Chapter 1862: Sea-Withering Flowers
Qu Shan Old Mother agreed to Zhang Ruochen's request and set off together for War Soul Star.
The Heavenly Beginning Fairy walked side by side with Zhang Ruochen and couldn't help asking, "Qu Shan Old Mother has a strange temperament, and gaining her trust is as difficult as reaching the heavens. How exactly did you persuade her?"
"Secret," Zhang Ruochen said with a smile.
The Heavenly Beginning Fairy's brows furrowed slightly, but she didn't press further. After a moment, she lowered her voice and said, "Thank you."
"Why are you suddenly thanking me?"
Zhang Ruochen was surprised. Hearing the words "thank you" from the Heavenly Beginning Fairy's mouth felt quite odd to him.
"You know perfectly well why."
The Heavenly Beginning Fairy shot Zhang Ruochen a glance, then transformed into a streak of white light and vanished from his sight.
Zhang Ruochen was genuinely puzzled. Going to invite Qu Shan Old Mother seemed to him a matter of course, not about who was helping whom. After all, letting cultivators from the Hell Realm occupy the Luo River was something he couldn't tolerate.
Of the eight great elders of the Heavenly Beginning Civilization, four remained stationed at Nine Bends Heavenly Star, while the other four followed the Heavenly Beginning Fairy as she flew out of Nine Bends Heavenly Star. Together, they boarded the Fourteenth Prince's White Jade Sacred Ship and headed toward War Soul Star.
On the White Jade Sacred Ship, experts were as numerous as clouds. There were over twenty Nine-Step Saint Kings alone, each a dominant force that shook their respective regions.
...
On the distant sea surface, three figures stood within a concealment formation, completely merged with the seawater and air.
They were Divine Cliff Gentleman, Lai Wangren, and Qu Xingzhe.
Lai Wangren and Qu Xingzhe's injuries had fully healed. Not only that, but their cultivation had also greatly improved. The aura emanating from their bodies was like towering divine mountains or unfathomable ancient seas.
They watched silently as the White Jade Sacred Ship sailed toward War Soul Star.
Divine Cliff Gentleman's face was pale. He said, "You two have taken the Merit Dao Transformation Pills, and your cultivation has reached the Dao Domain realm. With such strength, capturing the Heavenly Beginning Heavenly Maiden should not be difficult."
Lai Wangren smiled and said, "We have you to thank, Divine Cliff Gentleman. Otherwise, the two of us would have already died in the Eastern Region Sacred City."
"The Merit Dao Transformation Pill is priceless. Only you, sir, could have obtained two of them. We owe you a great debt."
Qu Xingzhe then shifted the topic and added, "However, the Heavenly Beginning Heavenly Maiden is accompanied by four elders of the Heavenly Beginning Civilization, each of whom is no simple character. Capturing her will be no easy task."
"Cough, cough."
Divine Cliff Gentleman coughed several times.
Because his Sacred Heart had been injured, Divine Cliff Gentleman's recovery was slower than Lai Wangren and Qu Xingzhe's, and he had yet to return to his peak state.
"Don't worry. We're not going to fight them head-on. We need to wait for the best opportunity. They're heading to War Soul Star, likely to besiege the Blood Bee Shura King. There's bound to be a fierce battle. When both sides are weakened, we'll show up to clean up the mess," Divine Cliff Gentleman said.
The Heavenly Beginning Fairy, the Imperial Ancestor Crown Prince, the Fourteenth Prince, the Lion Green Divine Son, and a host of other experts all set foot on War Soul Star.
On the planet were massive craters.
Inside each crater lay a corpse.
These were the cultivators under the Imperial Ancestor Crown Prince and the Fourteenth Prince, nearly all wiped out.
The Imperial Ancestor Crown Prince's Golden Armor Imperial Guards numbered over a hundred, all of them Saint Kings, but they had all been killed without a single survivor. Such a loss made even the Imperial Ancestor Crown Prince tremble with rage, his eyes bloodshot.
How would he explain this to the Imperial Lord and the Divine Empress when he returned to the Imperial Ancestor Divine Dynasty?
The Fourteenth Prince found the Spirit Child.
The Spirit Child was one of his most formidable subordinates, with a cultivation close to the Dao Domain realm. But now, he had become a dried corpse, his face twisted, his body full of holes. He must have suffered greatly in death.
"We must kill the Blood Bee Shura King. This person is a great threat to the Heavenly Court," the Fourteenth Prince said.
The warm smile on the Fourteenth Prince's face had vanished completely, replaced by a fierce killing intent.
The Blood Bee Shura King's methods were too terrifying. He alone had wiped out the forces under the Imperial Ancestor Crown Prince and the Fourteenth Prince, sending chills down the spines of even Dao Domain realm experts.
However, with their numerical advantage, they were not intimidated. They continued their advance toward the polar region.
At this moment, the most frustrated person was none other than Xian Gongming.
Back at Nine Bends Heavenly Star, Xian Gongming had tried every trick to slip away, but with Zhang Ruochen and Li Miaohan watching him closely, he had no chance.
Now, on War Soul Star, seeing the corpses strewn everywhere, Xian Gongming's fear only grew.
Xian Gongming said, "These were all brave warriors of the Imperial Ancestor Divine Dynasty. They must not be left to rot in the wilderness. I'll go collect their bodies."
Zhang Ruochen walked over with a smile and said, "Right now, we should concentrate all our strength on besieging and killing the Blood Bee Shura King. Once the Blood Bee Shura King is dead, Senior Xian Gongming will have plenty of time to gather their remains. There's no rush."
Xian Gongming was about to retort...
"Kill the Blood Bee Shura King first. We'll deal with other matters later," the Imperial Ancestor Crown Prince said coldly.
At this moment, the Imperial Ancestor Crown Prince was burning with rage and eager to eliminate the Blood Bee Shura King. Naturally, he wouldn't let Xian Gongming leave.
Xian Gongming was helpless. Although he wasn't necessarily bound to obey the Imperial Ancestor Crown Prince, fleeing now would make him a laughingstock across the entire Heavenly Court realm.
What's more, that bastard Li Miaohan was still following him like a shadow, making it impossible to escape unnoticed.
At the polar region of War Soul Star stood a stone pillar millions of meters high, rugged and towering. It looked like a divine weapon of the gods or a divine peak supporting the heavens.
If laid horizontally on the ground, its length could reach several thousand miles.
The bizarre giant beast chained to the stone pillar was half the size of War Soul Star itself. Even though it was already dead, the aura it emitted was suffocating.
The closer they got to the polar region, the more oppressive the aura from the giant beast and the stone pillar became.
Qu Shan Old Mother stared at the giant beast, her expression growing solemn, as if lost in thought.
"Master, what's wrong?" White Vermilion Bird asked.
Qu Shan Old Mother's attitude toward Black Phoenix and White Vermilion Bird was still quite gentle. She said, "If I'm not mistaken, that giant beast is the sub-divine beast, Starry Sky Giant Crocodile."
Black Phoenix was shocked. "Starry Sky Giant Crocodile? Legend has it that the Starry Sky Giant Crocodile roams the cosmic star sea, feeding on planets rich in heavenly and earthly spiritual energy. It belongs neither to the Heavenly Court realm nor the Hell Realm. How did it die in the Kunlun realm?"
"Die in the Kunlun realm?"
Qu Shan Old Mother shook her head. "The Starry Sky Giant Crocodile died only a few hundred years ago. A few hundred years ago, the Kunlun realm had no gods. Who could have killed it?"
White Vermilion Bird said, "So, the Starry Sky Giant Crocodile was killed and then fell here?"
Qu Shan Old Mother snorted lightly. "Even so, who chained it to the stone pillar? It seems the Luo River hides many secrets."
Five hundred miles from the polar region.
All cultivators found their cultivation suppressed by an invisible force, able to unleash less than ten percent of their full power.
What made Zhang Ruochen uneasy was that space was becoming increasingly dense. Tearing through space or performing a spatial displacement was becoming extremely difficult.
"Look, there's a sea of flowers over there."
"Heavens, those are Sacred Medicine Sea-Withering Flowers, all over thirty thousand years old. Some have even reached seventy or eighty thousand years."
"Hurry and pick them. Swallowing the sacred medicine of War Soul Star can directly increase the sacred rules within your body, skyrocketing your cultivation."
A group of cultivators rushed toward that sea of flowers.
Zhang Ruochen warned, "Be careful. The sacred medicine on War Soul Star is aggressive."
No one listened to him.
After all, those cultivators were all experts. They didn't believe that with their cultivation, they couldn't handle a few tens of thousands of years old sacred medicines.
A Six-Step Saint King realm being was the first to charge into the flower sea, heading for an eighty-thousand-year-old Sea-Withering Flower. His eyes grew more excited. "With this Sea-Withering Flower, I should be able to break through to the Seven-Step Saint King realm."
"Pfft."
A rust-covered long blade flew out from the soil, slicing the Six-Step Saint King realm being in two. His mutilated corpse flew into the air.
The hand gripping the blade was severely decayed, with the thumb and index finger rotted down to the bone.
The next moment, a rotting corpse clad in tattered battle armor crawled out from beneath the flower sea, wielding the rusted long blade, and cleaved another cultivator who had entered the flower sea in half.
The rotting corpse exuded a vast amount of death qi, carrying a nauseating stench of decay.
"It's a Corpse King."
"It's a trap. Definitely a trap. Run!"
...
Those cultivators were terrified by the aura emanating from the rotting corpse and frantically retreated, trying to escape the flower sea.
More rotting corpses crawled out from the flower sea, each one a Corpse King, releasing thick corpse qi as they continuously reaped the lives of those cultivators.
Zhang Ruochen had never been to the polar region of War Soul Star, but Ji Fanxin had. She had told him that in the polar region of War Soul Star, some sacred medicines controlled large numbers of corpse soldiers and ghost generals, possessing terrifying aggression.
The Corpse Kings in that flower sea were likely controlled by a single sacred medicine.
Xian Gongming, under the Imperial Ancestor Crown Prince, and a Dao Domain realm elder under the Lion Green Divine Son rushed over, simultaneously striking to suppress the dozens of Corpse Kings emerging from the ground.
"Roar!"
The Corpse King wielding the long blade let out a long howl, releasing an icy, bone-chilling wave of air, erupting with the might of a Great Saint.
The Dao Domain realm elder under the Lion Green Divine Son was sent flying backward by a single slash, a long bloody gash appearing on his right shoulder.
"Not good. That's a Corpse King formed from the death of an Undying Realm Great Saint."
The Undying Realm is the first realm of a Great Saint, representing the cultivation of an undying sacred body.
A Corpse King with an undying sacred body, still containing residual Great Saint power, was an extremely fearsome creature. Even ordinary Dao Domain realm experts would have to steer clear when encountering it.
What puzzled everyone was, since it had cultivated an undying sacred body, why was its corpse so severely decayed?
"Everyone, don't panic. Even if it was once a Great Saint, it's dead now. It may not be our match."
The Heavenly Beginning Fairy remained unshaken by the Great Saint's might. Calm and composed, she led the four great elders of the Heavenly Beginning Civilization as they charged into the flower sea. Each of them unleashed a sacred artifact, striking down at the Great Saint Corpse King.
"Whoosh!"
The Heavenly Beginning Fairy's Rain Silk Divine Sword, like a chain, wrapped tightly around the Great Saint Corpse King from above.
But the sharp Rain Silk Divine Sword couldn't cut through the Great Saint Corpse King's skin. It was worth noting that even Qu Shan Old Mother wouldn't dare to directly block the Rain Silk Divine Sword with her physical body.