Chapter 2860: God Slayer
Thick demon clouds covered a thousand miles of dense forest, blotting out the sky and hiding the earth, the space cold and dim, as if within the Void World.
The God-Slayer Demon Eye stood at the edge of the demon realm, the world behind him infinitely vast, wild and fierce power churning within that realm, ready to vent forth at any moment, destroying everything before him.
Wuma Jiuxing stood opposite the Demon Eye, holding a bronze war blade, his blade intent already spreading outward.
He said, "Old sir is a Spiritual Power God. I wonder, at such a close distance, can you still block one of my strikes?"
Zhang Ruochen knew well the ferocity of Wuma Jiuxing and said, "If you fail to kill me with one strike, wouldn't you be risking your own life? You know, my lifespan is short, and I wouldn't mind taking two gods with me before I die."
Hearing this, the Demon Eye's expression shifted slightly, and he immediately took out a divine talisman, like a flame, and pressed it to his chest.
Better to fear a high cultivation level than a person who doesn't care about their own life.
The Demon Eye's tone softened somewhat, and he said, "Assassins only kill for money, so there's no need for us to fight to the death. Peach Blossom is a traitor to the Heavenly Assassination Organization. Why risk your life for her, old sir?"
"Peach Blossom is just a traitor to the Heavenly Assassination Organization. Why risk your life for her, a dignified God-Slayer?" Zhang Ruochen mimicked his words.
The Demon Eye was truly angered by this old fellow and was about to strike, when he saw a brilliant light radiate from behind the old man, and the corner of his mouth curled up.
"Whoosh!"
Without any warning, Wuma Jiuxing swung his bronze war blade, lightning-fast, in a single stroke.
In the blink of an eye, countless Sword Dao Divine Marks manifested, transforming into tens of thousands of semi-transparent blade auras, falling together with the war blade.
Zhang Ruochen had been on guard against Wuma Jiuxing all along, deliberately turning his back to him and facing the Demon Eye, to provoke him into attacking. Wuma Jiuxing's first strike would inevitably be earth-shattering.
Most cultivators who died under Wuma Jiuxing's blade died on the first strike.
And the Blade Dao valued momentum above all.
Striking from behind—how could the momentum be complete?
As long as Zhang Ruochen evaded this strike, Wuma Jiuxing's momentum would inevitably decline, and his combat power would never reach its peak.
A battle between gods was never a simple clash of strength. In truth, from the very beginning, Zhang Ruochen had already entered a state of tactical combat. Find weaknesses, disrupt the mind, seek advantages, and strive for the most favorable battle situation for himself.
"Rip!"
Wuma Jiuxing's strike was unparalleled, its momentum vast, easily tearing through the formations that A Le had spent a great deal of time setting up. The divine marks were like paper, utterly fragile.
Just as Zhang Ruochen seemed about to die under this strike, a brilliant smile appeared on the Demon Eye's face.
No surprise.
Wuma Jiuxing's strike cleaved Zhang Ruochen's body in two.
"Bang!"
But what flew out was not flesh and blood, but wood dust.
Even the old yellow ox dissolved into a phantom and vanished.
"Not good! That was a false body he conjured from an ancient tree!" the Demon Eye exclaimed, immediately deploying layers of defensive measures.
"Whoosh!"
A bolt of lightning, thick as a water bucket, fell from the sky, shaped like a dragon, like a heavenly tribulation divine punishment, hurtling straight toward Wuma Jiuxing's head.
Wuma Jiuxing clearly hadn't expected the opponent's Spiritual Power methods to be so formidable, capable of deceiving his divine eyes.
He raised his blade to the sky.
Blade aura surged upward like a waterfall, crashing into the sky.
The lightning and blade aura collided, and the two powerful energies vented outward, brushing against the nearest Heavenly Venerable Divine Mark. The Heavenly Venerable Divine Mark, connecting heaven and earth and as bright as lightning, slashed horizontally toward the positions of Wuma Jiuxing and the Demon Eye.
"Run! We've been tricked! If we get touched by the Heavenly Venerable Divine Mark, we definitely won't be able to withstand it!"
The Demon Eye, carrying the oppressive demon clouds, fled at top speed.
But the Heavenly Venerable Divine Mark descended with incredible speed, still piercing through the demon clouds. A large amount of divine blood splattered, and a white python corpse was left on the ground, cut in two.
Zhang Ruochen stood on a mountain peak three hundred miles away, peering over. He saw lightning, blade aura, and demon clouds converge into a chaotic sea of divine energy.
Since he had discovered the Demon Eye and Wuma Jiuxing in advance, how could Zhang Ruochen have left his true body in place?
As a Spiritual Power God, he had to fully leverage the advantages of his Spiritual Power.
"The Heavenly Venerable Divine Mark is truly formidable. Even after millions of years, it still possesses such power."
Zhang Ruochen muttered to himself, then raised his right hand. Under the mobilization of his Spiritual Power, the divine energy of heaven and earth converged continuously, forming a second and third pillar of lightning, striking at the Demon Eye and Wuma Jiuxing respectively.
"Boom!"
"Boom!"
...
A large area of the divine soil on the ground was leveled.
Ancient trees, tens of people in girth and ten thousand years old, turned to ash the moment the lightning struck.
Wuma Jiuxing said, "Don't clash head-on with this lightning anymore. Once the divine power spreads and triggers the Heavenly Venerable Divine Marks, we might not be as lucky as before."
"Damn it, where is he hiding?" the Demon Eye cursed angrily.
Wuma Jiuxing said, "His Spiritual Power is far stronger than ours, and he hid in advance with full preparation. Finding him in this Heavenly Venerable Relic is almost impossible."
"So we can only be beaten passively?" the Demon Eye said.
"First, leave this Heavenly Venerable Relic."
Wuma Jiuxing merged man and blade into one, turning into a bright light shuttle and flying out.
They didn't dare to wander recklessly and followed the original path back.
Zhang Ruochen had already anticipated this. Just as Wuma Jiuxing and the Demon Eye were rushing near a thousand-meter-tall hill, with a boom, the hill exploded.
The sky was filled with mountain fragments, mud, and rocks flying everywhere.
Those mud and rocks condensed into stone men holding long spears, like a thousand troops and ten thousand horses descending from the sky, attacking the two gods.
"Scattering stones to form soldiers—a petty trick."
The Demon Eye didn't slow down. He waved his arm, and divine energy surged out, sending hundreds of stone men flying.
But after the stone men landed on the ground, as if completely unharmed, they charged at the Demon Eye again.
"How is this possible?" the Demon Eye exclaimed in shock.
You see, with his cultivation level, let alone these stone men made of rock, even Saint realm cultivators of the Stone Clan would have been reduced to dust. How could this scene not be shocking?
"This is a Heavenly Venerable Relic. The soil is divine soil, and the stone is divine stone with divinity. It's not so easy to destroy. The opponent's Spiritual Power is strong; he directly imbued them with spirit, awakening their intelligence, turning the divine stone into divine soldiers and generals. Don't get entangled. Let's go!"
Wuma Jiuxing swung his blade in a horizontal slash.
Where the blade light passed, all the stone men were reduced to rubble.
Wuma Jiuxing knew that the old man hiding in the shadows was cunning and wouldn't just use mere stone men to deal with them. There must be a follow-up, so he didn't linger at all and charged straight out of the dense forest.
Seeing that he had successfully separated Wuma Jiuxing and the Demon Eye, Zhang Ruochen quickly moved toward the lagging Demon Eye.
When he was only a dozen miles away from the Demon Eye, Zhang Ruochen pressed his palm to the ground, releasing his Spiritual Power. This divine soil was directly torn open by him, creating a long earth fissure.
The Demon Eye watched the fissure spread toward him, his face changing drastically as he roared, "Old bastard, are you crazy? This is a Heavenly Venerable Relic. If you trigger the Heavenly Venerable Divine Marks, we'll all die!"
"No, only you will die."
Zhang Ruochen stood at the end of the fissure, his body shooting backward like a projectile, widening the distance from the Demon Eye.
The Heart of Truth had merged into Zhang Ruochen's blood, flesh, tendons, bones, soul, spirit, and marrow. After becoming a god through Spiritual Power, his perception was even sharper than before. Within a certain area, he was almost omniscient.
Thus, he had a general understanding of the distribution of the Heavenly Venerable Divine Marks.
Near that hill, there were over a dozen Heavenly Venerable Divine Marks.
And the position where he had just struck was a gap where the divine marks were absent.
"Rumble!"
As the earth tore apart, a series of thirteen Heavenly Venerable Divine Marks were triggered. Some spread from underground, some fell from the sky, like streaks of lightning darting about.
The energy contained in this lightning was tens of thousands of times greater than ordinary lightning.
The destructive fluctuations spread out, making even Wuma Jiuxing, who had fled far away, tremble with fear.
The ground where the Demon Eye had stood was slashed by the thirteen Heavenly Venerable Divine Marks into thirteen bottomless ravines. Thick smoke billowed from the dense forest, and the demon clouds were shattered.
The earth was stained red with divine blood, and two ten-thousand-meter-long white pythons had turned to charcoal.
In the face of the Heavenly Venerable's might, the lives of False God-level divine beasts seemed so fragile. What powerful vitality? Utterly insignificant.
After the surging energy had calmed, Zhang Ruochen slowly walked out, his aged steps carrying him to the side of the two python corpses, feeling the lingering might of the Heavenly Venerable.
"Die!"
The ground split open.
The blood-soaked Demon Eye, his body covered in centipede-like demonic patterns, struck Zhang Ruochen's back with a palm.
This palm carried billions of Rule Divine Marks.
A ferocious and bloodthirsty smile appeared on the Demon Eye's twisted face.
"Amitabha!"
Zhang Ruochen raised his left arm, bending it to his chest, his five fingers naturally spread, palm facing outward, forming the Abhaya Mudra.
"Hum!"
The moment the Demon Eye's palm struck his back, the power of the Buddha Emperor Relic erupted. Dense Seventh Patriarch Sanskrit characters transformed into a circle of golden Buddha light, ten thousand zhang in radius, behind Zhang Ruochen.
The Seventh Patriarch Sanskrit characters, no different from Heavenly Venerable Divine Marks, surged back onto the Demon Eye.
The Demon Eye's divine body flew backward, shattered into pieces, and was purified by the Buddha light. His body burned, turning into specks of light.
Only pieces of divine bone and a shower of golden light remained, scattering on the ground.
Zhang Ruochen was not injured, because he had long sensed that the Demon Eye was not dead, hiding underground. So he was well-prepared. While using the Abhaya Mudra to trigger the power of the Buddha Emperor Relic, he also mobilized his Spiritual Power to form seventy-two barriers, protecting his body.
Of course, it was also because the Demon Eye had already been severely wounded, and the power of this palm strike was not strong enough.
...
Wuma Jiuxing escaped the dense forest and looked back from a distance.
He saw that in the pitch-black forest, a bright Buddha light erupted, purifying the demon clouds, revealing a vast and sacred Buddha glow in the sky.
This Buddha power was both powerful and pure, but it left Wuma Jiuxing puzzled.
Could there really be a true Buddha living in seclusion here?
"Wuma Jiuxing, you dare to kill my close friend, the Demon Eye. Even if you flee to the First Divine Maiden City today, or even out of Xinghuantian, I, this old man, will still slay you."
Zhang Ruochen, carrying the remains of the Demon Eye, flew out of the dense forest. Under his feet, Spiritual Power manifested into a cloud bridge. With each step he took, it seemed he could cross vast distances of space.