# Chapter 1024: Fifth Order Half-Saint
As a dance fairy, Qin Yutong possessed a palace deep within the Phoenix Dance Palace.
The palace was suspended on a cliff face within the valley, where the scenery was beautiful and one could glimpse the full view of the Phoenix Dance Palace. It was an absolutely prime location.
Before this, no man had ever been able to step into this palace.
That Zhang Ruochen could receive Qin Yutong's invitation to enter the palace carried extraordinary significance, causing Yan Wenqi and Fu Shang to be extremely jealous.
They felt that Qin Yutong placed too much importance on this man of unknown origin, and such treatment was completely mismatched with his status.
Entering the palace, Qin Yutong stepped with mysterious footwork in some concealed positions, activating the formations within the hall to prevent anyone from breaking in.
"Are you one of the Eldest Princess's people?" Qin Yutong asked.
Zhang Ruochen did not understand the current structure of the Zhang Clan and simply said indifferently: "I do not belong to any faction. I belong only to myself."
Qin Yutong's delicate brows furrowed slightly. She stopped asking questions and led Zhang Ruochen to the lowest level of the palace, arriving outside a cultivation chamber. She opened the stone door to the chamber.
"This cultivation chamber is equipped with a defensive formation that can only be opened and closed from the inside. Once the defensive formation is activated, even a Saint Realm giant would be unable to break through the chamber from outside."
Qin Yutong added: "If you need anything, you can instruct Xuan Shuang and Xuan Yu, and they can report your needs to me."
"There is nothing I need for now."
Zhang Ruochen stepped into the cultivation chamber and immediately closed the stone door, simultaneously activating the defensive formation.
Outside the chamber, Bai Xuan Shuang was somewhat curious and said: "Senior Sister, he said he wasn't sent by the Eldest Princess, but belongs to himself. What does that mean? Besides the Twelfth Master and the Eldest Princess, are there other descendants of the imperial clan who could have cultivated someone as strong as him?"
Qin Yutong pondered carefully and said: "During the war eight hundred years ago, many branches of the imperial clan fled to the wild desolate secret realms or to outer realm ruins to escape enemy slaughter. It's not impossible that he is a descendant of some branch, just returning to the Kunlun Realm, which is why he intends to contact us."
"You two stay here. If he needs anything, you must notify me immediately. I need to go discuss with Granny Bai Su and investigate his specific identity."
Clearly, Qin Yutong still had some wariness toward Zhang Ruochen. After all, his origins were unknown, his cultivation was so powerful, and he was simply too mysterious.
Entering the cultivation chamber, Zhang Ruochen carefully inspected it again before taking out the Cosmic Divine Wood Map and entering the Scroll World.
In truth, Zhang Ruochen was not injured. It was merely that using the Thousand Ripple Annihilation Force had exhausted all his Saint Qi, leaving him somewhat weakened.
Before long, Zhang Ruochen had cultivated back to his peak state.
Then, he took out the Fifth-Rank Saint Yuan Pill, held it in his palm, and muttered to himself: "It's time to break through to the Fifth Order Half-Saint realm."
He swallowed the Fifth-Rank Saint Yuan Pill into his mouth and immediately began circulating his technique, going all out to assault the realm.
"Boom!"
The power contained within the Fifth-Rank Saint Yuan Pill was extremely potent. Upon entering his abdomen, it immediately exploded, releasing a massive amount of energy that surged into his meridians and blood.
Zhang Ruochen had not yet reached the peak of the Fourth Order Half-Saint. With his current cultivation, attempting to break through to the Fifth Order Half-Saint was actually quite forced, with a high chance of failure.
However, he had to take the risk and immediately assault the Fifth Order Half-Saint.
With his current cultivation, he could indeed contend with Ninth Order Half-Saints. However, when facing experts among the Ninth Order Half-Saints, there was still a considerable gap.
For instance, when facing Han Ying, if Zhang Ruochen did not use the Thousand Ripple Annihilation Force, he was no match for him and could at most protect himself.
Ultimately, it was still a matter of having too low a realm.
While refining the Fifth-Rank Saint Yuan Pill, Zhang Ruochen also refined Divine Blood, hoping to compensate for the deficiency in his realm.
The two powerful forces—Divine Blood and Saint Yuan Pill—violently clashed within Zhang Ruochen's body, causing severe damage to his internal organs, with blood flowing from the corners of his mouth and nostrils.
Nevertheless, Zhang Ruochen persisted and did not give up.
After spending two full days and nights, Zhang Ruochen's organs, meridians, and blood vessels all suffered varying degrees of injury. It was as if flames were burning everywhere inside his body, causing extreme pain.
"Boom!"
Finally, relying on his powerful will, Zhang Ruochen tenaciously pushed through, breaking through the bottleneck and reaching the Fifth Order Half-Saint realm.
Immediately afterward, heaven and earth spiritual energy surged in like a tidal wave, flowing through the Divine Martial Mark on his brow into his Qi Sea, nourishing every meridian and Saint Meridian in his body.
It was an extremely comfortable sensation, masking the pain brought by his internal injuries.
After completely stabilizing his realm, Zhang Ruochen took out a Withered Wood Pill and swallowed it.
About an hour later, Zhang Ruochen's injuries had fully healed, reaching an unprecedented peak state.
Zhang Ruochen circulated the Nine Heavens Bright Emperor Scripture, and immediately, the Saint Qi within his body began to circulate wildly, causing the heaven and earth spiritual energy within a radius of several hundred miles to tremble slightly.
"With my current cultivation, if I were to face Han Ying again, even without using the Thousand Ripple Annihilation Force, time power, or space power, killing him would not be a difficult matter," Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
With his greatly increased cultivation, the killing intent on Zhang Ruochen's body grew even stronger.
Of course, Zhang Ruochen did not immediately leave the Scroll World. He planned to continue enhancing his strength. After all, among the ten great commanders of the Azure Dragon Army, there were some figures far more powerful than Han Ying.
Next, Zhang Ruochen took out the beast soul of the Green Armored Sacred Elephant, planning to refine it into his right arm.
This was a Saint Realm beast soul. Zhang Ruochen had spent seven thousand Sacred Stones to auction it. Once refined, the power of his right arm and the strength of his body would both increase significantly.
Moreover, only by refining the Saint Realm dragon soul and elephant soul would Zhang Ruochen have the opportunity to successfully cultivate the tenth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm, elevating the rank of this palm technique to the level of a Sacred Art.
Of course, even though Zhang Ruochen had only cultivated the ninth palm so far, he could already make the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm unleash power at the Sacred Art level.
Zhang Ruochen had successfully refined a Saint Realm dragon soul before and had accumulated much experience. Therefore, when refining the elephant soul, he did not encounter too much trouble.
It only took him half a day to refine the elephant soul into his right arm, completely merging it with his bones, muscles, meridians, and blood.
Zhang Ruochen raised both arms, mobilized Saint Qi into the meridians and Saint Meridians of his arms, and activated the dragon soul and elephant soul.
"Crack, crack."
On his left arm, scales the size of fingernails grew; on his right arm, green armor plates emerged.
At the same time, deafening sounds of dragon roars and elephant trumpeting rang out.
A massive green dragon shadow and a mountain-sized green sacred elephant phantom simultaneously appeared behind Zhang Ruochen, casting the entire sky in a green hue and releasing two intimidating barbaric beast auras.
Zhang Ruochen pressed both palms forward simultaneously.
Two enormous handprints manifested in the air, causing the air and the ground to tremble violently.
"As expected of a Saint-level beast soul, truly extraordinary. If I simultaneously mobilize the power of the dragon soul and elephant soul to execute the ninth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm, I should be able to unleash thirty-six times the attack power."
Before refining the elephant soul, when Zhang Ruochen executed the ninth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm, he could only unleash thirty-four times the attack power.
Although it seemed like only a two-fold increase in attack power, the might of the palm technique had grown significantly.
Generally speaking, martial techniques that could achieve thirty times the attack power could be called "Sacred Arts."
Moreover, even among Ninth Order Half-Saints, very few could cultivate a Sacred Art to great perfection.
In other words, the vast majority of Ninth Order Half-Saints could only unleash over twenty times the attack power.
That Zhang Ruochen could unleash thirty-six times the attack power meant he had the ability to defeat Ninth Order Half-Saints whose cultivation and power surpassed his own.
Of course, after refining the elephant soul and dragon soul, the power of Zhang Ruochen's fist techniques had also improved to a certain extent.
"If I successfully cultivate the tenth palm, I wonder how many times the attack power the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm can unleash?"
Zhang Ruochen's heart was filled with anticipation.
However, he also knew that even after refining the elephant soul and dragon soul, successfully cultivating the tenth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm was no easy task.
At the very least, in the short term, it would be impossible to succeed.
Zhang Ruochen temporarily did not attempt to assault the seventh aperture of the Seven Aperture Blood Shadow Palm, planning to try again after his cultivation had stabilized a bit more.
This attempt to break through to the Fifth Order Half-Saint had already been quite risky, leaving behind some hidden injuries that would be difficult to fully heal.
Before those hidden injuries recovered, Zhang Ruochen did not want to take a second risk.
Zhang Ruochen went to see the Grand Minister of Works, the Second Minister of Works, and Murong Yue. Seeing that they were all in cultivation, he did not disturb them.
In truth, the Grand Minister of Works and the Second Minister of Works were both extremely powerful experts. If he could borrow their strength, Zhang Ruochen would have a much easier time dealing with the ten great commanders of the Azure Dragon Army.
However, Zhang Ruochen did not do so. After all, the two of them were monks and were not suited to being stained with too much blood and karma.
His own affairs still had to be resolved by his own hands.
Zhang Ruochen left the Scroll World, put away the Cosmic Divine Wood Map, and with a "whoosh" sound, reopened the door to the cultivation chamber.
Bai Xuan Shuang and Bai Xuan Yu were waiting outside the chamber. Seeing Zhang Ruochen emerge from seclusion, they immediately approached.
Only now did Zhang Ruochen take the time to carefully observe the two of them. Both were beauties among ten thousand, quite similar in appearance, likely sisters.
Zhang Ruochen asked: "Are both of you descendants of the Zhang Clan?"
Bai Xuan Shuang and Bai Xuan Yu greatly admired Zhang Ruochen. Seeing him take the initiative to speak to them, they were naturally overjoyed and immediately nodded.
Bai Xuan Shuang had a more outgoing personality and said: "My name is Bai Xuan Shuang, and she is my younger sister, Bai Xuan Yu."
Bai Xuan Yu's expression was somewhat gloomy, and she sighed: "Our Bai family was once a renowned and distinguished clan of the Holy Bright Central Empire. During the war eight hundred years ago, the empire was destroyed, and all families that did not submit to the First Central Empire suffered a bloody purge.
"The males of the family were either killed or sent to the empire's borders, forced to fight against barbaric beasts, and most ended up dying in the bellies of those beasts."
"The females of the family fared even worse. Most were taken into the mansions of various military generals to serve their pleasure. The rest were conscripted as official prostitutes, some sold to brothels, and others turned into slaves."