Chapter 2388: Nether Light Curse
Seeing more than three hundred Great Saint Heavenly Slaves charging at him, Zhang Ruochen felt no fear, only joy. Such a large amount of points—he had to claim them.
Of course, he absolutely could not fight head-on.
Even if three hundred-plus Great Saints each unleashed just one Sacred Art, the combined power could easily kill a peak Thousand Questions Realm Great Saint, and even a Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm Great Saint would have to avoid their edge.
When they closed to within a thousand miles, some Heavenly Slaves had already launched attacks.
"Hua—"
A serpent-shaped electric arc tore through the void, striking Zhang Ruochen directly in the chest.
Zhang Ruochen stood motionless, using his physical body to neutralize the attack's power, and deliberately laughed loudly: "You weak prisoners, long-range attacks can't harm me in the slightest."
Perhaps it was because he had refined the White Cang Blood Soil, but Zhang Ruochen's injuries were healing at an astonishing speed. The wound from the solid punch dealt by the Great Demon Shadow earlier had already recovered by seventy or eighty percent.
Even Zhang Ruochen himself was amazed.
The Great Saint Heavenly Slaves were enraged, thinking to themselves, *You, a traitor who defected to the Hell Realm, have the nerve to mock us?*
"Traitors deserve death. I will self-detonate my Sacred Source and perish together with him. Help me get within a thousand steps of him." A Bodhisattva from the Western Buddha Realm spoke like an angry Vajra.
In the Western Buddha Realm, reaching the Great Saint Realm qualified one for the title "Bodhisattva."
This angry Vajra-like Bodhisattva, whose Dharma name was Dao Yuan, had reached the Hundred Shackles Realm and was among the top five strongest in this batch of Great Saints.
The distance grew shorter, and in moments, they entered within a hundred miles of Zhang Ruochen.
All the Great Saint Heavenly Slaves were delighted. As long as they got a bit closer, there would be no need for self-detonation. With everyone attacking together, hundreds of Sacred Arts covering the area, no matter how high Zhang Ruochen's cultivation, he would be reduced to ashes. Even Yan Huangtu, who was not far from Zhang Ruochen, would die.
Dao Yuan kept his eyes on Zhang Ruochen. Suddenly, his expression changed in alarm: "Not good, Zhang Ruochen has disappeared!"
"Hua—"
Space trembled lightly.
Zhang Ruochen executed a Great Space Teleportation, appearing in the midst of the Great Saint Heavenly Slaves.
"Space Domain."
"Void Time Domain."
"Truth Realm Form."
"Immovable Wisdom King Sacred Image."
"Thunder and Lightning Venerable."
Zhang Ruochen unleashed five techniques in succession, then propped up the Seven Star Ghost Lotus for defense, focusing his mind six ways, pushing his Spiritual Power to the limit.
The Space Domain and Void Time Domain drastically reduced the movement speed of all the Great Saint Heavenly Slaves.
The Truth Realm Form allowed Zhang Ruochen to see through all illusions and falsehoods while amplifying his attack power, making the Immovable Wisdom King Sacred Image and Thunder and Lightning Venerable far more formidable. They charged and smashed, each strike either drenching a Great Saint Heavenly Slave in blood or directly shattering their Sacred Body.
Some were severely wounded, others killed outright.
In just six breaths of time, the Immovable Wisdom King Sacred Image and Thunder and Lightning Venerable had killed nine Undying Realm Great Saints in a row and severely wounded fifty-four Great Saints, turning this stretch of starry sky into a rolling sea of blood mist.
One man fighting over three hundred Great Saints, blasting apart sixty or seventy of their Sacred Bodies—it was an utterly shocking sight.
Every cultivator watching through the Myriad Realm Divine Eye projections felt their souls tremble.
Zhang Ruochen maintained that peak state for only six breaths before he began to feel overwhelmed, his mind growing dizzy. He quickly withdrew the Thunder and Lightning Venerable and focused entirely on controlling the Immovable Wisdom King Sacred Image and the Seven Star Ghost Lotus—one for offense, one for defense.
The attacks from the Great Saint Heavenly Slaves kept coming at Zhang Ruochen.
But each time, Zhang Ruochen used the mystery of the Truth Realm Form to predict them in advance, teleporting away and evading their power.
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen was like a wolf among sheep.
He could kill the Heavenly Slaves, but they could not harm him.
This scene left countless observing cultivators in silence, pondering how such a situation could arise. Even if the Heavenly Slaves' Spiritual Power was sealed, they had numbers on their side. How could they be so helpless?
Eventually, some gods reached a conclusion: Zhang Ruochen cultivated three eternal paths—Time, Space, and Truth—which allowed him not only to kill across realms but also to handle sieges by lower-realm cultivators with ease, advancing and retreating freely.
Siege tactics were ineffective against Zhang Ruochen.
"This is the terror of a Space-Time Controller! The higher the cultivation realm, the more formidable they become."
Some Hell Realm gods recalled the battle where they had besieged Xumi Saint Monk in the past.
If Xumi Saint Monk had not needed to protect the Kunlun Realm, even if the Hell Realm sent countless gods to surround and kill him, they would not have succeeded, because they could never have trapped him.
Of course, even in that battle, despite the many gods besieging Xumi Saint Monk, they still failed to kill him.
Xumi Saint Monk had fallen only because he converted all his divine power into the force protecting the Kunlun Realm.
In truth, it was a martyrdom.
He bought ten thousand years of precarious survival for the beings of the Kunlun Realm. He also bought time for some severely wounded gods of the Kunlun Realm to heal.
The gods of a great, eternal world could not all have truly perished.
"If Zhang Ruochen keeps killing like this, won't the points gap between the Undying Blood Clan and the Yama Clan widen again?"
Yan Huangtu stopped healing himself and charged into the midst of the three hundred-plus Great Saint Heavenly Slaves with the Great Demon Shadow.
"Zhang Ruochen, don't you care about the remaining clansmen of the Undying Blood Clan? If they all get killed, what use is all the points you're collecting now?"
Yan Huangtu's true body hunted the Heavenly Slaves, while the Great Demon Shadow stood guard with the Tongtian Ruyi, both defending against the Heavenly Slaves' attacks and keeping watch for a sudden strike from Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen said nothing.
Under the hunt of two top experts, even with the Great Saints' powerful life force, the Heavenly Slaves kept falling.
Many severely wounded Heavenly Slaves, after being blasted apart several times, were utterly annihilated in form and spirit.
Before long, nearly a hundred Great Saint Heavenly Slaves had fallen.
The remaining Great Saint Heavenly Slaves, now filled with fear, scattered in all directions.
"Zhang Ruochen is not someone we can kill. We'll have to wait for Chi Di to deal with him." Zi Cha Beast shot Zhang Ruochen a wary glance, then turned into a phantom and fled into the distance.
"Still trying to escape?"
Zhang Ruochen spread his arms, and a powerful wave of spatial tremors spread outward from him.
Thirty-six Space Swords materialized around him, turning into a rain of swords that flew toward the rapidly fleeing Zi Cha Beast.
Zi Cha Beast was a Hundred Shackles Great Perfection Great Saint, worth a million points.
Any clansman who saw him would have their eyes light up, more enticing than a peerless beauty.
The Space Sword Dance was a technique comparable to a Thousand Questions-level high-rank Sacred Art. Zi Cha Beast looked back, saw the rain of swords approaching, and his Sacred Soul trembled, feeling as if death had locked onto him.
"Boom."
The Great Demon Shadow intercepted from mid-path, swinging the Tongtian Ruyi to control the Supreme Power, shattering more than half of the Space Swords.
Only five Space Swords caught up to Zi Cha Beast, blocked by the purple flames he spat out, neutralizing Zhang Ruochen's killing blow.
Zhang Ruochen's face darkened. Yan Huangtu was indeed meddling again.
For now, Zhang Ruochen chose to ignore him and executed a Space Teleportation, preparing to continue chasing Zi Cha Beast.
"Bang."
The Space Teleportation was only half-executed when it was repelled by an invisible spatial wall, forcing him to remanifest his body in the cosmic void. Fortunately, Zhang Ruochen sensed something was wrong in advance and was not injured.
He steadied himself and looked ahead.
There, a dark green light sphere had appeared out of nowhere, about ten zhang in diameter, trapping him inside.
The sphere had been formless and invisible, only revealing itself when he collided with it.
Now, the dark green sphere's light gradually faded, vanishing again into nothingness.
Zhang Ruochen did not dare act rashly, knowing the sphere was still there.
"Could this be a trap set by someone in advance? No, that's not right. If this sphere had been here before, my Space Domain and Truth Realm Form would have sensed it." Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
Yan Huangtu saw this and showed a look of surprise.
A moment later, as if guessing something, he turned his head and saw a large number of Underworld Clan Great Saints flying into this stretch of void, forming squads to hunt the fleeing Heavenly Slaves.
"Zhang Ruochen, you stay here. I'll go hunt Zi Cha Beast first."
Yan Huangtu laughed loudly, turned into a golden light, and chased after him.
Zhang Ruochen naturally saw the Underworld Clan Great Saints as well. Realization dawned on him. Activating his Truth Eye, he looked around and said, "Wujiang, I know you're hiding nearby. Tell me, what kind of curse is this?"
There was no response from the void.
But the ten-zhang-diameter dark green sphere automatically reappeared and began to shrink rapidly.
Nine zhang, eight zhang, seven zhang...
The space Zhang Ruochen could move in grew smaller and smaller.
Zhang Ruochen's expression turned grim. He thought to himself, *Wujiang has learned his lesson. He no longer confronts me head-on but instead uses his strengths, hiding in the darkness and attacking me with curses.*
"Rise!"
Zhang Ruochen opened his hands, expanding his True Space Domain to push the dark green sphere back to three zhang away.
The True Space Domain could normally expand to a thousand zhang, and Zhang Ruochen thought he could simply burst the sphere. But the sphere's strength far exceeded his expectations. It was initially pushed to about ten zhang in diameter, but soon it was compressed back to three zhang.
"It seems Wujiang is using the Ten Thousand Curse Heavenly Bead. A Supreme Sacred Artifact should have such power." Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
The dark green sphere stopped shrinking, but over a hundred Underworld Clan Great Saints flew toward this direction, all mobilizing Nether Qi and activating their Monarch Sacred Artifacts, apparently planning to join forces and kill him inside the sphere.
Wujiang, hidden in the darkness, held the Ten Thousand Curse Heavenly Bead in both hands and muttered to himself, "Trapped in the Nether Light Curse, you can't escape. Today is your death day."
At this moment, Wujiang's face showed no emotion, eerily calm.
If Bore, Yuan Fei Great Saint, and the others were here, they would be greatly shocked. They all thought that after being defeated by Zhang Ruochen, Wujiang had become extreme and reckless, with a major flaw in his mental state.
But who would have thought that it was all an act by Wujiang?
In truth, after being defeated by Zhang Ruochen, Wujiang's mental state did not collapse. Instead, it was tempered, becoming more restrained and profound. Otherwise, he would not have obtained half the opportunities of the Underworld Clan's home star.
The reason for his disguise was that after careful analysis, Wujiang believed there was likely a spy among the Upper Three Clans, with a special connection to Zhang Ruochen. Otherwise, their operations would not always have flaws.
Wujiang had several suspects, including Bore and Yuan Fei Great Saint.
By pretending to be blinded by hatred, he wanted the spy to underestimate him. The more careless they were, the easier it would be to expose themselves.
Earlier, when Bore was injured, Wujiang immediately went to help her heal, actually intending to probe her background. Even though he thought it was impossible for Bore to be the Upper Three Clans' spy, he still had to investigate her.
"Break!"
The Seven Star Ghost Lotus transformed into a black flower, its seven petals spreading out to become dozens of zhang in size. Together with the True Space Domain, it burst the sphere formed by the Nether Light Curse, turning it into specks of dark green light.
Zhang Ruochen broke free.
Only a Supreme Sacred Artifact could counter a Supreme Sacred Artifact.
In the darkness, Wujiang's eyelids twitched. He quickly withdrew the Ten Thousand Curse Heavenly Bead.
"Hualala."
Above his head, Zhang Ruochen rushed out from a series of spatial ripples. The Blazing God Leg stomped down fiercely, the scorching divine flames dispelling the dark force shrouding Wujiang, revealing his handsome figure.
Wujiang clasped his hands together, and the phantom of the Nether God Ancestor appeared behind him.
The phantom extended a massive hand, clashing with the Blazing God Leg.
For a moment, they were locked in stalemate, but then the Nether God Ancestor's phantom trembled violently and cracked.
Wujiang's expression shifted. He turned into a black light shuttle and retreated swiftly.
"Bang."
The Nether God Ancestor's phantom shattered, burned by the divine flames into specks of starlight.
"The Nether God Ancestor—utterly useless."
Zhang Ruochen, his body wreathed in flames, landed opposite Wujiang.
Though he said this, Zhang Ruochen actually thought more highly of Wujiang. That kick was meant to severely wound him.
Wujiang's ability to escape unscathed was indeed remarkable.
Both his alertness and judgment far surpassed before.
Wujiang's expression remained unchanged. "It seems your cultivation has indeed advanced greatly. You can even find my hiding place in the darkness. What was that five-colored radiance you emitted earlier?"
The five-colored radiance from Zhang Ruochen earlier had been visible across almost the entire Heaven Hunting Battlefield. It was too astonishing, and Wujiang was naturally very curious.
Without clarifying this point, Wujiang felt a lingering unease.
Time was precious. Zhang Ruochen had no leisure to discuss this with him. He was about to chase after Yan Huangtu to stop him from hunting Zi Cha Beast.
But...
"Boom!"
A deafening sound came from afar.
Yan Huangtu's golden skeleton-like body was sent flying back by a murderous blood sword, traveling over two hundred miles.
The blood sword's power was immense, causing Yan Huangtu's bones to crack and golden light to spray everywhere, as if even his royal divine bones were about to shatter.
Zhang Ruochen's eyes narrowed sharply. "Lan Ying has come to join the fun too? Huh, it's her."
Feng Hou's figure appeared beside the blood sword.
She held a one-foot-long white Heavenly Fate Feather, manipulating tens of millions of Fate Rules, striking them into the Great Demon Shadow beside Yan Huangtu, freezing it in place.
This was not because Feng Hou's cultivation surpassed the Great Demon Shadow's.
Rather, the power of the Heavenly Fate Feather was perfectly suited to counter the Great Demon Shadow.
Feng Hou tried to control the Great Demon Shadow but failed, causing her willow-leaf-like brows to furrow slightly.
Lan Ying flew out of the Ashura Sword, forming a childlike body, and sneered, "This Great Demon Shadow is condensed from the souls of millions of demonic cultivators, repeatedly refined and assimilated by Yan Huangtu. How could your cultivation possibly control it? Let me handle it—I'll devour it whole."
Lan Ying opened his mouth wide and directly swallowed the Great Demon Shadow into his belly.