Chapter 2796: Martial Path to Godhood
The corpse of Yunqing Ancient Buddha glowed with golden light, its Buddha aura peaceful and serene. The divine robe and kasaya draped over it were adorned with various Buddhist treasures.
But the gods standing below the corpse felt no sense of peace at all. A chill ran through their bodies, darkness gradually closing in before their eyes, as an unknown dangerous aura surged from all directions.
"Gu ya!"
A hoarse and eerie cry rang out, causing the divine souls of all the gods to tremble.
"It's that ghost-type strange beast..."
Yuancang, a true god of the Darkness Temple, spoke in a low voice, filled with extreme caution.
"Puchi!"
Yuancang True God's divine realm shattered, and seven explosive sounds rang out from his body. The last was the sound of his head bursting apart.
Divine blood splattered everywhere.
The first six explosive sounds were the destruction of six protective treasures on his body.
From Yuancang True God's bloody neck, a massive amount of divine qi surged out. His headless body rapidly expanded, growing larger, transforming into a giant divine form, and crashing heavily to the ground.
"Yuancang!" Jiang Qing called out.
An ancient middle-ranked god had fallen, dying very suddenly. Divine blood splashed onto Wujiang, Jiang Qing, and Maha Yan beside him, as hot as lava.
"Go, hurry, flee separately!"
Wujiang acted decisively, transforming into a dim divine light and choosing a direction to charge out.
Jiang Qing, Maha Yan, and even the shadow controlling the Dark Light Illusory Heaven Divine Talisman each fled in different directions.
Faced with such a terrifying existence, a middle-ranked god who had cultivated a divine realm died at a word. Only by fleeing separately was there any chance of survival.
Gui Si and Tianque Shenji were also terrified, no longer in the mood to care about Zhang Ruochen and Fengchen Sword God. Each activated a protective talisman treasure and vanished among the ravines between mountain-sized divine corpses.
The Dark Light Illusory Heaven Divine Talisman was taken back by the shadow, and the dark domain formed by the talisman disappeared. The figures of the five true gods of the Yama Clan emerged. They were all exhausted, with two of them severely injured.
The highest in cultivation was Qian Kong, an upper-ranked god from the Dark Abyss Yan Clan. He had red hair and green pupils, a nose like an eagle's beak, was two zhang tall, and his body was wrapped in bowl-thick demon chains.
It was precisely because of Qian Kong, this great expert, that they had been able to withstand the attacks of the Dark Light Illusory Heaven Divine Talisman and the spiritual power god of the Darkness Temple, holding out until now.
There was no time to explain, nor time to speak words of gratitude. They communicated through telepathy, agreeing to meet in the western part of the city, and then immediately fled in different directions.
Xiao Hei closely followed Zhang Ruochen, claiming he was protecting him.
Zhang Ruochen and Xiao Hei moved quickly, their speed extremely fast, weaving among the divine corpses and giant rocks.
In the Ancient Desolate Ruins City, the number of divine corpses was countless.
Some divine corpses were over a hundred thousand li long, lying on the ground, like an entire world to mortals.
Others were only a few feet long, floating like lanterns in the corrupted divine blood rivers.
...
They had all been very powerful in life, and even the dark power had not completely decayed their corpses.
This place was like a divine corpse cemetery, or like an apocalyptic divine realm. The deeper one went, the more shocking it became. The Ancient Desolate Ruins City was too vast, the number of divine corpses too many. It was hard to imagine what a terrifying sight it would be if all these divine realm powerhouses from ancient and modern times were still alive.
Who had killed them?
Xiao Hei complained, "Too dangerous. The Dark Abyss Yan Clan had five false gods, and all of them fell after entering the Ancient Desolate Ruins City. True gods have such strong vitality, yet they die at a word, with no chance to fight back."
"I regret it, I regret it. Zhang Ruochen, let's quickly escape the Ancient Desolate Ruins City and leave the Dark Abyss. Since your spiritual power has already achieved godhood, even if your martial path can't become a god in the future, you still have a chance to become a universe-level great power. Look, isn't Tai Shang very strong?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "Stop talking nonsense. I've obtained clues about the Udumbara Flower. Perhaps I can use this to find Yinsnow Heaven's corpse."
"What clues?"
"The Udumbara Flower might be in the western part of the city."
"Great, why didn't you say so earlier? The Udumbara Flower is a divine medicine of the world. Once we find it, our spiritual power will surely advance by leaps and bounds, and we might even lay the foundation to become a future Tai Shang."
Xiao Hei was excited and no longer mentioned leaving.
Zhang Ruochen and Xiao Hei followed a dark red corrupted divine blood river, traveling westward.
The blood river was several hundred zhang wide. The divine blood in it had been corrupted by dark power and unknown eerie qi, emitting a foul and nauseating smell.
"That ghost-type strange beast doesn't seem to be chasing us."
Xiao Hei and Zhang Ruochen slowed down, then set up a concealment formation to mask their auras, and their figures disappeared.
"How big is this Ancient Desolate Ruins City? Where exactly is the western part? I feel like this isn't a city at all, but an ancient world. Could it be that some great world fell here?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "It's said that the Ancient Desolate Ruins City is immeasurably vast. To go around it, one would have to travel tens of millions of li."
Xiao Hei found it headache-inducing. Tens of millions of li outside, with their cultivation, could be crossed in an instant. But here in the Ancient Desolate Ruins City, the burial ground of gods, various rules and divine patterns filled the air, heavily suppressing their cultivation power.
This place was no different from the ten great divine cities of the Hell Realm!
To cross tens of millions of li would take who knows how much time.
And every extra day spent in the Ancient Desolate Ruins City increased the danger.
"Oh!"
After walking for most of the day, Xiao Hei sensed something. His divine eyes blazed with light, and he said, "Zhang Ruochen, wait here for me for a moment. I've found something good."
With a whoosh, Xiao Hei rushed out and entered a towering divine mountain shrouded in green mist.
This divine mountain was actually an ancient divine corpse lying on the ground, stretching for a thousand li. Many places were covered in black mud, and the corpse was severely decayed.
Zhang Ruochen used his Truth Eye and saw a purple light flashing within the "towering divine mountain," accompanied by streaks of lightning. It seemed some treasure was being nurtured there.
Fearing unknown dangers, Zhang Ruochen didn't follow, worried they might both get trapped inside.
He observed the surrounding environment. It was very quiet, with no dangerous aura detected.
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen saw a black vortex in the blood river beside him. Around the vortex, powerful dark force surged, along with strong spatial and temporal fluctuations.
Zhang Ruochen was very familiar with this power. A look of joy appeared on his face as he released his Time Sacred Form and approached the black vortex.
The Time Sacred Form was also vortex-like, invisible to the naked eye.
The two vortices quickly overlapped, and under Zhang Ruochen's control, they flew out of the blood river and returned to his side.
At the center of the vortex was a pigeon-egg-sized black crystal that could devour light, space, and time.
This was solid dark time-space matter!
Back then, Zhang Ruochen had obtained dozens of drops of dark time-space matter inside the Dark Star.
At that time, the dark time-space matter he obtained was all liquid.
Even a single drop of liquid dark time-space matter had the power to kill a Great Saint.
Now, the black crystal in his Time Sacred Form was solid dark time-space matter. Although only the size of a pigeon egg, the dark, spatial, and temporal power it contained was probably a hundred or a thousand times greater than the liquid form.
This was a true supreme treasure!
If it were detonated, the destructive power unleashed would likely be no less than a god self-destructing their divine source.
But precisely because of its terrifying power and difficulty to control, Zhang Ruochen became even more cautious. If it accidentally exploded, he would be the first to die on the spot.
Half a day later, Xiao Hei returned.
He held a translucent purple stone herb in his hand, showing it off proudly. "Who says there are no great opportunities in the Ancient Desolate Ruins City? Treasures do exist, but at least a true god is needed to pick them."
"This corpse-fossilized stone dendrobium can only be nurtured from the corpse of a god-venerable-level powerhouse. It has been growing for at least five epochs and is a peerless material for refining divine pills. With it, my cultivation is about to soar!"
"There should be other rare wonders. Although this Ancient Desolate Ruins City is dangerous, the opportunities are also great. I don't want to leave at all now. I'm even more looking forward to how many good things I'll encounter next."
Zhang Ruochen showed no envy on his face, which disappointed Xiao Hei.
"What are you fishing for?" Xiao Hei asked curiously.
Zhang Ruochen held a white bone whip, sitting by the divine river as if fishing.
"I've been waiting for you for half a day. Let's go!"
He lifted the white bone whip upward, and at the other end of the whip, a huge bronze coffin flew up.
Xiao Hei then realized that Zhang Ruochen wasn't fishing for anything but was filling the bronze coffin with divine blood.
In the bronze coffin, he was raising Devouring Spirit Insects.
"You're using the divine blood here to raise Devouring Spirit Insects?" Xiao Hei asked in surprise.
Zhang Ruochen said, "The divine blood in this river all flows from the bodies of divine corpses. When these divine corpses were alive, each was earth-shattering. Their divine blood must contain infinite power and should be able to cultivate the Devouring Spirit Insects to the fourth generation."
Xiao Hei licked his lips, tempted, and wanted Zhang Ruochen to give him half of the Devouring Spirit Insects.
The terror of the Devouring Spirit Insect swarm was something he had witnessed. Now, they were only in the third generation and could already threaten the lives of true gods.
If they were cultivated to the fourth generation, how terrifying would they be?
But this time, Xiao Hei really couldn't bring himself to ask.
Because back then, Zhang Ruochen had already given him a nest of Three-Legged Corpse-Eating Insects, but he had managed to raise them to death.
Although the Three-Legged Corpse-Eating Insect's ranking in the "Thousand Insect Collection" was lower than the Devouring Spirit Insect, it was still in the top tier. If he hadn't killed them, they would probably have become a powerful insect swarm by now.
Now, seeing Zhang Ruochen commanding such a group of Devouring Spirit Insects, comparable to a sacred army, he could only feel envy.
They continued westward, moving stealthily.
Half a month later.
Zhang Ruochen, sitting in the eye socket of a bone divine corpse, sensed powerful divine power fluctuations in the distance. The airflow and rules of heaven and earth were rapidly converging toward a certain direction.
"Someone has broken through to godhood!"
Zhang Ruochen stood up abruptly, flew to the top of the divine corpse, and looked into the distance.
This was martial path achieving godhood. Only when a new god absorbed the power of heaven and earth would such a surge of power occur.
Who was it?
Currently, almost all of the Supreme Realm Great Saints who had entered the Dark Abyss were from the Dark Abyss Yan Clan.
Zhang Ruochen felt both joy and worry. Joy that Yan Wushen and the others hadn't met with an accident, and at least someone was still alive. Worry that the commotion caused by achieving godhood was too strong and could easily attract the taboos of the Ancient Desolate Ruins City.
Xiao Hei had sensed another treasure and had entered a divine corpse mountain range over thirty thousand li long a day ago, and still hadn't come out.
Zhang Ruochen left a message for him, then put away the Sundial, leaped down from the divine corpse, and headed toward the direction of the divine power fluctuations.