The golden-armoured giant stood before Zhang Ruochen and Ji Fanxin, exuding an overbearing presence, “I’ll give you one last chance—leave this planet, or die.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “So reckless—aren’t you afraid the Patrol Angels will notice and bring divine punishment?”
“Luoshui is a strange place beyond your imagination, the Patrol Angels can’t see here,” the golden-armoured giant replied.
Zhang Ruochen nodded, “This planet is massive, brimming with countless saint herbs and buried minerals, does the Emperor Ancestor Crown Prince really think he can hog it all— isn’t that too greedy?”
The planet’s saint herbs could directly increase a cultivator’s saintly rule count, whoever claimed it could rapidly grow stronger, cultivating a legion of Saint King experts.
After all, Luoshui belonged to Kunlun Realm.
For such a treasure to be seized by cultivators from another great world naturally irked Zhang Ruochen.
“This place rightfully belongs to His Highness, to the Emperor Ancestor Divine Dynasty,” the golden-armoured giant declared.
As he spoke, the armour of the twenty-seven Golden Armoured Imperial Guards flared with blinding light, inscriptions linking into a unified whole.
Zhang Ruochen snorted, the Fire God Gauntlet and Fire God Bracer on his right arm ignited, forming a cloud of fire.
“Boom.”
He struck the ground with a palm, wild flames surging outward in all directions.
The twenty-seven guards were flung back, their combined array collapsing instantly.
Zhang Ruochen then unleashed incredible speed, raining palm strikes like swatting scarecrows, scattering a dozen guards in disarray.
The famed Golden Armoured Imperial Guards were powerless before him.
The golden-armoured giant roared, swinging a golden war axe with lightning speed at Zhang Ruochen’s head, thunderbolts weaving behind him in a grand display.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t dodge, activating the Fire God Gauntlet’s primal power, both palms striking out, faint divine energy clashing with the axe.
He blocked it!
“Rumble.”
A powerful wave of saintly force erupted between Zhang Ruochen and the axe, shaking the earth, sending sand and stones flying.
The remaining dozen guards were blasted several li away in an instant.
“Such strength.”
Zhang Ruochen summoned all his power to barely withstand the giant’s axe.
This showed the giant’s raw strength could rival a Ninth-Step Saint King head-on.
Realising this puny human wasn’t an easy foe, the giant unleashed even greater power, the thunderbolts behind him surging into his arms.
To Zhang Ruochen, it looked like a river of lightning rolling forth.
“Swish.”
Zhang Ruochen vanished with a spatial shift.
With a “boom,” the giant’s axe cleaved the ground, splitting a dozens-of-li-long fissure, lightning from the axe darting like purple flood dragons across the terrain.
Zhang Ruochen reappeared above the giant’s head, slamming down a heavy palm, denting the golden armour, sinking half the giant’s body into the earth.
But the giant’s defences were formidable, enduring Zhang Ruochen’s full strike with just a grunt, no severe injuries.
“Spatial power…”
The giant’s eyes shifted, a millstone-sized gem on its chest releasing dense golden Sanskrit, enveloping a hundreds-of-zhang radius.
Within this zone, space stabilised several-fold.
This made Zhang Ruochen’s spatial shifts and spatial rifts several times harder to execute.
The giant emerged from the ground like a golden hill, each step trembling the earth.
Ji Fanxin’s gaze flicked to the horizon, “Finish this quickly, the other three golden-armoured giants will arrive soon.”
“Alright.”
Zhang Ruochen held nothing back, summoning the Chenyuan Ancient Sword, charging at the giant.
The giant, now truly enraged, entered a berserk state, lightning from its body melting the ground, its golden axe layered with saintly force waves, unleashing sixfold perfected power, slashing relentlessly at Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen avoided direct clashes, dodging nimbly.
Within twenty zhang of the giant, he merged with the Chenyuan Ancient Sword, unleashing sword dao mysteries as a beam of light, striking the gem on the giant’s chest.
“Boom.”
The gem shattered, the sword piercing the golden armour.
Stunned that its armour was breached, the giant’s expression shifted, frantically redirecting all its lightning to its chest.
“Swish.”
The Chenyuan Ancient Sword sank another half-foot.
Forged with creation-grade materials and now a Seven Radiance Ten Thousand Pattern Saint Weapon, the sword’s penetration was unmatched, a single strike could shatter ordinary Six Radiance saint weapons.
“Drip, drip.”
Saint blood flowed from the golden armour.
“Swish.”
The sword sank another half-foot, the giant’s massive frame shuddering violently.
More saint blood poured from its body.
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen yanked the sword free, flipping back to land a hundred zhang away.
With a “thud,” the giant dropped to one knee, clutching its chest, gasping heavily, as if it had narrowly escaped death.
Zhang Ruochen huffed, “I’ve no wish to be enemies with the Crown Prince, but provoke me again, and you’ll bear the consequences.”
With that, he and Ji Fanxin departed, vanishing from the giant’s sight.
Moments later, Que Gonggong and the other three golden-armoured giants arrived, shocked by the battle’s aftermath.
“That man and woman were so strong—Third Brother, even you couldn’t handle them?”
A giant with demonic tattoos on its face spoke, offering a golden pill to the kneeling giant.
Swallowing the pill, the injured giant stood slowly, “Very strong, and wielding a saint sword forged with creation-grade materials, it pierced our golden armour and bodies, they spared me, or I’d be dead.”
The other three giants were visibly shaken.
Their pride lay in their golden armour and cultivated golden bodies.
With these, they could rampage freely, only Major Rule Heaven Ninth-Step Saint Kings able to breach their defences and make them wary.
Que Gonggong said, “Seems that pair isn’t simple, we’ll deal with them when the Crown Prince returns, for now, our main foe is the Fourteenth Prince.”
…
“Why not kill those Golden Armoured Imperial Guards and the giant? The Crown Prince won’t tolerate other cultivators on his turf,” Ji Fanxin asked.
Zhang Ruochen smiled, “Right now, the Crown Prince’s biggest rival is the Fourteenth Prince, he likely can’t spare attention for me, but if I killed those guards, I’d become his top enemy, our fight would just benefit the Fourteenth Prince.”
“Harvesting saint herbs and boosting cultivation is the priority, if I reach Seventh-Step Saint King, I won’t be so restrained.”
“Swish.”
From Zhang Ruochen’s body, 128 mental power clones surged out, scattering into the black mountains.
Soon, they returned, each bearing saint herbs.
Zhang Ruochen used Purifying Divine Fire to refine the herbs into translucent droplets, swallowing them.
The saintly rules in his qi sea grew rapidly.
In less than fifteen minutes, they increased by over 2,000.
Zhang Ruochen relished the process—if this pace continued, he’d break through to Seventh-Step Saint King in half a month.
A sharp pain stabbed his brow, his expression shifting dramatically.
“A mental power clone was destroyed—who did it?”
He swiftly recalled all his clones, losing more could severely damage his mental power.
Then, using a spatial shift, he dashed off.
He needed to know what had happened to that clone.
After about 200 li, Zhang Ruochen reached a blood-red stone cliff.
The cliff towered a thousand zhang, studded with giant stalagmites and stone mushrooms, its terrain bizarre, halos flickered on the cliff face, each encasing a saint herb.
Zhang Ruochen knew refining all those herbs would boost his cultivation significantly.
But he didn’t rush to harvest, instead releasing mental power to cautiously probe the surroundings, a clone had shattered here—there was danger.
Behind a stone mushroom, he sensed something odd.
The foe hid well, evading his peak fifty-seventh-tier mental power, only detected through his spatial domain.
“Come out! Hiding any longer—is there a point?”
Zhang Ruochen stepped before the mushroom, silver vines sprouting from his back, branching out, enveloping the area.
“Don’t attack, we’re Golden Armoured Imperial Guards under the Emperor Ancestor Crown Prince.”
A man and woman emerged slowly from behind the mushroom.
“Golden Armoured Imperial Guards? My mental power clone—was it you who destroyed it?” Zhang Ruochen eyed them, a strange glint in his gaze.
Without studying the Blood Clan’s secret scrolls, he might have been fooled.
But with his current knowledge of the Undying Blood Clan, only a Greater Saint Blood Emperor could disguise themselves well enough to deceive him, few Saint King-level Blood Clan members could trick him now.
