Chapter 2881: Heavenly Venerable Divine Ability
The sky's edge gradually turned white, and then the morning glow appeared like rose-colored fiery clouds.
On the reddish-yellow Gobi desert, the rules of heaven and earth changed violently, space folded layer upon layer, and the airflow accelerated into a hurricane.
"Whoosh!"
The whistling sound was unceasing.
The sun rose.
When sunlight fell on Zhang Ruochen's face, he changed his appearance.
In the circle surrounding him, the flow direction of life rules and death rules reversed, with death rules gaining the upper hand.
The life qi within Zhang Ruochen's body rapidly dissipated, and the flame of life once again dwindled to just a single thread. His skin turned sallow, wrinkles emerged one after another, his black hair turned white, and his body shriveled up.
Zhang Ruochen tremblingly raised his hand, touched his wrinkled face, and smiled bitterly. "I knew it wouldn't be that simple."
In the circle, the life rules Zhang Ruochen had drawn were too few, and in terms of quantity, death rules far outnumbered life rules.
Under such circumstances, how could the life qi in his body possibly stabilize?
Forget stabilizing life qi, even the circle representing Taiji was flickering in and out of existence, completely beyond Zhang Ruochen's control, and he couldn't even retract it into his body.
Precisely because of this, when day and night alternated and the rules of heaven and earth changed, the strength of life and death within the Taiji circle also shifted accordingly.
Zhang Ruochen's mindset was unaffected; he felt neither disappointed nor discouraged.
Because, regardless of how life and death changed, he now had a path to follow.
As long as there was a path, there was a direction to strive in and hope for the future.
"To master life and death, to forever maintain youth and vitality, I must draw more life rules in the Taiji circle. To draw more life rules, I must not only learn from heaven and earth but also comprehend the sages' understanding of the way of life."
The life rules Zhang Ruochen had drawn earlier were all modeled after heaven and earth, based on the life rules in the natural world.
He could draw life rules because he had once refined the heart of the divine wood and had a certain degree of research and understanding of the way of life.
"After mastering life and death, I will draw other rules. Treat the Taiji circle as the qi sea, and regard the rules I create as sacred dao rules and rule divine patterns, forging a cultivation path of my own."
Zhang Ruochen's mind suddenly cleared, and his mood lifted greatly. He looked up at the sky, feeling as if he had transcended beyond heaven and earth, leaped out of the muddy swamp of the mortal world, and was no longer within yin-yang and the five elements.
The future path was his to decide.
...
Many cultivators had been drawn into the Rainbow Mountain Range by the rules of the world's origin, and they had all been trapped in the reddish-yellow Gobi last night.
After dawn, the world changed drastically, and they gradually arrived outside the Rain Chen Divine Temple.
"The rules of the world's origin must have been triggered by the origin esoterica. I wonder who used a divine ability here yesterday."
"This place is too eerie. Day and night are like two completely different worlds."
"Xinghuantian is the former domain of the Heavenly Venerable, with many forbidden areas. In any case, it's best to be cautious. Have you noticed that there are spatial formation inscriptions hidden in the space here, along with ancient divine formations."
"Boom!"
A deity made a move, attempting to break the formation.
But with Zhang Ruochen controlling the formation and Aji assisting, let alone these Bu Tian realm deities, even if a Tai Zhen realm great deity came, they couldn't break the Yin Dun Nine Formations.
Six deities in a row made their moves.
The spatial divine formation returned their attack power exactly as it was, leaving them all disheveled and embarrassed. Some deities were even injured as a result.
Lan Jun, a Shang Wei deity from the Cha Realm, stepped forward, holding a jade fan, his eyes sinister and smiling. "It's just a divine formation. With all the deities gathered here, can't we break it?"
Lan Jun knew that the Rain Chen Divine Temple was the former dojo of Yu Chenzi, the second disciple of the Starry Sky Heavenly Venerable, and that the Heavenly Venerable's divine source might be left in the temple. Naturally, he actively incited the deities to break the formation.
Yu Chenjing, dressed in a white brocade robe with purple fish patterns, a gold silk belt around her waist, and her hair tied up, stepped forward looking like a handsome young man. "If you want to die, go ahead, but don't drag everyone else down with you."
Although many deities stood around, each radiating mighty divine power, she remained calm and composed.
Even though the deities felt that a Saint realm cultivator had no right to speak before deities, seeing Yu Taizhen standing behind Yu Chenjing, no one dared to reprimand her.
Lan Jun looked at Yu Taizhen and smiled. "If Lord Taizhen makes a move, breaking a spatial divine formation should be easy."
Yu Taizhen ignored him.
"It's not just one spatial divine formation, but nine. This is the legendary Yin Dun Nine Formations!" Yu Chenjing continued. "Yin Dun and Yang Dun are inseparable. Since the Yin Dun Nine Formations appear, the Yang Dun Nine Formations must also be here. The Yin Yang Eighteen Formations—even a great deity couldn't withstand them, right?"
Hearing this, the deities were visibly shaken, activating their divine eyes to observe carefully.
Lan Jun's expression changed dramatically.
If a spatial dao master had set up the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations here, this place was truly a god-killing ground.
Some deities saw the clues and sent voice transmissions to their close friends. Then, with terrified expressions, they immediately left.
"There's definitely something wrong. Retreat quickly, don't fall into the traps set by the Heavenly Court in advance!"
The deities of the Hell Realm retreated like a tide, patches of divine radiance dissipating.
Just then, Lan Jun heard Shang Hong's voice transmission: "Return to the First Divine Maiden City immediately. There's an important matter to discuss."
"A major event has occurred. Last night, the deities of the Destiny Temple made the first move, suppressing three true gods: Yan Shen, Jia Linnan, and Kailan Feili." A demon clan deity shouted this.
"Boom!"
The emotions of the Heavenly Court faction's deities boiled over.
A young deity radiating silver divine light shouted coldly, "Is this true or false? Is the Hell Realm declaring war on Xinghuantian?"
The demon clan deity said, "This matter is absolutely true and has already spread throughout Xinghuantian. Those Hell Realm deities were extremely arrogant. They cut off Jia Linnan's wings, wrote a declaration of war on them, and struck it down from the void outside the First Divine Maiden City."
"The declaration of war read: All Heavenly Court deities are mere ants. I trample the Radiant Divine Temple, punch the Elf Divine Temple, destroy the Merit Divine Temple, and under heaven, only I, the Great Slaughter Divine War Emperor, reign supreme."
"This is utterly arrogant to the extreme."
A Pan Gu Realm Shang Wei deity who had cultivated for nearly a hundred thousand years was so enraged that his head caught fire. "What Great Slaughter Divine War Emperor? Who is he? Why have I never heard of his name?"
"Calling all Heavenly Court deities ants—quite the boldness. He must have high cultivation and wants to make a name for himself."
"No matter how high his cultivation, since he captured the three deities of the Heavenly Realm faction, the Heavenly Grandson will surely fight him to the end."
...
Yu Taizhen's eyes blazed with intense battle intent. Although he didn't know the Great Slaughter Divine War Emperor's cultivation level, anyone who dared to take such a domineering title and act so arrogantly must be a top-tier powerhouse.
To miss a battle with such a strong opponent—wouldn't that be a regret?
Yu Chenjing was stunned, then said to the crowd in a somewhat uncertain tone, "The Great Slaughter Divine War Emperor should be the new deity of the Death Divine Palace of the Destiny Temple. As far as I know, he only stepped into the divine realm a few decades ago... Forget it, it probably isn't him. It might just be someone with the same title."
In Yu Chenjing's view, a new deity couldn't have such audacity.
The title of Great Slaughter Divine War Emperor had only been used for a few hundred years, and its influence was mainly in the mortal world. These old deities, who had already lived for tens of thousands of years and sometimes went into seclusion for centuries, wouldn't know about him.
"Never mind. Let's get out first. No matter what, we have to rescue the three deities and join forces to kill the Great Slaughter Divine War Emperor, restoring the dignity of the Heavenly Court deities. The Hell Realm declared war first!" Lan Jun suggested this.
Then, the Heavenly Court deities left one after another.
Zhang Ruochen's aged figure emerged from beneath the temple gate, muttering to himself, "Is this guy crazy for fame? 'Under heaven, only I, the Great Slaughter Divine War Emperor, reign supreme'—even a God Venerable wouldn't dare say such a thing."
Zhang Ruochen had only asked Xue Tu to take the three deities away from Xinghuantian and then spread the news.
How could he have expected Xue Tu to add his own embellishments?
Did he really think Zhang Ruochen could cover for him no matter how big a mess he made?
Perhaps he genuinely believed Zhang Ruochen had already invited the Blood Absolute War God, which was why he acted so recklessly.
"I hope your concealment skills are good enough that you don't get killed," Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
Aji said, "The sun has risen. The divine corpse and the old corpse ghost will surely come out to cause trouble again. Uncle, when do we start?"
"We can start now."
Zhang Ruochen took out the sundial and placed it beneath the temple gate.
"This is the sacred artifact of our Xumi Temple! Seeing it feels like seeing the Grandmaster again." Aji quickly clasped his hands together and bowed respectfully to the sundial.
In that battle a hundred thousand years ago, the sundial was severely damaged and could no longer support deities in cultivation.
But during the siege of Xiu Chen Heavenly God, the sundial showed signs of recovery. Later, it repaired itself and could cover a wider range.
In the Ancient Desolate Ruins City, after Zhang Ruochen became a god in spiritual power, he used the sundial to cultivate, and it could already support deities cultivating inside. However, the consumption of divine stones was more than ten times greater than before.
Previously, Zhang Ruochen dared not activate the sundial because his lifespan was nearly exhausted.
Now, he was completely unafraid. Although the flame of life in his body was only a single thread, he had full confidence to resist death and guard that flame of life.
"What does 'thousand stars in conjunction' mean?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
Since arriving here, Zhang Ruochen had heard the old corpse ghost's voice from underground many times, and among them, four words were particularly clear: "thousand stars in conjunction."
Aji said, "Thousand Stars in Conjunction is a peerless divine ability, the Starry Sky Heavenly Venerable's strongest battle technique. When the Starry Sky Heavenly Venerable was alive, he used this divine ability to draw thousands of fixed stars to revolve around him. When the thousand stars connected, a single strike nearly severed the entire Yellow Spring Star River in two."
Zhang Ruochen deeply understood the significance of divine abilities to deities. Some divine abilities could unleash divine power comparable to using esoterica.
For example, Shang Tian's "Heavenly Desolate Eight Techniques," the Dragon Clan's "Ten Thousand Dragons Returning to the Ancestor"... these were all Heavenly Venerable-level techniques listed in the "Grand Void Divine Ability Manual."
Divine abilities were divided into: Bu Tian divine abilities, Tai Zhen divine abilities, Infinite divine abilities, Heavenly Venerable divine abilities, and Heavenly Venerable divine abilities.
At the very least, an Infinite divine ability was qualified to be listed in the "Grand Void Divine Ability Manual." Infinite divine abilities were almost all the strongest techniques created by God Venerables, with myriad mysteries that ordinary deities could not cultivate successfully.
Lost divine abilities would automatically disappear from the "Grand Void Divine Ability Manual."
The list only recorded divine abilities of the current era.
Each divine ability listed in the "Grand Void Divine Ability Manual" was extremely powerful and needed to be combined with esoterica to unleash its full might. Esoterica also needed to be combined with such divine abilities to be fully utilized by deities and transformed into the ultimate killing means.
Aji said, "There are only twenty-two Heavenly Venerable divine abilities in the 'Grand Void Divine Ability Manual.' All others have been lost. If the cultivation method for Thousand Stars in Conjunction emerges, it would be the twenty-third, and even God Venerables would fight to seize it."
"Our Kunlun Realm's 'Wordless Sword Manual' is one of the twenty-two Heavenly Venerable divine abilities, ranked eighteenth. Actually, the 'Wordless Sword Manual' could have been ranked higher, but unfortunately, the way of the sword has declined, and no one can cultivate it to the highest level."
The cultivation method of the sword soul had been lost, so sword cultivators naturally couldn't cultivate the "Wordless Sword Manual" to its highest level. Zhang Ruochen sighed inwardly, then asked, "Did the Senior Brother tell you what the old corpse ghost really is?"