Chapter 1558: Mirror Fragrance Cliff
The Truth Heaven Domain was vast and boundless. If a cultivator relied solely on their own travel, sometimes even spending a month might not be enough to reach their destination.
However, riding a cloud boat was more than ten times faster.
The divine temples established by the gods of the Western Universe in the Truth Heaven Domain were all located in the Void Saint Domain to the west of the Truth Heaven Domain.
The divine temple opened by the Tree God was located at Mirror Fragrance Cliff in the Void Saint Domain.
Still a hundred miles away from Mirror Fragrance Cliff, Zhang Ruochen could already smell the intoxicating fragrance of flowers drifting toward him.
Pieces of osmanthus petals, blown out from beneath the cliff by the wind, converged into a "petal stream" flowing through the air, dancing everywhere in the sky. When they scattered apart, they resembled snowflakes falling from the heavens.
"This truly is a cultivation treasure land. The concentration of natural Saint Qi here is about three times that of the Yuanxu Peak Holy Land, and the Heavenly and Earthly Rules are more active, making it even more suitable for comprehending the Saint Path." Zhang Ruochen let out a sigh of admiration.
Ling Feiyu, who had been silent all along, stood to Zhang Ruochen's right and finally spoke a sentence: "If I could cultivate here forever, my cultivation speed would at least double."
Although Ling Feiyu was not a cultivator from the Guanghan Realm, she had come to the Truth Heaven Domain using Guanghan Realm's quota, so naturally, she had to follow Zhang Ruochen and the others.
Standing a hundred miles away, looking toward Mirror Fragrance Cliff, they could see a massive osmanthus tree growing on the half-cliff. Black roots, like coiled dragons, pierced into the rock. Between the emerald-green leaves, white osmanthus flowers bloomed, emitting a shimmering Saintly light.
Wen Shusheng was a disciple of the Tree God and immediately recognized it, saying: "That osmanthus tree contains the aura of the Tree God. It must be a divine tree seedling grown from a root left behind by the Tree God. With that divine tree seedling guarding it, the Mirror Fragrance Cliff divine temple can remain eternal and indestructible. Unfortunately, we, the descendants, could not hold onto the divine temple he left behind, and instead, it has benefited cultivators from other great worlds."
Wen Shusheng felt a pang of regret, but the fighting spirit in his heart grew even stronger.
Zhang Ruochen, Ling Feiyu, Mu Lingxi, Wen Shusheng, Su Qingling, and Ling Mi—a group of six—stepped into the area of the Mirror Fragrance Cliff divine temple. Immediately, dazzling light emerged from the ground, and layers of formation patterns appeared, blocking their advance.
"They've actually set up a formation outside the divine temple, treating this place as their own cultivation territory?"
Su Qingling let out a cold snare, took out a Ten-Thousand Pattern Sacred Artifact-level sacred sword, mobilized all the Saint Qi in her body, causing over ten thousand inscriptions to appear on the sacred sword, unleashing its full power.
"Whoosh—"
She clasped her hands together and controlled the sacred sword, slashing it downward.
"Boom."
The sacred sword collided with the protective grand formation, and immediately, a layer of light curtain appeared, like a water curtain connecting the earth and sky, shaking violently.
The piercing roar traveled a thousand miles away, alarming all the cultivators in the vicinity.
"What a powerful defensive formation."
Su Qingling found it troublesome. If she couldn't even break through the opponent's defensive formation, then reclaiming the divine temple would be nothing but a joke.
The lower the cultivation level, the greater the plasticity. Comprehending Truth Rules would yield greater benefits. Therefore, when major worlds received quotas from the Truth Divine Temple, they generally allocated them to cultivators at the Saint realm.
To make rational use of resources, major worlds rarely gave quotas to Saint Kings.
Even if a Saint King-level figure appeared, it was mostly someone who had already comprehended Truth Rules before and was now doing it a second, third... time. After all, the more Truth Rules one comprehended, the greater the benefits.
Someone like Ling Feiyu, who had already reached the Saint King realm but was visiting the Truth Heaven Domain for the first time, was quite rare.
For this reason, the protective formations set up outside the divine temples were generally the work of Spiritual Power Saints or Spiritual Power Saint Kings, and would not be so powerful that even a Great Saint couldn't break them.
"Let me try."
Zhang Ruochen wanted to take this opportunity to test the power of the Yi Emperor Bone Staff.
Just as he grabbed the Yi Emperor Bone Staff, a circular light door opened on the light curtain of the defensive formation opposite.
Inside the light door stood a three-meter-tall, dark-skinned burly man with two dragon whiskers at the corners of his mouth and eyes as deep as black abysses.
Dragon Whisker let out a deep roar: "Who is it? How dare you cause trouble at the Mirror Fragrance Cliff divine temple? Don't you know this is the territory of the Cloud Realm?"
"When did the Guanghan Realm's divine temple become the territory of the Cloud Realm?"
Zhang Ruochen opened his Heavenly Eye, and a white light flew out from between his brows, landing on Dragon Whisker. He saw through his true form—a giant black dragon-whisker insect.
"So it's an insect clan member."
Zhang Ruochen closed his Heavenly Eye and said in a deep voice: "The Guanghan Realm has come to reclaim the divine temple."
"So it's cultivators from the Guanghan Realm."
A somewhat playful laugh came from behind Dragon Whisker.
Then, a short, hunchbacked man appeared behind the light door. His name was Han Lu, and his skin was covered in hard scales.
Both Dragon Whisker and Han Lu were at the Half-Saint King realm.
Of course, having been selected from the Cloud Realm and given the quota to enter the Truth Divine Temple for cultivation, Dragon Whisker and Han Lu were no ordinary beings. Taking them for mere Half-Saint Kings would be a grave mistake.
Dragon Whisker let out a cold snort: "Now, the Mirror Fragrance Cliff divine temple belongs to the Cloud Realm and has nothing to do with your Guanghan Realm. If you don't want to end up missing an arm or a leg, you'd better be sensible and get lost immediately."
"Dragon Whisker, why are you so rude? Mirror Fragrance Cliff is, after all, a divine temple opened by a god of the Guanghan Realm. We should be hospitable to the beauties of the Guanghan Realm, not tell them to get lost."
Han Lu gave a sly, rat-faced grin, his gaze sweeping over Ling Feiyu, Mu Lingxi, Su Qingling, and Ling Mi. They were all top-tier beauties, with graceful figures and curves in all the right places—a pleasure to behold just by looking.
He said: "We cultivators of the Cloud Realm won't go too far. As long as you pay a sum of sacred stones as rent, you can temporarily enter the Mirror Fragrance Cliff divine temple to settle down. If we get along well, we might even let you comprehend the Truth Path diagrams left by the Tree God. What do you think?"
"You still want us to pay sacred stones?" Su Qingling let out a cold, sharp laugh.
Han Lu's smile was extremely lecherous: "Isn't this tradition? Last time, that top Heavenly Proud One of your Guanghan Realm, Wu Hao, paid a sum of sacred stones before he could enter the Mirror Fragrance Cliff divine temple to comprehend the Truth Path diagrams left by the Tree God. So, if you want to gain powerful strength, you must first learn to endure. Speaking of which, Wu Hao and Senior Brother Bai Ran had a pretty good relationship. Why didn't he come with you this time?"
"Because he's dead," Zhang Ruochen said.
Han Lu was slightly stunned, then laughed: "Dead? That's unfortunate. But Senior Brother Bai Ran still remembers that friendship. He just sent me a voice transmission, telling me to inform you that, considering you are all cultivators of the Guanghan Realm, male cultivators can pay one hundred thousand sacred stones, and female cultivators can pay ten thousand sacred stones, to temporarily reside in the Mirror Fragrance Cliff divine temple."
"We are not Wu Hao."
Su Qingling let out a furious roar, then once again unleashed the full power of her sacred sword. The sword energy, like a white rainbow, streaked across the sky as she thrust it straight toward Han Lu's brow.
But Han Lu showed no fear at all; instead, he laughed: "You've got spirit. I like this kind of proud beauty—the kind that makes you want to conquer her the moment you see her."
Han Lu's hand reached out from behind the light door, forming a seal interwoven with ice and fire, colliding with the tip of the sacred sword.
The full-force strike of the sword was actually blocked, and Su Qingling's heart tightened: "This lecherous bastard's strength is actually this formidable."
"Go back, little beauty."
Han Lu chuckled, then took a deep breath, his small frame swelling up. He pushed his arms forward violently, causing the ice-fire seal to shatter, sending Su Qingling stumbling backward.
Han Lu flicked his sleeves, puffed out his chest, and sneered: "The top-tier techniques of your Guanghan Realm, aside from the one or two mastered by the Tree God, have almost all been plundered clean. No matter how strong your physiques are, what's the use? Without cultivating top-tier techniques, you're ultimately just mediocre... Ah... my eyes..."
Suddenly, Han Lu let out a scream, covering his eyes with his hands. Crimson blood continuously seeped out from between his fingers.
Just now, a sharp sword light had pierced through the light door and slashed toward him. Although Han Lu had detected the sword light, he simply couldn't dodge it, and so both his eyeballs were directly sliced apart by the sword light.
Ling Feiyu withdrew her two slender jade fingers that had released the sword light and said coldly: "I hate it when people look at me with that kind of gaze."
Dragon Whisker, standing beside Han Lu, looked at Ling Feiyu with extreme shock. She had merely used two fingers to release a sword energy and had crippled Han Lu's eyes. Just how strong was her cultivation realm?
No, was it sword energy or Sword Dao Profound Qi?
Dragon Whisker immediately closed the light door, dragged Han Lu, and rushed up the steps, intending to report to Senior Brother Bai Ran.
"Boom."
A massive skeletal fist imprint slammed into the light curtain of the defensive formation, shattering it. The entire Mirror Fragrance Cliff divine temple trembled slightly.
A surge of Great Saint origin power filled the heavens and earth, shaking Dragon Whisker and Han Lu so much that they could barely stand, nearly falling on the steps.
Dragon Whisker turned his head to look back. Behind them stood a several-dozen-zhang-tall black skeleton, with dazzling golden Buddha light radiating from its brow.
It was that black skeleton that had just shattered the defensive formation with a single punch.
Standing atop the skeleton's head was a young man—Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen leaped down from the skeleton's head, forming hand seals with both hands. A massive phantom of a dragon and an elephant appeared as he pressed down toward the tops of Dragon Whisker's and Han Lu's heads.
Dragon Whisker and Han Lu quickly activated their sacred arts, each forming a seal to meet the descending enemy.
"Boom."
The next moment, Zhang Ruochen landed on the steps, his palms having smashed Dragon Whisker and Han Lu onto the stairs, shattering the stone steps and creating two large craters filled with rubble.
"I told you to get lost, but you wouldn't listen. Now you've lost your chance."
Zhang Ruochen clasped his hands behind his back, his Saintly might surging as he strode up the steps with an air of arrogance: "Zhang Ruochen of the Guanghan Realm has come to reclaim the Mirror Fragrance Cliff divine temple. Tree God, if you can hear my voice, release your divine power and turn this place into a world of equality for all beings."
The several-dozen-zhang-tall black skeleton followed closely behind Zhang Ruochen, its massive skeletal feet stepping into the two rubble-filled craters, crushing Dragon Whisker and Han Lu beneath, causing them to scream in agony.
The so-called "equality for all beings" meant that a god would use divine power to suppress the cultivation levels of all cultivators within a certain area to the same realm.
Every god who established a divine temple in the Truth Heaven Domain would leave behind such a contingency. As long as descendants prayed sincerely, the divine temple could become a place of "equality for all beings."
Of course, this contingency was originally left to resist external enemies, to prevent the divine temple from being seized by cultivators from other great worlds.
Zhang Ruochen had learned this from Su Jing.
...
(Alright, this is the second chapter. I'll try to get the third chapter out before midnight. Of course, that's just a goal.)