The iron chains spun rapidly, whistling as they wrapped around Sihan and King Daxiwang, soaring into the sky and transforming into a streak of light that pierced through the atmosphere of the Eastern Domain Saint City.
Murong Yefeng pursued, shrinking into a black dot before vanishing into the clouds.
Lord Shenya’s physical body was frail, weaker even than many martial half-saints.
In the previous battle, he had been gravely injured—half his skull shattered, exposing a ghastly white cranium. His abdomen had been pierced by a saintly force, his organs ruptured, blood flowing freely in a scene of utter misery.
Most critically, his saintly heart had sustained significant damage, and his mental energy was leaking out.
“Retreat, quickly withdraw from the Eastern Domain Saint City!”
Lord Shenya shouted.
He took out an escape talisman and affixed it to himself, instantly bursting forth at a thousand times the speed of sound, fleeing beyond the Eastern Domain Saint City.
With even Sihan and Lord Shenya fleeing, the other saint realm cultivators who had attacked the Eastern Domain Saint King Mansion naturally scrambled to escape as well. However, some were shrewder, realising escape was unlikely, and instead employed advanced concealment techniques to hide within the city.
The Eastern Domain Saint City was vast, teeming with countless cultivators—a chaotic mix of good and evil. As long as they hid well, finding them would be like climbing to the heavens.
“Want to escape? It’s not that simple.”
Zhang Ruochen hurled the Yi Emperor Bone Staff into the air, where it transformed into a hundred-metre-tall black skeleton.
Having devoured the souls of four six-tribulation ghosts, the evil spirit had grown stronger. Though it still couldn’t compare to a Dao Domain realm cultivator, among Nine-Step Saint Kings of the Rule Great Heaven, it was already considered an expert.
“Boom.”
The black skeleton threw a punch, striking from a distance, knocking down two saint kings of considerable cultivation and sending them crashing to the ground.
After swallowing the saintly souls of the two saint kings, the black skeleton rode the wind, breaking through the atmosphere of the Eastern Domain Saint City to continue hunting the fleeing saint realm cultivators.
Zhang Ruochen’s gaze drifted into the distance, where he spotted Luo Yi’s figure.
This man, who claimed to be a cultivator from the Upper Yuan Sect of the Yuan Realm, struck with decisive ruthlessness. Every blow he landed felled a cultivator of the Paradise Realm faction. He, too, had pursued beyond the atmosphere, seemingly intent on wiping them out completely.
Zhang Ruochen couldn’t help but show a puzzled expression.
The cultivators of the Kunlun Realm despised the Paradise Realm faction and sought to eradicate them because the faction had relentlessly suppressed the Kunlun Realm, fostering deep-seated enmity between the two.
But a cultivator from the Upper Yuan Sect shouldn’t have such profound hatred for the Paradise Realm faction.
“He’s truly a problematic figure.”
Zhang Ruochen didn’t dwell on it further, merely making a mental note to be wary of this man in the future.
Not far from the Firewood Tower, Jueyan Hu broke through the sword net formed by the Rain Silk Divine Sword. He spat out saintly blood, his injuries worsening, his body covered in fine sword marks.
Though still in human form, where was the slightest trace of his former handsomeness?
Jueyan Hu gnashed his sharp teeth, glaring venomously at the Tianchu Fairy with boundless resentment. “Luo Ji, you’ll pay a heavy price for what you’ve done today. Once my injuries heal, I’ll make you repay this tenfold.”
“Thousand Illusions Escape Technique.”
Jueyan Hu employed an intermediate saint-level escape technique, his form splitting into a thousand copies. The sky was filled with Jueyan Hus.
The thousand Jueyan Hus fled in a thousand different directions.
Against another cultivator, it might have been impossible to distinguish the real from the fake, allowing Jueyan Hu to escape successfully.
Unfortunately, his opponent was the Tianchu Fairy.
The vertical eye on the Tianchu Fairy’s forehead opened, instantly pinpointing Jueyan Hu’s true body. With a gentle twist of her snow-white wrist, the Rain Silk Divine Sword flew out again, whipping like a dragon’s tail and striking Jueyan Hu’s body.
Jueyan Hu’s left leg was severed, and a muffled groan escaped his lips.
“Ah…”
Jueyan Hu continued to flee, his face twisting into a grotesque mask of rage, pain, and frustration—emotions swirling together.
It was easy to imagine that if he escaped, he would exact frenzied revenge in the future.
Soon, Jueyan Hu reached midair, on the verge of breaking through the Eastern Domain Saint City’s atmosphere, a surge of joy rising in his heart. “As long as I breach the atmosphere, with my methods, no expert, no matter how strong, can stop me.”
Above his head, the atmosphere suddenly ignited, transforming into a crimson sea of fire.
A massive footprint emerged, radiating an overwhelming and awe-inspiring divine might.
Beneath that flaming foot, Jueyan Hu’s body was like a tiny ant.
“No… no…”
Jueyan Hu roared, his voice brimming with intense unwillingness.
“Rumble.”
The flaming footprint stomped down on Jueyan Hu, pressing him into the ground, causing the earth to quake violently.
The flames spread outward in waves several metres high, sweeping up billowing dust in all directions.
When the flames dissipated, the crowd saw a footprint stretching a thousand metres long. The soil around it had buckled upward, forming small hills a hundred metres high.
That patch of earth had melted into golden magma.
Zhang Ruochen dragged Jueyan Hu out of the footprint crater, standing atop one of the small hills. His gaze swept imperiously across the surroundings as he declared loudly, “From this day forward, I, Zhang Ruochen, am the King of the Eastern Domain. The Eastern Domain is under my command. Whoever dares to break the rules I set will die.”
“Splatter.”
With a single sword stroke, Zhang Ruochen beheaded Jueyan Hu, sending his head flying.
With a “boom,” Zhang Ruochen struck out with a palm from a distance, shattering the head into fragments that turned into a mist of blood.
Killing a Dao Domain realm powerhouse in front of all the cultivators present carried a deterrence that would be etched into their memories for a lifetime.
“We pay homage to the King of the Eastern Domain.”
“We pay homage to the King of the Eastern Domain.”
…
Centred on the Eastern Domain Saint King Mansion and radiating outward, the cultivators of the Kunlun Realm dropped to one knee, bowing to Zhang Ruochen.
It wasn’t just because of the awe-inspiring display moments ago. In their eyes, only Zhang Ruochen was worthy of being the King of the Eastern Domain, capable of protecting them from the oppression and slaughter of foreign cultivators.
Strength.
They believed that strength was the foundation for securing the right to survive, and thus they revered the strong.
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen caught sight of the Tianchu Fairy’s departing figure. Her white robes fluttered as she walked away, like an immortal amidst the chaos of war, gradually fading into a distant silhouette.
“She won’t even spare me a single word. Does she think that by helping me repel Lord Shenya and the others, she’s repaid her debt of gratitude, and we owe each other nothing now?”
Zhang Ruochen’s heart felt a faint pang of disappointment.
Daizi smiled and clasped his hands towards Zhang Ruochen, then hoisted the unconscious Butcher onto his shoulder, following in the Tianchu Fairy’s footsteps.
“If you like her, go after her. If she didn’t have any fondness for you, she wouldn’t have risked her life to help you. You should know that earlier, we didn’t have much of an advantage—there was a real chance we could’ve been wiped out.”
Jiang Yunchong’s voice sounded beside Zhang Ruochen.
He gazed at the Tianchu Fairy’s graceful, captivating figure with an appreciative look.
Zhang Ruochen felt a stir in his heart, but when he considered taking that step, he shook his head lightly and said, “It can’t be forced. Our feelings for each other haven’t quite reached that point yet—we’re still a little short.”
“Fair enough. Anyway, a guy like you never lacks for admirers,” Jiang Yunchong said with a laugh.
Though Jiang Yunchong had known Zhang Ruochen for less than a day, he seemed to understand him quite well.
Zhang Ruochen asked, “Who exactly are you?”
“Jiang Yunchong, of the Jiang Clan of the Kunlun Realm,” Jiang Yunchong replied.
Zhang Ruochen said, “You’re not over a hundred years old.”
“That’s right,” Jiang Yunchong confirmed.
Zhang Ruochen continued, “But the Kunlun Realm only began to awaken in the last two years. Before that, the heavenly laws of the Kunlun Realm were incomplete. Achieving sainthood in a hundred years was incredibly difficult. To reach your current realm in less than a century is simply impossible.”
“What are you getting at?”
Jiang Yunchong stood with his hands behind his back, speaking calmly.
Zhang Ruochen said, “You don’t belong to this era.”
Jiang Yunchong was silent for a long moment before saying, “You’re right. I don’t belong to this era, but this secret absolutely cannot be exposed right now.”
Zhang Ruochen asked, “Why not?”
“Because the outside world doesn’t know the true strength of the Kunlun Realm. Letting them underestimate and dismiss the Kunlun Realm allows it to seize the greatest benefits in this chaotic age.”
“But if they learn that a group of cultivators in the Kunlun Realm is awakening, it will strike fear into some. When that happens, what awaits the Kunlun Realm won’t be a war of merit, but a war of annihilation.”
Jiang Yunchong let out a long sigh. “For now, the Kunlun Realm must rely on you to hold it up on the surface. I know it’s unfair to you, but we have no choice. What lies before us isn’t a glorious, thriving Kunlun, but a declining one. If we choose to run away, we’d be handing over our great rivers and mountains to others. I’m not willing to accept that!”
Zhang Ruochen fell silent for a while before asking, “How many cultivators like you, who have awakened, are there?”
“I don’t know.”
Jiang Yunchong shook his head. “We’re sleeping in different places. But I can roughly guess that I’m likely one of the earliest to awaken. Only when the Kunlun Realm fully recovers can all the sleepers awaken completely. Waking from that slumber isn’t easy—many cultivators may have already perished in their sleep.”
“Of course, you’re not alone, Zhang Ruochen. In this era, some exceptional individuals have been chosen as heaven’s selected talents to fight alongside you.”
“Heaven’s selected talents?”
Zhang Ruochen thought of Murong Yue. Could she be one of them?
Jiang Yunchong said, “There are certain beings in the Kunlun Realm that have lived from the Middle Ages to this era.”
“They aren’t human, and their lifespans are vast.”
“It’s they who selected those capable of bearing the mandate of heaven, sending them early into special secret realms, using the power of time to nurture them optimally and inherit the legacies of great saints or even gods. When they emerge, they’ll be your greatest allies.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Unfortunately, I’m no longer a cultivator of the Kunlun Realm.”
“But now, haven’t you returned?” Jiang Yunchong said with a smile.
Both fell silent.
After a while, Jiang Yunchong patted Zhang Ruochen’s shoulder and said, “Fleeing the Kunlun Realm and refusing to return is the act of a coward. A true man should come back, revitalise the Kunlun Realm, and achieve feats even Empress Chi Yao couldn’t accomplish. One day, when you dethrone Empress Chi Yao and take control of the Kunlun Realm, that’ll be true greatness. A man should stand tall between heaven and earth.”
