# Chapter 2371: Blood Shadow Divine Mother
Stepping onto the stone steps once again, Zhang Ruochen was astonished to discover that although the maiden-shaped tree had undergone a startling transformation, the pressure falling upon him was actually less than the last time.
The tree's interference with his mental power had also become negligible.
Yet another strange force was affecting his mental power and judgment, guiding him step by step closer to the stone coffin.
Zhang Ruochen clearly sensed this guiding force, yet he could not rely on his own reason to stop moving forward. At this moment, he was like a donkey with a carrot dangling before its eyes.
To eat the carrot, he moved forward uncontrollably.
Of course, besides that mysterious force guiding him, his subjective consciousness also wanted to approach the stone coffin. Without this subjective awareness, no matter how strong the guiding force, how could it affect him?
"Who, who exactly is guiding me?"
Within Zhang Ruochen's body, the Five Elements power circulated faster.
Chaos radiance transformed into a patch of five-colored clouds, wrapping around his body.
Earth-attribute power surged from the stone coffin, continuously rushing into his body, yet also like countless invisible threads, pulling at his form.
Finally, Zhang Ruochen arrived beneath the tree, beside the stone coffin.
The maiden-shaped tree was graceful and moving, supremely beautiful, with a beauty that made one's soul tremble. However, up close, he realized her body was actually twelve zhang tall.
Her heartbeat thundered like crashing thunder, yet Zhang Ruochen was completely unaffected.
The stone coffin, over ten zhang long, was thick with ancient charm, majestic and grand, like a rectangular stone palace. Only by coming close could one feel its shock and awe.
Zhang Ruochen stood beside the stone coffin, his body not even one-fifth of its height.
Although the aura emitted by the maiden-shaped tree was far less terrifying than last time, it still pressed down on Zhang Ruochen, making his entire body uncomfortable, as if carrying a rocky planet.
Many gods could not exert such pressure on him.
Under such pressure, flying was a foolish fantasy.
"Blood footprints stretch all the way to the base of the stone coffin. Yan Zhexian must have come here. Where did she go? Could she have entered the stone coffin?"
"Enlarge!"
"Enlarge!"
"Enlarge!"
Shouting three times in succession.
Zhang Ruochen endured the pressure, his body expanding three times.
Finally, he became five zhang tall, transforming into a giant.
He looked through the open gap in the stone coffin, peering inside. Immediately, he felt an intense dizziness. His spirit, sacred soul, and body all seemed to fall into a vortex, his body uncontrollably tumbling into the coffin.
"Not good."
Zhang Ruochen's hands desperately grabbed the stone coffin, fully activating the power within his body.
He sensed danger. The stone coffin was like a demon's mouth; once he fell in, he would be devoured until not even bones remained.
A beautiful singing sounded in his ears.
The song came from above, from the mouth of the maiden-shaped tree.
"So... the power that guided me here was her... Yan Zhexian has probably fallen victim to her scheme as well." Zhang Ruochen gritted his teeth, mobilizing his mental power and the Heart of Truth to resist the illusory sound and hypnotic power contained in the song.
Logically speaking, even if Yan Zhexian's mental power was strong enough to resist the Blood Shadow Ghost Seed, having been severely injured, entering the earth's core would be extremely difficult.
Approaching the stone coffin would be even harder than reaching the heavens.
But if the maiden-shaped tree wanted to guide her into the stone coffin, then all obstacles would disappear.
"Enter. My time is running out. I need the blood of your Undying Blood Clan."
A graceful, moving voice reached Zhang Ruochen's ears.
The next moment, Zhang Ruochen only felt his body being struck. All his power scattered, and he fell limply into the stone coffin.
Who was it?
Was it her?
"Completely finished. They say wealth comes through danger, but most people die in the danger. Only a very few obtain the wealth. Could this gamble have failed?"
Zhang Ruochen knew well how terrifying the maiden-shaped tree was. It was definitely not something he could oppose at his current cultivation level.
"My blood will probably be drained dry by it."
The stone coffin was only a few zhang high, yet Zhang Ruochen fell for a long time without reaching the bottom.
All around was dim yellow.
Powerful and pure earth-attribute power still continuously rushed into his body.
The earth-element rules within him, and even the Five Elements rules, were rapidly growing.
Finally, Zhang Ruochen saw a mass of clouds below, emitting five colors of light: black, white, gold, green, and red. Five Elements power moved chaotically within.
At the center of the five-colored radiance was wrapped a beautiful figure with flowing long hair. It was Yan Zhexian, whom Zhang Ruochen had been searching for.
She floated as if in water, her eyes tightly closed.
"Is she also a Five Elements Chaos Immortal Sacred Body?" Zhang Ruochen said.
Although surprised, Zhang Ruochen was not shocked.
The materials needed to cultivate the Five Elements Chaos Immortal Sacred Body—Five Elements spiritual treasures and Five Elements divine objects—if Zhang Ruochen could find them, surely the vast Yama Clan could as well?
Moreover, Zhang Ruochen had succeeded in cultivating it even with the weak waste constitution of the Ninth Prince of Yunwu Commandery. Yan Zhexian's foundation was certainly far superior to his, making cultivation much easier.
"It's not a Five Elements Chaos Immortal Sacred Body, but a Five Elements Xuanhuang Immortal Sacred Body." Yan Zhexian opened her eyes and said this.
Zhang Ruochen had thought Yan Zhexian was dead. When she suddenly spoke, he was startled.
No.
The woman before him was Yan Zhexian, and the voice was hers.
Yet Zhang Ruochen felt a sense of unfamiliarity, an oppressive pressure, as if standing before him was not a Great Saint, but a god.
The one speaking was not Yan Zhexian.
Zhang Ruochen instinctively tried to release his Space True Domain, Truth Realm Form, and Virtual Time Domain, but none of them manifested. The shock in his heart reached an unprecedented level.
Just how powerful had she become?
Yan Zhexian said, "When cultivating a Five Elements constitution, every cultivator walks a different path. Because the Five Elements constitute all things in the world, ever-changing, with billions of forms."
"Like a leaf, even if the materials are exactly the same, if the proportions of the Five Elements differ, its form will be different. It could be a green tender leaf, a yellow withered leaf, or a stone leaf buried underground."
"The Five Elements Chaos constitution is the strongest among Five Elements constitutions."
"Chaos represents the world before heaven and earth were separated, without space, without time, without all things."
"That you were able to cultivate a Five Elements Chaos constitution is both coincidence and the inevitable result of some force's push. Your body bears the traces of too many super-strong beings. You are a piece on a chessboard that countless people are playing. Some want you to go east, some want you to go west, some want you to live, some want you to die. When the first chess player placed you on the board, all the players had their eyes on you."
"In chaos, there is no direction, no fixed point. Where your future goes depends on which of the chess players behind you plays more skillfully."
Zhang Ruochen said in a deep voice, "Who are you, and why are you telling me this? Where my future goes is for me to decide."
"You cannot decide. The chess players behind you are all extremely formidable. No matter how hard you try, you cannot escape their game. You should be grateful that you are still a useful piece." Yan Zhexian said.
Zhang Ruochen gritted his teeth, blood seeping from between them.
Yan Zhexian said, "You don't need to be so resentful. In this game, many gods don't even qualify to be pieces. That you can play a role on the chessboard is something to be proud of."
Zhang Ruochen said, "You know so much. It seems you are also a chess player."
"No, I am also a piece, and a discarded one at that." A bitter, self-mocking expression appeared on Yan Zhexian's holy face.
Zhang Ruochen was shocked. Someone as strong as you is a discarded piece?
Just how powerful must the chess player who controlled you be?
Zhang Ruochen, after all, had extraordinary mental fortitude. He quickly adjusted his emotions and calmed down, saying, "Are you the Blood Shadow Ghost Seed outside?"
"I am the Blood Shadow Divine Mother." Yan Zhexian said.
Zhang Ruochen drew in a cold breath. So it was a divine-level lifeform.
Yan Zhexian said, "My time is running out. I am about to leave this world. Do you have any other questions?"
"Is the Five Elements Chaos Immortal Sacred Body truly ranked first among Five Elements constitutions?"
Zhang Ruochen found it hard to believe.
Because in the history of the Kunlun Realm, Five Elements Chaos Bodies had appeared, and more than one.
Cultivating the Five Elements Chaos Immortal Sacred Body didn't seem too difficult. As long as one found Five Elements spiritual treasures and Five Elements divine objects, Zhang Ruochen had succeeded even with his innate waste constitution.
"I told you, your success was both coincidence and inevitability. This constitution, except for the Zhang Clan of the Kunlun Realm, can almost never be cultivated postnatally by any other lifeform. As a member of the Zhang Clan, the technique you cultivate should be the ancestral 'Thirty-Three Heavens,' right?" Yan Zhexian said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "'Thirty-Three Heavens'? No, it's not."
Yan Zhexian snorted lightly. "'Thirty-Three Heavens' ranks second on the Taiyi Divine Technique Ranking. This is no secret in either the Heavenly Court or Hell. What are you hiding? In the past, your Zhang Clan ancestor, the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable, cultivated 'Thirty-Three Heavens' to the twenty-seventh heaven, battling the heavens without a single defeat. The divine technique ranking of 'Thirty-Three Heavens' was established by him."
The era in which the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable existed was unimaginably ancient, yet from her tone, it seemed she had personally witnessed the Great Venerable himself.
Zhang Ruochen had actually suspected that the "Nine Heavens Bright Emperor Scripture" was part of the "Thirty-Three Heavens."
Therefore, upon learning the truth, he was not particularly surprised.
"If not for cultivating such a divine technique, if not for your special bloodline, how could you have succeeded in cultivating the Five Elements Chaos Immortal Sacred Body?" Yan Zhexian said.
Zhang Ruochen asked, "What exactly is the opportunity of the Undying Blood Clan's home star? Why did you lure us here? Is there White Pale Blood Soil here?"
Yan Zhexian said, "For the first question, the opportunity here does not belong to you, so you have no right to know."
"Second question, I lured this Yama Clan girl here because she has a Five Elements constitution and might be able to withstand all my power after I die. I lured you here because you have the bloodline of the Undying Blood Clan."
"As for the third question, the White Pale Blood Soil is right before your eyes."
Zhang Ruochen understood. So the opportunity of the Undying Blood Clan's home star was her, the Blood Shadow Divine Mother.
She was about to fall. Before falling, she wanted to find a lifeform with a Five Elements constitution to receive her inheritance. She had chosen Yan Zhexian...
Zhang Ruochen was very puzzled. "I also have a Five Elements constitution, and it's stronger than hers. I also have the bloodline of the Undying Blood Clan. Why can't I receive your inheritance?"
Zhang Ruochen didn't particularly care about the Blood Shadow Divine Mother's inheritance. After all, compared to Xumi Saint Monk's inheritance, the latter was certainly more powerful and more suitable for him.
But he really couldn't understand.
"You are not suitable. You only need to provide blood. My time has come. Now, give me your blood." Yan Zhexian said.
"Why shou—"
A snow-white tree root wrapped around Zhang Ruochen's body, pulling him before Yan Zhexian.
Yan Zhexian's eyes quickly softened. The oppressive aura on her disappeared. The Blood Shadow Divine Mother's tree roots wrapped around her. Streams of blood-red mist continuously surged into her body, converging toward her lower abdomen.
Yan Zhexian seemed to be enduring immense pain, her body trembling, emitting piercing screams.
The Blood Shadow Divine Mother's vast voice echoed in this space, "Having lived through countless ages, experienced countless eons, seen all the good and evil of the world, in the end, I still return to silence."
"Master, you were right. White Pale Blood Soil cannot grant immortality to any living or dead being. When it's time to perish, one perishes. When it's time to die, no matter how one struggles, one still dies."
"I only hope that in the next life's rebirth, I can continue to seek the answers you never found, and continue to search for you. Am I truly just your discarded piece? I don't believe it. I don't believe it. You must have been killed by them."
The voice completely dissipated.
The blood and essence on Yan Zhexian's body all flowed toward her lower abdomen. She became even more pained, her body gradually withering.
Finally, she bit down on Zhang Ruochen's neck, breaking the blood vessels, and sucked his blood to compensate for the loss of blood in her own body.
Zhang Ruochen was tightly bound by the Blood Shadow Divine Mother's tree roots, unable to stop her.
Zhang Ruochen only felt pain and humiliation. Moreover, due to the massive loss of blood, his head became dizzy and painful.
For a moment, Zhang Ruochen saw himself as a member of the Undying Blood Clan. He felt he had disgraced the Undying Blood Clan. A dignified Divine Son of the Undying Blood Clan was bitten on the neck and had his blood sucked by a Yama Clan woman.
Was there anything more shameful than this?
What Zhang Ruochen didn't notice was that the Blood Shadow Divine Mother's power, his blood, and Yan Zhexian's blood—three forces—all converged at Yan Zhexian's lower abdomen.
Gradually, Yan Zhexian's lower abdomen swelled up, as if she had been pregnant for several months.
"No, if this continues, the blood in my body will be drained dry by her."
Zhang Ruochen was about to faint from Yan Zhexian's sucking. He stopped restraining himself, let out a long roar, grew fangs from his mouth, turned his head, and bit Yan Zhexian's neck, his mouth full of blood.
...
In the previous chapter, there was a bug. Every Great Saint of the Undying Blood Clan should bring ten million clansmen. This... a bit awkward!
Also, many readers ask, how much longer until the Heaven Hunting Battle ends?
I can spoil it a bit. These two chapters are the final battle!