Zhang Ruochen had long discerned that Nan Sheng’s mental power intensity had reached the sixty-eighth rank. For his age, this was a truly remarkable achievement.
Although Zhang Ruochen’s mental power was also at the sixty-eighth rank, a Great Saint who specialised in the path of mental power and one who treated mental power merely as an auxiliary were not comparable in combat prowess. Moreover, Nan Sheng hailed from Tian Nan.
In a true contest of mental power, ten Zhang Ruochens combined could not possibly defeat Nan Sheng.
Therefore, Zhang Ruochen had no intention whatsoever of engaging Nan Sheng in a mental power duel.
Zhang Ruochen was exceedingly cautious; he retrieved the Ten Thousand Curses Heavenly Pearl, channelling his mental power into it to form a mental power defence with the supreme holy artefact, then activated the Fire God Armour, unfurled the twelve wings on his back, and charged rapidly into the death念 force阴云, closing in on Nan Sheng.
Only in close combat did Zhang Ruochen stand a chance of victory.
“His mental power has actually also reached the sixty-eighth rank.”
Nan Sheng’s mouth curved slightly; he closed his eyes and gently waved his arm, causing death念 force to coalesce around his body into a swarm of death demonic butterflies.
The demonic butterflies were only the size of a palm, extremely illusory and beautiful, with wings in three colours.
“Swish swish.”
The demonic butterflies flew out like flying knives, leaving trails of three-coloured light. They continuously collided with the Fire God Armour, producing sounds of metal clashing against stone.
Each collision of a demonic butterfly felt like a heavy fist striking Zhang Ruochen.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen drawing ever closer, Nan Sheng frowned; the key to his technique “Death Butterfly Dance” was not the impact force carried by the demonic butterflies, but rather the vigorous death念 force contained within them.
Once struck by even one demonic butterfly, the death念 force would instantly invade the body, corroding flesh and devouring vitality. Even armour of kingly holy artefact level could not hope to block his death念 force.
Yet, the armour on Zhang Ruochen’s body seemed to restrain the death念 force entirely, preventing any penetration.
In an instant, Zhang Ruochen had closed to within thirty zhang.
“Butterfly Emperor Breaks Cocoon.”
With Nan Sheng’s voice, a vast swathe of three-coloured death demonic butterflies gathered before him, forming a cocoon ball about a zhang in diameter.
Just as Zhang Ruochen swung his sword down in a cleaving strike, the Butterfly Emperor took form within the cocoon, extending a slender five-coloured light arm to block the blade of the Chenyuan Ancient Sword.
“Bang!”
A sword strike capable of shattering stars and moons was blocked!
“Rip.”
The cocoon ball shattered open, revealing a massive Butterfly Emperor, its entire body radiating five-coloured light; apart from three pairs of sharp, elongated five-coloured light arms, its body was that of a completely nude, peerlessly beautiful woman.
The enormous butterfly wings unfurled and gently fluttered, releasing five-coloured light points that enveloped Zhang Ruochen.
The five-coloured light points contained powerful mental power energy, capable of bewitching cultivators.
In Zhang Ruochen’s eyes, the beautiful woman with massive butterfly wings grew ever more alluring.
Such an illusion, of course, could not bewilder Zhang Ruochen’s mind.
He vigilantly sensed that Nan Sheng had once again mobilised holy Dao rules, condensing them into blades of light that flew from behind to slash at him.
With the Butterfly Emperor before him and a rain of blades behind, the situation had become extremely perilous.
“It is over!”
Nan Sheng believed victory was assured, his eyes brimming with even greater amusement.
Suddenly, a sharp pain emanated from his heart; the amusement in his eyes vanished, replaced by a furious roar: “Dead Heart Curse.”
The holy heart, the repository of mental power, had been assaulted by Zhang Ruochen’s curse power, naturally causing severe disruption to Nan Sheng’s mental power. Even the five-coloured radiance on the death Butterfly Emperor controlled by his mental power rapidly dimmed.
Zhang Ruochen knew that his sole opportunity for victory had arisen!
Without hesitation, he activated one of the seven soul swords suspended in his qi sea.
“Anger Sword!”
A brilliant sword light flew from Zhang Ruochen’s brow, piercing the Butterfly Emperor’s body before striking Nan Sheng’s chest.
“Swish!”
The thirty-six beast diagrams and blood-red talisman patterns on Nan Sheng’s body simultaneously emerged, yet the sword light still penetrated his form, sending him flying like a cannonball and crashing heavily into the ruins.
The seven soul swords corresponded respectively to Zhang Ruochen’s seven emotions: grief, love, desire, anger, joy, malice, and fear.
Among them, the Grief Sword was the strongest, the Fear Sword the weakest.
However, the relative strength of the seven swords also depended on the cultivator’s emotions; any one, if taken to an extreme, could erupt with unparalleled power.
So long as Zhang Ruochen felt utter terror in his heart, even the Fear Sword unleashed would surpass the Grief Sword.
The power of the sword soul inflicted tremendous damage on a cultivator’s mental power, holy soul, and emotions, while its destructive effect on the physical body was comparatively weaker.
“The power of the sword soul is actually so formidable, breaching even Nan Sheng’s physical defences.” Zhang Ruochen was inwardly astonished; after all, he knew full well that due to insufficient anger in his heart, the Anger Sword he had just invoked was actually rather mediocre in power.
It was like having a hundred million holy stones clearly in possession yet only being able to flaunt ten thousand of them; the rest were plainly on one’s person yet could not be produced.
In the first moment, Zhang Ruochen hurled the Chenyuan Ancient Sword straight towards where Nan Sheng had fallen.
“Bang!”
The Chenyuan Ancient Sword was struck by a seal technique and sent flying back.
With a “swish,” Nan Sheng burst from the ruins, pasting a talisman on himself before tossing another towards Grand Chancellor Si Kong and Second Chancellor Si Kong; then, at a speed approaching the extreme, he fled rapidly into the distance.
He believed he could endure the injuries to his physical body.
But the trauma to his mental power and holy soul was exceedingly severe, compounded by his inability to fathom the origin of Zhang Ruochen’s earlier sword strike; thus, he fled with utmost decisiveness.
Zhang Ruochen shifted to the position before Grand Chancellor Si Kong and Second Chancellor Si Kong, pressing his palm forward to execute a spatial freeze technique.
“Boom!”
The talisman exploded, its power comparable to an Immortal Realm Great Saint detonating their holy source; the frozen space was instantly torn asunder.
Zhang Ruochen, one hand grasping each, carried Grand Chancellor Si Kong and Second Chancellor Si Kong to appear ten li away; looking back, the destructive force from the talisman’s explosion was weakened and dissipated by ancient divine patterns, yet it still levelled a vast expanse of area.
Nan Sheng’s resentful voice echoed from an unknown direction: “Zhang Ruochen, I remember today’s sword strike! In future, I shall return it twofold.”
Zhang Ruochen could roughly sense his position but chose not to pursue.
For a figure like Nan Sheng, there must be numerous life-preserving treasures on his person, combined with his formidable cultivation; pursuing him would yield scant chance of retention and might instead invite an ambush leading to grave losses.
“Next time you see me, you shall fear me as you fear a deity.” Zhang Ruochen said.
The Great Saints who had lingered nearby were all terrified to the bone, fleeing stealthily one after another.
Too terrifying!
Nan Sheng had actually been defeated by Zhang Ruochen; if this news spread, it would surely shake the Ten Clans of Hell.
They absolutely refused to believe Zhang Ruochen remained at Hundred Shackles Realm cultivation, all assuming he had obtained some great fortune in the Origin Divine Palace and already broken through to the Thousand Questions Realm.
“Martial Uncle is too dashing; I wish to cultivate the sword Dao.” Grand Chancellor Si Kong said excitedly and fervently.
Zhang Ruochen stowed the Chenyuan Ancient Sword and took two divine stones in hand, saying, “You are not suited to the sword Dao! However, I see that your physique and Second Chancellor Si Kong’s seem extraordinarily unique. What race are you exactly?”
“What race?” Grand Chancellor Si Kong was taken aback, saying, “Are we not the same? Oh, no, Martial Uncle is half-human half-Immortal Vampire bloodline; Second Chancellor Si Kong and I must be pure-blooded humans.”
“Is that so?”
Sword-shaped sword qi flew from Zhang Ruochen’s eyes.
The sword qi passed by the edge of Grand Chancellor Si Kong’s round face; as the blade touched his skin, it produced a harsh frictional sound, with specks of light scattering forth.
The skin was not cut.
Grand Chancellor Si Kong toppled to the ground, clutching his face and wailing, “Martial Uncle, can we not discuss this properly? Monks do not lie; I truly am human.”
“Does Martial Uncle have some suspicion in mind?” Second Chancellor Si Kong pressed his palms together and asked calmly.
Zhang Ruochen nodded, saying, “Forget it; asking you two, you are likely unaware. When the chance arises, I shall inquire directly of your master.”
Grand Chancellor Si Kong climbed up from the ground, rubbing his plump face and muttering under his breath, “Fortunately, no disfigurement.”
Zhang Ruochen sat upon a massive boulder, saying, “Now, tell me what exactly transpired, why you were pursued by cultivators from the Palace of the God of Death? Where are Moyin, the Fairy, Stone Emperor, and Sword Emperor now?”
At this moment, True Slaughter, True Greed, and True Delusion successively dragged their wounded bodies from the turbid ruins, saluting Zhang Ruochen, Grand Chancellor Si Kong, and Second Chancellor Si Kong.
Their cultivations were powerful, and they had not been in the central region, so the talisman’s explosion had not killed them.
Zhang Ruochen was about to retrieve Spring of Life to aid their healing when he saw them already producing stalk after stalk of Yuan Hui-level holy medicines, stuffing them into their mouths as if gnawing radishes.
Well then!
The variety of holy medicines they now possessed exceeded even Zhang Ruochen’s.
No wonder the cultivators from the Palace of the God of Death did not pursue them but someone else.
After consuming the holy medicines, Second Chancellor Si Kong began recounting: “During the time Martial Uncle was away, we were continuously harvesting in that region full of holy medicines, all reaping tremendous gains. Ah, right, not long after Martial Uncle left, something strange occurred, and then the Fairy vanished!”
Zhang Ruochen asked, “What strange occurrence?”
“Flute sound.” Grand Chancellor Si Kong said.
“What flute sound?”
Zhang Ruochen straightened his posture, his expression turning grave.
Grand Chancellor Si Kong described vividly: “It was a melodious flute sound, wondrous to the utmost. When the flute sounded, those holy medicines, whether trees, grasses, or flowers… all swayed in unison, blooming with light over ten times brighter than usual.”
Second Chancellor Si Kong nodded, saying, “The Fairy disappeared at that very moment.”
“How could this be? The flute sound should not be the King of Hades. Could it be that new god from Kunlun Realm who has been following all along?” Zhang Ruochen’s brows furrowed tightly as he murmured to himself.
Like A Le, Zhang Ruochen had also faintly sensed that, starting from the Hundred Clans Royal City, something had been trailing him.
At first, he thought it an illusion and paid it little mind, but when activating the spatial teleportation array, that sensation became exceedingly clear.
Thus, he secretly surmised it was the new god from Kunlun Realm mentioned by the Dragon Lord.
If a deity entered a divine realm world, even standing before Zhang Ruochen, he would struggle to perceive it; only by using the Heart of Truth could he detect a trace of anomaly.
“No, if the flute sound were played by Kunlun Realm’s new god, why would the holy medicines respond? Could it be… some exotic creature in the Origin Divine Palace that has endured through the eons without perishing?”
The more he pondered, the more a chill crept over Zhang Ruochen, and he grew deeply worried for Ji Fanchen.
Miaoshuwu
