Without any unnecessary words, Zhang Ruochen attacked again.
“Elephant Power Nine Stacks.”
The soul shadow of the Martial Soul and Zhang Ruochen’s body almost merged into one, as strands of heaven and earth aura converged over, and a palm struck out, erupting with nine times the power of the attack.
Nine waves of Qi, like water ripples, layer after layer, converged in front of Zhang Ruochen’s palm, forming a six-metre-long divine Elephant Shadow.
“Roar!”
As the power of the palm seal struck out, a long roar of a savage beast rang out, shaking the underground chamber and dropping a piece of broken stone.
Hua Qingye had to get serious, his legs spread apart, knees slightly bent, standing in a horse stance and striking out a fist move.
It was a pity that he still underestimated Zhang Ruochen’s current strength too much, that head of the God Statue Void was like a small mountain crashing into his body, and just as soon as they exchanged blows, he was once again knocked backwards, his body’s blood qi churning, and his meridians disorganised with true qi.
“Surprisingly this strong?”
In fact, Hua Qing Ye’s strength was quite powerful, being able to cross over into the Fish Dragon Realm, how could he be weak? Only, he had broken an arm, causing his battle power to drop by a large margin.
Earlier, he was also sneak attacked by Zhang Ruochen and suffered a considerable amount of injuries, so his battle power was also greatly reduced.
With his current strength, it was roughly equivalent to 30% of his heyday.
“Swish!”
Zhang Ruochen continued to strike, and with a swing of his battle sword, he chopped towards Hua Qingye’s head.
“Zhang Ruochen, do you think you’re the only one with a martial soul?”
Being pressed by a junior from the Heavenly Extremity Realm, Hua Qingye’s heart exploded with rage and released his own martial soul as well.
He had never used the power of his martial soul as he held his identity.
Now it was different, if he didn’t use the power of his martial soul, not to mention suppressing Zhang Ruochen, he might be suppressed by Zhang Ruochen instead.
“Wow!”
A pillar of light rushed out from the top of Hua Qing Ye’s head, a particle of light, condensing into a martial soul that hovered above Hua Qing Ye’s back.
Releasing the martial soul, Hua Qing Ye’s strength, finally, fully erupted.
“Boom!”
A strike clashed, and both of them simultaneously fell backwards.
“Clatter!”
Above, a piece of rubble continued to fall, and it seemed that this secret room was about to be shaken down by the battle between the two.
“Zhang Ruochen, your strength is indeed very strong, but compared to a Fish Dragon Realm martial artist, you are still far from it.”
“Heavenly Harmony Battle Fist.”
Hua Qingye’s arm bones continuously rattled as he struck out a Spirit Grade Upper Grade fist move.
After receiving the enhancement of his martial soul, Hua Qing Ye’s power had more than doubled, and with a single fist move, the entire underground chamber seemed to be filled with his power.
True Qi, not only flowed through his internal meridians, but also surged out of his body, turning into a great river of true Qi that flowed around the Martial Soul.
The Heavenly Harmony Battle Fist, there were a total of twenty-seven moves, and Hua Qingye struck out the very first move, the Hammer of Heaven Opening.
As his fist struck out, almost all of the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi mobilised by the Martial Soul converged over and coalesced in his arm, causing his fist to turn greenish-blue as it violently struck at Zhang Ruochen’s chest.
“Is this the true power of a Fish Dragon Realm martial artist?”
Zhang Ruochen had a feeling that if he were to go toe-to-toe with Hua Qingye, he would most likely be seriously injured, or even worse, by Hua Qingye’s punch.
In the end, Zhang Ruochen was only at the middle stage of the Heavenly Extremity Realm right now, and it was only by virtue of his almost perverse Martial Soul power that he was able to fight against Hua Qing Ye.
Now that Hua Qing Ye had also erupted his martial soul power, the situation immediately reversed and was quite unfavourable to Zhang Ruochen.
“Spatial Crack.”
Zhang Ruochen’s arms lifted up and his hands split, and it was like a spatial door opened up in front of him.
It was a spatial crack, and within the crack, it was dense, and the power that surged out from within was like it was able to devour everything in the world.
In just an instant, the spatial rift swallowed the power of the punch struck by Hua Qing Ye.
Zhang Ruochen wanted to build on his efforts and rely on the spatial rift to get rid of Hua Qingye.
His hands pushed forward, and with the power induced, the spatial rift chopped towards Hua Qing Ye.
Hua Qing Ye had almost suffered a loss from the spatial rift earlier, so naturally, he was even more cautious now as his body flickered and dodged it in just an instant.
“Giggle!”
The spatial rift struck on top of the stone wall behind Hua Qing Ye, swallowing up a large amount of mud and rocks, leaving behind a large pit over ten metres long.
Seeing the destructive power caused by the spatial rift, Hua Qing Ye’s heart was greatly shocked as he said, “Zhang Ruochen, what martial arts skill did you perform, and why are you able to tear through space?”
“If you are able to defeat me, you will naturally know the answer.”Zhang Ruochen said.
Hua Qing Ye’s face sank as he said, “Do you think that I really can’t cure you?”
Hua Qing Ye’s hand touched in his pocket and took out a small purple-gold coloured delicate bell. The small bell, roughly only three inches tall, had a subtle inscription engraved on its surface, emitting a faint cold aura.
Seeing that small bell, Zhang Ruochen developed a bad feeling.
As Hua Qing Ye injected his true qi into the small bell and activated the inscription pattern, that small bell gradually grew in size, from being three inches tall at the beginning, it gradually became three metres tall, transforming into a huge ancient bell.
“Wow!”
Purple-golden light exploded out from the ancient bell, forming an odd force that suppressed Zhang Ruochen’s martial soul.
Hua Qing Ye held the huge ancient bell in his hand and laughed, “Zhang Ruochen, this ancient bell is a 10th rank True Martial Treasure Artifact called the Soul Beating Bell, which specialises in beating the martial souls of martial artists. Since your martial soul is powerful, I would like to see if it can withstand the attack of the Soul Beating Bell.”
Just as he spoke, Hua Qing Ye swung the Soul Beating Bell and attacked Zhang Ruochen.
The Soul Striking Bell kept rotating, emitting a “buzzing” sound as it crashed into Zhang Ruochen’s Martial Soul.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t fight with Hua Qingye at all, he executed his body method and turned around to escape.
Just kidding, Zhang Ruochen’s biggest advantage now was his martial soul, if he lost it, Zhang Ruochen would not have the ability to fight against Hua Qing Ye at all.
The Soul Striking Bell was specially designed to deal with martial souls, if Zhang Ruochen continued to fight with Hua Qing Ye, he would definitely suffer a great loss.
“Wow!”
After rushing out of the secret room and returning to the ground, Zhang Ruochen activated his Royal Wind Flying Dragon Shadow’s stance to the extreme and fled towards the distance, spanning a distance of more than twenty feet with every step he took.
After breaking through to the Heavenly Extremity Realm, Zhang Ruochen executed the Royal Wind Flying Dragon Shadow, and the speed he erupted from it became even faster.
After all, the Royal Wind Flying Dragon Shadow was a Spirit Grade Upper Grade Body Technique Martial Skill, and only a Heavenly Extreme Realm martial artist could utilise its true power.
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen was as if he was travelling through the air, each step stepping in mid-air, his feet not landing on the ground.
Of course, he wasn’t flying off the ground right now, he was only borrowing the wind through the cleverness of his stance martial skills to achieve a short run through the void.
Only by becoming a Half Saint could one truly achieve flying through the air without borrowing any external force.
At that realm, Zhang Ruochen was still far from it.
Immediately behind Zhang Ruochen, Hua Qingye also rushed out from the ground and without any hesitation, his arm flung out and struck the Soul Striking Bell, striking towards Zhang Ruochen in the distance.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t even turn around, he just backhanded the Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword and struck it out, meeting the Soul Striking Bell.
“Boom!”
The Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword collided violently with the Soul Striking Bell, striking out a large amount of sparks.
The Sinking Abyss Ancient Sword flew backwards and fell back into Zhang Ruochen’s hands.
“Damn it.”
Hua Qing Ye retrieved the Soul Striking Bell and also executed a stance technique to chase after Zhang Ruochen.
The body technique that Hua Qing Ye performed was called the “Flowing Cloud Step”, which was a Spirit Grade Middle Grade body martial art.
Although the martial art he cultivated wasn’t as brilliant as the Royal Wind Flying Dragon Shadow, he was a martial artist of the Fish Dragon Realm, and his own speed was already an advantage.
Hua Qing Ye rushed out, bursting out with a speed that was a step faster than Zhang Ruochen’s.
Zhang Ruochen turned around and looked, only to see Hua Qingye chasing after him a hundred feet away, and the distance between the two of them was gradually closing.
After about a quarter of an hour, Hua Qing Ye chased after Zhang Ruochen to a distance of ten feet behind him, and once again threw the Soul Striking Bell out, striking Zhang Ruochen’s back.
Zhang Ruochen had to stop and fight with Hua Qingye once again.
“Thousand Zhang Prairie Fire.”
Zhang Ruochen inspired the Heaven and Earth Anomaly, and a wisp of flame condensed in the space of a thousand zhang in a radius, transforming into a huge sea of fire and wrapping Hua Qing Ye in it.
Inside the sea of fire, the two exchanged more than ten more moves before Zhang Ruochen escaped once again.
In this manner, Zhang Ruochen fled and fought at the same time, and continued to flee from midday, to darkness, turning a thousand miles, and fighting thirteen battles with Hua Qing Ye.
In the end, Zhang Ruochen’s martial soul was finally struck by the Soul Beating Bell and was traumatised, and had to be retracted back into his body.
If he was hit by the Soul Beating Bell again, Zhang Ruochen’s Martial Soul would definitely suffer a heavy trauma, and the consequences would be unimaginable.
“Zhang Ruochen, losing the power of your martial soul, let’s see how you can still escape from the palm of my hand this time? Haha!”
Hua Qing Ye chased after him from behind, and blood continued to flow out of his chest, as if he was oblivious to the pain, his eyes stared venomously at Zhang Ruochen, and he said sternly, “If you don’t tell me the location of that ancient cave, I’ll let you see the Ten Great Tortures of the Black Market, let’s see whether or not you’re able to withstand it?”
Originally, Hua Qing Ye was severely injured, and in order to chase Zhang Ruochen, he didn’t stop to heal his injuries.
Now, his injuries, which continued to worsen, were not noticed by himself, and he only wanted to immediately force out the location of the ancient cave.
With a trace of blood hanging from the corner of his mouth, Zhang Ruochen let out a long laugh and said, “Hua Qingye, if you don’t heal your injuries, I’m afraid your cultivation will regress.”
Although his Martial Soul was damaged, Zhang Ruochen was still in high spirits and full of battle intent.
“As long as I can suppress a junior like you, so what if my cultivation regresses?”Hua Qingye said.
“With your current state, you still want to suppress me?”
“What? You’re still unconvinced and want to continue the battle?”
Hua Qing Ye was very clear about Zhang Ruochen’s current state, losing the power of his Martial Soul, Zhang Ruochen was like a mole cricket in front of him, he could press him to death with just one finger.
“Whew!”
A cold wind with the smell of blood blew over from afar, brushing past Zhang Ruochen and Hua Qingye’s bodies.
Something bizarre happened.
Not far away, in the middle of the woods, a blood-red mist filled the air, surging over from all directions.
Those blood mists, constantly gulping and spitting, became denser and denser, blocking one’s vision.
Zhang Ruochen and Hua Qingye were both stunned by the sudden change, stopping to continue exchanging blows and standing in place, alert to those blood mists in the surroundings.
