Chapter 2272: The Heaven Hunting Battle
At the base of Fate Divine Mountain lay a vast, boundless wilderness.
At this moment, the wilderness was filled with ragged prisoners, their faces haggard and marked with the vicissitudes of suffering, their bodies covered in whip scars. Some had been imprisoned and enslaved for a thousand years.
The number of prisoners was too great to count, stretching out like a sea of humanity.
"Crack!"
The sound of a whip rang out.
"Hurry up, stop dawdling. You are nothing but lowly prey, and now is the time for you to fulfill your role as prey." A Bone Clan knight riding a bone beast swung a whip crackling with lightning, striking the body of Man Sword Great Saint.
The whip was inscribed with special Divine Marks, and even an indestructible saintly body could not withstand it.
"Sizzle."
Another bloody wound, deep enough to reveal bone, appeared on Man Sword Great Saint's back. Yet he did not utter a single sound, gritting his teeth and enduring it.
Zhang Ruochen, who was searching for Man Sword Great Saint, happened to witness this scene, and a cold light flashed in his eyes.
Xu's gaze shifted to Zhang Ruochen, a smug smile spreading across his face. "Even a Great Saint, once reduced to a slave, must behave obediently, or else they will suffer greatly. Fortunately, Ruochen Great Saint has half Undying Blood Clan bloodline and is a Divine Son. Otherwise, if you had come to the Hell Realm, you might have ended up just like them."
Zhang Ruochen let out a cold, sardonic laugh, choosing not to engage in a verbal dispute.
Lian Xi, standing not far away, looked down at the slaves below. Some of them were once renowned Great Saints, now tortured beyond recognition, their blood and qi withered, looking like beggars.
Among them were young talents she recognized, once peerless and commanding, now gaunt-faced, their eyes murky, their spirit and essence nearly extinguished.
And there were many, many more...
For the Hell Realm, this was a grand feast.
For the cultivators of the Heavenly Court, however, it was a tragic scene, deeply disheartening those young cultivators who had just begun their path of cultivation.
Even if one cultivated to become a Saint, or even a Great Saint, once captured by the Hell Realm, they were still like ants, suffering worse than an ordinary mortal.
What was the point of cultivation?
Lian Xi cast a glance at Zhang Ruochen ahead, her emotions complex.
"Whoosh—"
On the jade tables before each attending cultivator, two clusters of white light materialized.
Within the light, a scroll and a rhomboid mirror piece appeared.
Zhang Ruochen picked up the scroll and opened it to read.
The scroll recorded the various rules of this Heaven Hunting Battlefield, the number of Heaven Slaves, and the identity information of some of them.
"Heaven Slaves, a total of over thirteen million."
"Great Saint-level Heaven Slaves, two thousand two hundred and seventy-four."
Seeing this, Zhang Ruochen was greatly shaken.
A Great Saint, in any realm, was a top-tier combatant, a pillar of strength, an emperor of the sacred path.
To think, the Guanghan Realm, an entire realm, had only a few dozen Great Saints.
Over two thousand Great Saints had been captured by the Hell Realm and reduced to Heaven Slaves—this was something he had never dared to imagine before. How many great worlds had the Hell Realm destroyed in this millennium?
Reading further, Zhang Ruochen finally understood.
It turned out that these Heaven Slaves were not all prisoners from the Heavenly Court side. They also included cultivators from great worlds not affiliated with the Heavenly Court, Ruins Realms, cosmic secret realms, and ancient civilizations.
There were even frontier beings.
Not all great worlds were subordinate mortal realms of the Heavenly Court.
For instance, a great world that had not birthed a god was unqualified to become a subordinate mortal realm of the Heavenly Court.
Such great worlds, when discovered by the Undying Blood Clan and the Rakshasa Clan, would at most be enslaved, ruled, and herded like blood pastures. But if discovered by the Ghost Clan, Bone Clan, Corpse Clan, or Shura Clan, death was the only outcome.
Additionally, some Heaven Slaves were traitors of the Hell Realm.
Gradually, Zhang Ruochen began to understand why there were so many Great Saint Heaven Slaves. In truth, many of them did not come from weak realms but from strong ones.
Only a small portion of Great Saints were captured on the Merit Battlefield.
The Hell Realm and the myriad realms of the Heavenly Court clashed not only on the Merit Battlefield but also in the universe over various cultivation resources, leading to numerous conflicts. In such clashes, high-level cultivators were inevitably deployed—either Saint Kings or Great Saints.
Thus, it was not surprising that a considerable number of Great Saints and Saint Kings had been captured.
"Hmm? There are actually five Thousand Questions Realm Heaven Slaves, and one Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm Heaven Slave. Aren't the gods of the Hell Realm too bold? Aren't they afraid that this generation's top cultivators of the Hell Realm will be slaughtered in large numbers?" Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
"Captain."
The attending cultivators of the Blood Heaven Tribe all gathered around Zhang Ruochen, scrolls in hand.
Every Heaven Hunting Grand Banquet had slightly different rules. Before receiving the rule scroll, all previous discussions were merely predictions.
Now, they had to rethink and plan anew.
Gu Chenzi, seeing the page Zhang Ruochen was on, guessed his thoughts and said, "This is a passive hunt. No matter how powerful these Heaven Slaves are, they are merely the hunted."
"What do you mean?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Gu Chenzi said, "The spiritual power of all Heaven Slaves is restricted, preventing them from using spiritual power to probe. In other words, we can use our spiritual power to find them, but they can only use their eyes and ears to find us."
"To be precise, only their eyes can be of any use. As for their ears... the speed of any attending cultivator far surpasses the speed of sound by an unknown margin."
"If we are outmatched, we can immediately flee and hide. If they are outmatched and try to flee, how can they escape the range of spiritual power?"
He continued, "Secondly, we all have battle artifacts, even Supreme Sacred Artifacts, but they do not. A Hundred Shackles Great Perfection cultivator wielding a Supreme Sacred Artifact naturally has a chance to kill an unarmed Thousand Questions Realm Great Saint Heaven Slave."
"As for the sole Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm Great Saint, the scroll records that his hands and feet are bound by divine iron chains, severely limiting his speed and combat power. How many Hell Realm cultivators can he kill? He is merely a trapped beast, forced to take hits."
Zhang Ruochen flipped to the last page of the scroll, which was entirely filled with information about that Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm Great Saint.
"Name: Chi Di."
"Points: 10,000,000."
"Age: 21,000 years."
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen's pupils contracted sharply as he noticed a striking annotation—"Interstice Pavilion."
This Heaven Slave, who had reached the Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm, was actually a member of the Interstice Pavilion, meaning he was a subordinate of Qiangu Nüdi.
"Qiangu Nüdi claims to be one of the gods the Hell Realm most wants to eliminate. Just how vast a force has she built in the Hell Realm over these hundred thousand years? With so many strong subordinates, the Interstice Pavilion's strength probably rivals that of a great world," Zhang Ruochen thought.
The ranking of the Heaven Hunting Battlefield was similar to the Merit Battlefield, using a point system.
The stronger the Heaven Slave killed, the higher the points awarded.
Xue Chen said, "I've roughly calculated the points. All the Heaven Slaves together are worth about 600 million points. The entire Undying Blood Clan only needs to accumulate 60 million points to reach the average among the ten clans."
"Our Blood Heaven Tribe only needs to accumulate 6 million points to reach the median."
"Based on the Undying Blood Clan's past performance in the Heaven Hunting Grand Banquet, accumulating 60 million points will be very difficult. So, we only need 6 million points to rank among the top ten tribes."
Yi Xuan Great Saint cracked his knuckles, smiling. "If we kill that Chi Di, we'll get 10 million points. 6 million points should be a piece of cake, right?"
Yi Xuan Great Saint's gaze shifted to Yu Huang, Gu Chenzi, and Zhang Ruochen, his eagerness growing.
With the four of them combined, plus a Supreme Sacred Artifact, they might just be able to take down that Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm Great Saint.
If they were going to do it, they might as well go big and make a splash in the Hell Realm.
Xue Chen, unaware that Yi Xuan Great Saint and Gu Chenzi had already reached the Hundred Shackles Great Perfection, shook his head. "A Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm Great Saint, even with bound hands and feet, can unleash terrifying combat power. It's like if I bound your hands and feet—you could still easily kill a Saint King."
"Chi Di is a great challenge prepared by the gods for the top-tier cultivators like Lan Ying, Yan Huangtu, Luo Shengtian, and Wu Jiang. We don't need to get involved."
The cultivators of the Blood Heaven Tribe shared their opinions, analyzing this year's Heaven Hunting Grand Banquet in detail.
Zhang Ruochen had been studying the rules on the scroll and only spoke after finishing it. "Points are not just accumulated; they can also be deducted."
"First rule for point deduction: Maliciously attacking a fellow cultivator deducts 5,000 points per attack."
"Second rule: Intentionally killing a fellow cultivator deducts 500,000 points per death."
"Third rule: If ten clan members die, deduct 1 point. If all clan members die, half of the entire tribe's total points are deducted."
...
"So, while offense is important, defense is equally indispensable."
The Heaven Hunting Battlefield was located in a vast starry region within the Wugui Cosmic Forest, containing both massive life-sustaining planets and countless asteroids and star fragments.
According to the scroll, each of the ten clans of the Hell Realm had a home star.
On the Undying Blood Clan's home star lived a large number of low-ranking Undying Blood Clan members who lacked Half-Saint-level combat power. The Hell Realm cultivators participating in the hunt had to protect them from being killed by the Heaven Slaves.
Seeing this rule, Zhang Ruochen understood another layer of meaning behind the Heaven Hunting Grand Banquet.
The gods were clearly telling them that they must not only attack and kill but also learn to protect their own clan.
"Rumble."
The Heaven Hunting Battlefield opened, revealing a vast, six-colored starry forest in the mirror of the Myriad Realms Divine Eye.
Seeing this six-colored starry forest, Zhang Ruochen frowned and sighed softly. "The Heaven Hunting Battlefield is too vast. This will be a troublesome matter."
The other cultivators nodded slightly.
Based on the grand starry scene before them, they estimated that the battlefield contained at least a thousand planets and countless cosmic dust and star fragments.
So-called cosmic dust was not actual dust; the smallest pieces were only the size of a fist, while the largest were larger than mountains.
Many cosmic dust particles could conceal one's form.
Moreover, the entire battlefield's diameter definitely exceeded 100 million li, perhaps even more. Even a Great Saint of spiritual power could only probe a small area at a time.
Thus, finding those Heaven Slaves became the hardest task, completely different from their initial assumptions.
The Black Robe Great Priest of Fortune declared loudly, "The Heaven Hunting Grand Banquet officially begins, lasting one hundred days. The Heaven Slaves will enter the battlefield one hour early. During these one hundred days, if any of you kills an attending cultivator or 100,000 low-ranking Hell Realm cultivators and survives until the end of the banquet, the Destiny Temple will grant you freedom."
Hearing this, the Heaven Slaves, who had thought themselves doomed, had their eyes light up, and they released fierce killing intent.
For freedom, for revenge against the Hell Realm, their murderous will was fully ignited.
"Swish!"
A spatial channel opened, and over thirteen million Heaven Slaves were teleported to various locations on the battlefield in advance.
The Black Robe Great Priest of Fortune turned his gaze toward the direction of the Fate River Basin. "You have one hour to discuss your hunting plans. At the same time, every cultivator must immediately place all their battle artifacts, pills, and talismans into a spatial container and set it on the jade table before you. Each cultivator may keep only one battle artifact or defensive armor."
All cultivators immediately complied, with the gods watching, so no one dared to hide anything.
Zhang Ruochen put everything into a spatial exquisite ball, wearing only a white robe and carrying the Purple Gold Gourd. Suddenly, he felt much lighter.
Feng Hou's gaze discreetly fell on Zhang Ruochen.
Seeing that Zhang Ruochen had only kept a gourd, she was deeply puzzled.
What kind of Supreme Sacred Artifact was this gourd?
With her knowledge and experience, she could not discern the gourd's origin. She could only guess that it might be a newly refined treasure by Xue Jue War God. But could a newly forged Supreme Sacred Artifact contend with the Supreme Sacred Artifacts of the other nine clans?
"I hope nothing goes wrong," Feng Hou thought, growing worried.
The Black Robe Great Priest of Fortune pointed his finger, and a massive hall materialized from space, appearing above the Fate River Basin.
He said, "Inside the hall are specially made robes, storage containers, and various materials for each clan's cultivators. Each cultivator may take up to 10,000 jin of materials."
The cultivators of each clan flew into the hall.
Zhang Ruochen addressed the Blood Heaven Tribe cultivators, "Try to take materials for alchemy, formations, and talisman-making. Avoid heavy forging materials. It's hard to forge powerful weapons in a short time on the Heaven Hunting Battlefield."
Entering the hall, Zhang Ruochen collected ten sets of blood-red robes and a storage bracelet.
The blood-red robes were peculiar—they could not withstand external attacks but could endure the force of the wearer's own power. In short, they had no defensive properties but were extremely tough.
Zhang Ruochen was not interested in various materials, but he found an unexpected treasure: Divine Stones.
Unfortunately, each cultivator could only take one.
He immediately sent a message, instructing every Blood Heaven Tribe cultivator to take a Divine Stone.