“Who’s Shi Kai?”
Zhang Ruochen’s mind stirred with doubt, just then, a swarm of fiery stones streaked across the horizon like a meteor shower, piercing the night with a “rumbling” roar, hurtling towards Luocheng.
Trouble.
If those stones fell, the city’s Saint realm cultivators might survive, but the common folk would have no chance.
Luocheng’s civilians and martial artists trembled, many collapsing to their knees.
“The end… it’s the end…”
“Please, saint masters, save us—the city’s people would be forever grateful.”
…
The city’s Saint realm cultivators, faces grim, focused on preserving strength against the Hell Realm foes outside, had no intent to shield Luocheng’s humans.
Protecting mortals only endangered themselves.
“Swish.”
With a flick of his sleeve, Zhang Ruochen sent eighteen array flags soaring, planting them at eighteen points around Luocheng.
Crafted by Xiao Hei, dubbed the “Heaven-Burning Earth-Refining Array,” it was supposedly a ninth-grade array, requiring 108 flags for full power.
Due to limited resources, only eighteen were made.
Whether it was truly called that was uncertain—Xiao Hei’s naming was always grandiose.
“Array, rise.”
Zhang Ruochen roared, hair whipping, rings of saintly light bursting from him, enveloping Luocheng.
The light’s saint qi poured into the flags.
Instantly, the poles thickened to millstone size, flags unfurling, blotting out the sky.
Countless fiery serpents surged from the flags, linking into a vast net, shielding the city below.
“Boom.”
“Crash.”
Tens of thousands of fiery stones struck the array net.
The barrage lasted a dozen breaths, all stones repelled, the city’s folk sighed in relief, many elders slumping, terrified.
The saints stared, astonished.
Not just that the cripple saved Luocheng’s mortals, but that he wielded such potent array flags.
This cripple was formidable.
As the saints relaxed, a deafening blast erupted in Xusheng Tower, a stone giant, taller than the building, burst from the ground, shredding the twenty-plus-zhang楠木 drum tower into splinters.
Its hands seized Black Phoenix and White Sparrow, yanking them from midair.
“Trouble—Shi Kai was hiding… in the city…”
Caught off guard, the duo swung saint swords to break free, but Shi Kai’s hands, etched with inscriptions, suppressed their power.
“Stone Clan Greater Saint’s sealing inscriptions,” White Sparrow paled.
“You wenches chased me hundreds of thousands of li—today, I’ll make you wish for death,” the stone giant bellowed, eyes blazing.
“Black Phoenix and White Sparrow, top prodigies, match that stone man’s strength, yet were ambushed so easily—too green,” Zhang Ruochen sighed inwardly.
Fully committed to the array, fending off outer stone men, he couldn’t aid them.
For unknown reasons, the stone giant pummeled the duo with dozens of blows, gravely injuring them, then chained their necks with iron, dragging them out.
Their cocoon-like saintly shields shattered, revealing breathtaking beauty—any male cultivator would feel admiration or pity.
Yet now, they suffered, clutching the chains, unable to break free.
“Release the fairies!”
Saints charged to save them.
“Get lost.”
The giant’s ten-zhang arm swept, a saint qi wave smashing them into blood mist.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
It stomped off, leaving cracked footprints.
Nearing Luocheng’s edge, Zhang Ruochen unleashed all, saint qi flooding out like a tide.
The array erupted in flames, waves meters high sweeping out, melting thousands of outer stone men into magma.
Shi Kai spun, eyeing Zhang Ruochen at the street’s centre, laughing, “Another expert—Qi Xiaotian, he’s yours!”
Braving the flags’ flames, Shi Kai grabbed a pole.
“What?”
Zhang Ruochen jolted, the flames ineffective—red net-like inscriptions on Shi Kai’s body repelled them.
Shi Kai yanked the flag, hurling it at him.
At peak Eighth-Step Saint King, with monstrous strength, Shi Kai wasn’t someone Zhang Ruochen could face head-on.
He dodged like lightning.
“Crash.”
The flag speared his former spot, its millstone-thick pole sinking into the earth, rubble erupting, toppling houses.
Shi Kai ignored him, dragging the duo into the dark.
“Why spare Luocheng’s humans?”
Puzzled, Zhang Ruochen moved to pursue, when blood light pierced the overhead clouds, a furnace woven with dazzling patterns hovered within.
The blood-red furnace, palace-sized, bore ancient, mystical marks.
Zhang Ruochen halted, staring—it brimmed with human blood.
“Swish.”
Its light flared, emitting a strange force.
Luocheng’s humans screamed, blood surging in their veins, threatening to burst out.
“So this thing devoured the fishermen’s blood,” Zhang Ruochen ignited the Fire God Gauntlets, arms ablaze.
The butcher and dullard swaggered from the ruins.
The burly butcher, oozing killing intent, said, “Little brother, you’re no match for Qi Xiaotian—leave him to us, save those beauties!”
“Hero saving damsels? Not my thing.”
The dullard grinned, Buddha-like.
The butcher gazed at the furnace, “We’ve been tracking who’s stirring trouble by Luoshui, so… we… were… in Luocheng…”
“Thud.”
He collapsed, head hitting rubble.
“Careful!” Zhang Ruochen, suspecting an attack, summoned character armour, alert.
The dullard, still smiling, waved, “No worry—he faints at blood!”
Zhang Ruochen blinked.
Faints at blood?
“Boom.”
The dullard’s aura shifted, golden light blazing, a golden pagoda phantom erupting, encasing him.
His bare feet stomped, rocketing skyward like a cannonball.
“Bang.”
The pagoda clashed with the furnace.
They soared above the clouds.
A “boom” unleashed saintly waves, shattering clouds for a thousand li.
That harmless, gluttonous dullard—a powerhouse?
Zhang Ruochen reeled, glancing at the fainted butcher, mind scrambled.
No time to dwell—he hoisted the butcher, spatially shifted out of Luocheng, recalling the eighteen flags with a sweep.
Chasing four hundred li, he spotted Shi Kai, heart lifting.
Black Phoenix and White Sparrow, decent saints, didn’t harm Kunlun’s mortals and fought Hell Realm—he didn’t want them lost.
But he knew a direct clash with Shi Kai was unwinnable.
This fight demanded cunning, not brute force.
Seeing the pursuing cripple, the duo brightened, like drowning souls grasping a lifeline.
Shi Kai glanced back, a grin cracking his stone face.
“Swish.”
Blood rain erupted from the night.
Blood bats, some dustpan-sized, claws razor-sharp, others mountain-huge, exuded saintly might.
Surrounded, Zhang Ruochen slew hundreds, unwilling to tangle, preparing a spatial shift to chase Shi Kai.
Then…
On a bat’s back, he saw a familiar, slender figure.
“It’s her—she’s alive?” He gaped.
Atop the bat stood a woman of wicked beauty, her snowy form wreathed in red mist, her full chest, slim waist, and long legs tantalisingly veiled, utterly bewitching.
It was Ying Huo, goddess of the Undying Temple.
After Chi Yao ascended, she slew the Undying Blood Clan’s ten Blood Emperors, then the court’s army purged their Kunlun foothold.
Who’d have thought this vixen survived?
