The God of Blood Absolution naturally did not come.
Truth divine light flowed in Shang Hong’s eyes. He perceived this fact and said, “Zhang Ruochen, you actually dared to come here alone. I do not know whether to praise your courage or call you foolish.”
Zhang Ruochen laughed loudly. “How do you know I came alone?”
“If the God of Blood Absolution had truly arrived, he would have struck at the first instant,” Shang Hong replied.
Lan Jun, Mo Yu, Yan Shen, Jia Linnán, and Kailan Feili, five gods in total, all let out a sigh of relief at the same moment. They secretly admired Shang Hong’s shrewdness.
Indeed!
If the God of Blood Absolution were really here, they would probably already have been suppressed so completely that they could not move, let alone find the chance to speak.
Xue Tu froze, inwardly crying bitterness.
Senior Brother, what are you playing at?
Even if you could not bring the War God, you could have transformed into his likeness and frightened the gods of Heaven a little. Perhaps then we could have found an opening to rescue him.
But to rush straight here like this, how is it different from courting death?
“Senior Brother, Xue Tu accepts your sentiment of sharing life and death! But please, flee quickly. Go to the Wuding Divine Sea and bring reinforcements.” Xue Tu spoke with a mournful face.
“I have already come. Where could I flee to?”
Lan Jun’s voice rang out, strange and mocking. His figure flickered and he appeared behind Zhang Ruochen.
Swish!
Swish!
The sound of breaking wind rose.
Yan Shen appeared on Zhang Ruochen’s right.
Jia Linnán and Kailan Feili appeared on his left.
Yan Shen laughed coldly. “This god truly never imagined that the boy who once could only hide behind the Moon Goddess would, in such a short time, shake the universe with his name and even step into the divine realm. The humiliation the Moon Goddess dealt this god that year, today I shall reclaim from your body.”
No wonder Xue Tu believed Zhang Ruochen had come to throw his life away. Leaving aside the three upper gods whose might had long shaken Heaven, Yan Shen alone was already terrifyingly powerful. Both Gu Ya and Xue Tu had paid a heavy price to suppress him.
Though Zhang Ruochen’s spiritual force was formidable and could overwhelm Wu Ma Jiuxing, he still fell short when compared to Yan Shen in his three-corpse separated state.
Shang Hong was cautious by nature. “Strike! Make it quick. I want him alive.”
Ding, ding!
Twelve Soul-Devouring Bells flew out, circling Zhang Ruochen in twelve positions.
Driven by spiritual force, their ringing thundered like lightning. The resulting sound waves tore apart nearby nebulae. Jia Linnán and Kailan Feili, whose cultivation was a step weaker, both felt their divine souls about to fly from their bodies, drawn towards the bells.
Their faces twisted in pain, blood streaming from their eyes.
In recent days, Zhang Ruochen had twice gained sudden enlightenment. His spiritual force had advanced by leaps and bounds, equivalent to thousands of years of bitter cultivation. It had risen from the early stage of the seventy-fourth order to the middle stage.
“This supreme sacred artefact of spiritual force is not bad. Unfortunately, your cultivation is too low. It cannot threaten this god.”
Lan Jun was an upper god with a powerful divine soul. He let out a long roar like that of a lion or tiger.
Sound waves and divine qi surged from his mouth, scattering the sound waves formed by the Soul-Devouring Bells and pressing back like mountains and seas.
Just as the sound waves and divine qi were about to strike Zhang Ruochen, suddenly, a huge and radiant Gate of Destiny appeared in front of him. It swallowed all of Lan Jun’s power.
A massive vortex formed where the Gate of Destiny stood, as though it would drag Lan Jun himself inside.
When Lan Jun saw the Gate of Destiny, his expression changed. He immediately stopped roaring and retreated swiftly.
Shang Hong gave a soft exclamation and looked above the Gate of Destiny.
There, a strikingly elegant and handsome figure stood, holding a flaming white-bone spear. His long hair flowed like a waterfall.
His posture was even straighter than the spear in his hand.
It was the ancient god-child of the Temple of Destiny, Hai Shang Minggong.
Hai Shang Minggong smiled faintly. “To attack a god of the Temple of Destiny, does this mean you hold this god in no regard at all?”
Boom!
Without seeming to act, Hai Shang Minggong caused the five-coloured sacred mountain suppressing Xue Tu to shatter explosively.
Xue Tu’s two severed divine bodies soared upward, reunited in mid-air, then descended beneath the Gate of Destiny. He cupped his hands and bowed to Hai Shang Minggong. “Greetings, Lord Hai Shang!”
Every ancient god-child and ancient goddess of the Temple of Destiny was a dazzling genius of peerless battle power, each possessing the potential to become a future war god or master of a divine palace.
No matter how proud Xue Tu might be, he knew he was currently worlds away from Hai Shang Minggong. A respectful salute now might bring considerable benefits in future.
Lan Jun spoke with arrogant pride. “So it is you, the defeated subordinate of the Heavenly Sun. Hai Shang Minggong, it would have been better had you not come. Since you are here, take care that your life does not remain behind as well.”
“What if we are added to the tally?”
Yan Yu and a burly man clad in heavy black armour flew out from the nebula.
When Lan Jun caught sight of the man who stood three times taller than an ordinary human, he instantly lost much of his former arrogance. This giant was Mi Lianshan, son of the Mir Heaven War God of the Yanluo clan.
He was an upper god of utmost strength, capable of standing toe-to-toe with Shang Hong and Hai Shang Minggong.
“Today happens to be my hundred-thousandth birthday. Who will come and give me a good fight?”
Mi Lianshan clashed his fists together, producing a metallic clang. Radiant divine light spread outwards, causing Yan Shen, Jia Linnán, and Kailan Feili, the three middle gods, to stagger.
Even before Lan Jun, lightning and fire intertwined. His protective divine qi nearly failed to hold.
Zhang Ruochen had originally intended to summon Yulong Xian, but seeing the current lineup, Hell already held the upper hand. There was no need for him to reveal his trump cards and steal the limelight.
He did not wish to stand out, yet that did not mean others felt the same.
Seeing both Hai Shang Minggong and Mi Lianshan arrive, Xue Tu’s confidence surged. He summoned his divine throne planet and glared at Jia Linnán. “This sovereign challenges you to single combat, South Sun Smasher. Do you dare accept?”
Jia Linnán truly did not fear Xue Tu, but whether to fight or not was not his decision now.
His gaze fixed upon Shang Hong.
Shang Hong remained calm amidst the changing situation. “You all withdraw first. I will cover the rear. Having captured Gu Ya and brought him back to Heaven, our merit is already great.”
Mo Yu had evidently already communicated with Shang Hong by transmission. In an instant, he carried the divine diagram suppressing Gu Ya and plunged into the nebula.
Lan Jun, Yan Shen, Jia Linnán, and Kailan Feili followed closely, each stepping with divine speed, moving at extreme velocity.
“Where do you think you are going!”
Destiny divine light surged from Hai Shang Minggong’s twin pupils, piercing space and reaching hundreds of thousands of miles away.
If gods of Heaven managed to carry Gu Ya away right under his nose, he would become a laughing-stock in Hell from this day forward. For the Temple of Destiny, losing an upper god was also a heavy blow.
“Void Bloom!”
Lan Jun unleashed a divine ability. In the void, a peach grove manifested.
Countless peach blossoms danced in the starry sky, dissolving Hai Shang Minggong’s destiny divine light.
Hai Shang Minggong prepared to strike again, but Shang Hong’s divine realm world came pressing down, enveloping him.
Facing Shang Hong, Hai Shang Minggong had no choice but to focus fully. The flaming white-bone spear thrust out fiercely, piercing a great hole in space.
Boom!
The two gods fell into the void dimension.
Caught within Shang Hong’s divine realm world was Mi Lianshan as well.
“All of you, come at me together!”
Shang Hong separated his three corpses, transforming into three equally mighty giant divine bodies. Above each one hovered a supreme sacred artefact.
“Shang Hong, you actually think to fight one against two. Today, I will have a proper bout with you.”
Dark power seeped from Mi Lianshan’s armour. A sea of divine qi appeared beneath his feet. He struck with iron fists the size of stars, targeting one of the Shang Hongs.
“Do not get entangled in battle. Breaking his divine realm world and rescuing Gu Ya is the priority,” Hai Shang Minggong said.
…
The moment Shang Hong unfolded his divine realm world, Zhang Ruochen and Xue Tu escaped at once.
They could escape, of course, thanks to Hai Shang Minggong’s obstruction.
Zhang Ruochen gazed in the direction where Mo Yu, Lan Jun, and the others had fled, his face showing contemplation.
Xue Tu feared Zhang Ruochen might make a wrong decision. “Do not chase. Both Lan Jun and Mo Yu are upper gods. We cannot provoke them yet. Give me a few tens of thousands more years of cultivation, and this sovereign guarantees to beat them so badly they forget their own names.”
“Gu Ya is your senior brother,” Zhang Ruochen said.
Xue Tu replied, “Merely a senior brother in name. It is not worth risking my life for him.”
After thinking, he added, “He cannot compare with you, my true senior brother. If it were you who had been captured, even at the cost of my life, Xue Tu would chase after them.”
“That is not the right way to put it. Gu Ya is a god of our Hell. If Heaven captures him just like that, where does that leave Hell’s face? Where does that leave the face of the Temple of Destiny?” Zhang Ruochen declared righteously.
Xue Tu was stunned.
What was going on?
Since when did Senior Brother feel such strong belonging to Hell?
Yan Yu flew over. “I agree with Ruochen. We may not be the match of Mo Yu or Lan Jun, but we must find a way to delay them. Shang Hong cannot possibly withstand the combined forces of Hai Shang Minggong and Mi Lianshan. As long as one of them can quickly break free, we will have a chance to rescue Gu Ya.”
Giving Xue Tu no other choice, Zhang Ruochen seized his wrist, took a divine step, and sped after them together with Yan Yu.
“They have caught up!” Mo Yu said.
Lan Jun gave a cold laugh. “Three new gods whose combined age is less than ten thousand years actually dare pursue us. You go ahead. This god will capture all three of them together.”
Lan Jun halted, took out a folding fan, and waved it gently in the void, perfectly at ease.
Three divine lights arrived in an instant.
Without any superfluous words, Lan Jun sent the folding fan flying. It shattered in mid-air. Its twelve ribs became twelve jade swords that flew straight towards the trio.
He attacked with full power from the outset, intending to cripple all three gods in a single strike and render them unable to fight.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Xue Tu’s divine realm world was shattered by the jade swords.
“A grand upper god actually ambushes us. If you have the ability… fight me one-on-one… argh…”
One jade sword struck the divine throne planet Xue Tu had sent out, sending the planet flying. Another jade sword pierced Xue Tu’s protective divine light, transfixed his lung, and slammed his divine body into an asteroid.
Yan Yu’s talisman robe blocked four jade swords and dozens of attacks in succession, producing a series of explosions.
In the end the talisman robe was pierced. Yan Yu was cleaved in two by a jade sword.
The cultivation gap was simply too great. Resistance was impossible.
Zhang Ruochen had long known Lan Jun possessed impressive cultivation and was a powerhouse among upper gods, yet he had not expected him to strike so decisively and ruthlessly. Clearly Lan Jun intended to finish them swiftly and clean them up in the shortest possible time.
Evidently all gods were shrewd. Not one was foolish enough to give them any chance to stall for time.
Zhang Ruochen was also struck by a jade sword, but brilliant Buddhist light burst from his body. The Vajra power of the Seventh Ancestor dissolved the overwhelming divine force carried by the sword.
“The Buddha’s relic!”
Lan Jun’s eyes lit up, then filled with delight. “Zhang Ruochen, you truly carry many fine treasures.”
