Chapter 1046: Great Space Teleportation
The Devouring Demon Dragon possessed the power to slay saints. Not long ago, it had stormed a pass in the First Central Empire, devouring a human army of one hundred thirty thousand, even consuming a War Saint. Among all of humanity, below the Saint realm, there were probably only a few individuals who had the strength to fight the Devouring Demon Dragon.
"It is said that soon, Chi Wansui, ranked ninth on the Half-Saint Ranking, will arrive at the Yingsha City base. With him taking action to counter the Devouring Demon Dragon, we humans will have a fighting chance against the twelve barbarian beast clans."
The face of that Ruins Realm warrior showed a fervent expression, a kind of admiration and worship for an absolute powerhouse.
The twelve barbarian beast clans had completely surrounded the Yingsha City base. Without the leadership of a top-tier expert, no cultivator could break out.
Chi Wansui's arrival at Yingsha City brought a glimmer of hope, like an unyielding pillar stabilizing the sea, becoming the spiritual leader of all human cultivators in the base.
Zhang Ruochen personally ascended the thirty-zhang-high city wall and gazed toward the outside of the city.
Looking out, there was nothing but endless yellow sand stretching as far as the eye could see.
Using his Heavenly Eye, Zhang Ruochen could see extremely far and spotted traces of some barbarian beasts.
To the east of Yingsha City, several hundred li away, on a stretch of undulating sand dunes, countless black scorpion beasts were densely clustered. It was impossible to tell how many tens of thousands there were, occupying an area spanning a hundred li in radius.
Their bodies were enormous; even the most ordinary black scorpion beasts were over two meters long. Some larger ones were more than ten meters long, emitting incredibly astonishing auras.
According to a Ruins Realm warrior on the city wall, the black scorpion beast clan had a beast king close to the Saint realm. Its entire body was golden, standing several hundred meters tall, and it had once taken the initiative to attack the base.
However, the Yingsha City base had established a very powerful city-protecting grand formation, which repelled that scorpion king.
Zhang Ruochen then observed the other directions and also saw tens of thousands of barbarian beast clans, each occupying their own territory, completely sealing off all escape routes for human cultivators.
"Boss Gu, what do we do?" Sun Dadi asked.
Zhang Ruochen said, "First, find a place to stay, then slowly figure out a way to break out. Zhao Shiqi, handle this matter. I'll observe again whether there are any weak points in the defenses between the twelve barbarian beast clans."
Zhao Shiqi was a forty-eighth-order spiritual power half-saint, so his methods were naturally not comparable to those of ordinary cultivators.
Soon, he found a place to settle down in the central area of Yingsha City.
After nightfall, Zhang Ruochen put on the Meteor Invisibility Cloak, concealed his aura, and walked out of Yingsha City alone, charging in one direction.
During the day, he had observed a relatively weak defensive area and wanted to try sneaking through the encirclement.
However, Zhang Ruochen had only rushed out more than forty li when he triggered a very hidden formation.
Immediately afterward, a large swarm of fireballs and lightning bolts flew down from the sky. Thousands of barbarian beasts simultaneously attacked his location.
At the same time, a earth-shaking beast roar sounded. A golden scorpion king, as large as a mountain, burst out from beneath the yellow sand.
Just the aura emanating from the scorpion king was terrifying beyond measure, creating a sandstorm that covered hundreds of li in radius.
The scene was like the arrival of doomsday.
Even experts of Wei Longxing and Huang Yanchen's caliber would likely be no match for the scorpion king.
Zhang Ruochen immediately retreated and returned to Yingsha City.
"Boom!"
The golden-armored scorpion king's body was several times taller than the city wall of Yingsha City. It extended a pincer and struck down fiercely, colliding with a light shield on the outer perimeter of Yingsha City.
Ripples spread outward across the light shield.
The thirty-zhang-high city wall also trembled slightly.
Inside the city, the attack formation was activated, emitting a white light pillar ten meters in diameter, which sent the golden-armored scorpion king flying.
However, it only injured it and failed to kill it.
"Humans, one day you will leave the city, and this king will devour you all!"
The golden-armored scorpion king's mouth emitted human speech, forming ear-splitting sound waves that spread throughout Yingsha City.
Of course, it was also very wary of the attack formation at the Yingsha City base and ultimately chose to retreat without continuing the assault.
Zhang Ruochen pulled aside the Meteor Invisibility Cloak, revealing his form, and looked at the massive retreating figure of the golden-armored scorpion king, letting out a long breath. "Such strong defense. The attack formation of Yingsha City has the power to kill a saint, yet it only managed to injure it."
"It should be a primordial relic species, with the purest primordial divine beast blood flowing in its veins. Among humans, there are very few who can contend with it."
One Devouring Demon Dragon was already difficult to deal with, and now there was a golden-armored scorpion king. Truly, where was the way out for human cultivators?
Once the barbarian beast clans harvested the heavenly materials and earthly treasures of the Azure Dragon Ruins Realm, they would only grow stronger. By then, the gap between human cultivators and them would be even greater.
After returning, Zhang Ruochen recounted his encounter to Huang Yanchen, Sun Dadi, and the others.
"Among the barbarian beast clans, there must be a beast king with extremely high formation mastery, who has laid down many hidden formation inscriptions. Trying to sneak through the encirclement of the twelve barbarian beast clans is almost impossible," Zhang Ruochen said.
Everyone fell silent.
After a while, Sun Dadi said, "I just went to gather information. Soon, several large human alliances will arrive at the Yingsha City base. Those ancient sects and clans all have some formidable methods. Even if they can't kill the beast kings, they can at least hold them off."
Zhang Ruochen said, "Then we'll have to wait a bit longer. In the next few days, everyone should focus on cultivation and try to raise their cultivation levels a bit more. A fierce battle is inevitable soon."
Sun Dadi's cultivation had already reached the peak of the ninth-order half-saint, making further breakthroughs difficult.
Therefore, he didn't cultivate but instead went to some bustling areas of Yingsha City to gather information while enjoying the commotion.
Zhao Shiqi had just obtained thirty drops of Azure Dragon Leaf Dew and was naturally eager to raise his spiritual power intensity to the forty-ninth order.
Zhang Ruochen sent him into the Scroll World, giving him ten times the time to break through his realm faster.
At the same time, Zhang Ruochen also brought Huang Yanchen and Qing Mo into the Scroll World, leaving only Xiao Hei outside to guard the Cosmic Divine Wood Map.
"Without a sixth-grade Sacred Yuan Pill, breaking through to the sixth-order half-saint is really not easy. However, since I have this extremely brief moment of time, I can try to fuse the memories and sacred dao insights of the second life from the Seven Lives Seven Deaths Diagram."
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged beneath the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree, splitting off a strand of spiritual power that turned into a speck of light and flew into the Qi Sea between his brows.
"Swoosh—"
That speck of light quickly condensed, forming a tiny humanoid figure identical to Zhang Ruochen.
In the Qi Sea, six bubbles floated, each representing the memories and sacred dao insights of one life.
However, they were all sealed by Chu Siyuan.
Zhang Ruochen broke open the first bubble and began to fuse the memories and insights within.
Time passed, and he didn't know how long it took before the memories and insights of the second life reached a preliminary fusion with his sacred soul.
"Spiritual power intensity, breakthrough to the forty-ninth order."
"Sword Five reaches the state of Great Perfection."
"Luo Water Fist Art cultivated to the seventh level."
...
In addition, Zhang Ruochen was astonished to find that in his second life, his insights into time and space had also made extremely remarkable progress.
"Great Space Teleportation."
Zhang Ruochen's form moved, and the surrounding space emitted a very subtle fluctuation.
Then, he vanished from his original spot.
When he reappeared, Zhang Ruochen was already standing more than twenty li away. The entire process was extremely brief.
"Quite interesting."
This was Zhang Ruochen's first attempt to traverse such a long distance through space, and he found it novel. So, he continued to practice Great Space Teleportation, wanting to master it as quickly as possible.
He performed Great Space Teleportation dozens of times in a row, each time covering a distance of about twenty-plus li. Compared to ordinary space displacement, this was a tremendous improvement.
However, according to the records in the Space-Time Secret Scripture, the Great Space Teleportation Zhang Ruochen was now performing was only at the initial stage.
True Great Space Teleportation could cover several hundred li in a single leap, which was perfectly normal.
"Having mastered Great Space Teleportation, with my fifth-order half-saint realm, I can escape even from saint-level beings," Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
It was worth noting that only the experts on the Half-Saint Ranking and the Half-Saint External Ranking had the strength to escape from saint-level beings.
Zhang Ruochen's escape abilities were clearly even superior to theirs.
Besides mastering Great Space Teleportation, Zhang Ruochen had also achieved other accomplishments in his second life within the Seven Lives Seven Deaths Diagram.
The third level of the Time Sword Art, the "Twelve Hours Sword Technique," had reached a certain level of proficiency.
Moreover, as long as he could find sufficient materials, Zhang Ruochen was even confident that he could set up a short-distance "Space Teleportation Array."
Of course, both the "Twelve Hours Sword Technique" and the "Space Teleportation Array" were extremely complex and profound. Zhang Ruochen had only reached the stage of preliminary mastery, and they were still very immature.
Zhang Ruochen very much wanted to set up a Space Teleportation Array in Yingsha City to escape the encirclement of the twelve barbarian beast clans.
He copied down all the materials needed to set up a Space Teleportation Array from the Space-Time Secret Scripture. A total of eleven types of materials were required:
Four types of sacred jade and seven types of sacred stone.
Among them, three types of sacred jade and the seven types of sacred stone, though extremely precious and priceless, could still be found.
However, one of the four types of sacred jade, "Space Sacred Jade," was extremely rare. It could only be formed in the chaotic zone between material space and void space.
Finding even a single piece was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
"When the Azure Dragon Ruins Realm collapses, it is very likely that a large amount of Space Sacred Jade will be produced." Zhang Ruochen felt both anticipation and disappointment.
Since there was no Space Sacred Jade, Zhang Ruochen had to abandon this plan and walked out of the Scroll World. He very much wanted to know if there had been any new changes in the situation at Yingsha City in the past few days.
Sun Dadi, upon learning that Zhang Ruochen had emerged from seclusion, immediately rushed back.
"In the past three days, three major alliances have arrived at the Yingsha City stronghold. One of them is the alliance formed by the Blood God Sect, the Shangguan Aristocratic Family, and the Cai Family," Sun Dadi said.
Zhang Ruochen asked, "What about the other two alliances? What are their backgrounds?"
"The other two alliances..."
Just as Sun Dadi was about to answer, a voice with a distant, profound aura came from outside: "Wan Huayu of the Little Saint Heavenly King Manor, paying a visit to the Blood God Sect's Divine Son. May I ask if the Divine Son is inside?"
Zhang Ruochen and Sun Dadi were both slightly startled and exchanged a glance.
"Why would Wan Huayu suddenly come to visit me? It seems I haven't met her in my capacity as the Divine Son of the Blood God Sect."
Zhang Ruochen gently stroked his chin, pondering Wan Huayu's intentions.
(Alright! Finally made it home, so I can happily start typing again!) (To be continued.)