Chapter 2248: Dialogue with the Empress
Bore was very direct, getting straight to the point: "In the Star Sea World, the one pulling the strings behind the scenes was you. The Divine Travel Pill, the Eon-rank Divine Illumination Lotus, and the half-section of divine corpse—all fell into your hands. Am I wrong?"
Zhang Ruochen neither admitted nor denied it.
He remained silent in response.
She continued, "Blood Butcher doesn't have that kind of boldness, nor the ability to challenge Blade Prison Emperor. He's just a puppet you put on the surface."
"So what?"
Zhang Ruochen said this, effectively acknowledging it.
Bore's bright eyes were lively and clear, staring straight at him. "That borderland deity was killed with a single sword strike by Fengchen Sword God. That strike must have used the power of Sword Dao Essence—earth-shattering, containing his most extreme swordsmanship. I want to observe the sword energy cut on the divine corpse. I hope Saint Zhang Ruochen can grant this."
Zhang Ruochen gazed at her, noticing that the Sword Dao Rules she had cultivated already numbered 920,000, not far from perfection.
After a long while, he said, "I thought you came for the Divine Travel Pill."
Bore spread her palm, and on her snow-white skin appeared a paper slip, which she handed to Zhang Ruochen. "I don't like owing favors, lest they breed entanglements. If Saint Zhang Ruochen agrees, this gift will serve as thanks."
"No need for a gift. Just observing the divine corpse's cut—I'll take you there." Zhang Ruochen said.
"Don't refuse so quickly. Open it and take a look before deciding."
The paper slip floated up from Bore's palm, light and airy, drifting to Zhang Ruochen.
Unable to refuse, Zhang Ruochen reached out and took it.
"Hmm? Could it be..."
A single piece of paper, yet it weighed a thousand jin.
A guess formed in Zhang Ruochen's mind.
Opening it, his guess was confirmed—it was an Essence Mark.
This Essence Mark was shaped like a water droplet.
"A Water Path Essence Mark of the Five Elements."
Zhang Ruochen was slightly surprised, lifting his head to look at Bore.
Bore's gaze was pure and calm. "Do you accept this gift, Saint Zhang Ruochen?"
"As expected of a candidate for the Divine Maiden of the Destiny Temple, you guessed that my next step is to condense a Water Path Sacred Intent." Zhang Ruochen shook his head lightly, a deep, contemplative look in his eyes.
Bore said, "Every move you make now, even everything in your future, is already fated. You cannot escape. Now do you understand how powerful the Path of Fate is?"
Zhang Ruochen gave a noncommittal smile, accepted the Water Path Essence Mark, stood up, and said, "Follow me."
He didn't ask where this Water Path Essence Mark came from.
Bore didn't want to owe favors or create entanglements, and Zhang Ruochen felt the same.
Arriving beneath the Sundial, Zhang Ruochen once again took out the bronze coffin.
He had already carefully examined the sword energy cut on the divine corpse but hadn't discerned anything. However, Bore was right—Fengchen Sword God's strike must have used the power of Essence.
Observing the cut was like witnessing Fengchen Sword God's god-slaying sword strike, no different from analyzing a Sword Dao Essence Mark.
Moreover, the cut likely still contained a large amount of Sword Dao Rules and sword intent residue.
But since the divine corpse was heavily toxic, Zhang Ruochen hadn't entered the bronze coffin or observed it up close.
"Want to go in and take a look together?" Bore suddenly asked.
"Sure."
Zhang Ruochen and Bore flew into the bronze coffin, passing through layers of space barriers and formation layers, entering the interior of the soul mist. It was like crossing an atmosphere and landing on the divine corpse.
From outside the coffin, it was just half a corpse.
But now, in Zhang Ruochen's view, it was a boundless purple land, the ground as hard as divine iron. Lightning bolts streaked through the air, and mist swirled above.
On this land, there were cyan lakes and rivers, their contents not water but divine-grade venom.
A divine corpse was like an entire world.
Only by landing on the divine corpse could one feel its enormity and the overwhelming divine might pressing down. Of course, with Zhang Ruochen's Great Saint-level cultivation, he no longer feared divine might.
The venom wasn't spread across the entire corpse, only in the areas of lakes and rivers. However, venom rain occasionally fell from the sky, so Zhang Ruochen and Bore were very cautious, careful not to touch it.
Arriving at the divine corpse's cut, it was like reaching the edge of the world. Before them appeared a bottomless cliff, with vast amounts of blood mist, venom mist, and soul mist surging up from below, intermingling in cyan and purple, their forces clashing violently.
Any living being standing at such a cliff's edge would feel a chill in their heart.
Bore stood gracefully, gazing at the surging mist ahead. "You know? Every move you made in the Fate Divine Domain was within the sight of the gods. It's hard to hide secrets."
Zhang Ruochen didn't know why she suddenly said this. "Even if the gods are powerful, they can't know everything. As long as I'm willing, I have ways to obscure their perception. But doing so now would do me more harm than good."
The gods were watching Zhang Ruochen because they didn't trust him.
So, Zhang Ruochen let them watch, making no attempt to hide anything. Otherwise, with his current cultivation, erasing a few divine thoughts from the gods wouldn't be difficult.
Many Great Saints who didn't want to be spied on by gods did this.
A Great Saint wasn't an ant; they couldn't be controlled or spied on at will by gods. They already had a certain degree of resistance.
Bore said, "Within the soul mist or inside the divine corpse, the gods' perception and even their divination abilities will fail."
"Oh?"
Zhang Ruochen showed a thoughtful expression. "You mean it's hard for the gods to perceive what happens here? And they can't divine it?"
"Someone wants to meet you. This is a good place. I'll go comprehend the sword first. You talk with her slowly."
With that, Bore leaped off the cliff, disappearing into the mist.
Zhang Ruochen pondered Bore's words. Suddenly, he understood and took out the paper slip.
At the center of the slip was a water droplet.
Staring at the droplet, his consciousness and sacred soul were suddenly pulled by a strange force into a boundless sea.
The sea had no waves, no wind.
The water was clear and calm, like a giant mirror.
A slender figure appeared silently on the sea.
She stood before Zhang Ruochen, but he couldn't make out her features. She was like a shadow, yet real—a moon in water, a flower in a mirror.
Quite eerie.
"Who are you?"
Zhang Ruochen felt a hint of familiarity, as if he had seen her somewhere before.
"Huaying Qingchan."
Her voice echoed across the sea, sometimes near, sometimes far, elusive.
"Huaying" was an ancient surname from the Kunlun Realm. Zhang Ruochen had seen it in the texts of the Holy Bright Central Empire, mentioning many great figures who had once shaken the world.
Unfortunately, after the Middle Ages, this surname vanished from the Kunlun Realm.
"Are you an ancient god from the Kunlun Realm?"
Zhang Ruochen could tell that the one before him was just a divine thought of a god.
The divine thought was hidden within the Water Path Essence Mark, coming here to meet him.
"Kunlun, such a distant name. I long to go back and see it. A hundred thousand years have passed. Has the Daming River dried up? Have the Confucian Ancestor tea trees of the Painting Sect grown new leaves? The majestic Zulong Mountain, the vast North Sea Waters, the bustling Wanxiang City... and the old friends of the past, are they still there? Have they awakened?"
The woman named Huaying Qingchan had a dazed look, her voice filled with melancholy.
She seemed to be asking Zhang Ruochen, or perhaps talking to herself.
The voice of the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree sounded in Zhang Ruochen's mind. "She was the former saintess of the Fallen God Island, and the granddaughter of Yunshen Daozhu. A hundred thousand years ago, she was the unparalleled genius of the Kunlun Realm, the number one beauty."
"In her era, she suppressed all prodigies. At the same cultivation level, she had no match. Blood God's senior disciple, Blood Lingxian, was also a heaven-defying talent, but when he fought her at the same level, he only lasted seven moves before spitting blood and collapsing. Those seven moves made Blood Lingxian famous, becoming the second strongest of that era."
"Now, in the Heavenly Court, the infamous Black Heart Demon Lord was just her follower back then."
"Unfortunately, she wasn't born in the same era as Xue Jue War God and Desolate Heaven, missing them by thirty thousand years. Otherwise, they might not have become the unparalleled pair of the last eon."
Before the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree finished, Zhang Ruochen had already guessed Huaying Qingchan's identity.
Qiangu Nüdi.
No wonder there was a hint of familiarity. At the Ghost Gate, he had seen her figure across the distant starry sky.
Zhang Ruochen's heart shook violently.
He never imagined he would one day converse face-to-face with a legendary figure.
"I sense the aura of Senior Jietian on you. Can I go see her?" Huaying Qingchan said.
"Of course."
Zhang Ruochen felt a deep respect for Qiangu Nüdi and openly opened the world gate of the Qiankun Realm.
Huaying Qingchan walked to the base of the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree and conversed with it. Zhang Ruochen stood at a distance, not approaching, his heart filled with myriad emotions.
After an unknown time, Huaying Qingchan walked over, scrutinizing Zhang Ruochen. "For Xumi Saint Monk to choose you as his heir and entrust Senior Jietian to you for nurturing, you must have exceptional qualities. Zhang Ruochen, I've actually wanted to meet you for a long time."
"Haven't we already met once?"
Zhang Ruochen then recounted their encounter at the Ghost Gate.
Huaying Qingchan pondered for a moment. "When you saw me, we were likely not on the same timeline."
Zhang Ruochen said, "What does the Empress mean by that?"
"We were in the same space but not the same time. What you saw was just an image I left behind years ago, traveling to the future." Huaying Qingchan said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Is the Empress also a Time Controller? Already possessing the power to travel to the past and future?"
"It's not a big deal. The future me often appears before me, teaching me deeper paths." Huaying Qingchan said lightly.
Throughout history, beings who could traverse past and future were few and far between.
And she said it wasn't a big deal?
Moreover, she could travel from the future to the present to teach herself.
Being her own master—how could other cultivators even compete?
Zhang Ruochen felt a greater confusion: since Qiangu Nüdi's future self could travel to the present to teach her, why had his future self never appeared?
Did it mean he had no future?
That he died before reaching that realm?
Huaying Qingchan guessed Zhang Ruochen's thoughts. "Don't overthink it. Even if other Time Controllers gain the ability to travel back in time, they must pay a heavy price. Moreover, they cannot affect the past in any way, nor can they directly meet their past selves."
"The reason I can do this is because I possess a divine artifact that can counter time, holding about thirty percent of the world's Time Essence. Even so, what I can do is very limited."
Zhang Ruochen's will was firm. He smiled faintly and didn't dwell on the future.
Huaying Qingchan said, "Do you know why I risked coming to the Fate Divine Domain to meet you in person?"
"Is it related to the Heaven Hunting Banquet?" Zhang Ruochen said.
Huaying Qingchan nodded. "The Fate Heavenly Token and Fate Essence are things I must obtain. I know Xuanji has already told you, but this matter carries immense risk. You can refuse entirely; there's no need to get involved."
"Is the Empress questioning my resolve? Or doubting my character?" Zhang Ruochen said.
Huaying Qingchan said, "If I doubted you, I wouldn't have come to meet you in person. If the gods of the Hell Realm knew I was in the Fate Divine Domain, they would spare no effort to find me and kill me with the most ruthless means."
"The reason I came to see you is to gauge your determination. Also, to see what kind of person Xumi Saint Monk's heir, Xuanji's disciple, and Hanxue's master truly is."
"At the Heaven Hunting Banquet, when you encounter cultivators from the Heavenly Court Myriad Realms, can you strike? When you meet old friends from the Kunlun Realm, can you be decisive in killing?"
Seeing Zhang Ruochen remain silent for a long time, Huaying Qingchan added, "If you can't, then don't attend the Heaven Hunting Banquet. Bore will take your place to seize the Fate Heavenly Token and Fate Essence."
"Is killing unavoidable?" Zhang Ruochen said.
Huaying Qingchan said, "As many as you can kill, you must kill."
Zhang Ruochen frowned deeply, unable to answer Qiangu Nüdi, because he didn't know who he would encounter at the Heaven Hunting Banquet. Could he truly be decisive in killing?
Huaying Qingchan said, "Let me ask you a question. Why do you train so hard? Why do you attend the Heaven Hunting Banquet? What is the purpose of everything you do now?"
Zhang Ruochen muttered to himself, "For what? Master said that if we rescue that Formation Tai Shang, it could change the Kunlun Realm's situation, perhaps forcing the Hell Realm to retreat."
"Is it for the Kunlun Realm?" Huaying Qingchan said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Perhaps... yes. Isn't the Empress the same?"
Huaying Qingchan extended two slender fingers and pulled up a tender green blade of grass, its roots clinging to soil.
"I am like this blade of grass, already separated from the ground. The earth is just a memory and a homeland to me. Now, I only want to do what I want to do, what I must do."
"If the Kunlun Realm perishes, my heart will feel sorrow, but it is not my everything."
"For a hundred thousand years, I have only wanted to do one thing: rescue my grandfather and reunite with him. The rise and fall of the Kunlun Realm is not as important to me as this."
"Perhaps my grandfather's generation had grand ambitions, deep feelings for the Kunlun Realm, lofty ideals, visions of glory, and plans for the universe. But I do not."
"Xuanji got involved because he has full confidence in my grandfather, deep affection for the Kunlun Realm, and lingering attachment to everything there."
"But what about you? Are you doing this for the Kunlun Realm? For yourself? Or for your master, Xuanji?"
"If you can't figure this out, don't get involved. Don't be coerced by the Kunlun Realm's survival, nor swayed by so-called righteousness. After all, you have no connection to my grandfather. Whether he is still alive, I can't even be sure. Even if he is, whether he can force the Hell Realm to retreat is also unknown."
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