The hundred-day Battle of Heavenly Hunt has finally come to an end.
All participating cultivators from the ten clans have been teleported back to the Divine Mountain of Fate by the Divine Eye of All Realms. Every clan has suffered casualties, and the battle was extremely brutal.
The surviving Heavenly Slaves were also teleported back, totalling 3,456. Most of them were Half-Saints or Saints, mere stragglers with pitifully few points.
Only four Great Saint Heavenly Slaves, who had killed cultivators of the Immortal Blood Clan, managed to survive and gain their freedom.
The remaining three thousand or so Heavenly Slaves were executed on the spot. Their flesh and saint souls were divided and consumed by the cultivators of various clans, a fate worse than dying on the Heavenly Hunt battlefield.
The points data on the rhombus lens has completely vanished. No one knows the outcome of the final battle between Zhang Ruochen and Yan Wushen. All participating cultivators are anxiously awaiting news.
“The sound of a tiger’s roar and a dragon’s cry rang out, and the image projected by the Divine Eye of All Realms shattered. What on earth happened?”
“Why were there sounds of a tiger’s roar and a dragon’s cry on the Heavenly Hunt battlefield?”
“Could a deity have intervened in the Battle of Heavenly Hunt? At that moment, I sensed an overwhelmingly powerful divine aura. If the Divine Eye of All Realms hadn’t teleported me away in time, I’m afraid my ghost body would have been shattered by the roar.” A Great Saint from the Ghost Clan, who had just entered the Immortal Realm, spoke with lingering fear.
At that time, he was stationed at the Ghost Clan’s home star.
A Great Saint from the Green Deer Temple quietly asked Lan Ying, “Senior Brother Lan Ying, the Battle of Heavenly Hunt is over. Why haven’t Zhang Ruochen and Yan Wushen returned?”
Lan Ying smirked and said, “Something unexpected indeed happened on the Heavenly Hunt battlefield. I’m afraid those two won’t be coming back!”
His words were overheard by many cultivators.
They rushed forward to ask for details, but Lan Ying, with his arms crossed and a cold, mocking expression, ignored them. Apart from the cultivators of the Green Deer Temple, in this era, he only respected a handful of individuals like Zhang Ruochen and Yan Wushen. Other cultivators, in his view, weren’t even worthy of speaking to him.
The Great Saints of the Immortal Blood Clan gathered together, hearing Lan Ying’s words. Their expressions grew heavy, their anxiety surpassing that of any other clan.
Only Moyin remained calm, refusing to believe that anything could have happened to Zhang Ruochen. After all, if Zhang Ruochen had fallen on the Heavenly Hunt battlefield, she would have died as well.
Of course, this secret was unknown to most cultivators.
In fact, the vast majority didn’t even know she was a parasitic plant cultivated by Zhang Ruochen.
Lan Xi, Hong Zhouzhen, and Shentu Yunkong, who had accompanied Zhang Ruochen to the Heavenly Hunt Banquet, were still at the Fate Stream. When they heard the various rumours about Zhang Ruochen, they felt as if the sky had collapsed.
In the Hell Realm, without Zhang Ruochen’s protection, they might immediately become blood food.
At that moment, a Rakshasa Clan cultivator passed by, gnawing on a Heavenly Slave’s thigh.
They were all tense, realising for the first time how crucial Zhang Ruochen was to them and how fragile their own lives were.
“Zhang Ruochen, you mustn’t die. If you die, what will we do?” Zhouzhen muttered bitterly.
Lan Xi instinctively looked up at the sky.
There was nothing in the sky.
But over the past hundred days of the Battle of Heavenly Hunt, she had witnessed, through the sky’s projected images, Zhang Ruochen create miracle after miracle, step by step reaching the pinnacle of the Heavenly Hunt battlefield.
That man seemed to possess boundless strength, never to fall.
“He shouldn’t fall on the final day,” Lan Xi thought to herself.
…
It felt as if he had slept for a thousand years. Zhang Ruochen’s burning, pained body was soothed by a cool force. The pain vanished, replaced by an immensely refreshing sensation.
Zhang Ruochen opened his eyes and found himself lying on a white sandy beach.
The sun in the sky was bright, yet its light wasn’t harsh. It bathed him in warmth, as if he were immersed in a divine spring, his limbs and body completely relaxed.
In the distance, the sea was a pristine blue, its waves rippling gently. Seabirds swooped to catch fish, and the scenery was vibrant and full of life, utterly unlike the dark and deathly environment of the Hell Realm.
Beside him stood a hundred-metre-tall giant tree with lush green leaves and dense, drooping branches, like a green umbrella. The leaves emitted specks of crystalline light, resembling white rain.
Sitting up, Zhang Ruochen looked puzzled and muttered to himself, “Where am I?”
“This is the divine realm of the God of Fortune!” a voice answered.
Zhang Ruochen turned to see a roughly five-metre-long white tiger lying beside him. Its head was massive, its rear plump, a striking figure.
Oddly, it had no fur, its skin as white as jade, with a gleaming golden character for “burial” on its forehead.
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes narrowed. He stood up cautiously and asked, “Senior, is that you?”
“It’s me, of course it’s me.”
The Burial Gold White Tiger stood, shaking off the sand.
When Zhang Ruochen first saw the Burial Gold White Tiger at the Ghost Clan’s home star, it exuded terrifying might, its body enormous, its head alone filling his field of vision.
Now, it was only slightly larger than an ordinary tiger, its aura completely restrained.
Its only distinctive feature was its lack of fur.
Zhang Ruochen’s expression shifted as he said, “This is the divine realm of the God of Fortune?”
He carefully observed his surroundings.
This didn’t look like a divine realm at all.
It was indistinguishable from a real world.
Releasing his spiritual power to probe, he couldn’t sense the world’s boundaries.
The more he explored, the more astonished he became.
This divine realm contained not only mountains and oceans but also various living creatures. Some powerful beings had even reached the cultivation level of Great Saints in the Immortal Realm.
Whether there were even stronger beings further out in the world was unknown.
It was also unclear whether these creatures were captured by the God of Fortune or naturally born here. If the latter, Zhang Ruochen had to admit that the God of Fortune’s cultivation had reached an unfathomable level, a being capable of creating worlds.
He was the creator of this world.
“Not good. A deity can know everything in their divine realm. Could the God of Fortune have already accessed some of my memories or read my thoughts?” Zhang Ruochen’s heart grew uneasy.
Facing a terrifying powerhouse he couldn’t comprehend, Zhang Ruochen struggled to stay calm.
The Burial Gold White Tiger’s voice sounded in his mind, “Don’t worry. You’ve fused with my Extreme Burial Gold Qi. With my protection, no deity can read your memories or thoughts, not even a God of Fortune.”
Zhang Ruochen stared at it, his mood worsening.
Great, with this tiger around, he could forget about keeping any secrets.
The Burial Gold White Tiger said, “Relax, I won’t read your thoughts all the time.”
If you say you won’t, why are you still doing it?
The Burial Gold White Tiger continued, “If you don’t speak, I have to read your thoughts. Besides, this is the God of Fortune’s divine realm, and you seem to want to keep some secrets. You can’t speak, so I have to read your thoughts to communicate with you.”
Zhang Ruochen was speechless, tempted to empty his mind completely.
The Burial Gold White Tiger said, “No need to be so tense. You’ve passed my test and are now my guide. Our fates are intertwined, so you don’t need to guard against me.”
“You’re a deity of the Hell Realm,” Zhang Ruochen thought.
The Burial Gold White Tiger said, “No, I don’t belong to the Hell Realm. I come from the Ancient Divine Nest.”
Though Zhang Ruochen had long suspected this, hearing the Burial Gold White Tiger confirm it still shocked him.
The Ancient Divine Nest was one of the universe’s most mysterious places, a relic of prehistoric civilisation.
Zhang Ruochen relaxed slightly and finally spoke, asking, “You said I’m your guide. What does that mean?”
“Since you’re awake, come with me to meet the God of Fortune. He will tell you what a guide is. Get on my back, and I’ll take you to him.”
Zhang Ruochen hesitated and said, “That… doesn’t seem right. Why don’t you lead the way, Senior, and I’ll fly behind you?”
Joking aside, this was a divine beast from the Ancient Divine Nest, an existence on par with the deities of the Hell Realm.
Even deities wouldn’t dare use it as a mount.
A mere Great Saint like him wouldn’t dare either.
“With your cultivation, you’d fly for ten years and still not get there. Stop dawdling and get on,” the Burial Gold White Tiger said.
Seeing it was serious, Zhang Ruochen took a deep breath, no longer hesitating. He leapt onto its back.
It was surreal. A Great Saint riding a divine beast.
The Burial Gold White Tiger glowed with a serene white light, transforming into a beam that shot toward a certain direction in the divine realm, crashing into the void. The point of impact revealed intricate rule patterns.
They flickered and then vanished.
“My injuries seem to have healed,” Zhang Ruochen said.
The Burial Gold White Tiger, guessing his thoughts, said, “Don’t worry so much. Half of your injuries were healed by me. The God of Fortune didn’t probe you and doesn’t know you possess the Heart of Truth.”
Zhang Ruochen felt dizzy, tempted to jump off the tiger’s back.
He truly had no secrets left.
After a long while, Zhang Ruochen calmed himself, thinking, “Stay calm. It can read my thoughts because I fused with its Extreme Burial Gold Qi. Other deities surely can’t do this.”
“You’re right. That’s exactly it. Our relationship, in some ways, is closer and more equal than a human marriage. You should absolutely trust me,” the Burial Gold White Tiger said.
Zhang Ruochen gave a wry smile, thinking, “If our relationship is so close and equal, why can only you read my thoughts, and I can’t read yours?”
“Because your cultivation and spiritual power aren’t as high as mine. If one day you surpass me, you can naturally turn the tables,” the Burial Gold White Tiger said.
There was no way to argue with that.
Zhang Ruochen stopped dwelling on these tangled thoughts and asked, “You said half of my injuries were healed by you. What about the other half?”
“The other half, of course, was you. Your self-healing ability is extraordinary. I suspect even if you were torn to pieces, your body could reassemble itself, though it would take an immense amount of time,” the Burial Gold White Tiger said.
Zhang Ruochen asked no more, focusing instead on how to empty his mind and stop thinking altogether.
Having a tiger constantly reading his thoughts was no different from running naked through the streets.
“If you feel uncomfortable or resistant to me reading your memories, from now on, I’ll stop,” the Burial Gold White Tiger said.
Before Zhang Ruochen could say “good,” it continued, “But I read your thoughts to understand you better. Only then can we get along well in the future.”
“Let’s go meet the God of Fortune first.”
While saying this, Zhang Ruochen’s mind was on how to decline the role of “guide.”
The Burial Gold White Tiger seemed easygoing, even helping heal his injuries and serving as his mount, almost like a naive sweetheart. But Zhang Ruochen had too many secrets he didn’t want others to know. He absolutely couldn’t keep it by his side.
Ideally, he would have the Blood Empress extract the Extreme Burial Gold Qi from his body, severing all ties with the Burial Gold White Tiger.
…
The Burial Gold White Tiger brought Zhang Ruochen to an ocean in the divine realm.
Yan Wushen stood atop a green dragon, already waiting on the sea’s surface. Seeing Zhang Ruochen arrive, he first showed a look of surprise, then gave a knowing smile.
The Burial Gold White Tiger landed on the sea, its four paws treading water as if on solid ground.
Zhang Ruochen closely examined the green dragon beneath Yan Wushen, a look of realisation crossing his face. He finally understood where the ten dragon souls within him came from.
He clasped his fists and said, “Thank you, Senior.”
“I saw you had fused with the Extreme Burial Gold Qi and were likely chosen as the tiger’s guide, so I lent a hand. In truth, with your physique and willpower, you might have overcome that trial on your own,” the green dragon said.
Clouds churned in the sky.
Layers of white clouds descended toward the sea, forming a majestic, gaseous face. Its aura made Zhang Ruochen and Yan Wushen, both Great Saints, feel an immense pressure, urging them to kneel and worship.
But they were exceptional individuals and held their ground, refusing to kneel.
“Greetings, God of Fortune,” Yan Wushen said, bowing first.
Zhang Ruochen clasped his fists and said, “Greetings, God of Fortune.”
The gaseous face of the God of Fortune spoke in a resounding voice, “Very good. Both of you are exceptional and qualified to represent the Hell Realm as guides for two prehistoric divine seeds from the Ancient Divine Nest.”
Zhang Ruochen immediately spoke, “God of Fortune, may I decline being a guide?”
Yan Wushen looked surprised, glancing sideways.
He knew Zhang Ruochen was proud, but to reject the role of guide for a prehistoric divine seed? That was too dismissive of such a being.
Did he not know that many deities longed to be the guide for the Burial Gold White Tiger but never got the chance?
Before the God of Fortune could ask, the Burial Gold White Tiger spoke first, “God of Fortune, I have a secret matter to report concerning the cultivator on my back.”
Zhang Ruochen’s expression stiffened.
Really? This tiger has no principles. Just because I don’t want to be your guide, you’re turning on me already?
Zhang Ruochen knew the Burial Gold White Tiger could read his thoughts, but whether it could access his memories was uncertain.
If it could read his memories, that would be a massive problem, implicating many others.
It probably could, given its spiritual power far surpassed his. While he was unconscious, his mental defences were low, and it likely had done whatever it wanted with him.
What a beast.
He thought it was a naive sweetheart, but it turned out to be a scheming manipulator.
