Chapter 2565: Seizing the Profound Meaning
Mo Yin stood atop the head of a female divine statue, her face extremely pale.
Around her delicate body, a Dao Domain formed by fifteen trillion Sacred Dao Rules condensed. Her hair transformed into purple vines drifting in the water, releasing wisps of Purifying Divine Flame.
Sword Emperor stood on the palm of the statue, his body flickering between solid and dispersed states, in very poor condition.
After Stone Emperor was swallowed into Sea Guest's belly, both of them felt a sense of despair as the fox mourns the hare's death, their morale plummeting to rock bottom.
"Still struggling? In the Hell Realm, following me offers a far brighter future than following Zhang Ruochen." Sea Guest extended a giant hand flowing with Divine Mark chains, pressing down. With a thunderous crash, the divine statue shattered into pieces.
Mo Yin moved with agile footwork, slipping through the gaps between his fingers. Hovering in the water for an instant, she clawed at the air with five fingers, tearing open five Space Rifts dozens of zhang long, shooting straight toward Sea Guest's face.
Before the five Space Rifts could reach Sea Guest, they were crushed shut by his Dao Domain.
"Within my Dao Domain, spatial attacks are utterly useless."
From the rubble, Sea Guest seized Sword Emperor.
"Boom!"
With a slight squeeze of his five fingers, Sword Emperor's body exploded, turning into a cloud of light.
Sea Guest let out a soft exclamation of surprise. Staring intently at the light cloud in his palm, he said in delight: "It's actually a Sword Intent that has given birth to consciousness, condensed into a spirit body. This must be the core Sword Intent left behind after a Sword God-level powerhouse fell, right?"
Sea Guest felt as if he had found a treasure. A Sword Intent that had cultivated to the Great Saint Realm could be sold for a sky-high price.
Mo Yin had already sensed Zhang Ruochen approaching. So, she released all the remaining Saint Qi in her body, transforming it into Divine Flame. Her arms shot out, turning into thousands of vines that coiled around Sea Guest's divine body.
Divine Flame burned on the vines, turning Sea Guest into a massive fireball.
Sea Guest roared in fury, "You're asking for death!"
From his pupils, two beams of Divine Qi, several zhang in diameter, shot out, flying straight toward Mo Yin.
Just then, Sea Guest's expression changed. He sensed a sharp and extreme power behind and above him. He bellowed, "Zhang Ruochen!"
"It is I."
Zhang Ruochen emerged from space, slashing downward with his sword.
The Abyssal Ancient Sword, now as heavy as a planet, stretched to a hundred zhang long, like a black waterfall.
Since Zhang Ruochen had chosen this moment to strike, he would never give Sea Guest any chance to dodge. Sneak attacking and fighting head-on were two completely different concepts.
Sea Guest had no time to think about how Zhang Ruochen had performed a Spatial Displacement within his Dao Domain. In haste, he could only mobilize as many Sacred Dao Rules from his Dao Domain as possible to form a defensive light barrier.
"Pfft!"
The Abyssal Ancient Sword broke through the defensive light barrier, grazing Sea Guest's scalp, dragging from the back of his head all the way down to below his back, creating a sword path hundreds of zhang long.
The wound was shocking.
A massive amount of divine blood gushed from the sword path, instantly dyeing this stretch of water red.
Zhang Ruochen did not feel pleased. Instead, his expression turned grim. Such a rare opportunity, and he had failed to kill Sea Guest with a single strike.
Sea Guest's divine body defense was far too strong. Even with the sharpness of the Abyssal Ancient Sword and Zhang Ruochen mobilizing the power of the Qiankun Realm, he had only managed to cut a few zhang deep.
Not only had he failed to split the divine body, but he hadn't even injured Sea Guest's bones.
The two beams of Divine Qi shooting from Sea Guest's eyes had already severely wounded Mo Yin, sending her flying like a piece of charcoal, crashing into the deep mud at the bottom of the sea.
"Bang, bang."
Sea Guest broke free from the vines coiled around him, rapidly shrinking his body to just over two meters tall, simultaneously dodging Zhang Ruochen's sword aimed at his neck.
Since his Dao Domain couldn't seal off Zhang Ruochen's spatial power, a massive divine body would become his weakness, giving Zhang Ruochen more openings.
A smaller body was more advantageous for him.
Having missed with his second strike, Zhang Ruochen decisively retreated far away, gaining a deeper understanding of Sea Guest's strength.
This man, though outwardly domineering, impulsive, and bloodthirsty, was extremely experienced in battle. Underestimating him would lead to a heavy loss.
A disciple of that great figure from the Wuding Divine Sea was no ordinary being.
On Sea Guest's back, the wound was slow to heal due to the invasion of sword Qi, with divine blood continuously leaking out.
Thinking that he had been injured by such a weak cultivator as Zhang Ruochen, Sea Guest felt a surge of anger. He summoned the Calamity War Axe and said in a deep voice: "Since you've dared to show yourself, I naturally won't let you escape today."
"Whoosh—"
Over nine trillion Sacred Dao Rules enveloped an even wider area of the seabed.
The temperature of this water zone plummeted rapidly, forming oddly shaped ice crystals. The chilling cold slowed the flow of blood and Saint Qi in Zhang Ruochen's body to a crawl.
It was as if space itself had frozen.
Sea Guest strode forward and said, "I know you're a master of time and space, with great skill in escaping. But the divine patterns and formations densely packed in the Origin Divine Temple will greatly limit your power. How much chance do you think you have of getting away?"
"When did I ever say I was going to flee?" Zhang Ruochen replied.
Sea Guest said, "Even when I was completely off guard, you couldn't break through my physical defense. In a head-on fight, do you think you still have a chance? I train year-round in the Wuding Divine Sea, and this environment makes me even stronger."
"Strength isn't determined by words alone," Zhang Ruochen said.
The distance between them closed to ten zhang.
"Whoosh!"
Sea Guest raised the Calamity War Axe and swung it down.
The axe instantly grew to ten zhang long, its head as large as a house, releasing purple-black lightning radiance.
Zhang Ruochen sidestepped, dodging rapidly.
"Boom!"
The Calamity War Axe split a crack hundreds of meters long in the seabed, triggering countless divine patterns. From beneath the crack, beams of destructive light surged upward.
Though Zhang Ruochen avoided the axe blade, he couldn't escape the omnipresent lightning.
In the water, lightning was inescapable.
Dozens of lightning bolts struck the Flame God Armor, piercing through it to attack Zhang Ruochen's physical body. Each bolt felt like a sword stabbing through him.
Sea Guest laughed heartily and swung the axe again.
"Boom!"
This time, Zhang Ruochen took out the Mountain-Hiding Demon Mirror, enlarging it to the height of a person, reflecting the lightning in the water back.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
...
Sea Guest remained confident and composed, saying, "You can't keep dodging forever."
Zhang Ruochen looked around and noticed that the edges of Sea Guest's Dao Domain had completely frozen into white ice, which was rapidly contracting.
His space to move was shrinking.
More critically, the white ice was fully integrated with Sea Guest's Sacred Dao Rules. Even if Zhang Ruochen mobilized his Space Essence to perform a Spatial Displacement, he couldn't penetrate it.
"It seems there's no other way."
Zhang Ruochen muttered this under his breath, then turned to the approaching Sea Guest and said, "Do you really think your divine body is unbreakable?"
"To break through my divine body's defense, only a demigod would have a chance," Sea Guest said.
Zhang Ruochen took a bronze coffin from his Space Ring. With a bang, he slapped the coffin lid flying.
From within the coffin, faint strands of divine light seeped out.
It was the coffin containing half of a divine corpse.
Sea Guest was slightly startled, then laughed, "Have you prepared a coffin for yourself too?"
"Swoosh, swoosh!"
Strange sounds came from the coffin.
Dense swarms of God-Eating Insects flew out, their bodies a mix of blue and green, emitting blue flames as they headed toward Sea Guest.
"God-Eating Insects!"
Sea Guest's expression finally changed. He immediately stopped in his tracks, releasing divine Qi from his body to form a massive spherical defensive barrier, then swung his axe to slash at them.
Divine corpses feared nothing more than God-Eating Insects.
The God-Eating Insects were numerous and devoured everything, chewing on the divine Qi defensive barrier with a crackling sound.
Though Sea Guest's attacks were powerful, the God-Eating Insects' defense was not weak either. A single axe strike could kill at most a few of them.
Zhang Ruochen took out the Seven-Star Imperial Palace, found the Flower Devourer Saint who had reverted to its original form, brought it inside, and placed it in the Spring of Life to recover.
The guardian temple spirit, Desolate Heaven, knew that Sea Guest was a formidable existence and immediately activated all the formations, divine patterns, and Great Saint inscriptions.
Standing at the gate of the Seven-Star Imperial Palace, Zhang Ruochen watched Sea Guest surrounded by God-Eating Insects and released the Boundless Universe Truth Realm Form.
At the same time, a crystalline, diamond-shaped gem flew out from his body, with 129,600 facets, shining brighter than the myriad stars in the realm form.
Sea Guest, who was busy fending off the God-Eating Insects, suddenly realized in shock that the Truth Esoterica within his body was uncontrollably flying toward the Seven-Star Imperial Palace.
"Zhang Ruochen, you really do possess a Truth Treasure. Don't think you can take my Profound Meaning!"
Sea Guest leaped up, charging out of the insect swarm. Gripping the Calamity War Axe with both hands, he swung it down with the force of a thunderbolt.
The axe grew to a hundred zhang long, with lightning turning into an ocean.
"Boom!"
Layer after layer of defensive formation light screens around the Seven-Star Imperial Palace were shattered by him, and the massive axe slowly descended.
Zhang Ruochen had already absorbed two ten-thousandths of Sea Guest's Truth Esoterica into the Heart of Truth. Looking up, he muttered, "Desire Sword!"
A brilliant sword light flew from between his brows, striking Sea Guest.
"Boom!"
Sea Guest was sent flying backward, crashing back into the insect swarm.
Zhang Ruochen frowned slightly, "He doesn't seem injured. His desires are still too weak."
The Desire Sword hadn't harmed Sea Guest's divine body, but it had inflicted some damage on his spirit and Saint Soul.
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged, holding the Ten-Thousand Curse Heavenly Bead in his palm. He infused powerful Spiritual Power into it and chanted, "Heart-Death Curse."
This curse directly attacked Sea Guest's Sacred Heart.
Sea Guest's Spiritual Power was nowhere near as strong as Nan Sheng's. Struck by the Heart-Death Curse, he was severely affected, and his defenses showed openings. Some God-Eating Insects took the chance to burrow into the wound on his back.
"Forgetfulness Curse."
"Boundless Curse."
"Blood-Devouring Curse."
...
One curse after another was chanted from Zhang Ruochen's lips.
Sea Guest roared in fury, no longer bothering with the insects landing on him, and charged straight at the Seven-Star Imperial Palace.
Knowing Sea Guest's immense power, Zhang Ruochen naturally wouldn't clash head-on with him. With a thought, the Seven-Star Imperial Palace shrank to the size of a fist and vanished into space. The next moment, it reappeared behind Sea Guest.
...
There will be another chapter tonight.