Chapter 3534: Alien Lifeforms
No matter how high one’s cultivation, it was impossible to silently break through the formations within the Chaotian Que.
Without a doubt, the other party had been following them all along.
Such a silent concealment technique left both Zhang Ruochen and Yan Wushen inwardly shocked, thinking a Heavenly Venerable-rank strange beast had arrived.
If that were truly the case, disaster was imminent!
…
Outside the Qingxu Hall, darkness shrouded the area as fierce yin winds arose.
The moment space was frozen by the *Death Scripture*, a slender, dark-blue figure emerged from the darkness like a ghost in the night, displaying an exquisite and unparalleled movement technique. Her snow-white, jade-like toes lightly tapped across the pages of the scripture, landing atop the flying eaves of the Qingxu Hall above Zhang Ruochen’s head, entering his blind spot.
“Impressive technique!”
Yan Wushen exclaimed in admiration, shouting loudly.
To break the frozen space and ignore the death divine script on the *Death Scripture* was no easy feat for an ordinary Divine King or Divine Lord.
All the sword strikes missed, dissolving into the darkness. Zhang Ruochen also silently praised the skill, then executed his movement technique, flying up to the Qingxu Hall.
“Eh!”
She had vanished without a trace!
A mocking, melodious voice came from all directions, saying, “You two can’t even touch the hem of my clothes. With such cultivation, are you sure entering the Abyss of Darkness isn’t just asking for death?”
Zhang Ruochen clasped his hands behind his back, his long robe fluttering like a war banner, observing the wisps of yin wind around him. “Are you a strange beast or a primordial lifeform?”
These words seemed to anger her.
“You’re asking for death.”
Darkness pressed in from all sides.
An intangible death aura directly invaded Zhang Ruochen’s soul.
Only chaotic heavenly and earthly rules surged, but her true form could not be found.
“Universe Boundless.”
Zhang Ruochen’s body burst forth with dazzling truth divine light. All the heavenly and earthly rules in this space manifested, dense and interwoven, visible even to the naked eye.
Zhang Ruochen locked onto one area of these rules, extended his palm, and pressed forward.
“Whoosh!”
The Jade Tree Dark Moon appeared before his palm, radiating divine light as brilliant as a star.
The dark-attribute heavenly and earthly rules immediately retreated, coalescing into a stunning woman clad in a dark-blue martial robe. On her forehead were four moon-white stars, like ornamental dots, and her long hair was tied into a ponytail with a purple jade ribbon.
Her martial robe, resembling soft armor, flowed with a metallic sheen and emitted divine rain and radiance, outlining her beautifully proportioned figure with curves and contours.
Her beauty was striking, only a notch below that of Wu Yue or the Moon God.
But her eyes were filled with killing intent, as if Zhang Ruochen shared an irreconcilable enmity with her.
More precisely, it wasn’t just aimed at Zhang Ruochen, but at all living beings in the world.
Yan Wushen said, “No wonder we were completely unaware. You can perfectly merge with the heavenly and earthly rules, becoming part of them. Are you beings born from heaven and earth?”
The woman in the dark-blue martial robe stood barefoot on the ground, her eyes filled with pride. “All living beings in the world are born from heaven and earth, filled with heavenly and earthly rules within. It’s just that you lowly beings cannot utilize them! Hiding oneself within the rules, coexisting with heaven and earth—that is the true path.”
“Lowly beings? Brother Ruochen, it seems we’ve been looked down upon!” Yan Wushen said.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Do you want to test her depth?”
“I’m afraid you, the romantic Sword God, might spare the beauty and refuse to strike hard,” Yan Wushen said.
Zhang Ruochen said, “Keep her alive! Our understanding of the Abyss of Darkness is too limited. She might be able to tell us something.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
The woman in the dark-blue martial robe opened her right hand, and a plant exuding pure dark energy grew from her palm. It resembled some kind of thorny vine, covered in spikes, growing more and more until it completely enveloped her body.
As the thorny vines swung, the heavenly and earthly rules violently trembled, creating sparks.
Zhang Ruochen spread his arms, raising the Taiji Four Symbols Diagram to cover this space.
The four forces—space, time, light, and darkness—descended together, suppressing the woman in the dark-blue martial robe to prevent her from reverting to her heavenly and earthly rule state.
That state was too bizarre and hard to guard against.
Yan Wushen summoned the Naihe Bridge.
This mottled stone bridge, containing infinite death power, flew out from between his eyebrows, spanning the void, completely freezing the space.
Then, he transformed into a nine-zhang-six golden body, closing in.
“Boom! Boom!”
They clashed seven times in a row, Buddhist light scattering and black divine energy dissipating.
“Roar!”
A dragon’s roar sounded from within Yan Wushen’s body as he struck out the “Swastika” divine talisman. The thorny vines were pierced through, and the woman in the dark-blue martial robe stumbled backward, her face slightly pale.
The Buddhist divine powers Yan Wushen cultivated had a suppressive effect on her.
Especially when the “Swastika” divine talisman descended, it felt as if heaven and earth were spinning, disrupting the divine energy within her body.
The woman in the dark-blue martial robe glared with resentment, looking at Zhang Ruochen standing atop the Qingxu Hall. “You said one-on-one, but this is clearly two against one! Where’s the fairness? First, lift your suppression on me!”
Zhang Ruochen laughed. “You’re being unreasonable! When did we ever agree to a one-on-one fight?”
“You upper-realm beings are truly despicable and shameless! Fine, then let’s make it two against two, and see how you die.”
The four stars on the woman’s forehead flickered, and her lips moved as she softly chanted something.
Then, from the direction of the Chaotian Que’s stone gate in the distance, four other stars appeared in the darkness, flashing in the same rhythm as hers.
A devouring, heaven-swallowing aura rapidly approached the Qingxu Hall.
Yan Wushen’s brow tightened. “Not good! A more powerful strange beast has entered the Chaotian Que. She used a secret technique to transmit the route to the Qingxu Hall.”
Zhang Ruochen glanced into the distance and saw that the rapidly approaching aura possessed profound cultivation and unfathomable Dao resonance, exerting a soul-suppressing pressure on him—definitely at the level of Great Unbound Infinite.
“End this quickly. Capture her as a hostage!”
Zhang Ruochen leaped down from the top of the Qingxu Hall, as fast as a divine sword leaving its sheath, pointing a finger straight at the woman’s forehead.
The woman in the dark-blue martial robe retreated rapidly, the thorny vines in her palm growing wildly, lashing out at Zhang Ruochen.
“Break!”
Zhang Ruochen uttered a single word.
As if his words commanded the Dao, all the thorny vines shattered.
The woman in the dark-blue martial robe condensed a divine power, with billions of rules gathering in her palm, evolving into a fire domain thousands of miles long.
Her palm was a world!
Unfortunately, with her cultivation, once Zhang Ruochen closed within eighteen zhang of her, what chance did she have?
Her right wrist was seized by Zhang Ruochen.
His other hand pressed against her full, heaving chest, with sword intent emanating from his fingertips, locking onto the divine sea beneath her heart, making her dare not move an inch.
For a powerhouse like her, even cutting off her head wouldn’t harm her foundation.
Only the divine sea was the weak point!
“Boom!”
Yan Wushen was sent flying backward, half his body crashing heavily into the ground, his golden body dimming.
Just now, Yuan Jieyi had arrived!
To block him, Yan Wushen had actively met the attack but was sent flying with a single punch.
“Stop!” Zhang Ruochen said in a deep voice.
Yuan Jieyi stood over two meters tall, also clad in a dark-blue martial robe, with short, inch-long hair. His breath was like a divine dragon, his blood flowing like rivers within, and a black divine aura halo floated behind him.
His gaze fell on Zhang Ruochen, his voice like thunder. “Release Yuan Sheng, or die!”
Yuan Sheng was naturally the name of the woman in the dark-blue martial robe.
Zhang Ruochen actually wanted to release Yuan Sheng or kill her, given his current hand gesture was hardly dignified and tarnished the reputation of the Sword Realm’s master.
But Yuan Jieyi’s aura was too strong. With a single punch, he had injured Yan Wushen. If Zhang Ruochen didn’t use his ancestral divine qi and ancestral rules, he didn’t think he could match him. And once he used them, the power would be too great, inevitably triggering the killing formations within the Chaotian Que.
At that point, even hiding in the Earth Cauldron might not help.
More critically, the only way in and out of the Chaotian Que was the path Yan Wushen had scouted.
That path was now blocked by Yuan Jieyi.
In other words, they couldn’t escape.
Zhang Ruochen could see that Yuan Jieyi seemed to care deeply about Yuan Sheng, so naturally, he couldn’t let go.
“Your cultivation is profound. Even if we join forces, I fear we’re no match. But I am absolutely certain that before you reach me, I can destroy her divine sea and divine source,” Zhang Ruochen said.
Yan Wushen, with a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth, pulled his legs out of the mud. “They might not have a divine source! But they have dark divine fire. Once the divine fire goes out, their life is extinguished.”
Yuan Jieyi showed no sign of compromise. His gaze grew colder as he took a step forward.
Zhang Ruochen met his eyes, and the fingers pressed against Yuan Sheng’s chest sank slightly.
“Shameless!” Yuan Sheng spat coldly.
This was perhaps the most awkward battle Zhang Ruochen had ever fought since he began cultivating. Even Yuan Sheng, who was under his control, showed more contempt than killing intent in her eyes.
But faced with an opponent at the Great Unbound Infinite level, how could he afford to care about that?
Yan Wushen smiled, showing no psychological pressure at all. “Stalemating like this is completely pointless. If you don’t compromise, I’ll first have them bow and become husband and wife! You can see, we’re not far from that step.”
Zhang Ruochen glanced over. “Want to switch?”
Yan Wushen shook his head repeatedly.
Yuan Sheng’s divine energy surged rapidly, her upper body becoming ethereal, trying to revert to her heavenly and earthly rule state.
But as Zhang Ruochen’s fingertip sword intent pulsed, her divine energy stalled. Her cheeks flushed with shame and anger, she let out a soft snort, and her ethereal body solidified again.
Yuan Jieyi was furious but couldn’t act. “Fine, leave this place. Let’s settle this in the Ancient Desolate Ruins City.”
Yuan Jieyi’s eyes held no lack of threat as he withdrew from the Chaotian Que first.
Zhang Ruochen, Yan Wushen, and Yuan Sheng followed closely.
Zhang Ruochen transmitted his voice, “Why not trigger the killing formations in the Chaotian Que to deal with him?”
Yan Wushen’s face showed bitterness. “Most of the formations here were left by past Heaven Round Without Lack experts, some even by ancestors. I could indeed find a way to trigger them, but I can’t control them.”
“The deeper you go in the Chaotian Que, the more terrifying the formations. The killing formation at the Qingxu Hall’s location, if triggered, could threaten that person, but we’d most likely die first.”
“Besides, you saw it too. With his level of cultivation, he appears fierce on the surface but is actually meticulous inside, always on guard against us.”
Soon, they followed the formation gap Jiusi Yitianhuang had opened and returned to the shore of the Corpse Blood Ocean.
That formation gap was further repaired by the formation itself, now only the size of a pigeon’s egg, and would soon disappear completely.
“Release her!”
Behind Yuan Jieyi, countless rules flew out, coalescing into a boundless dark forest.
“Alright, Zhang Ruochen, release her.”
Having said this, Yan Wushen took out a Buddhist bead and threw it into the Corpse Blood Ocean. “Let’s go!”
(Chapter End)