Chapter 1453: Spiritual Power Dual Cultivation
For three full days, Zhang Ruochen and the Rakshasa Princess explored every corner of the white space, using every method they could think of, yet they found no flaw in the space.
"Could it be that this space was created by a Space Controller?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
The Rakshasa Princess rested her finger beneath her pointed chin, biting her lip in thought. "Not necessarily. Perhaps the person's spiritual power is so strong that it's clouding our perception."
Zhang Ruochen had never encountered such a predicament. He felt like a prisoner locked away, with no path to the heavens above and no door into the earth below.
"Two space cultivators, trapped to death inside a single space—is there anything more ridiculous than this?" The Rakshasa Princess was surprisingly optimistic, able to flash a beautiful smile even at a time like this.
"I don't find it funny at all."
Zhang Ruochen was very serious. He closed his eyes and immersed his spiritual power into the interior of his Space Sacred Image, then released the Space Sacred Image to conduct an investigation.
The Rakshasa Princess couldn't see the Space Sacred Image, but she was highly sensitive to spatial fluctuations and could perceive an extremely peculiar energy flying out from Zhang Ruochen's body, causing the space to twist into a vortex.
"Could this guy be a Space Controller too?" The Rakshasa Princess found it hard to believe.
Space cultivators were already rare, and Space Controllers among them were one in ten thousand. How could she encounter one so easily?
Moreover, she knew that Zhang Ruochen could also wield the power of time.
An hour later, Zhang Ruochen withdrew his Space Sacred Image and spiritual power, his brow furrowing even deeper. "I'm out of ideas. What about you? Do you have any other methods?"
The Rakshasa Princess stared at him with a strange look and countered, "You've cultivated a Space Sacred Image—are you a Space Controller?"
"Is that question important?"
"Of course it is."
Zhang Ruochen saw no reason to hide it and admitted directly, "Yes, I am a Space Controller."
A hint of joy appeared in the Rakshasa Princess's eyes. "In that case, this Prin... consort actually has one idea. Maybe we can give it a try?"
"What idea?"
"If we combine our Space Sacred Images and spiritual powers to examine the spatial inscriptions in this realm, we might discover something," the Rakshasa Princess said.
Zhang Ruochen had already guessed that the Rakshasa Princess was a Space Controller; otherwise, at her age, she couldn't have achieved such mastery over space. So he wasn't surprised.
"Can two people's Sacred Images and spiritual powers be combined?" Zhang Ruochen asked, puzzled.
"When two people combine, it's called dual cultivation. When two people's Sacred Images and spiritual powers combine, it's called spiritual power dual cultivation." The Rakshasa Princess spoke bluntly, without any hesitation.
"The secret arts of your Great Demon Ten Directions Realm are truly sinister and strange."
Zhang Ruochen wasn't embarrassed, but he had no intention of engaging in spiritual power dual cultivation with the Rakshasa Princess.
Even if it was only spiritual power dual cultivation, it would inevitably create karmic ties. Zhang Ruochen didn't want to become too deeply entangled with a woman of unknown origin.
Furthermore, if the Rakshasa Princess really was the Flame Spirit Demon Consort, and she engaged in spiritual power dual cultivation with him, when she returned to the side of that Demon Emperor of the Great Demon Ten Directions Realm, wouldn't that Demon Emperor sense what had happened?
Needlessly provoking a Demon Emperor-level enemy was not a wise move.
In truth, Zhang Ruochen still had one trump card up his sleeve—the divine weapon bestowed by the Moon God. If he could draw out the power of a god, it might be able to break this white space.
But the divine weapon could only be used once. Using it here felt like a terrible waste to Zhang Ruochen.
What would he do if he encountered a Saint King-level enemy in the future?
The Rakshasa Princess blinked her eyes, a seductive look in them. "Think about it. My spiritual power is stronger than yours. You won't lose anything by dual cultivating with me. Opportunities like this are rare, you know!"
"Are you this enthusiastic with every man?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
The Rakshasa Princess wasn't angered. "How could that be? There aren't many men in this world who can earn a second glance from me. First, we're both Space Controllers—that's fate. Second, you took off my Ten Thousand Saints Plain Garment—you're the one destined for me. Third, the outcome of the Merit Battle is crucial. If we're trapped here, aren't we just handing the victory to the other realms?"
Zhang Ruochen's expression grew serious. He had promised the Moon God that he would win first place in the Saint Merit Battle, so he absolutely couldn't be trapped here.
With that thought, he took a sacred sword from his Space Ring and gripped it in his hand.
The so-called divine weapon was this sword.
"What a strange sword."
The Rakshasa Princess turned into a fragrant breeze, appearing beside Zhang Ruochen. She used a bizarre spatial technique, reaching into the void.
In the next instant, the sacred sword appeared in her hand.
"There's such a massive power contained within this sword—it doesn't feel like sacred power," the Rakshasa Princess muttered to herself.
"Give it back," Zhang Ruochen said in a low voice.
The Rakshasa Princess toyed with the sacred sword and laughed. "Isn't it just a divine weapon blessed by a god? The divine power a weapon can hold is quite limited. It might work against an ordinary Saint King, but do you think it can break this space?"
Zhang Ruochen didn't want to argue with her. He reached out with both hands, using Space Distortion to snatch the sacred sword back from the Rakshasa Princess's hand.
Just then, a cunning glint flashed in the Rakshasa Princess's eyes. She lunged forward quickly, her two snow-white jade arms reaching out to grab Zhang Ruochen's hands.
Immediately, an immensely powerful spiritual force surged from her body, transmitting through her hands into Zhang Ruochen.
The Rakshasa Princess's spiritual power was terrifyingly strong. In an instant, it shattered Zhang Ruochen's spiritual defenses, forcing his Spiritual Power Sacred Image to fly out from his body.
Zhang Ruochen's Spiritual Power Sacred Image was the Thunder God Venerable, bearing an identical appearance to his true body.
The Rakshasa Princess's Spiritual Power Sacred Image was a Blazing Flame Goddess. She also manifested it and, with an overwhelmingly dominant posture, pounced forward, entwining with the Thunder God Venerable.
Zhang Ruochen tried to break free from the Rakshasa Princess's spiritual suppression, but he found that her spiritual power far exceeded his.
That level of spiritual power wasn't at the Saint level—it was at the Saint King level.
The Rakshasa Princess's spiritual power cultivation was even higher than her martial arts cultivation.
The Rakshasa Princess stared at Zhang Ruochen from close range, a seductive smile appearing in her eyes beneath the green feather mask. "Ever since I was little, anything I wanted, I've always gotten."
"A woman like you has suffered too few setbacks. One day, you'll pay the price for this kind of personality."
Zhang Ruochen stopped resisting. Since things had already reached this point, he had no choice but to combine their spiritual powers first and find a way to escape this white space.
Spiritual power dual cultivation was extremely peculiar. Although only their Spiritual Power Sacred Images were merging, their true bodies also experienced an intense tactile sensation.
That sensation was even stronger than if their true bodies had merged.
In truth, this was also the first time the Rakshasa Princess had used the technique of spiritual power dual cultivation with anyone. She had two reasons for doing so.
First, she genuinely wanted to combine their spiritual powers and Space Sacred Images to find a way out.
Second, she had taken a liking to Zhang Ruochen's immense potential, especially his identity as a Space Controller, and wanted to bring him under her command.
But a proud son of heaven like Zhang Ruochen would never submit to anyone. Directly subduing him was clearly impossible, so she had to resort to some special methods.
The Rakshasa Princess was extremely confident in herself, but she underestimated the impact of spiritual power dual cultivation on her own spiritual will.
On the surface, it was just their spiritual powers engaging in dual cultivation and union, but seeing the scene before her eyes, accompanied by the vivid sensations in her body, caused her delicate form to tremble slightly. A flush of red appeared on her face, and her breathing became erratic.
Clearly, in her current state, she was no longer able to search for flaws in the white space.
If not for her willpower being strong enough and her control over her actions being firm, she might have already moaned aloud.
Zhang Ruochen, on the other hand, remained remarkably calm. He took a deep breath, suppressed that strange feeling, closed his eyes, and released his Space Sacred Image, merging it with the Rakshasa Princess's Space Sacred Image.
"Boom."
The two Space Sacred Images, like two vortexes, combined into one, their power increasing tenfold as they flew outward.
Wherever the vortex passed, spatial inscriptions were shaken into visibility.
Zhang Ruochen controlled their combined spiritual power, following the vortex step by step as he investigated.
About three hours later, Zhang Ruochen detected an extremely faint spatial node. His eyes snapped open. "Found it!"
By now, the Rakshasa Princess had long lost her earlier dominance. Her eyes were hazy, her long, slender legs trembling uncontrollably. Her delicate body felt weak, and she was nearly collapsing against Zhang Ruochen.
Her spiritual power could no longer suppress him.
Zhang Ruochen withdrew the Thunder God Venerable and his Space Sacred Image into his body, then transformed into a streak of light, flying toward that spatial node. He pointed a finger.
"Break!"
The technique of Space Shattering was unleashed, striking precisely at the location of the spatial node.
"Boom."
The entire white space shook violently, then rapidly collapsed, shattering into fragments of space.
Not only did the white space collapse, but the black space also crumbled along with it, shrinking continuously. In the end, on that canyon of the Ancient Saint Mountain, only a round jade stone with a diameter of thirty-three zhang remained.
The jade stone was circular, half black and half white, like a Taiji formation diagram, embedded in the canyon and connected to the Ancient Saint Mountain as one entity.
Besides Zhang Ruochen and the Rakshasa Princess, Mu Lingxi, Su Qingling, and the others were also standing on the jade stone, looking utterly bewildered, having no idea what had just happened.
Why had that black space suddenly disappeared?
Zhang Ruochen observed carefully and found that the "spatial node" was precisely at the center of the circular jade stone, at the intersection of black and white.
He studied the spatial inscriptions on the jade stone seriously and sighed, "Such a brilliant spatial formation, laid out on a single jade stone, creating one space of life and one of death. And it's not just a spatial formation—there are other formations that absorb the mysterious power of the Ancient Saint Mountain, continuously transforming it into Condensed True Sacred Dew..."
"How can I understand such profound formation inscriptions so easily... Could it be..."
Zhang Ruochen quickly withdrew his focus and examined his own spiritual power level. He found that his spiritual power had indeed broken through to the fifty-fourth rank, entering a new realm.
He realized what had happened and slowly turned around, fixing his gaze on the Rakshasa Princess.