Chapter 1069: Chaotic Zone
There was really nothing to say to the two savage beasts.
Since they had already barged in, it was only natural to investigate what made this region so special.
Zhang Ruochen walked over to a blood-red weathered rock mountain, chipped off a small piece, and brought it to the tip of his nose for a gentle sniff.
A faint bloody scent emanated from the rock.
"Could it really have been soaked in blood?"
Zhang Ruochen closed his eyes, releasing his spiritual power continuously, extending it outward to probe the distance. He muttered to himself, "The spatial structure is very unstable; it could collapse at any moment."
For thousands of miles around, there were many fragmented spaces.
In some areas, the fragmentation was severe, turning into a chaotic zone where material space and void space coexisted.
No wonder the Devouring Elephant Rabbit and the Demon Ape couldn't find their way out. The space in this region was already quite disordered. Sometimes, even after flying tens of thousands of miles, they might still be going in circles.
"Could this be... the very center of the entire Azure Dragon Ruins Realm?" Zhang Ruochen said.
The Azure Dragon Ruins Realm was nearing depletion, heading toward destruction. The starting point of the destruction would certainly be the central region, then it would spread outward.
Eventually, the entire world would completely collapse.
"Is the central region full of treasures?" The Devouring Elephant Rabbit widened its round, sparkling eyes, and its two adorable rabbit ears immediately perked up.
The Demon Ape also let out a loud roar, stretched out its two large palms, and began digging vigorously into the ground, quickly excavating a large pit.
Zhang Ruochen gently shook his head.
A surge of sacred Qi flowed from Zhang Ruochen's body, lifting him off the ground as he flew forward at a slow pace.
At the same time, he opened his Heavenly Eye to probe the mineral deposits underground.
As the Devouring Elephant Rabbit had guessed, in the central region of the Azure Dragon Ruins Realm, material space had begun to shatter. Some of the essence materials would rapidly separate, condense together, and transform into extremely rare treasures.
For other cultivators, this region was extremely dangerous—one wrong move and they could die in a spatial rift.
But for Zhang Ruochen, the Heir of Time and Space, it was a treasure trove full of wealth.
The Devouring Elephant Rabbit and the Demon Ape chased after him, staying close behind, occasionally reaching out their claws to dig at the ground, leaving shallow pits.
With their digging method, they naturally found nothing.
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen, who was flying mid-air, stopped and said, "Below, thirty zhang deep. You two dig there; you'll find a treasure."
The Demon Ape and the Devouring Elephant Rabbit's eyes lit up, and they immediately began digging.
"Roar!"
The Demon Ape let out a great roar, its body rapidly expanding into a black ape nearly two hundred meters tall, exuding a wild, primeval aura.
Its palms were as hard as dark iron. It dug downward, breaking through the rock layer, creating a seven-zhang-deep pit.
After digging more than ten times, it finally reached thirty zhang underground and brought up a bluish-gray stone.
The bluish-gray stone was about a meter long and half a meter wide, very irregular in shape. At first glance, it looked no different from an ordinary stone.
However, the blue stone was unusually heavy, weighing over a hundred thousand jin, which was quite peculiar.
Zhang Ruochen summoned the Abyssal Ancient Sword and scraped off the outer layer of stone skin.
"Swoosh—"
A dazzling blue light burst forth from inside the stone skin, emitting a dense sacred Qi.
The surrounding space even formed a faint breeze.
Inside the rough stone was a large piece of blue sacred stone.
"Wind-attributed sacred stone. A piece this large can probably be divided into five hundred small pieces. That's a considerable fortune." Zhang Ruochen smiled.
The total wealth of some Half-Saints was less than five hundred sacred stones.
If a low-level Half-Saint had dug up this blue stone, they would have been ecstatic.
Of course, for Zhang Ruochen, who possessed countless treasures, five hundred sacred stones weren't particularly appealing.
But the Devouring Elephant Rabbit was extremely excited. It swallowed the blue stone in one gulp, causing its white belly to bulge out into a square shape, making it look like a large penguin.
Even when walking, it wobbled unsteadily, falling over many times.
"Why do you eat everything?"
Zhang Ruochen's forehead was covered in black lines. He wanted to seal the Devouring Elephant Rabbit's mouth shut.
The Devouring Elephant Rabbit's digestive ability was terrifying. In just a short while, its bulging belly had already shrunk significantly.
Next, Zhang Ruochen continued forward, digging up over twenty treasures along the way.
There were various sacred stones and some strangely auraed sacred jades.
One of the sacred jades, called "Heavenly Dao Sacred Jade," was buried several thousand meters underground. The Devouring Elephant Rabbit, with a belly bigger than its own body, burrowed down and dug it out.
Heavenly Dao Sacred Jade was extremely precious—a rare treasure formed when the Heavenly Dao rules of a world combined with ordinary sacred jade.
Even with Zhang Ruochen's status as the Crown Prince of the Sacred Bright Central Empire, he had only read about it in ancient texts.
It was said that a Fish-Dragon Realm cultivator, even at the first transformation of the Fish-Dragon Realm, could reach the Half-Saint realm overnight by refining a piece of Heavenly Dao Sacred Jade.
Refining Heavenly Dao Sacred Jade was like absorbing the Dao teachings of an entire world.
Of course, there were significant drawbacks. While it allowed a cultivator to quickly reach the Half-Saint realm, their future growth potential would be very limited.
"For cultivators with poor talent, refining Heavenly Dao Sacred Jade is actually a good choice. If I can find a large amount of it, I could help the Ming Sect produce a large number of Half-Saints in a short time." Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
Don't be fooled by the fact that Half-Saints were everywhere in the Azure Dragon Ruins Realm. That was only because most of the Half-Saints from the Kunlun Realm had come here.
If all Half-Saints were spread across the vast world of the Kunlun Realm, each one would still be a top-tier overlord in their region. They were the backbone of the major forces inherited from the Middle Ages.
Unfortunately, Zhang Ruochen had only dug up a small piece of Heavenly Dao Sacred Jade. Finding a large amount wouldn't be easy.
As he continued, Zhang Ruochen finally arrived at a chaotic zone.
This chaotic zone covered an area of dozens of miles, with the spatial structure already shattered.
Standing at the edge of the chaotic zone, Zhang Ruochen used his Heavenly Eye to see massive boulders floating in the center of the void space.
Those boulders first shattered, then quickly dissipated into nothingness.
"Is this the point where material space and void space transform into each other?"
Zhang Ruochen could feel the intense spatial fluctuations around him. The ground beneath his feet could collapse at any moment.
Just then, a layer of light appeared in the center of the chaotic zone.
The scene displayed on the light screen was a lush mountain forest, with ancient peaks and wide rivers.
Thousands of human cultivators were locked in a fierce battle with a swarm of savage beast clans. The battle was brutal, causing mountains to collapse and rivers to flow backward.
Among the human cultivators, some were disciples of the Martial Market Academy. Zhang Ruochen recognized them by the martial uniforms they wore.
"Splash."
A large amount of crimson blood flew through the chaotic space, spraying out from the light screen like a rain of blood, drenching Zhang Ruochen's head.
Even some corpses flew over, falling into the chaotic zone and tumbling into the void space.
"Where does the other end of this chaotic space connect to?" Zhang Ruochen was very curious.
He knew that the Ministry of War had built five military bases in the Azure Dragon Ruins Realm.
The Yingsha City military base was just one of them, gathering only a portion of the human cultivators.
Clearly, the battle on the light screen was not happening near the Yingsha City base. It was likely tens of thousands, or even millions, of miles away from Zhang Ruochen's current location.
Before long, the battle ended.
All thousands of human cultivators were killed. The savage beasts rushed forward, opening their bloody mouths and baring sharp teeth to devour the human corpses, leaving only a blood-soaked mountain range.
Among them, a few beautiful, proud daughters of heaven survived.
A group of half-human, half-beast savage beasts used iron chains to bind their hands and feet, dragging them like livestock before a beast king who had taken human form.
Zhang Ruochen wanted to cross the light screen into the chaotic space and reach that region.
But the spatial fluctuations around the light screen were too violent. As soon as Zhang Ruochen took a step forward, the ground collapsed and the sky fell.
Zhang Ruochen had to retreat.
With his current mastery of space, falling into the void space would mean certain death.
"Snap."
The spatial passage collapsed, and the light screen shattered into pieces, all images disappearing.
Then, a second spatial passage appeared, and another light screen emerged.
In the light screen was a vast grassland, also the scene of a brutal battle. The combatants were humans and the Undying Blood Clan.
The human camp had nearly ten thousand cultivators, densely packed like a sea of people.
The Undying Blood Clan was even more numerous, several times the number of human cultivators. They attacked from all directions, trying to annihilate the humans.
However, this human force was quite powerful. Even though they were outnumbered, they still held off the Undying Blood Clan's attacks.
Among the human camp, Zhang Ruochen saw several familiar figures—all experts from the Moon Worship Demon Sect: Mu Lingxi, A Le, Qi Feiyu, Rat and Snake Two, and so on.
Just then, at the center of the Demon Sect cultivators, a gentle, jade-like young man in blue robes sat in a wheelchair. He extended a fair, clean palm and pressed it into the void.
"Boom."
In the next moment, a massive blue demonic hand, hundreds of meters long, appeared, crushing a large group of Undying Blood Clan cultivators flying in the air.
The corpses of Undying Blood Clan cultivators fell from the sky like rain.
"Snap."
As the blue demonic hand flew out, it also shattered the spatial passage. The light screen before Zhang Ruochen collapsed again, and all images disappeared.