Chapter 1428: First Encounter with Rakshasa
About a thousand miles above the ground, there was a layer of world light barrier. As Zhang Ruochen passed through it, a loud explosion rang out from his chest.
"Boom."
An invisible force tore apart the Saint Talisman that Yan Liren had given Zhang Ruochen.
"As expected, it's impossible to carry a treasure like a Saint Talisman into the Merit Battlefield."
Zhang Ruochen didn't feel too regretful, after all, that Saint Talisman was already tattered and worn, and could probably only be used once or twice more.
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen had been constantly observing Mu Lingxi's direction.
The distance between him and Mu Lingxi was continuously widening, already exceeding one hundred thousand miles. Even using his spiritual power, he couldn't detect her location.
He could only roughly determine that Mu Lingxi was to his southeast, and that both of them had fallen into the Southern World of Zuling Realm.
The Saints of the Seven Realms of Shatuo had just passed through the world light barrier when they were attacked from the ground.
"Rip."
A bolt of purple lightning, as thick as a water bucket, shot out from a towering mountain, flew into the high sky, and struck a Saint, blasting him into pieces.
A Rakshasa man, nearly three meters tall, hurled a golden spear carrying an evil force. It flew eight hundred miles into the sky and pierced through a Saint's body.
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Before they had even set foot in the Merit Battlefield, a bloody battle had already erupted. Many Saints were caught off guard and killed.
Zhang Ruochen was also attacked. A Rakshasa cultivator threw a stone mountain over a hundred meters high, hurling it towards him.
Zhang Ruochen opened his eyes, and from his pupils shot two beams of light, striking the stone mountain.
"Boom."
The stone mountain exploded, shattering into pieces of rubble that fell to the ground.
"So powerful! He can shatter a stone mountain just with the light from his eyes."
On the ground, there were a total of twelve Rakshasa cultivators. They realized Zhang Ruochen was a formidable figure they couldn't handle, and immediately tried to flee.
"Boom."
Zhang Ruochen landed on the ground, creating a massive crater dozens of zhang wide.
That crater happened to block the path of the twelve Rakshasa cultivators.
"One Saint, eleven Half-Saints. Not bad." Zhang Ruochen swept his gaze over them and nodded lightly.
The twelve Rakshasa cultivators were all male, and as recorded in the books, they were all extremely ugly.
The Rakshasa who had reached the Saint realm had a pair of bone wings on his back. His eyes were bigger than Xiao Hei's, but his nose was very sunken, like a gorilla's nose, revealing a mouthful of uneven buckteeth. He roared, "Kill him."
The eleven Half-Saints acted simultaneously, grabbing heavy war weapons and attacking Zhang Ruochen.
The Saint-realm Rakshasa spread his bone wings and flew rapidly backward, trying to escape.
"Whoosh."
Zhang Ruochen exhaled a breath from his mouth, which turned into a storm. Hundreds of wind blades flew out with the storm, instantly tearing the eleven Rakshasa Half-Saints into pieces.
"A mid-level Saint wants to escape from right under my nose."
With a thought from Zhang Ruochen, the Abyssal Ancient Sword flew out.
"Master, let me handle it."
Shi Shenghua's voice sounded from within Zhang Ruochen's body.
A vine shot out from Zhang Ruochen's back, lashing towards that Rakshasa Saint. With just one strike, it shattered his body into two halves, and his Saint Soul was also shattered.
Then, Shi Shenghua coiled around the Rakshasa Saint's corpse, dragged it back, and with a bang, threw it heavily in front of Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen took out a precious bottle, extracted a drop of blood from each of the twelve corpses, and put them into the bottle.
"A Half-Saint's merit points range from ten to one thousand."
"A Saint's merit points range from one thousand to one hundred thousand."
"That means the weakest lower-level Saint is worth one thousand merit points. The most powerful Ultimate Saint is worth one hundred thousand merit points. I estimate that only an Ultimate Saint who can contend with a Half-Step Saint King would have one hundred thousand merit points. An ordinary Ultimate Saint is probably only worth a few tens of thousands of merit points."
"To collect merit points quickly, I still need to kill high-realm Rakshasa."
Zhang Ruochen observed the surrounding environment. It was a primeval forest, with a human tribe nearby.
Shi Shenghua was absorbing the twelve Rakshasa cultivators as nutrients.
Zhang Ruochen walked into the tribe. All the humans had been killed—or rather, eaten. The ground was covered in white human bones.
On the altar of the tribe, a large cauldron was set up, boiling over a dozen women and children. The flesh had been cooked to a pulp, and the smell of meat wafted out.
The scenes before him made Zhang Ruochen's scalp tingle. He let out a deep roar: "All of you, get the hell out here."
A wave of sound surged in all directions, shattering rocks and turning plants into ash.
The Rakshasa hidden underground were all blasted out.
There were over thirty Rakshasa cultivators in total, some at the Half-Saint realm, some at the Fish-Dragon realm. Among them were Rakshasa women, all of them exceptionally beautiful, with petite figures, fair skin, and eyes that were particularly captivating.
The most beautiful Rakshasa woman, who had reached the Ninth-Level Half-Saint realm, used an illusion technique and walked towards Zhang Ruochen. Her clothes slid off her body, revealing a seductive and alluring figure.
"Such a low-level illusion technique, and you dare show off in front of me."
Zhang Ruochen threw a punch, blasting the Rakshasa woman's head apart.
Then, Zhang Ruochen thrust the Abyssal Ancient Sword into the ground. Dense sword qi automatically flew out from the sword body, piercing through the bodies of those Rakshasa cultivators.
In moments, only a pile of corpses remained on the ground.
After collecting their blood, Zhang Ruochen handed the corpses to Shi Shenghua to absorb.
Looking at the shocking scenes before him, Zhang Ruochen found it hard to calm his emotions. He activated the power of the Five Elements Chaos Body and mobilized the earth's power.
"Rumble."
A large amount of mud and stone surged up from the ground, burying the entire tribe.
Zhang Ruochen spent some time refining all the war weapons of those Rakshasa cultivators into the Abyssal Ancient Sword. Just as he stood up, he noticed specks of light flying over from the horizon.
"Whoosh."
A series of five Message Light Talismans flew into Zhang Ruochen's hands, from Mu Lingxi, Wu Hao, Su Qingling, Bu Ji, and Han Qiu.
They were all asking about Zhang Ruochen's location, wanting to meet up with him.
"First, help Lingxi find the Phoenix Nest and obtain the Ice Fire Phoenix's inheritance." Zhang Ruochen made this decision.
Except for Mu Lingxi's Message Light Talisman, Zhang Ruochen crushed the others, turning them into jade powder that scattered on the ground.
Mu Lingxi told Zhang Ruochen that she was now in the Giant Whale River Basin of the Southern World.
Zhang Ruochen first roughly estimated his own position, then took out a map and quickly found the location of the Giant Whale River Basin on it.
"Four hundred and thirty thousand miles apart? That far?"
Zhang Ruochen took out a Message Light Talisman, engraved a line of text on it: "Stay in the Giant Whale River Basin, find a safe area to hide, and wait for me."
Then, he infused a wisp of Mu Lingxi's Saint Dao aura into the Message Light Talisman and sent it out.
"Shi Shenghua." Zhang Ruochen called out.
Shi Shenghua transformed into a green vine over ten zhang long and appeared beside Zhang Ruochen. At the top of the vine, the flower was in full bloom, exceptionally magnificent. A beautiful and moving figure stood in the center of the flower, and she said in a soft, sweet voice, "Master, what are your orders?"
Zhang Ruochen tossed the storage bag to her and said, "Inside the bag are a map of Zuling Realm and two precious bottles. Follow the map and take me to the Giant Whale River Basin."
"On the way, when you kill Rakshasa cultivators, collect a drop of their blood or a wisp of their remnant soul and put them into the bottles."
"Put the war weapons and treasures from the Rakshasa cultivators into the storage bag. Understood?"
"Master, what about you?" Shi Shenghua asked.
"I'm going to focus all my efforts on refining the Condensed True Sacred Dew and breaking through to the True Saint realm."
After giving his orders, Zhang Ruochen entered the inner space of the Time-Space Crystal and began to cultivate.
With Shi Shenghua's current cultivation, even facing an ordinary True Saint, she could put up a fight, so Zhang Ruochen was quite reassured about her.
If they really encountered an opponent she couldn't handle, Zhang Ruochen would naturally step in himself.
Just as the Saint Merit Battle began, in other battlefields, the Saint King Merit Battle, Great Saint Merit Battle, and Divine Merit Battle also commenced.
Of course, the entire Heavenly Court was most focused on the Saint Merit Battle. After all, the top Saint Kings and Great Saints of the Seven Realms of Shatuo were well-known, and detailed information about their strength was available.
Only the Saint Merit Battle had rarely been paid attention to before. It was possible that some remarkable prodigies might emerge, possessing the strength of a young Great Saint, or even a young god.
In particular, the worlds ranked eighth from the bottom, ninth from the bottom, and tenth from the bottom in the Western Universe were most concerned about the "Seven Realms Merit Battle," because they felt a great sense of crisis.
If their rankings in the Western Universe couldn't climb higher, they too would have to participate in such a brutal Merit Battle in the future, determining the life or death of their mother world.
The world ranked eighth from the bottom in the Western Universe was called Yushan Realm.
The major powers of Yushan Realm were all watching the battlefield projections of the Saint Merit Battle.
A Saint Shadow, over two thousand zhang tall, appeared on the ground and said, "Everyone, focus on the Saint-level geniuses of Kunlun Realm and Guanghan Realm. Record their names in the books. These two realms are most likely to be chosen as the next battlefield. At that time, our Yushan Realm can secretly contact those geniuses and get them to join Yushan Realm, strengthening our power."
"Joining Yushan Realm is better than staying in a world destined for destruction. They certainly won't refuse."
In Yuanze Insect Realm, ranked ninth from the bottom, and Wancheng Realm, ranked tenth from the bottom, Great Saint-level figures also appeared, issuing the same orders to the major powers.
In the Heavenly Court, the lower the ranking on the *Myriad Realms Merit Ranking*, the stronger the sense of crisis, and the more they wanted to absorb geniuses from other major worlds.
Back when Zuling Realm was chosen as the battlefield, many Saints, Saint Kings, and even Great Saints defected to other major worlds.
Of course, except for exceptionally talented geniuses, those who defected to other worlds had very low status, suffered much discrimination, and were looked down upon wherever they went. The only benefit was being able to save their own lives.
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