Chapter 2500: Thirty Miles

Chapter 2500: Thirty Miles

"You don't dare to kill me."

Zhang Ruochen's voice echoed with a hint of laughter, brimming with confidence.

"Is that so?"

Bai Qinger's fingertips released a dense mass of Sacred Dao Rules, twisting them into a thin, long thread.

A single thread, yet it was a weapon capable of slaying any saint in the world.

"Roar!"

A dazzling golden light emerged behind Zhang Ruochen, condensing into a cloud-like mass of radiance, soft as silk.

Zangjin Baihu's true form manifested, standing within the golden light cloud. The character "Zang" on its brow exuded immense divine might, and even Bai Qinger, with her cultivation, was momentarily intimidated, halting in her tracks.

Her gaze grew heavy with solemnity.

The gap in cultivation between Zhang Ruochen and Bai Qinger was vast.

Yet the gap between Bai Qinger and Zangjin Baihu was even greater.

If not for the fear of heavenly punishment triggered by the rules of heaven and earth, Zangjin Baihu could have reduced Bai Qinger to a pile of bones with a single exhale of divine breath. Perhaps not even bones would remain.

Bai Qinger withdrew her rule thread. "The legendary Zangjin Baihu finally reveals its true form."

Zangjin Baihu walked to Zhang Ruochen's left, raising its massive head. "If you kill him, I will stop at nothing to kill you."

"Not afraid of heavenly punishment?" Bai Qinger asked.

Zangjin Baihu replied, "Heavenly punishment may not kill me, but if I strike, you will surely die."

Zhang Ruochen gazed at the peerless beauty before him, inwardly admiring her composure. Despite enduring Zangjin Baihu's overwhelming divine might, she remained calm and collected—truly worthy of being a Formation Heavenly Master and one of the most formidable figures below the God Realm.

Bai Qinger pondered for a moment. "What do you think of my talent?"

"Eon-level talent, unmatched under heaven," Zangjin Baihu said.

Bai Qinger continued, "Then how about I become your guide? Zhang Ruochen's cultivation is too low, and his ranking on the Divine Reserve Scroll is unremarkable. He may face great calamities in the future—he is not your best choice."

"No," Zangjin Baihu said.

"Why? Do you believe Zhang Ruochen has greater potential?" Bai Qinger asked.

"No. Simply because you offended me, and I am very angry." Zangjin Baihu's tiger eyes stared straight at Bai Qinger, clearly holding a grudge.

Bai Qinger had once called it a "sick cat," speaking with extreme arrogance.

Zangjin Baihu was petty and had harbored resentment ever since.

That was why Zangjin Baihu had promised Zhang Ruochen that, in any battle against Bai Qinger, he could borrow its power without limit.

A tiger must avenge its honor.

Zhang Ruochen suddenly realized this tiger had quite a personality, and he felt an urge to pat its rear. But just as his hand was about to fall, he hesitated, remembering this wasn't Xiao Hei but a powerful deity, and quickly withdrew it.

Injured and pale-faced, Zhang Ruochen said, "Actually, given our current distance, even if Zangjin Baihu didn't intervene, if I wanted to leave, you couldn't stop me, let alone kill me."

"So confident?" Bai Qinger asked.

Zhang Ruochen and Bai Qinger were thirty miles apart.

For top-tier Great Saints, this distance was almost negligible.

It could be crossed in the blink of an eye.

Zhang Ruochen calmly extended a hand, making a gesture of invitation. "If you don't believe me, feel free to try."

Bai Qinger looked at Zangjin Baihu. "He wants to try. You wouldn't object if I kill him, would you?"

"If you can kill him, he brought it on himself," Zangjin Baihu said, seemingly confident in Zhang Ruochen as well.

At a distance of thirty miles, even a powerhouse like Wuyue Minghuang couldn't escape unscathed.

Bai Qinger was somewhat skeptical that Zhang Ruochen, with only his Hundred Shackles Realm cultivation and without borrowing Zangjin Baihu's power, could flee from her.

"Shua!"

A clone shot out from Bai Qinger's body, turning into a white streak that flew out at incredible speed.

Given her status and cultivation, killing a Hundred Shackles Realm Great Saint naturally didn't require her true body.

A single clone was more than enough.

It would be like Zhang Ruochen killing a Saint King—using his true body would be overkill.

"Hua!"

Though just a clone, its speed exceeded ten thousand times the speed of sound, crossing the thirty miles in a flash as it clawed at Zhang Ruochen's neck.

The neck was crushed.

But it was only Zhang Ruochen's afterimage.

His true body had already crossed space, teleporting eight hundred miles away. "A single clone trying to kill me? You underestimate the Heir of Time and Space."

"If one isn't enough, I'll send more."

With a thought from Bai Qinger, a clone of Bai Qinger materialized behind Zhang Ruochen, eight hundred miles away, striking at his back.

Zhang Ruochen immediately activated his Virtual Time Domain and teleported again.

The purpose of the Virtual Time Domain wasn't to block Bai Qinger's attack but to buy time for his spatial teleportation. In a clash with an opponent of Bai Qinger's caliber, a single instant could decide life or death.

The Virtual Time Domain helped Zhang Ruochen gain that instant.

"Shua! Shua! Shua..."

Bai Qinger's clones multiplied, reaching dozens, each far surpassing Zhang Ruochen in combat power, capable of killing him in one blow.

The sky was filled with figures, like thousands of white-clad celestial maidens besieging Zhang Ruochen.

Yet they struggled to harm him in the slightest.

Having reached the Great Perfection of the Hundred Shackles Realm, with surging divine power within him and having obtained ninety-nine ten-thousandths of the Space Esoterica, Zhang Ruochen's escape skills were unmatched by few below the God Realm.

"Withdraw!"

All the clones flew back, merging into Bai Qinger.

Bai Qinger said, "I truly underestimated the Heir of Time and Space's escape abilities."

Zhang Ruochen caught the condescension in her words but didn't take it to heart. He smiled. "If you were constantly pursued, assassinated, and besieged, you'd develop this skill too. All cultivators train for immortality—the one who survives to the end laughs last."

"Then I'll have to get serious."

Bai Qinger closed her eyes.

Zhang Ruochen sensed trouble, realizing Bai Qinger was about to launch a spiritual power attack. He quickly channeled the Blood Fiend Qi within him into the War God Belt. The belt blazed with blood-red light, releasing divine qi and the War God's will, forming a pair of massive blood wings behind Zhang Ruochen.

The War God Belt was designed to grant Zhang Ruochen Xue Jue War God's divine power only when he was attacked by a deity, saving his life.

But the belt itself was also a treasure, sufficient to block spiritual power attacks.

Zhang Ruochen's greatest fear was Bai Qinger's spiritual power attacks, as spiritual power could cross thousands of miles in an instant, making escape via spatial means difficult.

To be safe, he also activated the Flame God Armor, enveloping his entire body, and secretly activated the Heart of Truth.

As expected, the moment Bai Qinger closed her eyes, a powerful spiritual storm erupted.

The spiritual storm was silent, but unleashed by a Great Saint with a spiritual power intensity of sixty-nine and a half steps, no one below the God Realm would dare withstand it head-on. Even deities with weaker spiritual power would be wary.

Despite his various defenses, Zhang Ruochen chose to use spatial teleportation to avoid direct contact with the spiritual storm.

"I've locked the space. How will you escape?"

Bai Qinger spread her palm, and a palm print shadow spanning ninety thousand miles appeared, suspended in the cosmos, a truly awe-inspiring sight.

Zhang Ruochen stood as if in her palm, his body as insignificant as dust.

Space was indeed locked, more stable than on the Dark Star, making spatial teleportation impossible even for the best spatial cultivators below the God Realm.

But Zhang Ruochen was no longer the same.

"You can't lock it!"

Zhang Ruochen stomped his foot, and dense spatial inscriptions surged from his sole, weaving into a Space Teleportation Array.

It wasn't a true Space Teleportation Array but a fusion of Space Esoterica and Space Rules.

"Hua!"

The spatial array spun once, and Zhang Ruochen vanished, teleporting three hundred thousand miles away.

A flicker of surprise crossed Bai Qinger's eyes, then she seemed to understand something. She smiled faintly and retracted the ninety-thousand-mile palm print shadow.

A moment later, she watched Zhang Ruochen fly back from the horizon. "How much Space Esoterica do you control?"

Zhang Ruochen knew he couldn't hide it, so he asked with a smile, "How much Source Esoterica do you control?"

"Fine, I admit that beyond thirty miles, killing you is indeed difficult. But don't get too close to me. If you're too close, killing you will still be easy," Bai Qinger said.

Thirty miles was the safe distance between Zhang Ruochen and Bai Qinger.

With that distance, Zhang Ruochen had enough time to react and evade any of her killing moves.

"Is this your way of telling me to leave?" Zhang Ruochen asked.

"I don't care what your motives are for following me, but now you need to leave. Continuing to follow me won't do you any good," Bai Qinger said.

"Are you afraid of me?"

Zhang Ruochen walked forward, stepping within thirty miles.

Then within ten miles.

...

He stood before Bai Qinger, looking at this stunning woman up close. "I said I want to marry you. How could I leave just like that?"

Zangjin Baihu came to Zhang Ruochen's side.

Bai Qinger said, "What you really want is to reclaim the top-grade Source Divine Crystal and the Celestial Pivot Needle."

Zhang Ruochen shook his head. "What would I do with the Celestial Pivot Needle? If a deity from the Destiny Temple discovered it, wouldn't that be digging my own grave? A divine artifact is fine, but with my current cultivation, I can't use it. It's just a disaster. That Destiny Temple Minister of Works is still around—if he reports my intent to keep the artifact, I'll have no place in the Hell Realm."

"I have no use for the top-grade Source Divine Crystal either. I'm not a Source Controller, so I can't find the Origin Divine Temple. Why not follow you and save time and effort? Besides, what you seek in the Origin Divine Temple is Source Esoterica. But Source Esoterica means little to me. I'm going there to find an opportunity to cultivate a First-rank Sacred Intent."

"Beyond that, for both of us, the other treasures in the Origin Divine Temple hold no appeal."

"So our interests don't conflict. When I say I want to marry you, I mean it sincerely. Why don't you believe me?"

Bai Qinger knew Zhang Ruochen was trying to lull her, yet she couldn't find a flaw in his words.

Because everything he said was true.

Zhang Ruochen continued, "If you don't believe me and think I have ulterior motives, that's actually a good thing for you."

"How is that a good thing?" Bai Qinger asked.

"Of course."

Zhang Ruochen said, "Your high-profile journey to the Origin Divine Temple isn't about slaughter—it's about tempering yourself. Having a treacherous person like me by your side, someone who might strike at any moment, isn't that also a form of training?"

"What you say does have some logic," Bai Qinger said.

Zhang Ruochen asked, "So, would you rather believe the former or the latter?"

"It doesn't matter."

Bai Qinger turned into a streak of white light and vanished into the sky.

Zangjin Baihu snorted, two streams of golden mist shooting from its nostrils. "Why did you ask that last question? You might as well have asked where Shangguan Que is."

Zhang Ruochen said, "You wouldn't understand."

"I do understand. That question was a test to see how much you matter to her. Whether she answered the former or the latter, it would prove she values you. Whether you become lovers or mortal enemies, at least she sees you as someone significant now. But a response like 'it doesn't matter' means she doesn't care about your thoughts—you're still insignificant. Hurts the pride, doesn't it?" Zangjin Baihu said.

Zhang Ruochen coughed twice, blood spilling from his mouth. "Your thinking is too narrow."

"Men, when they meet an exceptional woman, especially one who has defeated them, always want to conquer her to prove their own excellence and strength," Zangjin Baihu said.

"That thinking is even narrower."

Zhang Ruochen flew toward the Seven Star Imperial Palace, his expression growing increasingly serious.

Bai Qinger was indeed a woman hard to read, seemingly hiding endless secrets. No one knew how many trump cards she still had.

More importantly, no matter how Zhang Ruochen probed, he found it difficult to uncover her weaknesses.

In truth, Zhang Ruochen had never intended to intervene in the battle between the Destiny Temple's Great Saints and Bai Qinger.

He had intervened for several reasons. First, there were few below the God Realm who could restrain Bai Qinger. If Xing Luo died, that would be one less ally.

Beyond that, he had two more critical goals.

First, Zhang Ruochen wanted to test whether Wuyue Minghuang's self-detonation of his Sacred Source had injured Bai Qinger.

The results proved she was indeed injured.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have been pushed back by Zangjin Baihu and Zhang Ruochen's combined divine ability, nor would she have refrained from pursuing Xing Luo and the others, and she couldn't have failed to harm Zhang Ruochen from thirty miles away.

The second goal was to conceal the fact that his injuries had fully healed.

Injuries couldn't remain hidden forever.

How to hide them?

Only by making them worse.

Zhang Ruochen's Qi Sea had long since healed. In fact, while Bai Qinger fought the Destiny Temple's experts, he had entered the Seven Star Imperial Palace, used his control over the Qiankun Realm and the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree's aid, and forced the Seven-Hand Elder to temporarily submit, uniting against Bai Qinger.

Now, he appeared more injured, but these were only physical wounds. With the White Cang Blood Earth's regenerative power, such injuries were trivial.

Bai Qinger was too clever. Only by letting her personally severely wound Zhang Ruochen could she be convinced he was still injured and, even with Zangjin Baihu's help, couldn't unleash much combat power.

Thus, Zhang Ruochen was happy to be looked down upon by Bai Qinger, even seen as someone who could only flee.

Before the right moment arrived, he had to show weakness to the enemy.

It was a frustrating necessity.