Zhang Ruochen struck the sun dial with one palm, sending it flying straight toward the white jade divine sword.
At the same time, the Abyss Submersion Ancient Sword flew into his hand.
“Swish!”
Under the enhancement of time power, Zhang Ruochen’s speed was unparalleled. In an instant, he crossed more than twenty li and slashed at Si Tu Yun Lin’s neck.
Si Tu Yun Lin was a true god. Even suppressed by time power, she remained incredibly swift and dodged away.
This sword only severed a lock of her jet-black hair.
At the other end, the sun dial and white jade divine sword had just collided.
The white jade divine sword cleaved through the sea of time, striking the sun dial with a thunderous “boom” that sent it crashing heavily to the ground, kicking up billowing dust and smoke.
Zhang Ruochen did not halt his assault. He unleashed time swordsmanship, using speed to counter slowness, his body like a bolt of lightning as he struck out with sword after sword. He did not employ intricate techniques, just straightforward horizontal and vertical chops.
“What a formidable Zhang Ruochen. Though he has not achieved martial divinity, his combat prowess is already not much inferior to that of a lower god. With such peerless talent, once he steps into the divine realm, could he not challenge upper gods?”
The more Si Tu Yun Lin fought, the more alarmed she became. Although the current Zhang Ruochen was still no cause for concern, the thought of his near future filled her with chills.
“Liu Su Thousand Swords!”
The string of silver miniature swords wrapped around Si Tu Yun Lin’s slender waist flew out, numbering eight hundred and sixty-four. Combined with the previous two hundred and sixteen, they totalled exactly one thousand and eighty.
All the silver miniature swords scattered like hummingbirds leaving their nest, a thousand swords taking flight.
Zhang Ruochen’s sword momentum faltered, his speed slowing down.
As his speed diminished, Si Tu Yun Lin seized the opportunity at once. Merging with her sword, she streaked like flowing light, wielding her sword to strike at Zhang Ruochen.
The sword tip reached Zhang Ruochen’s chest in an instant.
Zhang Ruochen seemed utterly unable to react, standing motionless. Si Tu Yun Lin’s red lips curved slightly, convinced this strike would decide victory, defeat, life, and death.
“Boom!”
The sword pierced Zhang Ruochen’s chest, but instead of shattering him into pieces as she imagined, golden light erupted from his body. Buddhist chants thundered within him like thunder, and an overwhelmingly tyrannical force rebounded outward.
This blow nearly jolted Si Tu Yun Lin’s divine soul from her body. Her form flew backward, her bound hair coming loose, countless divine patterns on her divine robe fracturing, leaving it dishevelled and loose.
Zhang Ruochen fared no better and was also sent flying back, crashing into a black god corpse.
Regaining his breath, Zhang Ruochen acted with utmost decisiveness. Cupping the Ten Thousand Curse Heavenly Pearl in his hands, he chanted, “Death Soul Curse!”
Si Tu Yun Lin had been wounded by the power of the Buddha’s sarira. Her porcelain-snow divine body now bore numerous blood veins, a trace of blood at her lips, her form feeling as if it had fallen apart, wracked with excruciating pain.
The Death Soul Curse descended like insult added to injury.
She realised she had fallen for Zhang Ruochen’s ruse once more. He had deliberately lured her attack, using the Buddha’s sarira power to backlash against her.
“Sword Soul Divine Domain.”
Si Tu Yun Lin gripped her sword hilt with both hands, her gaze icy. The white jade divine sword plunged into the ground.
As a divine realm sword cultivator, her sword soul was immensely powerful.
She countered the Death Soul Curse with her sword soul.
“Swish!”
The Sword Soul Divine Domain manifested. From the ground, sword spikes sprouted like bamboo shoots after rain, rising from near to far and spreading toward Zhang Ruochen.
Golden wings unfurled from Zhang Ruochen’s back, lifting him into the air.
At the same time, thousands upon thousands of sword soul phantoms coalesced around Si Tu Yun Lin, forming a divine sword legion that turned into a gale, surging toward Zhang Ruochen in mid-air.
“A true god’s combat power is indeed extraordinary. Wounded so severely, yet still so formidable.”
Zhang Ruochen released the Eternal Return to One Domain and summoned the Concealed Mountain Demonic Mirror for protection. He hurled out the Ink Yang Divine Symbol, which transformed into a black sun, colliding with the overwhelming tide of sword soul phantoms.
Though Zhang Ruochen’s cultivation was formidable, Si Tu Yun Lin paid it little mind. But the sheer number of potent treasures on him, emerging endlessly, filled her with a sense of helplessness.
If this deadlock continued, Xue Tu would soon break through to the divine realm. At that point, in her injured state, her situation would become extremely perilous. After all, Xue Tu was a yuan hui-level prodigy, a disciple of the Death God Venerable, no ordinary figure.
Si Tu Yun Lin glanced toward the distant Xue Tu and saw that he had successfully passed the divine tribulation and was now condensing his star soul divine seat.
Thus, she summoned the one thousand and eighty silver miniature swords, forming a river of sword qi that roared with a “swish swish” sound, flying straight toward Xue Tu.
But at that moment, the sound of galloping river waters echoed from the void.
A winding Nether River surged with majestic momentum, like a heavenly river crossing the sky or the vast Yellow Springs. It clashed with the river of sword qi, scattering the one thousand and eighty silver miniature swords, all plummeting to the ground and cratering the earth.
“Swish!”
The Nether River coiled, resembling a thousand-li-long demonic dragon.
At the centre of the Nether River, Pan Ruo’s peerless figure emerged, radiant with divine light. Holding her staff, she landed on the ground a hundred zhang behind Si Tu Yun Lin.
Si Tu Yun Lin hastily withdrew her sword soul, rose with sword in hand, and regarded Pan Ruo with the vigilance of facing a great foe.
Seeing Pan Ruo arrive, Zhang Ruochen recalled the Ink Yang Divine Symbol to his hand and called out, “You arrive just in time. Lend me a hand to capture this Sword God Realm deity.”
“Capture her for what? Just kill her outright.”
Before her words finished, Pan Ruo had already crossed the hundred zhang. The Destiny Severing Staff in her hand cleaved down toward Si Tu Yun Lin’s head.
Si Tu Yun Lin blocked horizontally with her sword, her body flying out and slamming into the ground, ploughing a gully hundreds of metres long and toppling a stone mountain over a thousand metres high.
Not to mention her current injured state, even at full strength, she was vastly inferior to Pan Ruo.
She acted with great resolve, burning her internal divine blood to elevate her condition via a forbidden technique. Wielding her sword, she soared up and fled at utmost speed.
“You cannot escape.”
Zhang Ruochen stood atop a god corpse’s head and, using the Ten Thousand Curse Heavenly Pearl, unleashed the Nether Light Curse to confine her within.
“You shall not kill me. Otherwise, today we perish together.”
Faced with the mighty Pan Ruo and the spiritually divine Zhang Ruochen, Si Tu Yun Lin was out of options and could only resort to her final threat. Most deities could use this move to mutually assured destruction, deterring foes and preserving their lives.
Precisely for this reason, unless the cultivation gap was immense, deities would not drive opponents to the brink of death.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen and Pan Ruo both cease their attacks, a smile appeared on Si Tu Yun Lin’s face. She shattered the Nether Light Curse, her phoenix eyes sweeping over the two as she said, “Zhang Ruochen, I now know that treasure is on you. Even if you leave the Abyss of Darkness alive, you will never know peace.”
“Awooo!”
In the distance, Xue Tu’s long howl rang out.
His tens-of-thousands-li-tall divine body blazed with blood light. In his hands, he cradled a blood moon.
With both hands pressing downward, the blood moon descended from the heavens, bearing down on Zhang Ruochen, Pan Ruo, and Si Tu Yun Lin.
Zhang Ruochen and Pan Ruo retreated swiftly, but the blood moon pursued Si Tu Yun Lin relentlessly.
As the blood moon drew nearer to the ground, it became clear it was a blood-red divine star, its diameter likely tens of thousands of li, utterly awe-inspiring.
“Where did he summon such a massive planet from?” Pan Ruo frowned, feeling Xue Tu’s display too ostentatious, likely to draw the ghost-like strange beast.
Zhang Ruochen said uncertainly, “This is… his divine seat planet!”
His uncertainty stemmed from having witnessed Xue Tu condense the divine seat planet with his own eyes. Yet, such an eerie star defied all notion of a divine seat planet.
Why was the divine seat planet so small?
And where were the other divine seat planets?
In short, it was bizarre.
Influenced by the auras of the ground’s god corpses, the blood-red divine star shrank smaller the closer it approached the surface.
“Boom!”
When it struck Si Tu Yun Lin, the blood-red divine star had reduced to a diameter of just over ten li, like a massive iron ball.
The earth quaked, divine qi shockwaves sweeping a thousand li.
Xue Tu’s colossal divine body had shrunk to normal human size, standing atop the “iron ball.” He exhaled deeply and intoned, “Truly comfortable!”
Earlier, he had lost control of his divine body, expanding it to tens of thousands of li.
But the power of the Desolate Ancient Ruins City pressed in from all sides.
It felt as if his body had been inflated into a gigantic balloon, only for immense external forces to squeeze it. Xue Tu had scarcely dared to move then, fearing he would burst and die.
Were it not for Zhang Ruochen and Pan Ruo intercepting Si Tu Yun Lin, he would long since have perished utterly.
Now, with his divine body reduced, the oppressive force of the Desolate Ancient Ruins City dissipated, leaving Xue Tu feeling utterly refreshed.
Zhang Ruochen and Pan Ruo’s figures reappeared, their expressions somewhat grim.
“What are you doing, making such a racket? Do you want to die?” Zhang Ruochen said sternly.
Hearing Zhang Ruochen’s rebuke, Xue Tu felt even more elated in his heart, knowing Zhang Ruochen was outwardly stern but inwardly kind, truly caring for him with deep brotherly affection.
A true senior brother!
If in the past, Xue Tu had obeyed Zhang Ruochen due to the Blood Jue clan’s influence in the Blood Heaven Tribe, due to Zhang Ruochen’s formidable combat power, due to his ruthless methods, due to his great fortune.
But after this ordeal, seeing Zhang Ruochen risk clashing head-on with a true god to protect his breakthrough to divinity, how could he not be moved? He felt himself to have been beastly before, misunderstanding his senior brother.
“Senior brother, do not worry. I shall store the divine seat planet at once.”
Xue Tu took out the gourd bestowed by the Death God Venerable and absorbed the “iron ball” beneath his feet into it.
Below lay devastation, speckled with divine blood.
In the dim dust, wisps of blood qi surged toward the ground, converging together.
“Boom!”
The earth exploded, stones flying in disarray.
Si Tu Yun Lin burst from the soil, her body in tatters. Wisps of blood qi drilled into her wounds, burrowing into her body.
“She is still alive! Senior brother, rest easy. I understand you. Let me help you capture her.”
Blood qi and rule divine patterns surged from Xue Tu’s body, coalescing into a hundred-zhang blood claw that enveloped Si Tu Yun Lin at its centre. Wisps of blood qi wrapped around her like chains.
“Boom!”
The Destiny Severing Staff descended from the heavens, shattering the blood claw Xue Tu had formed.
The staff shaft pierced down like a spear from above Si Tu Yun Lin’s head, pulverising her divine body once more. Even her divine source and unbroken divine sea were suppressed beneath the Destiny Severing Staff, unable to reconstitute her form.
The destiny light emanating from the Destiny Severing Staff continuously eroded Si Tu Yun Lin’s divine soul and spiritual will.
Xue Tu stared in a daze, looking toward Pan Ruo.
Pan Ruo’s gaze was icy as she said, “Capture her for what? If we let her escape, the repercussions will be endless.”
