Chapter 2520: The Ocean Embraces All Rivers, Encompassing Everything
Zhang Ruochen wanted the industries on Ice King Star, not only as an excuse to search for Mu Lingxi, but also with the intention of using the place as a fallback route.
There was no helping it. His identity was too sensitive, he had made too many enemies in the Hell Realm, and the Judgment Division regarded him as a potential threat that would one day overthrow the Destiny Temple, eager to eliminate him.
Now, with the Blood Absolute War God protecting him, danger lurked everywhere.
If, as Ni Xuan Shi said, a great upheaval occurred in heaven and earth, and something unforeseen happened to the Blood Absolute War God, who would still be able to shield him?
By then, if Zhang Ruochen had not yet become a god and was still merely a Great Saint, unable to stand on his own, staying in the Blood Absolute Clan would only bring harm to them.
Even a cunning rabbit has three burrows. If Zhang Ruochen did not leave himself a way out and take precautions, would he not be inferior to a rabbit?
As for the two big shots, Fortune and Blessing God Venerable and Emperor Luo Yan, Zhang Ruochen had never placed his hopes on them.
Just like Zhang Ruochen himself, those he truly valued had to at least reach the cultivation level and talent of someone like Yu Huang. At the very least, they could not be inferior to Blood Butcher.
For figures of the caliber of Fortune and Blessing God Venerable and Emperor Luo Yan, even ordinary gods might not catch their eye.
What was Zhang Ruochen?
It was like a Half-Saint with great talent standing before Zhang Ruochen. At most, Zhang Ruochen would appreciate him and, when the opportunity arose, offer some guidance.
Therefore, in Zhang Ruochen's view, the reason Fortune and Blessing God Venerable arranged his marriage was more about winning over the Blood Absolute War God than about winning over Zhang Ruochen himself.
As for why Emperor Luo Yan agreed to the marriage, the Blood Absolute War God's status and strength as the Great Clan Leader of the Blood Heaven Tribe undoubtedly played a significant role.
Zhang Ruochen's own talent and his identity as the guide of Zangjin Baihu were, of course, bargaining chips.
However, if Zhang Ruochen were not the Blood Absolute War God's grandson, he even doubted he could have become Zangjin Baihu's guide.
How could the big shots of the Hell Realm give him such an opportunity?
Everything he now possessed in the Hell Realm was built on the full support of the Blood Absolute War God. If something truly happened to the Blood Absolute War God, what could he rely on?
"I can only rely on myself."
Zhang Ruochen sat inside the Seven Star Emperor Palace, carried by eighteen Six-Calamity Ghost Kings, swaggering into the Hundred Clans Royal City.
Before this, Zhang Ruochen had bargained with Ni Xuan Shi and finally reached a consensus.
The Blood Absolute Clan's industries on Ice King Star would still belong to Zhang Ruochen. However, these industries had to be managed by cultivators appointed by Ni Xuan Shi, with Zhang Ruochen only receiving a share of the profits.
In essence, each side had taken a step back.
Zhang Ruochen thought that since Xiao Hei was a child of the Ice Emperor, if he ever truly wanted to use Ice King Star as a fallback route, he could just have Xiao Hei acknowledge his father. Wouldn't that still be unimpeded?
There was no need to clash with Ni Xuan Shi.
After parting ways with Ni Xuan Shi, Zhang Ruochen immediately used a Space Wormhole to head to the Hundred Clans Royal City.
Sitting in the Seven Star Emperor Palace, Zhang Ruochen recalled the various events he had experienced since arriving in the Hell Realm and the diverse cultivators he had encountered, and his mind sank into contemplation.
There was the Blood Absolute War God, who regarded him as a close relative and shielded him with all his might.
There was Xiu Chen Heavenly God, who stopped at nothing and was sinister and ruthless.
There was Yan Wushen, both enemy and friend.
There was Bore, entangled in love and hate, with past and present lives hard to sever.
There was Luo Sha, charming and capricious, unconventional in her actions, yet caught in the web of love.
There was Lan Ying, cunning and cruel, and Xing Luo, honest and open.
There was Que, a pure cultivator, and Bai Qinger, who hid in the shadows, manipulating the world's cultivators as if playing with pawns.
...
These cultivators could not be simply judged as "good" or "bad."
Each had their own stance and thoughts. Some became Zhang Ruochen's enemies, some became friends or family.
And some might merely be passersby in life.
Zhang Ruochen had always resisted what he detested.
For example: the Undying Blood Clan's bloodsucking, the Rakshasa Clan's cannibalism, the Shura Clan's slaughter, and the destruction of the world by the undead.
He had once been dissatisfied with Xue Hou, hostile toward Kong Lanyou, severed ties with Huang Yanchen, and stood irreconcilably against Chi Yao.
What was the boundary between right and wrong?
When breaking through the Desire Shackles and reaching the Great Perfection of the Hundred Shackles Realm, Zhang Ruochen had repeatedly experienced the events of the past. Many things he could not let go of had become clear. His state of mind had undergone significant changes, teetering on the edge of enlightenment.
After exchanging paths with Zangjin Baihu and wanting to create his own method, he realized he lacked a certain spirit.
In Bai Qinger's Seven Soul Nightmare, Zhang Ruochen's heart was tempered and elevated once again.
His conversation with the Dragon Lord made Zhang Ruochen understand that what he lacked was a path.
A path that belonged only to him.
What was a path?
For Que, the path was himself. In the world, there was only himself; all else was nothingness.
It was because Que had found his path that Bai Qinger had once commented that Zhang Ruochen's state of mind was even inferior to Que's. She even believed that Zhang Ruochen would fail to condense a First-Rank Sacred Intent and would perish on this path.
For Wuma Jiuxing, his path was the blade in his hand, allowing him to attain godhood through the blade.
For Lan Ying, his path was to transform into an artifact spirit, merging with the Ashura Sword to become a supreme divine weapon, cutting down everything in the world. He was the sword, and the sword was him. Thus, when he broke through to the Thousand Questions Realm, he reached his peak and could even cultivate a Heavenly Sword Soul.
Zhang Ruochen's life had too many entanglements, the greatest of which was hatred.
Hatred and resentment were the roots of all suffering.
The word "hatred" had given birth to inner demons, kept him living in pain, made him act extremely at times, and sometimes left him lost, not knowing where the road ahead lay or where the future was.
Because of hatred, he had made too many enemies, facing hostility from all sides.
Sometimes, he even treated potential enemies as mortal foes, and in the end, they truly became mortal foes.
Enemies might deserve to die, but why must he make enemies of everyone?
Was there truly an irreconcilable conflict in the world?
Who wouldn't want fewer enemies and more friends?
After meeting Ni Xuan Shi, Zhang Ruochen felt this deeply.
Before going to Ice King Star, he had indeed regarded Ni Xuan Shi as an enemy, even willing to fight to the death. First, it was a conflict of interest. Second, it was to avenge his mother and the Underworld King.
But he had never considered that Ni Xuan Shi was, after all, the wife of the Blood Absolute War God.
Did the Blood Absolute War God truly want the relationship between his wife and his daughter and grandson to deteriorate further?
How would he handle that?
Was Ni Xuan Shi truly so hateful that she had to die?
Sending the Underworld King and Xue Hou to the Kunlun Realm was indeed dangerous. But in the eyes of Hell Realm cultivators, the Kunlun Realm was just a broken great world, no different from a dead realm.
In essence, it was to keep them away from the family, clearing the path for her son to become the heir, not to send them to their deaths.
She had selfish motives and was wrong, but she had also paid a price.
As a member of the Blood Absolute Clan, should Zhang Ruochen really worsen the rift? Why had he never thought of resolving the hatred between Ni Xuan Shi and Xue Hou, achieving family harmony and unity?
Perhaps this was the outcome the Blood Absolute War God most wanted to see.
Xue Hou had already become a god and might no longer hate Ni Xuan Shi as much. She probably didn't want to make things difficult for the Blood Absolute War God, which was why she had let Ni Xuan Shi off.
If Zhang Ruochen were willing to step in, and Ni Xuan Shi were willing to pay some price and sincerely apologize, this conflict could easily be resolved.
Sitting cross-legged, Zhang Ruochen spoke a sentence:
"The ocean embraces all rivers, encompassing everything. This is my path, this is my spirit! To reorganize the order of heaven and earth, one must have a heart that can accommodate all things."
"My physical body cannot contain this universe, but my heart can."
"The good and the bad are all things that exist in the world."
"The virtuous and the evil are all aspects of the mortal world."
"Who says that being a pure cultivator like Que and Lan Ying is the right path? Wrong, theirs is merely a small path. Embracing all things, leaving nothing out—that is the true great path."
"Dragon Lord, I somewhat understand your words!"
Zhang Ruochen laughed loudly, all doubts in his heart dispelled.
Man, Earth, Heaven, Dao.
Man follows Earth, Earth follows Heaven, Heaven follows Dao, Dao follows Nature.
What is Nature?
Nature is all things in the world.
The reason why a First-Rank Sacred Intent had never been condensed by anyone since ancient times lies in the word "one."
"One" does not mean "single"; it means "all."
To condense a First-Rank Sacred Intent, one must encompass everything in the world.
Zhang Ruochen already had the foundation to encompass everything: the physical body of the Five Elements Chaos Body, the identity of the master of time and space, the vision of reshaping the order of heaven and earth, and the heart that embraces all rivers and encompasses everything.
Both Zhang Ruochen and Yan Wushen stood atop the mountain, wanting to ascend to the heavens, but neither had a path beneath their feet.
Yan Wushen chose to abandon everything he had now, making the ascent easier.
Zhang Ruochen had now found his path: stepping on all things in the world to reach the heavens.
Yan Wushen was destined never to cultivate a true First-Rank Sacred Intent; at most, he could grasp a trace of its essence. But the path Zhang Ruochen walked was the true path.
However, this path was extremely difficult.
"The ocean embraces all rivers, encompassing everything"—easier said than done?
The former required an infinitely vast mind to accommodate all things.
The latter required an infinitely great effort to have everything in one's heart.
Even the most virtuous saint might not achieve it.
On the brink of life and death, how could he allow himself to embrace all rivers?
What he embraced was everything he protected, not the villains who destroyed it. He looked at the world with the greatest goodwill and sought to change it.
Perhaps one day, when he was invincible in the world and could live according to his own will, he could truly achieve "the ocean embraces all rivers, encompassing everything."
Of course, at this moment, his Dao heart was set, achieving an unprecedented breakthrough.
His spiritual power instantly broke through to the sixty-seventh rank.
Then it climbed step by step, reaching the sixty-eighth rank.
He broke through two major ranks in a row.
Of course, it wasn't just a state-of-mind improvement that led to such a breakthrough.
It was because Zhang Ruochen had long refined the Divine Wood Heart, gaining the knowledge of the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree from an entire eon. This knowledge had not yet been fully transformed and integrated.
After enduring the test of the Desire Shackles and the tempering of the Seven Soul Nightmare, with his state of mind clear, his spiritual power surged instantly.
Zhang Ruochen sensed it and manifested the Truth Realm Form.
Suddenly, the cultivators in the Hundred Clans Royal City all looked up at the sky.
In broad daylight, the sky was filled with shining stars, shifting and moving.
Some gods sensed that the stars in this region of space had suddenly brightened greatly, and even the trajectories of the stars had changed slightly.
...
Heavenly Court, Truth Heaven Domain.
The Truth Temple suddenly shone with divine light, emitting a brilliance like a sea of stars, covering an unknown distance of millions of miles.
The Great Saints in the temple were all alarmed, rushing in panic to the place where the Temple Lord was in seclusion, kowtowing and asking what had happened.
The Truth Temple Lord had not gone to the Jade Desolate Realm but had remained in the Heavenly Court.
The Truth Temple Lord came out of seclusion, waved his sleeve, and scolded, "It's just a bit of an anomaly, nothing major. Go about your business."
After the Great Saints withdrew, the Truth Temple Lord looked into the sky, as if he could see what was happening billions of miles away, muttering to himself, "This little traitor has actually cultivated the Boundless Universe Truth Realm Form at the Great Saint realm, causing the Truth Temple to manifest an anomaly. In all of history, he is the only one. Is it because he possesses the Heart of Truth, or does this kid truly have unprecedented ability?"
The Truth Temple Lord was angry, the more he thought, the angrier he got.
Then, he dragged Xiang Chunan, who was in seclusion, out and gave him a thorough beating.
Poor Xiang Chunan didn't even know why he was being beaten. He was knocked to the ground, unable to get up, lying there dazed, clutching the dirt with his hands, looking at the sky, blood flowing from his seven orifices.
...
The six volumes of the Destiny Temple's heavenly books were stored in the Heavenly Fortune Hall's Heavenly Guard Platform.
Xu Rulai, the head of the Heavenly Fortune Hall, moved among the many bookshelves of the Heavenly Guard Platform, organizing various scrolls.
Suddenly, Xu Rulai sensed something and looked toward the area where the six volumes of heavenly books were stored at the center of the Heavenly Guard Platform, letting out a soft exclamation.
With a mere thought, he stood beside one of the six volumes, the "Divine Reserve Volume," observing the changes in the rankings, and said, "It has changed again, and this time it has risen so much at once."
His gaze fell on the name "Zhang Ruochen."
Zhang Ruochen's ranking in the "Divine Reserve Volume" had already changed twice.
The last time was when Zhang Ruochen broke through the Desire Shackles, moving from eighty-seventh in the Ding rank to twenty-first in the Ding rank.
This time, he directly rose to the Yi rank area.
Entering the Yi rank meant that Zhang Ruochen's probability of becoming a god had exceeded forty percent.
Cultivators in the Ding rank had a probability of becoming a god between ten and twenty percent.
No wonder it alarmed Xu Rulai. An Eon-level genius ranked only in the Ding rank of the "Divine Reserve Volume" was enough to invite ridicule from the world's cultivators. Even the gods did not think highly of Zhang Ruochen.
Once the change in the "Divine Reserve Volume" spread, it would surely cause a huge uproar.
Some would certainly be delighted.
But those gods who had previously looked down on Zhang Ruochen and not taken him seriously would likely take immediate action to eliminate him.
"To enter the Yi rank like this... Zhang Ruochen, Zhang Ruochen, what change have you undergone?"
Xu Rulai stroked his chin, thought of something, and turned to look at the other two volumes of heavenly books, the "Heavenly Dao Volume" and the "God-Defying Volume." On the "God-Defying Volume," he found Zhang Ruochen's name.
"Not entering the Heavenly Dao, but entering the God-Defying. This is going to be troublesome!"