Chapter 2477: A Battlefield That Shakes the Heart
"Yue'er, your overall perspective is far too lacking compared to your master. What is this loss? Compared to the Origin Divine Temple, even if it weren't just one Divine Maiden City, but all one hundred and eighty pavilions of the Goddess Twelve Pavilions were destroyed, it would still be worth it. Besides, Zhang Ruochen should have already fallen into your master's hands. The wealth on him alone far exceeds this Divine Maiden City," Duan Lingfeng said.
With Duan Lingfeng's powerful spiritual power, Zhang Ruochen dared not activate the Heart of Truth or mobilize his spiritual power, so he had no idea what they were discussing.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, a deafening sound rang out.
In Divine Maiden City, countless cultivators' eardrums instantly ruptured, blood streaming from both ears.
A powerful pressure surged down from above, crushing the Dao locks, Great Saint inscriptions, and Divine patterns within the city.
Streets and ancient buildings in the city crumbled like tofu.
The city-protecting grand formation had shattered!
The entire Divine Maiden City slowly sank into the ground.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
...
The destructive power unleashed by the Divine Punishment Heavenly Talisman condensed into forms like divine halls, ancient Buddhas, war hammers, and more, striking Divine Maiden City. With each strike, a large area of the city was reduced to ashes.
It was like doomsday had arrived, with figures soaring everywhere in the city.
All cultivators, regardless of their cultivation level, were thrown into chaos.
Screams, cries for help, and curses intermingled.
Cultivators of too low a level were pressed to the ground by the talisman's might, unable to move or escape, only able to let out mournful howls or weep softly.
"Is this a divine punishment sent by the gods?"
"Everyone will die. Escape is impossible."
"Father, Lingling is scared... Ah..."
"Master, save me."
...
As the divine talisman descended, whether they were Fish-Dragon Realm beings, Saints, or Saint Kings, their lives were fragile. A flash of lightning meant the annihilation of divine form, reducing them to particles.
Only Great Saints could barely seek a chance to survive from the aftermath of the talisman's attack.
The moment the talisman broke through the city-protecting grand formation, Duan Lingfeng activated the Space Teleportation Array in the city lord's mansion, taking everyone away.
Zhang Ruochen hadn't personally witnessed the tragic scene in Divine Maiden City, but he could imagine it, which weighed heavily on his heart. "If the divine talisman was truly unleashed by Bai Qinger's people, such ruthless, merciless, and mad methods are truly chilling."
Destroying a city and killing countless cultivators just to clear the Goddess Twelve Pavilions of suspicion—Zhang Ruochen asked himself if he could do such a thing.
The Space Teleportation Array sent them to a vast white snowfield, far from Divine Maiden City.
Duan Lingfeng took out a crimson-gold staff, full of ancient charm, with a fist-sized turtle forged at the top. Observing closely, Zhang Ruochen noticed the staff resembled a coiled snake, covered in scales.
The snake was entwined around the turtle.
This staff was in the form of a Xuanwu.
Duan Lingfeng held the staff and struck it heavily against the ground.
The energy surged from underground into the sky, causing the snow and ice to fly up like white petals.
The next moment, all the Spiritual Power Saint Masters were horrified to find the ground violently shaking and rising.
A Xuanwu divine corpse, over two hundred miles long, broke through the snow and crawled out from underground, with everyone on its back.
The madness in Duan Lingfeng's eyes grew stronger as he commanded, "All Spiritual Power Saint Masters, I will arrange and dispatch you to activate the Xuanwu Swallowing Heaven Formation. You are responsible for powering the concealment formation, corpse-controlling divine patterns, and Great Brightness Sword on the Xuanwu divine corpse."
All the Great Saints immediately moved into action.
But the hundreds of Spiritual Power Saint Masters were still in shock and fear.
Duan Lingfeng's voice reached their ears: "All spiritual power cultivators, you have one quarter of an hour to find the formation area corresponding to the Xuanwu stone in your hands."
All the Spiritual Power Saint Masters began to move, spreading to different positions on the Xuanwu divine corpse's back.
Duan Lingfeng sneered as he watched, thinking to himself, "Once the Xuanwu Swallowing Heaven Formation is activated, it will drain your spiritual power, Saint souls, and blood, turning you all into corpses. That's all you're worth. Below Great Saint, all are ants."
Zhang Ruochen found the formation gap corresponding to the Xuanwu stone in his hand, placed the stone in, and crouched down to examine the surrounding formation inscriptions.
Although he hadn't spent much time studying the Dao of formations,
Having refined the Divine Wood Heart and inherited a full eon of knowledge from the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree, and having read many formation-related texts, his understanding of formations might not match that of a Geomaster, but it far surpassed the Spiritual Power Saint Masters present.
As Zhang Ruochen studied, the concealment formation and corpse-controlling divine patterns on the Xuanwu divine corpse were activated. The divine corpse stepped through the void, moving silently northward at incredible speed.
After traveling about eight thousand miles, Zhang Ruochen sensed powerful energy fluctuations in the air.
He looked northward.
He saw snow-capped mountains—some flattened and charred black, some burning with boiling crimson magma, and others sheared off, their peaks gone.
A shockingly vast battlefield stretched for tens of thousands of miles, the terrain completely altered, the rules of heaven and earth in chaos, and dust forming black clouds that covered the sky.
Arriving here felt like entering a dark Shura slaughter ground.
The Xuanwu divine corpse flew into clouds a thousand zhang above the ground to hide and stopped.
All the Spiritual Power Saint Masters trembled with fear, murmuring among themselves.
"Is this a Great Saint-level battle? And not just one Great Saint—what happened on Ice King Star?"
"Divine Maiden City is destroyed, and tens of thousands of miles of land here are turned to scorched earth. It's like the sky is falling and the earth is caving in."
"We're not here to join the battle, are we?"
"What's there to fear? With the World Hand here and the Great Saints in command, even the strongest enemy can be crushed."
...
Using the naked eye of his demigod body, Zhang Ruochen pierced through the clouds and saw a shocking great battle erupting ten thousand miles away. Dozens of top-tier Great Saint figures were divided into two camps, clashing fiercely.
In that area, space itself was shattered, riddled with countless cracks.
Over a dozen Gates of Destiny hung in midair.
A giant seven zhang tall, with limbs growing from its head and no body, flew in the void, emitting sounds like dragon roars that shook the Gates of Destiny.
Zhang Ruochen identified this person: "Pang Hu, the leader of the Great Evolution Divine Sect."
An undead warship eight hundred miles long flew in the air, packed with ghost soldiers and generals, flying thirty-six thousand yin banners. Each banner bore formation inscriptions.
A ghost cultivator with nine eyes, dressed in white and holding a feather fan, stood at the bow of the undead warship. His hair, a thousand miles long, hung down, but he had no face.
"The leader of the Ghost Ship Alliance, Nine-Eyed Ghost Emperor."
A divine hall built from the corpses of Saint-level beings, three thousand zhang tall, crashed into a Gate of Destiny. This was a true divine hall, controlled by nine divine corpses, and even the Gate of Destiny couldn't withstand it, shattering instantly.
Inside the hall sat a withered, monkey-like figure, thin as a stick. From its hands flew tens of thousands of Saint Qi threads, controlling the nine divine corpses.
"The strongest below the divine realm of the Undead Hall, Corpse-Eating Ape."
...
Zhang Ruochen's scalp tingled. All the figures here were top-tier Great Saint experts from the Ten Dark Powers. For many Great Saints, these were legendary beings.
Known only by their fearsome reputations, their true forms had never been seen.
Who would have thought that these ruthless characters, who shook the Heavenly Court Myriad Realms and the Ten Clans of Hell, had all descended on Ice King Star?
Without guessing, the ones besieged by the top experts of the Ten Dark Powers were definitely the Minister of Works of the Destiny Temple, aiming to seize the Celestial Pivot Needle.
Zhang Ruochen had suspected this earlier but never dared to believe Bai Qinger had such audacity. Moreover, she had opened two battlefields, both facing opponents of the highest caliber.
"This woman is too crazy, crazier than any cultivator I've ever seen."
The only relief now was that although cultivators from the Wujian Pavilion appeared on the battlefield, there was no sign of Hanxue.
Hanxue was likely still in Divine Maiden City.
Divine Maiden City was dangerous, but Xiao Hei was there and would surely protect her.
"Since we're already here, why isn't the Goddess Twelve Pavilions making a move? Are they waiting to reap the benefits?"
Zhang Ruochen immediately shook his head, realizing something was off.
Seizing the Celestial Pivot Needle was indeed an extremely important matter for the Ten Dark Powers, so joining forces was normal.
But their opponent was the Destiny Temple.
The Minister of Works of the Heavenly Fate Division must be a master of the Path of Fate, able to foresee fortune and misfortune. In such a situation, even if all Ten Dark Powers combined, they might not be a match for the Destiny Temple.
If the number one under heaven, Wu Ma Jiuxing, weren't injured, they might have had a chance.
But without Wu Ma Jiuxing, their chances of success were negligible.
Why would these evil Dao titans, who had lived for tens of thousands of years, take such a huge risk to gather here and do something so insane?
What was their confidence?
Beneath the thick war clouds, the Minister of Works of the Heavenly Fate Division, Gong Nanfeng, sat by a fire, warming himself. He said to Bore, who stood opposite him, "Ice King Star is as cold as the legends say. My body is weak. Without the fire you brought, I might freeze to death here."
Bore stood upright, looking at the Gate of Destiny that had been annihilated in the sky, feeling the earth tremble, and said, "Freezing to death is better than being killed."
Gong Nanfeng smiled. "I've calculated. I won't die this time. Besides, with Wuyue Minghuang, Death High Priest, Fulu High Priest, Xionghai High Priest, and Nutian High Priest here, how could mere cultivators of the Ten Dark Powers harm me?"
"I have an ominous premonition," Bore said.
The four High Priests and Que, sitting by the fire, looked at her seriously.
Even Gong Nanfeng stopped smiling. "Don't scare me."
As the Fate Goddess, wielding the Heavenly Decree empowered by the divine power of twelve deities, and having cultivated her True Self Gate, her premonition was no mere feeling—it had to be taken seriously.
Seeing Bore's solemn expression, Gong Nanfeng said, "I'll calculate once more."
"Since that's the case, let's end this quickly. Reel in this batch of fish first, then fish for others."
After Wuyue Minghuang spoke, a bright Gate of Destiny condensed above his head. His body turned into a beam of light, soaring into the sky and crashing into the eight-hundred-mile-long undead ghost ship.
The four High Priests remained by the fire.
Death High Priest drank blood wine.
Fulu High Priest squinted, lost in thought.
Nutian High Priest seemed eager to act but, glancing at the sky and seeing that the Five Undead Shuras, Four Minghuangs, and the experts from Fulu Divine Palace, Nutian Divine Palace, and Xionghai Divine Palace seemed to have things under control, he continued sitting there in silence.
The fire burned even brighter.
...
(For the next week, Xiaoyu will be attending the Sichuan Writers' Association's advanced research class, so only one chapter per day. After a week, I'll resume two chapters a day.)