Chapter 1866: The Ninth Son of the Ghost Master
When Zhang Ruochen dragged the body of the Supreme Saint out, he discovered that there was still a trace amount of divine power emanating from the body, especially the rotten parts.
That made him think. That demiG.o.d beast must have swallowed this Supreme Saint alive. His body wasn’t decaying naturally but broken down by the demiG.o.d beast’s power in the stomach.
He took the saber from the dead Supreme Saint’s hand and summoned flames out of his palm to purify it.
Rust disappeared from the saber; it was now s.h.i.+ny with a cold glancing light.
This saber was a true Supreme Saint’s weapon, which possessed a rich amount of Supreme-Saint power.
Zhang Ruochen released his spiritual power to examine the number and grade of the inscriptions on the saber. A high-pitch, harsh sound suddenly came from the saber just as he injected his spiritual power into the weapon.
The saber vibrated violently. It got free from Zhang Ruochen’s fingers, turned into an ice dragon, and flew toward the polar region of Warsoul Star.
Zhang Ruochen kneaded his painful wrist in surprise. “That’s a powerful implement spirit. Could it be one from a Ten-Radiance Thousand-Inscription Sacred Artifact?”
“Who cares if it is. Let’s subdue it first. Having this saber will increase my combat strength tremendously,” said the evil spirit inside the Yi Huang Bone Scepter.
The Yi Huang Bone Scepter had absorbed Qing Jin’s soul mist during the eight years of closed-door cultivation in Eastern Region Holy City. It now could challenge the Precept Domain-realm fighters.
Its strength just got an enormous boost after absorbing the Supreme-Saint corpse king’s aura.
Other cultivators had also seen that the saber was an extraordinary weapon. They all faded into streaks of light as they gave chase to the saber toward the polar region.
“These guys are chickens in front of the enemy yet eager beavers in fighting for treasures.”
With no delay, Zhang Ruochen kept the Supreme Saint’s body and gave chase.
The soil appeared blood-red as he got closer to the polar region. The blood-red fog in the air was blocking the vision of the cultivators.
Those cultivators in pursuit of the saber had disappeared from his field of vision. His spiritual power could only extend a few miles from him because of the suppressive power of the demiG.o.d beast.
“Not good. Blood Wasp Ashuran King will kill us one by one easily.”
Zhang Ruochen had a bad feeling and wanted to turn back to meet up with the Fairy of Tianchu.
At this moment, he heard a series of footstep sounds.
He tensed up and quickly hid behind a large rock while summoning the power of Bodhi beads to conceal his aura.
As the footsteps got closer, a bone-chilling ghostly air that looked like dark-red dust loomed from a far distance
It was from the dust that the footsteps came.
A group of ghosts emerged from the dark-red dust. About a hundred of them had formed material bodies. Those were the ghost kings, and each looked like a messenger of h.e.l.l.
Some ghost kings looked like handsome men, some beautiful ladies, and some elders and children.
Apart from that, some ghost kings were riding corpse king-cla.s.s battle beasts with a b.l.o.o.d.y dagger-ax in their hands.
Zhang Ruochen was bated breath. Had he not been sure this was Luoshui, he would have suspected he had come to h.e.l.l.
Even if he was in h.e.l.l, the chances of seeing so many ghost kings at once were rare.
Four thirty-foot-tall ghost kings were carrying a palanquin made of white jade in the middle of the convoy.
The curtains of the palanquin were made of strings of bone beads, which made a pleasant sound when these strings collided with each other.
Zhang Ruochen could barely see the figure through the bone-bead curtain. He knew that it was slender, but he could not see its face, or know its gender. He could not even be sure whether it was human or ghost.
There was a saint flower on the white-jade palanquin.
He recognized that flower; it was the demonic tulip, a 100,000-year-old sacred herb that he encountered when he first came to Luoshui back then.
This demonic tulip possessed a potent spiritual power. It was a highly dangerous, vicious plant.
What aroused Zhang Ruochen’s curiosity was whether it was that demonic tulip that drove those ghosts, or it was the black figure in the palanquin who had control over the demonic tulip.
The blood fog in the air suddenly rose in turbulence as a tall and slender figure crashed down there with a loud boom.
That figure was Yun Gongming, one of the twelve Gongmings of the Sky Sect.
Yun Gongming was holding the saber of the Supreme-Saint corpse king.
But it seemed that he had not subdued it yet. It must be the implement spirit of the saber that dragged him there.
A human and a saber were fighting against each other.
“I don’t believe I can even subdue the implement spirit of a saber—”
Yun Gongming suddenly sensed the unusually chilly air in the surroundings. Next, his heart skipped a beat when he saw a group of ghosts in his peripheral vision.
The saber got away from his hand, out of his control.
He dared not keep pursuing the saber. Instead, he was fearful and summoned all his strength to flee as quick as he could into the distance. Why are there so many ghost kings here? Could it be that another powerful figure from the Ghost other than Blood Wasp Ashuran King has come to Luoshui?
“Capture him. I want his saint soul.” An old voice came from inside the palanquin.
A group of ghost kings faded into a ghost cloud and caught up with Yun Gongming.
Of all these ghost kings, the thirteen ghost kings riding the corpse king-cla.s.s battle beasts were the quickest and leading the way.
With Yun Gongming’s strength, the thirteen ghost riders were no match for him if they were to fight one-on-one. He moved like a streak of light and smoked those ghost kings behind him.
“Apparently he is as powerful as a Precept Domain-realm cultivator. His saint soul must be delicious.”
The melodious sound of a flute came from inside the palanquin.
The sound waves of the flute formed into vortexes, flying at 1,000 times the speed of sound to catch up with Yun Gongming.
Each of the sound-wave vortex was several dozen-foot in diameter. They joined and formed a ma.s.sive vortex of a few hundred feet, trapping Yun Gongming in the center. The earth cracked open wherever the vortex moved.
“Sound-wave attack could achieve such a horrible level.” Zhang Ruochen was stunned.
The thirteen ghost-king riders came outside the vortex and struck their dagger-axes at Yun Gongming mercilessly.
“Go away!”
Yun Gongming roared. Precepts rus.h.i.+ng out of his body formed a seal. The seal struck a ghost-king rider and smashed it into a cloud of ghost mist.
Just as Yun Gongming was ready to lunge out of the sound-wave vortex, the other ghost kings charged forward and surrounded him.
Yun Gongming struck out his Saint Path power continuously and smashed the ghosts. But his condition was getting worse. He was bleeding profusely and covered in in his own saint blood.
The struggle did not last long. At last, several ghost-king riders struck out their dagger-axes and killed Yun Gongming.
Nine dagger-axes pierced through Yun Gongming’s body and kept him kneeling on the ground. His mouth, chest, abdomen and back were bleeding profusely.
Before Yun Gongming died, he looked up at the sky and howled. He tried to get up, but a ghost-king rider thrust a dagger-ax into his skull.
Yun Gongming’s strength was a notch above Xian Gongming, yet he died in such a humiliating way. Zhang Ruochen, who hid at a far distance, got the chills.
A ghost-king rider extracted Yun Gongming’s saint soul, held it in its hands, and moved back toward the white-jade palanquin.
The slender black shadow in the palanquin took the saint soul over the air and swallowed it.
A powerful ghost aura rushed out of the white-jade palanquin and swept out in all directions. The energy emanating from the black figure had increased in just a moment.
“Where has the saber gone? A cultivator from the Celestial Court must be hiding nearby. Find him!” The black figure seemed to sense something.
Just as those ghost kings were ready to move, a large group of cultivators of the Path were coming their way with a red sun and a celestial river clearing the path in front.
The black figure in the white-jade palanquin was apparently intimidated. It did not keep searching for the saber, but brought the ghost army and disappeared into the blood fog.
After the ghost army was gone, Zhang Ruochen emerged from behind the large rock with the Azuresky PaG.o.da in his hand.
Earlier, while those ghost kings were pursuing Yun Gongming, he quietly hid the saber of the Supreme-Saint corpse king into the Azuresky PaG.o.da.
The Fairy of Tianchu and her Four Great Elders had come with The Crimson River Portrait.
The powerful might of The Crimson Rover Portrait broke up the blood fog. They now saw Zhang Ruochen, and the body of Yun Gongming in a pool of blood.
Dizu Prince, who came with the Fairy of Tianchu, rushed up to the body of Yun Gongming and checked his vital sign. He roared in anger and his face contorted, looking hideous.
“It was you who killed Gongming?” He instantly glared at Zhang Ruochen.
Xian Gongming and a few other saint-level cultivators of the Dizu Divine Dynasty appeared beside Dizu Prince. They brandished their weapons and glared at Zhang Ruochen.
“Not that you all don’t know Yun Gongming’s cultivation case. Do you really think I can kill him with my ability?” Zhang Ruochen had tucked away the Azuresky PaG.o.da long ago.
The Fairy of Tianchu intervened to stop the cultivators from the Dizu Divine Dynasty. “What’s going on here?”
The death of one of their Gongming elites not long after they arrived at the polar region was a heavy blow to their morale.
Zhang Ruochen was cool. He told of everything he saw.
Those cultivators’ faces changed.
If what Zhang Ruochen said was true, did it not mean that there was another powerful figure from Infernal Court had come to the polar region of Warsoul Star?
That powerful ghostly aura still lingering in the air must belong to the ghost kings, then.
Those cultivators of the Dizu Divine Dynasty finally calmed down and tucked their weapons.
“Since you were hiding nearby, why didn’t you help Yun Gongming? Is this how you are supposed to treat your ally?” said Dizu Prince coldly.
Zhang Ruochen found it funny. When the Supreme-Saint corpse king attacked him, none of the Dizu Divine Dynasty’s cultivators came forward to help him.
He was not a saint. He was not ready to risk his life to save a cultivator who wanted him dead.
Black Phoenix came up beside Zhang Ruochen. “I hurried over as quick as I could when I heard the battle earlier. But it was still too late to save Yun Gongming, as the enemies killed him quickly. Judging by this, the enemy is definitely terrifyingly powerful. If Li Ruohan were to intervene, he would have also been killed, don’t you think?”
Dizu Prince did not want to argue with Black Phoenix because she was a disciple of Crone Qushan’s fellow. “We are at the disadvantage right now. We can’t afford to make any mistake from now on.”
Every cultivator felt depressed for the horrible death of Yun Gongming.
Nevertheless, they moved on toward the polar region.
Black Phoenix appeared beside Zhang Ruochen. “Mistress Qushan said that person you encountered earlier was most likely Chang, the ninth son of the ghost master,” said Black Phoenix through telepathy.
“The ghost master is a powerful figure of the Ghost in the Infernal Court. He has attained a Primordial Ghost body. Those G.o.ds in the Celestial Court are all wary of him. Probably only elites like Yueshen could challenge him.”
“Chang is the youngest offspring of the master. He uses a magic flute that could hook souls thousands of miles away.”
“Who is more powerful—Chang or Blood Wasp Ashuran King?” asked Zhang Ruochen.
“They tie in terms of strength. Besides, Blood Wasp Ashuran King keeps a swarm of blood wasps, and blood wasp is as powerful as a saint king. On the other hand, Chang has an army of ghost-king followers. If they were to fight, it is hard to tell who will win. Probably Blood Wasp Ashuran King will have an upper hand if you ask me,” said Black Phoenix.
Zhang Ruochen had never seen Blood Wasp Ashuran King in a fight before. But Chang, on the other hand, was definitely a force to be reckoned with judging by his ability to reign in the nasty demonic tulip.
The Fairy of Chutian was glancing at Black Phoenix and Zhang Ruochen from time to time behind her white veil. She was curious to know what they were talking about.
This curiosity was killing her.
But she fought it back, forcing herself not to ask.
The convoy pressed on, and saw bodies of the saint-level cultivators, who died in their pursuit of the saber of the Supreme-Saint corpse king. Some unknown being must have killed them.
They also b.u.mped into some zoomorphic sacred herbs. Dizu Prince, s.h.i.+qing Shenzi, and the 14th Prince had subdued and harvested them all.
Now there were five additional cultivators among them.
These five cultivators were Eunuch Que, Yue Gongming, and three other Nine-Step Saint Kings. Dizu Prince had sent them to seal off Luoshui earlier. Knowing that something had happened on Warsoul Star, he had quickly hurried back.
Dizu Prince was leading the way as his confidence had risen with more powerful forces with him.
That would mean they were the first harvesting the zoomorphic sacred herb, too.
Zhang Ruochen did not compete with them for the zoomorphic sacred herbs. Instead, he was deep in thought, wondering if Mr. G.o.dcliff had also come to Warsoul Star.
He knew the answer, apparently: Mr. G.o.dcliff would be here.
Not long after, a blood lake appeared ahead of them.
It was a lake formed by the blood of G.o.d.
The million-foot-tall stone pillar stood right in the center of the lake. It was so huge that it looked like a wall popping up the sky, blocking the view of everyone.
The divine blood in the lake was so red that it struck fear in the heart by just looking at it.