The world in the Abyss of Darkness is pitch black without end.
The power of darkness has a tremendous impact on the eyesight and perception of cultivators. Kong Zhi is well aware that as long as he can escape a thousand miles away and then restrain his aura, he will successfully break free.
In his heart, he harbours a strong fear towards the Reverse God Stele.
This fear stems from fragments of memories from his previous life.
Kong Zhi ignores the strange beasts surrounding him from all four sides and charges straight ahead relying on his divine body and golden form.
“Bang bang.”
The strange beasts he encounters have their flesh bodies exploding open, becoming a blur of blood and flesh.
No beast can block him.
Kong Zhi’s divine soul perceives that behind him, Bei Yu, Lan Gu, and Ai Long Xing have met tragic deaths under the Reverse God Stele. A surge of qi comes from the rear, making the fear in his heart even stronger.
Just as he is about to escape and depart, in the hollow and icy darkness, two deafening roars of flood dragons resound.
Two overwhelmingly powerful dark auras rush towards his position.
“Damn it, how could there be flood dragon strange beasts coming to this place?”
As a pseudo-god, Kong Zhi has some understanding of the Abyss of Darkness and knows the terror of flood dragon strange beasts. In his heart, he cannot help but secretly regret it.
To his left front, two dark red moons rise, growing larger and larger.
To his right front, two purplish red moons rise.
The two dark red moons to the left front collide towards Kong Zhi first. Upon getting close, he finally sees the form of the strange beast’s head clearly. It resembles a leopard beast, enormously huge, like a small asteroid shaped like a beast’s head.
The two dark red moons are embedded in the leopard beast’s head, forming a pair of eyes.
“Sizzle sizzle.”
The leopard flood dragon strange beast spits out dark red flames from its mouth, with a temperature reaching one million five hundred thousand degrees, melting the ground beneath Kong Zhi’s feet.
Golden light flickers all over Kong Zhi’s body, and a sea of gold appears above his head. In the sea of gold, scenes of strange sights emerge such as lotus flowers, pagodas, treasure trees, and so on, blocking the flames spat out by the leopard flood dragon strange beast.
From the right front, the tiger flood dragon strange beast with a tiger head flies closer, spitting out purplish red icy qi from its mouth, attacking the sea of gold that Kong Zhi has propped up.
Whether it is the flames or the icy qi, both are fused with the power of darkness.
Zhang Ruochen holds the Reverse God Stele in one hand and flies down to the vicinity.
Under the illumination of the dark red flames and the purplish red icy qi, he sees the forms of the two flood dragon strange beasts. Their bodies are like flood dragons, hundreds of miles long, covered in black scales, and born with claws.
Their heads take the forms of one leopard and one tiger.
The dark energy fluctuations erupting from their bodies are extremely powerful, surpassing inferior pseudo-gods like Bei Yu and Lan Gu, capable of corroding the Buddhist golden sea propped up by Kong Zhi.
In the Abyss of Darkness, they are like fish in water. Even though Kong Zhi’s cultivation is above theirs, he is suppressed to the point where he cannot escape.
The dark qi between heaven and earth continuously flows into their bodies.
Kong Zhi transmits a message over: “Zhang Ruochen, if you do not help this god kill these two strange beasts, by the time more flood dragon strange beasts arrive, you will also die here.”
Zhang Ruochen still stands quietly at the edge of the scorching lava lake, watching without being moved.
Kong Zhi lets out an angry roar.
Immediately after, his eyes, mouth, nose, and ears, all seven orifices, surge with golden light pillars. Inside his body, thirteen bright light spots appear. These are the thirteen relics he cultivated in his previous life, erupting with powerful Buddhist power, combining with the divine source he has refined.
“Whoosh!”
Kong Zhi transforms into a beam of golden light, rushing out of the sea of gold, following the dark red flames, and entering the mouth of the leopard flood dragon strange beast.
Moments later, the leopard flood dragon strange beast lets out a miserable howl, its abdominal cavity exploding open, blood sprinkling down like rain. At the same time, a large amount of dark red flames escape from the abdominal cavity, igniting its own body.
Kong Zhi rushes out from the abdominal cavity of the leopard flood dragon strange beast and rapidly flies upwards into the sky.
“Want to escape?”
Fourteen golden wings unfold on Zhang Ruochen’s back as he chases after, his speed a few points faster than Kong Zhi’s.
At the same realm, the speed of the golden-winged undead blood race is top-tier, comparable to the golden-winged great peng, nine-clawed divine dragon, heavenly phoenix mysterious phoenix, and cultivators who mainly practise the path of flowing light.
“How can it be this fast?”
Kong Zhi grits his teeth and casts a forbidden technique, burning both his divine blood and Buddhist qi inside his body. Immediately, his speed doubles.
With Kong Zhi’s cultivation, under the forbidden technique, even encountering a weaker true god, he can preserve his life. This is the ability of a first-class pseudo-god of the lower three ranks.
Zhang Ruochen frowns slightly.
If he lets Kong Zhi escape, would the secret of the Reverse God Stele not be exposed?
Although Zhang Ruochen himself has very little knowledge about the Reverse God Stele.
“Xiao Qi!”
He calls out like this.
The seven-coloured ring worn on his finger comes alive, transforming into an earthworm-sized insect.
The space chaos insect cutely exhales a breath, its silkworm baby-like head rubbing against Zhang Ruochen’s finger, then flies out, growing to dozens of feet long, becoming a seven-coloured giant insect.
It opens its mouth and gnaws at the void.
A wormhole is gnawed out.
Zhang Ruochen stands on the back of the space chaos insect and flies into the wormhole.
Zhang Ruochen has spent a large amount of divine stones to purchase various cultivation resources, many of which are used to feed the space chaos insect.
In the Abyss of Darkness, even Zhang Ruochen finds it difficult to cross space over long distances. However, the space chaos insect lives in space itself, and no environment can hinder it, not even in the Abyss of Darkness.
It can be said that upon arriving in the Abyss of Darkness, the space chaos insect is an important trump card for Zhang Ruochen to preserve his life.
“Splash.”
In the next instant, the space chaos insect carries Zhang Ruochen across the void and appears in front of Kong Zhi.
Its body is like a rainbow.
Kong Zhi looks at Zhang Ruochen standing on the “rainbow” and immediately turns pale as earth, saying: “Why must you drive me to extinction? Zhang Ruochen, this god… I am willing to submit to you and become your divine general.”
“Is that so? Your cultivation is far higher than mine.” Zhang Ruochen says.
Kong Zhi says seriously: “A wise bird chooses a tree to nest in. You are a secular myth, unprecedented and unparalleled. Once you break into the divine realm, it will be a caged dragon ascending to the heavens, the universe vast, allowing you to roam freely.”
“Very well! A pseudo-god of your level is indeed rare. Killing you would be quite a pity. Hand over half of your divine soul, submit to me, and today, I shall spare your life.” Zhang Ruochen says.
“Good! Thank you, Sword God Ruochen, for your mercy.”
A flash of cold ruthlessness passes in Kong Zhi’s eyes, and in his heart, he thinks darkly that even if he loses half his divine soul, he must kill you. As long as he seizes the Reverse God Stele, what can a true god do to me?
At the thought of the various treasures on Zhang Ruochen’s body, Kong Zhi’s mind boils with excitement.
But on his face, no ripples appear.
He presses both hands to the top of his head, drawing out strands of his divine soul from inside his body.
However, contrary to his expectations, just as he is drawing out his divine soul, the Zhang Ruochen who was originally standing on the “rainbow” actually holds the Reverse God Stele and soars up, swinging the remnant stele down heavily towards him.
“Crack!”
Even though Kong Zhi’s reaction speed is fast enough, he is still struck by the Reverse God Stele, his arms shattering, his entire body covered in dense cracks, his divine body plummeting straight towards the depths of the abyss.
The power erupting from the Reverse God Stele is like invisible path locks, penetrating the divine body, locking the divine qi within Kong Zhi’s body, suppressing the rule divine patterns, making his whole body unable to move.
“Why does Sword God Ruochen go back on his word? This god is sincerely submitting.”
More and more cracks appear on Kong Zhi’s body, like a golden ceramic that has split open.
Zhang Ruochen stands atop the Reverse God Stele, injecting all his power into it, his gaze calm as he says: “I have long refined the Heart of Truth, discerning the subtleties of the world, able to detect flaws in your inner heart and spy on your thoughts and soul. How could you deceive me? Tell me the secret of the Reverse God Stele.”
With Zhang Ruochen’s current cultivation, the Heart of Truth cannot directly discern the memories and thoughts of a pseudo-god yet, though for weaker cultivators, it can be done.
“Haha! Telling you means death, not telling you also means death. Since that is the case, why not perish together?”
Strange words come from Kong Zhi’s mouth: “You all should know that all things in the world are destined by heaven. Comply with the heavenly dao, act on behalf of heaven. Defy heaven and act, and you will be buried in the four tribulations…”
His divine blood burns madly inside his body, his lifespan scattering to become divine fire.
The temperature of the flames is so high that it reaches over three million degrees, actually breaking free from the suppression of the Reverse God Stele.
The divine qi operates, rushing towards the divine source.
This divine source of his was left behind after the death of a great god from the Nether Clan, containing incomparable energy, far more powerful than the divine sources in inferior pseudo-gods, who knows how many times stronger.
Unfortunately, Kong Zhi has only been a pseudo-god for ten thousand years, and his understanding of this divine source is not deep enough; otherwise, his combat power could double.
How could Zhang Ruochen give him the chance to self-detonate his divine source?
“Seven swords emerge together.”
All seven soul swords fly out from Zhang Ruochen’s brow, transforming into a sword path, successively piercing through Kong Zhi’s body, exterminating his spiritual will and divine soul.
Perilously, just a thread short.
Kong Zhi’s divine source is ultimately not triggered, and the golden Buddhist light on his body dims.
“Swish swish!”
The seven swords return to his body.
Zhang Ruochen puts away the Reverse God Stele, comes to face Kong Zhi, and slaps out with one palm. Immediately, the originally indestructible golden body divine form shatters with a crack, turning into a pile of golden fragments like glass.
Only a fist-sized, scorching hot divine source and thirteen relics remain, floating in mid-air.
Zhang Ruochen’s right hand extends, his index and middle fingers pressing on the divine source as he closes his eyes to sense.
After a long while, he gently shakes his head.
Then, Zhang Ruochen spreads open his palm, grasping the thirteen relics in his palm, sensing once more.
This time, some images finally appear in his mind.
In the images, the complete Reverse God Stele stands at the peak of a divine mountain.
Below the Reverse God Stele stand figures with majestic auras, each with different appearances from various races. At the same time, more such powerful figures continuously fly towards the divine mountain.
It is like a gathering, or like a solemn ceremony.
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen trembles all over, his mind in agonising pain. The figures in the images seem like fireballs one by one, able to burn his saint soul and mental power, preventing him from continuing to probe.
“A gathering of gods, with monks and Taoists, demons and monsters, humans and dragons. Reverse God, Reverse God, why is it Reverse God? They should all be gods themselves; it cannot be that they are reversing themselves, can it?”
While Zhang Ruochen is pondering, below come the howls of the two flood dragon strange beasts.
At the same time, from all four directions and eight sides, more strange beast sounds come, transforming into tidal sound waves that enter Zhang Ruochen’s ears, like thousands of troops and horses charging together towards his current position.
