Chapter 2734: Taking a Disciple
Jian Nan Realm was brought out of the Dark Great Triangle Star Domain by the Underworld King and is now located in the Yellow Spring Star River, in a cosmic space not far from the Blood Heaven Tribe.
The entire world is far from any star.
Although it remains as dark and cold as before, with plants emitting light to illuminate the world, the sky above is now filled with countless stars, no longer so empty.
Zhang Ruochen stood beneath a huge boulder hundreds of feet tall. The stone was like a mountain, covered in vegetation, rugged and majestic.
The plants emitted a faint, glowing light.
On the boulder, the words "Jian Nan" were carved.
In Zhang Ruochen's hand was a three-inch-long sword-shaped realm token. This was given to him by the previous Realm Lord of Jian Nan Realm during the Heaven Hunting Battlefield, representing the identity of a realm's sovereign.
The Sword Ancestor called it the "Sword Seal."
The one who wields the Sword Seal is the Guardian of the Sword Realm.
It was based on his perception of the Sword Seal that Zhang Ruochen found this boulder in Jian Nan Realm.
Other than that, he found nothing.
As for the sea area where the Origin Divine Temple was located, Zhang Ruochen had gone to investigate. It had been completely cleared out, not even a stone left behind.
Mo Yin, wearing a five-colored scale long dress, stood behind Zhang Ruochen. Her bearing was graceful and enchanting, with a seductive aura that could captivate all beings. She said softly, "This is just a barren great world with a broken inheritance. It will only grow more desolate over time. There's no value in investigating it. Why waste time here, Master?"
The starry position where Jian Nan Realm was located had only a single cosmic vein flowing through it, barely enough to sustain the world's vitality. It could never nurture sacred veins or spiritual veins. Naturally, it would only become more barren in the future.
In this world, the cultivation levels of its cultivators would grow lower and lower, until eventually, even cultivators would disappear, turning it into a mortal world entirely.
Zhang Ruochen shook his head. "The Sword Realm was once incredibly prosperous. It must have left behind many divine relics and ancient sites. Even if those relics have been worn away by time, bloodline inheritance cannot be completely erased. It was a land of outstanding people and spiritual energy. If we move Jian Nan Realm to a spatial location where cosmic veins converge, the world can revive and give birth to an endless stream of geniuses."
"Only with a gathering of talent can the future be truly prosperous."
In truth, Zhang Ruochen's purpose in coming to Jian Nan Realm was to find the Sword Divine Temple.
After all, the Sword Realm was named after "sword," not "Origin Great World."
From this, it could be inferred that the Origin Divine Temple was just one of the temples of the former Sword Realm.
A Sword Realm that possessed the Origin Divine Temple, yet the Way of Origin was not as prosperous as the Way of the Sword—this was enough to show how terrifyingly advanced the Sword Dao had been in the Sword Realm back then.
It was likely that nine out of ten parts of the Sword Dao Essence in the world were concentrated in the Sword Realm.
Although Zhang Ruochen had taken away the Sword Mountain containing the Sword Dao Essence, the amount of Sword Dao Essence in it was clearly not very large, because the density of Sword Dao rules in the Sword Mountain was still lower than the density of Truth rules in the Truth Divine Temple.
That didn't make sense.
"The former Sword Realm must have had a Sword Divine Temple built within it, but the Sword Divine Temple is not in Jian Nan." Zhang Ruochen made this inference.
Additionally, the "Sword Origin" among the Eight Absolutes of the Sword Ancestor was also something Zhang Ruochen sought.
"Come, follow me to take a look at the human cities of Jian Nan Realm."
Zhang Ruochen and Mo Yin left the place.
Soon after, the two of them walked into an ancient city full of charm. This city had a history of over ten thousand years, with a large population, making it the largest city within tens of thousands of miles.
Jian Nan Realm was located within the star territory of the Blood Absolute Family.
For this reason, for a thousand years, it had been managed by cultivators of the Blood Absolute Family.
However, in the eyes of the Undying Blood Clan, the humans of Jian Nan Realm were no different from livestock—mere blood food. Thus, despite the Underworld King's decree forbidding the consumption of Jian Nan Realm humans as blood food, how could wolves watching over a flock of sheep resist the temptation to eat?
The divine decree of the Underworld King could control one person, or ten people, but it could not control the hearts of countless thousands.
Thus, as Zhang Ruochen entered the city, the first thing he saw was a squad of Undying Blood Clan soldiers driving a group of over a thousand humans toward a mansion.
Those humans were all quite elderly, with the youngest appearing to be over fifty years old.
They were dressed in rags, with ropes binding their hands.
"Crack!"
The sound of a whip rang out.
A white-haired old man was struck by a whip from an Undying Blood Clan soldier riding a barbarian beast, his skin splitting and blood splattering as he fell to the ground.
"Your dawdling is wasting my time. Move! Move faster, or this will be your fate."
The barbarian beast beneath that Undying Blood Clan soldier trampled over the old man, crushing his withered body flat and causing a gush of blood. The soldier took a deep breath, drawing all the blood into his nostrils.
By the time Zhang Ruochen entered the city, the tragedy had already occurred.
Many humans were watching, but none dared to step forward.
"Grandfather!"
Only a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old boy rushed out from the crowd, kneeling beside the fragmented, withered remains. Tears streamed from his eyes, and his hands trembled as if to reach out and gather the remains, but he didn't know where to place them.
"Grandfather!"
"Grandfather!"
...
The boy wore simple cloth, barefoot, with disheveled hair and a twitching mouth.
Suddenly, he let out a roar, gritted his teeth, and stood up, charging toward the barbarian beast whose hooves were still stained with his grandfather's blood and the Undying Blood Clan soldier.
His eyes were filled with hatred, rage, and desperation.
"I'll kill you, I'll kill you..." The boy repeated this over and over, his eyes bloodshot.
The Undying Blood Clan soldier sitting on the barbarian beast turned his head to look at the boy, revealing a cruel, bloodthirsty smile. He swung his whip, aiming for the boy's neck.
The watching humans gasped, thinking the boy was about to die under that whip.
"Bang!"
The Undying Blood Clan soldier flew off the barbarian beast's back, crashing heavily to the ground, dazed and disoriented, with several bones broken in his body.
Everyone was stunned, not knowing what had happened.
Even the boy was frozen in place, his gaze fixed on Zhang Ruochen, who was walking toward him from the front. Then, gathering his courage, he charged at the Undying Blood Clan soldier lying on the ground.
But Zhang Ruochen grabbed him.
"Let me go! I'll kill him, let me go..."
The boy opened his mouth and bit Zhang Ruochen's wrist.
But it was like biting into a block of iron, his mouth going numb, and he could no longer shout.
"If you go kill him, what's the difference from seeking death?" Zhang Ruochen said.
Zhang Ruochen knew very well that such incidents were happening every moment in Jian Nan Realm, and the situation was likely similar in every city.
He couldn't manage it all.
But since it happened right before his eyes, how could he ignore it?
Moreover, Zhang Ruochen had developed some interest in this boy.
First, this child was only fourteen or fifteen years old, yet he dared to charge at an Undying Blood Clan soldier. That courage was truly rare. At least, none of the other humans present possessed it.
Second, normal humans have three souls and seven spirits, but he only had one soul and one spirit.
Zhang Ruochen had never seen a human with only one soul and one spirit before.
The Undying Blood Clan soldier who had fallen to the ground just got up and drew his battle blade, intending to strike at Zhang Ruochen. But when he saw the Blood Absolute Family token Zhang Ruochen produced, he fell to his knees with a thud.
"Greetings, sir. May I ask how to address you?" the Undying Blood Clan soldier asked tremblingly.
"Zhang Ruochen."
Hearing this name, the Undying Blood Clan soldier's face turned deathly pale. He prostrated himself on the ground, as if all the bones in his body had vanished.
The other Undying Blood Clan soldiers riding barbarian beasts had already jumped down and knelt in orderly rows.
The watching humans also knelt.
Zhang Ruochen didn't ask why they were escorting these humans into the mansion, because he had already used his spiritual power to probe it. Inside, a blood pool was being constructed.
The mansion's owner, a Half-Saint, hurried out and knelt before Zhang Ruochen in terror. "Greetings, Ruochen Great Saint."
Zhang Ruochen said, "If I remember correctly, the Underworld King issued a divine decree forbidding the use of Jian Nan Realm humans as blood food, and certainly forbidding the construction of blood pools."
The Half-Saint trembled as he spoke. "Great Saint, you may not know this, but blood pools have been built in every major city. I only wanted to build a small blood pool for basic cultivation, using only the blood of elderly humans. Aside from their blood, they have no other value."
Zhang Ruochen frowned deeply, almost wanting to kill him with a single palm strike, but he held back.
After a long moment, Zhang Ruochen left the city with the boy.
The boy suddenly stopped, his eyes cold as he glared at Zhang Ruochen. "You're so powerful, why didn't you kill him? They use tens of thousands of humans to build blood pools, and they'll keep doing it in the future."
Mo Yin stood nearby, smiling without speaking.
Mo Yin's seductive aura could stir the hearts of Great Saints, but it couldn't move this boy's heart.
He shouted, "Stop laughing!"
Zhang Ruochen's expression remained calm. "He is a cultivator of the Blood Absolute Family, and so am I. I have no grudge against him, so why should I kill him?"
The boy was stunned and couldn't help stepping back, putting distance between himself and Zhang Ruochen.
"Such things cannot be managed one by one. If I kill him, the next Undying Blood Clan cultivator sent to guard this city will do the same. Unless I stay in this city forever, but then I wouldn't be able to do anything else," Zhang Ruochen said.
The boy could tell that Zhang Ruochen was different from other Undying Blood Clan members. He pleaded, "You are powerful, and they are all afraid of you. Why don't you order all the Undying Blood Clan to leave Jian Nan Realm?"
"It's not that simple."
Zhang Ruochen shook his head. "You probably don't realize that the entire Jian Nan Realm is currently under the protection of these Undying Blood Clan members. Without them, this realm would have long been destroyed. It would either become a realm of evil ghosts or a realm of corpses."
"Let it be destroyed then. It's better than being treated like livestock and food," the boy said darkly.
"Ignorant."
Zhang Ruochen said, "Your thoughts do not represent the thoughts of all living beings in Jian Nan Realm. They want to live, even if it means living like livestock."
"Besides, if the realm is destroyed, everything is lost."
"Living like this now, at least there is still hope."
"You need to understand that in this cruel world, only you can save yourself."
"What if a peerless genius emerges from Jian Nan Realm, someone who becomes a figure of great stature, demonstrating their value? They could negotiate with the Blood Absolute Family, gain the right to control their own great world, drive all Undying Blood Clan cultivators out of Jian Nan Realm, and lead it to prosperity."
"As for revenge, that would be even easier."
The boy was extremely intelligent and understood that Zhang Ruochen was hinting at something. He knelt down. "Master above, please accept this disciple's bow. I beg you to teach me. I am willing to endure any hardship."
Zhang Ruochen smiled with satisfaction.
Having inherited the Sword Ancestor's sword soul and received his grace, how could he not do something for the Sword Realm?
He would first take on a disciple and see if this boy had the potential to revive the Sword Realm.