Chapter 167: The Bottom of Ghost Fog Mountain
The half-saint light above Lu Han's head fell like golden raindrops, continuously merging with her corpse.
Gradually, Lu Han's skin began to emit a faint golden radiance. Her pupils also turned gold, like two clusters of golden flames burning within her eyes.
Every blood vessel and meridian inside her body became visible, the patterns of each vein clearly discernible.
The aura emanating from her grew stronger and stronger!
Zhang Ruochen held his breath, carefully shifting his body, hoping to seize this opportunity to escape Ghost Fog Mountain.
Suddenly, Lu Han spun around sharply. Her golden eyes locked onto Zhang Ruochen. Her lips curled upward, revealing two sharp fangs, and she let out a sinister laugh: "Blood... fresh blood..."
Like a gust of yin wind, Lu Han's legs propelled her forward, charging straight at Zhang Ruochen.
"Hiss, hiss!"
Every footprint she left on the ground was covered in a thick layer of ice. The cold aura around her intensified.
Zhang Ruochen had read about half-saint light in an ancient text: If a dead person merged with half-saint light, they would need a large amount of blood to strengthen their physical body.
Lu Han's martial arts cultivation was at the Earth Extreme Realm initial stage.
Her physical body was nowhere near comparable to that of a half-saint. To withstand the power of the half-saint light, she had to absorb massive amounts of blood, using it to refine her flesh.
"Whoosh!"
Zhang Ruochen infused true qi into the Wind Wings. Moments later, a pair of light wings sprouted from his back, and he fled backward at a speed of one hundred meters per second.
Behind him lay Ghost Fog Mountain.
With Lu Han in hot pursuit, Zhang Ruochen had no choice but to grit his teeth and charge into the mountain.
Had he hesitated even slightly, he would surely have been drained of blood and killed.
Lu Han had only merged with a tiny fraction of the half-saint light and had not yet truly mastered its power. As a result, her speed was only slightly faster than Zhang Ruochen's.
She chased closely behind him, the distance between them shrinking steadily.
Just as Lu Han was about to catch up, Zhang Ruochen hurled a Thunder Bead toward her.
"Boom!"
The Thunder Bead shattered, unleashing bolts of lightning.
A powerful destructive force erupted in front of Lu Han, sending her flying backward.
Lu Han's body was protected by the half-saint light, so the Thunder Bead did not harm her in the slightest. She quickly sprang back to her feet, let out a long howl, and resumed her pursuit of Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen glanced back, his heart sinking. "Even the power of a Thunder Bead can't hurt her. The half-saint light is truly formidable. If I could obtain it, I could save myself ten years of bitter cultivation."
The half-saint light was, to some extent, equivalent to a half-saint's legacy.
Absorbing it wouldn't instantly turn a martial artist into a half-saint, but it offered numerous benefits, greatly accelerating future cultivation compared to peers.
Due to the suppression of Ghost Fog Mountain's miasma, Zhang Ruochen couldn't fly even with the Wind Wings. He could only desperately rush toward the summit.
He had just reached the mountainside when he suddenly stopped, cold sweat pouring from his forehead like raindrops.
Ahead, just a few dozen meters away, lay a cyan scorpion over ten meters long. Its body was covered in sharp barbs, and its two cyan eyes glared angrily at Zhang Ruochen.
The giant cyan scorpion was crouched beside a pool of water, about ten meters wide. The banks were overgrown with cyan and black poisonous plants.
The water in the pool was foul and reeked of poison. Human bones floated on its surface, their age unknown.
Spotting Zhang Ruochen, the giant cyan scorpion grew excited and let out a strange cry.
"Whoosh!"
It swung its two sharp pincers, its tail dragging along the ground and clashing against boulders with a metallic sound, sending sparks flying.
Lu Han also caught up from behind, rapidly closing in on Zhang Ruochen.
A poisonous beast ahead, a corpse behind—Zhang Ruochen seemed to have no escape.
But he did not despair. He took out two Thunder Beads and hurled one at the cyan scorpion ahead and the other at Lu Han behind. Then, he immediately executed the Wind-Riding Flying Dragon Shadow, darting through a steep cliff face to flee in another direction.
Although Lu Han's consciousness was blurred, she dodged the moment Zhang Ruochen threw the second Thunder Bead. Turning into a blur, she appeared right behind him.
Her hands transformed into claws, reaching for Zhang Ruochen's shoulders.
Just as her claws were about to grab him, the space behind Zhang Ruochen twisted. Lu Han's claws seemed to pause momentarily in midair.
Rip!
Lu Han's claws tore through the robe on Zhang Ruochen's back, leaving ten bloody claw marks from his shoulders to his back. Drops of crimson blood oozed from the wounds.
Ignoring the icy, stinging pain on his back, Zhang Ruochen continued charging forward.
"Roar!"
Lu Han licked the blood off her fingers and let out a howl before charging again.
From the other direction, the giant cyan scorpion also lunged at Zhang Ruochen. The Thunder Bead had not killed it; instead, it had enraged the beast.
The cyan scorpion spat out a cloud of poisonous gas, which condensed into a pillar-like beam and shot toward Zhang Ruochen like a column of light.
Just as Zhang Ruochen was about to hide inside the Time-Space Crystal, he spotted a cave entrance ahead. The opening was only the size of a bowl, deep and dark, seemingly leading underground.
A glimmer of joy crossed Zhang Ruochen's face. He immediately used true qi to open the inner space of the Time-Space Crystal.
With a whoosh, Zhang Ruochen vanished from Ghost Fog Mountain and entered the Time-Space Crystal's inner space.
At the same time, the Time-Space Crystal fell precisely into the cave, plummeting like it was dropping into an endless abyss.
Lu Han and the cyan scorpion both reached the cave entrance simultaneously, but the opening was far too narrow for them to enter.
"Boom!"
The cyan scorpion struck the cave entrance with its pincer, trying to smash it open.
The powerful blow shattered the rocks around the opening, but instead of widening it, the debris sealed it shut.
"Blood... fresh blood..."
Lu Han fixed her gaze on the giant cyan scorpion and pounced. Her claws tore through its carapace, and blood gushed from the scorpion's body, staining Lu Han entirely crimson.
The once-beautiful female corpse now looked grotesque and terrifying.
...
The cave descended vertically. Where it led was unknown.
The Time-Space Crystal fell for a long time before finally hitting the ground.
Ignoring the pain in his back, Zhang Ruochen infused true qi into his soul veins, activating his martial soul. Using the power of his martial soul, he probed the area outside the Time-Space Crystal.
Within an eighty-meter radius of the Time-Space Crystal, everything was pitch black, with no signs of life.
"It seems I've fallen to the bottom of Ghost Fog Mountain. That's fine—at least I'm safe for now. The cyan scorpion and Lu Han won't be able to break in anytime soon."
Zhang Ruochen didn't rush to leave the Time-Space Crystal's inner space. He decided to heal his injuries first before venturing out.
He took a healing pill, circulated the remaining true qi in his body, and began refining the pill to treat his wounds.
Two days later, Zhang Ruochen's injuries were mostly healed, and his true qi had fully recovered to its peak state.
"Whoosh!"
A flash of light from the Time-Space Crystal, and Zhang Ruochen stepped out into a pitch-black underground world.
Elsewhere in the Red Void Secret Mansion, it was scorching hot like a furnace, but at the bottom of Ghost Fog Mountain, it was freezing cold, like an underground ice cellar.
Zhang Ruochen picked up the Time-Space Crystal from the ground and held it in his hand, a faint smile on his lips. "Thank goodness for the Time-Space Crystal. Otherwise, I would have died twice in the Red Void Secret Mansion."
But he soon noticed another problem: the Time-Space Crystal seemed to have shrunk a bit more.
"It seems the Time-Space Crystal's spiritual energy is being consumed. Eventually, it will be completely depleted."
The Time-Space Crystal gave Zhang Ruochen three times the cultivation time compared to other martial artists—this was his advantage. But even if he lost it, he was confident he could still become a true powerhouse. His resolve would not waver.
Zhang Ruochen put away the Time-Space Crystal and took out a fire-attributed spirit crystal from his Space Ring. He infused it with true qi, and with a whoosh, the spirit crystal ignited like a fireball.
The flames illuminated the dark space, revealing the full scope of this underground world. The surroundings were natural rock walls, with no signs of human excavation.
The rock walls and ground were entirely covered in a layer of white ice, forming bizarre and varied crystal shapes.
Zhang Ruochen walked forward across the ice. After about a hundred meters, he spotted a palm-sized metal fragment beneath the thick ice.
"Crack!"
He shattered the ice with a palm strike and picked up the metal fragment.
"So heavy—at least five hundred jin."
Zhang Ruochen was astonished. Just a fragment of metal, yet it was so dense. What material could it be?
Examining the fragment closely, he saw fine patterns etched into it, resembling a fragment of armor.
What kind of immense force could have torn that armor into pieces?
Inside the metal fragment were many inscriptions, but all of them were shattered and could no longer be activated.
Zhang Ruochen set the fragment down and continued forward.
As he approached the end, he came upon a massive pit, over sixty meters in diameter. The ground was sunken, with raised edges, like the aftermath of a meteorite impact.
At the bottom of the pit lay the skeletal remains of an old man, completely sealed in ice.
His armor was badly damaged, his chest pierced through, and his body seemed on the verge of splitting apart. Yet, even after being dead for centuries, this corpse exuded a powerful aura, creating this entire frozen underground world.
Zhang Ruochen felt immense pressure as he stared at the corpse. "Could he be Golden Cloud Half-Saint?"
Only a being who had reached the half-saint realm could retain such a powerful aura after death.
Five hundred years had passed, yet Golden Cloud Half-Saint's remains showed no signs of decay.
Faced with this sight, Zhang Ruochen felt no fear. Instead, joy appeared on his face. He finally had a way to deal with Lu Han—and even claim her half-saint light.