Chapter 1431: Killing a Third-Class Marquis
The Azure Sky Bow and White Sun Arrow were the clan-suppressing war artifacts of the Azure Sky Tribe. The more powerful a cultivator's cultivation was, the greater the power they could unleash.
At the very least, with Zhang Ruochen's current cultivation, he was still unable to unleash their full limit.
After the White Sun Arrow flew back, Zhang Ruochen immediately shot a second arrow, still at sixty times the speed of sound.
"Bang, bang."
Shooting eight arrows in a row, he killed eight Rakshasa Marquises.
There were over two hundred Rakshasa Marquises besieging the saints of the Blade Prison Realm.
Further away, there were also powerful sacred aura presences, using spiritual power to mobilize the world's spiritual energy and unleashing sacred techniques, which continuously fell into the camp of the Blade Prison Realm saints.
Those saints of the Blade Prison Realm had already been in despair, thinking they would be completely annihilated today, but they never expected that an expert archer was hiding in the shadows, helping them kill enemies. Instantly, new hope arose in their hearts, and they continued to resist desperately.
Among the Rakshasa saints, there were two Third-Class Marquises. One of them had a lion-like face, with a head of silver hair and a sturdy body, like a silver-haired man-lion.
Seeing that eight Marquises had been shot and killed in a row, the silver-haired man-lion let out a furious roar and said, "Ni Yue, first destroy that archer hiding in the shadows."
Moments later, above Zhang Ruochen's head, a thundercloud five hundred miles in diameter condensed. Electric dragons shuttled through the clouds, then struck down towards Zhang Ruochen's head.
"What a formidable lightning-element spiritual power saint, even able to perform a sacred technique like lightning transforming into a dragon."
Zhang Ruochen himself was a lightning-element spiritual power saint, so he was very clear about how terrifying the "lightning transforming into a dragon" technique was. Therefore, he did not directly clash with the electric dragons descending from the sky.
Just as the electric dragons fell, Zhang Ruochen executed the Great Space Teleportation and disappeared from the spot.
"Boom, rumble."
A dozen or so electric dragons struck the ground, instantly turning the land within five hundred miles into scorched earth, covered by thick smoke, with all life energy completely gone.
This level of attack was comparable to the full-force strike of a Supreme Saint.
A thousand miles away.
On a plain covered with purple grass, stood a tall, purple-haired Rakshasa woman. She was the Rakshasa Third-Class Marquis, Ni Yue, with a spiritual power intensity already reaching the fifty-fourth rank.
Not far from Third-Class Marquis Ni Yue, there were dozens of other Rakshasa women, all exceptionally beautiful, each holding a sacred staff in their hands.
One of the Rakshasa women, who looked about thirty years old, said, "The archer's aura has disappeared; he should be dead."
"Not good..."
Third-Class Marquis Ni Yue's expression changed.
Her spiritual power was strong, and she sensed a faint spatial fluctuation. She quickly swung her sacred staff, sending an electric dragon striking towards the area above the head of the Rakshasa woman who had just spoken.
"Whoosh—"
Zhang Ruochen, wearing the Ten Saint Blood Armor, with a bow and arrows on his back and holding the Abyssal Ancient Sword, emerged from a series of spatial ripples like a blood-red god of death. He swung his sword in a slash, colliding with the electric dragon as thick as a bowl.
With a loud crash, the electric dragon shattered into over a hundred bolts of lightning, filling the space.
The Rakshasa woman closest to him could not withstand such a powerful impact. Her flesh was charred black by the lightning. Although she remained standing, she had turned into a piece of charcoal like a tree stump.
Zhang Ruochen stomped on the charcoal, crushing it, and swung his sword towards another Rakshasa woman.
"Not good, this person's cultivation is quite formidable. Everyone attack together, go all out to suppress and kill him," Third-Class Marquis Ni Yue shouted sharply.
All the Rakshasa women gathered here were spiritual power saints and Rakshasa Marquises, each possessing considerable strength.
However, spiritual power saints were not adept at close combat. Once someone like Zhang Ruochen, a top-tier martial artist, got close, they could only be slaughtered.
Zhang Ruochen executed his fastest movement technique, turning into dozens of afterimages.
In the span of a single breath, those afterimages overlapped again, coalescing into Zhang Ruochen's body.
"Bang, bang."
The dozens of Rakshasa women present all fell to the ground. Some had their sacred hearts pierced, while others had their bodies directly explode.
Spiritual power saints only had a sacred heart, not a sacred source.
The sacred heart was the source of power and life for a spiritual power saint.
At this moment, only Third-Class Marquis Ni Yue was still alive, but a shallow bloody mark had been left on her seductive and enchanting face.
"To be able to block one of my strikes and not die, you truly live up to being a fifty-fourth-rank lightning-element spiritual power saint. Your strength is comparable to a martial saint at the mid-stage Supreme Saint level," Zhang Ruochen said.
Ni Yue looked at the human man standing opposite her, like a god of death, with a look of terror in her eyes.
"Wind and Lightning Swift Escape."
Ni Yue released all her spiritual power, executing a lightning-element escape sacred technique, trying to flee this place as quickly as possible.
"Whoosh."
Her body directly transformed into a bolt of lightning and disappeared from the spot.
"You can't escape."
Zhang Ruochen was faster, chasing into the sky and appearing beside the bolt of lightning. He swung his sword, and a large amount of blood splattered.
The next moment...
The lightning disappeared, and Third-Class Marquis Ni Yue's body was cut in half at the waist, falling towards the ground.
Zhang Ruochen waved his arm, also mobilizing his spiritual power, and sent two bolts of lightning striking her mutilated corpse, charring both halves black.
However, Zhang Ruochen still underestimated the power of a fifty-fourth-rank spiritual power saint. From the head of Third-Class Marquis Ni Yue, a powerful sacred soul rushed out.
The sacred soul let out a sharp shout: "I am a Third-Class Marquis; do you think you can destroy my soul so easily?"
That sacred soul, in an instant, absorbed all the world's spiritual energy within a thousand miles, condensing it into an enormous lightning domain.
This entire area was completely covered by lightning, with probably hundreds of thousands of electric flashes flickering.
All those electric flashes surged towards Zhang Ruochen.
"The sacred soul of a fifty-fourth-rank spiritual power saint is actually this powerful."
Standing in the lightning domain, Zhang Ruochen was somewhat surprised, but showed no fear. He grabbed the Abyssal Ancient Sword and raised it above his head.
Immediately, ten thousand inscriptions on the sword blade emerged.
Terrifying sword qi formed a pillar of light, shooting from the ground all the way to the sky.
Then, Zhang Ruochen slashed down with his sword, tearing apart Ni Yue's lightning domain and blasting her sacred soul into nothingness.
"Boom."
Struck by the sword qi, a long sword path split open on the ground, like an endless canyon. The canyon was filled with sharp sword qi.
That sword qi would probably persist for several years without completely dissipating.
The sword intent was undying, so the sword qi would not disperse.
Such was the power of Zhang Ruochen's sword dao will.
This was Zhang Ruochen's current strength. A single sword strike could create a forbidden zone. At the very least, cultivators below the Half-Saint level would not dare to step into that sword qi canyon for three years.
Zhang Ruochen looked at the Abyssal Ancient Sword in his hand and said, "By unleashing half-perfected power, I can kill a mid-stage Supreme Saint level expert. If I unleash perfected power, just how strong would it be?"
Clearly, a Third-Class Marquis had not allowed Zhang Ruochen to test the Abyssal Ancient Sword's maximum power.
After collecting a wisp of sacred soul from each of those Rakshasa women, Zhang Ruochen summoned the Devouring Saint Flower again.
For the Devouring Saint Flower, the corpses of these Rakshasa women and the residual souls scattered in the air were the best nutrients. After absorbing the corpses and residual souls of dozens of spiritual power saints, just how much would the Devouring Saint Flower grow?
Zhang Ruochen released his spiritual power, probing the battlefield thousands of miles away, and found that only a little over seventy saints from the Blade Prison Realm remained.
To cover the escape of other saints, some Blade Prison Realm saints even began self-destructing their sacred sources, launching suicide attacks.
"Kill! Let the slaughter be even more brutal."
Zhang Ruochen had heard from Su Qingling that the Blade Prison Realm loved to stab people in the back. To win the merit war, they would use any means necessary.
There was nothing wrong with that, after all, they were fighting for their home world.
Zhang Ruochen had thought it through very clearly. To let the Guanghan Realm win first place in the Saint Merit War, he too had to be ruthless and use any means necessary.
Sometimes, only by being ruthless could one accomplish great things.
Now, the responsibility on Zhang Ruochen's shoulders was too heavy. It was the lives of billions of living beings in a great world. For them to survive, sometimes, even if it meant killing ten million innocent lives, it had to be done.
Even if Zhang Ruochen had no feelings for the beings of the Guanghan Realm and was too lazy to save them, their lives were now tied to him. If the Guanghan Realm were to become a battlefield in the future, watching the living turn into the dead, watching a vibrant great world become desolate, watching the ground covered with corpses and bones, watching the elderly and children crying in pools of blood...
At that time, Zhang Ruochen feared he would regret it, regret that he might have been able to save them but did not give it his all.
Now, Zhang Ruochen would not jump out and go all out to help the Blade Prison Realm fight against the Rakshasa saints. Instead, he took out the Azure Sky Bow and White Sun Arrow and continued his long-range attacks.
This way, he could both weaken the Rakshasa clan and give the Blade Prison Realm saints a glimmer of hope, making them fight even more fiercely against the Rakshasa saints.
Earlier, Zhang Ruochen's process of killing dozens of Rakshasa women was also observed by cultivators from the Heavenly Court Realm, Kunlun Realm, Guanghan Realm, and Blade Prison Realm.
After all, with hundreds of saints from the Blade Prison Realm and Rakshasa clan locked in a great battle, it was hard not to attract attention.
Many cultivators were closely watching that battlefield through battlefield projections.
"Another formidable figure has appeared, wearing the Ten Saint Blood Armor, killing dozens of Rakshasa spiritual power saints in an instant. Even a Third-Class Marquis was killed with a single sword strike."
"Continue tracking and observing, find out his identity."
In the Kunlun Realm, some cultivators recognized Zhang Ruochen and said, "I noticed him earlier. He was driving the Nine Dragon Chariot; it must be Zhang Ruochen. Unfortunately, Zhang Ruochen has already left the Kunlun Realm and joined the Guanghan Realm."
"The Blade Prison Realm and the Purple Mansion Realm have been targeting the Kunlun Realm on the merit battlefield, killing many Kunlun Realm saints. How can Zhang Ruochen help them? He should let all the Blade Prison Realm saints be killed by the Rakshasa clan."
"Zhang Ruochen's hatred for the Kunlun Realm is too strong. It seems on the merit battlefield, he won't lend a hand to the Kunlun Realm."
The cultivators of the Blade Prison Realm were all excited and said, "This person's strength is actually this formidable. With his help, Six-Armed Supreme Saint and Snow Ji True Saint might be able to escape the siege of the Rakshasa saints."
...
(Today's update is a bit late. There will be another chapter tonight.)
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