Zhang Ruochen retrieved the Flashing Soul Sword and stabbed out with another quick thrust, passing through the gap in the claws and striking the centre of the black giant cat’s brow with a metallic clash sound, spattering out a grain of sparks.
“Boom!”
The fourth grade True Martial Treasure Artifact grade Soul Shining Sword was unexpectedly unable to break through its fleshly defence.
The black giant cat’s cultivation wasn’t strong, equivalent to the cultivation of the Yellow Extreme Realm’s Small Extreme Position. How could the defence be so terrifying?
“Haha! Although this seat’s cultivation is one minor realm weaker than yours, but this seat possesses a Vajra Unbreakable Body, superior martial arts skills, and ruthless methods, so it can completely fight across three minor realms. With my seat’s current strength, even if I were to fight a martial artist in the great circle of the Yellow Extreme Realm, I would still be able to fight to a draw. Junior Lang, suffer death! Meow!”
The black giant cat once again charged towards Zhang Ruochen, its body leaping up two metres high, opening its mouth and biting at Zhang Ruochen’s shoulder.
“Heavenly Heart Breaking Plum!”
The true qi in Zhang Ruochen’s body ran through his entire body as he stabbed out with his sword, erupting with seven sword qi.
When the Soul Flash Sword stabbed in front of the black giant cat, the seven sword qi converged into one and struck the black giant cat at the location of its chin.
The black giant cat let out another miserable cry and fell heavily to the ground, screaming, ”It hurts! It hurts this seat to death! Junior Lang, how could you be so strong? You only have the cultivation of the middle extreme position of the Yellow Extreme Realm, how can you explode with the power of the Grand Circle of the Yellow Extreme Realm?”
“You possess a powerful physique, do I not? If I were in the same realm, perhaps I would still be a few points weaker than you, but now that I am one realm higher than you, you would definitely not be my opponent.” Zhang Ruochen walked over with his sword.
The black giant cat was indeed very strong, if it was in the same realm, perhaps, Zhang Ruochen was not really its opponent. After all, it was possessed of an immortal body that was practically invulnerable to swords and spears.
When the black giant cat saw Zhang Ruochen approaching, it hurriedly said, ”Young man, this seat thinks that since neither of us can defeat the other, why should we continue to fight? Even if we continue to fight, it’s still a waste of time. Why not sit down and have a good talk?”
The black giant cat’s defence was indeed very strong, even the Soul Flash Sword couldn’t break through its fleshly defence, and if the battle continued, even if Zhang Ruochen was able to defeat it, he definitely wouldn’t be able to kill it.
Zhang Ruochen stopped and said, “If you can answer a few questions for me, I can make peace with you for the time being.”
The black giant cat sat on the ground, holding its rounded stomach and said comfortably, “Ask! This seat has known for 100,000 years in the past and 100,000 years in the future, in the heavens and on the earth, in the Brahmaputra World, there is almost nothing that this seat does not know!”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Why did Sacred Monk Sumeru seal you inside the Qiankun Divine Wood Diagram?”
“This is a long story! Back then, when this seat committed a heinous crime, Saint Monk Sumeru felt that I had committed a grave sin, so he sealed me into the Qiankun Divine Wood Diagram.” The black giant cat’s pair of large ears gently shook, and its eyes dribbled.
Zhang Ruochen said, “What exactly is the heinous sin?”
“Murdering people, slaughtering the living, scourging the earth, killing dragons for their guts, burning the sky and boiling the sea …… Well, it’s pretty much all of these!” The black giant cat said.
Zhang Ruochen stared at the black giant cat’s obese body and said, “It doesn’t look like it!”
“Right! This seat also feels that it doesn’t look like it at all, thus it can be seen that that monk was very unreasonable, placing charges on this seat indiscriminately, and also sealing this seat in the scroll world space. Ai! This seat doesn’t even know where to reason?” The black giant cat held a large belly and lay on its back, shaking its head and sighing.
Zhang Ruochen said, “People who don’t look like bad people are instead completely bad. People who don’t look like good people are sometimes capable of great bravery and righteousness.”
“This seat is just a cat, don’t think of this seat as bad …… Hey …… kid, what are you doing again?” The black giant cat said.
“With a swoosh, the black giant cat was reintroduced into the Qian Kun Divine Wood Diagram.
“Sure enough, as I guessed, the power of the Qian Kun Divine Wood Figure can suppress you. I am now the master of the Qiankun Divine Wood Diagram, and with a single movement of my mind, I can retake you back into the Painted Scroll World Space.” Zhang Ruochen squeezed the Qian Kun Divine Wood Diagram and smiled faintly.
“Youngster! You must remain calm, quickly let this seat out, this seat promises to pledge its allegiance to you, and there will be absolutely no dissent in the future. You asked this seat to catch a fish, this seat definitely wouldn’t dare to catch a rat.” The black giant cat said with some anxiety.
It had been trapped in the Qiankun Divine Wood Diagram for 100,000 years, and it was not easy to regain its freedom, so it was naturally unwilling to be taken back into the scroll again.
Zhang Ruochen no longer cared about it, placed the Qian Kun Divine Wood Diagram aside, and began to study the eight basic spatial inscriptions.
“Young boy! If you want to burn the Basic Spatial Inscriptions, you must at least cultivate your spiritual power to the twentieth rank. How old are you now, it’s impossible for you to have that strong of spiritual power! Quickly release this seat and this seat will teach you to cultivate your spiritual power.” The voice of the giant black cat came from the scroll.
“Twentieth rank? My spiritual power has already reached the thirty-second rank, and basic inscriptions, for me, are not too difficult.”
Zhang Ruochen sat down on the ground and flipped the Secret Code of Time and Space open, placing it in front of his body and studying it carefully.
“How is it possible? The mental power of an ordinary adult is only around the tenth rank, and for a teenager like you, it’s already good enough for your mental power to reach the eighth rank. Even for some people who are born with strong spiritual power, before the age of twenty, they can only reach the fifteenth rank at most. With your spiritual power, how could you possibly reach the height of the thirty-second rank?” The black giant cat said with some disbelief.
Zhang Ruochen was too lazy to pay attention to it and began to study the first basic spatial inscription, the Dot Type Inscription.
The black giant cat’s voice rang out from the scroll again, saying, “Could it be that you’ve been cultivating spiritual power since you were a child? That’s not right either! At your age, even if you have been cultivating spiritual power since you were a child, being able to reach the twentieth rank would be impressive, how could you possibly reach the height of the thirty-second rank? Junior Lang, how can you boast even more than this seat?”
For a normal basic inscription, one only needed to cultivate their spiritual energy to the fifteenth rank to have a chance of inscribing it successfully.
However, spatial basic inscriptions were very special, more complex and unstable than normal basic inscriptions, and one had to cultivate to the twentieth rank of spiritual power to be able to inscribe them.
“Wow!”
Zhang Ruochen condensed his true qi into his fingertips and pointed out with one finger, forming a point of light and trying to carve out the point-shaped inscription in the air.
More than thirty attempts were made in a row, all of which ended in failure.
“Haha! This seat told you to brag! Trying to cultivate spiritual energy to above the twentieth rank is as difficult as climbing up to heaven for ordinary martial artists. Trying to carve out a spatial foundation inscription is even less of an easy task.” The black giant cat mockingly said.
Zhang Ruochen stopped and muttered to himself, “Inscribing an inscription pattern for the first time is really still very difficult, let’s practise with spirit paper and inscription brushes first!”
When alchemists and artefact refiners first learnt about inscription patterns, they all practiced with an inscription pen on top of spirit paper. To inscribe the first inscription pattern on top of spirit paper, they all needed at least a year of practice.
Zhang Ruochen was actually trying to use his fingers to carve out inscriptions in the air for the first time, so naturally, he couldn’t possibly succeed.
Zhang Ruochen stood up, intending to go purchase an inscription brush and spirit paper.
“Young man, take this seat out with you! This seat will definitely not mess up, this seat will listen to you in everything ……”
Before the black giant cat could finish its words, Zhang Ruochen rewound the Qiankun Divine Wood Diagram, put it away in his brow, and walked out of the inner space of the Space-Time Crystal Stone.
Afterwards, Zhang Ruochen left the royal palace and travelled towards the Martial City.
Just after Zhang Ruochen left the royal palace, a palace maid immediately rushed to Gongwan, where the Queen resided, and passed the news to Han Qingluo.
“He finally left the royal palace? That’s really great! Arrange for a team of men to leave the palace with me, tonight, will be the night of the fall of a young genius.” Cold light radiated from Han Qing Luo’s eyes, and the corners of her beautiful mouth revealed some evil smiles.
……
When Zhang Ruochen arrived at the Martial Market, he travelled straight towards the direction of the Inscription Guild.
The Inscription Guild, one of the most powerful organisations in the Kunlun Realm, had an incomparably long history. The Inscription Guild had been born before the First Central Empire was even born.
Under the banner of the Inscription Guild, there were four major alliances: the Alchemist Alliance, the Artifact Refiner Alliance, the Imperial Beastmaster Alliance, and the Odd Fellow Alliance.
Only in the Inscription Guild could one purchase “Inscription Brushes” and “Spirit Paper”.
These two items were completely monopolised by the Inscription Guild and could not be purchased elsewhere.
In the Kunlun Realm, every city had a branch of the Inscription Guild. As the royal city of Yunwu County, the Inscription Guild was naturally built very grandly, almost like a castle.
Outside of the Inscription Guild, there was a constant flow of traffic and people at all times, not only martial artists, but also alchemists in green robes and shirts could be seen.
On the back of the alchemist’s robes and shirts, a dan tripod was usually embroidered.
On the back of an alchemist’s robe, a hammer was usually embroidered.
In addition to alchemists and weaponsmiths, there were also some imperial beastmasters who rode their savage beasts in a dignified manner and walked into the Inscription Guild.
A middle-aged man in an Alchemist’s robe-shirt, who looked to be in his thirties, puffed out his chest and walked proudly towards the Inscription Guild.
“Greetings to Lord Zorn Alchemist!”
Those guards standing outside the Inscription Guild all saluted at him with a look of respect in their eyes.
“Hmph!” Zorn nodded, not even looking at those guards, and walked straight into the door of the Inscription Guild.
“It’s actually Master Alchemist Zorn, it’s said that his spiritual power has already been cultivated to the twenty-sixth rank, and he’s a very powerful Second Grade Alchemist.”
“Great Master Zorn Alchemist has taken in a total of seventeen disciples, of which, eight have become First Grade Alchemists. In the King City, there are more martial artists who want to pay homage to Master Zorn Weapon Refiner than they can count.”
“I’ve heard that the requirements for Master Zorn Alchemist to accept disciples are quite high. Those whose spiritual power does not reach the twelfth rank are not accepted. Those who are older than twenty years old, not accepted.”
“How easy is it to cultivate one’s spiritual power to the twelfth rank before the age of twenty? Only those who are true geniuses can do it.”
……
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen saw two familiar silhouettes, it was none other than the Eighth Prince Zhang Ji and the daughter of the Red Cloud Sect Patriarch, Shan Xiangling.
They also came outside the Inscription Guild.
After the End of Year Examination, the position of the Eighth Prince in the Royal Palace was in tatters.
His birth mother, Consort Xiao, was sent to the Cold Palace, and at the same time, he also turned out to be the one with the lowest cultivation level among the nine princes. Under the double blow, the Eighth Prince was then devastated.
Today, he was accompanying Shan Xiangling to the Inscription Guild to pay his respects, wanting to become a disciple of Zorn’s Second Grade Alchemist.
In terms of martial talent, he was no match for Zhang Ruochen.
Thus, he wanted to surpass Zhang Ruochen and regain his position through other means.
