Chapter 3549: Bloodline Resonance
Zhang Ruochen transmitted his voice to Jie Zun: "Aside from that trump card of yours that claims to be able to kill any enemy in the world, can your current true combat power match Gai Mie?"
"Barely," Jie Zun said.
Zhang Ruochen showed disappointment and sighed, "Then let's not stir up any more trouble. Let's go."
Zhang Ruochen had wanted to release Gai Mie, letting Wujian Ridge erupt into chaos first, which would give them a better chance to fish in troubled waters. But without the strength to suppress Gai Mie, the consequences of releasing him would be unpredictable.
Hearing Zhang Ruochen's sigh, Jie Zun was displeased, saying, "He is a Supreme Pillar. Even at his weakest, he still has the combat power of a Great Unbound Infinite peak. I have exhausted the Ancestor Divine Qi I've accumulated over the years. In this state, if I could still defeat him, wouldn't I be guaranteed a seat among the Twenty Heavens of the Heavenly Court?"
Only by cultivating the Nineteenth Layer of Heaven could Jie Zun obtain a trace of the Ancestor's power from the Ancestor Divine Source at any time.
Like a trickle of spring water!
To unleash the power of "one punch to defeat the Indestructible," he had to accumulate Ancestor power, turning the spring into a lake.
Of course, after one punch, the lake would dry up.
He would have to start accumulating again.
"Don't say that to outsiders. It tarnishes the reputation of our Ancestor Clan... Hmph, the Great Venerable can't afford to lose face."
Zhang Ruochen added, "Senior Divine Tree, open the Divine Prison!"
The Divine Prison, standing independent of heaven and earth, opened a spatial rift dozens of zhang long.
Zhang Ruochen sensed Yuan Sheng's aura and narrowed his eyes.
Yuan Sheng wore the Flame God Armor inside, her figure curving like a demon serpent, and a loose black Ancestor Divine Traveling Cloak outside. Holding the Bihai Hunyuan Spear, she floated behind the spatial rift, blending with the bright light outside.
Just as Zhang Ruochen and the other two were considering how to deal with her, Yuan Sheng's cold voice rang out: "You may leave!"
Jie Zun was the first to fly out of the spatial rift, saying, "Girl, where is your Great Elder?"
Yuan Sheng raised her chin slightly, proudly saying, "Since you were able to break the seal, it's clear the Great Elder intended to let you go. Don't ask about anything else. Get lost. Leave the Lower Realm immediately."
Jie Zun's body flashed with nine-colored divine light, his purple crown binding his long hair, shedding all traces of his down-and-out demeanor, revealing the bearing of a supreme Divine Venerable. He said, "With Su Yin in danger, how could I leave? The heir of the Ancestor Clan is born with pride. How could I be a coward who fears death?"
Each word was spoken with force, and combined with his extraordinary posture and momentum at that moment, it actually made Yuan Sheng pause for a moment.
She said, "For you to say that, the Great Elder didn't misjudge you. The Chaos Ancestor demanded that the Great Elder hand over you and Zhang Ruochen. The Great Elder pretended to carry you in the Divine Realm World and has already headed to Chaos Mountain."
Jie Zun exclaimed in shock, "The Chaos Ancestor is still alive?"
Zhang Ruochen, who flew out of the spatial rift a step later, asked, "Who is the Chaos Ancestor?"
Clearly, Yinhuai Divine Tree had already told Yuan Sheng what had happened earlier, which was why she said she would let Zhang Ruochen and Jie Zun leave.
Jie Zun said, "Back then, when Kong Yinxue entered the Lower Realm, she was suppressed by the Chaos Ancestor. What do you think?"
No wonder the Abyss of Darkness was called the number one forbidden land in the world. They had only reached Wujian Ridge, and already such a terrifying old monster had appeared.
Heavenly Venerable level?
Perhaps even more.
After all, hundreds of thousands of years ago, he was already able to suppress Kong Yinxue.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Doesn't that mean your trump card might not even be usable against him?"
"It depends on whether he has reached the Half-Ancestor realm. If not, there's still a chance," Jie Zun said.
Zhang Ruochen said, "What chance?"
"The Mani Pearl."
Jie Zun looked at Yuan Sheng and said, "Give me the Mani Pearl. With this pearl in hand, activated by Ancestor Divine Qi, I can buy a moment's time. Even if the Chaos Ancestor is at the Indestructible peak, he would only have an eighty percent chance of stopping me from self-destructing my Divine Source. Without absolute certainty, would he dare to gamble the lives of the entire Chaos Clan, and even many Lower Realm Clan Emperors, against me?"
Yuan Sheng looked at Jie Zun with newfound respect, took out the Mani Pearl, and said, "Jie Zun has such courage. I admire that."
Jie Zun took the Mani Pearl, calm and composed, without any tragic grandeur of someone about to die in battle. Instead, he secretly taught Zhang Ruochen through voice transmission: "See that? When a man needs to show his courage, he must do so fully. If you had half my skill, not only Yuan Sheng, but even Feng Caiyi would have defected from the Destiny Temple and become the wife of the Sword Realm's Realm Lord."
Zhang Ruochen was in no mood to listen to his advice, saying, "Are you really going to Chaos Mountain?"
"Yes, why not? Whoever dares to touch my woman, I'll fight them to the death," Jie Zun said.
"I will accompany Jie Zun."
Yuan Sheng thought for a moment, waved her sleeve, and the Earth Cauldron, God-Defying Stele, Qilin Fist Gloves, Xutuohuan White Silver Tree, and other treasures, shimmering with strange light, flew toward Zhang Ruochen.
At this moment, she had actually learned some of Jie Zun's free and heroic style, saying, "I'll take the Ancestor Traveling Cloak and the Flame God Armor. Consider it the price you pay for luring the Yellow Spring Great Emperor against me. Take back the other treasures."
Zhang Ruochen looked at Yuan Sheng with new eyes. Any one of these divine artifacts would be worth fighting over by the Heavens, yet she returned them all.
Such a breadth of mind and spirit was rarely seen in the world.
This was partly because Jie Zun was willing to self-destruct his Divine Source to fight for the Great Elder. At the same time, it showed that Yuan Sheng was a ruler who valued emotions more than interests.
As for the Ancestor Divine Traveling Cloak and the Flame God Armor, they were no longer of much use to Zhang Ruochen, so giving them to her was fine.
Jie Zun glared at Yuan Sheng, saying, "What are you going for? You're so young, do you want to die so badly? Leave Wujian Ridge with Zhang Ruochen and the others. After things are settled, then decide whether to come back or head to the Ancient Desolate Ruins City."
Without waiting for a reply, Jie Zun clasped his hands behind his back, turned into a nine-colored light sword, and flew straight toward Chaos Mountain.
"Boom! Boom!"
The light sword shattered layers of space, leaping through the void.
Zhang Ruochen squinted into the distance, feeling a bit of admiration for the old man. When it came to life-and-death matters, he didn't falter at all. Moreover, he could truly be relaxed and calm inside, showing no fear, treating life and death as nothing.
If he didn't have that "indifference to life and death" resolve, how would he dare to face the Chaos Ancestor?
In the end, self-destructing the Divine Source was a contest of mental state.
As long as Jie Zun had the slightest flaw in his mental state, the Chaos Ancestor would not fear him.
Conversely, he had to make the Chaos Ancestor fear him before Jie Zun could take Yuan Suyin away.
"If it's destined to be mutual destruction, what will happen to the Primordial Path Clan if you go?" Zhang Ruochen said.
Yuan Sheng, who was about to pursue, frowned at his words and said, "You're not worried at all?"
"The more dangerous the time, the more reason to be rational," Zhang Ruochen said.
"If you want to escape, go now. I, as the Clan Emperor of the Primordial Path Clan, will never abandon any member of my clan."
Yuan Sheng took out the Clan Emperor Token and activated it with Divine Qi.
Immediately, the Clan Emperor Token turned into a beam of light and flew out, not toward the Chaos River, but deep into the Abyss of Darkness.
"There are more choices in the world than just staying or leaving."
Zhang Ruochen shook his head gently, took out the drop of blood given by Nutian Shenzun, and held it in his palm.
Under the activation of Truth Rules, the blood emitted an increasingly dazzling light, turning into strands of blood threads.
Suddenly, the blood showed a strange fluctuation.
Zhang Ruochen's face lit up with joy. He looked toward Wujian Ridge, then at Chi Yao's eyes, and said, "Stay on the ship. If things go wrong, head straight to the Ancient Desolate Ruins City."
He flew out of the Divine Tree Ship, heading far away, but not toward Chaos Mountain.
Yuan Sheng was surprised, saying, "Where is he going? With his cultivation, breaking into Wujian Ridge is pure suicide."
"Chen Ge must have his reasons for doing this."
Chi Yao knew that Zhang Ruochen's trip would be extremely dangerous, which was why he didn't take her along. If she went, she would likely become a burden.
So, she rarely lowered her posture, cupped her hands, and bowed to Yuan Sheng, saying, "Please, Clan Emperor, go and help him."
"Why should I?" Yuan Sheng said.
Chi Yao said, "Because Chen Ge didn't choose to flee but instead charged into Wujian Ridge. He must have found another way to help the Great Elder and Jie Zun."
...
As soon as he entered Wujian Ridge, Zhang Ruochen found that the Time Rules and Space Rules within his body were difficult to mobilize. Only after activating the Four Symbols did he recover.
The Wuji Divine Dao was profound, allowing him to break through time and space. Other cultivators might not have this ability.
Even stranger, the ground was covered with spatial rifts.
Inside the rifts, there seemed to be raging waves that crushed Zhang Ruochen's probing Divine Soul.
The closer he got to the ground, the slower the flow of time. Especially near the bottom of the spatial rifts, time almost came to a standstill.
"The blood of Nutian Shenzun has fluctuated. Kong Yinxue must be summoning it. She is definitely not dead."
Going to find Kong Yinxue was indeed a huge risk.
But even if there was only a glimmer of hope, Zhang Ruochen would never let Jie Zun go gamble his life alone.
"Which cultivator dares to trespass into my Wujian Ridge?" A thunderous roar came from the ground.
A black hall, shrouded in ghostly mist, flew out from a different space.
In the mist, there were hundreds of ghostly souls, each with formidable power, like dragons and pythons.
Zhang Ruochen struck out with a palm from afar, forming a ten-thousand-zhang handprint, killing all the ghostly souls. Even the black hall was knocked into a spatial rift.
At the edge of the rift, the hall shattered into pieces.
The ghost-type ancient cultivator inside screamed in agony as he was swallowed by the darkness within the rift.
More powerful beings in Wujian Ridge were alerted. A dozen or so strong auras chased after Zhang Ruochen.
"Death to those who trespass into Wujian Ridge!"
A humanoid ancient being, looking about twenty years old, with a face like a flower and the grace of a banished immortal, held a Chaos Iron Umbrella and blocked Zhang Ruochen's path.
The Chaos Iron Umbrella spun in her hand, forming a spatial vortex a thousand miles in diameter, with countless spatial rifts flying within it.
Zhang Ruochen charged straight into the spatial vortex, flying toward her.
"Boom!"
With one punch, Zhang Ruochen blasted the humanoid ancient being apart, her body shattering into pieces.
Soon, Zhang Ruochen arrived at the location sensed by Nutian Shenzun's blood, landing on the vast, open ground.
Looking ahead, two sharp peaks rose like bamboo shoots, towering ten thousand zhang high, extremely steep.
"What place is this? Is there a hidden space here?"
Zhang Ruochen formed hand seals, manifesting the Taiji Four Symbols Diagram to probe the surroundings.
"Boom!"
A vast and terrifying aura, turning into a lightning bolt as thick as a bucket, fell from the clouds, appearing opposite Zhang Ruochen, blocking the gap between the two mountains.
Inside the lightning bolt was a domineering figure, exuding an aura that could swallow mountains and rivers.
He was dozens of zhang tall, wearing a Lightning Divine Armor, and every bolt of lightning flowing on his body was like a divine dragon.
Zhang Ruochen activated the power of his Sword Bone, forming a Sword Domain within eighteen zhang, blocking the lightning dragons emanating from him. Looking around, he saw one Chaos Clan expert after another descending from the sky, surrounding him.
"Does Wujian Ridge have such deep foundations? A large number of experts were lured away by the old man, yet there are still so many coming after me. It seems I have no choice but to use the Sword Ancestor Divine Tree."
Zhang Ruochen was not flustered. He took out a crimson divine tree, holding it in his left palm.
The leaves on the tree were as clear as blood jade, a beautiful crimson.
This divine tree had been growing on the eighteenth floor of the Sword Pavilion, alongside the Sword Bone. During his time cultivating in the Past Divine Palace, Zhang Ruochen had finally understood its secrets.
"Rustle, rustle!"
Zhang Ruochen moved his five fingers, and the Sword Ancestor Divine Tree shook.
One blood-red leaf after another fell off, like thousands of blood swords flying around him, making piercing sounds. The stable space here was torn into long, thin cracks.
Zhang Ruochen said, "I'm in a hurry. Please make way, everyone. Otherwise, you will all be souls beneath my feet."