# Chapter 3021: A Thousand Horizontal, One Vertical
The Horse-Head Deity sensed something was wrong, a strange look appearing in his eyes.
Suddenly, he erupted with unparalleled speed, grabbing Ailianjun by the neck and lifting him into the air, intending to take him hostage.
"This is... a substitute talisman..."
The Horse-Head Deity discovered that Ailianjun in his hand had turned into a wooden puppet. Realizing he had fallen for the trick, he focused his gaze forward.
There, a dragon girl draped in phoenix-feather red robes stood barefoot, holding a golden rod. Her silver hair, over three meters long, flew through the air like a waterfall, scattering sparkling light rain.
Her entire body radiated white light, holy and beautiful, breathtakingly stunning, yet devoid of any life fluctuation.
Zhang Ruochen appeared behind the Horse-Head Deity and said, "You can't leave anymore. Show your true form!"
Ailianjun's true body appeared beside Zhang Ruochen and said, "No matter how exquisite your transformation arts may be, you shouldn't underestimate the entire Hundred Clans Royal City. Do you really think you can escape unscathed every time?"
The Horse-Head Deity's aura shifted, like a divine sword being drawn from its sheath, affecting the heavenly and earthly rules around him. He said, "You are very clever, and Zhang Ruochen is even more outstanding. But you are both too young. In this Hundred Clans Royal City, I come and go as I please. No one can stop me."
"Swish! Swish! Swish..."
From Thousand Camel Ridge, streaks of divine light shot forth.
The deities who had just entered sensed what was happening outside and rushed out one after another.
"Boom!"
From a deep pool a thousand zhang in diameter at the heart of Thousand Camel Ridge, a black divine dragon surged forth, its scales like steel. Divine Qi spread from within its body, forming a magnificent and destructive tidal wave.
A divine might even more formidable than that of Lixiao Great God erupted from the black divine dragon's body.
The black divine dragon's eyes opened wide, like two stars, fixing Zhang Ruochen, Ailianjun, and the Horse-Head Deity in place within that city district.
All cultivators in that city area, even those protected by formations, were pressed to the ground by the divine might.
"It's the power of the Robe Clan Chief! He has awakened!"
Ailianjun was astonished to find that even with all his divine power activated, his body could not move.
The power of a Great God far surpassed that of a Heaven-Repairing Realm deity, capable of controlling an entire space-time.
The Horse-Head Deity laughed loudly, stepping forward. He forcibly broke through the divine power lock of the Robe Clan Chief, severing all divine patterns on the street. The earth split open zhang by zhang, and buildings on both sides collapsed with a roar.
Yulongxian swung the Black Gold War Heaven Pillar, but he casually swept it away with his sleeve, expending no effort at all.
Another Horse-Head Deity, standing together with Lord Yun and Mani Deity, saw the murderer transformed into his own likeness and flew into a rage. He struck out with a divine ability, forming a fan-shaped wave of light.
"Rumble!"
Where the divine power light wave passed, formation after formation shattered, ancient buildings collapsed one after another, dozens of miles of land were flattened, and countless Saint Realm cultivators, like ants, turned into clouds of blood mist.
Before deities, they did not even have the right to cry out for justice, not even leaving behind vengeful spirits.
Lord Yun tried to stop him, saying, "Don't! This is within the city. If a divine battle erupts, the Hundred Clans Royal City will suffer heavy losses. Quickly send a message to activate the Star Prison Grand Formation."
"The Star Prison Grand Formation has already been activated." Ailianjun pointed upward.
The Star Prison Grand Formation was a divine formation composed of over a thousand Divine Throne Planets in the starry sky near the Hundred Clans Royal City. To activate it to its fullest extent required a hundred deities to work together.
Once fully activated, this formation could externally resist the attacks of Infinite Realm powerhouses and internally suppress top-tier Great Gods.
Although the Hundred Clans Royal City could already be considered a divine city, it could not compare to the ten divine cities established by the ten clans of the Hell Realm. Those ten divine cities could not be breached from the outside even by a Heavenly Venerable.
In the starry sky surrounding the Hundred Clans Royal City, Divine Throne Planets grew increasingly bright, but fully activating them would still take considerable time.
"I'm leaving. I'll come back to kill another time!"
The Horse-Head Deity transformed into a beam of light, shooting up through the clouds and flying toward the universe.
One formation after another in heaven and earth, including divine formations, were broken through by him like paper.
Divine formations also had their strengths and weaknesses. The ones broken through by the Horse-Head Deity were only Heaven-Repairing level divine formations arranged by Formation Heavenly Masters. Such divine formations, lacking divine-level formation spirits, could only deal with Heaven-Repairing Realm deities.
"Where do you think you're going?"
From Thousand Camel Ridge, the black divine dragon let out a long roar and gave chase, stirring up vast divine Qi. From its mouth, it spat out a hundred thousand war weapons, each blazing with holy light.
That Great God's momentum pressed countless cultivators in the Hundred Clans Royal City to their knees.
The Horse-Head Deity still did not reveal his true form. He merely turned back and struck out with a palm.
This palm print, a thousand miles long, covered a vast area of the city, as if intending to shatter the Hundred Clans Royal City with a single strike.
The hundred thousand war weapons collided with the thousand-mile palm print but could not withstand it. They were shattered into a rain of metal fragments falling from midair. Even the black divine dragon was swatted back down into Thousand Camel Ridge.
"Boom!"
Thousand Camel Ridge was a clan's sacred ground, built with countless resources, dense with divine patterns, and containing over a thousand formations. But when the black divine dragon's body crashed into it, all divine patterns dissolved, and formation after formation shattered.
The divine mountain ridges, shaped like camel humps, collapsed in large sections. Wide cracks spread from the sacred ground all the way to the outer city districts.
Among the Robe Clan cultivators cultivating in the sacred ground, countless were killed or wounded, a scene of utter tragedy.
Fortunately, the Robe Clan had three other True Gods and dozens of False Gods who jointly activated defensive formations. Otherwise, the cultivators in Thousand Camel Ridge would likely have been completely wiped out.
Such was the destructive power of a Great God!
Within the city, one divine might after another erupted. Dozens of divine light handprints shot toward the sky, finally shattering the descending thousand-mile palm print.
The Horse-Head Deity stood above the atmospheric layer of the Hundred Clans Royal City, glanced down, and smiled faintly. He was about to leave when, at that moment, a suffocating aura came from above.
He looked up.
Above, the starry sky had silently transformed into a vast sea of black cloud energy, spreading for millions of miles. Two boundless Yecha wings appeared and disappeared within the black cloud sea.
A beautiful woman's voice, like a Brahma Heavenly Goddess descending to the mortal world, came from within the cloud sea: "Do you think you can leave?"
"So it's Senior Yuling Shen! I've long admired you."
Having said this, the Horse-Head Deity waved his hand, tearing open a space rift several hundred meters long, intending to flee into the Void World.
But the moment the space rift opened, it was forcibly sealed shut by an invisible divine power.
The Horse-Head Deity abandoned the idea of escaping into the Void World. He activated his divine power, erupting with extreme speed, streaking across the dark starry sky like a meteor.
Yuling Shen's true form manifested, her entire body radiating jade-white light. She flicked her fragrant sleeve, sending out wisps of rosy light. Each wisp was like a divine sword, striking the rapidly moving meteor.
"Boom!"
The Horse-Head Deity's body exploded.
Strangely, it did not turn into blood mist or shattered flesh. It simply vanished without a trace.
Yuling Shen's willow brows furrowed. She murmured, "Ten Thousand Transformations Vanishing! So it's you, Qian Heng Yi Shu."
Yuling Shen's true form disappeared, merging back into those two boundless Yecha wings. She rode the millions-of-miles-wide black cloud sea, pursuing a certain direction in the starry sky.
With every flap of her Yecha wings, she could cross tens of millions of miles.
The stars in the entire star domain trembled from the divine power fluctuations emitted by her Yecha wings.
The Robe Clan Chief, the black divine dragon, burst out of the Hundred Clans Royal City's atmospheric layer, spreading three pairs of wide dragon wings as he chased in the direction of the black cloud sea.
Following that, two more Great God-level auras flew out from the sacred grounds of the Demon Wolf Clan and the Fire Ghost Clan, heading into the starry sky to join Yuling Shen and the Robe Clan Chief in surrounding and killing Qian Heng Yi Shu.
The cultivators within the Hundred Clans Royal City could not see Yuling Shen's earlier attack. They could only sense an unparalleled divine might erupting, as if it would shatter heaven and earth, and then witness a river of rosy light spanning across the universe.
It was extremely shocking, a clash of Great Gods.
"It's actually Qian Heng Yi Shu."
Zhang Ruochen learned this news from Ailianjun and was greatly surprised.
Qian Heng Yi Shu was the leader of the "Earth Kill Organization," one of the Heavenly Court's three major assassin organizations.
A thousand horizontals on the ground are corpses; only I, one vertical, stand in the world.
Legend had it that Qian Heng Yi Shu was originally a personal disciple of the leader of the Heaven Kill Organization, one of the Ten Great Assassin Gods. But tens of thousands of years ago, he betrayed the Heaven Kill Organization.
The Heaven Kill Organization had repeatedly sent assassins to eliminate this traitor.
Yet not only did they fail to kill him, he grew stronger and stronger, even founding the Earth Kill Organization to compete with the Heaven Kill Organization for assassination business.
Now, after only tens of thousands of years of development, the Earth Kill Organization could already rival the Heaven Kill Organization in fame. One could imagine how remarkable Qian Heng Yi Shu's methods, wisdom, and talent were.
Ailianjun said, "There are too many rumors about Qian Heng Yi Shu. It's said that he once infiltrated the Paradise Realm, assassinated a deity, and escaped unscathed."
Zhang Ruochen had heard this legend too, but he didn't quite believe it.
Infiltrating a ruling world to slay a god and still escape unscathed—even an Infinite Realm powerhouse might not be able to accomplish such a feat.
Ailianjun said, "Such a feat is as shocking as the Wujian Pavilion killing the newly appointed Fate Divine Maiden in the Fate Divine Domain. Such boldness is enough to rival Qiangu Nüdi."
"An assassin like Qian Heng Yi Shu is even more terrifying than a Tai Xu Realm Great God. If he hadn't continuously assassinated clan emperors in the Hundred Clans Royal City, he would never have exposed his weakness and been caught by us."
Zhang Ruochen looked contemplative and said, "Your words hit the key point. Logically speaking, whether an assassin succeeds or fails in a kill, they should strike once and then flee far away."
"Why did Qian Heng Yi Shu kill eighteen clan emperors in succession in the Hundred Clans Royal City, a place where many deities stand? In the end, he alarmed a hundred deities and shook the entire starry sky. Was this for killing? Or for creating chaos?"
Ailianjun said, "Assassins actually have very clear purposes when they work—they take orders and kill people. Depending on the target, they formulate different plans."
Zhang Ruochen couldn't help but think of Xuanyi. He was probably the most terrifying assassin in the world today.
Because he had killed Wentianjun and taken his Divine Communication Temple.
He had used the method of killing through a borrowed knife.
Whether in terms of assassination techniques or mental tactics, he was enough to make any cultivator in the world fear him.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Does Qian Heng Yi Shu cultivate the Sword Dao?"
"I'm not sure about that. Perhaps he does, but anyone who has seen his sword has likely already turned into a departed soul. No, they've been obliterated, body and soul." Ailianjun said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Or perhaps, someone on the Heavenly Court side placed an order with him, offering a price he couldn't refuse."
Ailianjun said, "In either case, his goal must be to disrupt the Hundred Clans Royal City and divert the attention of the deities within."
The Robe Clan's Huoqing True God walked over, bowed, and said, "Thank you, Realm Lord Ruochen, for your assistance just now. Otherwise, the new generation of Saint Realm cultivators of the Robe Clan would likely have suffered heavy casualties."
Just now, when the black divine dragon fell from the sky, Zhang Ruochen had used his spiritual power to help the Robe Clan maintain the divine formation's operation, deflecting most of the Great God's residual power.
To the Robe Clan, this was a great kindness.
Ailianjun watched Zhang Ruochen exchange pleasantries with Huoqing True God, a deep contemplative look in his eyes. He thought to himself, "Zhang Ruochen came to the Hundred Clans Royal City. On the surface, he appears arrogant and domineering, but in reality, he is showcasing his strength. And he is so enthusiastic toward the Robe Clan—there must be an ulterior motive."
"Kindness and authority applied together, impure intentions"—he evaluated Zhang Ruochen in his heart with these eight words.
Qian Heng Yi Shu would be dealt with by the Great Gods of the Hundred Clans Royal City. That was no longer Zhang Ruochen's concern. He returned to the manor where the Underworld King was staying and was immediately informed that a deity from the Undying Divine Temple wished to see him.
...
It seems today is the last day for double monthly tickets. I'm asking for monthly tickets.