Chapter 3109: God-Slaying Crossbow
As Zhang Ruochen's martial arts cultivation and sword dao attainments improved, the power unleashed by the Sword Ancestor's Soul Swords increased by a significant margin.
At this moment, what he released was the Sword of Anger.
Although Zhang Ruochen's anger was not particularly intense, the might of the Sword of Anger had already reached a level capable of threatening a Grand God of the Grand Void realm.
"Boom!"
The space in front of Xu Liao exploded.
The spatial shockwave and fist force clashed heavily with the Sword of Anger, generating surging waves of energy.
"The Sword Ancestor's Soul Swords are treasures of the world. Keeping them on you is a waste! I, the Master, shall take them."
Xu Liao extended a yellow-brown Divine Realm World from beneath his feet, surging with corpse qi and countless divine patterns, enveloping the Sword of Anger in an attempt to seize it.
After all, the gap in cultivation between Zhang Ruochen and a Grand Void Grand God was still enormous.
Even with the Sword Ancestor's Soul Swords, they could only threaten a Grand Void Grand God. As long as the Grand Void Grand God was slightly cautious, they wouldn't suffer an unexpected defeat.
Seeing that the Sword of Anger was about to be lost, Zhang Ruochen's emotions surged, and his gaze turned cold.
"Whoosh!"
The Sword of Desire flew out.
Its sword light was even more powerful than the Sword of Anger, heavily striking Xu Liao's Divine Realm World.
With a loud explosion, Xu Liao's Divine Realm World trembled violently.
"It's useless. Your cultivation is worlds apart from mine. If you want to break my Divine Realm World, you'd need the Blood Absolute War God to come."
"Take!"
Xu Liao reached out with a divine hand across the void, surging corpse qi flowing out like a ten-thousand-mile river, sweeping up the Sword of Desire and dragging it into the Divine Realm World. He laughed loudly, "Use the other five Sword Ancestor Soul Swords together! I, the Master, want them all!"
Anyone could see that the gap between Zhang Ruochen and Xu Liao was not ordinary. Even borrowing the power of the Sword Ancestor, Zhang Ruochen had no power to resist.
Many gods were envious and jealous.
Those were the Sword Ancestor's Soul Swords. Even if one didn't cultivate the sword dao, they held great value for enlightenment.
Moreover, in the hands of a junior like Zhang Ruochen, who had just entered the Grand God level, they could contend with a Grand Void Grand God. If they were in their hands, how much more powerful would the Sword Ancestor's Soul Swords be?
"If Xu Liao obtains the Sword Ancestor's Soul Swords, how high will his combat power rise?" A god who cultivated the sword dao was so envious his eyes turned red, burning like fire.
But the Sword Ancestor's Soul Swords were not so easy to collect.
The Sword of Anger and the Sword of Desire turned into two sword dragons within Xu Liao's Divine Realm World, charging and slashing wildly, cutting through rule divine patterns and destroying mountains, rivers, and ridges. Even with Xu Liao's Grand Void realm cultivation, he couldn't suppress the two swords in a short time.
Under Zhang Ruochen's control, the two swords flew toward the core area of the Divine Realm World.
"Damn it!"
With a thought from Xu Liao, mountains rose from the ground of the Divine Realm World, crashing toward the two Sword Ancestor Soul Swords from all directions, intending to completely suppress them.
Now was the time.
Zhang Ruochen released all five remaining Soul Swords from within his body. They shone with dazzling light, cutting through the formation inscriptions of the divine formation, attacking Xu Liao's Divine Realm World from different directions.
For now, the seven Soul Swords were Zhang Ruochen's strongest trump card, the only power that could contend with a Grand Void Grand God.
Because this was not his power at all—it was the power of the Sword Ancestor.
"Boom!"
Xu Liao's Divine Realm World was breached.
The seven Soul Swords converged, merging into one, transforming into a brilliant divine sword that drew upon the sword dao rules of heaven and earth, slashing straight down.
Xu Liao threw a punch, unleashing a divine ability, with divine flames turning into a nebula.
"Bang!"
Fist and sword clashed.
A large area of Xu Liao's Divine Realm World shattered beneath his feet, and his divine body retreated explosively. Although he wasn't injured, his face couldn't hide the embarrassment.
He, a Grand Void Grand God, had been pushed back by Zhang Ruochen?
This... how was this possible?
In this exchange with Xu Liao, Zhang Ruochen had already taken out the God-Defying Stele. Using the mysterious power contained within the stele, he broke an opening in the divine formation set up by Divine Master Qianqian.
Bore seized the opportunity, piloting the blood-colored divine ship, and rushed out through the gap.
Zhang Ruochen returned to the divine ship, looking at the streaks of divine light chasing after them. He handed the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations to Xiao Hei and said, "You activate the formation to protect the divine ship."
Xiao Hei's formation mastery was still above Zhang Ruochen's, but his spiritual power was far inferior. After quickly familiarizing himself with the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations, he said, "Blood Butcher, you'll be the formation spirit."
"What?"
Blood Butcher thought he had misheard, looking very surprised.
Xiao Hei said seriously, "There's a Formation Divine Master among the enemy. Without a powerful formation spirit, how can the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations withstand the Divine Master's dismantling?"
Blood Butcher was frustrated. He was a disciple of a Heavenly God, and now he was reduced to being a formation spirit?
Zhang Ruochen said, "The attacks from the Grand Void Grand God are coming! Don't dawdle. Raise the formation."
Xiao Hei was anxious and shouted, "How about you control the formation, and I, the Emperor, be the artifact spirit? Can you control the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations?"
Blood Butcher gritted his teeth and flew into the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations.
The blood-colored divine ship was extremely fast, crossing ten thousand miles in an instant. Ordinary Grand Void Grand Gods couldn't catch up.
Behind them, Xu Liao used his Fire Dao Essence to draw upon the fire dao rules in the starry sky, condensing a powerful Grand True-level divine ability.
A green fire lotus bloomed in the void, its light a hundred times brighter than a star, crashing toward the blood-colored divine ship.
Zhang Ruochen summoned six divine swords, and the divine qi within his body flowed like six rivers into the sword bodies. The power of the divine artifacts erupted, causing billions of sword shadows to appear in this starry sky.
The Six-in-One Sword Shocking Divine Formation attacked outward, shattering the green fire lotus from its center.
Even so, the fragments of the fire lotus still contained immense destructive power, crashing toward the blood-colored divine ship. Just as the ship was about to be destroyed, Xiao Hei raised the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations.
"Bang! Bang!"
The fire lotus fragments turned to ashes.
Blood Butcher floated at the center of the eighteen space divine formations, his divine soul like the roots of a plant, splitting into eighteen strands, infusing each space divine formation with spirituality.
"Excellent, Blood Butcher. With you here, we can definitely break through today." Xiao Hei praised.
Blood Butcher's expression was one of utter despair.
"Crack!"
A thick river of lightning fell from the sky, striking the Yin Yang Eighteen Formations. Its power was immense, comparable to a full-force strike from a Grand Void Grand God.
It was Divine Master Qianqian, using her spiritual power to launch an attack from afar.
Struck by the lightning, Blood Butcher's entire body convulsed.
"Crack!"
A second, a third...
Lightning continued to fall, like a flashing waterfall, its power fierce, condensing the strength of the entire starry sky.
Blood Butcher's hair stood on end like steel needles, black smoke rising from his body, electricity coursing through him. He pleaded, "Senior Brother, think of something! The opponent is a Divine Master. With a single thought, they can mobilize the power of a hundred-billion-mile star domain. If this keeps up, even a god will fall!"
Zhang Ruochen looked at Bore and said, "Activate the ship's attack power."
Bore, standing at the bow, had a calm expression. Her Divine Realm World flickered faintly above her head. Within the world, a vast amount of Nether Light Divine Qi surged, pouring into the ship's hull.
Dense blood-colored patterns emerged on the ship's body.
This divine ship was given to Zhang Ruochen by the Blood Absolute War God, named the "Blood Color Divine Centipede Ship." Its attack power was formidable.
Unfortunately, the ship was incomplete.
It was found by the Blood Absolute War God in the tomb of an ancestor. Although a large amount of resources were spent to forge and repair it, its defense remained weak, unable to withstand the attacks of a Grand Void Grand God.
In the Blood Absolute Family, Bore had practiced many times and could skillfully control the various formations, talisman patterns, and inscription patterns on the divine ship, as well as several types of divine power accumulated over ten thousand years.
At the tail of the divine ship was a crossbow mechanism over twenty zhang long. The crossbow body looked like the spine of some creature, thick as a pillar.
This was a God-Slaying Crossbow, capable of killing gods in the starry sky. In the entire Undying Blood Clan, there were no more than twenty of them.
The Blood Absolute War God had somehow found one and forged it onto the Blood Color Divine Centipede Ship.
Zhang Ruochen arrived beneath the God-Slaying Crossbow. With a light flick of his finger, a twenty-zhang-long dark crossbow bolt flew up and fell into the groove of the crossbow mechanism.
The crossbow bolt was forged from dark material. Zhang Ruochen had used the power of the Buddha Emperor Relic to temper the arrowhead, making it extremely lethal to undead beings.
"Creak, creak..."
Zhang Ruochen pulled the crossbow string. The muscles in his arms bulged, and Buddha light surged around him. Behind him, the phantom images of a divine dragon and a divine elephant appeared, with the momentum to swallow mountains and rivers.
He unleashed all his strength, pulling the God-Slaying Crossbow open to three degrees.
On the crossbow mechanism, the profound inscriptions all lit up.
The surrounding space expanded as the crossbow string was pulled.
"Bang!"
A thunderous sound like a divine bolt rang out.
The crossbow bolt flew out at a speed infinitely close to light, crossing hundreds of thousands of miles in an instant, striking a Ghost Clan mid-rank god.
Too fast, impossible to dodge.
That Ghost Clan mid-rank god let out a miserable scream. His divine body exploded, turning into a ghost mist spanning a hundred thousand miles. Within the ghost mist, fragments of his Divine Realm World scattered everywhere—broken ghost cities, black mountain ridges, continental plates—as if an entire great world had been destroyed.
Buddha fire burned within the ghost mist, refining the soul of that Ghost Clan god.
A weak and terrified voice came out: "Grand God... save me..."
Li Yuan Heavenly God immediately rushed over, but it was too late. The soul of that Ghost Clan mid-rank god was completely incinerated. His divine source had been shattered by the crossbow bolt earlier.
Li Yuan Heavenly God's gaze was cold enough to freeze the starry sky, his roar shaking the heavens.
These mid-rank and high-rank gods had come to assist Divine Master Qianqian in controlling the divine formation. But they had underestimated the power of the God-Defying Stele, allowing Zhang Ruochen to break free.
Before setting out, Zhang Ruochen had formulated a strategy: flee when facing the strong, kill when facing the weak.
A head-on fight was the last resort.
Zhang Ruochen's eyes were cold. He loaded a second crossbow bolt and pulled the crossbow string again. At this moment, even gods in the distant starry sky could hear the "creaking" sound of the crossbow mechanism.
Still pulled to three degrees.
"Bang!"
The second bolt flew out, striking a Bone Clan high-rank god four million miles away.
His bone body shattered, and Buddha fire burned.
Zhang Ruochen frowned. This bolt had failed to hit the opponent's divine source.
There was no helping it. A high-rank god was far stronger than a mid-rank god. Moreover, four million miles was too far, giving the opponent enough time to dodge vital points.
Unfortunately, with his current strength, he could only pull the God-Slaying Crossbow open to three degrees.
If he could pull it to four or five degrees, the crossbow bolt's speed would be faster, and its power would be even greater.
(End of this chapter)