Chapter 2758: Awakening
As the golden sea pressed down, Blood Butcher and Yan Ting were battered by divine power, able only to desperately defend with no chance to counterattack.
Even in this perilous moment, Zhang Ruochen still had the leisure to glance toward the distant ghost ship. The divine power fluctuations there far surpassed this place; facing a Great God-level existence, Bore, Wen Chu, and the others could not hold out much longer.
This Great God had come because of him, Zhang Ruochen, so he naturally had to resolve this crisis himself.
He could not implicate others.
"End this quickly."
Zhang Ruochen activated the Origin Essence, and the origin rules of heaven and earth converged endlessly around him. A brilliant origin light burst from his body, colliding with the golden sea descending from the sky.
"Boom!"
The boundless golden sea was torn apart by Zhang Ruochen, creating a massive gap.
"You two go first. Leave this to me."
Zhang Ruochen shouted to Blood Butcher and Yan Ting.
Yan Ting's eyes showed surprise as she watched Zhang Ruochen floating on the water, resisting the golden Buddhist sea. The Zhang Ruochen before her now was completely different from the one on the ghost ship earlier.
"Let's go. My senior brother is indeed impressive, but don't get infatuated."
Blood Butcher unleashed the giant stone altar, breaking through the divine qi locks of the five false gods, and fled with Yan Ting at great speed.
Today, the Nether Hall intended to kill them all without leaving any future trouble, so naturally, they would not let them escape.
One of the false gods, who had a single horn on his head, wielded a red thunder hammer and gave chase.
"Crackle!"
The hammer swung, unleashing a sky full of red lightning.
But Blood Butcher was no pushover; his escape speed was astonishingly fast, and the defense of the giant stone altar was so strong that even divine lightning could not penetrate it. However, a false god was still a false god, and he drew closer and closer.
"Break for this god!"
The horned false god flew above the giant stone altar, his divine body larger than the altar itself, like a divine cloud blotting out the sky.
Blood Butcher and Yan Ting looked up, swallowed by the shadow of his divine body.
Blood Butcher's heart raced as he looked up. "We're done for!"
"Pfft!"
A dazzling sword light slashed from beyond the sky, cleaving the divine body of the false god above in two.
The two halves of the divine corpse turned into two ten-thousand-meter-long blood clouds, falling from the sky, with divine blood raining down like droplets, dyeing a vast area of water red.
The one who struck this sword was none other than Zhang Ruochen, who was still battling Kong Zhi.
A sword across a thousand miles, cutting down a false god.
Blood Butcher knew that false gods had strong vitality and could not have been killed outright, so he waved his hand, releasing a net-shaped monarch sacred artifact, trapping one half of the divine corpse in the net. He dragged it back and suppressed it with the giant stone altar.
"Return this god's divine body!"
Behind them, the half-corpse with a divine source regained its consciousness, recondensed its divine soul, and chased after the giant stone altar.
"You're just a half-baked false god. What fear does I, the Great Butcher War God Emperor, have of you?"
Blood Butcher tossed the net-shaped monarch sacred artifact to Yan Ting. The war god mark on his forehead emerged, and blazing divine fire gathered above his head, forming a sea of fire with temperatures exceeding a million degrees, crashing toward the pursuing half-corpse.
Yan Ting stood on the giant stone altar, channeling all her strength to suppress the half-corpse in the net, her heart shaken. A Great God's ambush, a saint-level fighting a god—tonight's experience would be etched in her memory forever.
Bore, Zhang Ruochen, Blood Butcher—these cultivators, regardless of their cultivation levels, all possessed a certain spirit.
Fearless of gods, fearless of heavenly might.
Even if their enemies far surpassed them, they dared to charge into battle.
As more and more origin rules were drawn in, Zhang Ruochen's combat power grew stronger. He truly became the envoy of origin, turning the water beneath him into a white sea of light, clashing with the golden sea condensed by Kong Zhi without falling behind.
As for the other three false gods, they had already been suppressed by Zhang Ruochen beneath three supreme sacred artifacts, unable to move.
"White Tiger, lend me a hand. I must end this battle quickly."
Zhang Ruochen communicated with Zangjin Baihu.
But Zangjin Baihu did not respond, as if it were not by his side at all.
Zangjin Baihu had once said it would only act in life-or-death situations.
Zhang Ruochen had not expected it to be so ruthless. Tonight was so dangerous—why could it not make an exception?
"Amitabha!"
Kong Zhi stepped on a lotus, crossing space, and landed before Zhang Ruochen in one step. His right hand struck out, his palm containing a bright Sanskrit character, imbued with ancient and mysterious power.
The space around Zhang Ruochen, as if built of earth and stone, collapsed under the palm strike, and his body began to fall into the void.
"I, the master of time and space, will not be knocked into the void by you!"
Zhang Ruochen spread his arms, and the shattered space quickly recondensed.
But Kong Zhi attacked again from above, pointing a finger and chanting, "Boundless Void Finger!"
This finger force, like a sharp sword, stabbed straight toward him.
"Bang!"
Zhang Ruochen drew a circle with both hands, channeling the Wuji Sacred Will, forming a Taiji mark that rose to meet the attack.
Kong Zhi's fingertip struck the center of the Taiji mark, and he immediately felt space sink around him, time flowing rapidly. His face could no longer remain calm.
Zhang Ruochen's technique seemed even more profound than divine abilities.
He tried to break free but was firmly pulled in.
Zhang Ruochen wrapped Kong Zhi in the Taiji mark, like stuffing him into a time-space bundle, and hurled him into the void. In an instant, he was thrown ten thousand miles away.
The three false gods suppressed beneath the supreme sacred artifacts changed color in shock.
Who would have thought Zhang Ruochen had such power?
Even Kong Zhi was no match for him.
Zhang Ruochen looked again toward the ghost ship, knowing time was pressing. He released the Devouring Spirit Insects from the bronze coffin, dividing them into three swarms that charged at the three false gods.
Then, he used the Origin Divine Eye to probe the spatial veins.
The spatial veins on the Santu River were extremely complex, making it very difficult to perform the Divine Spirit Step.
But only by using the Divine Spirit Step could he quickly escape the range of Wentong Great God's divine sense.
With Wentong Great God's cultivation, even if four true gods joined forces, they would not be enough for him to kill with one hand. Even if Zangjin Baihu acted, it would at most be a mutual destruction, and it would still die.
The only way Zhang Ruochen could think of to survive was to quickly flee beyond the range of Wentong Great God's divine sense, then return using the "Sixth Patriarch's Zen Meditation Diagram" to scare Wentong Great God away.
The Sixth Patriarch had once made Ghost Lord kneel in fear, not daring to act recklessly.
No matter how strong Wentong Great God was, he could not be stronger than Ghost Lord. As long as the Sixth Patriarch appeared, the crisis would surely be resolved.
The Devouring Spirit Insects crawled all over the three false gods' bodies. They emitted strange sounds and released spiritual power interference, preventing the false gods from self-destructing their divine sources. This was a capability unique to the third generation of Devouring Spirit Insects.
However, the Devouring Spirit Insects had not fully evolved to the third generation, and the spiritual power they released could only affect low-tier false gods.
If a saint-level cultivator were here, they would instantly suffer mental confusion and go mad.
The three false gods screamed in agony, their cries reaching Wentong Great God's ears.
Wentong Great God roared in fury, flying up from the human-head-shaped lightning mountain. He waved his hand and struck out from afar, forming a divine handprint shining with ten thousand rays of light, landing on the Divine King Talisman.
"Crack, crack!"
In an instant, the Divine King Talisman was covered in cracks, becoming tattered and torn.
At the same time, a doppelganger flew out from his body, charging toward Zhang Ruochen's location.
Guye Huanhuan rushed out from the ghost ship to intercept Wentong Great God's doppelganger.
"Luozu Cloud Mountain Realm is too close to Zhang Ruochen. Do you think he has a chance to break the curse and become a God Venerable-level figure in the future?"
Wentong Great God's doppelganger was no different from his true body, radiating divine might with surging, overwhelming momentum.
"The Great God has already decided to kill us all. Why waste so many words?"
Guye Huanhuan released crimson death demonic qi from beneath her feet, spreading for a thousand miles in an instant. Countless rule divine marks flowed across her snow-white skin.
Wentong Great God's doppelganger sneered, striking out with a straight punch.
"Boom!"
The death demonic qi was shattered by the fist force. The fist grew as large as a star, crashing into Guye Huanhuan's delicate body. Instantly, the rule divine marks snapped one after another, and her snow-white skin cracked like broken porcelain, covered in dense blood lines.
Luozu Cloud Mountain Realm specialized in cultivating demonic bodies, making their physical forms strong, but with Guye Huanhuan's true god cultivation, she was nearly shattered by a single punch from Wentong Great God's doppelganger.
"A mere true god who hasn't even cultivated a divine realm world dares to challenge me?"
On the other side, Wentong Great God's true body acted, flicking a finger.
"Bang!"
Divine power surged from his fingertip, forming ripples that struck Bore. In that instant, Bore, who was collecting the stone swords, had her divine body explode into a cloud of blood mist.
Wentong Great God landed above the Divine King Talisman and stomped down.
"Boom!"
His divine foot was like a world unfolding, death force spreading for millions of miles, sending Zhang Ruochen, Blood Butcher, and Yan Ting flying, each suffering varying degrees of injury.
The Divine King Talisman finally shattered, turning into specks of light scattering on the water.
The ghost ship below was torn apart by the divine force, breaking into fragments that sank to the bottom.
Wen Chu and Xiao Hei's defenses were instantly breached. Their skin and flesh exploded, turning into two clouds of blood mist. In the blood mist, only their skeletons remained intact.
Their life force was not completely extinguished.
In midair, Bore's divine body recondensed from the blood mist. Her pretty face was deathly pale, her aura extremely weak, but her eyes remained sharp.
Wentong Great God gathered all one hundred and eight stone swords and turned his gaze toward her, his momentum reaching the heavens. "Did you refine Chi Xingtian's divine star soul?"
Bore bit her crystal-clear teeth and gave a cold smile.
"It doesn't matter if you don't speak. I'll just extract your divine soul and study it carefully. I'll find the answer naturally."
Wentong Great God reached out his hand, grabbing toward Bore from afar.
Threads of Bore's divine soul flew out from her body, drifting toward his palm.
Suddenly, a change occurred.
The one hundred and eight stone swords that had been orbiting Wentong Great God began to tremble, their blades screeching sharply, their tips pointing toward him at the center.
Wentong Great God's expression changed. He immediately stopped extracting Bore's divine soul and raised a divine light barrier to block the attacking stone swords, sending them all flying.
"Roar!"
In the distance, the human-head-shaped lightning mountain let out a sky-shaking roar.
Hundred-foot waves rose on the water.
"Xingtian Great God has finally awakened!" Bore landed from midair, standing on a fragment of the ghost ship, looking toward the lightning mountain's location.