“How terrifying the Three Evils Corpse Poison is. In an instant, it claimed the life of a higher god.”
Qing Shen stared at Feng Qi, who had collapsed in the centre of the grand hall, his flesh and blood gradually turning into pus. For a long time, her heart could not calm down.
“Although the Three Evils Corpse Poison is terrifying, it is not yet terrifying enough to kill a higher god upon contact. It must be a poison pill condensed from the Three Evils Corpse Poison. Moreover, the poison pill had already been swallowed by Feng Qi. As long as the seal on the poison pill is released, the corpse poison can erupt from inside out.”
Zhang Ruochen’s face looked grim, his eyes filled with confusion. He asked somewhat incredulously, “What kind of person is Feng Qi exactly?”
“If you had not told me that this matter concerns the survival of the Tianchu Civilization, I would not even have probed him. Feng Qi’s relationship with the Tianchu Civilization is closer than his relationship with the Phoenix clan. Who would have thought… It is truly hard to know a person’s heart beneath their face,” Qing Shen said.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Do you not find this matter very strange?”
“Strange? Strange in what way?” Qing Shen asked in surprise.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Do you remember the words Feng Qi said just before he died?”
Qing Shen frowned, pondered for a moment, and said, “I did nothing wrong. Dying here is worth it. Yes, even at the moment of death, why did he still feel he had done nothing wrong?”
“What is more crucial is why he felt his death was worth it. Why was he so resolute in dying?”
Zhang Ruochen’s gaze grew deeper. He said, “There is only one possibility. He was covering up a huge secret. He did not want his soul searched. He did not want us to know. What secret is it exactly? Is it really as simple as what we have guessed so far?”
Qing Shen said, “Perhaps the power of faith in destiny has completely changed him, making him utterly loyal to the Hell Realm. I must immediately go to the God King’s mansion and report this matter to the God King.”
“Since the Heavenly God Sacrificer was not in Feng Qi’s divine world, if he wanted to conceal it from the God King’s perception, then it must be hidden in the divine world of Granny Tianhu. Only Granny Tianhu’s cultivation level could condense a poison pill of Three Evils Corpse Poison capable of instantly killing Feng Qi. Only she possesses the Three Evils Corpse Poison.”
The two walked out of the grand hall. Qing Shen activated the formation to lock down the entire hall, preventing the corpse poison from spreading.
Zhang Ruochen retracted the Seven Origins Colourful Robe that had been covering the hall. While deep in thought, he suddenly called out to Qing Shen, who was eager to leave. He said, “Granny Tianhu may not be the problem. I always feel that someone is deliberately diverting our attention to her.”
“However, for the moment, I have no clues. You go first to the God King’s mansion and report what happened here to Lord God King. I believe he will make his own judgement. My identity is special, so it is not convenient for me to go.”
Seeing that Zhang Ruochen also seemed about to leave, Qing Shen asked, “Where are you going?”
She now truly believed that Zhang Ruochen had come this time to help the Tianchu Civilization overcome its difficulties.
“I need to go to Tianzhu Mountain.”
After Qing Shen left, Zhang Ruochen hurried towards Tianzhu Mountain.
He had thought of a terrifying possibility, so he no longer paid attention to the Fire Seed Conference. With Xuanyuan Lian presiding there, the gods from the Hell Realm should not be able to cause major upheaval.
But, after carefully considering Luo Yi’s style of action, he finally understood her intentions.
Even if the Hell Realm army launched a major operation in the Tianchu Civilization to destroy the boundary protection array, Luo Yi would not deceive him. With her personality, the greatest likelihood was that she would openly tell Zhang Ruochen what she intended to do, and perhaps even use Dousui City as a chessboard to play a game against him.
She knew very well that what Zhang Ruochen hated most was being deceived.
Therefore, her target was not destroying the boundary protection array, but Tianzhu Mountain, Luo Ji, the civilization treasury of the Tianchu Civilization, and that incalculable wealth of cultivation resources.
“I should have thought of it earlier. How could the Hell Realm possibly let go of the Tianchu Civilization’s treasury?” Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
The fundamental reason the Hell Realm attacked the Heavenly Court was to plunder resources and strengthen itself.
Luo Yi was extraordinarily intelligent and would never miss this opportunity. Using the gods from other clans in the Hell Realm to disrupt the Fire Seed Conference and pin down God King Yu provided the perfect moment to seize the civilization treasury.
Zhang Ruochen was very anxious, but there were too many formations in Dousui City. Coupled with the matter of Lan Jun, the city’s defences had become even stricter, with divine sense patrols appearing from time to time.
It took him a long time to leave the city.
Looking up, in the starry sky, chaos and ruin persisted. Thick rumbling sounds continued to come from the depths of the universe. One could imagine how fiercely those existences at the pinnacle of the divine realm were fighting.
However, the Heavenly Court army had finally stabilised the situation. The formation nodes of the Starry Sky Divine Array were no longer being destroyed.
“I fear we must wait until the game in Dousui City reaches a conclusion before those major figures from the Hell Realm are willing to withdraw. What a Hell Realm divine tide. Yet its most fundamental purpose lies in this undercurrent surging within Dousui City.”
Tianzhu Mountain was located in Yunlai Sea, only ten thousand li from Dousui City.
At Zhang Ruochen’s speed, once out of the city, he could arrive in an instant.
But, just as he rushed into the sea domain and had not flown a thousand li, Zhang Ruochen keenly sensed subtle fluctuations in space. He immediately stopped and scanned the surroundings.
On the sea surface, waves rose and fell, the wind howling.
A familiar laugh echoed between heaven and earth. It said, “Worthy of being Zhang Ruochen, inheritor of space and time. You detected the spatial change so quickly. But what surprises this lord even more is that your martial cultivation has not been crippled at all.”
Zhang Ruochen’s expression remained unchanged as powerful mental force erupted from his body.
“Boom!”
The sea surface beneath him sank. Waves surged in all directions, rising higher and higher, crashing against an invisible light wall. The light wall turned into glazed coloured clouds, forming a glazed dome hundreds of li in diameter.
“Clear Sky Glazed Dome!” Zhang Ruochen uttered.
A black figure appeared on the sea surface, standing a hundred li away.
God Lord Jiayu was three chi tall, with pitch-black skin and a huge rat head. In his sharp claws, he held the unconscious Qing Shen.
“The wife of the dignified lord of Dousui City is actually a woman from the Twelve Divine Maidens Pavilion,” God Lord Jiayu remarked with a smile.
There was no need to guess. God Lord Jiayu must have used the methods of the Path of Truth to peer into Qing Shen’s mind, thus learning Zhang Ruochen’s true identity.
And through this, he knew Zhang Ruochen was heading to Tianzhu Mountain.
That was how he could intercept him midway.
Zhang Ruochen said, “I also did not expect that the dignified God Lord Jiayu of the Demon God Temple, a candidate for the Lord of the Truth Temple, would collude with the Hell Realm and ruin his own future. What benefit does this bring you?”
“This lord has his reasons for doing so. You would not understand.”
God Lord Jiayu immediately added, “Why not talk about you instead? You, Zhang Ruochen, are the Realm Lord of Xinghuan Heaven and the divine envoy of Tianlao. With such noble status, are you truly risking your life to come to the Tianchu Civilization just for a woman? This lord thinks you must be after the Tianchu Civilization’s treasury.”
“Do you think everyone is like you, seeing only profit?”
Zhang Ruochen saw that God Lord Jiayu was deliberately stalling for time and stepped forward.
With a “zheng” sound, the Qingping Sword flew out and he grasped it in his hand.
When peering into Qing Shen’s mind, God Lord Jiayu had seen the scene of Zhang Ruochen defeating Feng Qi. How could he dare underestimate him? He said, “This lord has no intention of becoming your enemy. I only hope to converse freely with you here for one hour. After one hour, Realm Lord, you may go wherever you wish.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “You are worried that I will disrupt your arrangements at the Fire Seed Conference?”
“What Realm Lord cares about is nothing more than Fairy Tianchu. As long as you promise to remain in this Clear Sky Glazed Dome for one hour, this lord can guarantee her safety,” God Lord Jiayu said.
“On what basis can you guarantee that?”
Zhang Ruochen had already walked within a hundred zhang of God Lord Jiayu.
God Lord Jiayu sensed extreme danger and slowly retreated, maintaining distance from Zhang Ruochen. His expression grew serious. He said, “If Realm Lord attacks, the first to die will surely be this god from your Twelve Divine Maidens Pavilion!”
Zhang Ruochen was anxious to reach Tianzhu Mountain. How could he allow himself to be restrained?
“I bet she will not die!”
After saying this, a Taiji circle erupted from Zhang Ruochen’s body. In an instant, he crossed a hundred zhang and enveloped God Lord Jiayu.
God Lord Jiayu only felt the world spin as his body seemed to plummet rapidly into the earth.
But he was no Lan Jun or Feng Qi. Almost in an instant, he released rule divine patterns to stabilise his form. And in that instant, Zhang Ruochen was already before him.
“Whoosh!”
Sword light dazzled!
God Lord Jiayu had no time to gather a divine technique. Reflexively, he released his grip on Qing Shen, dodged sideways, and evaded Zhang Ruochen’s lightning-fast sword.
The sword edge nearly grazed his arm, activating a cobalt-blue armour he wore.
“Chi chi!”
Even though the sword and armour were half a chi apart, they still sparked a large burst of flames.
Zhang Ruochen steadily caught Qing Shen, while God Lord Jiayu retreated dozens of li away. Puzzled, he said, “How is this possible?”
Zhang Ruochen knew what he was bewildered about.
When peering into Qing Shen’s mind, he had seen that Zhang Ruochen’s Taiji circle only covered an area of eighteen zhang. Yet just now, it had instantly covered a hundred zhang, catching him off guard.
He did not know that eighteen zhang was merely Zhang Ruochen’s strongest killing range.
Naturally, Zhang Ruochen would not reveal this secret to him. After checking and finding Qing Shen unharmed, he stored her in the “Six Patriarchs’ Zen Diagram” and said, “You see, I won the bet! You cannot kill me.”
God Lord Jiayu quickly calmed down and said, “I truly did not expect that in such a short time, you have become this powerful. But as long as you have not yet entered the Taizhen Realm, this lord does not fear you.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “It is good that you have this mindset. This way, killing you should be easier. At least you will not be scared into fleeing!”
With his martial cultivation exposed, how could he let God Lord Jiayu leave?
As long as God Lord Jiayu did not flee, Zhang Ruochen was confident he could kill him in a short time.
