Chapter 2610: Return to Blood God Sect
Half a month later.
Zhang Ruochen stood beside the lone grave beneath the blood maple tree, gazing at this unique world before him. His heart was calm, his mind wandering through memories, sometimes smiling, sometimes pensive, sometimes bitter.
"What is the young master thinking about?" Kong Xuan asked.
Kong Xuan was the head-serving girl Zhang Ruochen had purchased back then at Tianyue Tower. She possessed a beauty that was one in ten thousand, not a pure-blood human but a Peacock Half-Human Clan member. The cultivation technique she practiced was the "Peacock Sacred Canon" that Zhang Ruochen had passed down to her, the same technique Kong Lanyou cultivated.
Zhang Ruochen had arranged for Kong Xuan to serve by Lin Fei's side, and she had always been loyal. Her talent was actually quite high. After the Kunlun Realm revived, she was chosen by the Awakened Ones, secretly taken away to be nurtured as a rising talent for the Kunlun Realm. Now, she had reached the Eight-Step Saint King level.
Of course, she could reach this realm because after the Kunlun Realm revived, the heaven and earth rules became complete, making cultivation much easier than before.
Zhang Ruochen was no ordinary person after all. He had already emerged from his grief, his voice warm as he said, "From now on, you will cultivate together with Lanyou."
Kong Xuan gently shook her head. "I want to serve by the young master's side."
"You have already cultivated to the Saint King level. Don't keep treating yourself as a maidservant. You must have the heart of a strong one. If your state of mind does not transform, you will never reach the Great Saint realm."
Zhang Ruochen continued, "Over the years, I am grateful that you took care of my mother. This sacred medicine might help you break through to Great Saint. Of course, your biggest problem is still your state of mind."
Zhang Ruochen took out an Eon Sacred Medicine he had dug up from the Origin Divine Temple and handed it to her.
The sacred medicines in the Origin Divine Temple contained pure origin power, which indeed helped elevate cultivation.
"If her state of mind wants to transform, she can only be sent to the Merit Battlefield. Whether she survives or not is another question," Kong Lanyou said as she walked over.
Kong Xuan returned the sacred medicine to Zhang Ruochen. "I don't want to go to the Merit Battlefield. I am willing to serve by the young master's and Lanyou Great Saint's side for my entire life. Why must I gamble my life to fight for the Great Saint realm?"
Zhang Ruochen and Kong Lanyou exchanged a glance.
Everyone's mentality and pursuits were clearly different.
The two did not continue to force her. Forcing her to go to the Merit Battlefield with her personality would not end well.
"Keep the sacred medicine. If the opportunity arises in the future, I will help you refine a divine source and become a false god," Zhang Ruochen said. He was truly grateful to Kong Xuan, so he made such a promise.
Cultivators with insufficient state of mind could only choose to refine a divine source and become false gods.
A false god lived for one eon, one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred years.
Of course, this was not a treatment everyone received, nor was having a divine source enough to become a false god. For a Saint King to become a false god was even more difficult than ascending to heaven.
Zhang Ruochen dared to be so confident and make such a promise with such conviction, naturally because he had traveled through the ages and witnessed the grandeur of figures like the Great Venerable, Heavenly Demon, and Confucian Ancestor, giving birth to a heart that could swallow mountains and rivers.
To obtain a divine source, slay a god.
In truth, Zhang Ruochen's state of mind had long been tempered through countless trials. Various inner demons had been severed by his Third-Rank Sword Dao Sacred Intent, making them difficult to form. Then, they were completely suppressed by the Eternal Return One Dao Domain, becoming one of the "hundred rivers" in "the sea that accepts all rivers," one of the "myriad forms" in "encompassing all phenomena."
When he condensed the Eternal Return One Dao Domain, the various doubts in Zhang Ruochen's heart could no longer trouble him.
When he returned from the River of Time, Zhang Ruochen had already stepped into the peak of the Thousand Questions Realm, with over one hundred billion sacred dao rules within him.
As long as he was willing, he could now reach the Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm.
However, there were indeed some attachments in his heart. He had to return to Kunlun and go to the Heavenly Court to achieve perfection. Since that was the case, he chose to follow his heart rather than forcefully sever the thoughts in his mind.
...
Zhang Ruochen could see that Kong Lanyou's realm had already reached the peak of the Ten Thousand Deaths One Life Realm, accumulating five trillion sacred dao rules.
The Endless Abyss was mysterious and unfathomable. Even with Xue Hou's divine realm cultivation, she dared not step into some of its secret places. For Kong Lanyou to have such high cultivation, she must have encountered great opportunities. Zhang Ruochen was not surprised at all.
As for the secrets of the Endless Abyss, Zhang Ruochen temporarily did not want to investigate, nor did he want to take risks that even gods dared not take.
This time returning to the Kunlun Realm, he still had many things to do.
Before the lone grave, Zhang Ruochen heavily kowtowed three times. Then, he took the entire tomb, including the courtyard beside it and the blood maple tree, into the Qiankun Realm.
He still decided to bury his mother beside his father.
Kong Lanyou looked worried. "Cousin, the Kunlun Realm now is different from before. Not only are there many Awakened Ones from the medieval period, but there are also gods sitting in power. If you want to return to King Mountain, let me accompany you, okay?"
"What, afraid I'll be killed by the gods of the Kunlun Realm?" Zhang Ruochen's mood was still quite low.
Kong Lanyou indeed had such concerns. Although many cultivators knew that Zhang Ruochen went to the Hell Realm to save his daughter, his actions in the Hell Realm a thousand years ago had indeed drawn criticism from countless cultivators.
Moreover, his identity as Xue Hou's son and Blood Jue War God's grandson was enough to bring Zhang Ruochen deadly trouble.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Don't worry, nothing will happen to me. At least in the Kunlun Realm, no one can kill me."
"Cousin!"
Kong Lanyou called out.
Zhang Ruochen stopped and looked at her. "What else do you want to say?"
Although a thousand years had passed, Kong Lanyou's appearance had not changed at all. Her hair was white as snow, but her skin was so delicate it seemed it would break at a touch, fine as solidified fat, her red lips sparkling like gems.
Time had left no trace on her.
She met Zhang Ruochen's gaze. "First I waited eight hundred years, then another thousand years. Cousin, how much longer must I wait?"
This sentence was full of affection.
Perhaps a thousand years ago, she had wanted to say this.
A woman who could wait for a man for one thousand eight hundred years really did not need to say this superfluous sentence. All the feelings were already self-evident.
Zhang Ruochen was silent for a long time before saying, "Go pack your things and come with me."
To wait for this sentence, she did not know how many years she had waited.
Kong Lanyou wept with joy, unable to describe her feelings at this moment. Her voice was soft. "Wait for me. Don't sneak away. In any case, this time you won't trick me, you won't abandon me."
Watching Kong Lanyou fly toward the top of Blood Mountain, Zhang Ruochen let out a soft sigh.
His feelings for Lanyou had always been those of a brother and sister. They should not have grown too close.
But after Lin Fei died, Lanyou was his closest relative in the Kunlun Realm. When she said that sentence, Zhang Ruochen thought of hundreds of ways to refuse, but in the end, he could not bear to say them.
She had already stayed in the Endless Abyss for a thousand years. Was he supposed to let her stay until she grew old and died?
This time returning to the Kunlun Realm, Zhang Ruochen carried no pressure or burdens on his shoulders, nor did he worry about anyone coming to kill him.
Since that was the case, he could properly accompany Lanyou. These years had not been easy for her either.
...
Zhang Ruochen, Kong Lanyou, and Kong Xuan left the Endless Abyss and headed straight for the Blood God Sect.
According to Kong Lanyou, the current sect leader of the Blood God Sect was Yan Liren.
Five hundred years ago, Yan Liren's true body had walked out of the blood domain on the second gradient of the Endless Abyss, bringing his cocoon body back to the Blood God Sect.
Yan Liren had never been interested in the position of sect leader. Back then, as the number one strongman of the Blood God Sect, he had yielded the sect leader position to Chi Linyuan.
The reason he ascended to the sect leader position was that for the Kunlun Realm to revive, the mortal world needed experts to sit in power and seize interests in the Heavenly Court.
After Yunshen Daozhu returned, although the Kunlun Realm had been lying low and not settling accounts with the traitors of the past, the struggles in the mortal world had already reached a white-hot stage.
The Kunlun Realm rose too quickly. The Paradise Realm, which ruled the Western Universe, naturally would not let it develop unchecked. They used every means to suppress it, reaching the point of stopping at nothing.
In the mortal world, without strongmen like Yan Liren sitting in power, how could they have the strength to fight back?
Now, the Blood God Sect had transformed into a sacred land, filled with heaven and earth sacred qi.
The concentration of sacred qi was more than ten times greater than a thousand years ago.
Zhang Ruochen had transformed into Gu Linfeng's appearance and headed straight for Infant Lord Peak. Along the way, he saw many young disciples of the Blood God Sect, all wearing blood-red sacred robes, full of vitality. Some gathered together discussing world affairs, others competing in sword techniques.
No one recognized Zhang Ruochen as the Blood God Sect leader from a thousand years ago.
In the Blood God Sect, there were naturally portraits and stone statues of past sect leaders, but they all depicted Zhang Ruochen's appearance, not Gu Linfeng's.
However, the veiled Kong Lanyou and Kong Xuan attracted the gazes of many young cultivators.
But because the sacred dao aura emanating from Kong Xuan was too strong, no cultivator dared approach.
"Did you sense it? That woman with peacock wings has a sacred dao aura as powerful as the heavenly river in the sky. I bet she is definitely a Saint King."
"A Saint King walking at the back? Then what origins do the man and woman walking in front have?"
"Didn't you see they went to Infant Lord Peak? They must be guests of the sect leader."
...
Arriving at the foot of Infant Lord Peak, a Half-Saint was already waiting there, no more than fifty years old, considered exceptionally talented.
His name was Sun Jueduan, Yan Liren's disciple.
Sun Jueduan's gaze fixed on Kong Lanyou, and he smiled. "Master calculated that Senior Kong would come to the Blood God Sect and specially instructed me to come down the mountain to welcome you."
Since the Endless Abyss and the Blood God Sect were adjacent, Sun Jueduan naturally knew about this peerless expert neighbor, Senior Kong.
Sun Jueduan's gaze shifted to Zhang Ruochen, curious about what kind of divine being could walk shoulder to shoulder with Senior Kong.
Zhang Ruochen stared at Sun Jueduan's rear end. "What relation is Sun Dadi to you?"
Sun Jueduan had a tail on his butt, indicating he was a Spirit Monkey Half-Human Clan.
Sun Jueduan was slightly surprised. He bowed solemnly to Zhang Ruochen. "Senior knows my grandfather?"
His grandfather, Sun Dadi, was a Great Saint of the Blood God Sect, the number one expert below the sect leader. Outsiders respectfully called him "Sun Great Saint." Someone who dared to call him by his full name could not be an ordinary person.