Chapter: 2209 - A Hundred Years of Cultivation
The physical transformation did not end there. The blood flow within Zhang Ruochen's body became even faster, the sound it produced like the booming of a great bell or a massive cauldron.
Gradually, Zhang Ruochen's skin became as white as jade, while his hair and pupils turned blood-red. The nails on his hands grew rapidly longer.
More importantly, two sharp fangs grew from his mouth.
Paired with the eight golden fleshy wings on his back, Zhang Ruochen's current appearance was now indistinguishable from that of the Undying Blood Clan. Although he remained handsome and dashing, he had become incredibly sinister and strange.
Zhang Ruochen had once despised the Undying Blood Clan the most, yet now he had turned into this form. It felt almost like a form of mockery.
The only thing worth being grateful for was that Zhang Ruochen did not develop a craving for blood. This proved that what Xue Hou had said was true—she had indeed resolved this major problem for him.
Otherwise, he feared he would truly be unable to accept such a version of himself. He would rather die than become a blood-sucking monster.
Gradually, Zhang Ruochen adjusted his emotions, a resolute look appearing in his eyes. "Whether human or Undying Blood Clan, I am still Zhang Ruochen."
No matter how his body changed, as long as his original heart remained unchanged, everything would be as it was from the beginning.
As for how others might view him, Zhang Ruochen did not care. He had never tried to live his life the way others wanted him to.
Zhang Ruochen sat back down in a cross-legged position, activated his technique, and restrained his blood energy. Before long, his skin and nails returned to normal, and his fangs disappeared.
Just as he was about to retract his golden fleshy wings as well, he suddenly felt a slight, unusual sensation.
Stimulated by the power of a Great Saint, the secret patterns on his golden fleshy wings emerged. They began to absorb the sacred Qi of heaven and earth, and even the rules of heaven and earth gathered towards them.
For a moment, the rejection of Zhang Ruochen by the rules of heaven and earth and the sacred Qi of heaven and earth was greatly weakened. Instead, they actively generated a sense of affinity.
"It seems that, with the help of these eight golden wings, I can become more attuned to the rules of heaven and earth and the sacred Qi of the Hell Realm," Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
From this perspective alone, growing fleshy wings was not a bad thing. On the contrary, it was of great help to him at his current stage.
The fleshy wings of the Undying Blood Clan were by no means mere decorations. They could greatly increase speed, mobilize the rules of heaven and earth and the sacred Qi of heaven and earth, be used directly for attack, and had many other wonderful uses.
The more fleshy wings one had, the greater their effect.
Under normal circumstances, members of the Undying Blood Clan were born with only one pair of fleshy wings. After reaching the Saint realm, as their blood energy increased, they could potentially grow more wings.
Most Undying Blood Clan members had blood-red wings, while a few had silver wings. Any Undying Blood Clan member with silver wings possessed an extraordinary constitution, far stronger than the average human Saint Body.
Zhang Ruochen had encountered many members of the Undying Blood Clan, including geniuses with silver wings. The earliest was Xuanji Laoren's fourth disciple, Feng Han. Before becoming a Saint, he already had four silver wings, indicating an extremely powerful constitution.
There were also Ming Wang and Qi Sheng, who were born with six wings, truly exceptional talents.
However, among all the Undying Blood Clan members Zhang Ruochen had encountered, not one had golden fleshy wings like his.
He figured that golden fleshy wings were probably quite special within the Undying Blood Clan, certainly not comparable to the common blood-red wings.
"If I can fully control the power of this body and stimulate the bloodline power of the Half-God Body to its limit, the number of fleshy wings should increase," Zhang Ruochen said.
His constitution was incredibly powerful, even surpassing that of Qingsheng Great Saint.
When he reached the same cultivation level as Qingsheng Great Saint, the number of his fleshy wings would at least be comparable to Qingsheng Great Saint's, perhaps even surpassing him.
Since the fleshy wings could aid in cultivation, Zhang Ruochen decided not to retract them. He continued to activate his technique, doing his utmost to absorb the sacred Qi and rules of heaven and earth into his body to temper himself.
With the assistance of the Sun-Moon Divine Spring, the process of Zhang Ruochen mastering the power of his physical body accelerated significantly.
At the same time, Zhang Ruochen also tried to mobilize his Sacred Dao rules.
Restricted by the Half-God Body, although Zhang Ruochen possessed two hundred million Sacred Dao rules, most of them could not be used. He could barely mobilize some Time rules, Space rules, and Truth rules.
In comparison, the restrictions on the Eternal Dao were much smaller.
After spending a considerable amount of time, Zhang Ruochen initially mastered the power of his physical body, and most of his Sacred Dao rules could be mobilized from within his body.
Thus, he was finally able to cultivate normally.
"It's time to use this treasure."
With a wave of his hand, Zhang Ruochen took out an object.
It was a stone house, carved from a single massive boulder. A stone dragon coiled around it, every scale incredibly clear and lifelike.
The surface of the stone house was engraved with a large number of ancient and complex secret patterns, seemingly containing the ultimate principles of heaven and earth, emitting a very obscure Dao resonance.
"According to legend, the Divine Dragon Enlightenment Chamber can double the efficiency of a cultivator's comprehension of the Sacred Dao. Intangibly, it can also nourish the physical body and Sacred Soul, and even make one's spiritual will tougher. I wonder if it is truly that effective." A hint of anticipation appeared in Zhang Ruochen's eyes.
The Divine Dragon Enlightenment Chamber was one of the most famous treasures in the Dragon God Hall, coveted by everyone.
Although Zhang Ruochen had killed Mu Zu and Dan Huang, and subdued Long Huang and Shi Huang, he had not obtained a Divine Dragon Enlightenment Chamber. Otherwise, he would have used it long ago.
This Divine Dragon Enlightenment Chamber came from Jian Huang, who had voluntarily given it to him. Now, it could finally be put to good use.
With a movement of his body, Zhang Ruochen directly entered the Divine Dragon Enlightenment Chamber and began to comprehend the Sacred Dao.
The interior of the Divine Dragon Enlightenment Chamber was as smooth as jade, covered with dragon patterns. Trails of dragon Qi transformed into dragon shapes, dancing within, occasionally passing through Zhang Ruochen's body, giving him a very wonderful feeling.
Zhang Ruochen had obtained a large number of treasures on True Dragon Island. Although he had used some to cultivate the remnants of the Sacred Bright Empire, he still had many left, almost all of which were precious items.
Now that he had broken through to the Great Saint realm, he could better utilize these treasures.
Cultivation at the Great Saint realm was different from the Saint King realm. Advancing through each minor realm required an extremely long time and a large amount of treasures.
Fortunately, Zhang Ruochen lacked nothing. With a large number of Divine Stones in hand, he was fully confident that he could significantly increase his cultivation and strength in a short period.
After twenty-seven years of seclusion, Zhang Ruochen mastered the power of his physical body, and his Sacred Soul was completely integrated with his flesh. At the same time, he became familiar with the rules of heaven and earth and the sacred Qi of the Hell Realm, able to mobilize them at will without any hindrance.
Zhang Ruochen did not end his seclusion. Instead, he chose to continue his deep cultivation, fully immersing himself in comprehending the Sacred Dao rules.
He possessed a foundation far beyond that of ordinary people. Upon becoming a Great Saint, he already had two hundred million Sacred Dao rules. In the current era, only Yan Wushen could compare.
On this basis, doubling the total number of Sacred Dao rules would allow him to reach the middle stage of the Immortal Realm. Doubling it again and then condensing a Sacred Will would allow him to reach the late stage of the Immortal Realm.
In a sense, the more profound one's accumulation, the greater the difficulty of breaking through to the next realm in the Great Saint stage.
However, correspondingly, the strength gained after the breakthrough would also be greater.
That is to say, for Zhang Ruochen to break through to the middle stage of the Immortal Realm, his Sacred Dao rules would need to reach at least four hundred million. Most experts in the late stage of the Immortal Realm did not have that many Sacred Dao rules.
Although Great Saints could comprehend Sacred Dao rules much faster than Saint Kings, comprehending two hundred million Sacred Dao rules still required an extremely long time to accumulate.
Under normal circumstances, it would take at least several hundred years, even without rest.
However, after only ninety-five years of seclusion, Zhang Ruochen's cultivation had reached the critical point for a breakthrough.
In less than a hundred years, Zhang Ruochen had comprehended nearly two hundred million Sacred Dao rules.
All of this was thanks to the treasures he had obtained from True Dragon Island, especially the Divine Dragon Enlightenment Chamber, which had tripled his efficiency in comprehending the Sacred Dao.
No wonder there were only ten Divine Dragon Enlightenment Chambers in the Dragon God Hall.
Such an incredible treasure could not be produced in large quantities even by the Divine Dragon Clan.
Zhang Ruochen opened his eyes and stopped cultivating.
In his hand was a massive crystal, emitting a dazzling divine light.
This crystal was left behind after Long Huang was killed. It contained the mysteries of the four Eternal Daos: Time, Space, Origin, and Darkness.
After years of refining and comprehending, Zhang Ruochen had exhausted the Time and Space power contained within the crystal. As a result, his attainments in Time and Space had greatly improved.
"I'm still a bit short. I can't break through to the middle stage of the Immortal Realm. Perhaps I need more accumulation." A glimmer of understanding arose in Zhang Ruochen's heart.
He had tried several times but failed to break through. Without a doubt, he had encountered a bottleneck.
Zhang Ruochen no longer forced it. He let himself relax. Perhaps, at some point, the opportunity for a breakthrough would appear.
Anyway, he still had dozens of Divine Stones, so time was abundant. There was no need to be too anxious.
Since he was no longer focusing solely on improving his cultivation, Zhang Ruochen shifted his attention to other aspects.
To increase his strength, improving his cultivation was just one aspect. He could also cultivate Sacred Arts and refine his battle weapons.
Now that he was a Great Saint, he could cultivate the Sacred Arts he had mastered to a higher level.
For example, he could try to cultivate the thirteenth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm. He could continue to deduce the twelfth layer of the Luo Water Fist Art. He could also cultivate the fourth level of the Divine Demon Prison Suppression.
The Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm was one of the earliest Sacred Arts Zhang Ruochen had cultivated. He had always valued it highly, investing a lot of resources and enduring a lot of hardship.
"The thirteenth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm is called Dragon-Elephant World Destruction. It is the most overbearing palm, with extremely high requirements for physical strength and spiritual will. A slight mistake could destroy the physical body or lead to a demonic deviation."
"Cultivating this palm to Minor Achievement makes it comparable to a Hundred Shackles-level high-rank Sacred Art. Cultivating it to Major Achievement makes it comparable to a Thousand Questions-level high-rank Sacred Art. Cultivating it to Great Perfection makes it comparable to a Ten Thousand Deaths Escape-level high-rank Sacred Art."
"Legend has it that if one can break the limit and cultivate Dragon-Elephant World Destruction to the Supreme Realm, it can become a Supreme-level high-rank Sacred Art. However, in the Ten Thousand Buddha Path, no one has reached that level since the Middle Ages."
Common high-rank Sacred Arts were mostly at the Immortal level and Hundred Shackles level. Thousand Questions-level ones were rare, Ten Thousand Deaths Escape-level ones were even rarer, and Supreme-level ones were probably only found in the inheritances left by gods.
Even those Supreme Realm experts mostly did not cultivate Supreme-level high-rank Sacred Arts. Being able to cultivate one or two Ten Thousand Deaths Escape-level high-rank Sacred Arts was already considered very good.
At his current stage, Zhang Ruochen naturally did not dare to hope for too much. It would be enough if he could cultivate the thirteenth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm to Minor Achievement.
To achieve this step, it was actually very simple. He just needed to refine two Hundred Shackles-level Dragon Souls and two Hundred Shackles-level Elephant Souls each.
Of course, he also needed a massive amount of Yang energy, at least a million times that of an ordinary person.
Zhang Ruochen's advantage was that he now had a Half-God Body, so he didn't have to worry about being unable to withstand the power of the Hundred Shackles-level Dragon Souls and Elephant Souls.
"I'll go buy the Dragon Souls and Elephant Souls first."
Immediately, Zhang Ruochen decided to end his seclusion.
Although Hundred Shackles Great Saint-level Dragon Souls and Elephant Souls were rare, the Hell Realm had been at war with the Heavenly Dragon Realm and the Ten Thousand Demon Realm for years, so they had naturally killed Great Saints from the Dragon Clan and Elephant Clan.
Through the Ancient Saint Pavilion, Zhang Ruochen bought the Dragon Souls and Elephant Souls.
Just as Zhang Ruochen was about to return to continue his secluded cultivation, he encountered Xue Hou.
"How is Kong Le now?" Zhang Ruochen asked with concern.
Chi Kongle was recuperating in a special secret realm of the Blood Absolute Family. Zhang Ruochen could not enter it freely. He had been there a few times but could only wait outside.
Xue Hou said, "Rest assured, Mother will do her best for Kong Le's matter. Her condition is gradually improving."
Hearing this, Zhang Ruochen felt relieved. He then asked, "Mother, you came here in person specifically to wait for me. There must be something important, right?"
Xue Hou led Zhang Ruochen into a garden of Blood Millet Underworld Flowers within the Blood Absolute Family.
Blood Millet Underworld Flowers were comparable to Sacred Medicine. Each plant contained blood energy equivalent to a human Saint. Only the genius disciples or top experts of the Blood Absolute Family could enter this garden to admire and cultivate.
As they walked, the servants in the garden knelt down. Those genius disciples and top experts all knelt on one knee, not daring to raise their heads.
"You've been in the Hell Realm for a while now. Are you used to it?" Xue Hou was dignified and sacred, her transcendent aura naturally radiating outward.
Zhang Ruochen said, "It's fine."
"Do you regret it?" Xue Hou asked.
"No."
Xue Hou asked again, "Your Undying Blood Wings have grown out, haven't they? Can you show them to Mother?"
"Alright."
A layer of brilliant golden light appeared on Zhang Ruochen's back. The next moment, eight golden fleshy wings spread out. At the same time, the sacred might of a Great Saint erupted, sweeping across the entire Blood Millet Underworld Flower Garden.
The cultivators in the garden all trembled with fear.
Among them, a powerful cultivator looked up and saw that Zhang Ruochen had become incredibly tall and majestic. The eight golden wings on his back were like eight golden clouds, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.
"Golden ones, and eight wings. Good, very good."
Xue Hou did not hide her emotions. Her face was full of praise and joy.
Zhang Ruochen retracted his golden wings, and the sacred might dissipated.
"A month from now, the family will hold a Divine Ascension Banquet. All the gods of the Blood Heaven Tribe who are in the Hell Realm and have no major commitments will attend. In addition, the elites of the Blood Heaven Tribe who will participate in the Heaven Hunting Grand Banquet will also gather at the Blood Absolute Family. You will need to make an appearance then," Xue Hou said.
A strange look flashed in Zhang Ruochen's eyes. Although the Divine Ascension Banquet was grand, gathering all the gods of the Blood Heaven Tribe was undoubtedly an exaggeration.
He suspected that there was more to it than that.
Even if Xue Jue War God was renowned and feared, it was unlikely that all the gods of the Blood Heaven Tribe would be so accommodating.
As if knowing what Zhang Ruochen was thinking, Xue Hou explained, "Xue Jue War God is about to become the new Great Clan Leader of the Blood Heaven Tribe."
Hearing this, Zhang Ruochen suddenly understood. The Great Clan Leader was the most powerful person in a tribe. Who would dare to be negligent?
To obtain any benefits from the Blood Clan's Undying Divine Temple, one had to rely on the Great Clan Leader to fight for them.
The stronger the Great Clan Leader, the more prosperous a tribe would often be.
The Blood Heaven Tribe had once had a powerful Great Clan Leader, but unfortunately, he had fallen in the brutal divine war of one hundred thousand years ago.
After that, although the Undying Divine Temple had appointed a new Great Clan Leader, his strength was far inferior.
Now, Xue Jue War God was finally about to ascend to the position of Great Clan Leader. Most of the gods of the Blood Heaven Tribe supported this, seeing it as an opportunity for the Blood Heaven Tribe to rise again.
Those gods of the Blood Heaven Tribe seemed to be coming to congratulate Xue Hou and Ming Wang on becoming gods, but in reality, they were coming for Xue Jue War God.
"I will attend," Zhang Ruochen nodded.
As the only child of Xue Hou, he could not be absent at such an important time.
After a moment of thought, Xue Hou said, "Chen'er, now that you have activated your Undying Blood Clan bloodline and grown your wings, you can undergo a Blood Spring Baptism. It will help you better control the power of your wings."
Zhang Ruochen was silent for a moment, then said, "Mother, please make the arrangements."
The wings had already grown. This was an unchangeable fact. Instead of dwelling on it, he should think about how to make himself stronger.
"The Blood Absolute Family has a Blood Spring from the Primordial Era. It can give you the most thorough baptism, stimulating your original bloodline power," Xue Hou said.
What she had prepared for Zhang Ruochen was naturally the best.