The Pillar General, like the Turtle Lord, had been personally mentored by Huang Tian, the Great God, and had reached the Supreme Realm.
When it acted, the rules of heaven and earth shifted. The sky took the shape of five fingers, the ground sank continuously, and the spatial structure warped strangely. Even Zhang Ruochen, a master of space, struggled to stabilise it.
“Compared to a Supreme Realm Great Saint, the gap is still too vast,” Zhang Ruochen sighed inwardly.
Xiao Hei, beaten like a dead dog, suddenly rallied at this critical moment, roaring neurotically, “Daring to ambush this emperor is a capital offence.”
It broke free from Zhang Ruochen’s grasp, its eyes flashing with dazzling divine light.
With a swipe of its claw, three fiery marks tore through the five-finger-shaped sky descending upon them.
“Boom.”
The collision of tens of trillions of Saint Path Rules unleashed visions of world destruction, stars shifting, and gods falling.
The Pillar General’s eyes widened, as if struck by lightning. It retracted its stone hand, its towering frame staggering back.
“What a formidable hedgehog. Could it be an ancient divine species?” The Pillar General raised its palm, revealing three black marks, an inch deep, etched into its stone surface.
Its stone body, forged from divine ore essence, could be refined into materials for supreme sacred artifacts.
This showed how terrifying Xiao Hei’s claw strike was.
“Ignorant fool. This emperor is an immortal… hedgehog.”
“Immortal Hedgehog? Good, very good. Though I’ve never heard of your ancient divine species, from today, I’ll remember,” the Pillar General said solemnly.
Xiao Hei couldn’t be bothered to explain, rubbing the bump on its head. It turned, glaring at the approaching Turtle Lord with fiery eyes, roaring, “This emperor will wash away the earlier disgrace with your blood. Today, it’s a fight to the death. War! War! War!”
A surging battle intent formed war clouds above Xiao Hei’s head.
The Turtle Lord paused, its small green-bean-like eyes darting. “I… I… am… am… stone…”
“Care not who you are. Even with a god behind you, you can’t escape death. This emperor despises wastes like you who rely on background when they can’t win. Tremble, turtle.” Xiao Hei’s aura surged higher.
The Turtle Lord faltered, closing its mouth, thinking, “You misunderstand! I only meant I’m a Stone Clan Great Saint, my body formed from billion-year-old spatial emerald. I have no blood. Even if you want to wash your shame with my blood, you can’t!”
Seeing the Turtle Lord winking at it, Xiao Hei took it as provocation, fury rising. It was about to charge when Zhang Ruochen grabbed its tail, dragging it back.
“Don’t stop this emperor. I’ll obliterate it!” Xiao Hei roared at Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Ignore them. Break the array and get out. Wu Ma Jiuxing is in the garden.”
“What?”
Xiao Hei snapped to attention, assessing the situation. It sensed Wu Ma Jiuxing’s presence and said, “That guy’s blade mastery has reached the divine realm, unmatched among Yuan Hui-level geniuses unless they enter the Supreme Realm. Run, now!”
When danger arose, Xiao Hei fled faster than anyone, darting towards the garden’s exit.
The Pillar General moved to intercept but was sent flying by nine consecutive claw strikes, collapsing with claw marks covering its stone body.
Zhang Ruochen followed close behind, feeling a bit more confident.
Though wildly unreliable, Xiao Hei, with its cultivation restored, showed extraordinary strength. Bai Qing’er’s two Supreme Realm Stone Clan Great Saints, both with potential to become gods, couldn’t last ten rounds against Xiao Hei.
When Xiao Hei clashed with the Pillar General, the Saint Path Rules surged like two oceans colliding. Zhang Ruochen’s over ten billion Saint Path Rules were like a small pond, easily swallowed.
Seeing the gap with Supreme Realm Great Saints fueled Zhang Ruochen’s determination. He vowed that if he escaped, he would go into seclusion, not emerging until reaching the Great Perfection of the Hundred Shackles Realm.
Only at that stage, with his demigod body fully unleashed, could he bear more world power, giving him a chance to fight Supreme Realm Great Saints.
Of course, a demigod body was already immensely powerful, capable of overpowering Supreme Realm Great Saints, but his Hundred Shackles Realm cultivation couldn’t fully harness it.
Realm!
Only by reaching the right realm could one wield greater power.
“Crack!”
A deafening collapse echoed through the garden.
Zhang Ruochen’s expression shifted, glancing towards the Turtle Lord.
With its profound spatial mastery, the Turtle Lord broke the spatial wall of a small spatial world during Xiao Hei’s clash with the Pillar General, shattering the Multiple Space Scroll.
Most of the garden’s small spatial worlds collapsed.
Bai Qing’er and the other Great Saints broke free.
Having been trapped by a Hundred Shackles Realm Great Saint, they were seething, their eyes blazing with killing intent as they chased Zhang Ruochen and Xiao Hei.
“Zhang Ruochen, where do you think you’re going? Take my Thousand Armies Slaughter!”
Yun Huan, the Iron Blood King, led the charge, hurling his bone spear.
The spear’s inscriptions glowed, summoning a phantom of a shattered world, flying with unmatched speed, reaching Zhang Ruochen’s back in an instant.
This was a full-power strike from Yun Huan at the peak of the Ten Thousand Deaths and One Life Realm, with no sealed cultivation.
If it hit, even an early-stage Ten Thousand Deaths and One Life Realm Great Saint would be obliterated, their soul erased.
The greater the danger, the calmer Zhang Ruochen became, his mind entering a state of clarity. Though he didn’t look back, the spear’s trajectory was clear in his mind.
With the ten-thousand-fold speed Radiant Merit Armour, Zhang Ruochen was slightly faster than the spear.
“Swish—”
He stepped into the garden, entering the array outside.
The moment he entered, the array unfolded like a scroll, trapping him in a desert-like world.
The desert world was pitch black, devoid of light.
The bone spear and shattered world followed into the array’s desert world, relentless in pursuit.
With no way to dodge or escape, Zhang Ruochen turned sharply, using the Hidden Mountain Demon Mirror as a shield, and unleashed the Purple Gold Gourd and Ten Thousand Curses Heavenly Pearl.
The three supreme sacred artifacts radiated supreme power, like three suns rising, their blinding light piercing the array’s desert world, shining out of the Ji Feng Holy Mansion and illuminating the entire Divine Maiden City.
“Bang! Bang! Bang…”
The bone spear’s unmatched power sent the Purple Gold Gourd and Ten Thousand Curses Heavenly Pearl flying, piercing the demon mountains conjured by the Hidden Mountain Demon Mirror, striking the mirror’s surface.
Zhang Ruochen and the mirror were thrown back together.
He fully channelled spatial power to dissipate the spear’s residual force, avoiding severe injury.
“You actually blocked my full strike.”
Yun Huan chased into the array’s desert world, astonishment in his eyes, followed by a colder gaze and intensifying killing intent.
If a Hundred Shackles Realm cultivator was this hard to deal with, what would happen when Zhang Ruochen reached the Thousand Questions Realm? Wouldn’t he lose to him?
Yun Huan grabbed the spear’s end, countless rules surging from his body, forming an ocean of rules that merged with the spear, slashing horizontally at Zhang Ruochen.
Having exhausted everything to block the first strike, Zhang Ruochen had no strength left for a second.
Yet he didn’t give up. His body shrank instantly into a speck of light.
“You can’t dodge. My ocean of rules has locked onto you. Shrinking won’t help,” Yun Huan sneered.
From the speck, a shimmering bracelet flew out.
The bracelet spun rapidly, growing larger until its diameter reached three zhang, engulfing Yun Huan and his ocean of rules within its ring.
Yun Huan’s spear lost its target, striking the ground, causing the desert to sink.
The speck flickered, and Zhang Ruochen reappeared, looking at Yun Huan trapped in the bracelet with a trace of surprise.
Yun Huan was repeating the same action, raising the spear and striking the ground.
It was bizarre.
The pursuing Great Saints were stunned, halting in their tracks.
Bai Qing’er recognised the bracelet trapping Yun Huan, saying, “Yu Qiu Shenzi’s Zhou Fan Bracelet, it’s in your hands.”
“It’s the Zhou Fan Bracelet. Legend has it Yu Qiu Shenzi, newly entered into the Supreme Realm, fought Wu Ma to a draw with it,” the white-robed mysterious powerhouse said.
Bai Qing’er nodded, saying, “It’s a destiny treasure and a time treasure. Anyone trapped within falls into a time loop. Unfortunately, Zhang Ruochen’s mastery of destiny isn’t high enough, or he could use the bracelet’s destiny power to make Yun Huan kill himself.”
“I’ll take this treasure.”
The white-robed powerhouse, eager, reached out, a hand of deathly energy grasping the Zhou Fan Bracelet.
Though powerful, the bracelet was just a weapon.
Under the deathly hand’s suppression, its rotation slowed, then stopped.
As the bracelet was about to be taken, Gu Shejing burst into the array’s desert world from the clouds, shattering the deathly hand with a finger and seizing the bracelet.
The moment it entered her hand, the bracelet’s destiny glow surged, like a divine wheel.
Landing near Zhang Ruochen, her jade feet sank into the sand. Ignoring Bai Qing’er and the others, she stared warily at the sky, saying, “Use time power to aid me.”
No need to guess—Wu Ma Jiuxing was coming!
“Alright!”
Knowing the dire situation, Zhang Ruochen acted decisively. The Time-Space Divine Martial Mark on his brow appeared, spinning rapidly, forming a spatial gate, surging with endless world power.
Instantly, Zhang Ruochen’s aura reached the mid-to-late Ten Thousand Deaths and One Life Realm.
But blood-red cracks appeared on his brow, his head seeming to split apart, clearly at his limit.
All his time rules flew out, merging with the Qiankun Realm’s world power, pouring into the Zhou Fan Bracelet.
“Swish.”
The bracelet radiated countless time mark specks, forming a light rain that enveloped Gu Shejing’s graceful form, spreading to cover the entire array’s desert world.
The desert world turned dreamlike and eerily beautiful.
“Boom!”
Wu Ma Jiuxing broke through the array’s clouds, appearing in the void, striding forward.
The sky around him glowed with crimson sunset-like hues, his tall, handsome figure with fiery red hair exuding a masculine charm that could captivate any woman.
Powerful, handsome, domineering, yet with a subtle allure, he instantly drew the gazes of Shang Yue, Shang Xia, and other female cultivators, like men entranced by the fairies in the *Nine Immortals Beauty Scroll*, unable to look away, helplessly smitten.
Wu Ma Jiuxing, always mysterious, was seen in person by Shang Yue and Shang Xia for the first time.
His vibrant eyes fell on Gu Shejing, saying, “In this era, only Zhu Yunnong, the top powerhouse of the Destiny Temple, survived my blade. Today, another joins that list. The heir of Luo Zu Yun Mountain Realm hasn’t disappointed me.”
Gu Shejing raised her defiant chin, saying, “Failing to kill me with one strike shows your blade isn’t as legendary as claimed.”
“Had I not been slightly injured fighting Zhu Yunnong, I wouldn’t need a second strike to kill you.”
Wu Ma Jiuxing’s gaze was sharp, as if nothing could shake his will. He opened his right hand, countless blade rules condensing into a golden blade.
The blade hadn’t struck yet.
But the cultivators present felt their saintly souls slashed, their eyes blinded, their heads throbbing with pain.
“Swish!”
The golden blade slashed down.
Gu Shejing seized the moment, hurling the Zhou Fan Bracelet, trailing a long stream of light, colliding with the golden blade descending from the sky.
“Go!”
Gu Shejing grabbed Zhang Ruochen’s wrist, flying towards the edge of the array’s desert world.
“The bracelet…”
“Life or the bracelet? You can take it back when you reach the Supreme Realm,” Gu Shejing said, her face pale, blood dripping, her aura weakening with each breath.
Surviving Wu Ma Jiuxing’s blade was remarkable, placing her among the top powerhouses below the divine realm.
Zhang Ruochen knew survival was paramount, sighing lightly, activating the Radiant Merit Armour, grabbing Gu Shejing’s weakened wrist, and soaring away.
Xiao Hei had broken most of the desert world’s array, saying, “Give this emperor a bit more time, and the array will be shattered.”
“No time. Today, you all stay here.”
Bai Qing’er’s voice rang out.
Grains of yellow sand rose, swirling like a vortex, forming a graceful white figure before Zhang Ruochen and Gu Shejing.
Bai Qing’er stood still, glancing at the sky. A white starry river fell, stretching endlessly, slashing towards Zhang Ruochen and Gu Shejing.
Not a true starry river.
Yet as it descended, the already vast array’s desert world stretched further.
Before Zhang Ruochen, the white starry river was indistinguishable from a real one, formed of thousands of stars, each spanning thousands of miles, with outlines of mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas.
Though known to be fake, it still inspired despair and awe, as if she could manipulate the entire universe.
