# Chapter 2635: Cosmic Mutation
Entering Guanghan Divine Palace, Jie Zunzhe immediately adopted an aggressive posture, demanding the Jade Emperor Cauldron, with an attitude that suggested he was prepared to fight for it.
This made Zhang Ruochen breathe a sigh of relief, nodding inwardly. After all, it was an ancestral artifact left by the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable. Even if the old man was unreliable, he still had to treat it seriously.
Stable!
Finally, he could reclaim the Zhang Clan's ancestral divine artifact.
"Rumble."
Suddenly, a celestial anomaly erupted.
Outside the divine palace, the wind force suddenly increased tenfold or more, howling like a giant beast roaring.
Thunder rolled, lightning flashed like ten thousand dragons soaring.
Zhang Ruochen could not stand steady, because the entire Guanghan Divine Palace, the entire Moon God Mountain, and even the Heavenly Court continent below were all shaking. The space rules between heaven and earth became extremely unstable.
All cultivators were alarmed.
"Swish, swish!"
In the Purple Luo Heaven Domain, bright sacred light rose from one sacred land after another.
Each beam of sacred light emitted a powerful Great Saint aura, flying straight toward Moon God Mountain and landing outside Guanghan Divine Palace.
The figure of Moon God appeared in the void above Guanghan Divine Palace, white robes fluttering, divine light shining for ten thousand miles. With a wave of her sleeve, the dark clouds dispersed, and the lightning retreated.
The celestial anomaly dissipated by a large margin.
A circular hole with a diameter of a thousand miles appeared in the sky.
Through this hole, Zhang Ruochen saw stars beyond the sky sometimes bright, sometimes dim, some even moving rapidly, but they were not meteors.
The scene before him was truly shocking.
Because every single star was a fixed star.
To simultaneously make countless fixed stars change positions in the starry sky was impossible even for ancient gods.
One of the stars was extremely bright and incomparably huge, like a blazing sun. It moved rapidly, sometimes even jumping through the starry sky, creating fluctuations that caused the trajectories of surrounding stars to shift.
Behind it was the Yellow Spring Star River spanning the sky.
The Yellow Spring Star River seemed to have transformed into a real river, slowly flowing.
The gods and Great Saints of the Heavenly Court, including thousands upon thousands of Saint realm cultivators, all looked up at the sky beyond, their hearts shaken. Such an anomaly was extremely rare.
Jie Zunzhe's expression was grave, muttering something under his breath. The wrinkles that had been concealed all appeared on his face.
Zhang Ruochen approached and asked, "What happened? Why do you look so grim? That extremely bright large star—why is it moving so fast? Why are so many stars affected by it?"
"Large star? That is the Shura Star Pillar Realm." Jie Zunzhe snorted coldly.
"The Shura Star Pillar Realm?"
Zhang Ruochen quickly looked up again.
The emotions he had just calmed down surged like stormy waves.
The Shura Star Pillar Realm was the living place of the entire Shura Clan, equivalent to the Ten Wing Worlds of the Undying Blood Clan. It was a pillar suspended in the universe, reaching heights of who knows how many billions of miles.
Countless trillions of Shura Clan cultivators lived on it.
Who could make the Shura Star Pillar Realm move?
Even a God Venerable could not do it.
No!
Why was the Shura Star Pillar Realm moving? Where was it moving to?
Zhang Ruochen asked Jie Zunzhe, but the old man was lost in thought and said nothing.
"Rustle."
The roaring sound of flowing water sounded in the sky.
The Heavenly River, a full one hundred and eight thousand miles wide, suddenly flowed more than twice as fast, stabilizing the trembling space. Before long, the Heavenly Court returned to calm, and the chaotic heavenly and earthly rules stabilized.
Even the layers of dark clouds, torrential rain, and lightning dissipated, becoming clear skies again.
But Zhang Ruochen knew that only the Heavenly Court had stabilized. The Shura Star Pillar Realm had most likely not stopped, and the Yellow Spring Star River was still flowing. The entire universe was undergoing some kind of great change, and countless living beings and great worlds would be affected.
Moon God and Jie Zunzhe no longer paid attention to Zhang Ruochen, engaging in a private discussion.
Clearly, they knew something and were discussing countermeasures.
One hundred thousand years ago, the Guanghan Realm and the Kunlun Realm were allies, with countless interwoven connections—prosperity shared, decline shared.
Half an hour later, Jie Zunzhe reached some agreement with Moon God and walked toward Zhang Ruochen, sneering, "Boy, let's go. Now it's time to settle our accounts."
"Go? Go where? We haven't gotten the Jade Emperor Cauldron back yet!" Zhang Ruochen said.
Jie Zunzhe said, "There will be a great change in heaven and earth. The Jade Emperor Cauldron will be lent to Moon God for now. Once I recover from my injuries, I will retrieve it."
Zhang Ruochen had not expected this old man to suddenly betray him, truly bewitched by Moon God, even abandoning the ancestral divine artifact.
"No, I have already reached an agreement with Moon God. The Jade Emperor Cauldron is the Zhang Clan's ancestral divine artifact. We must retrieve it no matter what." Zhang Ruochen said.
Jie Zunzhe said, "You don't get to decide."
"You haven't been drugged by Moon God, have you..."
Zhang Ruochen wanted to remind Jie Zunzhe to stay clear-headed (qingxing), but before he could finish speaking, he was swept up by a strand of divine Qi from Jie Zunzhe. His body felt light as he flew away from Guanghan Divine Palace.
Then came dizziness and disorientation, sometimes weightlessness, sometimes a sudden increase in pressure on his body.
It felt like someone had grabbed him by the neck and was spinning him around like a windmill, extremely uncomfortable.
He tried to control his body, but his internal power could not condense (ningju), and his spiritual power was suppressed. It was like a mortal drowning—he could only thrash about, but to no avail.
Who knows how long passed. Even with Zhang Ruochen's powerful physical body, he was about to reach his limit when he finally landed on the ground.
But he could not stand steady at all. Heaven and earth were spinning, and his body swayed left and right.
After falling countless times, Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged, circulating sacred Qi through his body's meridians. The scene before him finally stabilized, and his dizzy, aching head gradually cleared.
Jie Zunzhe sat on a stone not far away, grinning at him, his gray hair disheveled, wearing dirty clothes, the soles of his shoes worn through.
"Boy, next time you try to scheme against your ancestor, it won't be this simple to let you off!" Jie Zunzhe said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Your vengefulness is too strong. You are narrow-minded!"
Jie Zunzhe's temper flared, his wrinkled face turning red, "I am narrow-minded? I think of everything for you, but you go around spreading the news that I am still alive. Don't you know this is top secret? Once some old fellows learn of it, coveting the Great Venerable's divine source, they will do anything."
This time, Zhang Ruochen was indeed in the wrong, lacking confidence, "I didn't spread it everywhere. I just accidentally let it slip in front of Granny Haitang when I went to Liangyi Sect to return the Wordless Sword Manual."
"So you admit it yourself! For committing such a great mistake, shouldn't I teach you a lesson?" Jie Zunzhe said.
"Alright, let's end this here."
Zhang Ruochen stood up and looked around.
Their current location was on a sea island, surrounded by steep cliffs. Countless sacred stones on the island glittered. By the cliff edge in the distance grew seven or eight purple sacred trees, bearing fragrant fruits.
The sea was extremely vast. Zhang Ruochen's spiritual power could not detect the shore.
"Where are we?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Jie Zunzhe said, "A small island in the endless sea between West Ox Continent and South Zhanbu Continent."
Zhang Ruochen was stunned for a long moment before saying, "Why are we here? We need to go back to Guanghan Divine Palace immediately. We must strike while the iron is hot and reclaim the Jade Emperor Cauldron."
Jie Zunzhe was leisurely, "This place is at least a hundred million miles from the Purple Luo Heaven Domain where Guanghan Divine Palace is located. If you want to go back, go yourself. I need to go to South Zhanbu Continent."
"Do you think I can't go back?" Zhang Ruochen said.
Jie Zunzhe said, "Let me remind you, this is the Heavenly Court. You cannot casually set up a Space Teleportation Array, nor can you casually use the Divine Spirit Step. In the Heavenly Court, Half-Saints are suppressed like ordinary people."
"Although your cultivation is not bad, crossing a hundred million miles is not something you can do in ten days or half a month."
"Moreover, the sea areas of the Heavenly Court are filled with countless ferocious beasts. Not to mention Great Saint-level beast emperors, even encountering divine beasts would not be surprising."
Zhang Ruochen naturally understood the dangers of the Heavenly Court's sea areas, frowning deeply, "Old man, tell me the truth. Why don't we retrieve the Jade Emperor Cauldron?"
Jie Zunzhe became serious, "One hundred thousand years of peace is about to be broken. I have not recovered from my injuries and cannot yet appear in the sight of the gods. Even if we retrieve the Jade Emperor Cauldron, what use would it be?"
"Moon God is one of the Kunlun Realm's most steadfast allies. Lending her the Jade Emperor Cauldron might play an important role in the coming crisis."
"Can you discuss it with me before making a decision? Do you know that I just gave away two half-gods? Do you know that Moon God cheated me out of a million sacred sources and a divine medicine?" Zhang Ruochen said.
"What did you say?"
Jie Zunzhe clenched his teeth, his right hand forming a fist print, trembling slightly, "Can you be more wasteful? A million sacred sources could cultivate how many Saints for the Zhang Clan? With a divine medicine, my injuries could heal quickly. And those two half-gods—keeping them as concubines would have been fine! You... you're going to anger me to death..."
Zhang Ruochen quickly stepped back, putting distance between them, snorting coldly, "When it comes to wastefulness, how can I compare to you, elder? You can even give up the ancestral divine artifact. If the Great Venerable knew he had such an unworthy descendant, he would definitely regret passing the divine source to you."
Jie Zunzhe thought of that million sacred sources, one divine medicine, and two delicate half-gods, and his heart ached as if it were splitting.
Zhang Ruochen thought of the Jade Emperor Cauldron that was almost in his hands but was tricked away by Moon God again, and his heart ached too.
The two sat on the ground, silent for a long time.
On the sea island, the old and the young were both quiet.
Jie Zunzhe was a god after all, recovering first, letting out a long breath, "We are men. We cannot be so petty. Moon God owes our Zhang Clan a debt, and she will have to repay it eventually."
Zhang Ruochen nodded, "Yes, the Jade Emperor Cauldron is, after all, the ancestral artifact left by the Great Venerable. As long as the Zhang Clan's descendants are not all dead, we will eventually climb Moon God Mountain again and reclaim it."
"Sooner or later." Jie Zunzhe said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "A debt must be repaid—heaven's law and earth's reason."
Jie Zunzhe said, "We cannot stoop to the level of a woman."
Zhang Ruochen said, "As long as our cultivation is strong enough, how can she really cheat us?"
"That's the logic. It's not like we suffered a loss..." Feeling that this statement was too forced, too self-deceiving, Jie Zunzhe added, "We'll make her pay back double in the future."
The two fell silent again.
On the sea island, the wind howled, quite chilly.