Simultaneously facing five top-tier Hundred Shackle Realm Great Sages, fighting one-on-one is entirely different, with too many factors to consider. At this moment, even if Zhang Ruochen could break the Four Prisons of the Four-Eyed Ghost Emperor, he dared not use his full strength, still needing to guard against the other top experts who might strike at any moment.
Zhang Ruochen held the gourd in one hand, while the other hand stirred the spatial rules within his qi sea, fingers forming a palm, striking outwards.
A loud boom echoed.
The palm print descended, space collapsing layer by layer, revealing patches of darkness and void, tearing apart the four ghost prisons.
The Sin Mirror shattered, the bronze pillar toppled, the blood pool dissipated, and ten thousand stone tablets turned to dust.
“So strong?”
The Four-Eyed Ghost Emperor’s heart trembled, hastily retreating to avoid the spreading shattered space.
His strongest attack was so effortlessly countered by Zhang Ruochen. It was clear that Zhang Ruochen, a Hundred Shackle Realm Great Sage who had only broken one shackle, already possessed the strength to kill him, a perfected Hundred Shackle Realm Great Sage.
“Take my whip!”
The Winged Ghost Emperor had already pushed the power of the Ghost Head Whip to its limit. The moment Zhang Ruochen unleashed his spatial power, the thousand-mile-long whip lashed out, combining chilling ghost qi with sharp whip force.
The Ghost Head Whip transformed into a blade-like edge, its power concentrated into a single line.
“The Winged Ghost Emperor has combined the Ghost Head Whip, a king-grade sacred artifact, with the Line-Splitting Sacred Intent, blending extreme softness with extreme sharpness, making it somewhat difficult to handle.”
Zhang Ruochen sent the Thousand Gangs Ring flying, clashing with the Ghost Head Whip.
The collision was silent.
The immensely powerful Thousand Gangs Ring seemed to strike nothing but air.
A smirk appeared on the Winged Ghost Emperor’s lips as the whip’s body curved, striking towards Zhang Ruochen from another direction.
Zhang Ruochen stomped in the void, twisting the space beneath his feet. The slashing Ghost Head Whip passed by his side, heading towards the Four-Eyed Ghost Emperor.
The Four-Eyed Ghost Emperor roared, “Winged Ghost Emperor, who are you trying to strike?”
The Winged Ghost Emperor hadn’t anticipated the profoundness of spatial power, which Zhang Ruochen used to redirect his attack. He hurriedly retracted the Ghost Head Whip.
Seizing the opportunity, Zhang Ruochen raised both hands above his head. Under the influence of time rules, countless time imprint light dots and the Time Sacred Aspect appeared simultaneously, condensing into a forty-metre-tall Time Bell.
The Time Sacred Aspect was ethereal, without a tangible form.
At the same time, the spatial rules and Spatial Sacred Aspect from his qi sea were released, flowing around his body, turning a hundred-mile radius into a massive spatial vortex, with countless spatial rifts flying within.
Sensing danger, Saint Yanhong warned, “Strike now, break his spatial domain, shatter the Time Bell.”
Xu mobilised ghost qi, surging towards the Seven-Star Ghost Lotus in the sky, intending to use the supreme sacred artifact’s power to suppress both space and time.
A bell tolled.
The time imprints fused with the sound, forming waves that spread in all directions at ten thousand times the speed of sound.
No one dared touch the time imprints. They retreated while raising their sacred rules, constructing their own domains to defend against the invasion of time power.
The Winged Ghost Emperor’s fused sacred intent was the fifth-grade Line-Splitting Sacred Intent, forming a domain composed of countless razor-sharp lines.
A loud crash followed.
The line domain blocked most of the time imprints but was pierced by the subsequent spatial storm.
“Damn it.”
Cursing under his breath, the Winged Ghost Emperor spread his wings and flew towards the sky.
“Slash!”
Hidden within the spatial storm, Zhang Ruochen transformed into a golden beam, his ten golden wings slashing at the Winged Ghost Emperor. Despite the Winged Ghost Emperor’s desperate defence with the Ghost Head Whip, his guard was broken by the golden wings.
With a ripping sound, the Winged Ghost Emperor’s left wing was severed by Zhang Ruochen’s golden wings.
From the severed wing, vast amounts of ghost qi leaked out.
Blood fiend qi and ancestral power invaded the Winged Ghost Emperor’s immortal ghost body, disrupting its intricate structure. Starting from the severed wing, the ghost body began to disintegrate, turning into black mist.
Enduring unbearable pain, the Winged Ghost Emperor let out a scream, “Zhang Ruochen’s power is strange, destroying my immortal Ghost Emperor body. I’ll leave him to you; I must find a safe place to refine that power.”
With that, the Winged Ghost Emperor fled.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
Zhang Ruochen struck from afar, sending a divine fire dragon that hit the Winged Ghost Emperor’s back, causing cracks to spread across his immortal ghost body, worsening his injuries.
The Winged Ghost Emperor’s body crashed into the sea a thousand miles away with a thud.
As Zhang Ruochen prepared to pursue and finish off the Winged Ghost Emperor, a chilling power fluctuation came from above, making his hair stand on end.
“The supreme sacred artifact has been activated again!”
Glancing upwards, Zhang Ruochen swiftly dove into the sea, heading deep towards the ocean floor.
“You can’t escape!”
Saint Yanhong’s melodious voice came from her delicate lips.
She was furious.
With so many powerful figures attacking together, Zhang Ruochen had still managed to severely injure the Winged Ghost Emperor. She wondered if the gods watching through the All-Seeing Divine Eye were deeply disappointed in her.
With a soft exhale, Saint Yanhong breathed out a pink deathly chill, instantly freezing the sea where Zhang Ruochen was into ice.
Zhang Ruochen’s body was sealed within the ice.
The ice was extremely hard, as if turned into dark iron.
A thunderous roar followed.
The supreme power from the Seven-Star Ghost Lotus formed a ghost qi waterfall, crashing down onto the pink frozen sea below.
Crack after crack sounded as the ice sea was pierced, all ice crystals vaporising.
At the critical moment, Zhang Ruochen raised the purple-gold gourd, standing beneath it, using its defensive power to withstand this wave of the supreme sacred artifact’s attack.
However, his body was blasted to the seabed.
Before he could catch his breath, the dried-up sea sprouted countless crimson bone flowers.
The bone flowers had thorns, containing deadly poison.
Billions of translucent bone flower petals flew towards him, emitting sharp, whistling sounds.
The spatial domain Zhang Ruochen had raised was steadily eroded by the bone flower petals. Though many petals withered, even more closed in on his body.
Just as his spatial domain was about to be completely eroded, Saint Yanhong’s enchanting figure emerged from the petals, her slender jade hands extending from her red sleeves.
Her ten delicate fingers formed two orchid gestures.
“Last time, you injured me with the tenfold attack power of the Path of Truth, which I consider a great humiliation. Today, do you dare to face me in a direct clash?”
Behind Saint Yanhong, the Gate of Destiny appeared, interwoven with countless destiny rules.
Zhang Ruochen had no desire to confront Saint Yanhong head-on, knowing full well that once entangled with her, he would surely lose today, no, he would surely die.
He had to find a way to escape.
“Fine, today we’ll fight to our heart’s content.”
Zhang Ruochen unleashed the Truth Form, with starlight shadows manifesting to counter the erosion of the pink bone flowers.
All the starlight converged on him, causing his ten golden wings to blaze brightly. The three dragon souls and three elephant souls in his arms materialised, and both palms struck towards Saint Yanhong.
“Kiss of Death.”
With a charming smile, Saint Yanhong formed a pink bone flower between her hands, striking towards Zhang Ruochen.
The Kiss of Death was a high-tier Thousand Questions sacred technique she had cultivated. The bone flower it formed contained terrifying poison, lethal even to Great Sages.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen take the bait, the Four-Eyed Ghost Emperor and Xu smiled, attacking simultaneously.
The Four-Eyed Ghost Emperor unleashed a ghost artifact shaped like a blood-red eyeball.
Xu invoked the power of the supreme sacred artifact, condensing a hundred-metre-tall black skeleton that descended from the sky, stomping towards Zhang Ruochen’s head.
If Zhang Ruochen truly clashed with Saint Yanhong, he would be hit by their attacks, unable to dodge. Even if he didn’t die, he’d likely be left with half a life.
A strange scene unfolded. Though Zhang Ruochen had struck with both palms, his body suddenly flew backwards.
A deafening roar followed.
The attacks from Saint Yanhong, Xu, and the Four-Eyed Ghost Emperor all missed.
Breaking free from their suppression, Zhang Ruochen prepared to use spatial teleportation to enter the depths of the Ghost Clan’s home star. Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine, his hair standing on end.
A sense of extreme danger gripped his heart.
“Not good.”
Zhang Ruochen’s expression changed drastically, his mental power sensing a hair-raising scene.
The shadow beneath his feet split into two.
One of the shadows moved behind him, thrusting a sword, its tip already reaching his back.
The shadow was a true shadow, and the sword was a true sword.
No need to guess, that shadow was Ye Changzai, ranked eighteenth on the perfected Hundred Shackle Realm Great Sage list.
“When did Ye Changzai hide in my shadow?”
Zhang Ruochen’s mind raced, recalling the earlier fight, vaguely pinpointing the cause.
Initially, Ye Changzai must have hidden in Saint Yanhong’s shadow. It was during the moment Zhang Ruochen and Saint Yanhong were in close contact that Ye Changzai slipped into his shadow.
It was imaginable that if Zhang Ruochen had truly clashed with Saint Yanhong, Ye Changzai’s sudden sword strike from the shadow would have left him no chance of survival.
In this life-or-death moment, Zhang Ruochen’s thoughts were unprecedentedly clear. His ten wings swiftly retracted, wrapping his body into a golden sphere.
A loud clang rang out.
Ye禁止
Ye Changzai’s sword struck the golden sphere, sparking a shower of sparks.
The golden sphere wasn’t knocked away; instead, it rolled along the sword’s edge, crashing towards the shadow on the ground.
A massive boom echoed.
The dried seabed was smashed into a large crater, cracks spreading around it.
Xu, Saint Yanhong, and the Four-Eyed Ghost Emperor landed at the crater’s edge.
With a wave of Saint Yanhong’s red sleeve, the dust in the crater cleared, revealing nothing but emptiness, no trace of Zhang Ruochen.
Ye Changzai’s shadow appeared beside Saint Yanhong, his voice weak, “Zhang Ruochen has fled deep into the Ghost Clan’s home star.”
“How are your injuries?” Saint Yanhong asked with concern.
Ye Changzai sighed, “Zhang Ruochen is indeed formidable. The five of us, perfected Hundred Shackle Realm Great Sages, formed what should have been a certain-kill situation, yet he broke through and even injured me. However, my sword didn’t entirely miss; he must be gravely wounded.”
Saint Yanhong sent out her mental power to probe and indeed detected Zhang Ruochen’s presence ten thousand metres below the surface.
“The depths of the Ghost Clan’s home star are filled with extreme gold-element substances, surely hiding great secrets. Zhang Ruochen knows he can’t escape, so he’s ventured into the depths, seeking a chance to survive,” Xu said.
If Zhang Ruochen could discover the situation underground, so could they.
“No matter what lies below, Zhang Ruochen is now gravely injured. We can’t miss this perfect opportunity to kill him… wait, something’s wrong.”
Saint Yanhong raised her fair face, looking to the sky.
Dense black clouds had appeared, layer upon layer, obscuring the seven stars formed by the Seven-Star Ghost Lotus. In an instant, the world turned pitch black, visibility reduced to nothing.
A chilling wind howled through the air.
The entire planet trembled faintly.
“Someone is invading the home star.”
Xu’s senses were sharper, detecting that the Seven-Star Ghost Lotus, the core of the star’s protective array, was under attack by another supreme sacred artifact.
