The instant he stepped into the Xingmen Fukun Grand Array, Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor felt the world spin. Spatial pressure surged from all directions, forcing his divine realm world to contract inward relentlessly.
“Old thing, you think a mere spatial array can scheme against me? I will cut you down first!”
Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor erupted with torrents of divine qi, steadying himself. The palm pressing on Zhang Ruochen’s shoulder pulsed with blood inscriptions, unleashing power enough to tear space itself.
Bang!
Zhang Ruochen’s shoulder shattered. Blood gushed forth. An entire arm was brutally ripped away.
Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor clutched the dripping limb and stared at Zhang Ruochen, who had crossed a single step and already fled far off. His eyes narrowed slightly in surprise. Who would have thought a spiritual-strength god could react so swiftly?
Under normal circumstances, that strike should have been fatal.
Pain flared violently from the wound, yet Zhang Ruochen seemed utterly unconcerned. He raised his right hand overhead, releasing spiritual strength to activate the Xingmen Fukun Grand Array.
Countless array inscriptions emerged within the divine spatial formation, coalescing overhead into a dazzling starry sky.
Xingmen meant “to guard”.
Kun was one of the eight trigrams.
Qian was heaven, Kun was earth.
Fukun meant to suppress the earth.
As the array began to revolve, the spatial compression upon Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor intensified. Even more terrifying, the starry sky above condensed star after star into a colossal star gate.
The star gate had yet to descend, but Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor already felt suffocating pressure.
“Spatial divine array, one of the Nine Yin Evasions, the Gate of Fukun.”
Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor clenched his teeth, resisting the crushing space while slowly raising his blood blade.
Billions of rule divine inscriptions burst from his body.
After nearly a hundred thousand years of cultivation, both the quantity of rule inscriptions and the depth of divine qi within him far surpassed Wuma Jiuxing by an unknown margin. Even though Wuma Jiuxing had grasped the profound meaning of the blade path, the gap in cultivation was simply unbridgeable.
Whoosh!
The blood blade cleaved through space, severing array inscriptions.
It even sliced apart the rules of heaven and earth, turning the space around Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor into a domain of forbidden dao.
Forbidden dao meant no heavenly rules, no array inscriptions, no external forces whatsoever.
Only himself.
“Roar!”
Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor bellowed. The divine sound shattered Zhang Ruochen’s eardrums.
His originally towering frame swelled madly within the sea-of-blood divine realm world at his feet. Soon he transformed into a blood-haired demonic giant over six hundred zhang tall.
When he exhaled, blood qi became long rivers of blood.
When he inhaled, heaven and earth quaked. The spatial divine array itself seemed on the verge of collapse.
“Old fellow, behold my blade. Blood War Across the Ninth Heaven!”
The mountain-like divine body of Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor blazed with light brighter than the sun. Veins like flood dragons writhed across his skin.
One slash rose to meet the heavens!
The momentum of the blade and the density of divine power far exceeded his previous strike within the forbidden dao domain.
Zhang Ruochen remained unflustered and uttered two calm words. “Suppress him.”
The star gate fully condensed and descended from the firmament. Ten thousand li tall, it was formed from countless stars.
The blade qi Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor had unleashed was instantly pulverised by the star gate. His six-hundred-zhang divine frame was likewise suppressed, plummeting toward the abyss within the spatial array.
“Break for me!”
“Fight!”
…
Pinned beneath the star gate, Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor roared endlessly, unleashing every trump card he possessed, yet he could not budge the gate even slightly.
Zhang Ruochen flew atop the star gate, retrieved his severed left arm, and reattached it. “Though the inscriptions of this Xingmen Fukun Grand Array have dimmed considerably over time, suppressing you presents no difficulty.”
“You cannot kill me! Yan Shen, Jialin Nan, and Kailan Feili must already sense something amiss. They will soon breach this place. Then it will be your doom,” Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor’s resentful voice echoed from beneath the star gate.
“You believe I cannot kill you?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
Though suppressed by the star gate, Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor’s sea-of-blood divine realm world still endured, wrapping him like a gigantic blood cocoon. Supreme power from his blood blade transformed into a winding blade river hundreds of li long, guarding the cocoon.
His cold, fearless laughter rang out from within.
It was little wonder he felt no fear. When Zhang Ruochen had used the stone cauldron to refine and slay Wuma Jiuxing, it had still taken considerable time.
Meanwhile, Yan Shen, Jialin Nan, and Kailan Feili could attack at any moment and destroy the Xingmen Fukun Grand Array.
Boom!
Space shuddered.
A sword beam like a river of stars pierced through the spatial array into this region, passing over Zhang Ruochen’s head.
Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor’s laughter grew louder. “They have already begun their assault. With this greatly weakened Xingmen Fukun Grand Array, you dream of both suppressing me and stopping them? Delusional, old thing. Hand over the Heavenly Venerable’s Treasure Gauze at once, and later I shall grant you a swift death.”
“I had intended to grant you a swift death, but the situation no longer permits it, it seems.”
Zhang Ruochen sighed, then produced a bronze coffin.
The coffin opened. A cloud of black insects poured out and swarmed toward the blood cocoon beneath the star gate.
The cocoon was devoured bit by bit, shrinking rapidly.
No matter how Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor commanded his supreme blood blade to slash, he could not halt them. Their defences were formidable; only a direct strike from a supreme sacred artefact could kill them.
“No! What are these things…”
Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor could no longer laugh. His voice turned to terror.
He did not recognise them as God-Eating Insects.
After absorbing divine blood from the dark blood river of the Desolate Ancient Ruined City, they had evolved into the fourth generation.
Fourth-generation God-Eating Insects carried the unique dark eerie qi of the ruined city. Their heads were covered in fine scales resembling flood-dragon heads, and their teeth were far sharper than before.
They looked like insectoid flood-dragon aberrant beasts.
There were simply too many. He could not hold them back. His divine realm world was gnawed full of holes, tattered and ruined.
Feeling mortal peril, Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor hastily compromised. “Your methods are truly profound, senior. Please forgive my earlier offence. Since you are a friend of the Paradise Faction, withdraw your divine ability at once. We can all sit down and talk peacefully.”
“Too late. Perhaps next time.”
Zhang Ruochen ignored the pleas below and stared beyond the array, his expression growing grave.
“Next time… you…”
Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor nearly exploded with rage. His eyes blazed crimson. “Very well, then we perish together!”
Mutual destruction was a god’s final and most terrifying resort.
After all, if a mid-rank god like Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor detonated his divine source at such close range, even a high god would most likely die.
Yet what shattered his composure was that the old fellow did not even glance at him after hearing the threat, utterly dismissing it.
God-Eating Insects were already landing on Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor’s divine body.
Rip!
The formidable defences of his divine flesh proved useless.
Chunks of flesh were torn away and swallowed.
“You bully me too far!”
Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor’s eyes turned blood-red. He immediately circulated divine qi, directing it toward his divine source.
Buzz!
Buzz!
…
From all directions, the God-Eating Insects emitted eerie sonic waves laced with spiritual strength, forcibly suppressing the mental will he had gathered to detonate his divine source.
Self-detonation failed!
Third-generation God-Eating Insects already possessed the ability to interfere with spiritual strength.
Now in their fourth generation, the spiritual sonic waves they unleashed were terrifying beyond measure, far beyond what Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor could resist.
Amid screams and curses, Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor was torn apart and devoured by the swarm.
…
Heavenly Goddess Tower.
Shang Hong sat opposite a bewitchingly handsome man whose face bore petal-like markings. Beside them, serving girls played music on phoenix-tail zithers.
The bewitching man was Lan Jun, a high god from the Cha Realm, the third-ranked great world of the Western Universe, and a divine powerhouse born in this present kalpa.
“That elder must share deep ties with the Divine Master of the Twelve Towers of the Goddess. Why would Bai Qing’er reveal his hiding place to you? Could there be deception here?” Lan Jun asked.
Shang Hong’s expression was relaxed. “I already sent word to my father and learned the identity of that Divine Master. Though connected to the Twelve Towers, she is not truly one of them.”
“Bai Qing’er excels at schemes and cunning, yet these are all tricks I played with long ago and then discarded. The higher one’s cultivation climbs, the clearer it becomes that no plot or stratagem can compare to overwhelming strength.”
Shang Hong continued, “I have long studied records of the ruined temple she mentioned. Legend says that in the distant past, it was the dojo of Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable’s second disciple. Have you heard the tale of the four disciples dismembering their master?”
Lan Jun replied, “The dismemberment refers to how, after Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable perished, his four divine-revered disciples carved up his body, turning it into four treasures: the Heavenly Venerable’s Treasure Gauze, the Heavenly Venerable’s Divine Source, the Heavenly Venerable’s World, and the Heavenly Venerable’s Heavenly Body.”
Shang Hong said, “It was the second disciple who seized the Heavenly Venerable’s Divine Source. It is said that refining this divine source allows one to cultivate beyond the level of third-tier pseudo-gods, with battle power rivaling even divine-revered beings. Most importantly, it grants extraordinarily long lifespan.”
Even a figure like Lan Jun revealed burning greed in his eyes. “So that elder whose lifespan is nearly exhausted may truly have gone to the temple seeking the divine source to extend his life. By revealing this secret to you, has Bai Qing’er genuinely chosen to join the Shang Clan’s camp?”
Shang Hong gave a faint smile. “Whatever she is thinking, and whether or not that elder is truly hiding in the temple, I have already sent Yan Shen, Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor, and the others to investigate. Should they actually find the Heavenly Venerable’s Divine Source, the Shang Clan will soon produce another paramount powerhouse.”
“So in your eyes, whether this is Bai Qing’er’s trap or not is utterly irrelevant,” Lan Jun said.
Shang Hong replied, “A trap? What of it? Any one of the four gods possesses the strength to defeat that elder. With all four moving together… hmm…”
Shang Hong suddenly sensed something and rose abruptly, gazing into the starry sky. The star-soul divine throne of Fourth Armor Blood Ancestor dimmed, then vanished completely.
Another true god of the Paradise Faction had fallen!
