Chapter 1861: The Terrifying Old Mother Qushan
Old Mother Qushan had gone to the ninth divine river, sitting cross-legged at its source, carefully comprehending the rules of heaven and earth. Above her head, a crimson light mass had appeared.
Inside the light mass, a six-winged holy crow was suspended.
The source of the ninth divine river was at the base of a seven-zhang-tall giant rock.
The Black Phoenix and the White Vermilion Bird sat on either side of the divine river, also engaged in enlightenment.
Just as Zhang Ruochen and the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden arrived at the ninth divine river, the Black Phoenix and the White Vermilion Bird stopped their cultivation and stood up abruptly.
A flirtatious smile hung on the Black Phoenix’s face. “You two, this is the enlightenment ground occupied by our master’s junior sister. I suggest you leave immediately.”
The Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden asked, “Do you truly believe the Nine-Bend Heavenly Star is a sacred ground for enlightenment?”
“Is it not?” The Black Phoenix’s gaze fixed on the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden, scrutinizing her closely, comparing her to herself.
The Black Phoenix was a top-tier beauty of the Taibai Realm, the dream lover of countless cultivators. She was confident in her cultivation talent, figure, and appearance.
But compared to the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden, even the Black Phoenix felt overshadowed, experiencing a crushing sense of defeat.
Yet a woman’s heart was strange like that—the more she couldn’t compare, the more she wanted to.
“It’s been less than a year since we left the Truth Heaven Domain, and you’ve already reached the Nine-Step Saint King realm. Such a cultivation speed is unattainable even in the Truth Divine Temple. If you say it has nothing to do with the Nine-Bend Heavenly Star, I absolutely won’t believe it.” The Black Phoenix lifted her snow-white chin.
The Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden asked, “Have you gained anything from your enlightenment at the Nine-Bend Heavenly Star?”
“We’ve only been here a few hours. Isn’t it too early to talk about gains?” the White Vermilion Bird said flatly.
The Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden said, “It’s useless. If you can’t align with the rules of heaven and earth of the Nine-Bend Heavenly Star, your cultivation speed here won’t be much faster than anywhere else.”
Hearing this, Old Mother Qushan opened her eyes. “How does one align with the rules of heaven and earth of the Nine-Bend Heavenly Star?”
The Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden clasped her hands and bowed slightly to Old Mother Qushan. “Senior, the Blood Bee Shura King has arrived at Luo Water and gone to the War Soul Star, intending to use the divine blood there to feed his Blood Emperor Bees. I hope Senior can come with us to eliminate the Blood Bee Shura King as soon as possible. Then, this junior will surely tell you the method to align with the rules of heaven and earth of the Nine-Bend Heavenly Star.”
“Haha.”
Old Mother Qushan laughed loudly, her laughter growing colder and heavier.
The laughter contained a terrifying sonic attack. Even with the cultivation of the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden and Zhang Ruochen, their eardrums ached, and it felt like thunder was roaring in their minds.
“Are you threatening me, or trying to use me?” Old Mother Qushan’s voice was sharp and piercing. She transformed into a patch of icy, dark clouds and charged at the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden.
“Careful!”
The moment Zhang Ruochen shouted these two words, Old Mother Qushan had already reached them.
A wrinkled hand shot out like lightning toward the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden’s neck, aiming to grab it. The Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden was no weakling; in an instant, she activated the Rain Silk Divine Sword and her protective talisman.
The Rain Silk Divine Sword turned into streaks of light, forming a net that slashed toward Old Mother Qushan.
Old Mother Qushan ignored the Rain Silk Divine Sword. Around her body, semi-transparent feathers automatically condensed, forming six semi-transparent wings that blocked the sword’s attack.
Just as the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden was about to be caught by Old Mother Qushan—
“Boom.”
The protective talisman shattered, turning into thirty-six light masses like thirty-six stars, flying around the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden and shielding her at the center.
Old Mother Qushan’s fingers collided with the thirty-six light masses.
Instantly, a vast amount of thunder-fire light burst forth, illuminating a hundred-mile radius into a blazing orb, dazzlingly bright.
The cultivators in the distance all grew uneasy.
“It’s over. They must have angered Old Mother Qushan.”
“With Old Mother Qushan’s temperament, she won’t care if you’re the Heavenly Maiden of the Heavenly Beginning Civilization. If you provoke her, you die.”
“Old Mother Qushan isn’t even afraid of the Nether God, so why would she fear the Heavenly Beginning Civilization?”
Zhang Ruochen spread his arms wide, and thirteen dragon souls and thirteen elephant souls surged out from his body simultaneously. He struck the eleventh palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm, Dragon-Elephant Reaching Heaven.
At the same time, he mobilized Truth Rules to unleash a sevenfold attack power.
It was worth noting that during the more than ten years of cultivation under the Sundial, Zhang Ruochen’s Truth Path had advanced rapidly. The number of Truth Rules he had cultivated had exceeded sixty thousand.
Previously, it was a sixfold attack; now, it was sevenfold.
Old Mother Qushan glared fiercely at Zhang Ruochen, turning her hand into a claw shape. Powerful sacred energy flowed around the claw, and with one strike, she sent Zhang Ruochen flying backward.
“Boom, boom.”
Zhang Ruochen smashed through a small hill, landing more than ten miles away before stopping.
He didn’t fall.
Standing on the shattered ground, Zhang Ruochen’s arms ached as if they were about to split, nearly numb.
However, protected by divine patterns, he wasn’t seriously injured. He immediately stepped forward, rushing back toward the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden, hoping to rescue her before Old Mother Qushan broke through the protective talisman.
The Black Phoenix stared at Zhang Ruochen’s feet. Her jet-black pearl-like pupils flickered with light, and she quickly said to the White Vermilion Bird beside her, “Look, is his left leg a bit lame?”
Zhang Ruochen had already refined over twenty thousand of the crimson inscriptions in his left leg.
When walking, he could control it with all his effort. If one didn’t look closely, it was hard to notice his left leg’s unnaturalness.
But in battle, Zhang Ruochen had no energy to control his left leg, and the limp was quite obvious.
“It really is a bit lame… Could it be… no…” The White Vermilion Bird shook her head.
The Black Phoenix, however, smiled confidently. “There are very few lame cultivators who have reached the Saint King realm. How could we encounter two at Luo Water? And like that lame one, he has a high level of attainment in the Truth Path.”
“If he is that lame one, why would he pretend not to know us?” the White Vermilion Bird asked.
The Black Phoenix said, “Then we’ll just have to ask him.”
“Boom.”
The thirty-six light masses protecting the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden were forcibly broken by Old Mother Qushan.
From Old Mother Qushan’s sleeve, a large number of silver iron feathers flew out, shooting straight at the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden.
The iron feathers were as sharp as flying swords, but the power they unleashed was even stronger than flying swords.
However, the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden had many protective treasures. She raised a light shield to block the overwhelming iron feathers, retreating step by step, struggling to hold on.
“Girl, tell me the method to align with the rules of heaven and earth of the Nine-Bend Heavenly Star immediately, or I’ll have to forcibly extract your memories.” Old Mother Qushan’s voice was hoarse and cold.
Zhang Ruochen rushed back and shouted, “Stop!”
Old Mother Qushan and the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden both turned their gazes to Zhang Ruochen.
Surprise flickered in the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden’s eyes. She hadn’t expected Zhang Ruochen to return.
Old Mother Qushan was also surprised—surprised that the young man still had the strength to stand up again, and that he would risk his life to come back.
“Get lost, or I’ll cripple you first,” Old Mother Qushan said.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t retreat. “Senior Qushan, can you hear me out first?”
Old Mother Qushan controlled the silver iron feathers with one hand while condensing a black light mass in the other. Inside the light mass, the shadow of a divine beast appeared, releasing a destructive aura.
“Boy, do you think that because you blocked one of my strikes, you can be reckless? That strike earlier, I held back because I didn’t want to kill you. That’s why you blocked it.”
Zhang Ruochen sensed danger—a danger close to death.
Clearly, Old Mother Qushan was truly angered and had murderous intent.
“What a vicious old fellow. No wonder other cultivators don’t dare to come and invite her.” Zhang Ruochen groaned inwardly, releasing his Space Domain, ready to use space power at any moment to counter Old Mother Qushan’s attack.
Sensing the spatial fluctuations, the Black Phoenix and the White Vermilion Bird were certain of Zhang Ruochen’s identity.
The two women spoke almost simultaneously: “Master’s junior sister, wait!”
Old Mother Qushan looked at them with a questioning expression.
The Black Phoenix said, “He saved me and my junior sister. We owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Old Mother Qushan’s eyes flickered. Finally, she glanced at Zhang Ruochen and asked, “What’s going on?”
“He’s the lame one we told you about,” the White Vermilion Bird said.
Old Mother Qushan clenched her five fingers, withdrawing the divine beast shadow in the light mass back into her body. Then, she also recalled the silver iron feathers.
Without the suppression of the silver iron feathers, the pressure on the Heavenly Beginning Celestial Maiden eased, and she let out a long sigh. Her eyes were full of curiosity as she scanned Zhang Ruochen, the Black Phoenix, and the White Vermilion Bird.
“I’m not an unreasonable person. Since you have shown kindness to my two junior nieces, and they have praised you more than once in front of me, I’ll give you a chance to speak. But you’d better weigh carefully what to say and what not to say.”
Zhang Ruochen nodded gratefully to the Black Phoenix and the White Vermilion Bird, then calmly followed Old Mother Qushan to the source of the ninth divine river.
His first words were: “Senior Qushan, have you been to the War Soul Star yet? On the War Soul Star, there is the corpse of a divine beast. Although the divine beast is dead, its divine soul seems not to have perished. Instead, it is bound by chains.”
Old Mother Qushan’s eyes narrowed sharply. “Is that true?”
“This junior would not dare deceive Senior Qushan.”
Zhang Ruochen knew very well that Old Mother Qushan didn’t care about the life or death of the Blood Bee Shura King. What mattered most to her now was recondensing her Immortal Sacred Body and reaching the Great Saint realm.
But for a cultivator whose Immortal Sacred Body had been destroyed, reaching the Great Saint realm again was as difficult as ascending to heaven. It required a great opportunity.
Clearly, the divine corpse on the War Soul Star was that great opportunity.
Asking Old Mother Qushan to kill the Blood Bee Shura King would make her feel used.
But telling her about the opportunity on the War Soul Star was helping her.
(Chapter End)