Chapter 2639: The Number One Strongest of the Dragon Realm
Earlier, Zhang Ruochen had used righteous and noble qi to manifest a blazing sun, shaking off Shu Yong. Although he had not made many moves, his skill had already astonished everyone present, and no one dared to underestimate him.
Coupled with the Kunlun Realm's rapidly growing strength, this naturally drew Yu Chenjing's serious attention.
Zhang Ruochen said, "As I understand it, the Heavenly Court convened the Red Dust Assembly to respond to the Hell Realm's Ten Realms Challenge. Now that the Hell Realm has declared war, does the Heavenly Court still need to accept this Ten Realms battle?"
Yu Chenjing saw that he was deflecting the topic, clearly declining her earlier invitation.
Yet, with her clever mind and diplomatic finesse, she showed no sign of disappointment and smiled, "Precisely because the Hell Realm has declared war, we must fight all the more."
"Why?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Regarding the so-called "Ten Realms Challenge," Zhang Ruochen had heard of it.
It was a challenge directly issued by the Hell Realm to the Heavenly Palace. The terms were that the Hell Realm would offer five major worlds, and the Heavenly Court would offer five, totaling ten major worlds.
The Heavenly Court and Hell would each dispatch ten cultivators below the Divine level to participate in ten battles.
Winning one battle would grant one major world.
More importantly, the five major worlds offered by the Hell Realm were Qingling Major World, Chen Realm, Sansheng Realm, Haoming Major World, and Huoyun Realm. These five realms had been seized by the Hell Realm from the Heavenly Court on the Merit Battlefield.
These five realms still harbored a vast number of living beings, including some Saint-level cultivators.
If the Heavenly Court refused to fight, the Hell Realm would, on the day specified in the challenge, order the slaughter of all beings in these five realms, refining them into ghosts, battle corpses, and blood pills, and use the Myriad Realm Divine Eye to transmit projections across all realms.
Yu Chenjing held a red fan, took a sip of Jade Bee Cry from her crystalline red lips, and said in a pleasant voice, "There are three reasons."
"First, a great war sweeping across the entire starry sky is about to erupt. If the Heavenly Court refuses to fight, it will first lose morale. Imagine the mindset of all participants after the war begins? If the heart loses first, it will surely collapse at the first blow."
"Second, although the Hell Realm claims to have all ten Eon-level representatives assembled, the Heavenly Court's gods saw the signs as early as five hundred years ago, and all realms have taken action."
"The Paradise Realm faction initiated the Demigod Plan."
"The Truth Divine Temple established the God-Sealing Camp."
"The Pangu Realm initiated the Nuwa Divine Realm."
"The Demon God Realm activated the ancestral blood of the Demon Ancestor, focusing on cultivating ten top-tier experts."
"The Ten Thousand Ruins Realm, to provoke the Ten Thousand Ruins Alliance Leader, has been fighting for a hundred years."
"..."
"The Hell Realm's Ten Realms Challenge may not be completing the Heavenly Court. If the Heavenly Court can defeat the Hell Realm in the Ten Realms Battle, it will be of great help to the ensuing full-scale war."
Yu Chenjing continued, "Third, among the five major worlds offered by the Hell Realm, Sansheng Realm and Huoyun Realm are both close to the starry skies of the Ancient Civilization faction, holding immense strategic significance."
"Since the Middle Ages, the battlefields between the Heavenly Court and Hell have always been chosen from the Heavenly Court's subordinate mortal realms. This time, the Hell Realm has voluntarily offered five major worlds—an unprecedented event. So why not fight?"
Zhang Ruochen was silent for a moment, then nodded with a smile and said nothing more.
In his view, although the various realms of the Heavenly Court had made preparations in advance, Eon-level representatives could not be cultivated solely through resources. Forcibly shaping them later was no easy task.
Yu Chenjing was about to invite Zhang Ruochen again when a deafening dragon roar erupted from the Red Fire Dragon Ship, causing the entire sea area to boil.
Zhang Ruochen keenly sensed the rules of heaven and earth boiling and rapidly surging toward a certain point.
"Such a powerful fluctuation of force."
Zhang Ruochen's figure vanished from his seat and appeared on the deck, scanning the surroundings.
Under the bright moon, the sacred energy of heaven and earth had condensed into tens of thousands of dragon shadows, like a spectacle of ten thousand dragons returning to their nest, all surging into a cabin on the Red Fire Dragon Ship.
After a moment, a tall, robust dragon clan man walked out of the cabin, his body shifting between human and dragon forms.
"Second Brother, what happened? What's going on?" Ao Xukong stepped forward to ask.
By then, everyone understood the identity of that dragon clan man, and their eyes filled with reverence.
He was the Second Prince of the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon lineage of the Dragon Realm, Ao Yi.
Ao Yi's gaze fell on Zhang Ruochen, his pupils like lightning, and said, "You are very strong. Will you fight me?"
Everyone was shocked. Had Ao Yi, this supreme great power, been stirred by Shu Qianchi of the Kunlun Realm?
They had already held Zhang Ruochen in high regard, but none, including Yu Chenjing, had expected him to reach a level where Ao Yi would personally call him out for a battle.
Ao Yi was the most stunning and unparalleled existence in the Dragon Realm since the Middle Ages.
Zhang Ruochen thought to himself that the dragon clan truly produced battle maniacs. He shook his head and said, "Your current state is not good. Let's wait for another time."
Ao Yi's body kept shifting between human and dragon forms, sometimes growing dragon scales and sometimes shedding them. His head would turn into a dragon head, then back into a human head.
Ao Yi said, "I was just slightly injured earlier. It's nothing serious."
Linglong Fairy showed a concerned expression and asked, "Second Brother, who could hurt you? Was it a god?"
Ao Yi shook his head. "The opponent was very strong, but not a god."
"Not a god? Was it an ambush?" another Great Saint asked.
No one believed that, given Ao Yi's cultivation, anyone below the Divine level could injure him in a direct confrontation. Even with a sneak attack, very few could harm him.
Ao Yi said, "It wasn't an ambush."
"How is that possible?"
"Who has such ability?"
"Second Brother, when did you fight that person? Why didn't we notice anything?"
...
Ao Yi said, "The fight happened just now. The opponent came to test my cultivation and only struck once before retreating. That strike crossed a stretch of void and directly penetrated my Dao Domain. So, of course, you didn't know we had already fought. And I also struck back across the void, but I don't know the opponent's identity, nor whether my blow hit them."
So it was a fight just now.
This meant it wasn't Shu Qianchi who had alarmed Ao Yi, but another mysterious expert.
That night, Zhang Ruochen stood on the deck in deep thought, using his Fate Esoterica to deduce the mysterious expert who had fought Ao Yi. Unfortunately, the opponent clearly had a great background, and someone had obscured the heavenly secrets, making deduction impossible.
"The Heavenly Court truly hides dragons and crouching tigers. It cannot be underestimated."
Zhang Ruochen muttered this, feeling even more anticipation for the Red Dust Assembly.
Leaving aside others, just the power fluctuation Ao Yi had unleashed was no weaker than the Xing Luo or Yuan Qianmo Zhang Ruochen had seen. His actual combat ability was unknown, but it likely wasn't a weakness.
Moreover, Zhang Ruochen sensed a very strong fluctuation of Truth Esoterica in Ao Yi.
In the middle of the night, Yu Chenjing came to the deck and invited him again.
Zhang Ruochen had quite a few interactions with Yu Chenjing, including some absurd incidents. Several times, he had wanted to reveal his identity and return the "marriage contract" written on her long skirt.
But thinking of the presence of experts like Ao Yi on the Red Fire Dragon Ship, he held back for now.
At dawn the next day, the Red Fire Dragon Ship slowed down.
More and more cultivators appeared on the sea, some riding mounts, some driving sacred chariots, some piloting sacred ships, all heading toward a cluster of islands ahead.
When they passed the Red Fire Dragon Ship, they either kept a wide berth or came to pay their respects, all demonstrating the Dragon Realm's immense influence in the Heavenly Court.
Zhang Ruochen and Shu Yong, both dressed as Confucian scholars, stood side by side on the bow deck.
Shu Yong, after all, was a top-tier expert and hadn't truly gotten drunk. He said, "Brother Shu, do you know who I most want to see when I come to the Red Dust Archipelago?"
Zhang Ruochen had no interest in this and asked, "Brother Shu, do you have any divine stones?"
"Hey! Why talk about such mundane things?"
Shu Yong shook his head with a smile and said, "Legend has it that the master of the Red Dust Peerless Tower, when he was at the Great Saint level, once climbed the Truth Mountain and is one of the few Truth Envoys in heaven and earth."
"Legend also says he obtained a library of the Confucian Ancestor, containing countless rare texts."
"Legend says he has a Red Dust Brush that can write about everything in the vast mortal world and knows all its changes. Legend..."
Zhang Ruochen interrupted him and asked, "Do you know where I can exchange for divine stones?"
Shu Yong frowned, showing displeasure, and said, "Brother Shu, aren't you at all curious about this master of the Red Dust Peerless Tower? Don't you want to enter the Confucian Ancestor's library and read those unique surviving manuscripts?"
"Of course, I'm somewhat curious. After all, a Truth Envoy's Truth Esoterica must exceed one percent." Zhang Ruochen changed the subject and said, "But I really need divine stones."
"I need them too!" Shu Yong said.
Zhang Ruochen was taken aback. You're a top expert of your realm, and you still lack divine stones?
Shu Yong said with some emotion, "After all, the Book Realm can't compare to those powerful realms with divine veins. The world can't produce divine stones. To get them, I have to take treasures and exchange them in other major worlds."
Zhang Ruochen, hearing him speak so bitterly, felt a urge to comfort him.
Shu Yong suddenly thought of something and gave Zhang Ruochen advice in a low voice, "I don't have divine stones, but the Thousand Star Heavenly Maiden has plenty. If you go borrow some from her, given her generous nature, she'll likely just give you a good amount."
Zhang Ruochen was speechless. He had twice refused Yu Chenjing's invitation last night—how could he have the face to borrow divine stones?
He felt a pang of melancholy. Never did he imagine that one day he would be reduced to such a state.
Shu Yong said, "If Brother Shu finds it hard to swallow his pride, I'll go talk to her."
"Don't! How can we scholars be so destitute? No matter how down and out, we must never lose the pride in our hearts, nor bend our backs for divine stones." Zhang Ruochen said with righteous conviction.
Shu Yong nodded seriously, gaining a bit more respect for him. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he said, "If Brother Shu has any rare treasures, you could take a spin through the Red Dust Market. The Red Dust Market is one of the Heavenly Court's largest trading hubs. With the Red Dust Assembly approaching, it's bound to be even livelier. Getting a few divine stones shouldn't be hard."
"If all else fails, I can sell my calligraphy to help you out."
...
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