Xiu Chen gazed at him intently.
“What is that look for?” Zhang Ruochen asked, somewhat displeased.
The space inside the carriage was vast. Xiu Chen stood with hands clasped behind its back, its manner arrogant. “How much do you really know about Wu Yue? You dare to claim her? Let me tell you the truth. At her peak, even Blood Absolute would not be her match.”
Zhang Ruochen sat behind the desk and said, “Is it not just eighty-fourth order spiritual power? Is she not a tri-path divine master? Is she not the disciple of the Nine-Death Heterodox Emperor?”
A trace of surprise crossed Xiu Chen’s face. “You are not frightened, are you? You do not want to release her now, do you?”
The successive appearances of Xuanyuan Lian, Famous Sword God, and Blood Absolute War God had made Xiu Chen realise that its earlier battle to suppress Wu Yue must have been observed by many gods concealed in the shadows.
Some might mistake her for the Moon God.
But for ancient gods who had lived hundreds of thousands of years and possessed profound connections, how could they fail to know the truth?
Xiu Chen continued, “Releasing her may not resolve this grudge. Moreover, Wu Yue’s soul consciousness has suffered severe damage and she has lost her memories. Abandoning her in the Dark Triangular Cosmic Domain would be extremely dangerous. If she dies at the hands of Xuanyuan Lian, Famous Sword God, or others like them, the Darkness Temple will still hold this god accountable. In the end, the one who suffers will be you.”
“Therefore, the best course is to keep her and find ways to appease her. Once we leave the Dark Triangular Cosmic Domain, we can call upon Blood Absolute and escort her back to the Darkness Temple together. That should resolve the grudge.”
Having endured repeated setbacks and humiliations, Xiu Chen had gradually come to terms with itself. It knew it could not afford to offend the Darkness Temple or the Nine-Death Heterodox Emperor.
There was another reason. It had glimpsed hope for the future and naturally would not continue courting death.
Zhang Ruochen looked at it strangely. “Appease her? Did I hear that correctly? Those words actually came from you, Xiu Chen?”
Xiu Chen gave a light snort. “When a grudge can be resolved, why insist on resisting it head-on? Especially when it is like an egg striking a stone. Of course, the appeasing should be done by you. This god is merely a vessel spirit.”
“Now you remember you are only a vessel spirit?”
Zhang Ruochen’s voice suddenly deepened. He struck the desk heavily. “Sit down for this seat.”
Zhang Ruochen was seated while Xiu Chen remained standing.
This hardly resembled a conversation between master and vessel spirit.
Xiu Chen’s gaze sharpened. It met Zhang Ruochen’s eyes for a long while, knowing that continued defiance would bring no benefit. In the end, it pulled over a chair and sat, yet still looked down at Zhang Ruochen from above.
Zhang Ruochen stood up, his eyes keen as a hawk’s. “Let me tell you the truth. This seat shares an irreconcilable enmity with the Darkness Temple. Resolve the grudge? Hmph. What are you thinking?”
“With your strength, how great a grudge could you possibly have with the Darkness Temple? Just because you killed a few great saints on the Hunting Heaven battlefield?” Xiu Chen said disdainfully.
Zhang Ruochen replied, “I am not afraid to tell you. Since arriving in the Dark Triangular Cosmic Domain, this seat has already slain two great gods of the Darkness Temple in succession. I asked you to release Wu Yue so I can refine and kill her. Release her? Appease her? So Xiu Chen turns out to be merely a bully who fears the strong.”
Xiu Chen’s expression shifted several times, but it missed the key point. Furious and ashamed, it snapped, “Who are you calling a bully who fears the strong? This god only does not want you… You really killed great gods of the Darkness Temple?”
Zhang Ruochen took out the divine source of Great God Li Xiao and held it in his palm.
On Xiu Chen’s cold, snow-white face, the expressions were vivid. There was shock, astonishment, doubt, and even a trace of excitement.
Yet it truly could not understand where this young man drew such confidence to challenge the Darkness Temple.
This was not merely a challenge. It was practically declaring war.
Could Blood Absolute War God hold them off alone?
Xiu Chen said, “Was it Xu Fengjin who ordered you to do this? No, that cannot be right. No matter how unscrupulous Xu Fengjin is, he would not provoke a conflict between the Destiny Temple and the Darkness Temple before the Heavenly Court is destroyed.”
“You hid in the Dark Triangular Cosmic Domain for a thousand years, yet you know nothing of the earth-shaking changes that have occurred outside. Some matters you will learn gradually in time.” Zhang Ruochen put away the divine source, making no effort to conceal the killing intent in his eyes. “In any case, every cultivator from the Darkness Temple who enters the Dark Triangular Cosmic Domain must die.”
Though Xiu Chen harboured countless doubts, it could see that Zhang Ruochen was no reckless hothead who acted without considering consequences. To dare such a thing, he must have something to rely on.
Xiu Chen’s expression grew peculiar. “You truly intend to kill Wu Yue?”
Zhang Ruochen said, “Given the enmity between me and the Darkness Temple, even if the entire universe knew I killed Wu Yue, what of it? If the Lord of the Darkness Temple comes, someone will drive him back. If the Nine-Death Heterodox Emperor acts, even if he kills me, the Darkness Temple will at least lose one Immeasurable to accompany me in death.”
Xiu Chen sneered, thinking Zhang Ruochen’s arrogance had gone too far. It could not even be bothered to question whether anyone would truly stand up for him.
It merely felt that, given the status of the Lord of the Darkness Temple and the Nine-Death Heterodox Emperor, they would not even deign to notice a mere Grand Harmony great god like him.
Zhang Ruochen knew Xiu Chen did not believe him, but he could not be bothered to explain.
Xiu Chen said, “Fine. This god believes your face carries great weight. Neither the Lord of the Darkness Temple, Wu Bian, nor the Nine-Death Heterodox Emperor would dare kill you. But with your cultivation, you cannot kill Wu Yue. Her eighty-fourth order spiritual power means that even an Immeasurable would not be able to refine her quickly.”
Zhang Ruochen naturally knew the terror of eighty-fourth order spiritual power, but with the Earth Cauldron, he should be able to wear it down gradually.
The Universe Cauldron had already been exposed, causing seismic upheaval.
Did he really want to risk exposing the Earth Cauldron as well?
What if even then he could not refine Wu Yue?
Xiu Chen’s cold, beautiful face, paired with its sneer, carried an eerie charm. It continued, “Moreover, you probably do not know that behind Wu Yue stands not only the Darkness Temple, but also the Great Emperor of Fengdu. Killing her would offend the entire Hell Realm. Who could protect you then? Forget Blood Absolute. Even the clan leader of the Undying Blood Race could not save you.”
Zhang Ruochen was shaken. “How could Wu Yue have any connection to the Great Emperor of Fengdu?”
Even before becoming a Heavenly Venerable, the Great Emperor of Fengdu had been known as the foremost powerhouse of the Hell Realm. Not only did he command absolute authority among the Ghost Race, but a single decree from him would brook no defiance from almost anyone in the middle three races.
Now that he had become a Heavenly Venerable, his influence was naturally even greater.
Seeing the previously unshakeable Zhang Ruochen stunned, Xiu Chen felt a surge of satisfaction. It deliberately said, “In short, just remember not to make an enemy of Wu Yue.”
“Are you going to tell me or not?”
Zhang Ruochen took out the Soul-Whipping Lash.
Xiu Chen’s gaze turned icy as it glared back.
Crack!
Mobilising divine qi, he lashed out. The whip passed just beside Xiu Chen’s cheek.
Xiu Chen retreated several steps, deeply displeased, yet it finally spoke. “The full details are known only to the Nine-Death Heterodox Emperor. This god only knows that Wu Yue has an extraordinary connection to the wife of the ancient Star Ring Heavenly Venerable, the Moon God. Do not think this god fears your Soul-Whipping Lash. Having faced death, how could it fear a mere whip?”
Of course Xiu Chen did not fear the Soul-Whipping Lash, but to be truly whipped by Zhang Ruochen would be utter humiliation.
Zhang Ruochen, however, was thinking that he must find time to give it a thorough beating. Otherwise, Xiu Chen would surely think every threat was mere posturing.
To have a vessel spirit yet treat it like an honoured ancestress, who could endure that?
Moreover, if he did not fully subdue it, who knew what trouble it might cause in future.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Even if Wu Yue has a profound connection to the ancient Moon God, what does that have to do with the Great Emperor of Fengdu?”
“You were the emissary of that Moon God from Guanghan Realm, yet you do not even know this?”
Xiu Chen no longer teased Zhang Ruochen. “Legend has it that ten yuanhui ago, the earth soul of Star Ring Heavenly Venerable gave birth to new consciousness, became a ghost soul, and later rose to become a supreme powerhouse who dominated the Hell Realm. Guess who that was?”
“A legend?” Zhang Ruochen asked.
Xiu Chen could not help a cold snort. “What kind of existence is this god? Even if what this god calls a legend is not the absolute truth, it is close enough.”
Zhang Ruochen fell into thought. The earth soul is usually bound to the body, the shadow of the flesh.
After Star Ring Heavenly Venerable was dismembered by his four disciples, the Heavenly Venerable’s body was taken by the third disciple, Yu Hun, who used the Corpse Transformation Forbidden Art to refine it into himself. That became the Old Corpse Ghost later imprisoned beneath the Yuchen Divine Temple.
In other words, Star Ring Heavenly Venerable’s earth soul should have been with the Old Corpse Ghost, its shadow.
Yet…
The Old Corpse Ghost had no shadow.
Zhang Ruochen suddenly recalled something and asked, “Ten yuanhui ago?”
“Roughly, yes,” Xiu Chen replied.
Was it not ten yuanhui ago that the Immovable Mingwang Great Venerable went beneath the Yuchen Divine Temple?
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen remembered Xu Wen’s earlier analysis that behind Yu Hun there might lurk the shadow of the Nine-Death Heterodox Emperor. Putting it all together, Wu Yue might indeed have some connection to the ancient Moon God.
But what was her relation to the Moon God of Guanghan Realm?
The more he thought, the more tangled it became. When he questioned Xiu Chen further, it too knew only fragments.
Zhang Ruochen could only sigh that Heavenly Venerable-level powerhouses were truly formidable. Even in death, they could influence later generations for millions of years.
Monsters of longevity like the Nine-Death Heterodox Emperor, why had the Great Venerable not killed him back then?
Zhang Ruochen said coldly, “Even if the Great Emperor of Fengdu was cultivated from Star Ring Heavenly Venerable’s earth soul, he is already a second life with an entirely new, independent consciousness. Even if the ancient Moon God were revived, he might not spare her a glance, let alone a mere Wu Yue.”
If the Great Emperor of Fengdu were still Star Ring Heavenly Venerable, how could he ignore the life or death of Star Ring Heaven?
Xiu Chen said, “Indeed, that is what everyone in the universe originally believed. But a hundred thousand years ago, when the Moon God was besieged by the gods of the Hell Realm and her divine power was exhausted, the aura of the Great Emperor of Fengdu appeared, frightening those Hell Realm gods into fleeing in panic. How do you explain that?”
Given Xiu Chen’s status and cultivation back then, it clearly knew many hidden secrets unknown to others.
“The Moon God resembled the Immortal Princess Divine Consort, her beauty unrivalled in the universe. No matter how strong the Great Emperor of Fengdu is, he is still a man. Could he not feel pity for such fragrance and beauty?” Though Zhang Ruochen said this, even he did not believe the explanation.
Could Wu Yue truly not be killed?
Zhang Ruochen did not fear the Darkness Temple because, as long as he did not expose his martial cultivation, their Immeasurables would never act against him.
As for those below Immeasurable, if he could not defeat them, could he not escape?
Precisely because of this, facing mortal enemies like the Darkness Temple, Tiannan Life-Death Ruin, Disha Ghost City, and the Paradise Realm faction, Zhang Ruochen truly feared nothing. He would simply kill them.
But the Great Emperor of Fengdu was a living Heavenly Venerable of the present age.
To offend him, unless Zhang Ruochen could win Xuanyuan Qing and hide in the Heavenly Palace as Haotian’s son-in-law, or flee to the Desolate Ancient Ruined City and seek Tian Lao’s protection, living forever in that barren, deathly silent place, never emerging again.
