The Soul Realm, which was also one of the subordinate mortal realms of the Heavenly Court Realm, was enough to rank in the top one hundred in the Western Universe, and even if the Saint realm experts of the seven realms of the Shatuo were to join together, I’m afraid that they would still be far from being a match for the Soul Realm.
The Soul Holding Grand Technique, even in the Soul Realm, were all quite terrifying means, belonging to the category of forbidden secret arts.
Wu Hao walked over, his face solemn as he said, “Are you sure it’s the Soul Holding Grand Technique?”
“There shouldn’t be any mistake, the pupils of the two seniors, Wu Qingkong and Li Qi, were dark and lifeless, completely covered by a dark purple glow, it is obvious that it was a supreme powerhouse from the Soul Realm that took control of their holy souls, using them as puppets for sneak attacks on the Assassination God Envoys.”
Wen Shusheng’s heart was beating so fast that he could hear the sound of “dong dong” coming from within his body.
His pair of holy eyes looked around, as if he was searching for something.
The few people present all sucked in a breath of cold air.
The Holy Soul of a Saint King contained a powerful spiritual will. Unless a supreme powerhouse from the Soul Realm arrived, it would be possible to control the Saint Souls of the two one-step Saint Kings and turn them into puppets.
Moreover, that supreme powerhouse must also have extremely high attainments in the cultivation of the “Soul Holding Technique”.
Zhang Ruochen noticed Wen Shusheng’s unusual behaviour and asked, “What are you looking for?”
Wen Shusheng endeavoured to calm his mind and said, “There is a distance restriction when performing the Soul Holding Grand Technique. Controlling the Saint Souls of two Saint Kings is never an easy task, so I guess that the caster should be in the vicinity of the Yuanxu Peak Sacred Ground.”
Zhang Ruochen closed his eyes as his spiritual energy transformed into a particle of light, flying out in all directions with the Yuanxu Peak Sacred Ground as the centre.
The dimensional level of the Celestial Court Realm was far higher than that of the Kunlun Realm, and as such, the spiritual energy of cultivators would be suppressed. Of course, even if it was suppressed, with Zhang Ruochen’s current fifty-fourth rank spiritual strength, he was still able to probe a territory of a thousand miles in all directions.
A moment later, Zhang Ruochen withdrew his spiritual energy and stared towards the crowd, gently shaking his head.
Su Qingling’s face turned slightly white as she said, “Since the other party is able to control the Saint Souls of two One-Step Saint Kings, is it also able to control our Saint Souls?”
Mu Lingshi was also quite worried, saying, “With Zhang Ruochen’s mental strength unable to find that person out, the other party must be a rather terrifying figure. Since he has intruded into the Red Dragon Sacred Realm, we might as well ask the Savage Sword Great Sage to take action and kill him. How?”
Zhang Ruochen nodded, then, walked to the front of the stone statue of the Barbarian Sword Great Sage, bowed, and recited a passage of sacrificial holy words from his mouth.
“Wow-”
In the sky above the stone
statue, clouds quickly piled up, transforming into a holy cloud of ten thousand feet of light.
Immediately after, a powerful holy might burst out from within the stone statue. With that great saintly aura, Zhang Ruochen and the others were still able to withstand it, but those half-saints from the Yuanxu Peak Holy Land all knelt on the ground.
The stone statue, which was originally stationary, opened its eyes and spread its stony lips, saying, “Zhang Ruochen, what is the reason for you to ask this seat to reveal itself as a saint?”
“Greetings to the Great Sage.”
Zhang Ruochen bowed respectfully, then, pointing to the two One-Step Saint Kings bound on top of the stone statue, he said, “Please, Great Sage, take a look at the two of them first.”
“Hehe …… is actually a Soul Holding Great Technique.”
Obviously, the Barbarian Sword Great Sage was also slightly surprised, not having expected that a strong person from the Soul Realm had actually intruded into the Red Dragon Sacred Realm, and had also taken control of the Holy Souls of the two Saint Kings.
“Wow.”
A circle of holy light surged out from within the stone statue, impacting on the bodies of the two one-step Saint Kings.
Immediately afterwards, two strands of purple aerosol escaped from the bodies of the two one-step Saint Kings. The purple aerosol, after being preserved from the air for only a breath of time, immediately dissipated.
“Just now, what happened?”
“My head hurts, my Saint Soul is severely damaged …… No, how did I get tied to the top of the stone statue?”
The two One-Step Saint Kings both came to their senses, however, they appeared to be muddled and somewhat confused in spirit, not really knowing what had just happened.
Only when they thoroughly recalled what had just happened and became calm did Zhang Ruochen withdraw the two Binding Saint Locks and set them down.
……
Thousands of miles away from the Yuanxu
Peak Sacred Ground, there was a mountain ridge called the “Gui Ridge”.
The mountain range was more than 10,000 miles long, running through the Red Dragon Sacred Realm and the Li Ku Sacred Realm. The mountain was covered with dense ancient trees, and there were some holy beasts and holy birds that were born from absorbing the heaven and earth’s holy qi from the Heavenly Court Realm, which made this place seem particularly dangerous.
At this moment, in the depths of the Gui Ridge, there were more than a dozen figures, with Shang Zijian as their leader, standing on top of a turquoise-coloured foothill, looking out in the direction of Yuanxu Peak.
Underneath their feet, a layer of purple light was scattered.
If one looked closely, one would realise that it was a purple fine line that was like an earthworm. All of the fine lines were connected together to form a massive array diagram with a diameter of one hundred and sixty-nine feet.
Standing inside the formation diagram, the entire heaven and earth was purple.
A tall and thin man wearing a purple robe stood at the centre of the formation, his age could not be seen, except that half of his body was flesh and half was purple gas, making it particularly bizarre.
Half human, half soul.
In his hand, he cupped a bloody bone staff and stood at the centre of the formation.
The bone staff, which was refined from an intact spine, a single bone joint appeared clear, and at the top of the bone joint was a skull radiating phosphorescence, with long black hairs draped over the skull.
Whether it was that bone staff, or that half-human, half-soul purple-robed man, it all gave people a creepy and eerie feeling.
A hoarse voice came out of the purple-robed man’s mouth, ”Both Wu Qingkong and Li Qi’s cultivation levels aren’t weak, and even if they encountered a weaker second-step Saint King, they would still be able to put up a fight for a few strokes, yet they were easily taken down by Zhang Ruochen. Hehehe, this Zhang Ruochen is not weak!”
Shang Ziqi’s stature was erect, with a long silver-white hair and a vermillion-red three-feathered crown, his body exuded an aura of gallantry as he cupped a scroll of jade in his hand and said with a smile, “If he was a weakling, I wouldn’t have asked you to make a move.”
Behind Shang Ziwei, there stood two women with beautiful and dusty looks, both at the realm of one-step Saint King, called Tianshu and Tianmiao respectively.
Tianshu’s temperament was refined, and she softly said, “Doesn’t it mean that Zhang Ruochen already possesses the strength to fight against a Second Step Saint King?”
“I’m afraid there is still some gap.”
Immediately after, Shang Ziwei added, “Wu Qingkong and Li Qi have after all turned into two puppets, and the battle power they can wield will definitely be greatly reduced. If the two of them were to really join forces and be at their peak state, it would never be easy for Zhang Ruochen to win.”
The Heavenly Pivot secretly let out a sigh of relief and said, “That’s good, with my strength, I should be able to suppress Zhang Ruochen.”
As a Saint King who had walked out from the Merit Divine Hall, Tianshu was confident enough that he could easily defeat Wu Qingkong and Li Qi, and it would naturally not be difficult to deal with Zhang Ruochen.
“Although Wu Qingkong and Li Quality didn’t kill Zhang Ruochen, they have, however, tested out Zhang Ruochen’s true strength, which is not worthless.” Tian Miao’s voice was a bit cold.
Shang Ziwei shook his head and said, “Unfortunately, even the two of them were unable to force Zhang Ruochen to perform the legendary Time Sword Technique.”
“Time Sword Technique, the sword will kill. This phrase has already spread within the circle of Saint Realm Celestial Pride, and it has been rumoured to be so divine that it makes me somewhat want to personally go and get a taste of it.” A laughing voice, slightly disdainful, came out from a purple halo of light.
Shang Ziwei glanced towards the purple dark shadow and laughed, “Little Void, it seems like you haven’t broken through to the Saint King realm yet, right, and where are you ranked on the Saints’ Merit List?”
“Seventh. It was originally sixth, but unfortunately, that fellow Zhang Ruochen grabbed too many merit values in the Ancestral Spirit Realm, and even rushed to the first place all of a sudden, squeezing me out of the ranking by one place.”
Obviously, the man called “Little Void” didn’t really recognise Zhang Ruochen’s strength, and only felt that Zhang Ruochen had snatched all the merit values, just like a profiteer, and couldn’t be compared to the merit values that he had amassed one step at a time.
“You guys will definitely have a chance to cross paths.” Shang Ziwei said.
“I’m afraid that you will strike too quickly and kill him early, not giving me a chance to strike at all.” A laughing voice came out from the purple halo.
A pair of eyes from the Heavenly Pivot gave birth to a puzzled look as it said, “昬王, with your means, since you are able to control the Saint Souls of the two One-Step Saint Kings, why don’t you directly control Zhang Ruochen’s Saint Soul?”
The violet-robed man called “King of the Hollows” let out a sinister laugh, “What kind of character is Zhang Ruochen? He can be ranked number one in the Saint Merit List, how powerful is his spiritual will, not to mention me, even if my senior sister came, I’m afraid it would be very difficult to control him. The more talented one is, the harder it is to control.”
“Wu Qingkong and Li Qi are different, although their cultivation became deeper and deeper as they grew older, they were never able to break through to a step Saint King, in fact, their spiritual will is getting weaker and weaker, and they can’t even compare to those few Saint Realm Celestials from the Guanghan Realm. Controlling their Saint Souls is naturally much easier.”
“I see.” The Heavenly Pivot revealed a dawning expression.
King Huan continued, “My Soul Holding Grand Technique is still not profound enough after all. Even if I were to control the two old losers, Wu Qingkong and Li Qi, I would still need the assistance of a soul formation. If it was my senior sister, with a snap of her fingers, she would be able to make them obediently kneel down and become two soul slaves.”
“The Great Sun King doesn’t even care to kill a Saint, even if she was invited, she wouldn’t come.” In the purple halo, Little Void’s laughter came out.
“Wow-”
At the peak of Yuanxu
Peak, an eye-catching holy light surged out, and even if one was standing three thousand miles away, one felt a bit blinding.
Shang Ziwei’s eyes, became slightly more serious as he said, “The Barbarian Sword Great Sage has manifested, and is probing for our traces.”
A chuckle came out from the King of the Snatchers, “The strength of the Barbarian Sword Great Sage is indeed still very strong, but unfortunately, his attainments above spiritual power can only be considered as scanty. I came with the Heaven Breaking Dao talisman passed down from my ancestor, so even if his real body descends, he may not be able to show us.”
Dressed in a purple robe, the King of the Bird’s Nest spread out his right palm, and three thousand strange golden patterns emerged in the centre of his palm.
The palm was pressed towards the ground, and with that, the Heaven Breaking Dao Talisman and the purple formation fused into one.
As expected, the holy light emanating from the stone statue of the Barbarian Sword Great Sage swept through the sky above the purple formation, but failed to detect their scent or trace.
