Chapter 2312: First Form

Chapter 2312: First Form

"Bang!"
Leftwood Sacred Lord's head exploded, purple blood mist spraying from his skull like a waterfall from a divine spring, dozens of Great Saint bone fragments mixed within, crashing into the ground in all directions.
Such a sudden turn of events left the seventeen Great Saints present utterly astonished.
A powerful Thousand Questions Realm Great Saint had been killed just like that?
The one who struck was not the renowned Yan Huangtu or Lan Ying of the Hell Realm, but Zhang Ruochen, who had only recently joined the Hell Realm, and Xia Yu, who had previously been little known.
"Leftwood Sacred Lord, the strongest among the five Thousand Questions Realm Heavenly Slaves, was taken down by those two. The Blood Heaven Tribe is truly defying the heavens in this Heaven Hunting Battle!"
The Ghost Clan Great Saints exchanged glances, their hearts filled with mixed emotions.
While they were delighted at Leftwood Sacred Lord's death, the one who had acted was Zhang Ruochen, a figure who still troubled them. Now that Zhang Ruochen had recovered from his injuries and arrived with overwhelming momentum, whether he would spare them remained uncertain.
Fang Mofeng, the leader of the Meteor Star Divine Temple, shouted loudly: "You two be careful—Leftwood's first form is a Liquid Demon, nearly immortal, not so easily killed."
Even without Fang Mofeng's warning, Zhang Ruochen's spiritual power had already locked onto Leftwood Sacred Lord's corpse.
He sensed that the life force within Leftwood Sacred Lord's body, which had been rapidly depleting, was now reviving swiftly, becoming even more vigorous than before.
On the ground, the headless corpse emitted a blinding purple light.
Flesh and bones melted like ice, turning into purple liquid.
"Rustle."
The purple liquid surged out from the Meteor Fall Armor, forming sword-like spikes that shot toward Zhang Ruochen and Yu Huang at incredible speed.
"Flow" was hardly the word—it was more like "thrust."
The speed of the flow surpassed lightning.
"Swish!"
Zhang Ruochen activated time power, channeling divine force into his left leg, his figure flickering as he grabbed Yu Huang's wrist and dragged her backward at breakneck speed.
"I didn't come looking for you, yet you deliver yourselves to me. Today, none of you will escape."
A mental voice filled with fury rang out.
The sword-like spikes of purple liquid, like fifteen sharp beams of purple light, pursued Zhang Ruochen and Yu Huang relentlessly, aiming straight for their hearts. Even with time power weakening them, the liquid's speed remained astonishing.
"Hmph!"
Yu Huang extended her right hand, her five fingers spinning. From her snow-white palm, the Seven Star Ghost Lotus manifested.
Under her dense Blood Fiend Qi's urging, the Supreme Inscription Runes of the Seven Star Ghost Lotus activated, releasing thousands of ghostly vapors and countless ghost fires floating in the void, flickering and shimmering.
With a thunderous roar, the Supreme power unleashed by the Seven Star Ghost Lotus shattered all the purple sword-like spikes, scattering them into countless droplets.
The droplets fell like purple rain, pattering onto the ground.
"Splash."
The purple droplets rapidly contracted, coalescing into a seven-meter-tall liquid giant. Its body was crystalline and flowing, with arms like mantis legs, and a particularly bright purple glow at its brow, resembling a purple sun.
At its feet, purple mist churned, accompanied by thunderous roars.
"Is it a living being or an undead? Or, like the Underworld Clan and Death Clan, both living and dead?" Yu Huang's eyes showed astonishment, deeply shocked.
The records on Leftwood Sacred Lord had no mention of him having another form.
Zhang Ruochen, however, was not panicked by Leftwood Sacred Lord's transformation. Instead, he looked intrigued, saying: "He has very strong spatial fluctuations—definitely not an ordinary race."
Leftwood Sacred Lord's gaze shifted between the Seven Star Ghost Lotus in Yu Huang's hand and the Purple Gold Gourd at Zhang Ruochen's waist, and he burst into laughter: "You may have ruined my plans, but compared to two Supreme Sacred Artifacts, that's a minor matter."
"The Supreme Sacred Artifacts are right here, but you'll need the ability to take them."
Zhang Ruochen stomped his foot hard, and layers of flames surged from beneath him—white Purifying Divine Flame and crimson flames condensed from Yan God Divine Marks.
In an instant, white and red flames covered the area for dozens of miles, forming a scorching fire prison.
No matter what race Leftwood Sacred Lord was, he was ultimately liquid.
Fire and water oppose each other.
Perhaps flames could refine him.
"Zhang Ruochen, you destroyed my second form, which shows some skill. But with your current cultivation, you're still far from contending with me."
Leftwood Sacred Lord let out a long roar, and from his liquid body surged a vast amount of purple water.
The purple water erupted like a mountain flood, raising waves dozens of feet high, smashing through the fire prison and spreading for a hundred miles.
"Swish!"
"Swish!"
Zhang Ruochen and Yu Huang dared not touch the purple water, each spreading their ten wings and soaring into the air. Looking down, they saw the ground completely submerged in purple water, forming a purple ocean.
"It's a Dao Form derived from Leftwood Sacred Lord's Sacred Dao rules," Yu Huang said.
A Thousand Questions Realm Great Saint cultivates over ten billion Sacred Dao rules, which can be used to derive their own Dao.
A Dao Form is one manifestation of that Dao.
A powerful Thousand Questions Realm Great Saint can use their Sacred Dao rules to derive an entire world. If the world is perfect enough and harmonizes with heaven and earth, they can achieve unity with the Dao, unleashing unparalleled combat power.
Leftwood Sacred Lord's body merged with the purple ocean, vanishing without a trace.
With a burst of laughter, the ocean below erupted with countless purple sword rains, shooting toward Zhang Ruochen and Yu Huang suspended in the air.
The dark, lightless planet was now illuminated in purple.
Zhang Ruochen and Yu Huang exchanged a glance, simultaneously channeling Saint Qi into the Seven Star Ghost Lotus.
The ghost lotus rapidly expanded, its seven petals turning into seven ghost clouds, condensing thousands of ghostly figures like descending ghost soldiers, clashing with the purple sword rain.
"Boom, rumble."
Powerful destructive energy filled the space between heaven and earth.
"Be careful—Leftwood Sacred Lord is activating fourteen Monarch Sacred Artifacts for a stronger second wave of attacks."
No sooner had Zhang Ruochen given this warning than he sensed faint spatial fluctuations. Alert, he glanced diagonally behind him. Wisps of purple killing aura seeped from the space, coalescing into Leftwood Sacred Lord's figure.
"This is... Leftwood Sacred Lord's Killing Shadow!" Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
The Killing Shadow silently extended an arm like a mantis leg, carrying a sharp purple gleam, slashing toward the back of Zhang Ruochen's neck.
With a tearing sound, Zhang Ruochen pulled the Ghost Head Whip from his waist, activating its icy, bone-chilling ghostly aura, and lashed it backward.
"Bang, bang."
The Ghost Head Whip clashed fiercely with the Killing Shadow, ghostly and killing auras forming ripples of energy.
"Break!"
Behind Zhang Ruochen, the Immovable Wisdom King Sacred Image manifested, towering dozens of miles high, with nine majestic heavenly realms above its head, radiating dazzling golden light.
Due to the suppression of the Dark Star's power, the Sacred Image would otherwise have reached over a thousand miles in height, making its might even more formidable.
The Immovable Wisdom King Sacred Image struck down with a palm, sending the Killing Shadow plummeting toward the ground.
Zhang Ruochen was about to pursue, intending to shatter the Killing Shadow completely and severely damage Leftwood Sacred Lord's killing intent. But not far away, Yu Huang cried out in pain, knocked flying by the fourteen Monarch Sacred Artifacts, barely holding on with the Seven Star Ghost Lotus.
Against a powerhouse like Leftwood Sacred Lord, even wielding a Supreme Sacred Artifact, Yu Huang could not face him head-on.
Of course, the key reason was that Leftwood Sacred Lord had seized over a dozen Monarch Sacred Artifacts, so he was not fighting bare-handed against the Supreme Sacred Artifact.
Zhang Ruochen's gaze fell on the seventeen Great Saints trapped by centipede-shaped chains on the cliff wall. He then swung the Ghost Head Whip, wrapping it around the centipede chains and yanking hard.
"Clatter, clatter."
The centipede-shaped chains, like a real centipede, were dragged away by Zhang Ruochen.
"If you want your weapons back, show me what you've got," Zhang Ruochen declared loudly, then transformed into a golden light, chasing after the direction Yu Huang had retreated.
The seventeen Great Saints broke free, but their cultivation remained sealed by Leftwood Sacred Lord's Shura Battle Qi.
"Burn Sacred Blood, break the seals, and help Zhang Ruochen and Yu Huang kill Leftwood Sacred Lord," Mo Cuo, Fang Mofeng, and Yan Hanyu, the three Great Saints from Meteor Star Divine Temple, acted decisively.
They activated secret techniques, burning their Sacred Blood to refine the Shura Battle Qi within them.
Though burning Sacred Blood would have severe side effects, even greatly reducing their lifespans, they had no choice but to fight to the death.
If Leftwood Sacred Lord defeated Zhang Ruochen and Yu Huang, he would still come for them.
This was a mortal enmity—escape was impossible.
The fourteen Ghost Clan Great Saints initially wanted to flee, but they could not bear to abandon their weapons. So they used forbidden arts, igniting ghost fires within their ghostly bodies, burning like lanterns to refine the seals within.
"Boom! Boom! Boom..."
Yu Huang, wielding the Seven Star Ghost Lotus, clashed fiercely with Leftwood Sacred Lord's fourteen Monarch Sacred Artifacts over a hundred times in the blink of an eye.
When Zhang Ruochen caught up, Yu Huang's mouth was covered in blood, severely injured. Her arms, propping up the Seven Star Ghost Lotus, were a bloody mess.
Zhang Ruochen patted the Purple Gold Gourd, about to activate its power to absorb all the Monarch Sacred Artifacts.
"Swish, swish."
Leftwood Sacred Lord, clearly aware of the Purple Gold Gourd's power, scattered the fourteen Monarch Sacred Artifacts in fourteen different directions, surrounding Zhang Ruochen and Yu Huang.
Once the gourd's power was triggered, the fourteen Monarch Sacred Artifacts could instantly fly hundreds of miles away.
"Zhang Ruochen, it's useless. Your gourd uses the power of spatial collapse. But the space on the third Dark Star is extremely stable—even if a spatial formation appears, the space won't collapse, and you can't take my weapons."
Leftwood Sacred Lord's voice came from all directions.
Each word originated from a different location.
Zhang Ruochen's gaze was sharp as a blade: "Then why are you afraid?"
Leftwood Sacred Lord's Killing Shadow appeared on the purple sea surface below, laughing loudly: "I'm not afraid—I just think we don't have to be enemies."
"You've killed many Hell Realm cultivators, including divine sons and daughters. Do you really think you can integrate into the Hell Realm and become one of them? Don't dream—the gods of the Hell Realm will always be wary of you."
"Back then, Desolate Heaven had the full support of Stone Ancestor and waged countless wars against the Heavenly Court Myriad Realms, piling up billions of corpses and earning great merits, yet he still couldn't enter the Hell Realm's core circle. In the end, he had to kill his own master to gain recognition."
"Zhang Ruochen, I can see that your ideals don't align with the Hell Realm. You'll never walk the same path as them—you'll only be enemies, never one of them."
"An enemy of my enemy is my friend. How about cooperating with me?"
Zhang Ruochen asked: "How?"
"Kill Xia Yu, offer her Seven Star Ghost Lotus to me, and I'll help you win first place in the Heaven Hunting Battle. Mutual benefit—isn't that a good thing?"
Leftwood Sacred Lord added: "Don't worry about the gods knowing—what happens on the Dark Star, even the gods can't perceive."
Though Yu Huang knew Zhang Ruochen would never cooperate with Leftwood Sacred Lord, her heart still tightened involuntarily.
As for the seventeen Hell Realm Great Saints breaking their seals, their faces changed drastically, their gazes fixed on Zhang Ruochen, fearing he might actually ally with Leftwood Sacred Lord.
If so, they were doomed.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen seem hesitant, Leftwood Sacred Lord continued: "You've seen my combat power just now. With your and Xia Yu's cultivation, even with Supreme Sacred Artifacts, you're bound to lose. Fighting me is not wise."
No one had expected Leftwood Sacred Lord to have another form.
In this form, his combat power surpassed the late Thousand Questions Realm, even rivaling peak Thousand Questions Realm Great Saints, far exceeding Zhang Ruochen's initial estimates.
Recall that the Yama Clan, led by Yan Huangtu and Yan Wushen, had gathered over a dozen Hundred Shackles Great Perfection Great Saints, plus a Supreme Sacred Artifact, just to suppress and refine a peak Thousand Questions Realm Imperial Grade Sacred Intent Pill.
In other words, without creating a perfect opportunity, killing Leftwood Sacred Lord would require Zhang Ruochen to mobilize a similar number of experts.
Zhang Ruochen met Leftwood Sacred Lord's gaze and sighed lightly: "Your threats and temptations have indeed intimidated me and tempted me. But our Blood Heaven Tribe's Yu Huang is such a peerless beauty, a nation-toppling goddess—how could I bear to harm her?"
"Besides, I've already given her the Seven Star Ghost Lotus, so I'd be embarrassed to take it back. Pity, pity—I'm still too soft-hearted toward women. For her sake, I'll have to keep fighting today."
Though Yu Huang knew Zhang Ruochen was spouting nonsense to provoke Leftwood Sacred Lord, a genuine smile still appeared on her face.
Leftwood Sacred Lord's Killing Shadow let out a furious snort: "Another fool made stupid by a woman. Then die with her!"
Leftwood Sacred Lord was about to activate the fourteen Monarch Sacred Artifacts for another attack when he sensed something amiss—the artifact spirits of the fourteen Monarch Sacred Artifacts were somewhat out of his control, not responding as he wished.
"The reason I wasted so many words was to buy them time to break their seals."
Zhang Ruochen's gaze turned cold as he stared at the seventeen Hell Realm Great Saints.
All seventeen Great Saints had broken their seals, unleashing seventeen powerful Sacred Auras. Shura Battle Qi and ghostly Qi formed pillars and bridges, connecting with the seventeen Monarch Sacred Artifacts that had once belonged to them.