# Chapter 2603: The Seventh Buddha
Soon, Zhang Ruochen discovered that it was not that Xumi Temple had deliberately stopped here, but rather that violent energy fluctuations had appeared in the River of Time ahead, blocking the path forward.
That energy even included Time Esoterica.
Time Esoterica even more powerful than what was contained within Xumi Temple.
Time here had become extremely chaotic.
In Zhang Ruochen's field of vision, the River of Time quickly disappeared from view, and Xumi Temple floated in the pitch-black, boundless universe.
A phoenix so enormous that its full outline could not be seen flew past above Xumi Temple. Even a single one of its feathers was a thousand miles long. Under the enhancement of divine power, the light emitted by a single feather was brighter than a star.
Zhang Ruochen merely glanced at it, and blood flowed from both his pupils. Over a million strands of Truth Rule he had cultivated within his body snapped.
This was a peerless powerhouse that could not even be looked at!
Every ray of light emanating from its body contained ultimate Death Divine Power.
Zhang Ruochen was not unfamiliar with major figures in the Divine Realm. He had seen Yunshen Daozhu and the Dragon Lord before.
But the Yunshen Daozhu and Dragon Lord he had seen were not in a state of all-out battle. Otherwise, a single wisp of energy leaking from a powerhouse of that level could kill him countless times.
Zhang Ruochen regretted it deeply. If only he hadn't been so curious and used his Truth Eye to look.
If he hadn't activated his Truth Rules, perhaps he wouldn't have been injured so badly.
But without activating his Truth Rules, with his current cultivation, he wouldn't have been able to see clearly that what flew past above was a phoenix. The gap in cultivation was so vast that words could not describe it.
"Boom!"
A deafening sound came, and Zhang Ruochen's eardrums, which had just healed, split open again.
...
A divine battle capable of affecting the River of Time—one could imagine how terrifying this battle was.
Qiangu Nüdi had long been awakened from her cultivation. Even with her cultivation and mental state, her face was quite pale. "Such powerful Time Esoterica fluctuations. No wonder it can shake the River of Time. No..."
"How could so much Time Esoterica have been left behind in the past time and space?"
Zhang Ruochen and Qiangu Nüdi each hid in a corner of Xumi Temple, but they soon realized they had worried for nothing. The gods engaged in the chaotic battle had not discovered Xumi Temple at all.
Clearly, the Space Esoterica within the temple had taken effect.
"Whoosh!"
Suddenly, gentle golden Buddha light illuminated the entire cosmic space.
Zhang Ruochen's eyes, which had been burning painfully, quickly recovered in the Buddha light. He could no longer see nothing; instead, there was a cool sensation.
Urgent divine voices came from all directions: "Everyone attack together! Hold nothing back! That Xumi bald donkey is breaking through to a higher realm!"
An Undying Blood Clan god with eighteen pairs of blood wings on his back stood amidst a vast expanse of blood clouds, his body towering who knew how many millions of miles high. "Stop him! Fight!"
"If Xumi succeeds in breaking through, the Hell Realm will surely pay a heavy price." A Death Clan elder, whose deathly aura was even denser than that phoenix, spoke thus.
This elder was short and gaunt. From his skin, hair, teeth... his entire body was blue.
...
Perhaps because the Buddha light was not aggressive toward him, Zhang Ruochen finally regained his vision. In the distant space, he saw Xumi Saint Monk sitting cross-legged.
Beneath Xumi Saint Monk floated a patch of golden Buddha clouds, his whole body radiating sacred energy.
Behind him was the riddled Kunlun Realm. Zhang Ruochen could even see the continent's outline, the mountain ranges and river systems, and the shimmering sea.
The blue-skinned elder possessed immensely powerful Spiritual Power. Holding a brush, he traced lines in the heavens and earth, modifying the spatial veins and meridians. He directly summoned an entire star domain and pressed it down above Xumi Saint Monk's head, sealing off the space around him.
That was a real star domain, with countless stars shining within it and numerous planets orbiting them. Even more Hell Realm gods flew down onto the stars within the star domain and unleashed divine abilities downward.
Divine abilities rained down like a storm, piercing through Xumi Saint Monk's Buddha light and engulfing him.
Such a display shook Zhang Ruochen's heart. At the same time, blood vessels filled his eyes. He hated only that he was too weak, that he didn't even have the strength to stand up in the divine might, unable to participate in this great battle.
If he had even the slightest power to fight, he would charge forward and fight side by side with Xumi Saint Monk.
What Zhang Ruochen didn't notice was that the blood flowing from his eyes and ears dripped onto the "Sixth Patriarch's Zen Meditation Painting."
The Sixth Patriarch on the painting seemed to come alive. His lips moved slightly, emitting Buddhist sounds.
These Buddhist sounds could only be heard by Zhang Ruochen alone, but they were too faint, drowned out by the booming sounds coming from beyond the heavens.
The so-called "Sixth Patriarch" naturally referred to the sixth Buddha born in Buddhism from ancient times to the present.
He was also one of the Twenty-Four Heavens from three hundred thousand years ago.
"Boom!"
The divine abilities raining down like a storm left countless wounds on Xumi Saint Monk's body.
The phoenix, radiating dense deathly aura, tore through the Buddha clouds with one claw and struck Xumi Saint Monk's head, cracking his skull. Blood flowed from his seven orifices—mouth, nose, ears, and eyes.
"Pfft!"
The Undying Blood Clan god with eighteen pairs of blood wings thrust a divine artifact-level spear through Xumi Saint Monk's abdomen, shattering his golden body.
The spear flew out from Xumi Saint Monk's back, trailing a long stream of golden blood.
That Undying Blood Clan god rolled his sleeves, and all the golden Buddha blood was swallowed into his abdomen. He let out a long laugh.
But the Saint Monk did not die. His broken body still sat cross-legged in the void, blocking the front of the shattered Kunlun Realm.
Qiangu Nüdi's eyes streamed with tears. Unable to bear it any longer, even knowing she would surely die, she transformed into a beam of divine light and rushed toward the temple gate.
Before she could rush out of the gate, a wave of divine energy surged from afar, striking her and sending her flying back. She crashed into the main hall with a dull thud.
Strong as the Female Emperor was, in a divine battle of this level, she was as weak as a scarecrow.
Although he had long known the outcome of this battle, Zhang Ruochen was still filled with grief and an unprecedented desire for powerful strength.
"Xumi, stop struggling. Watch me devour your Time Esoterica first. From now on, the time of the universe shall be governed by me, Xiu Chen!"
In the starry sky pressing down above Xumi Saint Monk's head, a bright point of light flew out from a star.
This god was all too familiar to Zhang Ruochen—it was Xiu Chen Heavenly God.
The Xiu Chen Heavenly God of one hundred thousand years ago was not a divine soul body but a top-tier existence among the Shura Clan gods. It flew down, and the Time Imprint light points in the heavens and earth automatically manifested, forming a brilliantly bright Sea of Time.
The radiance emitted by this Sea of Time was not much weaker than that of the phoenix.
Xiu Chen Heavenly God spat out a divine pearl from its mouth.
The divine pearl floated at the center of the Sea of Time, forming a massive vortex that continuously absorbed the Time Esoterica emanating from Xumi Saint Monk's body.
As it absorbed the Time Esoterica, Xiu Chen Heavenly God laughed loudly: "I refined my Divine Source into a divine artifact, the Time Source Pearl, specifically to deal with you and devour your Time Esoterica."
"From now on, there will be no more Xumi in this world, only Xiu Chen Heavenly God. No, my title should be changed to Lord of Time. Obtaining all the Time Esoterica you possess will be my greatest support in charging toward the position of the Shura Clan's number one powerhouse!"
Seeing Xiu Chen Heavenly God so arrogant, Zhang Ruochen was filled with rage.
Xiu Chen Heavenly God's strength was indeed formidable, capable of seizing Xumi Saint Monk's Time Esoterica. But it dared to call itself the Lord of Time. If Zhang Ruochen hadn't personally witnessed it being brutally beaten by Xue Jue War God one hundred thousand years later, he might have believed it!
In his anger, Zhang Ruochen didn't even notice that he had withstood the divine might coming from all directions and stood up from the ground. Even more unnoticed by him was that his body was being enveloped by the Buddha light radiating from the "Sixth Patriarch's Zen Meditation Painting."
"Fight!"
From the hall beside him came the Female Emperor's long cry.
Then, a scene that made Zhang Ruochen's jaw drop appeared. Xumi Saint Monk's broken body actually walked out from the hall, radiating Buddha light in all directions, with vast divine might.
No!
It wasn't Xumi Saint Monk—it was Qiangu Nüdi.
Zhang Ruochen saw Qiangu Nüdi, now only the size of an ant, on the forehead of Xumi Saint Monk's corpse. Bright Buddha light appeared on the corpse's forehead, concealing her body.
If Zhang Ruochen hadn't known that the Saint Monk was already dead and looked carefully, he might have been startled.
"The Female Emperor's methods are quite impressive. What secret art is this? Could she be controlling the Saint Monk's corpse to fight those super giants in the Divine Realm? In that case, wouldn't there be two Saint Monks in this time and space—one alive and one dead?"
Zhang Ruochen's gaze turned to the distant Xumi Saint Monk, who was being suppressed by a starry sky and devoured by the Sea of Time. He saw clusters of light appearing in the space around the Saint Monk.
Within each cluster of light bloomed a Buddha lotus.
They formed a sea of flowers.
Resounding Buddhist sounds filled the entire cosmic space, as if all monks from ancient times to the present were sitting together, chanting scriptures. The sounds came from near and far.
Vague Buddha shadows appeared in the starry sky.
Some Buddha shadows were enormous—a single Buddha hand larger than the starry sky floating above Xumi Saint Monk's head. Some Buddha shadows were only the size of a normal human, sitting cross-legged.
The Buddha light erupting from Xumi Saint Monk's body grew ten times brighter with each passing moment.
Then came Xiu Chen Heavenly God's startled cry: "No! Xumi has finally broken into that realm! Ten thousand Buddhas paying homage, a Buddha emerges! The Seventh Buddha... ah..."
"Boom!"
With a miserable scream, the Sea of Time and Xiu Chen Heavenly God were crushed into powder by the Sundial that flew out from Xumi Saint Monk's sleeve.
Even though Xiu Chen Heavenly God's true body was the Time Divine Jade, it could not withstand a strike from Xumi Saint Monk, who had reached the Buddha level.
As Xiu Chen Heavenly God was crushed and killed, the Time Source Pearl at the center of the Sea of Time was sent flying by the Sundial, hurtling toward Xumi Temple.
One must know that this Time Source Pearl was a divine artifact refined by Xiu Chen Heavenly God from its own Divine Source. It had also absorbed a vast amount of Time Esoterica, making it a supreme treasure of the world.
"Swish!"
"Swish!"
...
Several Hell Realm gods flew out from the stars, chasing after the Time Source Pearl, rapidly approaching Xumi Temple's location.