“Since no one is willing to compromise, it can only be a fight to the death.”
Zhang Ruochen swept his leg, the gust of force sending the twenty-odd Yanluo Clan array masters flying like scattered stones.
Whoosh!
A spatial wormhole mirror materialised, swallowing all the array masters.
In the distance, Yan Huangtu’s eyelids twitched, sensing danger.
No one knew where the other end of the spatial wormhole mirror led, but he had a premonition and swiftly retreated.
As expected, the wormhole mirror appeared where he had just been hovering. The twenty-odd Yanluo Clan array masters, engulfed in divine flames, flew out, screaming in agony.
Some had bones nearly melted, teetering on the edge of death.
“Zhang Ruochen timed it too perfectly!”
Yan Huangtu sighed, forced to unleash icy energy to extinguish the divine flames on their bodies.
When Zhang Ruochen had suppressed the twenty-odd array masters, Yan Huangtu could choose not to yield, but now, with them thrown before him, he couldn’t abandon them.
This was Zhang Ruochen’s plan!
He had seized the moment, forcing Yan Huangtu to act immediately.
In half a breath, Yan Huangtu quenched the divine flames on the array masters. On his right, another spatial wormhole mirror opened, and Zhang Ruochen charged out.
In that instant, Yan Huangtu felt an illusion: space seemed to solidify, time seemed to halt.
No!
It wasn’t an illusion.
Space truly solidified, and time stopped for a moment.
Zhang Ruochen’s right hand seized the Soul-Seizing Flute.
His left hand formed a palm seal, striking at Yan Huangtu’s chest.
Yan Huangtu knew how terrifying Zhang Ruochen’s palm strike was. Even with his invincible defence and Imperial Divine Bones, he couldn’t withstand it.
“Roar!”
Yan Huangtu bellowed, unleashing tens of thousands of golden dragon shadows from his body, releasing overwhelming divine power that shattered the solidified space. Abandoning the Soul-Seizing Flute, he retreated swiftly.
He stopped a hundred zhang away, still shaken.
“The combination of time and space powers is this terrifying.”
In that fleeting moment, he had been immobilised, all functions, including thought, halted, as if he were at Zhang Ruochen’s mercy. The sensation was excruciating.
Fortunately, the time stop lasted only an instant. Any longer, and Yan Huangtu feared he’d lose the confidence to face Zhang Ruochen.
“Xian’er, kill Xia Yu now… Xian’er…”
Yan Huangtu sent a mental message, only to witness a shocking scene.
The space where Yan Zhexian, the Eight Sons of Life and Death, and Yu Huang stood had collapsed massively, forming a hundreds-of-metres-wide shattered zone. All of them sank into the void space.
From afar, it looked like a layer of thin ice on a lake breaking, plunging them into the water.
“Zhang… Ruo… Chen…”
Yan Huangtu growled the name through gritted teeth.
Above the shattered space, a lingering spatial wormhole mirror remained.
Clearly, in the half-breath Yan Huangtu spent saving the array masters, Zhang Ruochen had first attacked the space where Yan Zhexian and the others were, then targeted him.
His speed was staggering.
“Master of Space and Time… this is the Master of Space and Time! Is there any cultivator on the Hunting Heaven Battlefield who can stop him?”
Yan Huangtu regretted not ordering the Yanluo Clan’s array and talisman masters to set up arrays to suppress time and space first. With Zhang Ruochen controlling both, how could they fight him?
…
Yan Zhexian and the Eight Sons of Life and Death were also filled with regret.
The Hunting Heaven Battlefield, within the Six-Coloured Divine Mist Nebula of the Wugui Forest, had an extraordinarily stable space. Even with their formidable cultivation, they could only tear a small rift.
But Zhang Ruochen, the Master of Space, wielded spatial rules, shattering a vast expanse hundreds of metres long with a single palm, engulfing them all.
“I’ll help you return to the battlefield. You must suppress Zhang Ruochen. The Yanluo Clan’s first place cannot be lost.”
Standing on a sinking space fragment, Yan Zhexian’s fingers swiftly drew eight talismans, striking the Eight Sons of Life and Death. Before the space closed, she pushed them out of the void.
She and Yu Huang sank deeper into the void, swallowed by darkness.
Of course, the Yanluo Clan’s Ancient God of Learning and Blood Absolute War God soon intervened, rescuing them from the void.
“Finally, I’ve sent them out of the battlefield. Now, with no restraints, I can fight freely.”
Zhang Ruochen inspected the Soul-Seizing Flute, confirming Yu Huang’s holy soul was inside. He extracted her mental power from the Seven-Star Ghost Lotus and placed it in the flute’s space.
With a casual toss, he sent the flute into the void.
With countless gods watching the battlefield, Zhang Ruochen trusted a god would retrieve the flute along with Yu Huang.
Whoosh!
Instead of attacking Yan Huangtu again, Zhang Ruochen flashed through a spatial wormhole mirror, appearing before Pink Skull.
“You’re too late, Zhang Ruochen. I’ve already sent sixty-three Bone Clan Great Saints to hunt down the sixty-three Undead Blood Clan Nine-Step Saint Kings.”
Pink Skull had anticipated Zhang Ruochen would target her first and was prepared. Divine light burst from her, and a bone finger, adorned with a ruby ring, pointed at him.
The ring was the Bone Clan’s Supreme Sacred Artifact.
Facing today’s Zhang Ruochen, Pink Skull went all out from the start.
This finger was a Qianwen-level high-tier sacred technique, shifting between fast and slow, unpredictable. Even with Zhang Ruochen’s Heart of Truth, he found it hard to fathom, inwardly shocked.
“Pink Skull has such a supreme technique. Even powerhouses like Wujiang and Yan Huangtu might not escape this finger unscathed.”
Boom!
Millions of starlight points surged from Zhang Ruochen, forming the “Star Sea Without Shores” truth realm. Beams of truth illuminated Pink Skull, revealing her finger’s attack trajectory.
Affected by the spatial true domain, Pink Skull saw Zhang Ruochen’s body shifting near and far, left and right, making him equally elusive.
In her moment of distraction, the Seven-Star Ghost Lotus flew from nowhere, clashing with her bone finger.
Simultaneously, Zhang Ruochen’s palm struck her chest, ten swastika azure dragons flying from his palm, sending Pink Skull screaming and flying over a hundred li.
“Impossible… how could he so easily break my Illusory God Finger, combined with the Supreme Sacred Artifact’s power?”
Undying divine patterns glowed on Pink Skull’s divine bones, neutralising Zhang Ruochen’s full-force palm.
At the Bone Clan’s home star, though Pink Skull gained no major opportunities, she had deepened her understanding of her undying divine patterns.
Swish!
Zhang Ruochen crossed space again, appearing before her.
Before she could stabilise, he struck another palm.
Boom.
Pink Skull flew back again.
“I don’t believe you’re truly undying.”
Zhang Ruochen attacked again, this time summoning Purifying Divine Fire to refine the undying divine patterns on Pink Skull’s body.
Luo Sha had told him Pink Skull possessed an undying body, killed three times by a Supreme Realm Great Saint yet reviving each time, eerily so.
Zhang Ruochen refused to believe it.
Only absolute power existed; there was no such thing as an undying body.
In a single breath, Zhang Ruochen sent Pink Skull flying thirteen times, leaving her unable to counter. Each time she began to curse, her voice was cut off.
Yan Huangtu and the Yanluo Clan’s talisman masters gathered, eyeing Zhang Ruochen and Pink Skull. He pointed, “Seal that space.”
Over sixty Yanluo Clan Great Saint talisman masters acted, sending out a pre-crafted wall-like talisman pattern.
The wall, originally spanning twenty thousand li, rapidly shrank to a thousand zhang.
It tried to contract further but was blocked by Zhang Ruochen’s spatial true domain and truth realm.
“Enough!” Yan Huangtu said.
The sixty-plus Great Saint talisman masters’ combined effort was enough to heavily suppress Zhang Ruochen, turning a fierce tiger into a caged beast.
Yan Huangtu unleashed the supreme power of the Tongtian Ruyi, charging into the wall-like talisman, striking at Zhang Ruochen’s waist.
Unable to use spatial teleportation, Zhang Ruochen countered with the Seven-Star Ghost Lotus.
The lotus spun, releasing vast icy ghost energy.
Boom.
Having prepared, Zhang Ruochen didn’t falter in this clash.
Both retreated rapidly.
“Indeed, Zhang Ruochen’s spatial powers are suppressed!” Yan Huangtu felt a surge of joy.
Zhang Ruochen first neutralised the Tongtian Ruyi’s supreme power, then, holding the still-spinning Seven-Star Ghost Lotus, transformed into a golden beam, attacking Yan Huangtu again.
Yan Huangtu was unafraid, roaring, “Come fight.”
But his face soon darkened. Zhang Ruochen had unleashed the Void Time Domain, slowing time flow significantly.
Like the earlier space freeze and time stop, it was unbearable.
Worse, the slowed time flow was continuous, not fleeting.
On the Hunting Heaven Battlefield, Zhang Ruochen’s multiple opportunities had increased his time and space rules nearly tenfold, their power now able to affect even Ten Thousand Deaths Realm Great Saints to some degree.
For Great Saints below that realm, the impact was immense.
Boom!
Yan Huangtu’s Tongtian Ruyi strike was far slower than Zhang Ruochen’s. The Seven-Star Ghost Lotus hit his chest, tearing flesh and shattering organs, halving his body.
Yet his Imperial Divine Bones remained intact.
“Another Great Saint with freakish defence. Yan Huangtu and Pink Skull are a perfect match,” Zhang Ruochen thought.
As he thought of Pink Skull, she attacked from behind, fully unleashing her ring’s supreme sacred artifact power to suppress him.
“Seven-Star Ghost Lotus, Sevenfold Lotus.”
The lotus in Zhang Ruochen’s hand split instantly, its seven petals flying out, each carrying supreme power, attacking both Pink Skull and Yan Huangtu.
Within the wall-like talisman, three powerhouses wielded three supreme sacred artifacts, locked in fierce combat.
Surging ghost energy, Purifying Divine Fire, undying divine power, nine-dragon divine patterns, supreme power… various forces clashed chaotically, battering the talisman.
The sixty-plus Yanluo Clan Great Saint talisman masters were tense, sweating profusely. Despite their full effort, the talisman seemed on the verge of breaking.
“Zhang Ruochen is too strong, fighting two at once and still dominating. I fear the talisman will soon be shattered by the three supreme sacred artifacts.”
“If Great Saint Zhexian were here, her talisman mastery might firmly suppress him.”
…
Elsewhere, the Bone Clan’s hundreds of Great Saints mobilised, targeting the Undead Blood Clan’s cultivators.
Their focus was the fourteen Great Saints carrying seventy-seven million clansmen. Eliminating them could halve the Undead Blood Clan’s points.
After all, the sixty-three Great Saints Pink Skull sent to hunt the sixty-three Nine-Step Saint Kings should find it easy.
“Break through, now! Zhang Ruochen has tied down the Yanluo and Bone Clans’ top powerhouses.”
“For the Undead Blood Clan’s glory, we die without regret today.”
“We must fight with all we have to intimidate the Bone Clan. Burn your holy blood, cover the fourteen Great Saints’ escape.”
…
The Undead Blood Clan’s cultivators, brimming with killing intent, charged fearlessly at the Bone Clan’s Great Saint legion.
The Bone Clan’s Great Saints were rattled by their momentum. Were these Undead Blood Clan cultivators truly unafraid of death? It was just the Hunting Heaven Battle—why fight to the death?
So reckless?
Blood-crazed?
What if they self-detonated collectively, dragging them down?
One Undead Blood Clan Great Saint had already self-detonated!
The Bone Clan Great Saints slowed their assault, spreading out, avoiding close combat.
At a distance, casualties slowed, and wiping out the Undead Blood Clan would take longer.
The battlefield of Zhang Ruochen, Yan Huangtu, and Pink Skull was dire.
Yan Huangtu’s body was repeatedly torn by Zhang Ruochen, losing chunks of flesh. Over ninety percent of his flesh was gone, leaving only his radiant Imperial Divine Bones.
Previously, Yu Huang couldn’t withstand a supreme sacred artifact’s recoil, reduced to a holy skeleton by Yan Huangtu.
Now, the tables had turned.
Yan Huangtu couldn’t withstand Zhang Ruochen’s onslaught, sent flying countless times, his flesh nearly gone.
Unlike Yu Huang, his Imperial Divine Bones were indestructible, housing his holy source, meridians, and qi sea. Despite his battered state, his combat power remained intact, freakishly so.
The Undead Blood Clan cultivators watching the Ten Thousand Realms Divine Eye projection were exhilarated, seeing Zhang Ruochen as avenging Yu Huang, turning the tables.
Yan Huangtu, such a formidable powerhouse, was being torn apart by Zhang Ruochen. His defeat was only a matter of time.
No defence, however strong, could hold forever.
