Chapter 3055: The Lost Paradise
Zhang Ruochen put away the two cauldrons and arrived beneath the Bodhi tree. As the melodious sound of the flute arose, a single Bodhi leaf placed on the bright mirror stand indeed occasionally stirred.
There was no wind.
It moved three times in succession, but afterward, no matter what tune Kong Lanyou played, the Bodhi leaf remained utterly still.
She had no choice but to stop, her eyes filled with a plaintive gaze fixed on the leaf she had stared at for a hundred years.
They say playing music to a cow is futile, but playing the flute to a leaf is a thousand or ten thousand times harder—tedious and monotonous, requiring immense willpower and persistence to reach this point after a hundred years.
Zhang Ruochen smiled and said, "Why be discouraged? In my eyes, you have already entered the hall of mastery in music. If there were a Grandmaster of music, you would be one now!"
Kong Lanyou's white hair hung straight down, her face as bright as the moon. She said, "To become a Grandmaster of a path, one's spiritual power must reach the level of sixty-nine and a half steps."
"Have you not noticed? Over these hundred years, though you haven't deliberately cultivated your spiritual power and have only immersed yourself in the world of music, your spiritual power has grown significantly?" Zhang Ruochen said.
"There is still a gap from sixty-nine and a half steps," Kong Lanyou said.
"You can already make a Bodhi leaf stir slightly with your flute music. Not to mention sixty-nine and a half steps, even seventy steps is only a matter of time. And I can make this process very short."
Zhang Ruochen took out a Divine Wood Heart and a Divine Heart.
"The Divine Wood Heart contains an eon's worth of knowledge from the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree. If fully refined, it will not only elevate your understanding of music by several levels but also deepen your comprehension of all kinds of knowledge in heaven and earth."
"This Divine Heart belongs to the Black Heart Demon Lord, but I have completely refined it. It can be absorbed directly without any threat. The Black Heart Demon Lord was a martial arts Great God, with spiritual power reaching seventy-five steps."
The Divine Heart, like a mass of red mist, was the embodiment of a deity's spiritual power, much like the Divine Source of a martial deity.
Kong Lanyou naturally knew how precious these two treasures were—priceless, something even a Great God would covet. That she, a Saint-realm cultivator, could obtain them left her beyond moved.
Her starry eyes fixed tightly on Zhang Ruochen, glistening with crystalline mist.
Zhang Ruochen smiled and said, "To be honest, I am especially envious of you."
"Envious of me? Cousin has already reached the Great God realm; how could you envy a Saint-realm cultivator like me?" Kong Lanyou was curious, unable to see anything about herself worthy of Zhang Ruochen's envy.
Zhang Ruochen patted her fragrant shoulder and said earnestly, "How could I not be envious? If I had a cousin like you... how wonderful that would be..."
Kong Lanyou let out a laugh, the emotion and uncertainty in her heart fading, replaced by a warmth.
Which woman doesn't wish to be cherished and pampered?
Just as Zhang Ruochen turned to leave, his waist was embraced by a pair of slender arms, and Kong Lanyou's voice came from behind: "I will work hard to catch up, and I will never let you down, cousin."
Zhang Ruochen patted the soft hands fixed around his waist and said, "Don't just focus on cultivation. Go out and take a walk too; the Qiankun Realm is quite lively. Come with me to the city for a jug of wine, taste the freshly caught fish, watch the flower lanterns by the river at night, and listen to the laughter of children chasing and playing..."
"Alright!"
Kong Lanyou, who hadn't shed a tear upon receiving the Divine Wood Heart and Divine Heart, now had tear streaks covering her snow-white cheeks.
...
The Dark Great Triangle Star Domain was so vast it seemed endless. The old yellow ox flying outside was on the verge of collapse.
It had flown for three years, reaching the pinnacle below the Divine realm in both speed and the use of the Divine Spirit Step.
It had traveled who knows how many billions of miles, yet before it lay only darkness and emptiness, with no end in sight.
Outside, three years had passed, but under the Sundial, a thousand years had gone by.
Kong Lanyou had crossed the Spiritual Divine Tribulation, fully refining and absorbing the Divine Wood Heart and the seventy-five-step Divine Heart. Her spiritual power had soared, reaching the level of seventy-three steps.
Beneath the Bodhi tree, a beautiful woman stood alone, her white hair like a waterfall.
A three-foot golden flute was placed at her crystalline red lips, playing a melodious tune, as if recounting a thousand years of worldly vicissitudes and lamenting the ruthlessness of time.
A single Bodhi leaf floated around her, dancing like a golden butterfly.
Over this millennium, Zhang Ruochen and Kong Lanyou entered the Qiankun Realm every year, making friends in the mortal world, witnessing the birth of infants, seeing youths come of age, attending weddings and birthday banquets, bidding farewell to friends, and visiting their graves to pay respects.
A thousand years is but a snap of the fingers for a deity, yet the mortal world had changed dozens of generations, with seas turning into mulberry fields.
But how could those mortals who lived only one life know that Zhang Ruochen was trapped and dying in the Dark Great Triangle Star Domain?
In the end, deities have their own world, and mortals have theirs.
After a thousand years together, Zhang Ruochen and Kong Lanyou had grown closer in their feelings.
Yet it was neither like familial love nor romantic love. They would lean on each other, but always stop at a certain point.
Kong Lanyou no longer placed as much importance on romantic feelings as before. Now, she devoted more energy to music and spiritual power cultivation, her demeanor growing increasingly elegant and transcendent.
However, if Zhang Ruochen wished to take things further, she would not refuse.
The golden flute in her hand was forged from a branch that had fallen from the Bodhi tree, brimming with spirituality. It was no ordinary branch; its hardness was extreme, and Zhang Ruochen had put in great effort to refine it into a flute.
Zhang Ruochen's progress was naturally greater. His spiritual power had reached the peak of seventy-seven steps, and he had fully refined the Divine Qi left by Zhao Wuyan, completing a small goal.
His Divine Qi had thickened tenfold, and the intensity of his Rule Divine Marks had doubled.
This was something only a deity at the middle stage of Taiyi Realm could achieve!
"Those deities at the middle stage of Taiyi Realm next need to increase the number of Rule Divine Marks within their bodies, accumulating to ten times the amount before they can be considered at the peak of Taiyi Realm. I will follow this path too! But this will take a great deal of time, at least ten thousand years."
Reaching ten times the Rule Divine Marks of the middle stage is merely the starting point for the peak of Taiyi Realm.
Some Great Gods at the peak of Taiyi Realm have dozens of times the number of Rule Divine Marks as those at the middle stage. A middle-stage Taiyi Realm Great God must master a large amount of Esoterica to overcome a higher-level opponent.
As for the Taibai Realm, compared to the peak of Taiyi Realm, it is a gap as vast as heaven and earth.
Just how strong it is, Zhang Ruochen could only roughly speculate for now.
After all, he had never truly fought a Taibai Realm Great God alone in a full-scale battle. When he clashed with Shuangcheng Mo, the main combatant had always been Xuanyuan Qing.
A casual finger-sword strike from Shuangcheng Mo, likely only using twenty or thirty percent of his power, could injure Zhang Ruochen from a distance back then.
Of course, Zhang Ruochen now was a different person from before.
After Kong Lanyou became a deity, Zhang Ruochen entrusted more of the cultivation time to her, since the Sundial could only support one Great God's cultivation.
"If I can leave the Dark Great Triangle Star Domain, the first thing I must do is help the Sundial find an Artifact Spirit."
Just as this thought arose in Zhang Ruochen's mind, from outside the Scroll World came the ecstatic howl of the old yellow ox: "A big discovery! Zhang Ruochen, a big discovery! Come out quickly!"
Zhang Ruochen flew out of the Scroll World and heard the old yellow ox again: "Look, look over there! There's a star! Haha! We've finally escaped! We've finally escaped the Dark Great Triangle Star Domain!"
But Zhang Ruochen wasn't as excited, because he knew the Heaven and Earth Rules hadn't changed; they were still in the Dark Great Triangle Star Domain.
However, far off in the void, a small dark spot had indeed appeared.
Moreover, the Qi belts had become denser.
Kong Lanyou walked out of the Scroll World, looked at the distant dark spot, and said, "Perhaps we've found the Sword Realm."
"Let's go! Let's take a look."
Zhang Ruochen released his Divine Qi, enveloping Kong Lanyou and the old yellow ox, and stepped out with the Divine Spirit Step. In less than half an hour, they crossed the distant void and arrived above a planet.
This planet, only a little over two thousand miles in diameter, miraculously contained vibrant life energy.
Not only was there Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, but also Heaven and Earth Saint Qi.
A Saint Qi belt had appeared!
What delighted Zhang Ruochen even more was that, standing here and looking ahead, the dark void was filled with stars, large and small, not far apart.
Kong Lanyou said, "This planet has the aura of a Saint King realm cultivator."
"It seems we've really found the Sword Realm, haha!"
The old yellow ox couldn't wait any longer. It charged through the atmosphere, like a dominating demon lord, suppressing the Rakshasa clan Saint King realm cultivator and stepping on him under its hoof.
"I am a cultivator under the Eternal Divine Temple. Even if you are a Great Saint, if you dare act recklessly, you will surely die," the Rakshasa Saint King roared.
A group of beautiful Rakshasa women, who had been picking petals in a sea of pear blossoms, fluttered over like orioles and surrounded the demonic, sky-piercing old yellow ox.
"The Eternal Heavenly God's divine thoughts pervade the world. He must have already sensed what is happening here. If you don't release Xuan'e King, you will surely face divine punishment. Eternal and indestructible, as long-lived as heaven," said a Saint realm Rakshasa woman.
"Eternal and indestructible, as long-lived as heaven."
...
Zhang Ruochen and Kong Lanyou descended to the ground.
Seeing the boundless sea of pear blossoms, Zhang Ruochen's eyes froze for a moment. "The legendary Anluo Yue pear blossoms! There are so many here!"
Kong Lanyou said, "These pear trees have such strong time fluctuations! Has the power of time nurtured them?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "Outside flowers absorb the power of light. Anluo Yue pear blossoms are a rare species of heaven and earth, known as time flowers. They can grow by absorbing Time Imprints. The light they emit is actually a manifestation of time, with Time Imprint light points burning within the petals."
Zhang Ruochen looked at the Rakshasa women holding flower baskets and noticed they were all picking Anluo Yue pear blossom petals. He began to form some guesses in his mind.
"Whoosh!"
Zhang Ruochen released his divine might, pressing all the Rakshasa women to their knees.
He said, "Answer my questions, and I will spare your lives today. What place is this?"
The Saint realm Rakshasa woman's eyes were firm. "Hmph! So what if you are a deity? There is nothing to fear. Not long ago, the Eternal Heavenly God suppressed two deities who intruded here."
"Bang!"
The old yellow ox, with its temper flaring, crushed the Rakshasa Saint King's body with its hoof, spilling holy blood everywhere.
Many Rakshasa women trembled in fear.
"I say, this is the outer starry sky of the Lost Paradise. We are here to pick time flower petals to brew time divine wine for the Eternal Heavenly God. This king knows that you two deities must be lost ones who entered the Dark Great Triangle Star Domain. In truth, this king's ancestors were also lost ones," said the Rakshasa Saint King.
...
End of the month, asking for monthly votes!
(Chapter End)