# Chapter 1524: Blazing Fire Copper City and God-Defying Stele
Facing such tremendous pressure, Qiu Yu's skin became woody, emitting a reddish-golden light, with a faint aura of Great Saint power surging forth, merging into the Fire God Fist Gloves and Fire God Arm Guards on his arms.
"Whoosh—"
Two massive flame hands, like fiery clouds, manifested above Qiu Yu's head.
At that moment, the hand seal formed by the Immovable Wisdom King Body also struck downward.
The two flame hands Qiu Yu had condensed could not withstand that power, emitting shattering sounds as they broke apart into flaming fragments, scattering in all directions.
"Boom."
Qiu Yu's body directly took the full force of the Immovable Wisdom King Body's strike, being driven deep into the ground. The surrounding earth sank downward, and even space itself developed numerous cracks.
Clearly, after the collapse of the ninety-nine sacred mountains, the already fragile space of Ancestral Spirit Realm could no longer withstand such powerful forces.
If battles of this intensity continued, it might truly cause heaven and earth to shatter.
"Zhang Ruochen, I have already merged with Patriarch Qiao's Great Saint Tree Body. My body is indestructible—you cannot kill me."
From the bottom of that collapsed land, Qiu Yu's voice emerged. Then leaves, branches, and tree trunks burst forth from the ground, growing increasingly massive, piercing through the clouds as if extending into the cosmos.
Phoenix Tree, the Fire Spiritual Root.
The colossal sacred tree, when viewed from afar, resembled a mountain standing between heaven and earth, burning with raging flames. Those flames possessed power no less than the Purifying Divine Flame at the Lower Annihilation level.
The Rakshasa Marquises present, along with A Le, White Li Princess, and Han Qiu, led the Holy Bright Central Empire's saints in retreating far away, afraid of being drawn into the battle circle.
Because Zhang Ruochen and Qiu Yu's battle had already surpassed the Saint level, even exceeding the One-Step Saint King level. Once a full-scale battle erupted, the already damaged Ancestral Spirit Realm could not withstand that power and might shatter into pieces.
"Kill."
The flame-wrapped sacred tree swung its branches, attacking the Immovable Wisdom King Body.
With the empowerment of Great Saint power, the sacred tree managed to suppress Zhang Ruochen temporarily. However, Zhang Ruochen soon regained the initiative, using spatial collapse techniques to inflict considerable damage on the sacred tree.
The more fragile the space, the more powerful Zhang Ruochen's abilities became.
This was the advantage of terrain.
In the end, Zhang Ruochen withdrew the Immovable Wisdom King Body back into himself, mobilized the power of the Qiankun Realm, and pointed a finger toward the sacred tree's trunk. A space rift over a hundred miles long appeared.
The entire Ancestral Spirit Realm seemed about to be torn in two.
"Damn it. In Ancestral Spirit Realm, Zhang Ruochen's spatial power increases infinitely. Even with my Great Saint-level body, I might be thrown into the Void Space by him," Qiu Yu thought, feeling quite envious.
Mastering any Eternal Path was a cultivator's greatest treasure, something even gods would envy.
Previously, Qiu Yu had been called "Divine Body" only because he was a revived remnant root of the Phoenix Divine Tree, containing a wisp of innate divine qi within him, with the potential to grow into a divine tree.
But his current body was a genuine Great Saint body. For a being who had not yet become a Great Saint to kill him was no easy task.
Yet Zhang Ruochen's spatial power could threaten him, possibly even kill him—this was the terror of the Eternal Path.
"Let me help you."
Ji Hua once again struck her sacred staff into the ground between Zhang Ruochen and Qiu Yu, attempting to use the staff's power to stabilize space and limit Zhang Ruochen's attack power.
Unfortunately, Ji Hua did not realize that the reason she had been able to stabilize space earlier was that the ninety-nine sacred mountains had not collapsed, making the spatial structure of that area inherently stable.
Moreover, Zhang Ruochen had now mobilized the power of the Qiankun Realm. Even if she could make space more stable with her spiritual power, she could not suppress Zhang Ruochen.
Facing the space rift Zhang Ruochen had created, the sacred staff began to tremble violently.
"Not good..."
Ji Hua's expression changed dramatically.
The space rift, over a hundred miles long, did not close but instead swallowed the sacred staff into the Void Space.
"My... Xianqing Sacred Staff..."
Ji Hua nearly vomited blood from rage. The Xianqing Sacred Staff was an extremely powerful treasure that could enhance the power of sacred techniques and allow her to inscribe high-level formation inscriptions more quickly.
Losing the Xianqing Sacred Staff would significantly reduce her strength.
It would take many years of accumulating wealth to forge another treasure like the Xianqing Sacred Staff. How could Ji Hua not be heartbroken?
Her killing intent grew even stronger.
Qiu Yu, however, acted decisively, quickly shrinking his body, transforming the massive sacred tree back into human form, and using extreme speed to evade the space rift's attack.
But Zhang Ruochen was faster, directly using Spatial Displacement to appear before him and striking out with a palm, from which thousands of dragon shadows flew forth.
Qiu Yu also struck out with a palm, meeting Zhang Ruochen head-on.
"Boom."
With the two of them at the center, the earth was torn apart, and cracks appeared in the sky.
Because he could control spatial power, Zhang Ruochen had a greater advantage in the shattered space.
Forced into a corner, Qiu Yu had to retreat backward.
As he retreated, Zhang Ruochen advanced, continuously unleashing Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm techniques, sending dragon and elephant shadows flying, completely suppressing Qiu Yu.
"Merging with a Great Saint body is not so easy. Even if you have obtained Patriarch Qiao's inheritance, it will take you a long time to fully comprehend and master the power of a Great Saint body."
Zhang Ruochen fought more and more fiercely, beating Qiu Yu until he had no power to retaliate.
After over a hundred exchanges, the heaven and earth within thousands of miles were battered and broken, covered with dense ravines.
With a thunderous "boom," Qiu Yu was struck by Zhang Ruochen's fist, spat blood, and flew backward.
Qiu Yu landed on the ground in a half-kneeling posture, but surprisingly, with his weak-willed nature, he did not admit defeat or beg for mercy. Instead, his gaze became even sharper.
"Does he have another trump card?" Zhang Ruochen knew Qiu Yu quite well.
"Zhang Ruochen, are you really my nemesis? Before meeting you, at the same cultivation level, it was hard to find anyone who could withstand even one of my moves," Qiu Yu roared.
Zhang Ruochen walked over cautiously, exuding a powerful aura, and said, "Since you know I am your nemesis, you should have avoided me when you encountered me. Why did you choose to be my enemy?"
"You are too arrogant. Do you really think I cannot defeat you? Today, I will defeat you fair and square and trample you under my feet forever."
Qiu Yu suddenly stood up, raised both hands above his head, and from between his eyebrows, a fist-sized ball of light flew out. He let out a loud roar: "Blazing Fire Copper City."
That ball of light shot rapidly into the sky, transforming into a magnificent flaming copper city.
As the city manifested, a terrifying Great Saint aura spread out, filling the entire heaven and earth.
Even the saints standing tens of thousands of miles away felt their sacred souls tremble, and the sacred qi within their bodies became uncontrollable and chaotic.
Only a Great Saint could possess such might.
"Damn it. Qiu Yu actually obtained Patriarch Qiao's strongest sacred artifact, the Blazing Fire Copper City."
Shengshu Cainü gazed into the distance, seeing the city's silhouette amidst the flames and that intimidating sacred might. Intense unease arose in her heart.
The Blazing Fire Copper City, though not a Supreme Sacred Artifact, was still one of the top-tier battle weapons below that level, with over one hundred thousand inscriptions within.
It was not just the sacred artifact itself that worried Shengshu Cainü. From the sacred might emanating from the Blazing Fire Copper City, it was clear that the city contained a vast amount of Great Saint power left by Patriarch Qiao.
Once that power was unleashed, few beings below the Great Saint level could withstand it.
"Although Zhang Ruochen can mobilize the power of the Qiankun Realm, his current physical body cannot withstand too much power, so the power he can borrow is quite limited. He probably... cannot block the Blazing Fire Copper City..."
Shengshu Cainü bit her red lips, her eyes filled with even deeper worry. If she were not so far from Zhang Ruochen and Qiu Yu's battlefield, she would have rushed over to help Zhang Ruochen even at the cost of her life.
In a sense, the enemy Zhang Ruochen now faced was no longer Qiu Yu, but Patriarch Qiao.
The Great Saints of Guanghan Realm were extremely tense, and some even let out sighs. They understood the power of the Great Saint level well, which made them even more pessimistic, believing that Zhang Ruochen might not survive this time.
Zhang Ruochen indeed felt tremendous pressure. His sacred qi was completely suppressed. If he did not mobilize the power of the Qiankun Realm, even moving a finger would be as difficult as reaching the heavens.
"This time, I might need you to make a move for us to have a way out," Zhang Ruochen communicated with the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree.
The Sky-Connecting Divine Tree's voice came from the Qiankun Realm, saying, "I cannot leave the Qiankun Realm. Even if I were to act, I might not be able to block that copper city. However, if you use the God-Defying Stele, you might be able to resolve this crisis."
"The God-Defying Stele?" Zhang Ruochen felt puzzled.
The God-Defying Stele was merely a fragment of a stele that he had dug out from the Luo River. He had studied it for a long time without discovering its miraculous properties.
The Sky-Connecting Divine Tree's voice sounded again: "After my power increased, I recalled some things, including memory fragments about the God-Defying Stele. Those memory fragments contain extremely shocking secrets. I will tell you about them slowly in the future. For now, let us join forces to activate the God-Defying Stele and break the current situation."
...
...
Qiu Yu flew up and stood atop the Blazing Fire Copper City, saying, "Zhang Ruochen, if you kneel and beg for mercy now, I might consider letting you live."
The Great Saint power within the Blazing Fire Copper City was quite limited and could only be used a few times. Naturally, Qiu Yu did not want to use it now.
Being able to humiliate Zhang Ruochen was even more exciting and satisfying to Qiu Yu than killing him.
Zhang Ruochen took out the God-Defying Stele from the Qiankun Realm and placed it before him.
The fragment of the stele was six zhang tall, four zhang wide, and one zhang five chi thick, inscribed with extremely ancient characters. Apart from that, there was no other miraculous feature.
Following the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree's guidance, Zhang Ruochen mobilized the sacred dao rules within his body that had been condensed to the "Ultimate True Extreme" level and injected them into some of the ancient characters on the stele.
"I hope this works, or I'm dead," Zhang Ruochen thought nervously.
Qiu Yu could not understand Zhang Ruochen's actions, but he lost patience and controlled the Blazing Fire Copper City to press down upon Zhang Ruochen.
"Boom, boom."
The space of Ancestral Spirit Realm could not withstand the power unleashed by the Blazing Fire Copper City, continuously collapsing, and the scope of the collapse spread further, extending tens of thousands of miles away.
Just as the Blazing Fire Copper City was about to press down on Zhang Ruochen's head, suddenly, all the sacred might contained within the city disappeared completely. All the Great Saint power vanished as well. Even the inscriptions inside the city grew fainter and fainter, until they became formless.
A battle weapon close to the level of a Supreme Sacred Artifact had turned into an ordinary copper city, losing all its power.
Not only Qiu Yu, but even Zhang Ruochen was extremely shocked.
"Did the God-Defying Stele cause this? That's terrifying..."
However, Zhang Ruochen quickly calmed down, condensed a large hand seal, and slapped upward, sending the Blazing Fire Copper City into the shattered space.
"Boom, boom."
The sacred object that had been so awe-inspiring moments ago now turned into fragments of copper and iron, falling into the Void Space. Only Qiu Yu managed to escape in time, barely saving his life.
"Zhang Ruochen, what kind of treasure is that?"
Qiu Yu was terrified, his legs trembling uncontrollably.
The means Zhang Ruochen had just displayed exceeded his understanding.
Earlier, when the Blazing Fire Copper City was blocking the sky, the cultivators of the Heavenly Court could not see the God-Defying Stele through the battlefield mirror images. By the time the copper city was knocked away, Zhang Ruochen had already put away the God-Defying Stele.
Therefore, apart from Qiu Yu and Zhang Ruochen, no one knew what had actually happened. They all thought Zhang Ruochen had knocked away the Blazing Fire Copper City with his own power.
"Zhang Ruochen possesses a super trump card. Once unleashed, no one below the Great Saint level can defeat him." Many cultivators of the Heavenly Court formed this mistaken impression, clearly shaken as well.