Chapter 1413: Xiao Hei's Secret
For an entire month, Zhang Ruochen had been in seclusion cultivating on Yuanxu Peak Holy Land, finally completely refining the medicinal energy of the Chongling Saint Pill.
Without any surprises, his cultivation had reached the peak of the Thorough Ground Realm.
Zhang Ruochen attempted to break through to the Thorough Heaven Realm but failed.
The distance between the Thorough Ground Realm and the Thorough Heaven Realm was like the distance between the earth and the sky. In Zhang Ruochen's awareness, he had leaped up from the ground and was almost touching the sky, but he was always one step short.
Zhang Ruochen frowned deeply and asked himself, "What exactly must I do to reach the Thorough Heaven Realm?"
Of the eight realms of a Saint, each one was extremely difficult to break through, and it only got harder the further one went.
Back then, Canglan Battle Saint had also been stuck at the peak of the Thorough Ground Realm. It was only after going to the Northern Domain and fighting life-and-death battles with the Undying Blood Clan, undergoing one trial after another, that he broke through to the Thorough Heaven Realm.
Zhang Ruochen knew that his situation was different from Canglan Battle Saint's.
He had experienced far more life-and-death battles than Canglan Battle Saint, and his understanding of the Sacred Dao had long surpassed the Thorough Heaven Realm. There were no deficiencies whatsoever. Breaking through to the Thorough Heaven Realm should have been a natural progression.
Why had his breakthrough attempt failed?
Just then, Zhang Ruochen caught a faint, refreshing fragrance with his nose. He looked up and saw that Mu Lingxi had already arrived by his side.
"I brewed some Heart-Calming Tea myself. Want to try some?"
Mu Lingxi held a jade cup and handed it to Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Are you worried that I'll cultivate too eagerly and fall into demonic possession?"
"Not at all!"
Mu Lingxi widened her round, sparkling eyes and added, "This cup of Heart-Calming Tea uses a recipe I got from Xiao Hei. I picked the leaves of six different sacred medicines, used spring water from a sacred spring, and brewed it continuously for three days just to get this one cup. Drinking it can not only calm the mind and ward off evil but also enhance cultivation."
"Only in the Heavenly Court Realm are there such abundant resources. In the Kunlun Realm, just finding these six sacred medicines would be as difficult as reaching the heavens."
Mu Lingxi knew that Zhang Ruochen's enemies were incredibly powerful and that he bore a pressure that ordinary people could hardly imagine. If it were her, she would have long been despairing or given up on herself.
In truth, Mu Lingxi was genuinely a little worried that Zhang Ruochen might fall into demonic possession.
Zhang Ruochen naturally understood Mu Lingxi's intentions and revealed a smile. "Such good tea—let's share it half and half!"
Seeing Zhang Ruochen smile, Mu Lingxi's mood lifted greatly, and she also smiled sweetly. "You drink first."
Zhang Ruochen didn't stand on ceremony. He picked up the jade cup, drank half of it, and then handed it back to Mu Lingxi.
Mu Lingxi drank the remaining Heart-Calming Tea and then, struck by a sudden thought, remembered something else. "Recently, quite a few Half-Saints and Saints from the Guanghan Realm have been wanting to pledge themselves to Yuanxu Peak Holy Land. Should we accept them?"
"Saints are coming to pledge themselves to us?" Zhang Ruochen was somewhat surprised.
Mu Lingxi said, "You've been in seclusion cultivating, so naturally you don't know the importance of a holy land. Let me, your senior sister, explain it to you."
"I'm all ears."
Zhang Ruochen didn't want Mu Lingxi to worry about him, so he tried to appear as relaxed as possible.
Mu Lingxi smoothed her skirt and sat down across from Zhang Ruochen, then arranged her white dress to cover her long, shapely legs. "The Crimson Dragon Sacred Domain has only fourteen holy lands in total. Each one is located on a sacred vein, making them the fourteen best places for cultivation."
"Among them, the largest holy land is occupied by Manjian Great Saint, who established the Crimson Dragon Sacred Hall."
"Aside from that, only figures at the Saint King level are qualified to be masters of a holy land. Beneath each Saint King are dozens, or even hundreds, of Saints, along with a large number of Half-Saints."
"So, in other holy lands, cultivation resources are quite scarce. Naturally, those Saints and Half-Saints want to come and pledge themselves to our Yuanxu Peak Holy Land."
A holy land, nourished and watered by a sacred vein, had an extremely high concentration of Heaven and Earth Saint Qi. In the soil, sacred springs could form, and sacred medicines, sacred stones, and sacred jade could be nurtured.
These things were cultivation resources that Half-Saints and Saints dreamed of.
Zhang Ruochen nodded thoughtfully. "How many Saint Kings serve under Manjian Great Saint?"
"Fifteen."
Mu Lingxi stuck out her tongue and laughed. "Did that scare you?"
"Not really," Zhang Ruochen said.
Mu Lingxi said, "Even the Moon Worship Demon Sect, the foremost of the seven great ancient sects, only has a few Saint Kings. Are you really not surprised at all?"
"The cultivation environment here is more than ten times better than in the Kunlun Realm. For a Great Saint to have only fifteen Saint Kings under him is actually fewer than I imagined."
Zhang Ruochen stared at Mu Lingxi's delicate, snow-white face. This senior sister, who was a little older than him, always had the appearance of a teenage girl. When she smiled, she was especially beautiful, as if she were the junior sister instead.
A blush appeared on Mu Lingxi's face. "What are you staring at?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "I was thinking about something. On the seventh day of the new year, why did I take so many cultivators to Wuding Mountain to disrupt the wedding? It was so impulsive and childish—it doesn't seem like my style."
"And why was that?"
Mu Lingxi grew a little nervous.
Zhang Ruochen shook his head with a smile and didn't continue. "Lingxi, your talent is very high, and you have a perfected Ice Phoenix Ancient Sacred Body. Your future achievements will certainly be significant. Should I find a powerful master for you?"
Mu Lingxi was very clever and caught the meaning in Zhang Ruochen's words. She immediately said, "Are you trying to send me away? Don't even think about it. Originally, I was supposed to marry Qiuyu, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Root of the Kunlun Realm, and have wind and rain at my command. You were the one who took me away, and now you want to wash your hands of me?"
Zhang Ruochen's expression turned serious. "My enemy is a god. Staying by my side might not lead to a good end. Have you thought this through?"
"No need to think. Anyway, I'm already unmarriageable in this life, so I can only follow you," Mu Lingxi said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "If you're unmarriageable, then probably no woman in the world is marriageable."
"The key isn't whether I'm marriageable or not—it's that no one dares to marry me. What if, on the day of the wedding, you come and take me away again? Who would take that risk?" Mu Lingxi looked as if she was determined to stick with Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen was speechless. "Fine. From now on, you'll cultivate with me. Yuanxu Peak Holy Land will be managed by you, and you can use all the cultivation resources in the holy land as you wish. As for those Saints and Half-Saints who want to pledge themselves, no one knows if they have ulterior motives, so don't bother with them."
After giving these instructions, Zhang Ruochen prepared to go to the Crimson Dragon Sacred Hall to seek advice from Manjian Great Saint on his cultivation doubts. Given his current situation, what exactly did he need to do to break through to the Thorough Heaven Realm?
Yuanxu Peak Holy Land was ten thousand miles away from the Crimson Dragon Sacred Hall.
In the Kunlun Realm, ten thousand miles wasn't far. With Zhang Ruochen's speed, he could cross it in less than half an hour.
If he used the Great Space Teleportation, it would be even faster.
But in the Heavenly Court Realm, it was different. Zhang Ruochen had tested it—with his cultivation, the speed he could achieve was less than one-third the speed of sound.
And his speed was comparable to a Supreme Saint.
The spatial structure of the Heavenly Court Realm was extremely stable. Zhang Ruochen couldn't perform the Great Space Teleportation at all. Even going all out, he could only teleport a few zhang.
In the end, Zhang Ruochen had no choice but to conscript Xiao Hei as his mount to carry him to the Crimson Dragon Sacred Hall.
Outside Yuanxu Peak Holy Land, a large group of Half-Saints and over a dozen Saints had gathered. When they saw Zhang Ruochen sitting on Xiao Hei's back, a loud commotion erupted.
"That must be the master of Yuanxu Peak Holy Land. I didn't expect him to be so young."
"He even has a flying owl sacred beast as a mount. His status must be quite extraordinary."
Hearing the words "owl sacred beast," Xiao Hei's body trembled violently, and he nearly fell from midair. He let out a long screech: "This emperor is an Undying Bird!"
"Whoosh—"
Xiao Hei's body grew larger, flames burst out from him, and an increasingly powerful sacred aura was released.
Instantly, the Half-Saints and Saints below were all intimidated and dared not speak further.
By the time Xiao Hei and Zhang Ruochen had disappeared over the horizon, they began discussing again: "Such a powerful owl sacred beast—could it have reached the Saint King realm?"
"A mount at the Saint King level—the master of Yuanxu Peak Holy Land is definitely no ordinary person. He might even be a descendant of Manjian Great Saint."
...
...
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged on Xiao Hei's back and voiced the doubt in his mind. "Are you an owl? A cat? Or an Undying Bird?"
"Of course, I'm the invincible, undying, immortal Undying Bird! If it weren't for that bald donkey Xumi screwing me over, how could I have ended up like this?" Xiao Hei said indignantly.
Zhang Ruochen said, "What exactly happened?"
Xiao Hei said, "This emperor was originally an Undying Bird, but one hundred thousand years ago, that bald donkey Xumi sealed my physical body in the Yin-Yang Sea and refined my sacred soul into the artifact spirit of the Cosmic Divine Wood Map."
"I don't know if that bald donkey Xumi had some perverse hobby, but he refined the form of the artifact spirit into a cat."
"You have to understand that when an Undying Bird is on the verge of death, it can choose to undergo Nirvana. Nirvana is like crossing a death tribulation—the entire body burns to ashes, and then a new body is condensed. At that moment, whatever form you have in your mind is what the condensed body becomes."
Zhang Ruochen said, "So, at that time, what you had in mind was half an Undying Bird body and half a cat body?"
"Of course not."
Xiao Hei added, "This emperor wanted to condense the most domineering Undying Bird body possible. But at the critical final moment, I couldn't control my thoughts, and I ended up in this neither-bird-nor-cat state."
"It's all that old bald donkey Xumi's fault for making me a cat for one hundred thousand years. Otherwise, how could I have condensed a cat head at that critical moment?"
Zhang Ruochen chuckled. "And what about that immense sacred aura inside you? When you release it, it's even more powerful than the sacred might of an ordinary Great Saint."
"This emperor was originally very powerful—capable of slaughtering heaven and earth, omnipotent," Xiao Hei said.
Zhang Ruochen smiled. "Really? How about we fight? If you lose, you'll be my mount forever?"
Xiao Hei felt a bit guilty and didn't dare to fight Zhang Ruochen. "Fine, I'll tell you the truth. It's because this emperor was struck by the Divine Dragon Sun-Moon Chaos Tower, and a residual force from that divine artifact remains inside me. Even after Nirvana, I can't dissolve that residual divine artifact force. The power inside me is now very chaotic, which is why I can't unleash my full combat strength."
"Once this emperor refines that residual divine artifact force, gains control over the power inside me, and returns to my peak state, I'll be able to kill hundreds of Great Saints like Manjian Great Saint in an instant."
Zhang Ruochen's heart stirred. "Who is that golden-haired man with dragon horns in the Yin-Yang Sea?"
Xiao Hei lowered his voice. "That's a taboo figure. Anyway, we can't afford to provoke him. Back then, he didn't want to kill, which is why this emperor managed to escape. Otherwise, anyone who goes to the Yin-Yang Sea would face certain death."
"Anyone?" Zhang Ruochen said.
"Absolutely anyone."
Xiao Hei added, "This emperor remembers that old bald donkey Xumi once mentioned that one hundred thousand years ago, the Kunlun Realm ranked in the top ten on the 'Myriad Realms Merit List.' It was filled with gods and deities, countless times more powerful than the current Guanghan Realm."
"Of course, this emperor didn't know about the Heavenly Court Realm back then. It's only now that I understand the significance of the 'Myriad Realms Merit List.'"
Zhang Ruochen was also somewhat shocked. "One hundred thousand years ago, the Kunlun Realm was ranked in the top ten of the myriad realms? Just how powerful must it have been?"
Xiao Hei said, "That's why the Kunlun Realm is far more terrifying than you imagine. It has left behind many taboo things and taboo places. The Yin-Yang Sea is one of them."
Half a day later, Zhang Ruochen and Xiao Hei arrived at the Crimson Dragon Sacred Hall.