Chi Kunlun and Chi Kongle’s combat strength was truly exceptional, capable of taking on a group single-handedly in the same realm.
If they weren’t so young, with their understanding of saintly techniques and paths far inferior to Shang Ziyan’s, they might have done more than just block twenty-three of his strikes.
The crimson saint sword in Shang Ziyan’s hand, named the “Crimson Child Sword,” was a rather unique ancient divine relic.
Forged from an exotic demonic iron unearthed from an ancient mine, it had already developed innate sentience and craved the taste of blood.
The more blood it absorbed, the stronger the exotic demonic iron became.
This trait bore a striking resemblance to the Blood-Dripping Sword wielded by Empress Chi Yao, forged from a body of divine creation.
The only difference was that the exotic demonic iron particularly relished the blood of newborn infants.
This was precisely why it was called the “Crimson Child Sword.”
The term “Crimson Child” referred to a newborn baby.
The sword’s previous owner had been a fallen demon god of the Paradise Realm, who used the blood of 88,880,000 newborn infants to nurture the Crimson Child Sword to its current grade.
It was said that to refine the Crimson Child Sword into a supreme saint weapon, a staggering 888,880,000 infants’ blood would be required.
Due to its extraordinary nature, the Crimson Child Sword possessed a rather eerie power.
The sword qi invaded Chi Kunlun and Chi Kongle’s bodies through their wounds, wreaking havoc on their physical constitutions.
Divine light emanated from Chi Kunlun’s body, while multicoloured brilliance radiated from Chi Kongle’s. Their True God Body and Five Elements Chaos Body seemed on the verge of collapse.
“If Zhang Ruochen were still alive, you two might have been of some use. Since he’s dead, I’ll send you on your way!”
Shang Ziyan shook his head lightly, raising the Crimson Child Sword…
“Hmm?”
Sensing a flicker of life force, Shang Ziyan glanced towards Zhang Ruochen and the lotus atop the Buddha statue, a puzzled look crossing his face as he muttered, “Was that an illusion?”
“Swish, swish.”
At that moment, the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady unleashed two red ribbons inscribed with countless patterns, wrapping them around Chi Kunlun and Chi Kongle, pulling them to safety.
She then raised the Confucian Ancestor’s Saint Book, conjuring characters the size of winnowing baskets that surged towards Shang Ziyan.
Shang Ziyan, intrigued by the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady, had no intention of killing her. He held the Crimson Child Sword horizontally, flicking his finger lightly against the blade.
“Bang.”
A resonant clang erupted.
Intricate, mystical patterns emerged on the sword’s surface, unleashing a wave of crimson heavenly fire tinged with faint divine power. The two fused, transforming into countless infant phantoms that clashed fiercely with the characters of the Confucian Ancestor’s Saint Book.
The sound of infants crying mingled with the booming clashes of battle, echoing throughout the Sumeru Dojo.
“Whoosh!”
Shang Ziyan didn’t linger in a stalemate with the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady, his figure flashing as he flew towards the top of the Buddha statue.
A large number of Paradise Realm Saint Kings were still suppressed within Zhang Ruochen’s silver tome, and no matter what, they had to be rescued.
Moreover, Shang Ziyan possessed an acute innate spiritual sense, instinctively feeling that the lotus was an extraordinary treasure. Perhaps Zhang Ruochen, lacking the necessary excellence, had failed to gain its approval, leading to his current fate.
As the leader of the Merit Temple, Shang Ziyan believed that with his destiny and talent, any rare treasure would naturally recognise him as its master.
Shattering the infant phantoms, the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady lifted her snowy neck, gazing upward with disbelief, “Why isn’t the lotus rejecting Shang Ziyan? Could it… have emerged just to await his plucking? How can Shang Ziyan’s destiny be so formidable?”
“Swish, swish.”
As Shang Ziyan drew closer to the lotus, the silver roots entwining the Buddha statue glowed even brighter.
All the silver light converged towards the lotus.
Seeing this, the kings of the Paradise Realm grew ecstatic.
“The lotus is shining brilliantly, it must be acknowledging Young Master Ziyan as its master.”
“Only a true prodigy of the heavens can claim a spiritual treasure of the world. How laughable that Zhang Ruochen overestimated himself, thinking he could pluck it, only to lose his life in vain.”
“The lotus’s light spans thousands of miles, it must be a marvel of heaven and earth.”
…
Suddenly, an unexpected change occurred.
The dazzling radiance within the lotus surged rapidly into Zhang Ruochen’s body.
His withered frame, like a dry tree in spring, quickly regained vitality. His skin plumped up, his white hair turned black again.
In the end, Zhang Ruochen’s body shimmered with flowing light, exuding a potent life force, its radiant glow enveloping the entire Sumeru Dojo.
Shang Ziyan was clearly startled, abandoning the lotus and shifting his focus. He channelled saint qi into the Crimson Child Sword, dragging a brilliant red sword light towards Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes regained their lustre, and he raised an arm, striking out with a palm.
As his hand moved, the powers of the Fire God Bracers and Fire God Gauntlets erupted, clashing with the Crimson Child Sword.
“Bang.”
Firelight exploded.
A tremendous energy radiated outward.
Shang Ziyan was flung backwards, crashing into the ground, leaving the earth pockmarked with ragged craters.
Atop the Buddha statue, Zhang Ruochen’s body merely swayed slightly before stabilising.
Zhang Ruochen glanced at his palm, murmuring, “My blood circulated through the lotus too, and upon returning to my body, it seems to have significantly enhanced my physical strength.”
The saintly rules had all flowed back into his qi sea, reforming into a Heaven-Reaching River. Their number reached 430,000, more than doubling.
The increase in quantity was secondary, the key was that both his time rules and space rules now approached 5,000 each.
Time and space paths were notoriously difficult to comprehend. Before this, Zhang Ruochen had spent countless time and effort to grasp just over 200 of each.
The scarcity of time and space rules had long hindered his cultivation progress.
With the lotus’s aid, this issue had been vastly alleviated.
“My cultivation should have reached the Five-Step Saint King realm, and I’m not far from Six-Step,” Zhang Ruochen said, a slight smile tugging at his lips.
A Four-Step Saint King typically had around 100,000 saintly rules.
A Five-Step Saint King had about 300,000.
A Six-Step Saint King had around 500,000.
As for Seven-Step Saint King, the leap was immense, requiring at least a million saintly rules to reach that realm.
In the Sumeru Dojo, all eyes turned to the figure atop the Buddha statue, each filled with astonishment.
A man who had died had come back to life?
Shang Ziyan stood at the bottom of a dust-filled crater, his brows furrowed, the hand gripping the sword trembling slightly, his five fingers aching.
In that last clash, he had been utterly outmatched.
The resurrected Zhang Ruochen had grown even stronger than before.
“Perhaps only by unleashing all three corpses can I defeat him,” Shang Ziyan mused inwardly.
In cultivating the *Three Corpses Refining the Dao*, Shang Ziyan had forged three corpses: the “Prime Corpse” wielding the Five-Coloured Merit Stele, the “Flame Corpse” wielding the Crimson Child Sword, and the “Frost Corpse” wielding the Ten Thousand Refinements Tower.
“That lotus must be an unparalleled treasure.”
The Prime Corpse and Frost Corpse rushed over, joining the Flame Corpse.
The three Shang Ziyans simultaneously launched their attacks towards Zhang Ruochen atop the Buddha statue, aiming to seize the lotus.
Zhen Miao and Xiao Hei, who had faced the Prime Corpse, and Xue Wuye and the Earth-Standing Monk, who had battled the Frost Corpse, were still too far away to intervene.
Below the Buddha statue, the Nine Heavens Mysterious Lady raised the Confucian Ancestor’s Saint Book, millions of characters flying from its pages.
But those characters were instantly shattered by the Five-Coloured Merit Stele, the Ten Thousand Refinements Tower, and the Crimson Child Sword.
The three formidable forces bore down on Zhang Ruochen.
Unperturbed, Zhang Ruochen bent down, plucked the lotus, and infused it with saint qi and space rules.
From the twelve petals of the lotus surged brilliant light, accompanied by streams of space rules that flew outward, scattering across the ground.
The space inscriptions left by Saint Monk Sumeru within the Sumeru Dojo emerged, crisscrossing the ground and sky like a spider’s web.
Through the lotus, Zhang Ruochen could control these space inscriptions.
“Stop.”
Zhang Ruochen uttered a single word.
In that instant, the space within the Sumeru Dojo froze. The Five-Coloured Merit Stele, Ten Thousand Refinements Tower, and Crimson Child Sword, charging with ferocious momentum, halted midair, mere zhang from Zhang Ruochen.
“Return.”
With a wave of his hand, a spatial storm materialised, forming circular shockwaves that sent the Five-Coloured Merit Stele, Ten Thousand Refinements Tower, and Crimson Child Sword hurtling back.
“Boom!”
The Prime Corpse, Flame Corpse, and Frost Corpse of Shang Ziyan each darted away at radiant speeds, evading the counterattack.
But the Paradise Realm kings weren’t so fortunate. Over a dozen perished in this wave of assault, with countless others injured.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Your reaction speed is impressive, let’s see if you can keep it up next time.”
The lotus once again radiated dazzling light.
The space within the Sumeru Dojo trembled slightly, spawning one spatial vortex after another.
Shang Ziyan’s expression shifted drastically as he roared, “Kings of the Paradise Realm, retreat from the Sumeru Dojo immediately!”
The Paradise Realm kings weren’t fools. They saw that Zhang Ruochen, having mastered the lotus, could wield the space inscriptions left by Saint Monk Sumeru, rendering him virtually invincible.
As they scrambled to flee the dojo, spatial rifts erupted from the vortices.
“Swish, swish.”
Each rift was only palm-sized, but their numbers were vast.
The sounds of tearing and screams reverberated through the Sumeru Dojo.
In the span of a single breath, over a hundred Paradise Realm Saint Kings’ corpses plummeted to the ground, transforming this sacred Buddhist dojo into a bloody, fear-laden slaughterhouse of carnage.
Shang Ziyan’s Flame Corpse was struck by a spatial rift, a bowl-sized bloody hole piercing through its chest.
The Frost Corpse was hit by three rifts, half its skull severed, brain matter oozing out.
Only the Prime Corpse remained unscathed.
The tricolour treasure armour on the Prime Corpse, combined with the Five-Coloured Merit Stele in its grasp, could withstand spatial forces. The palm-sized rifts closed automatically before reaching it.
Thanks to the stele’s unique power, Shang Ziyan managed to shield a group of Paradise Realm Saint Kings, escaping the Sumeru Dojo.
Gazing at Zhang Ruochen atop the Buddha statue from afar, even the Saint Kings couldn’t suppress their trembling. Even if it cost their lives, they wouldn’t dare step back into the Sumeru Dojo now.
