Chapter 166: Half-Saint Radiance
Yue Linchong's heart was pierced through. Even though he used true qi to seal his blood vessels, blood still gushed incessantly from his chest, quickly staining his robes crimson.
"You... even if you had asked me for... three-leaf... sacred spirit grass... I would... would definitely have... given... given it to you..." Yue Linchong was in great pain, his hand pressing against his chest as his face grew increasingly pale.
Lu Han took out a piece of pure white silk cloth, wiped the blood from her sword, and a hint of mocking smile appeared on her beautiful face. "Yue Linchong, you're so foolishly adorable! Did you really think I would fancy you? Among the men pursuing me, at least five are more outstanding and stronger than you."
"Pfft!"
Yue Linchong spat blood, his eyes staring wide, and died completely.
Whether he died from anger or from bleeding out, who could say?
Lu Han took down the bundle from her back, gathering the three-leaf sacred spirit grass from both bundles together. There were ninety-eight stalks in total, emitting circles of milky white radiance.
Just by smelling the medicinal fragrance emanating from the three-leaf sacred spirit grass, the circulation speed of the true qi within Lu Han's body increased slightly. A joyful smile appeared on her beautiful face. "Refining all these three-leaf sacred spirit grasses will surely make my cultivation soar. Even if I enter the inner palace, I can immediately become a strong figure there."
A voice sounded behind Lu Han.
"I can see that he truly loved you. Why did you kill him?"
"Who?"
Lu Han's heart jolted with alarm. She immediately turned around, holding her sword horizontally in front of her in a defensive posture.
Zhang Ruochen walked out from behind the blood-red boulder, staring at Lu Han. "Are women's hearts really that ruthless? So good at pretending? Can they even kill those who love them?"
Zhang Ruochen seemed to see the shadow of Empress Chi Yao in Lu Han.
Of course, Lu Han was nowhere comparable to Empress Chi Yao. The gap between them was too vast.
Seeing it was Zhang Ruochen, Lu Han's originally tense expression gradually relaxed. In her eyes, no matter how formidable Zhang Ruochen was, he was just a new student, no threat to her at all.
Lu Han snorted coldly. "Zhang Ruochen, even if I killed Yue Linchong, it's none of your business. If you had hidden yourself, maybe I wouldn't have found you. But since you've come out on your own, then die!"
Lu Han executed a speed-type martial technique. Her slender body turned into a series of afterimages, and in an instant, she rushed before Zhang Ruochen, thrusting her sword at his brow.
Zhang Ruochen stood still, his feet shifting slightly. His body moved horizontally five steps away, easily dodging Lu Han's sword.
Lu Han was momentarily stunned. Before she could react, a figure flashed before her eyes.
Zhang Ruochen appeared in front of Lu Han, striking a palm toward her chest.
"Dragon-Elephant Returns to the Field!"
Feeling the palm wind rushing toward her face, Lu Han's expression changed. She wanted to dodge but it was too late. She could only hold her war sword horizontally in front of her chest to block Zhang Ruochen's incoming palm seal.
"Bang!"
Lu Han was sent flying backward more than ten meters, her body like a fallen leaf blown away by the wind.
When she landed, she kept retreating, each step leaving a deep footprint on the ground.
Her chest ached terribly. Her five viscera and six bowels seemed to have been shaken and injured. Blood qi surged within her, and her true qi was in chaos.
"Only a day has passed. How has he become so much stronger?"
A day ago, when Lu Han had fought Zhang Ruochen, she could still suppress him to a certain extent. But now, after just one exchange, she was almost severely injured by him.
Especially Zhang Ruochen's speed—it was unbelievably fast.
Zhang Ruochen gave Lu Han no chance to catch her breath. He burst forth at his fastest speed, charging before Lu Han. Mobilizing all the power of his muscles and bones, he struck another palm.
"Blood Qi Condenses the Spirit!"
Lu Han immediately activated the power of her bloodline. A medium-sized blood array five meters in diameter appeared beneath her feet. Behind her, the phantom images of a three-headed blood bird and a blood sword converged into a blood qi phenomenon.
Lu Han's power surged rapidly, increasing by about onefold.
Her reaction speed also became much faster.
She mobilized the phantom image of the three-headed blood bird behind her, charging it toward Zhang Ruochen to block his palm force.
"Break!"
Zhang Ruochen shattered the phantom image of the three-headed blood bird with one palm, turning it into strands of scattered blood qi.
A sound of wind breaking rang out as Lu Han executed a spirit-grade lower-rank sword technique, slashing at Zhang Ruochen's neck.
Zhang Ruochen took a step back, cleverly dodging Lu Han's sword strike.
"Blood Qi Condenses the Array!"
Zhang Ruochen also activated the power of his bloodline. With a loud bang, the ground shook violently beneath him. A blood array nine meters in diameter appeared, spinning rapidly, pulling Lu Han into it.
"This is... a saint-level blood array..."
Lu Han finally understood why Zhang Ruochen was so powerful. He could actually condense a saint-level blood array. Only those with the talent to become a saint possessed such a formidable bloodline.
Within the saint-level blood array, Lu Han was completely suppressed by Zhang Ruochen, with no power to fight back.
After just three exchanges, Zhang Ruochen struck Lu Han's right shoulder with a palm.
"Bang!"
The powerful palm force shattered Lu Han's right shoulder bone. A mouthful of blood sprayed from her lips as she flew backward, crashing to the ground.
The sword in her hand also flew out of her grip and fell to the ground.
Zhang Ruochen waved his arm through the air. The sword on the ground flew up and landed in his hand. He pointed the sword at Lu Han's neck. "A woman like you, with a beautiful face but no appreciation for what you have, deserves to die."
Lu Han lay on the ground, fear in her eyes. She begged, "Zhang Ruochen, please don't kill me. I'll do anything you want! I can be your woman, your slave—just spare me."
A hint of coldness flashed in Lu Han's eyes. She quickly took out a thunder bead and threw it at Zhang Ruochen.
At the same time, she slapped the ground with her palm, sliding her body three meters backward. She flipped up from the ground and fled into the distance.
Watching the thunder bead thrown by Lu Han, Zhang Ruochen showed no panic at all. His five fingers flicked, and the sword in his hand formed a circle. Using true qi, he wrapped the thunder bead and flung it dozens of zhang away.
"Boom!"
The thunder bead exploded in the air ahead of Lu Han, emitting streaks of electric light and forming a powerful shockwave. It blasted Lu Han back, sending her crashing down at Zhang Ruochen's feet once more.
"Pfft!"
Without any hesitation, Zhang Ruochen thrust his sword into Lu Han's brow, leaving a red sword mark on her forehead. A drop of crimson blood oozed from her skin.
Lu Han's body went still, losing all signs of life, becoming a beautiful corpse.
With that sword strike, Zhang Ruochen had used sword qi to pierce through Lu Han's brain.
Though it appeared as just a small red dot, it had actually shattered Lu Han's soul.
Zhang Ruochen looked at the slender, sharp sword in his hand and nodded lightly. "A fifth-rank true martial treasure. It can fetch a good price."
Storing that sword into his space ring, Zhang Ruochen went to retrieve the two bundles on Lu Han's back. They contained not only the ninety-eight stalks of three-leaf sacred spirit grass but also the pills and some life-saving treasures that Lu Han and Yue Linchong had brought into the Crimson Sky Secret Mansion.
He stored all those treasures and pills into his space ring, to be sorted out slowly later.
The ninety-eight stalks of three-leaf sacred spirit grass, Zhang Ruochen preserved entirely in jade containers.
"With these three-leaf sacred spirit grasses, my chances of breaking through to the supreme extreme realm of the Mysterious Extreme Realm are much greater!"
Zhang Ruochen looked up toward Ghost Mist Mountain. He saw that the cliffs on the mountainside were also covered with many three-leaf sacred spirit grasses, even more than at the foot of the mountain.
Zhang Ruochen shook his head gently, suppressing the greed in his heart. He muttered to himself, "Better not take the risk. No need to throw my life away."
Ghost Mist Mountain was too dangerous. Even Earth Extreme Realm martial artists rarely walked out alive.
The harvest at the foot of the mountain was already quite generous.
Just as Zhang Ruochen was about to leave, he suddenly felt something was missing.
He stopped and looked carefully at the ground. To his horror, he found that Lu Han's corpse had disappeared!
Zhang Ruochen clearly remembered that Lu Han's body had been lying less than ten meters away from him. How could it have vanished without a trace?
"Even an Earth Extreme Realm martial artist couldn't have stolen the corpse so silently from such a close distance."
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen felt a gust of cold wind behind him. Just as he was about to strike a palm backward, a freezing jade hand grabbed his neck, immobilizing him.
"Don't move!"
A hoarse voice sounded behind Zhang Ruochen.
The person behind him was ice-cold all over, emitting extreme cold that froze the cold sweat on Zhang Ruochen's back into ice crystals. Zhang Ruochen felt as if his blood was about to freeze.
Zhang Ruochen struggled to stay calm, not turning his head. "Who are you?"
"I? Who am I... I am... who am I?" The voice sounded somewhat bewildered.
Though the voice was hoarse, Zhang Ruochen still found it somewhat familiar, similar to Lu Han's voice.
The hand gripping Zhang Ruochen's neck suddenly released. The person took two steps back, muttering in confusion, "Who am I? Who am I..."
Seeing her let go, Zhang Ruochen rushed forward quickly, putting more than ten zhang of distance between them. He turned around to look.
The person who had grabbed his neck was indeed Lu Han—or rather, Lu Han's corpse.
"How is this possible? She came back to life? Impossible. I clearly used sword qi to shatter her soul."
Zhang Ruochen stared at Lu Han standing in the distance. Suddenly, he noticed something wrong.
Above Lu Han's head was a circle of golden halo.
The golden halo emitted powerful saintly force, cold and eerie. A thick layer of ice formed on the ground within dozens of meters, forcing Zhang Ruochen to keep his distance.
"That's... half-Saint radiance. How could it appear above Lu Han's head?" Zhang Ruochen's expression turned extremely grave as a possibility occurred to him.
Heavenly Extreme Realm martial artists use true qi to nourish their souls, cultivating them into martial souls.
Half-saints can use saintly force to nurture martial souls into saint souls.
When a half-saint falls, their saint soul dissipates. However, in rare cases, some saint souls, due to special circumstances, do not dissipate. Instead, they transform into half-Saint radiance, lingering in burial grounds.
"Ghost Mist Mountain is where Golden Cloud Half-Saint fell. Could it be that Golden Cloud Half-Saint's saint soul turned into half-Saint radiance and, by chance, entered Lu Han's corpse?"
Zhang Ruochen felt some regret. He should have cut off Lu Han's neck with one sword stroke, and then he wouldn't have created such a terrifying monster.
Yes, Lu Han was now a monster—neither human nor corpse. No one knew what would happen next.