Chapter 3311: Radiant Divine Temple Regains Its Glory
The Radiant Divine Temple was in chaos, with divine power fluctuations surging violently.
No one had expected that Ji Donghuang would actually launch a sneak attack on Ke Yangshan.
Ke Yangshan was indeed very powerful, ranked on the comprehensive list of "Treatise on Great Gods" and was the first sequence below the Infinite realm. However, Ji Donghuang was also renowned, being the number one below the Infinite realm within the Ji Clan.
Because the distance was extremely close, even if Ji Donghuang had only struck normally, Ke Yangshan would inevitably have been severely injured.
But Ji Donghuang was extremely cautious, concealing a God Venerable Talisman in his palm, using the power of a God Venerable to strike Ke Yangshan's back.
With just one blow, Ke Yangshan's physical body was shattered, his divine substance was ground away in large quantities, and his divine soul suffered severe trauma. Pairs of wings collapsed, turning into bloody feathers.
As the Young Hall Master of the Radiant Divine Temple, Ke Yangshan had never suffered such a heavy blow.
Even if he had been on guard, even a true God Venerable striking him would not have reduced him to such a state with a single blow.
Ji Donghuang seized Ke Yangshan's scepter, took away part of his divine soul and flesh and blood, and then fought against the gods of the Radiant Divine Temple, breaking out toward the temple's exterior.
Originally, at the start, he had planned to ambush and suppress Ke Yangshan, directly taking control of the divine formations within the Radiant Divine Temple.
But the unexpected appearance of the Radiant Divine Temple's gods forced him to change this strategy.
"Ji Donghuang, why are you doing this? Are you so arrogant as to challenge the entire Radiant Divine Temple alone?"
"Return the Young Hall Master's divine soul and flesh and blood!"
"This matter will not end peacefully today. The Radiant Divine Temple will surely judge the Ji Clan. All members of the Ji Clan will pay the price for your mistake."
...
Some gods activated the divine formation of the Judgment Hall.
Within the formation, a ten-thousand-zhang divine sword slashed out, breaking through Ji Donghuang's protective divine light and nearly severing his right arm.
The divine formation of the Night Hall also activated, and a simple white war halberd stabbed out from the formation, like a spirit snake or a bolt of lightning.
"Boom! Boom! Boom..."
The divine formations of various divine halls within the Radiant Divine Temple activated one after another. Pillars of light rose from the peaks of sacred mountains, and divine ships flew out from the valleys. Armored troops clad in Radiant Divine Armor marched out from hidden realms in perfect unison, unleashing a sky-covering rain of god-slaying arrows.
Even with Ji Donghuang's Heart-Stopping Realm cultivation, he could not withstand the successive attacks of the divine formations and gradually became injured.
Within the vast divine territory where the Radiant Divine Temple was located, many mysterious phenomena appeared. Unknown spaces manifested, divine rivers emerged from underground, and halos radiating the aura of God Venerables appeared in the sky.
One by one, the temple's hidden trump cards were unleashed by the gods of the Radiant Divine Temple.
No matter what means Ji Donghuang employed, he could not escape the divine territory.
This was a true forbidden ground in the universe. Even God Kings or God Venerables who dared to trespass risked falling. Even without an Infinite realm present, the gods could still shoulder the responsibility of guarding the temple.
Suddenly, a patch of fire clouds appeared in the sky, and an extremely powerful fluctuation of divine power surged within them.
"Whoosh!"
A majestic altar flew out from the fire clouds, crashing into the divine territory where the Radiant Divine Temple was located, smashing several sacred mountains with a loud boom. Fires ignited among the mountain ranges.
It was an altar built from town-pattern stones!
The appearance of the town-pattern altar caused many of the divine formations within the Radiant Divine Temple to become extremely unstable. Ji Donghuang, thinking that a strong member of the Quantity Organization was secretly aiding him, immediately leaped onto the town-pattern altar, took control of it, and charged toward the temple's exterior.
"Ji Donghuang is actually a member of the Quantity Organization. That's quite interesting!"
Zhuque Huowu did not reveal herself, not daring to directly clash with the gods of the Radiant Divine Temple. After striking the town-pattern altar into the divine territory, she decisively retreated.
Although Ji Donghuang was surely doomed, he should be able to occupy the Radiant Divine Temple for a period of time.
If Zhang Ruochen could not escape from Paradise Realm within that time, he would have only himself to blame.
As she considered whether to flee directly from Paradise Realm, Zhuque Huowu hesitated for a moment before making a decision. She transformed into a ghostly mist and crashed into a Lower Realm God who was flying rapidly, executing a possession divine art.
Then, in the guise of that Lower Realm God angel, she flew toward the Radiant Divine Temple.
It was not that she did not want to escape directly, but because she sensed that a large number of gods had arrived, cutting off the ancient space path. They were gods rushing over from the Heavenly Court, arriving far too quickly.
...
Zhang Ruochen and the God-Defying Stele were completely embedded in the dense divine patterns above the God-Transforming Platform, as if trapped in a static space, their bodies only able to advance slowly.
On the God-Transforming Platform, various divine patterns interwove, like a brilliant waterfall flowing endlessly.
Above the God-Transforming Platform, where it seemed to connect with the sky, a divine formation was in operation, continuously striking down tribulation lightning.
The Sundial hovered above Zhang Ruochen's head, acting like a lightning rod, blocking the attack power of the divine formation.
Xiu Chen Heavenly God's voice came from the Sundial, full of resentment: "Even I was not this crazy a hundred thousand years ago, accompanying you all to fight deep inside Paradise Realm! Remember, the divine souls of Puerbas and Dai Xue Queen belong to me!"
"Yours, yours, as long as you help Zhang Ruochen rescue Shen Yao, even I can be yours!"
Chi Xingtian roared this out, then lifted Puerbas's battle axe, manifesting a boundless sea of demonic energy around him. He swung the axe, clashing with the Grand Void Purple Cloud Divine Thunder that came flying from the clouds.
Millions of miles away, several spiritual power gods of Paradise Realm, holding staffs, stood in the clouds, manipulating a corner of the realm-protecting divine formation to attack the Radiant Divine Temple.
The Grand Void Purple Cloud Divine Thunder was one of the powers of Paradise Realm's realm-protecting divine formation, capable of completely killing Grand Void Great Gods.
Back then, Chi Xingtian had come alone to Paradise Realm to rescue Princess Shen Yao and was struck down by the Grand Void Purple Cloud Divine Thunder.
"Boom!"
Lightning like a purple dragon struck the battle axe.
Chi Xingtian fell from the sky, crashing heavily into the desert, his whole body charred black. After getting up, he glanced at the God-Transforming Platform and saw that Zhang Ruochen was already very close to the palace imprisoning Shen Yao. Ignoring his injuries, he let out a long roar to the sky.
"Come on! If you've got the guts, aim at your grandpa here!"
Chi Xingtian bent his legs and leaped upward.
After several consecutive leaps, he rushed out of the Radiant Divine Temple and charged toward the Paradise Realm gods in the clouds.
Those spiritual power gods were extremely wary of Chi Xingtian and immediately fully activated the realm-protecting divine formation, condensing one lightning purple dragon after another to strike the ground.
Chi Xingtian could not completely avoid them, and his injuries grew worse.
After successfully charging within a million miles of those spiritual power gods, he gathered all his strength and hurled the battle axe. The axe spun in the air, twisting space into a vortex.
"Dodge quickly!"
The several spiritual power gods scattered in retreat.
One of them failed to escape and was struck by the battle axe. With a scream, he turned into a ball of blood mist.
With Chi Xingtian successfully diverting the attention of the Paradise Realm gods, Zhang Ruochen pushed forward in one go to the outside of the palace, bearing pressure that ordinary gods would find unimaginable. His powerful physical body was beginning to crack.
"Strike together!"
Zhang Ruochen shouted toward the palace.
His fists struck the God-Defying Stele heavily, colliding with the palace doors.
Inside the palace, a powerful force also surged outward.
With the combined effort from inside and outside, the four bronze divine doors of the palace could not withstand the impact of divine power and flew off.
Suddenly, the heavy pressure vanished. Zhang Ruochen's entire body was drenched in blood. He stabilized his retreating momentum and looked into the palace.
"Clatter, clatter!"
Amid the sound of chains, a woman with disheveled hair walked out from the palace.
She had been in darkness for many years, her face pale as paper, her eyes tightly shut, savoring the feeling of this very moment. It was the joy of impending freedom, the excitement of being able to vent the gloom and resentment in her heart, the exhilaration of finally being able to go on a killing spree.
Her arms and legs were bound with divine chains, which burned like fire snakes.
Where her wrists and ankles met the chains, the flesh had long since rotted away, leaving only bone.
"Such a powerful fluctuation of spiritual power!" Zhang Ruochen said.
The Sundial descended and condensed into the figure of Xiu Chen Heavenly God in front of Zhang Ruochen. She said, "Her cultivation, physical body, and divine soul are all locked down, so she can only cultivate spiritual power! However, it seems her spiritual power has also been sealed recently!"
"Boom!"
From Shen Yao's heart, a divine needle imbued with dense Radiant power flew out.
Then, from her brow and over a dozen important meridian nodes on her body, needle-shaped vessels flew out.
Gradually, her aura grew stronger and stronger. Countless traces of spiritual power light flew out from her body, surging toward all directions of the Radiant Divine Temple.
Many of the ruined walls and broken pillars of the Radiant Divine Temple lit up, and formations of all sizes manifested.
"Whoosh!"
On the planet-sized Radiant Divine Temple, a divine light tide appeared, spreading outward, scattering the heaven and earth rules of the surrounding area.
Xiao Hei rushed into the temple, looked at Princess Shen Yao on the God-Transforming Platform, and let out a loud laugh: "Congratulations, Princess, for escaping the cage and retaking control of the Radiant Divine Temple. I, the Emperor of Slaughtering Heaven and Destroying Earth, have been waiting for this day for a hundred thousand years!"
Zhang Ruochen suspected that Xiao Hei had arrived long ago but had been hiding outside because of the earlier danger.
Suddenly sensing something, Zhang Ruochen looked up at the sky. Above the Radiant Divine Temple, a stretch of starry sky had appeared, with stars arranged like chess pieces.
On the ground, within the temple's inner world that had turned into a desert, divine characters flew out from beneath the earth.
Zhang Ruochen could discern that they were the powers of the Second Confucian Ancestor and the Third Confucian Ancestor of the Confucian Path. These two forces surged out from an unknown place, causing the already damaged temple to begin repairing itself automatically.
The Second Confucian Ancestor was the one who had elevated the Confucian Path to its peak and was also rumored to be the strongest among the Four Confucian Ancestors. He was the only one among the four who might have truly reached the level of "Ancestor."
The Third Confucian Ancestor had a master-disciple relationship with Wen Tianjun and was a Heavenly Venerable from hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Zhang Ruochen was inwardly marveling that the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable, after all, was the last Primordial Ancestor in the world, yet he had not left behind an Ancestral Temple. Suddenly, within the Radiant Divine Temple, he sensed a strange fluctuation, identical to the aura of the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable at the Heavenly Venerable's tomb.
"That's more like it! The Radiant Divine Temple is the strongest temple of the human race in Kunlun Realm, the root of inheritance. As a Primordial Ancestor, how could he not have left one or two unique means in the Radiant Divine Temple?"
Following the aura of the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable, Zhang Ruochen arrived at a secret realm within the Radiant Divine Temple. It was only a few dozen miles in size, completely empty.
With a thought, Zhang Ruochen waved his hand, tearing space apart.
"Whoosh!"
A patch of colorful divine radiance surged out from the space rift, instantly filling the entire temple, wrapping the Radiant Divine Temple like a colorful planet thousands of miles in diameter.