Chapter 3685: The List
Nine dragon roars, long and startling to the ears.
Nine golden dragons flew out from the dragon robe of the Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord, winding and weaving through the silver divine trees, colliding with the protective divine formation arranged by Yan Wuque, stirring up countless divine patterns ripples.
Yan Wuque narrowed his eyes, his gaze sharp and predatory like an eagle watching a wolf, and said, "Why must the Divine Lord wade into this muddy water? You should know how deep it is."
Yan Wuque was not foolish. How could he believe that the Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord was making a move against him merely for the sake of the Space Divine Temple's meager benefits?
The Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord landed atop a silver divine tree, his long hair flying, his figure towering and resolute, and said decisively, "I have cultivated for hundreds of thousands of years, and there is great fearlessness in my heart. Palace Master Yan, you are a senior and a sage. How could you think that a mere threatening word would scare me off?"
"Whoosh!"
The Dragon Scale War Halberd appeared in the Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord's hand.
He flew in an arc, appearing diagonally above Yan Wuque, tens of thousands of miles away.
He swung the halberd down.
Divine light seemed capable of tearing heaven and earth apart.
With a thunderous crash, one of Yan Wuque's protective divine formations was shattered.
A gap appeared in the seemingly impenetrable defense.
Yan Wuque was well aware of the terrifying combat power of the Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord, once the most dazzling rising star of the Heavenly Court, undefeated against any opponent at the same realm. Once he closed in, victory or defeat would be decided instantly.
Yan Wuque felt regret. He should not have rashly charged into the Space Divine Temple, giving others a handle to use against him.
It was precisely because he had lost the moral high ground that the Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord could act so decisively.
Moreover, he had underestimated Zhang Ruochen's strength and also underestimated Zhang Ruochen's resolve.
If he had controlled the Array Extermination Palace and led all the gods of the palace to come together, how could he have ended up in such a passive situation?
Now, trying to escape had become extremely difficult.
In the end, he had lost to his own arrogance and pride.
"I must not fall into Zhang Ruochen's hands."
Yan Wuque's eyes turned fierce in an instant. He took out a bright yellow wooden box.
He opened it.
"Swish, swish!"
From the box flew three hundred and sixty formation flags, each the size of a matchstick.
The flags grew as they caught the wind.
The flagpoles became as thick as a bowl, and the black flag surfaces revealed various patterns—some like snowflakes, some like ancient beasts, some like mountain bodies...
"Wind Snow Continent, Infinite Divine Mountain."
Yan Wuque shouted loudly, his divine voice shaking the ears.
"Whoosh!"
The sound of wind and snow howled, echoing through the void.
A continent of ice and snow manifested within the formation, extremely vast, with mountain ranges spanning tens of millions of miles, strange peaks and dangerous valleys visible everywhere, no different from a great world.
The three hundred and sixty formation flags were like three hundred and sixty heavenly pillars supporting a great world.
Was he using the formation to evolve a great world?
Or had he sealed a great world within the formation?
Either way, this formation was extraordinary.
The Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord landed on the ground of the Wind Snow Continent, looked around, put away his contempt, and said, "I have never heard before that Palace Master Yan had such a trump card. Could this be the foundation divine formation of the Array Extermination Palace?"
Yan Wuque's voice came from within the wind and snow, saying, "Facing a formation divine master with an eighty-ninth level spiritual power, the Divine Lord should have been mentally prepared. It is not too late to retreat now."
Standing on the Bright Mirror Platform, Zhang Ruochen saw the three hundred and sixty formation flags and the Wind Snow Continent blocking the Ten Thousand Buddha Formation. Instead of panicking, he showed a delighted expression and said, "The Divine Lord may not know, but this great world is called the Wind Moon Realm. One hundred thousand years ago, it was quite famous in the Western Universe."
"Back then, when the gods of the Heavenly Court and the gods of the Hell Realm were locked in fierce battle, Palace Master Yan, who should have been rushing to support the Kunlun Realm, instead secretly went to the Wind Moon Realm."
"How did the Wind Moon Realm disappear from the universe, with all its gods perishing? How has Palace Master Yan's spiritual power been able to break through realms continuously over these past one hundred thousand years? And why was the Wind Moon Realm refined into a divine formation? The causal relationships behind all this, I fear only Palace Master Yan himself knows."
Hearing this, Xuanyuan Lian, who had been sending messages to Zhao Gongming and Guangmu War God to come and mediate, narrowed her eyes.
She knew of the Wind Moon Realm.
One hundred thousand years ago, it could definitely rank among the top twenty in the Western Universe, a first-rate powerful realm.
Yan Wuque's eyes turned cold, and he was furious, saying, "Zhang Ruochen, you little brat, you are killing with words! This formation I refined is called the Wind Snow Continent, and it has nothing to do with the Wind Moon Realm."
"Back then, I was indeed ordered to go and support the Kunlun Realm, but I was intercepted by powerful figures from the Hell Realm on the way and nearly died."
"I understand now. You are seeking revenge. You dare not go after those Heavenly Venerables of the Hell Realm, so you blame the calamity of the Kunlun Realm on a cultivator who risked his life to go and help. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous."
Zhang Ruochen remained calm and said, "Back then, I suspect you did not dare to face those formidable figures from the Hell Realm, and you wanted to profit from the situation, so you struck down your own people. People like you deserve death even more than the cultivators of the Hell Realm."
"Do you think that by changing the terrain of the Wind Moon Realm, refining all living beings to death, and wiping out all buildings, you could cover up the truth?"
"If my guess is correct, the formation spirit of this divine formation now is the world spirit of the Wind Moon Realm."
"Divine Lord, why don't we break this formation and let the world spirit tell us the truth?"
Making a move against Yan Wuque had enormous implications. The Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord had originally been somewhat hesitant and worried.
But now, he had no intention of holding back at all.
He trusted Zhang Ruochen.
If Zhang Ruochen wanted to kill Yan Wuque, he would not need to fabricate such a reason.
"If I find out that you truly sacrificed an entire realm and our comrades to refine a formation and improve your cultivation, no matter who stands behind you, I will tear you into ten thousand pieces!"
The Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord manifested his Imperial Ancestor Dharma Form, his body towering a hundred thousand zhang, and struck straight down with his halberd.
The clouds in the sky were split apart.
The mountains and rivers on the ground were severed.
The divine power beam shot straight toward Yan Wuque, millions of miles away.
"Crash!"
A majestic divine mountain rose from the ground before Yan Wuque, its cliffs steep and its entire body emitting a purple light.
The divine mountain blocked the Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord's strike, but the mountain collapsed, turning into countless fragments of stone.
Yan Wuque was sent flying backward, looking quite disheveled.
He tried to mobilize the power of the formation, but found that ten thousand silver-white Buddhas had appeared in the sky, firmly suppressing the formation and absorbing the divine qi within it.
Zhang Ruochen stood in the sky, bathed in Buddha light, applying psychological pressure on Yan Wuque, saying, "Yan Wuque, today you have no escape. Do you think you can defy heaven with a single formation? Self-destruct your divine heart. You have no other choice!"
"Boom!"
"Boom, boom!"
...
The Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord pursued Yan Wuque to close range, blasting apart the divine mountains evolved within the formation one after another.
The Imperial Ancestor Dharma Form was overwhelmingly powerful, its blood qi surging like countless rivers flowing within the Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord's body, possessing the might to slay gods and Buddhas alike.
"Thousand Peaks, Ten Thousand Cliffs!"
Yan Wuque's face twisted in ferocity. He directly burned his lifespan to forcibly elevate his spiritual power.
Dense divine mountains condensed within the formation world.
Zhang Ruochen let out a deep snort and struck down from the sky with a palm. Instantly, a Taiji Four Symbols Divine Diagram, over a hundred million miles in diameter, appeared above the Wind Snow Continent, firmly suppressing the thousand divine mountains evolved by Yan Wuque.
"Rumble!"
The Space Divine Temple shook violently.
The space rules and divine qi of heaven and earth continuously converged toward the temple.
The entire Qicheng Heavenly Domain was covered in dark clouds, the energy of heaven and earth boiling, and the ground trembled from time to time.
The cultivators of the Space Divine Temple, one after another, emerged from their cultivation caves, looking toward the magnificent temple in the sky.
In less than a day, why had another battle at the level of divine venerables erupted in the temple?
"Troubled times!" a young cultivator sighed.
From all directions of the Heavenly Court, gods rushed to the Qicheng Heavenly Domain to gather information.
Upon learning that the Palace Master of the Array Extermination Palace had crossed the Zhichi River and arrived at the Space Divine Temple, they all sent messages to their superiors: "The Palace Master of the Array Extermination Palace intends to suppress and kill Zhang Ruochen. The landscape of the Space Divine Temple may see new changes."
...
The Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord knew that Yan Wuque had begun a fight to the death, and his next step might indeed be to self-destruct his divine heart.
"Bang, bang!"
He fully unleashed his divine power, swinging the Dragon Scale War Halberd, breaking through obstacles, shattering the divine mountains one by one.
"Pfft!"
In moments, the war halberd had already struck Yan Wuque, splitting his physical body diagonally into two halves.
Divine blood splattered, staining the snow red.
In this level of confrontation, the Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord was highly experienced, giving Yan Wuque no chance to turn the tables or achieve mutual destruction.
He pointed a finger, and Yan Wuque's lower half of his divine body was enveloped in divine power, flying into the sky.
By the time Yan Wuque used his spiritual power to break free from the divine power and attempt to counterattack, he had already fallen into Zhang Ruochen's hands, firmly suppressed by the Bright Mirror Platform.
As for the upper half of his divine body, which contained his divine heart, it was pinned down by the Dragon Scale War Halberd. The Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord suppressed it into his divine realm world, using his divine soul thoughts to suppress Yan Wuque's spiritual thoughts.
This battle ended too quickly!
Logically, when two cultivators at the Great Unbound Infinite realm clashed, it often took several days or even months to determine the victor.
After all, neither was an ordinary figure; each had their own trump cards.
Achieving a swift victory was no easy feat.
The Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord and Yan Wuque were considered to be at the same realm. Even with Zhang Ruochen suppressing Yan Wuque, winning so easily still far exceeded Xuanyuan Lian's expectations.
Zhang Ruochen, who knew well how formidable Yan Wuque was, still regarded the Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord with newfound respect.
Having reached the Great Unbound Infinite realm and still possessing such an overwhelming advantage over an opponent at the same level, could it be that his path was a perfected Second-Rank Divine Path?
It must be known that anyone who could cultivate to the Great Unbound Infinite realm was not walking an ordinary Third-Rank Divine Path; almost all had a hint of the essence of a Second-Rank Divine Path. In their youth, among their peers, they were all unparalleled existences.
The Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord dispersed his Dharma Form, returning to normal human size, and looked at Zhang Ruochen descending from the sky, saying, "How did you know he would not self-destruct his divine heart?"
"A person who dares not face the powerful figures of the Hell Realm—how could he have the courage to self-destruct his divine heart? Perhaps he once had ambitions as high as the sky and a spirit that swallowed the four seas, but the older a person gets, the less spirit they have!"
Zhang Ruochen did not believe that Yan Wuque was a member of the Quantity Organization. His failure to support the Kunlun Realm back then was most likely due to fear of figures like Qingtian and Yan Renhuan.
Otherwise, Hao Tian would have dealt with him long ago, rather than leaving him for Zhang Ruochen to handle.
Zhang Ruochen took out a list from his bosom and, using Yan Wuque's blood, drew a red circle around the three words "Array Extermination Palace."
Seeing that Zhang Ruochen did not avoid him, the Imperial Ancestor Divine Lord looked over and noticed that "Space Divine Temple" was conspicuously on the list.
Furthermore, Imperial Dao Great World...
Was also on the list.
(End of this chapter)