Fei Zhong was dazed by a single strike from Zhang Ruochen’s staff, sliding down the pillar, his eyes filled with confusion and shock.
How could Zhang Ruochen, at the Hundred-Shackle Realm, be so powerful?
No.
Even if he were an epoch-level genius, he couldn’t possibly be this strong, able to casually send a Supreme Realm Great Saint flying. What was that tiger shadow behind Zhang Ruochen?
Though just a shadow, it made his saint soul tremble.
Gong Nanfeng watched Zhang Ruochen’s figure soar away, his heart trembling with excitement, “Brother Ruochen didn’t continue to hold back, he finally chose to act, that’s great, we’re saved, we’re saved!”
…
Within the Ten Thousand Tones Heavenly Array.
The remaining four Supreme Realm Great Saints exchanged glances, their eyes filled with indignation and a resolve to face death.
“Your Highness, the Divine Son, please enter the inner space of the Ferocious Blade to take shelter, leave the rest to us!” one of the four, Cang Sheng, said coldly.
How could Xingluo not know they intended to die together? With a bitter smile, he said, “It’s useless! Ji Fanxin’s mental strength is formidable, you’re not Wuyue Life Emperor, self-detonating your Saint Source under her watch is impossible.”
“Only I, with the power of the Ghost God Mask, can resist her mental penetration, giving you a chance. Even if it means mutual destruction, it should be me.”
“You hide in the inner space of the Ferocious Blade, I’ll fight her one last time.”
The Supreme Realm Great Saint with four eyes shook his head, saying, “No, Your Highness, the Divine Son, must not self-detonate your Saint Source under any circumstances, if you die, the Temple of Destiny will lose all control over this era.”
Xingluo said, “I’m no longer the Divine Son, my death, whether I survive or not, won’t greatly impact the Temple. Rest assured, the Temple’s foundation is deep, it won’t collapse so easily. Once the new Divine Daughter and Que grow up, anyone stirring trouble will meet their doom.”
If there were another choice, would Xingluo willingly perish with the enemy?
If he didn’t act, they would all be worn down by the array.
The four Supreme Realm Great Saints felt sorrow and helplessness.
Once, wherever they went, any clan would receive them with the highest respect. On the Merit Battlefield, they could slaughter the Heavenly Realm’s Great Saints without leaving a trace.
But now, they couldn’t even self-detonate their Saint Sources.
“Is there no other way?” the four-eyed Supreme Realm Great Saint gritted his teeth, glaring angrily at “Ji Fanxin” in the sea of flowers.
Xingluo said, “If we weren’t trapped in the Ten Thousand Tones Heavenly Array, I’d have some confidence in leading you to escape.”
“So, if we can break the array, our chances of escape would greatly increase?” Cang Sheng took out a Suppression Pattern Stone, saying, “This stone was crafted by a formation master of the Temple, it might break the array.”
Xingluo shook his head, saying, “Once trapped in the array, even that formation master from the Temple would be helpless, let alone a mere Suppression Pattern Stone? Unless a top-tier powerhouse attacks from outside, there’s a chance to break Ji Fanxin’s array.”
The four Supreme Realm Great Saints’ expressions dimmed, knowing that for Xingluo to call someone a top-tier powerhouse, they’d need to be at his level.
Such figures were rare in the entire Hell Realm.
Where could they find one?
“Look, a powerhouse from the Undying Blood Clan is flying over,” the four-eyed Supreme Realm Great Saint exclaimed.
Xingluo, already prepared to self-detonate his Saint Source, was surprised, thinking, could the earlier battle have alerted a passing Undying Blood Clan powerhouse?
But below the Divine Realm, the Undying Blood Clan had no epoch-level Supreme Realm figures.
Ordinary Supreme Realm Great Saints coming here would only mean death.
Xingluo looked over, his expression turning strange, saying in surprise, “How could it be him?”
In the distant dark void, a dense blood cloud approached.
Zhang Ruochen, with twelve wings on his back, stood in the blood cloud, radiating unmatched divine might. He carried both the divine aura of a half-god body and the majesty of the Burial Gold White Tiger, as if a true god had descended.
Bai Qing’er glanced over, saying, “You finally couldn’t hold back, choosing to oppose me?”
“You’ve already won, why must you kill them all?” Zhang Ruochen’s pupils were filled with truth rules and Burial Gold divine patterns, meeting Bai Qing’er’s gaze without a trace of fear.
Bai Qing’er said, “No one can stop me from killing those I want to kill!”
“You wanted to kill Yan Huangtu and Yan Zhexian, didn’t I stop you? This time, I want to try again.”
The Black Gold War Heaven Pillar flew from Zhang Ruochen’s hand, expanding under divine energy, becoming thicker than a mountain peak, golden light spreading in all directions, forming a golden ocean.
In the golden ocean, battle aura rolled like clouds and mist.
The Black Gold War Heaven Pillar, pushed to its limit, unleashed unparalleled supreme might, shattering the sea of flowers in Bai Qing’er’s void, striking down towards her.
Bai Qing’er’s gaze was sharp, saying, “Is this the power the Burial Gold White Tiger lent you? It’s indeed strong, but your realm is too low, you can’t fully grasp its mysteries, just brute force.”
Bai Qing’er didn’t choose to clash with the Black Gold War Heaven Pillar, stepping left.
Just one step, yet it crossed a hundred miles, easily dodging Zhang Ruochen’s earth-shaking strike.
The Black Gold War Heaven Pillar swept again, striking once more.
Countless supreme inscriptions on the pillar, like the veins of heaven and earth, sought to pin Bai Qing’er in space, forcing her to meet Zhang Ruochen’s attack.
“Your attacks are too crude, no matter how strong the weapon, you can’t harm me.”
Bai Qing’er turned into a wisp of green smoke, bypassing the Black Gold War Heaven Pillar, dodging again.
While fighting Zhang Ruochen, her mental strength still controlled the Ten Thousand Tones Heavenly Array, suppressing the five Temple of Destiny powerhouses, including Xingluo, with ease.
Zhang Ruochen struck dozens of times, each blow overwhelmingly powerful, nearly unmatched below the Divine Realm, yet each was like a stone sinking into the sea, effortlessly dodged by Bai Qing’er.
The battle’s fluctuations had already spread, sure to be noticed by other cultivators.
If Bai Qing’er didn’t want to be swarmed by countless cultivators, she had to end the fight quickly and escape. Zhang Ruochen’s intervention caused her considerable trouble.
“You’ve attacked so long, aren’t you tired? Try taking one of my moves.”
“Yin-Yang Five Elements Palm!”
Bai Qing’er struck with a palm, resembling the Taiji diagram of the Yin-Yang Five Elements Holy Intent, merging with her palm force, unleashing a mountain-moving, sea-overturning power.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t know how Bai Qing’er could simulate the Yin-Yang Five Elements Holy Intent, but he knew this so-called holy intent was merely a shadow of its true form.
Still, coming from Bai Qing’er, even a shadow was formidable.
Back then, with a casual grab, she could kill the near-half-god Black Corpse Sha from ten thousand miles away.
This strike was far stronger than that grab.
“This palm was created just for you,” Bai Qing’er said.
“Hidden Mountain Demon Mirror.”
An ancient mirror flew out, releasing demonic energy spanning thousands of miles.
Within the demonic energy, majestic mountains appeared, blocking Bai Qing’er’s palm seal.
“Rumble.”
The demonic mountains shattered, and finally, the palm seal collided with the Hidden Mountain Demon Mirror’s surface, which sank like a water curtain, swallowing the palm seal.
Bai Qing’er let out a soft gasp, then her expression darkened.
She noticed the Hidden Mountain Demon Mirror floating there, but Zhang Ruochen had vanished.
“Not good!”
Bai Qing’er turned to see Zhang Ruochen stepping out of space, appearing above the Ten Thousand Tones Heavenly Array.
Holding the Black Gold War Heaven Pillar, his arms were covered in dense Burial Gold rule divine patterns, a thousand-mile-tall white tiger shadow on his body, unleashing a force that could swallow rivers.
The Black Gold War Heaven Pillar struck, collapsing a corner of the Ten Thousand Tones Heavenly Array.
A bronze bell was sent flying, its resounding clang echoing through the cosmos.
Xingluo, wrapping the four Temple of Destiny Supreme Realm Great Saints in a star sea, seized the chance to escape through the array’s gap, speeding away at over ten thousand times the speed of sound.
“Thank you for saving us, I’ll repay you generously in the future,” Xingluo’s transmission echoed in Zhang Ruochen’s mind.
Bai Qing’er’s true body emerged from the shattered space, merging with her false body in the sea of flowers, her gaze colder than ever, walking towards Zhang Ruochen a hundred miles per step, saying, “Zhang Ruochen, you dare ruin my plans, you can’t be spared!”
Bai Qing’er didn’t use the bronze bells, pointing a finger.
Though hundreds of miles apart, her fingertip appeared before Zhang Ruochen, as if piercing space instantly, yet he felt no spatial fluctuations.
In urgency, Zhang Ruochen pressed out a palm.
The tiger shadow behind him raised a massive claw, mirroring Zhang Ruochen’s palm trajectory, pressing forward.
His palm met Bai Qing’er’s fingertip.
Zhang Ruochen’s hand wore a King-level sacred artifact glove, covered in countless Burial Gold rule divine patterns.
Under the glove, his palm turned golden.
“Crack!”
A shattering sound.
The King-level sacred artifact glove couldn’t withstand Bai Qing’er’s finger force, cracking in three places, then shattering into scrap metal with a “bang.”
Some fragments cut Zhang Ruochen’s face, leaving blood marks.
Zhang Ruochen retreated swiftly, his palm aching unbearably, quickly hiding it behind him. Blood seeped through his fingers.
Even the divine patterns couldn’t block Bai Qing’er’s strike.
Looking closely, Zhang Ruochen saw Bai Qing’er now within a few dozen feet, her origin light outshining his divine energy.
She was furious, not because Zhang Ruochen let Xingluo and the others escape.
Her anger stemmed from her plan to kill her way to the Origin Temple, honing herself while building her momentum through slaughter.
Reaching the Origin Temple would be her momentum’s peak.
With that momentum, she could break through her realm and ascend to divinity.
But Zhang Ruochen had thwarted her, breaking her momentum, making her state of mind profoundly unsettled.
“Die!”
“Ten Suns Simultaneous Heaven Seal.”
Bai Qing’er’s long hair fluttered, her right hand’s five fingers forming a strange seal, striking out.
Around her fingers, space concave, forming layers of spatial shockwaves.
At the center of the spatial shockwaves, ten bright light points appeared, like ten blazing suns spinning rapidly, releasing terrifying heat that could burn the heavens and boil the seas.
“Roar!”
A tiger’s roar sounded.
“Zhang Ruochen, today I’ll teach you a prehistoric divine technique, the Eight Laws of Origin.”
“First Law of Origin, Taiqing Cloud-Pushing Hand.”
As the Burial Gold White Tiger’s voice sounded, Zhang Ruochen felt the 670 million Burial Gold rule divine patterns in his sea of qi flow out automatically, moving in a wondrous trajectory within his body.
Along with the Burial Gold rule divine patterns, the divine energy the Burial Gold White Tiger continuously infused into Zhang Ruochen flowed.
In that instant, Zhang Ruochen’s body moved beyond his control, his hands and feet forming a strange stance, his hands pushing out towards Bai Qing’er’s finger seal.
“Rumble.”
Bai Qing’er trembled, floating backward, her eyes showing shock.
Since stepping into the Supreme Realm, Zhang Ruochen was the only one to push her back. Though she knew the power’s source was the Burial Gold White Tiger.
Zhang Ruochen spat blood, thrown dozens of miles, his body pierced by three fist-sized blood holes from the Ten Suns Simultaneous Heaven Seal.
Each hole was the size of a fist.
The Burial Gold White Tiger sighed, “No way, still no match. Your half-god body, compared to her supreme dharma body, is too far behind! And you only have 670 million Burial Gold rule divine patterns.”
“No matter, I’ve achieved my goal.”
Zhang Ruochen deliberately acted gravely injured, secretly aggravating his wounds, spitting several mouthfuls of blood, standing up weakly, smiling at Bai Qing’er, “You don’t dare kill me.”
…
After escaping tens of millions of miles to another starry sky, Xingluo could no longer hold on, collapsing onto a hundred-mile-long cosmic rock.
“Your Highness, the Divine Son.”
Cang Sheng hurriedly crouched to help him up.
“No need, I’ll do it myself.”
Xingluo gritted his teeth, slowly sitting up, swallowing a healing saint pill to stabilize his severe injuries.
The four-eyed Supreme Realm Great Saint, still shaken, said, “I never expected Zhang Ruochen to save us, we owe him a huge debt.”
“Originally, his second-grade holy intent caused the ominous phenomenon of ‘the River of Fate flowing backward, flooding the Temple,’ and I was hostile toward him. Now it seems it was likely a coincidence, Lord Fulushen didn’t misjudge him,” a Supreme Realm Great Saint from the Judgment Division said.
Cang Sheng looked skeptical, saying, “Has anyone considered this? Since Zhang Ruochen and the Burial Gold White Tiger could act, why didn’t they join us against that demoness from the start? If we had fought together from the beginning, we might not have lost. Wuyue Life Emperor and Tianxu Sha might not have died!”
“What are you implying? Suspecting Zhang Ruochen did this deliberately to weaken the Temple of Destiny? If so, why save us?” the four-eyed Supreme Realm Great Saint said angrily.
Cang Sheng said, “I’ve checked Zhang Ruochen’s background, he’s very close to Fairy of a Hundred Flowers, Ji Fanxin.”
“It’s not certain that woman is Ji Fanxin!” the four-eyed Supreme Realm Great Saint said.
“Stop arguing! Zhang Ruochen saved us, that’s undeniable, and I can roughly guess why he didn’t act initially,” Xingluo said.
Cang Sheng asked, “Why?”
Xingluo said, “First, you must understand, Zhang Ruochen and that woman are definitely enemies. Even if she is Ji Fanxin, given Zhang Ruochen’s actions in the Hell Realm, do you think she’d still see him as a close friend?”
“She’d probably despise him to the core,” the four-eyed Supreme Realm Great Saint said.
Xingluo nodded, “Exactly! So, Zhang Ruochen and Gong Nanfeng are her hostages for rampaging through the Hell Realm. If she provokes a god, she can use them to protect herself.”
“Why didn’t Zhang Ruochen act initially?”
“For a few reasons. First, Zhang Ruochen was hit by a Heavenly Dao Arrow, his injuries are severe, he wanted to act but lacked the strength.”
“Second, he knows how powerful Ji Fanxin is, even joining us would yield no victory.”
“Even with the Burial Gold White Tiger, we couldn’t win?” Cang Sheng was shocked.
Xingluo sighed, “Though I hate to admit it, it’s the truth. The Burial Gold White Tiger, though a god, is a prehistoric god, suppressed by heaven and earth’s rules, unable to act directly. Using too much power would invite heavenly punishment.”
“Didn’t you see? It lent its power to Zhang Ruochen, who fought Ji Fanxin.”
“If Zhang Ruochen didn’t act, Ji Fanxin might not kill him for now. Once he acted, would she spare him? Zhang Ruochen isn’t unaware of this, yet he acted decisively to save us. He’s likely facing a life-or-death crisis now.”
The four Supreme Realm Great Saints fell silent.
Cang Sheng’s face showed emotion and guilt.
Xingluo continued, “There’s a third reason. Zhang Ruochen has no bond with us, why should he fight alongside us? He doesn’t trust us. Not long ago, the Judgment Division was calling for his head, it’s good enough he doesn’t hold a grudge!”
“Then why did he act later?” Cang Sheng asked.
Xingluo said, “I think there are two reasons. First, Zhang Ruochen wanted to show us through action that he hasn’t betrayed the Hell Realm, hoping for our support if he’s misunderstood in the future.”
“Second, only if we escape can we rally forces, make thorough plans, and deal with Ji Fanxin. Otherwise, no one would know her true strength, and countless cultivators would die rushing in.”
Cang Sheng nodded, saying, “I’ve thought about it, Ji Fanxin probably won’t easily kill Zhang Ruochen. He likely stayed by her side deliberately, only this way can he better restrain her.”
“Yes, I think so too, Zhang Ruochen alone is worth an army, bearing humiliation for the greater good. If there’s a chance in the future, I’d like to befriend him.”
Xingluo added, “Now we have three tasks to do immediately.”
“Cang Sheng, investigate whether Fairy of a Hundred Flowers, Ji Fanxin, is in Qianrui Realm or the Heavenly Realm. If she’s in neither, this Ji Fanxin is likely the real one.”
“Four-Eyed Lord, find out Ji Fanxin’s true purpose, why she’s recklessly killing in the Hell Realm.”
“Demon Cloud Priest, head to the Oyin Asteroid Belt at top speed, inform the forces allied with the Temple of Destiny not to act rashly. The enemy is several, even dozens, of times stronger than they imagine.”
…
After making arrangements, Xingluo sent two transmission talismans, contacting Yan Yu and Yuan Qianmo.
