On the banks of the Giant Whale River, ninety-nine holy mountains were arranged one layer after another in a continuous line, some holy mountains were covered in ice and snow all year round, while others were covered in flames, none of which could be broken into by ordinary beings.
Each holy mountain was a path to the Phoenix Nest.
Zhang Ruochen and the others hurried forward, rushing towards the holy mountain where the Book of Merits wall was located, and soon arrived at the foot of the holy mountain.
The earth became incomparably hot, and the rocks and soil were reddish-red in colour, and their feet would make a giggling sound when they stepped on it.
The Rakshasa Princess clearly had little interest in the wall of books of merit, saying, “This holy mountain is very dangerous, and a large number of experts from the Rakshasa Clan who broke in and went in have all gone without a return. This Princess thinks that we should go and seize the treasures in the Phoenix Nest first, and then it won’t be too late to fight for the Book of Merits Wall.”
Zhang Ruochen shook his head and said, “The deeper we go, the more treacherous it will definitely be. If we can’t even seize the Book of Merits Wall, what’s the point of talking about the Phoenix Nest?”
Su Qingling stood firmly on Zhang Ruochen’s side and said, “That’s right. The Book of Merits Wall is related to the life and death of the Guanghan Realm, and it must be in our own hands. As for the Phoenix Nest, it would naturally be best if we can capture it, and even if we can’t, it’s not a big deal.”
Princess Rakshasa smiled and said no more.
“I’ll go and test the waters first, I’d like to see just how treacherous this holy mountain is?”
Bu Ji affixed more than sixty protective talismans on his body, then, stirring up his Great Sage Battle Spirit, he carefully began to climb the mountain.
In the holy mountain, a large amount of flames surged, and the higher one climbed upwards, the higher the temperature of the flames became.
However, with Bu Ji’s powerful cultivation, he was able to withstand it.
Apart from the flames, there were no other dangers encountered, it was surprisingly calm, and it didn’t take long for Bu Ji to reach the position of the mountainside.
“There doesn’t seem to be any menace, could it be because the Rakshasa Clan climbed the mountain in a different direction from us, so, that’s why they encountered the calamity?”Su Qingling said.
The Marquis of the Rakshasa Clan gathered on the southern side of the Sacred Mountain.
Zhang Ruochen and the others took a different path, and thus, appeared on the eastern side of the Sacred Mountain. They were not in the same direction and were hundreds of miles apart.
At the waist of the mountain, Bu Ji relaxed his guard, turned around, and smiled broadly at Zhang Ruochen and Su Qingling, “There is no danger in this holy mountain, so you guys hurry up and follow me ……”
However, just after uttering these words, Bu Ji’s face changed.
Because, he realised that his voice, unexpectedly, had become incomparably hoarse and old, as if it was an unfamiliar old man speaking, and hearing it in his ears, it made his scalp feel numb, and an inexplicable panic was born in his heart.
Zhang Ruochen and Su Qingling both stared with wide eyes as well, staring at Bu Ji in shock.
Only to see that Bu Ji’s face had become somewhat old, wrinkles growing on his face, and he looked to be in his fifties. Moreover, it was still continuing to grow old at a degree visible to the naked eye, and a white even grew on his head.
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen realised something and his face changed as he said, “Hurry back.”
Buji also sensed something bad and trembled in fear, then, bursting out with the fastest possible degree, he rushed down the mountain.
Even so, his longevity was still flying away, and by the time he rushed to the bottom of the mountain, he was already white, his entire body was covered in wrinkles, and his sturdy and upright body had become a little hunched over, as if he was a dying old man of eighty or ninety years old.
Su Qingling was shocked, and hurriedly assisted him, a pair of large eyes showing concern, saying, “What …… happened to you ……”
Bu Ji looked at his pair of shrivelled hands, and then at the white hanging down from his head, it was difficult to accept this fact, and with a mournful cry coming out of his mouth, he fainted.
Zhang Ruochen grabbed Buji’s wrist and probed it, then, taking out a ten thousand year old holy medicine that could renew his life, he used the Pure Destruction Divine Flame to refine the holy medicine into liquid droplets and fed it to Buji’s mouth.
Su Qingling, on the other hand, continuously injected holy qi into Progress Extreme’s vest, helping him to refine and absorb the holy medicine.
Gradually, it was only on Step Extreme’s face that he regained some blood colour.
Su Qingling was very worried and asked, “What in the world has happened …… How could this happen? How did this happen?”
Zhang Ruochen stared at Buji, who had fallen to the ground, and said, “Buji’s fleshly body is quite powerful, he has already become a Saint, and his lifespan exceeds that of an average Saint, under normal circumstances, even if he lived to be a thousand years old, it would still be quite normal. But right now, he has lost a large amount of his longevity, and the life qi in his body is almost depleted, so even if he takes the Life Renewal Sacred Pill, it is estimated that he won’t be able to live much longer.”
Su Qingling’s relationship with Buji was extremely good, and had always treated him as her elder brother, hearing such bad news, it was a little difficult to accept, and in the pupils of her eyes, a layer of water mist covered them.
“You don’t have to be so sad, as long as his heart can be tougher and not be overwhelmed by setbacks, continue to cultivate strongly. When he breaks through to the Saint King realm, his lifespan will increase greatly again, and by then, he should be able to regain his youth.”
After saying this, Zhang Ruochen’s gaze was fixed on this holy mountain in front of him, then he took a step and climbed upwards.
Princess Rakshasa was slightly surprised and said, “What are you doing?”
Su Qingling also raised her head and hurriedly went to stop Zhang Ruochen, fearing that he would also meet his doom. This Sacred Mountain was simply too bizarre, capable of devouring the longevity of cultivators, it was an absolutely forbidden place.
“There’s no need to worry about me, I’m just going to verify the conjecture in my heart.”
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes were deep, as if he already knew why Buji was aging fast, so he quickened his pace. After walking for about three miles, Zhang Ruochen stopped and felt it carefully, and indeed, he now saw that the flow of time was accelerating.
Immediately after, he hastily fell backward and retreated to the area where the time flow was normal.
Just that moment ago, Zhang Ruochen realised that he had lost at least half a month of his lifespan.
“It’s really related to time, no wonder in less than half an hour, Buji’s thousand years of longevity was exhausted.”
Zhang Ruochen opened the Heavenly Eye in his brow and observed this piece of heaven and earth, and noticed the densely-packed time inscriptions.
The entire Flame Sacred Mountain was actually a huge time formation, and the more one climbed upwards, the more exaggerated the time flow became. Any living being that intruded into it was afraid that it would be difficult to escape death.
Not killed, but die of old age.
Zhang Ruochen retreated to the bottom of the mountain and told Su Qingling and Princess Rakshasa about this.
Su Qingling was stunned and said, “First encountering a spatial grand formation and then a temporal grand formation, what kind of existence is the being who established the Phoenix Nest?”
Princess Rakshasa laughed softly, “I’ve said long ago that this holy mountain is quite treacherous and cannot be intruded upon. It’s better for us to go around and capture the treasures in the Phoenix Nest first.”
“Not necessarily.”
Zhang Ruochen gently stroked his chin, revealing a thoughtful expression, and added, “Use the Spatial Grand Transfer to move directly to the top of the mountain and take the Wall of Merit Book in the fastest possible degree. Doing so may result in a partial loss of longevity, however, for the sake of the Wall of Merit Book, it is entirely possible to put up a fight.”
If he wanted the Guanghan Realm to become the number one in the Saint Merit Battle, he would also have to seize the Merit Book Wall.
The Saint Qi in Zhang Ruochen’s body operated rapidly, mobilising the spatial power completely, and then, with a dash forward, he performed a Great Spatial Shift.
“Wow–”
In the next moment, Zhang Ruochen appeared more than ten miles away, his face changed slightly, and instead of continuing forward, he quickly retreated backwards, rushing towards the bottom of the mountain.
Retreating to the bottom of the mountain, Zhang Ruochen hurriedly checked internally and found that he had lost more than twenty years of his lifespan.
Su Qingling knew that there must have been an accident and hurriedly asked, “What’s wrong?”
Zhang Ruochen said, “With my current cultivation and spiritual strength, a single Great Spatial Shift can span two to three hundred miles. However, here, it’s only a span of more than ten miles. There are not only time inscriptions, but also spatial inscriptions in this holy mountain. This is a bit tricky!”
Princess Rakshasa said, “This holy mountain is simply impenetrable, and any living being that breaks in will be dead, so there’s no need to continue to fight to the death here. It would be wise to go and seize the Phoenix Nest’s treasure first.”
In the face of the power of time and space, Su Qingling was completely helpless, and her heart was shaken a little as she asked, “Is there another way?”
“There is.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “As long as we destroy the Time Inscription and Space Inscription in the Sacred Mountain, it is still possible to ascend to the top of the mountain.”
In Princess Rakshasa’s eyes, a brilliant aura flashed as she said, “You can destroy the time inscription?”
“It will take a lot of time, but it’s still possible to give it a try.”
Zhang Ruochen held the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword, closed his eyes, mobilised the power of time, and executed the third time sword technique, the Twelve Hours Sword Technique, and swung his sword out.
In mid-air, one of the temporal inscriptions snapped, and an ear-splitting explosion rang out.
On the southern side of the Sacred Mountain, a large number of Marquises from the Rakshasa Clan heard the sound of the explosion and flew into mid-air, looking towards the eastern side of the Sacred Mountain, and spotted Zhang Ruochen and the others’ silhouettes.
“What’s going on? Why did a human intrude into the area of the thirty-three holy mountains in the middle? Could there be another way in?”
The Sacred Arrow Marquis, one of the four First Class Marquises, flew in mid-air, his body radiating a golden splendour as his huge eye pupils stared at Zhang Ruochen.
It was that human man who had taken away his five Broken Golden Arrows.
“It’s really not simple, to be able to break in here.”
The Sacred Arrow Marquis pulled back his Golden-backed Dragon Bone Bow and shot one of the Broken Golden Arrows out.
“Swish-”
The Breaking Golden Arrow turned into a golden pillar of light, crossing hundreds of miles and rushing towards Zhang Ruochen at a hundred times the sound.
Zhang Ruochen was going all out to crack the Time Inscription, and now that the Destruction Gold Arrow was flying, he was too late to resist it, and could only stir up the body protection talisman on his body.
“Boom boom.”
The protective talisman shattered dozens of times in a row before the attacking power of the Destructive Golden Arrow was dissolved.
After the Sacred Arrow Marquis retrieved the Broken Golden Arrow, his eyes sank as he roared, “Remain half of the Marquises to continue guarding this place, and the rest of the Marquises, follow this seat to go to the eastern side of the Sacred Mountain and hunt the living beings of the Heavenly Court Realm.”
The Saints of the Shatuo Seven Realms also realised the changes in the ninety-nine Sacred Mountains, and some of the great figures in the Sacred Realm flew high into the sky and looked towards the Sacred Mountain where the Book of Merits Wall was located.
Seeing the figures of Zhang Ruochen, Su Qingling, and the Rakshasa Princess, all the Saints were slightly shocked.
How had they managed to pass through the blockade of the Rakshasa Clan and reach the bottom of that holy mountain where the Book of Merits Wall was located?
