Divine Radiance formation."

Every Templar's body was shrouded in white light. A white beam of light stretched out, connecting the two adjacent Templars together.

It turned out to be a complex hexagram formation.

Dozens of seventh-order masters attacked the shield. However, no matter how hard they attacked, it seemed to have no effect. No impact at all. With each attack, only ripples appear on the shield.

"Let's attack together in formation." One of the masters shouted loudly.

Everyone nodded, and the golden heavenly energy on their bodies became thicker and condensed together. A huge golden sword appeared above the heads of these masters.

In a swift motion, the sword slowly descended. As the speed of the descent was getting faster and faster, the intent of the blade grew darker. The sword collided with the shield, resulting in a deafening impact. The shield shook violently, and strong ripples appeared on it, but it still didn't break.

"Attack again!" The man shouted again, and the sword slowly rose and fell again.

One strike, two strikes, three strikes... The shield shook more and more violently, and the ripples became more and more stronger. When the battle blade struck the shield for the tenth time, there was a sound of broken glass, and the shield shattered into pieces.

The golden sword took advantage of the momentum, and continued downward with great power.

Everyone's eyes widened. It was time to kill the Templars.

But suddenly, the giant sword stopped. A sharp-looking item blocked the golden sword descent, preventing it from slashing the Templars.

The fragments of the shield had disappeared, and everyone could see the sharp item - the tip of a massive spear.

"Spear of Judgment!" Chris shouted loudly.

The white spear thrust upward, and the golden sword was forced back.

"You have been practicing the golden battle sword formation together for a long time. Naturally, it is easy to attack together. If you can do it, can't we, the Templars, do it also? Not only can we do it, but we can do it better than you!" Chris's voice was full of pride as he waved his palm.

Small rays of light appeared around the beam of light connecting the Templars, revolving around the beam, and then, the speed of the Judgment Spear suddenly accelerated, as if an invisible giant threw the Judgment Spear upwards.

The golden sword trembled, and then it dimmed and gradually dissipated.

The golden sword actually dissipated?

The dozens of seventh-order masters vomited blood at the same time. If one took off their helmets, one would see that all of them had incredible expressions on their faces.

Despite being seventh-order masters, they were no match for the Templars. 

The eyes of the nobles showed despair. However, it was not over yet. The Judgment Spear turned in the air and charged directly at Emperor Catoril.

We're done! The nobles had only this idea in their minds after seeing that the Spear of Judgment heading towards Catoril.

Suddenly, a white figure appeared in front of Catoril, trying to block the spear. The nobles were taken aback. This white figure was actually Joey.

At this time, Joey looked extremely terrifying. His hair had turned white, his face was pale, and his eyes were also white. What's even more strange was that there were bloody tears on his face.

However, could this stop the spear of judgment? This was the combined force of dozens of seventh-order masters. Certainly not.

"Joey, get out of the way!" Emperor Catoril shouted.

"No, Joey." Zoriya rushed towards Joey in a frenzy.

But it was too late, the spear of judgment had already hit Joey and bore through his body. The moment his body was pierced, Joey didn't feel any pain or ache, only an indescribable comfortable feeling.

*Father, I'm sorry, your son couldn't avenge you. I can only come to accompany you in the afterlife.* This was Joey's last consciousness, after that, he sank into endless darkness.

Emperor Catoril, Zoriya, Earl Clay, little Eve, and other nobles were all stunned as Joey's body slowly leaned backwards and dropped to the ground. His scattered white hair, pale face, white eyes, and bloody tears on his face gave him an otherworldly appearance, but his body was rigid and lifeless.

Joey was dead.