Chapter 1988: Only Despair Remains
Sweeping his gaze around, Zhang Ruochen could see all of the old Shengming cadres inside the Exquisite Dimensional Orb were all seriously injured. All of them had physical disabilities, and many were on the verge of death. If not for his timely intervention, their death would have been inevitable.
Zhang Ruochen took out a large amount of spring water of life and sent it into the Exquisite Dimensional Orb.
Instantly, the springwater of life transformed into a spirit rain as it poured over the body of every old Shengming cadre, seeping into their bodies and blending into their blood.
Now, the Divine Sky-connecting Tree trunk was integrating with the Divine Sky-connecting Tree seedling, causing the seedling to grow rapidly, so the springwater of life created became more and more.
As long as the Divine Sky-connecting Tree seedling fully integrates with the essence of the tree trunk, it will grow to a very shocking level. By then, the Qiankun Realm will also expand accordingly.
In Zhang Ruochen’s view, the greatest significance for collecting the Divine Sky-connecting Tree trunk was for the growth of the Divine Sky-connecting Tree seedling.
The better the Divine Sky-connecting Tree seedling’s growth, the cultivation conditions in Qiankun realm would get better as well, and that would be the foundation for Zhang Ruochen to rebuild Shengming.
Looking at the condition of tens of thousands of old Shengming cadres gradually improving, Zhang Ruochen frowned and said with a rumbling voice. “So cruel, for them to injure everyone’s soul. This means even if they survived, their path of cultivation has been cut off.”
The springwater of life was indeed able to quickly heal everyone’s physical wounds, but it was unable to heal wounds suffered by the soul. Only when the Divine Sky-connecting Tree has completely re-grown into a true divine tree that it could heal all sorts of wounds.
Including Yan Kaixuan, all of the old Shengming cadres’ soul were wounded without exception, and the damage to the soul was at its fundamental level, probably caused some sort of secret techique of the Soul Realm.
Clearly, this was a deliberate move.
At this moment, Mu Lingxi interjected. “I know a secret technique that can heal the wounds suffered by the soul.”
Hearing this, Zhang Ruochen immediately turned his head to Mu Lingxi, saying. “Lingxi, are you sure you can?”
“Don’t worry, I will surely heal them back to how they originally were.” Mu Lingxi smiled.
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen did not even have the time to think, so he nodded and said. “Then, you heal them first, I’ll look for the twelfth royal uncle first. Remember, don’t push yourself too hard.”
“Yes, I know what I’m doing.” Mu Lingxi nodded.
“Lord Chen, I’ll go help the little Saintess.” the Head Rat said hastily.
Zhang Ruochen did not say anything else, and with a wave of his hand, took Mu Lingxi, the Head Rat, and Yan Kaixuan into the Exquisite Dimensional Orb.
Without any delay, Zhang Ruochen activated the Meritorious Armor of Flowing Light, unleas.h.i.+ng thousand times the speed of sound as he rushed to the southeast.
The most urgent matter now was to first rescue Prince Mingjiang.
The southeast direction Yan Kaixuan mentioned was not outside Shengming City, but inside the city instead.
The Heavenly Realm faction had moved too quickly and had blockaded the entire Shengming City, so no one could escape. Prince Mingjiang and the others had only broken through the siege by a group of Heavenly Realm elites, and were not captured like Yan Kaixuan was, but their situation was still precarious.
While flying towards the direction Yan Kaixuan had mentioned, Zhang Ruochen released his spiritual power as he tried to locate Prince Mingjiang’s trail.
Inside the Exquisite Dimensional Orb, Mu Lingxi cut open her wrist with her fingernails as fresh blood with a cold aura appeared.
Ever since the awakening of her Frost Phoenix inheritance, the blood inside Mu Lingxi’s body was no longer the blood of ordinary human beings, but instead phoenix blood now.
“Little Saintess, what are you doing?” The Head Rat asked in both surprise and confusion.
Mu Lingxi’s expression was slightly serious, saying. “To heal the damage to their soul, I can only use the phoenix blood in my body alongside the secret technique of the Phoenix clan.”
“Ah? How much blood you will need to use then? If Lord Chen knew about this, he would definitely not let you do this.” The Head Rat’s face was anxious.
Mu Lingxi whispered. “It’s exactly because of that I did not tell him. I know very well that with my current strength I can’t help him much at all, but I still want to help him as much as I can.”
“But Little Saintess, can your body withstand that?” the Head Rat said worriedly.
Mu Lingxi a.s.sured him. “Don’t worry, there will be no problem. If I can’t even do this properly, won’t I appear too useless? Alright, let’s get started, help me with this.”
The Head Rat nodded. With Mu Lingxi already saying that, he had nothing more to add. Although he was cowardly, as long as it was something that can be done within his power, he will not refuse.
Immediately, Mu Lingxi and the Head Rat acted, using the phoenix blood alongside the secret phoenix clan technique to heal the soul wounds of the tens of thousands of old Shengming cadre.
The commotion caused by the two battles at the city gate was so great that they had already alerted all of the Heavenly Realm elites inside Shengming City as they rushed towards the city gate.
“Shang Ziyan is clearly not in Shengming City but he had left many elites inside Shengming City. With Zhang Ruochen charging in alone, although his courage is commendable, it’s not wise.”
“Feng Gudao of the Soul Realm, Chi Sheng of the Ruiya Realm, Zi Linglong of the Hongyang Realm and Gu Tianyin of the Cha Realm are all Path Anterior elites. Their strength is far above Cang Long and Yan Ba. Zhang Ruochen’s chances against them is very low.”
“Feng Gudao can be taken as Soul Realm’s number one elite beneath a Supreme Saint, and he had even used the Soul Realm’s secret technique to ambush a Neverwither Supreme Saint, severely wounding that Supreme Saint and nearly killed him. Now, there are many Saint King elites that are under Feng Gudao’s Soulbender, and there are at least ten Nine-step Saint Kings. He alone is big enough a threat against Zhang Ruochen.”
“Chi Sheng is no less powerful and is the number one elite beneath a Supreme Saint of the Fane of Bashen and is also a leader of the Ruiya Realm. His body is extremely powerful, and rumours has it that his arms, legs, head and neck have already reached the state of Neverwither, and it’s impossible to cause him any substantial harm.
…
Seeing Zhang Ruochen breaking into Shengming City, many of the spectating cultivators could not help but to sigh for him.
In their opinion, Zhang Ruochen rus.h.i.+ng alone into the city was tantamount to charging headlong into the tiger’s den.
As long as those top powerhouses were to strike, forget rescuing anyone, whether Zhang Ruochen could even retreat was itself a question.
Looking at the ruined Shengming City, and the bodies that all all over, Zhang Ruochen’s heart could not help but to rage in anger. These were all people of Shengming, and most of them were ordinary people, yet those Heavenly Realm elites actually struck against them.
By destroying Shengming City, Shang Ziyan wanted to completely wipe out Shengming at its root, an extremely vicious move.
“Shang Ziyan, you have a death wish.” Zhang Ruochen clenched his fist tightly as a killing intent raged in his heart.
There had never been a moment where he wanted to kill someone so much.
Shang Ziyan had indeed touched his very limits, and his hatred will not be sated unless the former was dead by his hands.
BOOM!!
A ma.s.sive noise that shook the earth pulled Zhang Ruochen’s thoughts back to reality.
The loud bang was just right in front of him, and the energy fluctuation was extremely strong, probably caused by a Saint King elite blowing himself up.
Feeling the force, Zhang Ruochen’s heart could not help but tighten as he immediately used the Dimensional s.h.i.+ft.
Ripples appeared in the s.p.a.ce, and Zhang Ruochen appeared out of thin air on a sacred mountain closed to the blast zone.
This sacred mountain was not too high, but it was filled with very potent saint Qi, and was a rare place for cultivation, and should have been sacred and peaceful.
Yet, at this moment, this sacred mountain was painted with blood, and many top Saints, and even Saint Kings had spilled their blood on the mountain as the aura of blood and murder spread all over.
Zhang Ruochen’s gaze was affixed on a rock, or to be precise, the person lying on the rock. It was no one lese but his twelfth imperial uncle, Prince Mingjiang.
Prince Mingjiang’s condition was outright miserable, half of his body had already been mangled, with an arrow stuck in his chest, and he had not had the time to pull it out yet.
Beside Prince Mingjiang were four people standing guarding loyally. Zhang Ruochen was very familiar with the four of them, they were all top generals under Prince Mingjiang, and all had become Saint Kings.
If it were not for them, Prince Mingjiang would not have been able to last until now.
Originally, Yan Kaixuan was also following by Prince Mingjiang’s side, but he was captured by the Heavenly Realm elites.
Needless to say, the Saint King who blew himself up earlier was undoubtedly one of Prince Mingjiang’s generals.
“A mere One-step Saint King trying to push us back by blowing himself up, too naive.”
A Heavenly Realm Saint King elite sneered.
That self-destruction had indeed shocked them, but no one lost their lives because of it.
The Saint King-realm elites usually cherished their lives, and those who were willing to blow themselves up were few and far between.
“Hmm? Zhang Ruochen.”
Suddenly, one of the powerhouses noticed Zhang Ruochen’s existence.
“Fall back!”
Without any hesitation, all of the Heavenly Realm elites pursuing Prince Mingjiang immediately chose to retreat.
There was no other way, with Zhang Ruochen’s notorious reputation, and the fact that they were not top-level elites, not escaping upon running into Zhang Ruochen meant certain death.
“Moyin, deal with them.”
Zhang Ruochen said grimly.
Immediately, Moyin popped out of Zhang Ruochen’s spine and released many vines as they wrapped around the retreating Heavenly Realm elites.
“ARRRGGHHHH!!!”
A moment later, screams and cries of the Heavenly Realm elites echoed.
Zhang Ruochen did not bother with them, but instead his figure flickered as he appeared by the rock Prince Mingjiang was laying on.
“Your Highness!”
The remaining four generals around Prince Mingjiang were so touched they immediately knelt down on one knee as they hailed Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen’s arrival was undoubtedly gave them courage and renewed the flames of hope at the edge of despair.
“Stand, all of you.”
As he said, Zhang Ruochen waved his hand as hundreds of drops of springwater of life came raining down, seeping into the bodies of Prince Mingjiang and the four generals.
The four generals were quite badly injured with wounds all over their bodies, and they were almost at their limits.
After being nourished by the springwater of life, the wounds on the four generals recovered quickly, and the trauma on their bodies were healing at the speed visible to the naked eye.
Even Prince Mingjiang’s severe injuries were recovering quickly, the mangled half of his body had healed to the state it was before.
A moment later, Prince Mingjiang sat up, and while his face was pale, his life was no longer in danger.
“Milord!”
Seeing Prince Mingjiang had regained his ability to move, the four generals were all excited.
“Ruochen, you shouldn’t have come back. Shengming City has completely fallen, and no one could change anything.” Prince Mingjiang sighed as he shook his head.
During the attack on Lingxiao Heavenly King Manor, Prince Mingjiang was already a Saint King-realm powerhouse.
With the recovery of Kunlun Realm, Prince Mingjiang had obtained many opportunities, and his cultivation base had advanced by leaps and bounds, reaching the realm of a Nine-step Saint King.
Inside Shengming City, Prince Mingjiang was without a doubt the the number one powerhouse.
Zhang Ruochen looked at Prince Mingjiang and said solemnly. “Shengming City is the root of Shengming, as the crown prince of Shengming, how can I not come back? Am I supposed to just watch as the people of Shengming get slaughtered?”
“I understand how you feel. How I wished I could protect Shengming City and the people of Shengming, but the enemies this time are just too terrifying. I thought that after reaching the realm of a Nine-steps Saint King I would be able to fight without fear. Yet, I was badly wounded by a casual attack, and if it wasn’t for a life-saving treasure brother had left me, I would have died.”
“While I managed to save my life, I was unable to protect the people of Shengming. I could only watch as they attacked and smas.h.i.+ng half a city into the ground. Too many, just too many people of Shengming died tragically as a result.”
“There’s also Kaixuan, w.a.n.g Ji and the others. In order to protect me, they were either wounded or killed. Now there are only four of them left. I’m just so useless, I could only watch on as my subordinates and people get killed, and not do anything at all!”
In the end, Prince Mingjiang could not help but cry.
After seeing too many miserable scenes, even with his mental state after many thousand years of cultivation was close to collapse, as a deep despair emerged from his heart.
Thinking of when the Shengming Central Empire was overthrown, when the Shengming line suffered a terrible blow, Prince Mingjiang had pulled through all of that, as he led his subordinates to lay dormant, and wait for the opportunity to restore the glory of Shengming.
But this time, Prince Mingjiang was completely in despair, and felt that Shengming had lost all hope, and would be completely annihilated.