Chapter 3748: The Celestial Orchid Emerges
Qishier Pin Lian immediately withdrew the divine thought locked onto Zhang Ruochen and became vigilant.
A wide Nether River condensed around her, flowing through the seventy-two petal worlds, forming a third layer of defensive power.
Void Heaven cultivated the Way of Nothingness and the Sword Dao, excelling at concealment and assassination. This was completely different from a frontal confrontation and extremely difficult to guard against.
Not to mention Qishier Pin Lian, even Heavenly Venerable-level beings would find it very troublesome and had to be on high alert.
No one knew where he would hide, no one knew when he would strike, but no one could remain vigilant against him forever. One could guard for a hundred years, a thousand years, but not for ten thousand years, not for an Eon.
For this reason, in the eyes of Heavenly Venerable-level beings, Void Heaven was even more troublesome than other Heavenly Venerables.
Hidden within Buzhou Mountain, Jing Daoren was greatly alarmed and pressed himself even more cautiously to the ground.
Xu Fengjin was proficient in the Ways of Truth, Nothingness, and Fate simultaneously, and his spiritual power was flawless like a perfect circle. In terms of perception, he was definitely above Feng Caiyi and Qishier Pin Lian.
Who could hide right under his nose?
Jing Daoren had no confidence in this and strongly suspected he had already been exposed.
Just as he slowly moved, intending to retreat, Xu Fengjin's voice rang out in his mind: "Second, if you dare to go out and tip them off, don't blame me for not remembering old ties."
"Second" was the nickname Void Heaven had given Jing Daoren back in the day.
Jing Daoren was speechless, gritting his teeth as he pressed himself to the ground.
He had been discovered indeed!
What rotten luck. How did that old lecher Xu Fengjin end up in the Heavenly Court too?
Was there no justice? Was there no order?
Back when Xu Fengjin was cultivating at the Truth Divine Temple, Jing Daoren had been tricked by him too many times and had taken the blame for many things, ruining his reputation. Yet, ironically, those old-timer God Kings and God Venerables of the Heavenly Court thought he and Xu Fengjin were close friends, birds of a feather with the same hobbies. Many matters were kept from him, for fear he would collude with Xu Fengjin.
It was hard for him to explain, because the Horizontal-Vertical Way he cultivated had indeed incorporated the Way of Nothingness, and he had received guidance from Xu Fengjin.
There was no choice. After the war between the Heavenly Court and the Hell Realm began, Jing Daoren followed the advice of the Temple Master, kept a low profile, and stayed in the Five Elements Temple to cultivate and teach his disciples.
Three hundred thousand years had passed. Aside from the older generation of deities, very few cultivators knew of Jing Daoren.
The Space Divine Temple Hall Master looked around, releasing his spiritual power outward without finding anything unusual. He said, "Is Feng Caiyi just bluffing? If Xu Fengjin has also come to Buzhou Mountain, who is guarding the Destiny Temple?"
Among the ancient Space Divine Temple Hall Masters who had crawled out of the cemetery, there was one old man whose physical body was severely decayed, almost rotten to a skeleton. But his talisman robe was pure white and flawless, emitting a shimmering glow.
He was the Formation Supreme who had left many divine formations in the Space Divine Temple, the strongest being of the Space Divine Temple over ten million years ago in the ancient era. His spiritual power had once reached the ninety-third rank. If it weren't for the existence of figures like the Second Confucian Ancestor and Xi Zhan in the same era, he would have surely become the Heavenly Venerable of that age.
Unfortunately, his peak was long gone. The spiritual power fluctuations he now emitted were only on par with Yu Jingzhen.
This former Formation Supreme was named Wan Qi, also known as "Qi Supreme" in that era. He said, "Feng Caiyi is trying to buy time to master the power of the Death Overlord more quickly. We cannot let her succeed, or today we will have no choice but to withdraw from Buzhou Mountain!"
Qi Supreme's withered fingers formed a seal, activating the ancient formations he had set up back then. Instantly, the entire Buzhou Mountain burst into flames.
Flames surged endlessly from the soil.
In the void, pitch-black spatial rifts flashed continuously, as if split open by divine swords.
In terms of formation control, he was more than a notch above Yu Jingzhen. The power of the ancient formations was steadily increasing. If Feng Tian hadn't been standing at the front, Zhang Ruochen would have definitely pulled Dragon Lord and Moon God to flee immediately.
Facing the remnant soul of a Formation Supreme, who also wielded a killing formation from his lifetime, anyone below Indestructible Infinite would be like an egg striking a stone.
The Gate of Destiny floating above Feng Tian's head transformed into the Gate of Death. Death Qi surged, and a cold wind howled.
A terrifying aura spread through everyone's hearts.
Every cultivator present could feel their life force draining away at an accelerated pace. This included Qishier Pin Lian!
Facing over fifty percent of the Death Esoterica, facing the Death Overlord, there was almost no power that could resist, not even order itself.
One could imagine that if a deity of insufficient cultivation were too close, they wouldn't even need Feng Tian to act. The aura emanating from her alone would be enough to kill them.
The light in Feng Tian's pupils shifted continuously, eventually turning gray.
"Whoosh!"
She swung her arm, and the Fengmu Divine Flame surged forth, turning into a sky-covering wave of fire. It shattered the formation inscription patterns blocking the way and clashed head-on with the seventy-two petal worlds manifested by Qishier Pin Lian.
The next moment, Feng Tian's true form charged out from within the Fengmu Divine Flame, using the Gate of Death to press down heavily.
"Boom!"
The seventy-two petal worlds sank downward, crushing a large section of Buzhou Mountain.
The eternally unyielding mountain body was now continuously sinking and collapsing.
"Bang! Bang!"
Countless spatial secret realms, spatial barriers, and chaotic spaces within Buzhou Mountain were shattered by this strike. It was as if the entire universe was on the verge of destruction.
Qishier Pin Lian raised her right arm, and the Four Directions Universe Seal in her palm flew out, attempting to shatter the Gate of Death.
Around the Gate of Death, six volumes of the "Fate Heavenly Scripture" flew in a circle. The power emitted by the gate and the books continuously suppressed and weakened Qishier Pin Lian's cultivation. Even the Nether River flowing around her gradually became faint and ethereal.
Feng Tian's flowing hair shimmered with colorful radiance. Holding the Auspicious Ruyi, she struck down with a heavy blow.
Qishier Pin Lian immediately manifested the Eight Phases of Nether Law. The figure of the Nether Ancestor emerged behind her, and beneath her feet appeared a netherworld of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Towering nether cities rose from the nether soil...
"Boom!"
The collision of this strike sent everyone flying backward.
Zhang Ruochen activated the three cauldrons to protect himself, standing in front of A Fuya, Dragon Lord, and Moon God. He barely avoided injury, but it was not pleasant. The blood Qi in his body felt as if it were about to explode.
"Their combat power has already reached the peak of Indestructible Infinite. Even Buzhou Mountain might be leveled. We should leave quickly. This is no longer a battlefield we can meddle in!" Dragon Lord said rationally.
"Buzhou Mountain is known as the number one divine mountain of the Heavenly Court, unshaken for eons. It has survived Half-Ancestor-level divine battles intact. The space here is special, with countless barriers. A single step can span ten thousand miles. We just need to retreat a bit further. There's no need to worry too much."
It was A Fuya who said this.
Zhang Ruochen was secretly surprised and looked at her.
Why had A Fuya suddenly become so fearless?
"Have you smelled it? The faint fragrance of orchids, pleasant and lingering, seems to be coming from the cemetery at the mountaintop." Moon God raised her head, gazing at the highest point of the mountain.
At this moment, the successive Hall Masters of the Space Divine Temple had all retreated to that cemetery.
In the cemetery, graves as towering as divine mountains all emitted dazzling divine light, rising as wisps of colorful glow.
It didn't look like a graveyard but rather like a star sea fallen to the ground.
A Fuya's red lips were crystalline. "It's the aura of the Celestial Orchid! A great opportunity lies right before us. If we retreat now, we will regret it for life."
"Rumble!"
The battlefield between Qishier Pin Lian and Feng Tian was where the Space Golden Soup had once been located. There, golden mist filled the air, and every wisp of golden mist transformed into a boundless chaotic space.
That golden, hazy small world of the battlefield had become a death zone, blocking the path for Zhang Ruochen and the others to ascend to the cemetery.
"Whoosh!"
The black clouds in the sky turned purple, and crystalline light-rain petals drifted down.
The fragrance of orchids grew even stronger.
Deep within the cemetery, towering orchid leaves that reached into the clouds pulled away, growing straight toward the sky.
At the center of the emerald-jade-like leaves, a purple orchid bud gradually unfurled its petals. The fragrance was sweet, and the stamen was like a dragon.
The successive Hall Masters of the Space Divine Temple all gathered beneath the gradually opening orchid, absorbing the pollen falling from the petals. Their decaying bodies were continuously restoring their divinity, as if they were returning to their former peak.
A small amount of pollen also drifted down to where Zhang Ruochen and the others were. After A Fuya absorbed it, she felt her originally chaotic and blurry remnant soul becoming clearer. She recalled many Dao methods and many insights from her past life as an Ancestor.
After Zhang Ruochen absorbed the pollen, he gained new understandings of the Wuji Divine Dao and various divine abilities.
Just absorbing a bit of pollen brought such benefits. One could imagine what level of cultivation one could reach by taking the entire Purple Heart Celestial Orchid!
This was indeed a great opportunity worth risking one's life to seize.
A Fuya, holding the Yellow Stone Divine Staff, charged forward. But as soon as she reached the edge of the battlefield between Qishier Pin Lian and Feng Tian, she was struck by a golden Buddhist force and sent flying back.
Zhang Ruochen used the Taiji Four Symbols Diagram Seal to catch her.
He noticed that her skin, as white as porcelain, had developed countless cracks. Blood flowed down her hands and legs, soaking the soil beneath her feet.
"There really is a Purple Heart Celestial Orchid, and it's about to mature, very soon! Haha, excellent! With this divine medicine, I will surely advance my cultivation further and reach the Heavenly Venerable level."
Void Heaven was ecstatic, laughing wildly. He could no longer hide. Flying out from Xiao Hei's Divine Realm World, he shot straight toward the cemetery at the top of Buzhou Mountain.
"Whoosh!"
Qishier Pin Lian broke free from Feng Tian, turning into a beam of light that shot into the sky. She blocked Void Heaven's path and exchanged a palm strike with him.
Both of them were sent flying backward.
Qishier Pin Lian landed at the edge of the cemetery, graceful and elegant, her long hair like a waterfall. Her gaze was sharp, and she looked down at Void Heaven with contempt. "The Purple Heart Celestial Orchid is my tool for breaking through to the next realm. Who dares to lay a finger on it?"
Void Heaven retreated a hundred miles before stabilizing himself in the void, laughing heartily. "Kong Fannin, with your talent back then, I thought if you were still alive, you would have surely reached the Half-Ancestor realm. I didn't expect you to still be at the peak of Indestructible Infinite. It seems the soul-snatching body swap and the Withering Death Art have greatly affected your cultivation progress! Since we're at the same level, why are you so arrogant?"
Qishier Pin Lian said, "At the same level, I claim to be number one. Who dares to disagree? You, Xu Fengjin, are not even a match for Xumi. How can you be my enemy?"
"I may have lost to you by a hair back then, but now, who knows?"
Void Heaven's expression gradually turned serious. He had also lived through that era and knew that Kong Fannin had never been defeated at the same level. Figures like Xumi, Haotian, Heavenly Mother, and Kong Fannu were all unparalleled geniuses of their generation, often stepping on and killing enemies across multiple realms. But none of them had ever defeated her at the same level.
Void Heaven pondered his strategy, then suddenly thought of something and sneered, "You still have the nerve to mention Xumi? Why don't you dare to say his name before he became a monk? His life was ruined by you."
(Chapter End)