The Prison-Suppressing Ancient Clan was governed by three major families: the Wang family, masters of the sword path; the Shi family, experts in talisman arts; and the Shen family, proficient in array techniques.
As one of the eighteen ancient clans of the Kunlun Realm and the guardians of the Nether Dungeon, the Prison-Suppressing Ancient Clan had once enjoyed a period of immense glory. In those days, divine-level array inscriptions surrounded the clan’s outskirts, making it impossible for any being to break into the Sword Tomb.
As the Kunlun Realm declined, so too did the Prison-Suppressing Ancient Clan.
It wasn’t until the Kunlun Realm began to revive that the clan produced a few Saint King realm powerhouses. Shen Jia, the head of the Shen family, was one of them.
When Zhang Ruochen and his group entered the Prison-Suppressing Ancient Clan, it was Shen Jia who came to greet them.
Shi Ren asked, “Uncle Shen, where is the clan leader?”
“The clan leader is at the Sword Tomb Palace. Come, let’s head there together,” Shen Jia said with a warm smile.
A flicker of doubt crossed Shi Ren’s eyes. As they walked, he asked, “I heard a large number of Undying Blood Clan members broke out of the Yin Burial Mountain Range. They’ll surely target the Nether King Sword Tomb. Has anything happened here recently?”
“The Sword Tomb is protected by Middle Age inscriptions. The Undying Blood Clan can’t break in that easily,” Shen Jia replied.
Shi Ren and Shen Jia conversed ahead, but Zhang Ruochen, trailing behind, grew solemn, noticing something amiss.
“The air isn’t moving. Fairy, do you know why?” Zhang Ruochen sent a mental message to Ji Fanxin.
Ji Fanxin’s spiritual power far surpassed his, and she might discern what he couldn’t.
Ji Fanxin kept her gaze forward, her voice transmitting into Zhang Ruochen’s mind: “It’s an illusion. Everything you see is a mirage.”
Zhang Ruochen was inwardly shocked. “To turn an entire area into an illusion and deceive a 59th-tier spiritual power Saint King—can someone below the Great Saint level really achieve such astonishing mastery of illusion arts?”
Ji Fanxin explained, “In a real environment, the biggest flaw in an illusion is wind. The illusionist here stopped the wind, so the air ceased to flow.”
“Doesn’t that make the flaw even more obvious?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
Ji Fanxin replied, “Perhaps the illusionist underestimated us, treating us like inexperienced youths. Or maybe our arrival was too sudden, leaving him no time to craft a more seamless deception.”
By then, they had reached the plaza outside the Sword Tomb Palace.
The Sword Tomb Palace stood 800 metres tall, spanning dozens of li, constructed from massive stones like a pyramid.
“The clan leader is inside. Honoured guests, please enter,” Shen Jia said, standing at the palace gate and gesturing for Shi Ren, Zhang Ruochen, and the others to step inside first.
Shi Ren didn’t move, instead staring at Shen Jia with suspicion. “The Sword Tomb Palace is a vital stronghold of the Prison-Suppressing Ancient Clan. There should be many clansmen guarding it. Why isn’t a single one here today?”
Shen Jia replied, “You may not know, but the clan members have all gone to the Sword Tomb.”
“You address me as ‘sir’? Uncle Shen, don’t you know I’m the young chief of the Prison-Suppressing Ancient Clan?” Shi Ren pressed.
Shen Jia’s eyelid twitched slightly as he muttered, “Young chief…”
With a swift “pfft,” Murong Yue appeared behind Shen Jia like a phantom, her Azure Light Crescent Slash piercing his chest.
A muffled groan escaped Shen Jia’s mouth.
But no blood flowed from his body. Instead, his expression turned eerie, and his form slowly dissipated.
“It’s just an illusory figure,” Murong Yue said, retracting her weapon and scanning her surroundings warily.
“Shatter!” Zhang Ruochen commanded.
He raised his left foot and stomped heavily on the ground.
Flames surged outward, incinerating the illusion.
The real world revealed itself.
They were still in the plaza outside the Sword Tomb Palace, but it was now riddled with cracks and craters, littered with broken walls and bloodstains.
The Sword Tomb Palace had vanished, replaced by a 300-zhang-tall monstrous beast.
The creature’s face was grotesque, covered in blood-red scales, its teeth razor-sharp, exhaling thick, bloody miasma. It crouched before Zhang Ruochen and his group. Had they stepped into the “Sword Tomb Palace” earlier, they might have been swallowed whole by this blood beast.
The beast radiated a formidable, chilling aura.
Zhang Ruochen immediately unleashed his holy qi, enveloping the group and retreating rapidly.
“Boom!”
Just as they pulled back, a blood claw slammed into their previous position, cratering the earth and sending rocks flying.
Stopping at the plaza’s edge, Zhang Ruochen and the others turned to face the beast.
“It’s a Blood Camel Nether Beast, a war beast raised by the Undying Blood Clan,” Ji Fanxin identified.
Zhang Ruochen’s gaze shifted to the beast’s head, where a two-metre-tall, pointed-eared man stood, holding a glowing gem.
The gem’s light cast dreamlike images across the surrounding area.
The pointed-eared man’s voice boomed grandly, “So, a group of skilled cultivators. I underestimated you earlier.”
Shi Ren demanded coldly, “Who are you? Where are the clansmen of the Prison-Suppressing Ancient Clan?”
“Haha!” The man laughed heartily, then said slowly, “Young chief, you’ve returned too late! My mount has already devoured all the clansmen of the Prison-Suppressing Ancient Clan.”
“Impossible… no… you’re courting death!”
Shi Ren gritted his teeth, fury surging as bloodshot veins filled his eyes. He charged at the man, unleashing twelve talismans in succession.
Each talisman streaked like white light, moving at incredible speed.
The pointed-eared man didn’t bother blocking them, merely gazing at Shi Ren with contempt from atop the Blood Camel Nether Beast.
“Bang! Bang!”
The talismans struck the beast and the man, shattering into bursts of lightning that engulfed them.
After years of cultivation, Shi Ren’s spiritual power had reached the 58th tier. His attack talismans posed a threat even to Nine-Step Saint Kings.
The twelve talismans exploded, tearing the Blood Camel Nether Beast and the man into fragments, reducing them to black ash.
“So weak?” Shi Ren muttered, puzzled.
“Haha!” The beast and the man reappeared in another spot, mocking, “You can’t even find my true body, yet you dream of revenge?”
Enraged beyond measure, Shi Ren unleashed more talismans, continuing his assault.
Zhang Ruochen pulled out the Record of the Ten Infernal Clans’ Evils, flipping to a page with an illustration identical to the pointed-eared man.
“Hundred Illusions Divine Son, danger level seven, the thirty-seventh son of Ji Wuxue God of the Undying Blood Clan’s Azure Heaven Tribe…”
After reading the entry, Zhang Ruochen stowed the book, his expression turning grave. “Everyone, be cautious. This is a danger level seven expert named Hundred Illusions Divine Son. His mount, the Blood Camel Nether Beast, has combat strength comparable to a Dao Domain realm powerhouse—a formidable foe.”
Murong Yue, Xie Chengzi, Xiang Chunan, and Luo Yi leapt into action, each wielding their strongest holy artefacts, ready to strike.
Simultaneously, Zhang Ruochen deployed his spatial domain, pinpointing Hundred Illusions Divine Son’s true location.
“Scales to Dragon!”
Zhang Ruochen transformed into a golden dragon, soaring upward and striking with a house-sized dragon claw at a specific point in the void.
In the emptiness, Hundred Illusions Divine Son and the Blood Camel Nether Beast’s true forms emerged.
The divine son’s expression shifted slightly, clearly surprised someone could see through his illusion. But he reacted swiftly, raising the gem to form a translucent crystal barrier.
“Boom!”
The dragon claw clashed with the barrier, unleashing a fierce energy storm in all directions.
With a crack, the crystal barrier shattered.
The dragon claw’s momentum persisted, pressing downward.
Hundred Illusions Divine Son’s eyes narrowed. With a light stomp, the Blood Camel Nether Beast beneath him thrust a blood claw upward, meeting the dragon claw head-on.
The beast roared, its massive frame jolted back by the impact.
Having refined beast-shaped holy medicines and gained a grand opportunity in the divine gate, Zhang Ruochen’s strength had surged several-fold, giving him the power to battle a danger level seven being.
Hundred Illusions Divine Son said, “You’ve got some skill. Who are you? State your name.”
“If you can leave the Nether King Sword Tomb alive, you’ll naturally learn who I am,” Zhang Ruochen replied.
Reverting to human form, he unleashed the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm, infusing it with truth rules to amplify its power sevenfold.
“Bang!”
Hundred Illusions Divine Son’s form shattered into a cloud of blood mist.
The palm strike landed on the Blood Camel Nether Beast, piercing its scales and leaving a bloody crater.
The beast howled in agony, collapsing heavily to the ground.
“Human, you’ve thoroughly enraged this divine son!”
Hundred Illusions Divine Son hadn’t died. He reappeared above Zhang Ruochen, arms outstretched, manifesting over a thousand figures that attacked simultaneously.
Each figure seemed real, each carrying the power to kill Zhang Ruochen.
Unwilling to let any approach, Zhang Ruochen channelled holy qi into his left leg.
“Yan God Leg!”
He raised his left leg, and the heavens and earth changed.
The sky turned crimson, with fire clouds roiling.
The ground erupted with countless streams of lava, blazing like a furnace.
“Rumble!”
With one stomp, immense divine power surged forth.
All the figures charging at Zhang Ruochen shattered into grains of sand.
Hundred Illusions Divine Son’s true body emerged, struck by a wave of flames and sent flying back dozens of li. Landing, he stared at Zhang Ruochen in the flame’s centre, as if beholding a fire god, his eyes filled with shock.
“That leg of his… could it be a divine leg?”
Hundred Illusions Divine Son had always been arrogant, dismissing Heavenly Realm cultivators.
In this moment, his perspective shifted.
The Heavenly Realm, it seemed, harboured extraordinary powerhouses.
Watching Zhang Ruochen stride out of the flames step by step, Hundred Illusions Divine Son’s eyes darted about. He glanced at Ji Fanxin and the others, a bad feeling rising within him. This group wasn’t to be trifled with.
One fighter alone had proven troublesome.
Who knew if there were even stronger ones among them?
Outnumbered and at a disadvantage, he made a decisive move.
Without rescuing the Blood Camel Nether Beast, Hundred Illusions Divine Son turned and fled, vanishing swiftly over the horizon.
Zhang Ruochen watched him escape, then drew the Azure Sky Bow and White Sun Arrow, pulling the string taut.
With his current holy path cultivation and physical strength, his arm power had increased manifold, making the Azure Sky Bow and White Sun Arrow far deadlier than before.
As he drew the bow, the sky within a thousand li turned azure, and the ground blazed with radiant white light.
