# Chapter 3531: Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord and Wuwei
Behind the illusion, there was clearly the ruins of the Witch Temple, filled with an ancient aura, with even denser rule divine patterns. On the ground, there were many thick divine bones, and the soil existed between solid and liquid states, with unfathomably profound formation inscription patterns emanating from below.
The entire city domain space contained a force that could suppress even Divine Kings and Divine Venerables, forcing them to retreat.
Zhang Ruochen recognized the identities of both figures who were confronting each other in the distance.
The scholar standing beside the divine lamp was Jiusi Yitianhuang's second disciple, Wuwei.
The other person was Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord, the foremost among the three Divine Lords of the Imperial Dao Great World.
Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord possessed extraordinary talent and, like the Dragon Lord, was the youngest, most promising, and most vigorous powerhouse beneath the Twenty Heavens of the Heavenly Court, a figure who could stand alongside the War Gods of the Heavenly Palace.
Many senior cultivators believed that he would definitely enter the ranks of the Heavens in the future, and even had a great chance of reaching the height of Indestructible Infinite.
Zhang Ruochen was quite surprised to see Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord appear in the Abyss of Darkness.
Wuwei, gentle and refined, smiled and said, "Junior Brother Ruochen, you've arrived just in time. Come help me capture Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord, don't let him escape!"
Wu Yue was Jiusi Yitianhuang's third disciple, so Wuwei's address of "junior brother" was quite affectionate. When he looked at Zhang Ruochen, he had none of the aura of a cosmic overlord.
Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord stood in place, his body towering like a divine mountain, his dragon robe fluttering in the wind. His heroic face, carved like knife and axe, showed no fluctuation whatsoever.
His sharply defined lips parted as he spoke, "Zhang Ruochen, your cultivation still has a considerable gap from Great Unbound Infinite. This is a grudge between myself and the Darkness Temple. Don't get involved."
There was no hint of contempt in Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord's tone, as if he were stating a truth.
Clearly, Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord and Wuwei had entered the Abyss of Darkness before the upheaval at White Clothes Valley, and were unaware of Zhang Ruochen's true strength.
For a cultivator who had only broken through to Boundless a thousand years ago to participate in their confrontation would be no different from seeking death.
From this perspective, Wuwei's cordiality was actually a sinister blade.
Wuwei said, "Divine Lord underestimates my junior brother too much. At Rakshasa Divine City, even Ding Zu was no match for him."
Zhang Ruochen carefully sensed the depths of the Witch Temple ruins, confirming that Chao Tianque and the Udumbara Flower were not hidden there. Then, he smiled freely and said, "Sorry to interrupt you two. I'm just passing through. You don't need to concern yourselves with me!"
Having said this, Zhang Ruochen retreated while remaining vigilant.
Wuwei looked across and said, "Divine Lord, are you just going to let him leave like this? If he invites Feng Tian here, I'm afraid you won't be able to leave the Abyss of Darkness."
Zhang Ruochen cursed Wuwei inwardly and retreated even faster.
"Swish!"
A cold gleam flashed in Wuwei's eyes. Holding the divine lamp in one hand and a bamboo slip in the other, he instantly teleported in front of Zhang Ruochen.
Swinging his arm through the air, the bamboo slip in his hand slashed downward.
In a rustling sound, his sleeve stirred up a wind force sharper than a divine sword.
The pictographic ancient characters on the bamboo slip emitted golden light, like tadpole-like living beings that detached themselves first, surrounding Zhang Ruochen on all sides, freezing time and space.
"Boom!"
The ground split open, and space exploded with a roar.
Wuwei's strike missed, and he let out a soft exclamation of surprise.
He discovered that Zhang Ruochen had rushed out first at an unimaginable speed, dodging this killing blow.
Zhang Ruochen appeared a hundred miles away, standing on a piece of bluish-gray giant rock. The Ancestor Boots on his feet and the Ancestor Divine Travel Clothes on his body still emitted faint circles of divine radiance.
"Senior Brother Wuwei, what is the meaning of this?"
Zhang Ruochen's eyes were cold and profound, the Taiji Four Symbols Diagram manifesting within eighteen zhang of his surroundings.
Facing powerhouses like Wuwei and Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord, Zhang Ruochen dared not hold back in the slightest, instantly entering his strongest battle state.
"I just wanted to test my junior brother's skills! Haha!"
Wuwei certainly didn't think Zhang Ruochen could withstand his surprise attack, believing that three moves would be enough to severely wound him.
The words he had spoken to Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord earlier were not just instigation.
They were also meant to make Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord stand by and watch!
Unfortunately, Zhang Ruochen was too cautious and had managed to escape.
Zhang Ruochen couldn't laugh at all. "Since you wanted to test my skills, why not continue? I'm very curious about Senior Brother Wuwei's cultivation level."
A strange light flickered in Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord's cold tiger eyes as he secretly developed appreciation for Zhang Ruochen. Here was someone who had only just entered the Boundless realm, yet facing a Great Unbound Infinite powerhouse, he showed no fear and even actively provoked.
Such courage truly revealed a heroic nature.
Wuwei also knew that he had completely burned bridges with Zhang Ruochen and stopped pretending. His gaze shifted to Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord as he said, "How about we kill him first, divide his treasures, and then settle our own duel?"
Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord said, "He's just a cultivator at the early Qiankun Boundless stage. I'm ashamed to make a move against him. If you're interested in the treasures on him, go ahead."
Wuwei had already seen that Zhang Ruochen possessed Ancestor relics and was not inferior to himself in speed. Capturing him would be no easy task.
With Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord, this peak powerhouse, watching from the side like a tiger eyeing its prey, how could he fully commit to the fight?
Wuwei tried again, "Divine Lord, are you not wary of Feng Tian?"
"If I were afraid of everything, I wouldn't have come to the Abyss of Darkness in the first place." A patch of golden divine glow appeared above Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord's head, illuminating a large area of the ancient desolate city, displaying extraordinary bearing.
Wuwei said, "He could have followed Feng Tian's aura and left, yet he returned to the city instead. Aren't you curious about the reason behind this? The Heavenly Mother may have left a great opportunity in the city."
Zhang Ruochen had to admire Wuwei's meticulous thinking. Even this had been seen through by him.
Zhang Ruochen was indeed somewhat worried that Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord might be swayed by his words, so he said, "Divine Lord, how about we join forces and deal with him first?"
He said this only tentatively, without much expectation.
But to his surprise, Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord replied, "Fine! Dealing with just a scholar, I can handle it myself. You just stand by and watch."
Before his words had even faded, the nine golden dragons on Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord's dragon robe came to life, emitting low, resonant dragon roars as they spun outward, enveloping Wuwei within.
Wuwei remained calm, swinging the bamboo slip in his hand.
"Rustle, rustle!"
The bamboo slip unfurled in the void, each bamboo strip transforming into a divine blade, each pictographic character turning into a divine ability.
Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord held a dragon-scale battle halberd, soared into the air, and slashed downward.
"Boom!"
The bamboo slip only held for the time of one breath before shattering, scattering like chaotic swords, embedding themselves in the ground within a thousand zhang.
Wuwei was not flustered. He pointed with two fingers, forming a square chessboard that clashed with the battle halberd.
His body was pressed downward, forcing him to retreat rapidly to disperse Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord's power.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
...
The ground beneath his feet was constantly shattered with each step.
The formations beneath the Witch Temple ruins were activated one after another, only to be smashed through by the two combatants.
On this golden land, countless divine flame fireballs appeared, followed by thunder and lightning, with killing light raining down like a storm.
Zhang Ruochen knew well how strongly the ancient desolate city suppressed cultivators. Seeing them fight so earth-shatteringly, he secretly calculated their cultivation levels.
Clearly, the combat power of these two far exceeded that of Fei Mawang when she attacked White Clothes Valley.
But they probably hadn't reached the peak of Great Unbound Infinite, still at the middle stage of Great Unbound Infinite. This was already extremely impressive, considering that many of the Heavens were only one realm higher than them.
"Whoosh!"
A dazzling tide of rule divine patterns surged out from the Witch Temple ruins like a flame wave dozens of zhang high.
Zhang Ruochen mobilized the divine qi within his body, condensed his power, and threw a punch.
"Boom!"
The fist force transformed into a convex air wall a hundred zhang in diameter, colliding with the tide of rule divine patterns.
"Bang, bang!"
The ancient city foundation stones around him exploded one after another, turning into dust.
"What formidable battle aftershocks. Is this the true strength of the middle stage of Great Unbound Infinite?"
Zhang Ruochen looked deeper into the Witch Temple ruins, where battle aftershocks continued to erupt, and space kept shaking.
Back when he fought Fei Mawang outside the Nether Realm, he had used Ancestor divine qi and Ancestor rules purely to break her defense. Even so, Zhang Ruochen had paid a greater price.
And clearly, also at the middle stage of Great Unbound Infinite, Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord and Wuwei, who possessed a large amount of esoterica and numerous trump cards, were at least two or three levels above Fei Mawang at that time.
Some people had just broken through to the middle stage of Great Unbound Infinite, while others had cultivated at that level for hundreds of thousands of years. Naturally, their combat power was as different as heaven and earth.
The amount of esoterica mastered, the grade of battle artifacts, and the profundity of the divine path cultivated would widen the combat power gap even further.
And this combat power gap was even more pronounced at the peak of Great Unbound Infinite. Among them, those with the highest combat power could be enfeoffed as Heavens.
...
The Witch Temple had probably once been placed on this land, and it was very likely that the Heavenly Mother had always cultivated within the temple.
The spatial structure here was very peculiar, containing not only folded space and distorted space but also areas of abnormal spatial gravity and dark space.
The battle between Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord and Wuwei punched through the folded spaces one by one, and many canyons appeared on the ground, leading to unknown abysses.
After over a hundred clashes, Wuwei's defense was breached, and a bloody hole appeared on his shoulder.
Knowing he was no match for Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord, Wuwei decisively burned the divine blood within his body, erupting with extreme speed as he fled toward Zhang Ruochen's location.
Under the condition of burning divine blood, not even Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord, nor even a peak Great Unbound Infinite powerhouse, could stop him.
"Is he planning to capture me before leaving?"
Zhang Ruochen very much wanted to activate the Ten Thousand Buddha Formation to keep Wuwei here.
But if he exposed his trump card like this, and Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord also harbored ill intentions, how would he deal with it then?
Zhang Ruochen's mind raced, and the Time Source Bead flew out.
"Whoosh!"
The time rules in the ancient desolate city were frantically pulled over, condensing into a bright divine sea of time, blocking the area between Zhang Ruochen and Wuwei.
If Wuwei continued charging toward him, his speed would inevitably be affected by the divine sea of time, allowing Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord behind him to catch up.
"Junior Brother, we'll meet again. Don't die at the hands of Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord."
Wuwei gave up on capturing Zhang Ruochen and turned to the right.
But those words were undoubtedly meant to sow discord between Zhang Ruochen and Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord.
Even if he couldn't drive a wedge between them, he wanted to plant a seed of suspicion.
(Chapter End)