Chapter 2165: He Hasn’t Grown up Yet
Seeing Zhou Zhen leave Ziwei Palace, all the cultivators irresistibly turned their attention towards him.
Being caught not only kept him safe and sound but also gave him an opportunity to be sent out by Zhang Ruochen politely. It was a rare gesture, and it inevitably made people interpret many things.
Especially those cultivators from the Heavenly Realm, they came up with even more interpretations.
Even the Celestial law enforcers were suppressed. How could Zhou Zhen escape safely?
If someone said that Zhou Zhen didn’t make some agreement with Zhang Ruochen, no one would believe it.
But Zhou Zhen didn’t have time to think about it. He just wanted to leave Ziwei Palace as soon as possible and move to a relatively safe place. He didn’t want to face Zhang Ruochen again no matter what.
In the Fifth City District, Zhou Zhen pa.s.sed by a mountain range with very dense Saint Qi of Heaven and Earth. Suddenly, a large amount of fog emerged and drowned Zhou Zhen.
“Who is it?”
Zhou Zhen looked vigilant. Immediately, the array patterns engraved on his robe glowed up faintly.
Two figures appeared in the fog and stood in front of Zhou Zhen.
Seeing these two people, Zhou Zhen couldn’t help but let out a long sigh of relief. He stopped activating the array pattern on his robe.
The two figures that appeared were a man and a woman. The man was more than 180 meters tall and had a burly figure. The muscles all over his body bulged. He was like an iron tower where every step he took trembled the entire mountain range.
The woman, on the other hand, appeared to be pet.i.te and cute. She was extremely beautiful and had thin transparent wings on her back. She was holding a Scepter made out of Saint Jade. Although there was no Saint Force, her spiritual power was abnormally strong.
The man was from Colossi. His name was Gaunt.
The woman was from Elves. Her name was Yan Xu.
Both of them were famous top powerhouses in Heavenly Realm.
Whether it was the Colossi or the Elves, both were powerful clans in the Heavenly Realm. They had countless powerhouses and deities. They had also thrived for ages.
Gaunt looked down at Zhou Zhen and said in a throaty voice, “Earth Master Zhou, I have something to ask. Now that Gu Xin’ao is dead, the Celestial law enforcers are also suppressed. Why did Zhang Ruochen just let you go?”
“What do you mean? Do you wish for me to be killed by Zhang Ruochen?” Zhou Zhen asked in a deep voice.
Yan Xu said, “With Zhang Ruochen’s style, how could he let you go so easily when he took you away by force? And he even sent you out personally. He was so polite to you. Don’t you have anything to say?”
Hearing this, Zhou Zhen was moved. It was impossible for him to not understand what Gaunt and Yan Xu meant.
Only now did he finally realize what Zhang Ruochen was trying to do. He had deliberately created an illusion to drive a wedge between him and the faction of the Heavenly Realm.
However, Zhou Zhen also understood that even if he had realized it early on, it wouldn’t change anything. Would he have confronted Zhang Ruochen head-on?
“All of this is Zhang Ruochen’s plot. He’s deliberately making you doubt him,” said Zhou Zhen.
Gaunt’s eyelids rose slightly and said, “Really? Who doesn’t know about Zhang Ruochen’s way of doing things? Why would he go through so much trouble to deal with you? Zhou Zhen, how many secrets have you revealed to him?”
Yan Xu’s tone was a little gentler, “You should know very well how serious the consequences will be if you ruin our big plan from the Heavenly Realm. Even the Formation Sect won’t be able to protect you. It’s not too late to tell us now. We can beat him at his own game and scheme against Zhang Ruochen for once.”
“I didn’t reveal any secrets to Zhang Ruochen. The big plan can go on as usual. There won’t be any problems. For the next step, I’ll use the Realm Saint Blood to locate the Saturn peach tree,” replied Zhou Zhen angrily.
Yan Xu’s eyes kept changing. Finally, she reached out a hand and said, “Give me the Realm Saint Blood. It’s extremely important. We cannot make any mistakes with it.”
“I’ll take care of the Realm Saint Blood. Will there be any problem?” asked Zhou Zhen.
How could he not hear that? It was obvious that both of them didn’t trust him. No matter how much they said, it was useless.
Gaunt took a step forward and said, “Zhou Zhen, could it be that you’ve already given the Realm Saint Blood to Zhang Ruochen?”
“Of course not,” answered Zhou Zhen.
Gaunt’s tone became cold and murderous, he asked, “Then why don’t you pa.s.s it to us? Do you want me to take it on my own?”
As he spoke, a powerful aura emanated from Gaunt’s body and enveloped Zhou Zhen.
This was the big plan of the Heavenly Realm. Nothing could go wrong. Regardless of whether Zhou Zhen leaked the secret or not, he had to take the Realm Saint Blood with him first.
At the same time, the thin wings on Yan Xu’s back also emitted an azure light. It was drawing the surrounding Saint Qi of Heaven and Earth and flowing into the Saint Jade Scepter in hand.
Zhou Zhen’s heart sank. He didn’t expect that just a mere suspicion would make the both of them have the desire to attack him. The Heavenly Realm was really overbearing.
Although he was a High-Saint Array Master, he could not gain the upper hand while going against both Gaunt and Yan Xu at the same time.
Moreover, if he really fought with them at this time, he wouldn’t be able to gain clarification and would be on the opposing side of the Heavenly Realm.
“Alright, I’ll hand the Realm Saint Blood to you,” said Zhou Zhen after weighing the pros and cons.
With a flip of his hand, Zhou Zhen took out a small jade bottle. It was only the size of a thumb, and engraved with a large number of Dimensional Inscriptions. It was a Dimensional Object.
It wasn’t easy to get the Realm Saint Blood that was inside the jade bottle. Gu Xin’ao had lost his life because of it.
Fortunately, Gu Xin’ao had given it to Zhou Zhen before Zhang Ruochen attacked. Otherwise, his death would have been in vain.
Zhou Zhen shook his hand and threw the jade bottle over.
Just as Yan Xu was about to reach out to receive it, a streak of Saint Qi suddenly appeared. It wrapped around the jade bottle and was trying to s.n.a.t.c.h it away.
“Don’t even think about it!”
Yan Xu cried out in a low voice and immediately waved the Saint Jade Scepter in her hand.
Immediately, the Saint Jade Scepter emitted a bright saint light. An extremely cold aura appeared and froze everything.
With Yan Xu as the center, the area within a hundred mile radius surrounding her was immediately filled with ice crystals.
At the same time, Gaunt extended a large hand. A large number of Paths appeared in his hand. He released an extremely powerful suction force and directly grabbed at the Dimensional jade bottle.
However, the Saint Qi was extremely powerful. The spell that Yan Xu had used was unable to freeze it. Gaunt’s large hand was also unable to capture it.
“Zhou Zhen, why aren’t you making a move?” cried Yan Xu in a low voice.
Zhou Zhen regained his senses. With a wave of his hand, he blasted out over ten formation seals, forming an exquisite formation. He wanted to seal the Dimensional jade bottle.
BANG!
Saint Qi instantly broke through the formation’s restriction. It wrapped around the spatial jade bottle and directly broke through the air.
ROARRR!
Gaunt let out a low roar and wanted to chase after it.
“There’s no need to chase after it. The person who attacked hiddenly is extremely powerful. He’s not someone we can deal with,” Yan Xu stopped him.
Zhou Zhen snorted coldly. “If you didn’t insist on me handing over the Realm Saint Blood, how could it have been taken away by someone else? The two of you must take full responsibility for this matter.”
Hearing this, Yan Xu had a dark look in her eyes. This situation was totally out of her imagination.
Realm Saint Blood was an important part of the plan. Now that it had been taken away by a mysterious powerhouse, it would be difficult to locate the Saturn peach tree.
“Zhou Zhen, don’t shout. Who can prove that the Dimensional jade bottle contains Realm Saint Blood? I suspect that you have already given it to Zhang Ruochen. All this is just Zhang Ruochen’s acting with you.” Gaunt stared at Zhou Zhen deeply.
Zhou Zhen replied angrily, “Don’t slander me. Now that things have escalated to this situation, do you still want to push the responsibility?”
“Humph, the bigger your reaction, the more it shows that you have a secret. People who are not from the Heavenly Realm are indeed unreliable,” said Gaunt with a smirk.
Seeing that the two were about to start a fight, Yan Xu interrupted, “No matter who is right or wrong, go and meet Archangel Michael first.”
“Archangel Michael has already arrived at the Imperial City?” Zhou Zhen had a strange expression.
Yan Xu answered, “This is not a small matter. Naturally, Archangel Michael will have to personally manage the entire situation.”
Without dragging more time, the three of them immediately set off and left this foggy mountain.
As soon as they left, a figure appeared. He held the Dimensional jade bottle in his hand. It was Yin Yuanchen, who had followed them all the way here.
As a cultivator of the Heavenly Realm, it wasn’t convenient for him to reveal his true ident.i.ty under such circ.u.mstances. He could only attack secretly.
Seeing the three of them had left further, Yin Yuanchen didn’t follow them anymore. He took the Dimensional jade bottle and returned to Ziwei Palace immediately.
As soon as he returned, he met Zhang Ruochen.
“Brother Yin, how was it?” asked Zhang Ruochen.
Yin Yuanchen replied, “Zhou Zhen was in the Fifth City District. He had contacted the Gaunt from Colossi and Yan Xu from Elves. Both of them did not trust Zhou Zhen, so there was some dispute.”
“I heard them mention that the Realm Saint Blood was able to locate the Saturn peach tree. It was related to some big plan of the Heavenly Realm. Unfortunately, although I am a cultivator of the Heavenly Realm, I do not have access to these things.”
After a pause, Yin Yuanchen continued, “By the way, this contains the Realm Saint Blood that was taken by Gu Xin’ao. I s.n.a.t.c.hed it from them. Now that the three of them have gone to meet Archangel Michael, I stopped following them.”
As he spoke, Yin Yuanchen handed the Dimensional jade bottle to Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen reached out to receive it. His eyes flashed with surprise irresistibly. He knew very well that Yin Yuanchen’s words were completely true. There was no falsification or concealment.
As for the reason, he had followed Yin YuanChen and witnessed everything with his own eyes.
Zhang Ruochen had asked Yin Yuanchen to follow Zhou Zhen because he wanted to test Yin Yuanchen’s loyalty and see what kind of person he was.
It turned out that Yin Yuanchen was indeed just like the rumors. He was eccentric and even dared to ruin the big events in the Heavenly Realm. Perhaps that was why Yin Yuanchen could not get in touch with many secrets of the Heavenly Realm.
Zhang Ruochen asked, “Brother Yin, you seem to have something on your mind?”
Yin Yuanchen smiled bitterly and shook his head slightly, he said, “The Heavenly Realm’s idea to attack the Saturn peach tree disheartens me. Apart from disappointment, there are no other words to describe it. It was a good War of Merit to be united against the outside world. Why must you always be on guard against your own people? It’s not pleasant at all!”
Yin Yuanchen let out a long sigh and a breath of foul air.
Both of them were intelligent, so naturally, they could guess what the Heavenly Realm’s purpose was.
The grandson of the daughter of Lord Wentian of the Ten Tribulation, this ident.i.ty was too sensitive. He was caught in the middle of two macroworlds. How could he be happy?
Zhang Ruochen, the son of the Blood Empress, had many similarities with him.
No one can decide their own birth, one can only decide what they should do. Should one choose to do the right thing or the wrong thing?
If the plan failed this time, there must be other arrangements by the Heavenly Realm.
Compared to the Infernal Court’s army, Zhang Ruochen felt that Heavenly Realm was a bigger threat.
The enmity between Heavenly Realm and Kunlun was too deep. The Heavenly Realm would probably hope for Kunlun to be destroyed more than the Infernal Court, and for the secret of the past to be hidden completely.
Not long after, Emperor Yi’s Evil Spirit returned from Welkin Lounge and handed the Seal of Ten Sword to Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen only glanced at it before handing it over to Xue Wuye. He said, “Return it to its owner.”
The Flying Fairy Sword Technique was indeed mysterious. It contained Sword Ten from The Wordless Sword Manual. If it was before, Zhang Ruochen would have wanted to borrow it and study it.
But now, he had already practiced all five realms of Sword Ten successfully. He even relied on his own comprehension of The Wordless Sword Manual and combined it with the Path of Dimension to create the sixth realm of Sword Ten.
In a sense, Zhang Ruochen had reached or even surpa.s.sed the height of the former Sword Emperor.
Of course, Zhang Ruochen believed that the Sword Emperor’s achievements in Swordsmans.h.i.+p were not limited to Sword Ten. There might be more profound sword techniques in the Flying Fairy Sword Technique, but they were just unknown to outsiders.
The level of sword technique was not something that Saint Kings could comprehend and cultivate.
“Thank you, Brother Zhang.”
Xue Wuye put away the Seal of Ten Sword and bowed to thank Zhang Ruochen.
From now on, the entire Wanxiang City undoubtedly owed Zhang Ruochen a huge favor.
After a series of events, the Imperial City became quiet.
Originally, cultivators from all walks of life were very resistant to the rules set by Zhang Ruochen. No one was willing to accept it.
However, the death of Gu Xin’ao plus the fact that no one could destroy the Decree. Moreover, the suppression of the six Celestial law enforcers really shocked many people.
At this critical moment, no one dared to act rashly.
It wasn’t that all the cultivators had chosen to compromise. Instead, they were all waiting for Saber Empyrean and Celestial Palace to react. No one believed that this storm could be calmed down easily.
However, after waiting for a long time, there was still no news from the Celestial Palace. Many people couldn’t help but feel puzzled. Could it be that the Celestial Palace had tacitly consented to all of this?
Finally, some secret news leaked through special channels.
It wasn’t that the Saber Empyrean had chosen to swallow their anger, but many parties had intervened, including the three dominant worlds. A war between G.o.ds almost erupted.
To prevent the situation from escalating, the Celestial Palace stepped in to mediate. The parties reached some sort of agreement and suppressed the matter.
“How can this be? Do we really need to abide by Zhang Ruochen’s rules in the future?”
Most cultivators found it hard to accept such an outcome.
But they had no choice. Even the Celestial Palace had acquiesced the existence of these rules. What else could they do?
A Saint King making rules to restrict the cultivators of the Celestial Court, such a thing had never happened before.
Compared to the oppression of the cultivators of various worlds, the local cultivators of Kunlun felt elated. After all, no one wanted to be oppressed.
In a palace.
The Moon G.o.ddess appeared and told Zhang Ruochen everything that had happened in the Celestial Court.
This time, Zhang Ruochen had issued a Decree that suppressed all the worlds. It was so shocking that it exceeded the Moon G.o.ddess’ expectations. Although he was a Divine Envoy, he was just a Saint King that was not powerful enough.
However, a Saint King could influence this War of Merit and cultivators of all macroworlds. The significance behind this event was not a small matter.
“This time, the Western Buddha Realm, Five-Element Temple, Celestial Dragon Realm, Tianchu Civilization…There are actually G.o.ds partic.i.p.ating. It seems that I finally deserve to get their support,” said Zhang Ruochen.
A long time ago, Zheng Yuan had told him that as long as he showed enough potential, the Taoists Clan would fully support him. The Western Buddha Realm obviously had the same thoughts.
The only thing that Zhang Ruochen didn’t understand was the Tianchu Civilization.
He had never heard of how close the relations.h.i.+p between the Tianchu Civilization and Kunlun was. The only relations.h.i.+p was probably the one between Zhang Ruochen and Fairy Tianchu.
But whether it was a romantic relations.h.i.+p between a man and a woman or a friends.h.i.+p of life and death, in the end, it was just a personal relations.h.i.+p between two juniors.
It was impossible for a Civilization to partic.i.p.ate in the fight of the great world because of personal feelings. The friends.h.i.+p between G.o.ds was much more viable.
Unless…
‘Maybe the elder Tianzhu of the Tianchu Civilization is repaying the favor of that 100,000 drops of Divine Spring,’ Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
That was 100,000 drops of Divine Spring, which helped the elder Tianzhu of the Tianchu Civilization to heal and survive the calamity of the Yuanhui Tribulation. It was a great favor.
‘Maybe Luoji is helping me. Now that she has the inheritance of the G.o.ddess of Luoshui, her voice in the Tianchu Civilization will certainly become more powerful. Coupled with my ability, maybe I can make the Tianchu Civilization face me squarely,’ thought Zhang Ruochen.
After all, fighting against the Heavenly Realm required a great price. Any force had to think carefully and consider the pros and cons.
If Zhang Ruochen had not become an invincible powerhouse below Supreme Saint, the situation would have changed greatly.
The Moon G.o.ddess said, “You are just a Saint King. You are still lacking a lot. Although it is not clear enough, according to my estimation, the G.o.d of Kunlun is behind this whole thing.”
“Chi Yao?” asked Zhang Ruochen.
Who else could be the G.o.d of Kunlun besides her?
The Moon G.o.ddess shook her head and said, “The Five-Element Temple, Western Buddha Realm, and Celestial Dragon Realm should all be backed by the G.o.d of Kunlun. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have jumped to the surface to challenge the Heavenly Realm.”
“How is that possible? No, could it be…” Then, Zhang Ruochen fell into deep thought.
Zhang Ruochen knew that there was an emperor of Kunlun in the Western Buddha Realm who became a G.o.d there.
Could Five-Element Temple and Celestial Dragon Realm also be teaming with the G.o.d of Kunlun?
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen thought of the emperors and the two empresses who disappeared in Kunlun 800 years ago. Could it be that 800 years ago, they all went to the Celestial Court to make preparations in advance?
Taking the Five-Element Temple as an example, although it had a deep relations.h.i.+p with Kunlun, after all, 100,000 years had pa.s.sed. If there was no G.o.d of Kunlun, how could the Five-Element Temple support him so much when he practiced there?
The Moon G.o.ddess smiled and said, “Do you want to know what Chi Yao said about what you’ve done this time?”
“You don’t have to say it.”
Zhang Ruochen’s expression became gloomy.
The Moon G.o.ddess didn’t expect Zhang Ruochen’s mood to fluctuate so much just by mentioning Chi Yao’s name. She didn’t keep him in suspense anymore and said, “She said, not the master of a realm and making the rules, all this is just fooling around. Zhang Ruochen hasn’t grown up yet.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “It seems that I’ve done what she should have done and made her unhappy!”
“In your eyes, is the G.o.ddess so narrow-minded?”
The Moon G.o.ddess wanted to say that maybe in Chi Yao’s eyes, you haven’t done enough and haven’t truly had the heart of an emperor.
If his heart had fully grown, he wouldn’t have used the ident.i.ty of Prince of the Eastern Region and issued a Decree in Ziwei Palace where Chi Yao lived.
Instead, he would destroy Ziwei Palace and establish Sacred Palace. Then, he would first correct his own reputation and then issue the Decree with the ident.i.ty of a realm master.
To issue a Decree as the Prince of the Eastern Region was an impulsive act. It seemed to be an act for the sake of Kunlun, but it was not justified. It was no different from a child’s mischief.
By issuing a Decree as a realm master shows the real intention of bearing the responsibility and consequences of the issuance.
Of course, the Moon G.o.ddess did not say these words because she did not know Chi Yao very well. She also did not know Chi Yao’s true thoughts.
Maybe it was just as Zhang Ruochen had said, he had done what she was supposed to do, and that made her unhappy!