Chapter 3128: Fierce Shock God Venerable Returns to Divine Mountain
Zhang Ruochen gazed toward the direction of the hall's entrance, hearing Blood Butcher's smacking sounds beside him: "She's really too family-oriented. To have a wife like this, what more could a husband ask for?"
"Did she give you some benefit?" Zhang Ruochen asked coldly.
Blood Butcher shuddered all over and said, "No, absolutely not. That was purely a heartfelt sigh. Senior brother, you don't know how many forces Lady Wu Yue has offended in order to reclaim the Goddess Twelve Pavilions and the Blood Absolute Family's assets. Even Qingyun Que was brought down with her help. From then on, the Great Clan Leader's position has been without obstacles."
"Before even crossing the threshold, she's already so devoted to the family. Who in the Hell Realm doesn't envy you? Senior brother, you truly don't appreciate the blessings you have."
Those cultivators who didn't know the real situation would naturally envy Zhang Ruochen.
Marrying a wife with both breathtaking beauty and unparalleled cultivation, deep background, a marriage bestowed by Void Heaven, and who was already running around for Zhang Ruochen before the wedding.
Even her humiliation of Ghost Lord was seen by those cultivators as avenging Zhang Ruochen.
To have such a wife was truly unreasonable.
And precisely in this world, the vast majority of cultivators didn't know the truth.
Zhang Ruochen asked, "What great help did she give Grandfather?"
This time, it was Xue Hou who answered him, saying, "Qingyun Que originally planned to sacrifice the chariot to save the general, shifting all blame onto Qingyun Tai. But coincidentally, one of his and Qingyun Tai's message light talismans was intercepted by Wu Yue back when they were at Hundred Clans Royal City."
"How could Qingyun Que make such a low-level mistake?" Zhang Ruochen found it hard to believe, sensing something suspicious.
Xue Hou said, "You underestimate Wu Yue too much. In terms of spiritual power alone, many Boundless realm gods in the world today are inferior to her. Add to that her identity as a Rune Path Divine Master, and the possibility of her intercepting a message light talisman is indeed quite high."
Martial arts experts were not necessarily spiritual power experts.
Someone like Void Heaven, who had reached the peak in both spiritual power and martial arts, was something even many Heavenly Venerables couldn't achieve.
Many God Kings and God Venerables actually had weaker spiritual power than Wu Yue.
However, God Kings and God Venerables had powerful divine souls, surging blood qi, and myriad wondrous techniques, enough to neutralize the spiritual attacks of spiritual power experts.
...
Li Yuan Heavenly God, his bone-fire eyes extremely gloomy, arrived at a Nether Hall in the Fate Divine Domain.
"Greetings, Heavenly God."
The ghost clan divine generals outside the hall immediately knelt on one knee to pay their respects.
Li Yuan Heavenly God pushed open the hall door and walked inside, where the anger in his eyes turned to shock. He saw Ghost Lord sitting slanted on a long chair, hair disheveled, his expression sometimes ferocious, sometimes dejected, completely lacking his former majestic aura.
He hadn't expected the humiliation at the Divine Maiden Tower to have hit Ghost Lord so hard.
"Why are you here?"
Ghost Lord spoke weakly, his face ashen.
Li Yuan Heavenly God said, "Wu Yue brought Cang Changji to find me, demanding three million divine stones."
"Bitch!"
Ghost Lord stood up and roared, "What does she want? Does she really intend to marry that brat? I think she just wants a man. She tasted it in the Dark Great Triangle Star Domain and actually developed a liking for it! The three million divine stones absolutely cannot be given to her. Otherwise, the cultivators of the Bone-Hiding Sea will never be able to hold their heads up in the Hell Realm again."
Li Yuan Heavenly God said, "She said that I once targeted her husband, seeking to take his life. Her husband was magnanimous and spared me, but she has a vengeful nature. If I'm unwilling to produce three million divine stones, not only will Cang Changji be refined into a divine pill by her, but I too will have my bones dismantled and soul extracted by her."
Ghost Lord gradually calmed down but still gritted his teeth and snorted, "That bitch is just burning bridges, utterly without principles."
He had thought that the campaign against Hundred Clans Royal City, the Blood Absolute Family, and Xinghuantian, though ending in failure, at least made them allies. Now it seemed he had been too naive.
Li Yuan Heavenly God said, "Could Wu Yue have truly lost her memory and betrayed the Darkness Temple, defecting to Void Heaven's sect?"
Ghost Lord was skeptical. This possibility wasn't impossible.
After all, the Darkness Temple had always publicly claimed that Wu Yue had lost her memory and was severely injured. The plan against the Blood Absolute Family, Hundred Clans Royal City, and Xinghuantian had always been overseen by Wubian God Venerable.
"Impossible! With such profound spiritual power, how could she lose her memory? She's definitely plotting something, probably trying to lead everyone to guess in that direction," Ghost Lord said.
Li Yuan Heavenly God asked, "Just how high has Wu Yue's spiritual power reached, that even you... even you fell for it?"
"At the time, I was indeed careless. I never believed she would actually make a move, so my divine soul wasn't at its peak state of concentration," Ghost Lord recalled the humiliation at the Divine Maiden Tower and wished he could immediately find Wu Yue and destroy everything together with her.
Li Yuan Heavenly God said, "Wu Yue is a Illusion Path Divine Master, and her spiritual power is terrifyingly high. Against her, any cultivator below the Boundless realm must concentrate their spirit to the utmost. Otherwise, even being affected by an illusion technique for an instant can immediately decide the outcome."
"Now that you mention it, I've suddenly woken up. With my cultivation and spiritual will, how could I have been affected by her illusion technique for so long? Could it be... could her spiritual power have already reached the level of 'one thought determines heaven and earth'?" Ghost Lord said.
Li Yuan Heavenly God was greatly alarmed and said, "Then I'd better not offend her. Although three million divine stones is a huge sum, if I sell off all of Cang Changji's territory and divine treasures, plus my savings over the years, I should still be able to scrape it together."
"Fine, let's split up. I'll go see Shentu Ghost Emperor right away. The Ghost Clan has suffered such a great loss—how can Fengdu Ghost City sit idly by?" Ghost Lord said.
At Hanhai Manor, Zhang Ruochen hosted a banquet for dozens of gods from the Rakshasa Clan and Undying Blood Clan, learning much about the situation on the Starry Sky Battlefield.
Although three months had passed, the battles of the heavens on the Starry Sky Battlefield had never ceased.
When top-tier experts clashed, sometimes it was earth-shattering, with time and space thrown into chaos. Other times, it was silent—collisions of divine thoughts, battles of spiritual will.
Three months was nothing; a battle could last three hundred years.
For now, both the Heavenly Court and Hell Realm clearly didn't want to fight to the point of total destruction, disregarding consequences—first destroying the Starry Sky Defense Line, then annihilating the Shura Star Pillar Realm... eventually ending in mutual ruin and the collapse of myriad realms.
If it came to that, even if the Hell Realm won, they would pay an unbearable price and gain nothing.
So, it was more like the latter situation: both sides were looking for weaknesses in the other, wanting to gain the greatest benefit at the smallest cost.
...
At the Destiny Temple.
The Universe Cauldron stood in the center of the temple.
Void Heaven walked around the cauldron's body, sometimes striking it with divine flames that could burn through space, sometimes infusing it with spiritual power, sometimes using the power of nothingness to bombard it.
Unfortunately, aside from growing larger or smaller, the Universe Cauldron showed no other phenomenon.
And with his cultivation, he couldn't destroy it, so it clearly wasn't a fake cauldron.
At the direction of the hall's entrance, a surge of red divine light rushed in.
Laughter rang out: "Congratulations, Void Heaven, congratulations, Void Heaven, for seizing a heirloom supreme treasure for our Destiny Temple. The emergence of the Nine Cauldrons symbolizes that the Destiny Temple will flourish for eternity and dominate the fate of all living beings."
The red divine light floated into the hall, revealing a bull-headed bone god with dense red fur covering its bones, dozens of zhang long, sometimes stretching, sometimes shrinking.
Void Heaven put away the Universe Cauldron and said, "Weren't you all having a lively fight with Hao Tian on the Starry Sky Battlefield? Why have you returned to the Divine Mountain?"
The bull-headed bone god said, "Void Heaven is joking. With my cultivation, how could I qualify to spar with Hao Tian? The ones truly at the forefront are still Jiusi Yitianhuang, Yan Renhuan, Shi Zu, and the others."
"Why are you being modest? You, Fierce Shock God Venerable, weren't granted the title of Heaven, and you've always been dissatisfied in your heart, haven't you? Go have a match with Hao Tian, and I guarantee everyone will be convinced," Void Heaven said.
Fierce Shock God Venerable wasn't angered and said, "I came back this time because everyone wants to invite you over for a one-sword decisive battle."
Void Heaven sneered, "If I leave, who will guard the Fate Divine Domain? Do you want to be attacked on the Divine Mountain again like last time? Where is our Heavenly Venerable? Why hasn't he shown himself yet? If he doesn't want to do it, I'm willing to be the Venerable!"
Seeing that his temper was still so strange, Fierce Shock God Venerable dropped the subject and said, "A great god from my Fierce Shock Divine Palace was killed. This matter concerns the face of the Destiny Temple. There must be some explanation, right?"
Void Heaven glared at him and said, "What explanation do you want?"
Fierce Shock God Venerable said, "Hand Zhang Ruochen over to me for disposal."
"Hand him over to you? I see—you think you've already won, that you can easily deal with Hao Tian, so you want to provoke two more powerful enemies. Aren't they just two with 'Heaven Round and Earth Perfect' spiritual power? Easy to deal with," Void Heaven said coldly.
Fierce Shock God Venerable said, "Would I do that? I just want to test how much weight Zhang Ruochen carries in the hearts of those two."
"If he carries enough weight, then holding Zhang Ruochen will make them cautious and afraid to act rashly. If he doesn't carry that much weight, even killing Zhang Ruochen won't be a big deal."
"Once the Starry Sky Defense Line is broken, we'll inevitably have to uproot Xinghuantian and Star Heaven Cliff. We need to make arrangements in advance."
Void Heaven tugged at his beard and said, "Your boldness is truly extraordinary. Even if I find an excuse to leave the Fate Divine Mountain and deliberately let you succeed, aren't you afraid of provoking that woman? She has already declared that Zhang Ruochen acts on her behalf in the world."
Fierce Shock God Venerable said, "Zhang Ruochen killed a great god from my Fierce Shock Divine Palace. No matter how I deal with him, it's justified. Even if Heavenly Mother is stronger, she's still not an Ancestor yet. She remains within the rules."
Void Heaven said, "The youngest son of the Yama Clan's Tai Shang came to the Destiny Temple and told me he can testify that it was Fire Marsh God Lord who almost killed Bore. Nutian has never expressed his stance, clearly waiting to see how things develop. But if you want to kill Zhang Ruochen over Fire Marsh God Lord's death, it's hard to say what his attitude will be. Back then, he only hated Xumi, and that hatred dissipated with Xumi's death. He even built a cenotaph for Xumi."
"Is this the intention of the Yama Clan's Tai Shang Heaven?" Fierce Shock God Venerable's tone changed.
"I don't know."
Void Heaven didn't want to say more and said, "Let's drop this. What exactly is going on with Feima King? Don't tell me you don't know."
(Chapter End)