Chapter 2105: A Blessing in Disguise
The moment the divine-force vortex was condensed, Zhang Ruochen and the Maiden of a Thousand Stars involuntarily fell from the sky. The dimension suppression that had disappeared for a short time reappeared and was stronger than before.
CRAs.h.!.+
The entire dimension shooked violently. A vast amount of fierce divine force surged out of the divine-force vortex, turning into turbulent tides and waves.
“Die.”
A furious will emerged, as furious as if it wanted to destroy the world.
Previously, the monster had regarded Zhang Ruochen, the Maiden of a Thousand Stars, and the Son of Darkness like ants. It did not pay too much attention to them. It had thought that they could not have done anything noteworthy once they had entered its stomach.
Never had it expected that these ants in its eyes would destroy the source of its power, causing it a lot of damage. How could it not be angry?
A large area of dimension was shattered, followed by endless darkness. The Divine Light of Origin was faintly visible, and a huge River of Time and s.p.a.ce appeared. The inexplicable phenomena occurred as if the world had come to its end.
Zhang Ruochen and the Maiden of a Thousand Stars had serious looks in their eyes for a moment. They felt an enormous threat; their hair stood on end.
“D*mn the Son of Darkness! If I could get out of here, I’ll b.l.o.o.d.y swing for him,” said the Maiden of a Thousand Stars.
The Son of Darkness had undoubtedly infuriated her this time. She won’t easily get rid of her hatred if she didn’t teach him a lesson.
Without any hesitation, Zhang Ruochen immediately poured his Saint Qi into Zangshan Demonic Mirror. He tried his best to activate the powerful forces contained in it.
The Maiden of a Thousand Stars bit the tip of her tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood on Origin Divine Ring. The ring emitted a bright divine light, and many strange patterns emerged from it.
BANG!
The vast divine power crushed down crazily. It instantly destroyed the power released by Zangshan Demonic Mirror and Origin Divine Ring and sent them flying. Their powers weren’t on the same level.
Zhang Ruochen and the Maiden of a Thousand Stars’ minds were in sync. They quickly joined palms with each other, gathered all the precepts from the Paths of the Ancients, and formed a powerful stream of precepts that flowed in each other’s bodies.
Suddenly, a tough Saint Light of Protection appeared outside their bodies. It seemed to be invulnerable to all magic.
CRACK!
The divine force hit Zhang Ruochen, and the Maiden of a Thousand Stars like a raging wave. It shattered the tough Saint Light of Protection and flew them out.
Although the Saint Light of Protection had blocked most of the impact, they were still badly injured. Blood spurted out of their mouths.
“No, we can’t withstand it with our current cultivation. This monster is too strong. It can easily kill a Neverwither Supreme Saint,” the Maiden of a Thousand Stars said in a deep voice.
In the face of absolute power, no matter how many ingenious methods they had, it was useless, especially they were now in the monster’s inner world. There was no way to escape. The situation was even worse.
Zhang Ruochen thought quickly. A fierce light suddenly flashed in his eyes. He thought to himself, “Now I have no choice but use it!”
Seeing all kinds of terrifying divine power sweeping over, Zhang Ruochen no longer hesitated to wave his hand and struck out an object.
It was an ancient remnant tablet. It looked ordinary and had many ancient characters on it. He didn’t know what era it belonged to.
It was the G.o.d-Defiance Stele that Zhang Ruochen had obtained in Luoshui. It had a great history and unforeseeable power—also, his strongest trump card.
Of course, he couldn’t use it easily. If he exposed it, it might bring him disaster.
As soon as the G.o.d-Defiance Stele appeared, the surging tide of divine forces retreated quickly. To be precise, it dissipated on its own.
The Maiden of a Thousand Stars had a surprised look on her face, “What’s going on? What have you done?”
Zhang Ruochen did not answer. He moved and followed closely behind the stele. At the same time, he set up layers of Time and s.p.a.ce barriers to prevent the Maiden of a Thousand Starts from spying on him.
It was his biggest secret. The fewer people know, the better.
Only a few people knew the existence of the G.o.d-Defiance Stele, yet none of them knew what powers it held.
The G.o.d-Defiance Stele had broken through layers of barriers and crashed directly into the newly repaired divine-force vortex in a blink.
The divine-force vortex shook violently and then began to disperse.
It was the source of the monster’s power and also the place where its Saint Soul resided.
Those monsters outside had only furious wills, but this monster had a powerful Saint Soul. It could have developed spiritual intelligence.
Zhang Ruochen put one hand on the G.o.d-Defiance Stele and mobilized the precepts in his body. He injected them into the ancient characters, trying to raise the power of the G.o.d-Defiance Stele and defeat the monster in one fell swoop.
Tens of millions of precepts entered the G.o.d-Defiance Stele, causing the divine-power vortex to dissipate faster.
The monster resisted with all its might. Countless chains of precepts interweaved into a net and wrapped around the G.o.d-Defiance Stele.
However, as soon as the chains approached the stele, their glow dimmed instantly. The power they held vanished.
“This is my chance.” Zhang Ruochen’s eyes lit up as he locked onto the dimmed chains of precepts.
The surging Divine Purification Flame rushed out of his body and turned into a flaming dragon. It wrapped around the dimmed chains and forcefully pulled them out of the divine-force vortex into his body.
These chains were the foundation of a monster’s strength. If they could be refined, there would be many benefits.
Under normal circ.u.mstances, it would be impossible to extract powers from the chains of precepts. However, with the suppression from the G.o.d-Defiance Stele, the monster couldn’t resist.
RAAAWRRR!
The monster roared furiously. It seemed extremely angry but also panicked.
A broken stele without any energy fluctuations could completely suppress the monster’s power and disintegrate it bit by bit. If this goes on, the situation could turn against it.
The monster had four kinds of divine forces: Time, Dimension, Darkness, and Origin. Each of them was marvelous, but now they played no part at all.
“Halt, humans. I can let you out.” The monster’s low voice came from the divine-force vortex.
Unfortunately, Zhang Ruochen acted as if he did not hear it. He continued to operate the G.o.d-Defiance Stele with all his strength, and at the same time, he did his best to plunder the monster’s chains of precepts.
The monster roared again. “Human, Stop! Do you wish to die along with me?”
“Were you able to do that?” Zhang Ruochen snorted.
With the suppression of the G.o.d-Defiance Stele, he wasn’t afraid of what the monster could do.
As the saying went, the wheel of fortune changes constantly. Before, the monster had toyed with them and tortured them slowly. Now, it was his turn to make a move, and it’s payback time.
Some chains plundered directly dissipated and turned into strange power that merged into his body; some entered his Heavenly Stream and derived a number of powerful precepts.
Zhang Ruochen knew that the dissipating chains were formed from the forces of the Paths of Origin and Darkness. They were not the paths of cultivation that he practiced, so naturally, they could not increase his precepts.
As time pa.s.sed, the monster’s divine-force vortex became smaller and smaller. More than half of its divine force dissipated, and the chains of precepts suffered heavy losses. Its foundation was affected.
The monster finally revealed his fear. It felt that its death was approaching.
“There’s a chance for you. I could let you live if you let go of your Saint Soul. Don’t resist and let me engrave the servant seal,” Zhang Ruochen said coldly.
Hearing this, the monster became agitated and roared, “I am an overlord of the True Dragon Island, human. How dare you try to enslave me? Dream all you can.”
“Is that so? Then you shall die.” Zhang Ruochen’s eyes were cold and emotionless.
He thought that the monster was very powerful and could be a great help. That was why he wanted to subdue it. However, since it didn’t want to bow to him, he didn’t care. Refining it completely would improve his cultivation.
Gradually, the monster became weaker and weaker, and its huge body began to show signs of crumbling.
It had already used all of its means and tried its best, but they were futile. Its life was about to come to an end.
“I submit, please don’t kill me.” Under the shadow of death, the monster’s heart was filled with fear and despair. In the end, it chose to submit.
Without any hesitation, the monster revealed its Saint Soul.
The shape of its Saint Soul was very special. It looked like a demonic wolf, but it had a huge dragon head, wings on its ribs, a body covered with black scales, and four tails of different colors.
This was probably its true form.
In the face of the G.o.d-Defiance Stele, the monster’s Saint Soul couldn’t help but tremble. It didn’t resist anymore and obediently lowered its head.
“A wise choice.”
Zhang Ruochen immediately formed the seal and used the secret technique of the Sect of the Blood G.o.d. He condensed the Blood G.o.d’s Curse Seal and imprinted it directly on the monster’s Saint Soul.
The monster didn’t resist. The Blood G.o.d’s Curse Seal entered smoothly.
Now, its life and death were all in Zhang Ruochen’s hands.
“Master.”
The monster’s Saint Soul knelt on the ground. It seemed extremely respectful.
Zhang Ruochen nodded slightly, showing a satisfied smile on his face. He waved his hand and put away the G.o.d-Defiance Stele.
He had gained a lot this time. Refining the chains he had plundered from the monster gave him a deeper insight into the Path of Time and the Path of Dimension. It was as if he had been enlightened.
Meanwhile, his body strength had been greatly improved. The Heavenly Stream had expanded further and reached more than 45 million precepts, which increased by 10 million. All of them belonged to the Time and the Spatial Domain, covering the Paths of the Ancients, the Paths of Supreme Saint, the Major Paths, and the Minor Paths. The outcome was more splendid than refining the Wuyuan Royal Flower.
Among these precepts, the precepts of Time and Dimension had each increased by 100,000, reaching 360,000 and 440,000, respectively. He had finally attained a high level in the cultivation of these two paths.
After all, it was extremely difficult to cultivate the Path of the Ancients. It would take plenty of time to cultivate every single precept of these paths.
The sum of precepts of these two paths had reached 200,000. The achievement was unimaginable.
Zhang Ruochen had no shortcomings in terms of his precepts. If he wanted, he could easily cultivate a lot of precepts of the Minor Paths in a short time.
Zhang Ruochen performed Great Dimensional s.h.i.+ft and emerged out of thin air right beside the Maiden of a Thousand Stars.
“What did you do? How did you calm the monster?” The Maiden of a Thousand Stars asked curiously.
Zhang Ruochen replied, “I just used a little trick to subdue the monster. Now we can go out and settle the score with the Son of Darkness.”
The Maiden of a Thousand Stars did not question further as she knew that Zhang Ruochen did not wish to disclose what had happened. It was normal that everyone had their tricks in their sleeves.
“That sinister Son of Darkness. How dare he plotted against me. We can not let him get away,” said the Maiden of a Thousand Stars angrily.
They were undoubtedly on the same page when it came to dealing with the Son of Darkness. After all, neither of them was willing to be taken advantage of.
Just then, the dimension began to distort. A wave of dimensional energy enveloped Zhang Ruochen and the Maiden of a Thousand Stars.
After that, the two had left the inner world of the monster and landed on the monster’s head.
The monster’s body rose into the air and flew out of the dark abyss into a wide tunnel.
ROAR!
With a growl, the other divine-force monsters instantly rushed out from the various tunnels.
Although the tamed divine-force monster had been wounded and weakened by the G.o.d-Defiance Stele and was not as ferocious as before, it was still the king amongst the rest.
Zhang Ruochen was considering eliminating all the divine-force monsters and obtain their divine-force crystals. However, he had given up the idea of doing so.
With the aid of the monster king, he could control the army of divine-force monsters. It would be a great force and possibly play a huge role on True Dragon Island.
After all, these divine-force monsters had the power comparable to that of Neverwither Supreme Saint. Although they did not have any intelligence nor their methods were clever enough, they were still immortals. As long as their furious wills were not destroyed, they could be regenerated even if their bodies were shattered into pieces.
The outcome of the battle would be delightful using the army of divine-force monsters to attack the army of the Infernal Court.
The monster king flapped its wings, carrying Zhang Ruochen and the Maiden of a Thousand Stars on its back. It flew out of the dark pit at the speed of light.
“We’re out!”
The Maiden of a Thousand Stars was uneasy about what had happened.
She had a lot to process in such a short time. She had fallen into desperate situations over and over. She had thought that she would die, but in the end, they managed to survive and see the light of day again. As if it was all just a dream.
After what she had been through, the Maiden of a Thousand Stars felt her spirit lifted. She felt braver and no longer being the timid Maiden. Her cultivation would be deeply impacted from now on.
There were still ma.s.sive divine forces in the outside world in a sealed-off dimension. Nevertheless, with the monster king on their side, it would not be difficult for them to leave this place.
Zhang Ruochen released his spiritual power to keep an eye on the surroundings, but no traces of the Son of Darkness could be found. Maybe he had left for quite some time.
He stood on top of the monster king’s head. He looked at the sky with disdain and shouted, “Son of Darkness, stop hiding and come fight me. A fight to the death. Hide any longer, I will kill every single cultivator in Infernal Court. Not a single soul can walk out of True Dragon Island alive.”
At this moment, he was furious. His killing intent soared to the sky. His voice traveled tens of thousands of miles and shook the entire ruins of Dragon Temple.
His calmness was disturbed by the Son of Darkness completely this time.
Right now, he only had a single thought, and that was to find the Son of Darkness and take revenge. His heart would not be able to calm down if he did not vent this anger.
“No matter where you hide, I will seek you out,” said the Maiden of a Thousand Stars with a deep voice.
The maiden swiftly deployed the Communication Talisman that she had engraved earlier. She wanted to gather all the powerhouses of Thousand-Star Civilization, Wushen Civilization, and Beiduo Civilization to aid in the search for the traces of the Son of Darkness.
After doing this, the Maiden of a Thousand Stars was ready to leave and meet up with the powerhouses.
While she was leaving, something came to her mind. She wanted to reveal something but hesitated to do so.
The Maiden of a Thousand Stars let go of her hesitation and said, “Zhang Ruochen, I think I might know where the key to the World Gate is.”
Hearing the words “The key to the World Gate“, the anger in Zhang Ruochen’s heart suddenly subsided a lot. He got back his sense and asked her, “How do you know?”
The Maiden of a Thousand Stars replied, “Have you ever wondered why I would risk following you? The reason is simple. I discovered that the short skinny old man had the aura of Kunlun.”
“You mean, the key to the World Gate is on the old man?” A light flashed in Zhang Ruochen’s eyes.
The Maiden of a Thousand Stars shook her head slightly and said, “I’m not sure about this. However, if he didn’t get the key to the World Gate, he must have come in contact with the key and held an important clue.”
Her Divine Eye of Origin could see the origins of all, except for the short skinny old man. There seemed to be a layer of mist cloaked his body. Perhaps it had something to do with him came in contact with the Key to the World Gate.
Initially, the Maiden of a Thousand Stars didn’t want to say anything about the Key of the World Gate. She had it all arranged to take the key by herself.
For some reason, after the Maiden had some thoughts about the importance of the Key to the World Gate to Kunlun Realm and Zhang Ruochen, she gave in to her feelings and told him about it.