Chapter: 3329 - When Going, Roaming the North Marsh
"Still!"
Zhang Ruochen spoke this single word, as if his words commanded the law. Space locked, and the rice porridge in the bowl returned to calm.
No matter how surging the divine power outside was, it could not touch a single clay bowl.
Xuan Yuan Lian's emotions surged within.
How infuriating! To be fighting her, yet still have the mind to care about a bowl of porridge?
Whether Zhang Ruochen was being arrogant or underestimating her, it was unbearable.
"Chaos Fusion Palm!"
Xuan Yuan Lian executed a second type of Great Perfection Boundless Divine Ability. The vast and unparalleled divine power of the Water and Wood attributes merged with her palm force.
She was the master god of the Water and Wood paths. In terms of her attainments in these two paths alone, she could be said to stand out, able to rival Divine Kings and Divine Venerables. But she did not use the Profound Meaning, because Zhang Ruochen did not use it either.
Facing a Great Perfection Boundless Divine Ability, Zhang Ruochen was not relaxed; he felt pressure.
Because he had not cultivated divine techniques of this level!
This time, he did not use a divine artifact to make up for his shortcomings in divine abilities. Because Xuan Yuan Lian also did not use a divine artifact.
Zhang Ruochen rose from the ground, activating the Absolute Self Time Domain. The space around him also shook violently.
Changing his fist into a finger, he pinched his fingers into a sword.
Sword Seventeen thrust straight out!
"Clang!"
Just two fingers, yet they emitted a piercing sword cry, like a peerless divine sword being drawn from its sheath.
With the support of the Third-Rank Divine Path, the power of Sword Seventeen greatly increased, piercing through the Water Curtain Heavenly River and the Ten-Thousand-Mile Ancient Forest manifested by Xuan Yuan Lian.
In that instant, the distant space was suddenly pulled close, and the two were less than three meters apart.
His finger-sword collided with her palm.
"Boom!"
Xuan Yuan Lian's snow-white, jade-like palm was like a lake of water. Zhang Ruochen's finger strike caused endless ripples to spread across it.
Zhang Ruochen's long hair was shaken up by the palm force, but his body remained motionless, like a tall, straight divine pine.
Xuan Yuan Lian's long skirt fluttered, like a jade-green fairy. She extinguished all the sword energy, her palm like a boundless wall, cutting off all of Zhang Ruochen's power.
In this exchange, Xuan Yuan Lian clearly had a slight upper hand.
She said, "You are truly very strong. Your physical strength is probably even a bit better than Xuan Yi and Chi Xingtian. Unfortunately, the Heaven and Earth Rules inside the Golden Chariot are very different from the outside. This is my world; I have the advantage of terrain and can exert twelve-tenths of my combat power. You'd better throw away that broken bowl of porridge and use all your strength!"
"With your current combat power, I don't need to use all my strength." Zhang Ruochen said.
"Whoosh!"
Behind Xuan Yuan Lian, eight spatial vortices appeared.
In each vortex, a majestic divine hall floated, grand and imposing, containing eight different types of divine power.
The eight streams of divine power all surged towards her.
In an instant, the power of her palm strike greatly increased, emitting the sound of thunder.
Zhang Ruochen's divine light radiated outward in circles, manifesting both the Lesser Yang Divine Mountain and the Lesser Yin Divine Sea.
From the Divine Mountain, tens of thousands of sword energies and brilliant Truth Divine Light flew out. From the Divine Sea, the power of the Origin and fist technique light shadows all attacked Xuan Yuan Lian.
Countless divine lights and divine powers clashed between the two, forming a terrifying storm.
No matter how chaotic the outside was, within eighteen zhang, it was like a completely isolated world, quiet and calm, making Zhang Ruochen appear calm and composed, as if he had easily received Xuan Yuan Lian's attack.
In reality, Zhang Ruochen had used both the Lesser Yang Divine Mountain and the Lesser Yin Divine Sea, so it was no longer that easy.
"Inside the Golden Chariot is indeed your world, but within eighteen zhang is my world. If I wanted, I could even use the Wuji Divine Dao to devour your world!" Zhang Ruochen said.
"Try it, then."
"It's not a life-or-death battle, so forget it. Let's stop here for today." Zhang Ruochen said.
"That won't do! Didn't you say that within eighteen zhang is your world? I, this young master, insist on breaking into your world!"
Xuan Yuan Lian was very curious about Zhang Ruochen's Wuji Divine Dao. It seemed to encompass all paths, containing some ultimate principle of Heaven and Earth. After all, it was the number one divine path under Heaven. Even her father had a very high opinion of the Wuji Divine Dao.
If she could comprehend something during the battle, it might allow her to make further progress.
Around her, she manifested the Truth Realm Form of "Universe Boundless." Above her head was the colorful Merit Divine Light. Time power converged into nine divine rivers. Space changed unpredictably. There were even phantom images of Divine Dragons and Divine Phoenixes condensing and vanishing.
Xuan Yuan Lian stepped forward, one step at a time, breaking into Zhang Ruochen's eighteen-zhang domain.
The moment she stepped inside, her body seemed no longer her own, uncontrollably tilting forward. Zhang Ruochen was like the most massive celestial body in the universe, pulling her in, about to crush her.
The Taiji Yin-Yang Diagram spun rapidly, like a god-slaying millstone, pressure coming from all directions.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
...
The Truth Realm Form, the Dragon-Phoenix phantom images, the Time Divine Rivers... all exploded continuously.
Xuan Yuan Lian pulled all eight divine halls over, using the halls to protect her body, finally stabilizing her form. But Zhang Ruochen instantly appeared before her, the two close at hand.
Xuan Yuan Lian slightly raised her head, feeling that her forehead was about to touch Zhang Ruochen's nose.
Her heartbeat inexplicably quickened by a beat. She struck out like lightning, white Purifying Divine Flame appearing on her body.
She failed to hit Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen's hand, however, moved like a snake striking from its hole, hitting her in the waist and abdomen, sending her flying an unknown tens of thousands of miles.
Xuan Yuan Lian stabilized her form and found that she hadn't flown far at all, merely landing outside the eighteen-zhang range. She wasn't sure if what had just happened was an illusion or if she had really flown tens of thousands of miles.
She didn't attack again. Her waist and abdomen were extremely painful, making it hard to straighten up.
But she knew that Zhang Ruochen had already shown mercy; otherwise, this palm strike would have lightly shattered her internal organs, or heavily cut her in two.
Within eighteen zhang, if Zhang Ruochen attacked, she indeed wouldn't even have time to use defensive measures.
It was too fast!
Zhang Ruochen remained calm and composed, smiling, "Still fighting?"
"Forget it."
Xuan Yuan Lian retracted the divine halls and divine light into her body, returning to her elegant and noble demeanor, like a princess of unparalleled beauty in the mortal world. She said, "If you train the 'Wordless Sword Manual' and the Immovable Wisdom King Fist to another level, and let your divine qi and rule divine patterns settle and accumulate for a while, you might even be able to contend with Divine Kings and Divine Venerables at the initial stage of Qiankun Boundless!"
Zhang Ruochen said, "Last time I saw you fighting King Yu, you manifested nine divine halls, your strength far surpassing today's. How about you manifest nine divine halls and go all out?"
Xuan Yuan Lian knew she couldn't hide it from Zhang Ruochen and stopped pretending.
"Whoosh!"
Xuan Yuan Qing turned into a beam of white light, flew over, and merged with her.
Instantly, her temperament changed again, becoming softer and holier.
Xuan Yuan Qing stood proudly, saying, "I know you guessed it long ago! That's right, Xuan Yuan Qing is my Radiant Light Doppelganger."
"In terms of cultivation, she carries my Radiant Light Path and Sword Dao, possessing one soul and one spirit of mine. In terms of personality, she contains my radiant and gentle part."
"Are you satisfied now?"
Looking only at Xuan Yuan Lian, she truly had beauty but no trace of femininity.
But after merging with Xuan Yuan Qing, she became much softer.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Then should I call you Xuan Yuan Qing Lian?"
"As you wish! In this world, Xuan Yuan Lian and Xuan Yuan Qing have long been separated." Xuan Yuan Lian said.
Zhang Ruochen sighed.
"What are you sighing about?" she asked.
Zhang Ruochen said, "In my heart, Xuan Yuan Qing is truly a rare confidante—beautiful, gentle, understanding, radiant, kind. All the praises in the world would not be too much for her."
"But Xuan Yuan Lian... to be honest, I have a lot of prejudice against you! Now, you two have become the same person. Tell me, isn't my mood very complicated?"
Xuan Yuan Lian knew that Zhang Ruochen was deliberately talking nonsense, trying to stir her emotions, and she didn't want to argue with him.
"Whoosh!"
A divine wooden box carved with phoenix patterns emerged from the purple divine spring and flew towards Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen asked, "What is this?"
"I said I would give you a generous gift. Open it and see!" Xuan Yuan Lian said.
Zhang Ruochen possessed countless rare treasures, so ordinary treasures were hard to catch his eye. He wanted to refuse directly.
But the divine wooden box was right before him, if only to satisfy his curiosity, he should open it and look.
Look first, then refuse...
Opening the box, there was no aura of jewels or divine power leaking out.
Only a scroll of calligraphy!
Zhang Ruochen was not someone who didn't recognize good goods. He could feel that every character on this scroll contained the Boundless Dao, pointing directly to the origin of Boundless.
"Such a strong aura..." Zhang Ruochen said.
Xuan Yuan Lian said, "This is 'When Going, Roaming the North Marsh.' It was personally written by the Heavenly Venerable before he led the Heavens Boundless to campaign against the North Marsh Great Wall. It is infused with the Heavenly Venerable's divine power. Carrying it on you, a single thought can cross a sea of stars. If you encounter a life-or-death crisis, it can save your life."
This was the Heavenly Venerable's calligraphy!
How could Zhang Ruochen refuse?
It smelled wonderful!
His fingers stroked the paper scroll, and the characters flickered one by one.
Zhang Ruochen could feel the weight of this gift. Saving his life was only secondary. More important was the significance of the calligraphy scroll itself.
What significance?
As long as he didn't do anything heinous, holding this scroll, Zhang Ruochen could walk sideways in the Heavenly Court Universe. No one would dare attack him.
(Chapter End)