Soul-summoning is an intricate process that must be performed swiftly, as the longer the delay, the greater the difficulty, potentially extinguishing all hope.
Once a saint soul scatters into the heavens and earth, it gradually assimilates with time, eventually becoming impossible to regather.
Zhang Ruochen’s situation was relatively favorable, retaining nearly one percent of his saint soul, providing a foundation that made reassembling the scattered fragments somewhat easier.
“Swish.”
The Blood Empress slashed her wrist, releasing a surge of divine blood.
Using it as a medium, she swiftly inscribed intricate secret patterns, forming a peculiar soul-summoning array.
Such an array didn’t require divine blood, other materials could suffice, and it could be pre-crafted.
But time was critical, and the Blood Empress would not delay.
For Zhang Ruochen, she spared no divine blood.
As mother and son, their bond was profound, Zhang Ruochen’s soul birthed within her. Using her divine blood maximized the recall of his scattered soul fragments.
She aimed not only to revive him but to restore his peak state, ensuring his future cultivation remained unhindered.
Parents always want the best for their children.
“Search the heavens, gather the soul.”
The Blood Empress’s expression was solemn, her hands slowly forming intricate seals.
“Hum.”
The array on the ground blazed with radiant bloodlight, soaring skyward.
The void trembled, faintly revealing a surreal passage, dark and leading to an unknown destination.
The passage was unstable, flickering, on the verge of collapse.
The Blood Empress promptly released more divine blood, stabilizing and widening it.
With a thought, she unleashed her vast divine consciousness, flooding the passage.
Soul-summoning involved using mental power or divine consciousness to capture the scattered soul fragments, retrieve them, and reassemble them.
This was no simple task, as reversing life and death defied the natural order, incurring backlash from heaven and earth rules.
The stronger the person to be revived, the fiercer the backlash.
At his death, Zhang Ruochen was an Immortal Great Saint, immensely powerful, even a top mental power Great Saint might fail at the cost of their life.
Summoning a saint realm cultivator’s soul was inherently difficult, as they were deeply tied to heaven and earth rules.
The Blood Empress disregarded these risks, focused solely on reviving Zhang Ruochen, heedless of the intensity of the backlash.
Outside the cave, the heavens changed color, the lightning shrouding the blood-red mountain grew fiercer, and massive spatial rifts appeared, as if the world were about to shatter.
The rules of the Endless Abyss’s second tier became chaotic and aggressive, materializing like soaring dragons.
Blood Demon and Qiu Yichi stood outside the mountain, their expressions grave.
Several figures arrived nearby, familiar to Zhang Ruochen: Chi Linyuan, Qi Sheng, Ying Huo, and Blood Slaughter, followers of the Blood Empress.
“What’s happening?” Chi Linyuan asked.
He, Qi Sheng, Ying Huo, and Blood Slaughter were puzzled by the sudden upheaval.
Qiu Yichi explained, “His Highness faced a deadly calamity, Master is using heaven-defying means to revive him. The rules here will grow increasingly chaotic, we…”
As she spoke, the heavens shifted.
“Boom.”
Thunderbolts split the sky, shattering the void.
A vast, abyssal divine might emanated from the mountain, spreading rapidly.
“Bang.”
Including Blood Demon, everyone was forced to their knees by the divine might, unable to move.
All blood beasts in the second tier cowered, trembling.
Gods, transcendent and supreme, were fundamentally different from saint realm cultivators, their divine might unopposable even by Great Saints.
Previously, the Blood Empress had restrained her might, sparing Blood Demon and others.
Now, performing the soul-summoning, her power unleashed fully, her divine might unbridled.
Chi Linyuan, Qi Sheng, Ying Huo, and Blood Slaughter were shocked, unable to believe the invincible Zhang Ruochen had fallen, unaware of the events outside.
Blood Slaughter, secluded in the Endless Abyss, had been cultivating in isolation, oblivious to Kunlun Realm’s current state.
Yet, his cultivation had deepened significantly, far surpassing his past, no longer just among the Blood Sky Tribe’s top five.
“To save her son, the Blood Empress is sparing no effort. Though a god, reviving Zhang Ruochen will cost her dearly, I never imagined familial bonds held such weight for her,” Blood Demon said.
A cultivation fanatic, he devoted all to practice.
If his children faced calamity, he couldn’t match the Blood Empress’s resolve.
Soul-summoning was arduous, its duration uncertain, and though no one enjoyed kneeling, they had no choice but to wait.
They silently prayed for success.
Otherwise, given the Blood Empress’s nature, who knew what might happen if Zhang Ruochen couldn’t be revived?
…
At the same time, a regal figure appeared at the outskirts of the Zhenyu Ancient Clan.
If Zhang Ruochen were here, he’d be stunned, as it was his other mother, Consort Lin.
Consort Lin should have been with Mu Lingxi at Phoenix Lake.
Why was she at the Zhenyu Ancient Clan?
Before her lay the ancient divine patterns guarding the clan and Sword Tomb, dense and interwoven, forming a formidable defense.
This was True Wonder Little Taoist’s work.
Since defeating the Immortal Vampire Clan’s army, True Wonder had stayed, studying the Star Map while repairing the patterns.
With its array mastery, controlling the restored patterns, even ordinary Great Saints couldn’t breach them.
With Historian Mingyuan, a talisman master, present, unless the Hell Realm sent a force like that attacking the Central Imperial City, the Sword Tomb was secure.
Consort Lin’s eyes gleamed faintly, instantly seeing through the patterns.
“Swoosh.”
She moved, passing through them unhindered, entering the Sword Tomb.
“Hm? Did someone just enter, or was it an illusion?” True Wonder Little Taoist wondered.
Controlling the patterns, it sensed any disturbance.
It felt something but caught no trace.
“Must be an illusion.”
Too lazy to dwell, it resumed studying the Star Map.
With its array prowess, it doubted anyone could bypass the patterns unnoticed, not even a Great Saint.
Soon, Consort Lin reached the Sword Tomb’s depths, before a turtle-backed black stone mountain.
She stepped forward, passing through, vanishing.
The mountain held an invisible door to the Nether Dungeon.
As Consort Lin entered, a bald old man emerged from the stone wall, Old Kong, the self-proclaimed sole jailer.
Following him were the four wardens.
“Not long since her last visit, and she’s back? Still not giving up on freeing the Nether King?” Warden Golden Leaf said.
Clearly, Consort Lin wasn’t new here, Old Kong and the wardens knew her.
Warden Thunder Melon snorted, “Everyone underestimates the Nether Dungeon’s strength. Without Old Kong’s permission, even a god couldn’t free its prisoners, let alone a god’s avatar.”
“Old Kong’s leniency lets her see the Nether King.”
Old Kong smiled, “The Nether King’s an interesting lad, an Immortal Vampire wanting to subdue the six saint swords suppressing him. I gave him a chance.”
“If he gains the Sword Ancestor’s spiritual will’s approval and subdues the swords’ spirits before becoming a god, I won’t stop him from leaving.”
The six saint swords, fragments of Kunlun Realm’s Stellar Divine Sword, one of the ten divine artifacts, forged by the Sword Ancestor, were theoretically impossible for Hell Realm beings to claim.
The Wordless Sword Manual came from the Sword Ancestor, the patriarch of Kunlun’s sword dao.
His spiritual will was so potent, even gods struggled against it, let alone lesser beings.
Old Kong’s wager with the Nether King was due to his uniqueness, offering him a slim chance to leave alive.
Guarding the dungeon for countless years was dull, and he needed amusement.
Entering the Nether Dungeon, Consort Lin faced no obstacles, reaching the fifteenth layer, “Torture Prison Realm.”
Unlike the prior fourteen, this realm was a cultivation haven, filled with colorful crystals, spirit crystals, and saint stones, countless in number.
Yet, one area lacked rules, spiritual qi, or saint qi, a forbidden zone.
Here, the Nether King was sealed, six towering saint swords forming a sword mountain on the horizon, their radiant light piercing the dark realm.
Below, a ten-zhang blood cocoon, woven from countless blood patterns, stained hundreds of miles blood-red.
“Why have you returned to the Nether Dungeon, Blood Empress?”
An indifferent voice echoed, as if from the heavens.
Consort Lin’s form and aura shifted, becoming the Blood Empress.
No one could have guessed that Consort Lin, brought to Phoenix Lake by Mu Lingxi, was her avatar.
When Qiu Yichi visited Phoenix Lake, it was to meet this avatar, only to be spotted by Zhang Ruochen.
With the merit battlefield under divine scrutiny, the Blood Empress couldn’t appear in person.
To free the Nether King and see Zhang Ruochen sooner, she crafted an avatar to roam Kunlun.
Her avatar had visited the Sword Tomb and met Old Kong before.
Old Kong, seemingly a mere jailer, had unfathomable cultivation, beyond her avatar’s perception. Strangely, he knew her identity but didn’t stop her from entering.
Was it confidence in his power?
Or another reason?
The Blood Empress set aside her thoughts, gazing at the cocoon, “Sixth Brother, I’m returning to the Hell Realm, I came to bid farewell.”
“Your karma in Kunlun Realm has finally concluded,” the Nether King’s emotionless voice replied.
The Blood Empress said, “The disputes within the Blood Absolute Family need resolution.”
“Then I should escape soon to settle old scores,” the Nether King said.
“You’re confident of breaking free?” she asked.
“If it’s just escaping, I could have seven thousand years ago, but I’d only be a Great Saint.”
“I stayed suppressed here for seven thousand years, knowing this is my path to divinity.”
“The six swords suppress me, but also temper me.”
“No, since three thousand years ago, I’ve been wearing them down. Even as a god, I aim to be among the strongest, and mastering these swords is the first step.”
“Rumble.”
The cocoon shook, releasing immense power.
The earth for tens of thousands of miles crumbled, melting into molten lava.
Blood patterns extended from the cocoon, wrapping the six swords.
The swords trembled, unleashing terrifying lightning, heavenly fire, and gales, bombarding the cocoon.
Simultaneously, they emitted sword beams capable of cleaving the sky and annihilating stars.
Each sword was a Supreme Saint Artifact, their combined power immense.
Such a set was rare, coveted even by gods.
Logically, ten thousand years of suppression would reduce even a Supreme Great Saint to bones.
Yet the Nether King endured, his spiritual will growing stronger, grasping the mystery of divinity.
Though the swords resisted, the blood patterns weakened their resistance.
Over time, the swords shrank to normal size.
The cocoon vanished, revealing a strikingly handsome figure in gleaming blood armor, exuding an immortal grace.
The Nether King, appearing in his twenties, was jade-like, charismatic, irresistible to any woman.
Facing the swords, he extended a hand, releasing refined blood fiend power, engulfing them.
Under its refinement, the swords merged into one.
But it was only the blade, lacking a hilt.
The blade, covered in intricate patterns, faintly radiated divine power.
“Where is the Stellar Divine Sword’s hilt?” the Nether King mused, as if to himself.
As he claimed the swords, Old Kong sensed it, his eyes complex, sighing, “Why would the Stellar Divine Sword submit to a Hell Realm being? Sword Ancestor, is this your will?”
He never expected the Nether King to win their playful wager.
Though baffled, if it was the Sword Ancestor’s will, he wouldn’t oppose it.
