Moyin stood atop the head of a female divine statue, her face extremely pale.
Around her delicate form, a Dao domain condensed from one hundred and fifty trillion holy Dao rules encircled her; her hair had transformed into purple vines floating in the water, releasing strands of pure extinction divine fire.
The Sword Emperor stood in the palm of the statue, his body flickering between gathering and dispersing, his condition very poor.
After the Stone Emperor was swallowed into the belly by Hai Ke, both felt a sense of sorrow for a fallen comrade, their morale plummeting to the bottom.
“Must we continue struggling? In the Hell Realm, following me offers far greater prospects than trailing Zhang Ruochen.” Hai Ke extended a massive hand flowing with divine pattern chains, slamming down and shattering the divine statue in an instant.
Moyin’s movements were agile; she slipped through his finger gaps and, lingering in the water for a moment, extended her five fingers remotely, tearing open five spatial rifts dozens of zhang long that flew straight towards Hai Ke’s face.
The five spatial rifts had not yet reached Hai Ke when they were crushed closed by Hai Ke’s Dao domain.
“Within my Dao domain, spatial attacks are utterly useless.”
Hai Ke seized the Sword Emperor from the rubble.
“Bang!”
With a slight exertion of his five fingers, the Sword Emperor’s body exploded, turning into a cloud of light.
Hai Ke let out a soft exclamation of surprise, scrutinising the light cloud in his palm intently before saying joyfully, “It is actually a strand of sword intent that has birthed consciousness and condensed into a spirit body. This must be the core sword intent left behind after the fall of a Sword God-level powerhouse, yes?”
Hai Ke regarded it as a priceless treasure; a strand of sword intent cultivated to the Great Saint realm could fetch a sky-high price.
Moyin had already sensed Zhang Ruochen’s arrival nearby, so she released all the scant holy qi remaining in her body, converting it into divine fire. She extended her arms, which transformed into over a thousand vines that wrapped around Hai Ke’s divine body.
Divine fire burned along the vines, turning Hai Ke into a massive fireball.
Hai Ke roared in fury, “Seeking death.”
From his twin pupils surged two beams of divine qi light pillars several zhang in diameter, shooting straight towards Moyin.
It was at this moment that Hai Ke’s expression changed; he detected an extremely sharp force appearing above and behind him, bellowing from his mouth, “Zhang Ruochen!”
“It is I.”
Zhang Ruochen emerged from the space, cleaving down with a single sword.
The Chenyuan Ancient Sword reached the weight of a planet, extending to a hundred zhang long like a black waterfall.
Since Zhang Ruochen had chosen to strike at this moment, he would grant Hai Ke no chance whatsoever to evade. An ambush killing and a frontal clash were entirely different concepts.
Hai Ke had no time to ponder how Zhang Ruochen had executed spatial shift within his Dao domain; in his haste, he could only mobilise as many holy Dao rules from the domain as possible, forming a defensive light wall.
“Pfft!”
The Chenyuan Ancient Sword breached the defensive light wall, grazing Hai Ke’s scalp and dragging from the back of his head all the way down his back, forming a sword path hundreds of zhang long.
The wound was harrowing to behold.
Vast quantities of divine blood surged from the sword path, instantly dyeing this stretch of water red.
Zhang Ruochen felt no joy from this; instead, his expression darkened considerably. Such a rare opportunity had failed to kill Hai Ke with one sword.
Hai Ke’s divine body possessed defences far too formidable; even with the Chenyuan Ancient Sword’s sharpness, bolstered by Zhang Ruochen mobilising the power of the Qiankun Realm, it had only penetrated a few zhang deep.
Far from cleaving the divine body apart, it had not even scratched Hai Ke’s bones.
The two beams of divine qi light from Hai Ke’s eyes had already gravely wounded Moyin, sending her flying like a lump of charred coal and plummeting into the depths of the seabed mud and sand.
“Bang bang.”
Hai Ke snapped the vines entwining his body; his form rapidly contracted to just over two metres tall, thereby also evading Zhang Ruochen’s sword aimed at his neck.
Since his own Dao domain could not bind Zhang Ruochen’s spatial powers, the massive divine body would become a liability, offering Zhang Ruochen more openings to exploit.
Shrinking the divine body was more advantageous to him.
With the second sword missing its mark, Zhang Ruochen decisively retreated, gaining a deeper understanding of Hai Ke’s strength.
This man appeared domineering, impulsive, and bloodthirsty on the surface, yet in truth possessed exceedingly rich combat experience; underestimating him would lead to severe consequences.
The disciple of that great figure from the Indefinite Divine Sea was no ordinary being.
On Hai Ke’s back, the wound invaded by sword qi proved difficult to heal; divine blood continued leaking outwards.
The thought that he had been wounded by a cultivator as feeble as Zhang Ruochen ignited a surge of rage in Hai Ke’s heart; he summoned the Cataclysm Battle Axe and said in a deep voice, “Since you dare show yourself, today I naturally cannot let you escape.”
“Swish,”
Over ninety trillion holy Dao rules enveloped an even vaster seabed water domain.
The temperature of this water domain plummeted rapidly, condensing into bizarrely shaped ice crystals. That chill caused the blood and holy qi flow within Zhang Ruochen’s body to slow to an excruciating pace.
It was as if space itself had been frozen.
Hai Ke strode forward, saying, “I know you are a space-time controller with formidable escape skills. However, the divine patterns and formations riddling the Origin Divine Palace will greatly restrict your power’s deployment. How great a chance do you think you have of fleeing?”
“When did I ever say I intended to flee?” Zhang Ruochen said.
Hai Ke said, “Even catching me off guard, you could not breach my physical defences. In a direct confrontation, do you believe you stand a chance? I cultivate year-round in the Indefinite Divine Sea; this environment enhances my combat prowess even further.”
“Whose strength prevails is not determined by words alone,” Zhang Ruochen said.
The distance between them narrowed to ten zhang.
“Swish!”
Hai Ke raised the Cataclysm Battle Axe and cleaved down.
The battle axe instantly grew to ten zhang long, its head as vast as a house, radiating purple-black lightning brilliance.
Zhang Ruochen sidestepped, evading rapidly.
“Boom.”
The Cataclysm Battle Axe cleaved a rift hundreds of metres long into the seabed; countless divine patterns were triggered. From below the rift surged beams of destructive light.
Though Zhang Ruochen avoided the axe blade, he could scarcely evade the omnipresent lightning.
In water, the power of lightning offered no escape.
Dozens of lightning bolts struck the Fire God Armour before penetrating it to assail Zhang Ruochen’s body. Each bolt pierced like a sword.
Hai Ke laughed long and heartily, swinging the axe once more.
“Boom!”
This time, Zhang Ruochen produced the Concealing Mountain Demonic Mirror; its face expanded to the height of a man, reflecting the lightning back into the water.
“Boom!”
“Boom!”
…
Hai Ke spoke with confidence and poise, “Dodging like this, you cannot hold out for long.”
Zhang Ruochen glanced around, perceiving that the edges of Hai Ke’s Dao domain had fully frozen into white frost and were contracting rapidly.
His room to manoeuvre would shrink ever smaller.
More critically, the white frost had fused completely with Hai Ke’s holy Dao rules; even mobilising spatial mysteries to execute spatial shift, Zhang Ruochen could not penetrate it.
“It seems there is no other recourse!”
Zhang Ruochen murmured this softly before saying to the oncoming Hai Ke, “Do you truly believe your divine body unbreakable?”
“To breach my divine body’s defences, only a semi-deity acting would stand a chance,” Hai Ke said.
Zhang Ruochen retrieved a bronze coffin from his spatial ring; with a bang, he slapped the lid flying off with one palm.
From within the coffin, faint strands of divine light overflowed.
It was precisely the coffin containing half a divine corpse.
Hai Ke was slightly taken aback before laughing, “Have you even prepared a coffin for yourself?”
“Swish swish!”
Strange sounds emanated from the coffin.
Dense swarms of God-Devouring Insects flew out, their bodies interwoven in cyan and blue hues, radiating blue flames as they surged towards Hai Ke.
“God-Devouring Insects!”
Hai Ke’s expression finally changed; he halted immediately, releasing his inner divine qi to form a massive spherical defensive barrier before swinging the axe to cleave.
Divine corpses feared nothing more than God-Devouring Insects.
The God-Devouring Insects numbered vastly, devouring all things; they gnawed at the divine qi barrier with sizzling sounds.
Though Hai Ke’s attacks were potent, the God-Devouring Insects’ defences were no trifling matter; one axe swing could slay at most a few.
Zhang Ruochen produced the Seven Star Imperial Palace, locating the Food Saint Flower that had reverted to its original form, bringing it into the palace and placing it in the Spring of Life to recuperate.
The Palace Guardian Spirit Venerable Huang Tian, knowing Hai Ke to be a tyrannical entity, activated all formations, divine patterns, and Great Saint inscriptions at the first moment.
Standing at the gates of the Seven Star Imperial Palace, Zhang Ruochen watched Hai Ke encircled by the God-Devouring Insects and released the Boundless Cosmic Truth Realm.
At the same time, a crystalline rhomboid gem flew from within his body, possessing one hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred facets, its brilliance outshining the myriad stars in the realm.
Hai Ke, who had been repelling the God-Devouring Insects, suddenly discovered in shock that the truth mysteries within his body were uncontrollably flying towards the Seven Star Imperial Palace.
“Zhang Ruochen, you indeed possess a truth treasure; you shall not take my mysteries.”
Hai Ke leapt skyward from the insect swarm, grasping the Cataclysm Battle Axe with both hands and cleaving down with thunderous might.
The battle axe expanded to a hundred zhang long, lightning transforming into an ocean.
“Boom!”
Layer upon layer of defensive formation light screens around the Seven Star Imperial Palace shattered under him; the massive axe blade descended slowly.
Zhang Ruochen had already absorbed two ten-thousandths of the truth mysteries from Hai Ke’s body into the Heart of Truth; he gazed upwards and recited from his mouth, “Desire Sword!”
A resplendent sword light flew from his brow, striking Hai Ke.
“Bang!”
Hai Ke was hurled backwards, plummeting back into the insect swarm.
Zhang Ruochen frowned, “He seems uninjured; my desire was not potent enough.”
Though the Desire Sword failed to wound Hai Ke’s divine body, it inflicted a degree of trauma to his mind and holy soul.
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged, cradling the Ten Thousand Curses Heavenly Pearl in his palms, channelling potent mental power into it while reciting from his mouth, “Dead Heart Curse.”
This curse directly assailed Hai Ke’s holy heart.
Hai Ke’s mental power was not as formidable as Nan Sheng’s; struck by the Dead Heart Curse, he suffered immediate severe disruption, his defences developing flaws that allowed God-Devouring Insects to burrow into the wound on his back.
“Forget Severance Curse.”
“Immeasurable Curse.”
“Blood Devour Curse.”
…
One curse after another issued from Zhang Ruochen’s mouth.
Hai Ke roared in fury repeatedly and, ceasing to heed the God-Devouring Insects landing on him, charged straight towards the Seven Star Imperial Palace.
Zhang Ruochen knew his power was immense and naturally would not clash head-on; with a thought, the Seven Star Imperial Palace shrank to the size of a fist and vanished into space. In the next instant, it reappeared behind Hai Ke.
