After the divine war, the skies of the Shatuo Heavenly Domain glowed with divine light by day, gentle saint rain fell by night.
This lasted a full month, and the domain, shattered by gods, witnessed a staggering miracle.
The domineering fluctuations of the divine war gradually faded, fragrant spiritual herbs and saint flowers sprouted from charred wastelands, towering spirit trees rose overnight, sacred lands in the domains surged anew with dense saint qi, even the soil’s quality improved markedly.
Once the most barren lower-tier domain of Western Niuhe Continent, the Shatuo Heavenly Domain turned misfortune into fortune, growing far more fertile, though not reaching mid-tier status, it left cultivators of neighbouring lower domains green with envy.
Among lower-tier domains, its cultivation environment now ranked upper-mid level.
The Shatuo Seven Realms’ cultivators buzzed with excitement, such conditions would vastly boost their cultivation speed, elevating their world’s overall strength.
With a higher ranking, they’d no longer need to fight merit wars, nor live in dread of their mother realm becoming a battlefield, facing ruin and extinction.
The enhanced cultivation environment of the Shatuo Heavenly Domain promised boundless benefits for the Seven Realms, its impact profound.
“We must owe this to the Moon God’s grace, the Heavenly Palace only improved our domain because of her.”
“A domain needs a towering figure like the Moon God to reap real gains and earn respect from other worlds’ cultivators, who’d dare stir trouble here now?”
…
Moon God Mountain.
In a chamber forged from saint jade, a circular blood pool held a玄冰玉床 (mysterious ice jade bed) at its centre, on it, the naked Zhang Ruochen awoke.
His wounds seemed healed, pain absent.
“I’m still alive.”
Sorting his thoughts, recalling everything before he’d fainted, a smile curved his lips.
Surviving a divine war was reason enough for joy.
Pressing a hand to the ice jade bed, Zhang Ruochen tried to leap up, but though his upper body lifted, his left leg, heavy as lead, yanked him back.
“Thud.”
His head slammed back onto the bed.
“What… what’s this, is my left leg crippled? Why can’t I feel it or lift it?”
With a Saint King’s vitality, even a severed leg could regrow.
A crippled leg—how could that be?
Unless, in that divine war, a god’s power had invaded his left leg, disabling it, like Xiao Hei, whose cultivation plummeted and form warped into a half-cat, half-undead bird after the God Dragon Sun-Moon Chaos Tower’s force struck him.
“Huh! You’re finally awake!”
A clear, lively voice echoed through the chamber.
A petite figure, radiating jade light, approached the bed with a fresh, fragrant breeze.
A girl of fifteen or sixteen, her skin lustrous as jade, features delicate, eyes spirited and pure, twin braids framing her face, she studied Zhang Ruochen curiously.
“Who are you?”
Zhang Ruochen stared, stunned to find his cultivation and vision couldn’t pierce her depths.
No simpleton.
A formidable presence, why hadn’t he seen her on Moon God Mountain before?
She flashed a radiant smile, giggling, “I’m Xiao Yu! Don’t you recognise me?”
“Xiao Yu?”
A thought struck him, he paused, scrutinising her again, tentatively asking, “Are you the Emperor Saint Jade I brought from the God-Sealing Platform?”
Showing pearly teeth, she laughed, “Yes, yes, and thanks to you, I got to take the Moon Goddess as my master.”
Zhang Ruochen’s expression stiffened.
This girl, appearing as innocent as a blank page, was a bona fide Greater Saint, who knew what fearsome techniques she’d learned from Xiao Hei and the Moon God?
Now, a flick of her finger could likely pin him down.
Worse, he lay bare, every inch of him under the scrutiny of this pure-faced Greater Saint girl—an utterly mortifying predicament.
He coughed twice, about to ask her for a saint robe, when Xiao Yu let out a soft “Wow.”
Her small, snowy hand stroked his left leg, eyes gleaming, sliding from calf to thigh, resting at its base.
A faint chill from her fingers jolted him.
Just as he reached his limit, she exclaimed, “It’s already fusing, brilliant, Zhang Ruochen, your body and constitution are incredible!”
“Fusing what?” he asked.
“The God’s Left Leg!”
Her eyes sparkled, lashes fluttering, utterly charming.
“God’s Left Leg?” he echoed.
She patted his thigh, a boundless Greater Saint force pouring in, fiery patterns flared across his left leg, igniting it.
The flames’ heat seared his thigh and abdomen, his body feeling like it might melt.
“The Moon Goddess has fused the God’s Left Leg into yours, bones, meridians, blood vessels, and saint veins now one, circulate your saint qi into it and see,” Xiao Yu said.
Suppressing his shock, Zhang Ruochen ran the Nine Heavens Bright Emperor Scripture, channelling saint qi through his meridians and saint veins towards his left leg.
His spiritual power trailed the qi, probing for changes.
At his thigh’s base, a scorching force surged back from the meridians and veins, his spiritual power felt like it plunged into lava, recoiling.
Startled, he wrestled the saint qi with all his might.
After hours battling that fiery force, the qi completed a full cycle through his left leg’s meridians and veins.
Then, the blood in its vessels stirred.
Gradually, sensation returned.
His spiritual power, however, couldn’t penetrate the leg, lingering at the thigh’s edge, beyond lay an endless fiery realm—a vast world of flame, heavy yet brimming with mysteries.
Zhang Ruochen asked, “Did the Moon God really fuse a god’s left leg into mine?”
“Yes!”
Xiao Yu nodded earnestly, “The Moon Goddess severed Lord Yan’s left leg and hand, erased his spiritual will, then forged the God’s Left Leg into yours. She said your current cultivation and body can only handle the leg, so she didn’t fuse the God’s Left Hand into your left arm.”
Zhang Ruochen gaped.
What kind of feat was this?
Utterly heaven-defying!
But no, a god’s power was immense, even stripped of will, its rejection would be fierce, how could a Saint King like him bear it?
Even with the Moon God’s vast abilities, this seemed beyond reason.
He voiced his doubts.
Xiao Yu tilted her head, pondering, then shook it, “I don’t know, why not ask the Moon Goddess?”
“Fine, take me to her.”
Donning a saint robe, he stepped off the bed.
Though sensation returned, his left leg remained impossibly heavy, as if a divine mountain filled it.
He hobbled, leaning on the divine envoy staff, no different from a cripple.
Each step left a shallow print, even the saint jade floor buckling under it.
On the way, he asked, “Xiao Yu… Greater Saint Xiao Yu, do you know if Mu Lingxi is on Moon God Mountain?”
“You mean Senior Sister Mu? She’s not here,” Xiao Yu turned, smiling.
Though far surpassing Mu Lingxi in cultivation, she’d joined the Moon God’s tutelage later, thus calling her senior.
“Where’d she go?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
Xiao Yu said, “I heard the Moon Goddess sent her to the Kunlun Realm months ago.”
“For what?” he pressed.
She shook her head, “I don’t know, she didn’t say, why not ask the Moon Goddess?”
Frowning, Zhang Ruochen couldn’t fathom the Moon God’s purpose.
At the Guanghan Divine Palace, he met her.
The divine war a month prior had left an indelible mark, a figure who trod sun and moon, plucked stars, captivating the heart.
“Greetings, Moon God.”
Bowing, he first asked about Mu Lingxi.
“In the years since you left, the Kunlun Realm has undergone earth-shaking changes, mysteries rising from its depths and hidden spaces. I sent Lingxi there because, with its revival, her supreme opportunity has emerged,” the Moon God’s voice flowed like calm water.
“What opportunity?” he pursued.
“One left by her clan’s ancestor,” she replied.
“The Mu family of the Middle Ages? No, could it be… the Phoenix Clan?”
A supreme opportunity by the Moon God’s measure was no trifling matter.
A Middle Age family’s legacy wouldn’t suffice.
Zhang Ruochen knew Mu Lingxi bore Ice Phoenix blood, the only being in the Kunlun Realm to fully awaken it.
The Moon God didn’t elaborate, instead asking, “How’s the God’s Left Leg?”
He said, “I meant to ask, why fuse Lord Yan’s leg into mine? Won’t it leave risks?”
“No.”
Rising, her silhouette traced a stunning curve above, “Other cultivators, even Greater Saints, would struggle to merge it, but you’re different, your Five Elements Chaos Body and Mark of the Gods grant strong compatibility, neither rejecting the other.”
“Besides, I placed four seals on it, locking away ninety-nine percent of its power, the sliver left you can handle with your cultivation and body.”
“If you wield that sliver well, this leg alone could let you stride unmatched below Greater Saint level.”
“Reach Nine-Step Saint King, and you can try unlocking the first seal, then its power will grow fearsome, even Greater Saints’ immortal bodies might not withstand it.”
