Chapter 3772: Strange Buddha
A hundred-zhang-long divine ship flew rapidly beneath the starry sky. All around was empty and boundless, cold and pitch-black. Only a faint, dark purple nebula in the distance made the world seem less monotonous and dull. Zhang Ruochen sat inside the divine ship, using the Earth Cauldron to refine all the ancient powerful souls that Feng Tian had given him into soul pills. This naturally included the suppressed Thunder Clan God King, who was also refined and killed, his origin particles condensed into pill form, his life force utterly extinguished.
His state of mind at this moment was so wondrous. God Kings and God Venerables, once unattainably high, turned to ashes in his hands. The ancient powerhouses he had revered, stepping from legend into reality, now vanished like smoke and clouds, leaving no trace in the world. He, Zhang Ruochen, now truly sat gazing upon the starry sky, and everything he did affected the grand scheme of the universe. Yet, he felt no pride or complacency. Instead, he deeply recognized the vastness of heaven and earth and how far he still was from true top-tier experts.
Back when he was in the Saint Realm, he would never have realized this.
At that time, ordinary God Kings and Gods Venerables were no different from the Heavenly Venerables in his eyes—all were the strongest in the world, all were unattainable goals he strived to reach.
Zhang Ruochen had no intention of keeping these soul pills to hand over to Feng Tian. He directly swallowed them all, like eating sugar beans.
Who knew how long it would be before he saw Feng Tian again? He couldn't just keep the soul pills forever—that would be a waste of heavenly treasures.
After the battle in the Wuding Divine Sea, where he withstood the dominating power of the Thunder Punishment Heavenly Venerable and successively fought against Wan Zunzhe, Thunder Ancestor, Feima Wang, and Four Suns Heavenly Lord, Zhang Ruochen had suffered considerable injuries to both his physical body and divine soul. Absorbing the Sixth Patriarch's eighty-three thousand nine hundred and ninety relics, swallowing the pill that the Fierce Huan God Venerable had refined in the Hong Cauldron, hoping to break through to the Indestructible Realm, and gathering a large amount of blood suspected to be from the Nether Ancestor into his body, Zhang Ruochen's physical body was constantly growing. More importantly, most of this energy was still hidden within him, not yet absorbed.
Because of this, his physical injuries had healed in an extremely short time.
Instead, his physical strength showed signs of increasing.
After swallowing the soul pills, the divine Qi in his body circulated on its own. It was as if tens of thousands of Taiji Four Symbols Diagram Seals were spinning within him, absorbing the pill energy at an extraordinary speed. This not only healed his divine soul injuries but also rapidly enhanced the strength of his divine soul.
Zhang Ruochen held the Half-Ancestor Divine Source of the Black Tortoise True Ancestor in his palm, strands of icy water vapor flowing around his arm. He suppressed the urgent desire to cultivate the Way of Water of the Five Elements, silently warning himself that haste makes waste. The various energies and pill Qi boiling within him still needed a long time to digest, along with comprehending how to apply his current power at higher realm levels.
Zhang Ruochen put away the Half-Ancestor Divine Source.
To quickly succeed in cultivating the Indestructible Dharma Body and perfect the Five Elements, he would still need to rely on the Sundial.
With the Thunder Clan's destruction, the cosmic situation would only become more complex. However, if the Thunder Punishment Heavenly Venerable had not died and had escaped from Hao Tian and Nu Tian Shenzun, then the battle in the Wuding Divine Sea would have been a wasted effort, and the Thunder Clan would surely make a comeback. Moreover, any cultivator who participated in the Wuding Divine Sea battle would face the most ferocious and cruel retaliation.
The Thunder Ancestor, taken away by the Green Deer God King, was also a major variable. "Forget it. Let Hao Tian, Nu Tian Shenzun, and Void Heaven worry about these matters. Since the Green Deer God King made a move, the three giants of the Destiny Temple will surely visit him. For now, finding Xiu Chen and the Sundial is the top priority."
Zhang Ruochen had already changed his appearance. He wore a green Buddhist robe, looked about fifty years old, with a few wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. His demeanor was calm, but a sharp edge lurked in his eyes.
He did this because Hao Tian was not currently in the real world, and the Heavenly Court Universe might not be safe.
Carrying numerous treasures, chief among them the four cauldrons, people like Murong Buhuo, Chongming Laozu, and Xuan Yuan Taizhen might very well make a move against him.
Moreover, the Qishier Pin Lian had not shown herself yet. She had tried to kill Zhang Ruochen several times before. How could he dare to swagger around openly?
The mysterious cultivator who had attacked Xiu Chen and the Sundial was still unknown. The other party might be using this as a means to lure Zhang Ruochen into a trap.
If so, Zhang Ruochen needed to be even more cautious.
With the subtlety of Zhang Ruochen's Wuji Divine Dao, combined with the concealment of the Way of Truth and the Way of Origin, he was fully confident that as long as he didn't appear right under their noses, he could absolutely fool them.
The reason he transformed into a Buddhist monk was that Zhang Ruochen could not yet perfectly hide the Buddhist aura of the Sixth Patriarch's relics within him.
Zhang Ruochen refined the Gui Ruler.
The artifact spirit within the ruler was still weak, not yet reaching the God Realm, so taming it was not difficult.
Just as Zhang Ruochen was about to study the Ten-Wheel Golden Crow Great Sun Star, his connection with Xiu Chen Heavenly God suddenly weakened significantly, becoming faint and barely perceptible. He could only roughly determine a direction.
"The Sundial really has been suppressed. Xiu Chen didn't escape? It should have been sealed, which is why my connection with her suddenly weakened."
Zhang Ruochen actually felt a hint of joy, because this indicated that the one suppressing Xiu Chen Heavenly God was definitely not Murong Buhuo. The other party didn't have the ability to break Xiu Chen's spiritual will in a short time and had to resort to sealing.
Or perhaps, the other party had more important things to do and chose to temporarily seal her.
Of course, there was another possibility: the other party deliberately didn't break Xiu Chen Heavenly God's spiritual will and Dao, didn't sever the master-artifact connection between her and Zhang Ruochen, in order to lure him in.
Zhang Ruochen immediately thought of several counter-strategies. Among them, there was no thought of returning to the Kunlun Realm to seek help from his Grandmaster, who was in seclusion healing. First, he was worried about running into Murong Buhuo. Second, it was his own pride. Now that he possessed the strength to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Heavenly Venerables, even if he encountered greater difficulties, he should first exhaust all his own efforts to solve them.
He had reached a level where he needed to hold up a piece of heaven for more people himself.
"Oh?"
Zhang Ruochen's eyes lit up as he looked toward the distant dark purple nebula.
The nebula was immeasurably vast, not a vacuum, but densely filled with exotic spiritual Qi and countless dust particles and asteroids. Among them were also blazing, fierce stars and some larger life-bearing planets.
Within the nebula, a mysterious convoy, wrapped in a concealment divine formation, flew rapidly toward Zhang Ruochen's direction.
The two leading vehicles were enormous, hundreds of meters high, like small mountains.
The one on the left carried a nine-story white pagoda. The one on the right carried layers of divine bones, which formed an altar, atop which sat a black palace. Both the divine bone altar and the black palace were engraved with formation inscriptions, capable of unleashing devastating formation attacks in an instant.
These seemed like two groups from different factions!
Their concealment divine formation, at this distance, could not fool Zhang Ruochen's eyes; he could see right through it.
But at this distance, if Zhang Ruochen tried to change direction, he would definitely be detected by the other party.
Zhang Ruochen didn't want to cause trouble. He pretended not to see them, letting his divine ship continue on its original course and speed.
Since the other party was using a concealment formation, they clearly had some secret they didn't want to reveal and were going to do something secretive. They probably didn't want to cause trouble either.
The divine ship and the convoy gradually approached. Just as they were about to pass each other, separated by several thousand li—
"Ao!"
A painful, long roar came from the nine-story white pagoda, its sound waves spreading through the void.
"That voice... Chi Xingtian?"
Zhang Ruochen was greatly surprised.
Chi Xingtian was clearly stationed in the Cha Realm. How could he be here? And his voice was so pained and sorrowful, clearly in a very bad situation.
After the death of the Fengxian Sect Leader, the Dragon Lord and Qiangu Nüdi had personally gone to the Cha Realm to cleanse it, killing ninety percent of the most heretical cultivators. None of the Fengxian Sect's cultivators above the Infinite Realm had survived.
As for the other two ancient sects in the Cha Realm, they had directly announced the sealing of their mountains, clearly avoiding the edge of Zhang Ruochen and the Dragon Lord, not daring to confront the Kunlun Realm. Besides these three sects, who in the Cha Realm could be Chi Xingtian's opponent?
If Chi Xingtian had been captured, then the Eight-Winged Night Shuttle Dragon and Yu Cangsheng, who were also stationed in the Cha Realm, must be in a very bad situation too.
Furthermore, Zhuo Fang and Qing Su, who were responsible for hunting down the remnants of the Fengxian Sect, were also in great danger.
A cold gleam flashed in Zhang Ruochen's eyes. He was about to make a move to suppress these people and clear up his doubts.
But the other party struck first!
"Whoosh!"
Six bright divine chains flew out from the convoy, crossing several thousand li, and wrapped around the divine ship beneath Zhang Ruochen.
Because the convoy was equipped with a concealment formation, these six divine chains seemed to appear out of thin air.
Clearly, the other party thought their tracks had been exposed and wanted to suppress Zhang Ruochen or silence him.
Zhang Ruochen narrowed his eyes, suppressed his aura, and held back the urge to act immediately.
Since the other party was so afraid of information leaking, why not play along and see what they were up to?
Besides, if he acted now, he would inevitably expose his aura, ruining everything and gaining nothing.
Zhang Ruochen didn't use his Truth Divine Eye. After his divine ship was pulled into the concealment formation by the six divine chains, he finally saw clearly that the ones attacking him were six Buddhist cultivators.
Three men and three women. The three male monks were all at the Great God realm, each dressed in white like snow, with Buddhist rings behind their heads, brows like green peaks, and eyes like abysses, yet their temperaments were all different. Beneath their outward holiness, Zhang Ruochen detected a strange evil aura, completely unlike any Buddhist cultivator he had met before.
The three female Buddhist cultivators were also Great Gods, but unlike Jue Miao Chan Nu, they cultivated with their hair still grown. One of them was even an Elf.
All three female Buddhist cultivators possessed breathtaking beauty and a holy, jade-like aura. They held Buddhist seals with fingers like orchids, and Buddhist chants of pure mind and clear thoughts constantly surrounded them, with golden Buddhist rain falling above their heads. However, their attire was exceptionally revealing. They only covered their chests and crotches with silk gauze embroidered with Sanskrit characters. Their long, snow-white arms and legs, slender jade necks, and sexy collarbones were all exposed. Even the plump shape of their chests under the gauze was partially visible, with clear cleavage.
Their slender, graspable waists and the navels on their bellies were full of graceful lines and seductive allure. Small, exquisite golden Buddhist rings hung from their navels.
How could these be Buddhist cultivators?
But their aura was undoubtedly that of Buddhist cultivators.
...
Actually, I didn't want to write about the Life Ancestor so soon, but the foreshadowing for Gong Nanfeng has been buried for too long. If I don't write it now, everyone will almost forget this character. In fact, at least three foreshadowing points were laid earlier. The most obvious one should be the chapter where Gong Nanfeng tells Zhang Ruochen that he is the artifact spirit of the Celestial Pivot Needle. Classmates who have forgotten can go back and take a look. (Chapter 2491, Righteous and Upright)