“Your Highness, beware!”
Que Gonggong shouted in alarm, stepping in front of Emperor Ancestor Crown Prince. One of his four arms rose, its palm radiating light as five ancient symbols emerged.
Five weapons, fused into his palm and melded with the symbols, glowed in purple, blue, white, yellow, and cyan hues.
“Five Laws Heaven and Earth.”
The palm strike unleashed a rumbling thunderous gale, clashing with the Blood Bee Asura King’s heavy sword.
Five Laws Heaven and Earth was a mid-tier Mysterious Profundity saint technique.
The five weapons were treasures imbued with Great Saint power. Combined with the saint technique, their fused might was wondrous and profound.
Que Gonggong, the crown prince’s top expert, managed to block the Blood Bee Asura King’s attack for a fleeting moment, buying time for the prince to retreat.
“Cangtian Defeat Seal.”
From Yue Gongming’s brow, tens of thousands of saintly path rules surged, forming a seal brighter than the sun, striking upward at the Blood Bee Asura King’s abdomen.
Simultaneously, Tianchu Fairy and Tianchu Civilization’s four elders wielded the *Red Sun Divine River Painting*, pressing down from above.
The Fourteenth Prince, Bai Shang, and Nie Qingli poured saint qi into the White Jade Ancient Ship. The ship’s inscriptions gathered at the sails, transforming into a dozen lightning dragons that roared towards the Blood Bee Asura King.
Besieged by multiple experts, even the formidable Blood Bee Asura King was suppressed.
Yet he didn’t falter. Brandishing his sword, he unleashed a flurry of slashes, forming a spherical sword arc domain that deflected all the cultivators’ attacks.
Zhenmiao Little Taoist gasped, “Freakish— utterly freakish! Holding off over a dozen Nine-Step Saint Kings alone. Half of them rival Path Domain cultivators!”
“Everyone, give it your all— whether we slay the Blood Bee Asura King hinges on this!”
“Kill him, and our names will echo across the realm.”
“His head’s worth a fortune in merit points— we’ll split it and trade for merit treasures to break through our realms.”
…
The cultivators buzzed with excitement— slaying the Blood Bee Asura King promised immense rewards.
From the distant blood mist, a low, haunting flute melody drifted.
“Whoo… hiss…”
An eerie sound reverberated through the air.
A horde of ghost fiends burst from the mist.
Many had solidified into real forms, surviving ghost tribulations to become ghost kings— some astride corpse king war beasts, others winged, wielding bizarre ghost artifacts.
“Rumble.”
The saint-realm cultivators’ faces paled.
Fully committed to suppressing the Blood Bee Asura King, this sudden assault from behind flipped the tide— they’d be caught between foes.
Zhang Ruochen, having witnessed those ghost kings kill Yun Gongming in mere breaths, knew their prowess.
But the situation left no room for spectating.
“Let’s go— stop those ghost kings.”
Fire clouds of Purifying Divine Flame flared on Zhang Ruochen’s arms. He struck out with two palm imprints, targeting the two leading ghost king knights.
Sensing the attack, the knights thrust their war lances.
Chilling ghost mist surged from the lances, clashing with the Purifying Divine Flame.
The forces eroded each other, dissipating together.
“No wonder a dozen ghost king knights could kill Yun Gongming— each one’s formidable,” Zhang Ruochen marvelled inwardly.
Four ghost king knights, leading over a dozen ghost kings, broke off to assault Zhang Ruochen’s position.
As the flute sounded, dozens of corpse kings erupted from beneath the divine blood lake.
One bore an immortal saint body— a Great Saint in life. Perfectly preserved, with no decay, only its golden scale armour bore blackened corrosion marks.
Its aura far surpassed the Great Saint corpse Zhang Ruochen had previously slain.
Blending corpse qi and Great Saint qi, a mere exhalation unleashed a deafening thunderous gale, shaking the air.
The Great Saint corpse king emerged less than ten metres from Lu Lao.
Lu Lao, controlling the eighth-rank array to suppress the Blood Emperor Bees, blanched.
Lion Green Godson and others nearby reacted swiftly, unleashing a barrage of attacks like a rainstorm on the corpse king.
But shielded by Great Saint qi, their sacred artifacts and techniques couldn’t touch it.
The Great Saint corpse king strode steadily towards Lu Lao.
Qushan Old Mother addressed Black Phoenix and White Vermilion Bird, “Today’s situation is more perilous than I imagined— I shouldn’t have brought you here to train. Stay put— follow the cripple.”
“Whoosh…”
With that, she spread her wings and flew into the blood mist towards the flute’s source.
Black Phoenix and White Vermilion Bird recognised the dire stakes— even Path Domain experts could fall, let alone them.
Since the old mother directed them to the cripple, he must offer better odds of survival.
Her experience far exceeded theirs— she’d seen something extraordinary in him.
They rushed towards Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen withheld the Azure Heaven Pagoda, wary of Shenya Master lurking nearby. Exposing himself risked drawing attention. Instead, he and Zhenmiao Little Taoist unleashed the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Mirror’s supreme power against the encircling ghost kings.
Though incomplete, the mirror’s might remained potent.
Each supreme power blast shattered a ghost king’s form.
Ordinary ghost kings perished instantly, but the four knights reformed swiftly after being broken, as if unkillable.
“They have ghost essence pearls inside— unless those break, they won’t die,” Zhenmiao Little Taoist explained.
A red-robed ghost king knight, over two metres tall, sneered, “You know of ghost essence pearls? Quite knowledgeable.”
Its war lance slashed diagonally, tracing a black arc towards Zhenmiao Little Taoist.
Zhang Ruochen invoked the Zhenmiao Rules, amplifying his strike sevenfold. A punch sent the lance and knight flying, cracks spiderwebbing across its body.
Through the fissures, Zhang Ruochen glimpsed a dark cyan glow at its heart— likely the ghost essence pearl’s core.
“What exactly are ghost essence pearls?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
“They’re forged from saintly path cultivators’ saint sources— a secretive method. Even among ghost cultivators, few know it,” Zhenmiao Little Taoist replied.
“Forged from saint sources into pearls that supreme artifacts can’t destroy— how’s that possible?” Zhang Ruochen pressed.
Zhenmiao Little Taoist said, “I know little— it seems tied to the Darkness Path, one of the Nine Eternal Paths.”
Zhang Ruochen didn’t probe further, lunging at the red-robed ghost king.
Its form still healing, the ghost king saw Zhang Ruochen closing in and flung a talisman.
Dark cyan ghost patterns flared on the talisman, forming a thick light barrier.
“Ghosts can craft talismans too?”
Zhang Ruochen activated the Fire God Gauntlets’ origin power, piercing the barrier with a palm strike. The force unabated, it hit the ghost king’s heart.
“Crack.”
A shattering sound rang out.
Zhang Ruochen’s hand punched through, seizing a walnut-sized pearl.
“Give me back my ghost essence pearl!”
The ghost king shrieked, swinging its lance at Zhang Ruochen’s head.
Zhang Ruochen dodged aside, striking with a fiery palm imprint that suppressed and refined the ghost king into mist.
“Such a waste— you should’ve let me devour it,” the Yi Huang Bone Staff’s voice echoed in his ear.
“Stay hidden for now— I sense others lurking, maybe Shenya Master. If he knows I’m here, he’ll target me first,” Zhang Ruochen cautioned.
Black Phoenix and White Vermilion Bird arrived, joining Zhenmiao Little Taoist to power the Purple Gold Eight Trigrams Mirror.
Its strength surged, shattering the remaining three ghost king knights’ forms. Zhang Ruochen, with ghostly agility, collected their ghost essence pearls, sealing them in the Azure Heaven Pagoda.
Before they could celebrate, a scream pierced the air by the lake.
The Great Saint corpse king broke the eighth-rank array’s suppression, pulverizing Lu Lao into blood mist with a punch.
The forty-nine array discs crashed down, the array collapsing.
Freed, the Blood Emperor Bees swarmed the saintly path cultivators. Dozens of corpse kings and ghost kings encircled Lion Green Godson, Emperor Ancestor Crown Prince, Tianchu Fairy, and the others.
Caught between foes, they had no strength left to target the Blood Bee Asura King, resorting to self-preservation.
“Run— we can’t stay here!”
“Flee, or we’re all doomed!”
The Blood Bee Asura King transformed into a sword qi beam, piercing the *Red Sun Divine River Painting*’s suppression, soaring ten metres into the air.
His long hair whipped, battle intent blazing, as he swung his sword downward.
“Splurch.”
An elder beside Tianchu Fairy was cleaved in two. The sword arc even tore a long gash in the solid earth.
The elders’ splattered saint blood stained Tianchu Fairy’s white robes red.
