Chapter 2822: Finally Facing the Truth of Everything
A dojo left behind by a powerhouse of the Heavenly Venerable level was naturally not something an ordinary god could take away.
However, the Wonderful Zen Maiden was no ordinary god, and she had used the treasure, Dark Domain Heavenly Net.
After collecting the dojo, she left the Abyss of Darkness.
As for the stone tripod, she left it for Zhang Ruochen.
It was just a stone tripod, placed outside the dojo. The Wonderful Zen Maiden had probed it with her spiritual power and found it to be no cleverly disguised treasure, so she naturally didn't think much of it.
When Zhang Ruochen first saw this stone tripod, he noticed some peculiarities, but his thoughts were the same as the Wonderful Zen Maiden's.
However, after going to the Ancient Desolate Ruins City and seeing the nine tripods beneath the Witch Palace, Zhang Ruochen changed his mind.
Because the shape of this stone tripod was extremely similar to one of the nine tripods.
Of course, that wasn't saying much, since the nine tripods were very ancient, the ancestors of all tripods. It was normal for later generations to carve stone tripods in their likeness.
What truly puzzled Zhang Ruochen was: if it was really just an ordinary stone tripod, why would the Sixth Patriarch leave Sanskrit on it, and why would Yinxue Tian leave the mark of the Udumbara flower on it?
Were two Heavenly Venerable-level figures so bored?
It was like a top collector—if they collected paintings and calligraphy, they wouldn't stamp their seal on a forgery.
The Sixth Patriarch's Sanskrit and the Udumbara flower were undoubtedly the seals left by the Sixth Patriarch and Yinxue Tian, signifying that they had once owned this stone tripod. Or perhaps, they were trying to use the power contained in the Sanskrit and the mark to conceal some truth?
Zhang Ruochen circled the stone tripod several times but found no other text or patterns.
After thinking it over, he channeled Purifying Divine Flame from both palms and pressed them onto the stone tripod.
Refining the stone tripod.
Zhang Ruochen did this because the Jade Emperor Tripod had only revealed its true form in this way.
Before being refined by the Purifying Divine Flame, the Jade Emperor Tripod was just an ordinary large tripod used for sacrifices in the Holy Bright Central Empire, covered in rust, and was called the "Kaiyuan Deer Tripod."
But that outer layer of bronze rust was just a shell, used to protect the true tripod.
Thus, Zhang Ruochen speculated: could this stone tripod not actually be made of stone, but only have a stone outer shell?
With the current power of the Purifying Divine Flame, even a star could be melted into magma, let alone a layer of stone skin. However, after refining for a long time, the stone tripod showed no change at all.
Zhang Ruochen was not discouraged; instead, he smiled.
If the stone tripod could withstand the refining of his Purifying Divine Flame, how could it be an ordinary item?
Inserted into the stone tripod were three colorful incense candles, which had been lit before and were now only half-burnt.
Zhang Ruochen took down the incense candles and examined them carefully, but he couldn't determine what material they were made of.
These three half-burnt candles must have been left by Yinxue Tian. Anything brought out by a Heavenly Venerable-level powerhouse, even if it was scrap metal, would be extraordinary. Moreover, when Zhang Ruochen had used the Purifying Divine Flame to refine the stone tripod earlier, he hadn't even been able to ignite them.
Zhang Ruochen pulled out the three half-burnt candles and carefully stored them away.
Then, he poured out the dust from inside the stone tripod, planning to put it away first and study it slowly after leaving the Abyss of Darkness.
"Rustle."
The dust fell, forming a pile of ash.
"Oh!"
Zhang Ruochen was surprised to find that at the bottom inside the tripod, there was a large patch of black text.
The characters were tiny, like fly legs.
This was celestial script left by Yinxue Tian, a script unique to her, as it still carried her aura.
Zhang Ruochen used his spiritual power to analyze and decipher it, but after just a moment of analysis, he felt dizzy and his body swayed as if about to collapse.
"No good, this is celestial script. My current spiritual power can't decipher it!"
Zhang Ruochen immediately withdrew his spiritual power and sat down to regulate his breath.
Not every text left by a god requires powerful spiritual power to decipher. In fact, if the god didn't deliberately obscure the meaning of the text when writing it, even an ordinary person could understand a god's words.
Since Yinxue Tian had hidden this celestial script at the bottom inside the tripod and used her own spiritual will to conceal its meaning, it meant that the text must be very important.
"Hiding the most secret thing in the most obvious place—this Yinxue Tian is truly clever."
Any cultivator daring to enter the Abyss of Darkness would have to be very powerful.
And a powerful cultivator would hardly take notice of a stone tripod placed outside a dojo. Any cultivator would likely see it as just an incense tripod.
Could the three half-burnt candles inserted into the tripod also be a misdirection for those who came?
After all, everyone has a preconceived mindset.
But who was this stone tripod, and the celestial script inside it, meant for?
Zhang Ruochen speculated in his heart that the stone tripod and the celestial script were left for her descendants. Because in the past hundreds of thousands of years, only the Wonderful Zen Maiden had found this place.
The Wonderful Zen Maiden must have used some special method to find this spot.
But... when the Wonderful Zen Maiden saw the stone tripod, she didn't show any intention of studying it.
Zhang Ruochen recovered and planned to use the Heart of Truth to analyze it again. But when he looked inside the stone tripod, he found that the black celestial script had disappeared!
"This..."
Could it only appear once?
No.
Zhang Ruochen immediately thought of something. He pressed his hand onto the stone tripod and found that its temperature had turned cold again.
It must be that when he had used divine fire to refine the stone tripod earlier, the temperature rose, causing the black celestial script to appear. Zhang Ruochen was about to refine the stone tripod again to confirm his suspicion.
But suddenly, he stopped and instead turned around, looking into the distant boundless darkness, his expression becoming unprecedentedly complex.
"Whoosh!"
In an instant, a patch of colorful divine clouds flew close and hovered above Zhang Ruochen.
Chi Yao, dressed in a brocade golden robe, with divine light swirling around her, her eyes deep and commanding. Although she was cold to the point of being almost inhuman, her face, which was in no way inferior to the peerless beauty of the Moon God, seemed to have the power to melt all things in the world.
Her long black hair was tied high, with eight divine feathers shimmering with light inserted into it, like a scroll painting of a Nine Heavens Goddess unfolding before Zhang Ruochen.
But the fierce divine might radiating from her, along with the killing aura emanating from the Blood Drop Sword, was truly chilling.
Zhang Ruochen endured the pressure of her divine might. This pressure was countless times stronger than the divine might she had displayed a thousand years ago at the Moon Worship Demon Cult's Wuding Mountain.
Back then, her divine might was directed at every cultivator of the Moon Worship Demon Cult, and Zhang Ruochen couldn't resist it.
Today, her divine might was focused solely on Zhang Ruochen.
A thousand years later, Zhang Ruochen had become a god. Even if Chi Yao's divine might were ten times stronger, it couldn't force him to cut off his own legs to avoid kneeling.
Zhang Ruochen put away the stone tripod and said, "I thought you would only reveal your true self to me after leaving the Abyss of Darkness."
"So you already guessed that Bore and I are the same person. That's why you deliberately said those words that day—you were testing me?" Chi Yao's gaze was cold, even carrying a hint of disdain.
Zhang Ruochen said, "I wasn't testing you. Every word I said that day came from the heart."
Chi Yao let out a long laugh, as if mocking Zhang Ruochen's foolishness, and said, "Do you think saying that will save your life today?"
"You want to kill me? I don't believe it." Zhang Ruochen said.
"Whoosh!"
Chi Yao vanished, turning into a streak of blood-colored light, instantly reaching Zhang Ruochen's chest.
The Blood Drop Sword pierced through Zhang Ruochen's chest in one strike, the tip emerging from his back.
Blood dripped from the sword tip.
Too fast!
So fast that even his spiritual power couldn't react.
Chi Yao's face was filled with a cruel smile, and she said, "Does this strike feel familiar? Now, do you still think I won't kill you? Falling into the same trap twice—how ridiculous and foolish."
A piercing pain came from his chest, and blood flowed from the corner of Zhang Ruochen's mouth. He said, "If you wanted to kill me, why didn't this strike pierce my Sacred Heart and destroy my spiritual power? Why didn't it pierce my Qi Sea and cripple my cultivation? If you wanted to kill me, you had so many chances in the Kunlun Realm—why wait until now?"
Chi Yao used the blood-colored sword energy from the Blood Drop Sword to bind Zhang Ruochen and said, "You want to know the reason?"
"I want to. I dream of it. Including that strike back then—why was it you? Why? That's what I can't understand the most!" Zhang Ruochen said.
Chi Yao said, "In the Kunlun Realm, far from wanting to kill you, I was helping you. If not for my pressure, could you have grown so fast? If not for my secret help every time, you would have been killed by the imperial court's experts long ago. Could you have survived until now?"
"That time you and Ling Feiyu were pursued by the Undying Blood Clan army, if I hadn't sent Luo Xu to assist you, could you have escaped? Do you really think it was such a coincidence that you happened to meet Luo Xu and Chu Siyuan in the Central Domain?"
"When your three meridians were crippled, if I hadn't been by your side to help you, you would have become food for the Undying Blood Clan. Do you want me to continue?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "Why do you have to put on such a detestable act?"
"Act?"
Chi Yao's red lips were like fire, and she laughed again, saying, "Do you think I saved and helped you for your own good? You're wrong. I was just waiting for today. Waiting for you to grow up, to reach the peak below the divine realm, so I could plunder your cultivation and become the second Immovable Bright King Great Venerable. No... not right, to become an existence even more powerful than the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable."
"Pfft!"
Chi Yao stepped back several paces, spreading her arms wide.
Instantly, thirty-three Divine Throne Planets appeared within her body, and the phantom of thirty-three heavens emerged above her head, unleashing a divine might even greater than before.
She looked at Zhang Ruochen with a gaze that seemed to look down on all living things, sneering, "Shocked? At fourteen, I stopped cultivating the 'Azure Radiance Divine Art.' What I cultivate is the 'Thirty-Three Heavens,' perfected by the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable back then. And you, you descendant of the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable, cultivate a fragmented technique."
"The only reason you've lived until now is that I wanted you to live. I thought that since you've become a god through spiritual power and have many tricks up your sleeve, I'd need to put in some effort to devour you. But I didn't expect you to be so foolish, naively believing I wouldn't kill you, making it so easy for me."
"Does it hurt? If it does, say it. I do have feelings—I can let you die quickly. Torturing you would make me seem too heartless!"