Chapter 4063: Kongming Ruins
Once one's cultivation reaches the Indestructible Infinite realm, they become a supreme being within heaven and earth, capable of perfectly concealing their aura within their body and possessing unique insights into the operation of heavenly and earthly rules. Therefore, once one reaches this level, if they choose to hide and reveal no flaws, finding them becomes an exceedingly difficult task.
Attempting to deduce the whereabouts of beings like Bone Yanluo and Jiusi Yitianhuang is nearly impossible. Even Void Heaven, wielding the Celestial Pivot Needle, could not accomplish this, yet he believed Zhang Ruochen had the ability. The First-rank Divine Path is all-powerful. Wuji also represents the infinite.
Xuanyuan Lian, dressed in male attire, handsome and elegant, with joy and expectation shining in her eyes, said, "If Imperial Dust can deduce the positions of Jiusi Yitianhuang and Bone Yanluo, perhaps we can rescue Senior Meng Ge."
"Smack!"
Well Daoist clapped his hands, saying, "Exactly! Meng Ge's cultivation has reached the Heavenly Venerable rank; there's no way he could have been completely refined and obliterated so quickly."
All the cultivators present turned their gazes toward Zhang Ruochen. Among them, Xiang Chunan's eyes were the most fervent, "Big Brother..."
Zhang Ruochen returned a look that said, "Don't worry, I have everything under control," and said, "With the cultivation of Bone Yanluo and Jiusi Yitianhuang, I cannot deduce them either. But they have a huge flaw."
"That flaw is Meng Ge!"
Following Zhang Ruochen's instructions, Xiang Chunan quickly found many old items used by Meng Ge, including a pot of demon blood.
"This pot of blood was left by my master for the children of me and my junior sister, intended for medicinal bath body tempering." Xiang Chunan's voice was low, filled with pain and difficulty.
Because Qingsi Xue was already pregnant.
At such a critical moment, he should have stayed at the Truth Divine Temple, even if it meant dying together in this ruin.
Zhang Ruochen patted his shoulder and took the blood pot.
"Splash!"
Stomping his foot, the Taiji Four Symbols Diagram scene manifested.
On the Shaoyang Divine Mountain, formed by "Truth" and "Sword Dao," Zhang Ruochen set fire to Meng Ge's old items. Then, lifting the Celestial Pivot Needle, he dipped it in blood and sketched Meng Ge's figure in the void.
As Meng Ge was drawn out, Zhang Ruochen pointed a finger, injecting life energy and source power.
The suspended blood lines began to flow, growing tiny blood vessels, and gradually, Meng Ge's body interwove from the blood. It was identical to his true form, as if replicated.
Zhang Ruochen drew a Taiji circle with both hands and asked, "Where are you?"
Meng Ge's body trembled, triggering ripples in the heavenly and earthly rules, spreading through the universe in the form of a Taiji diagram seal.
"Where are you?"
Zhang Ruochen asked again, his voice imbued with powerful spiritual will and truth intent. On the surface, he was asking Meng Ge's false body, but in reality, he was asking heaven and earth.
Well Daoist, seeing no result from the deduction for a long time, sighed, "Even if Meng Ge is still alive, he must be tightly sealed by Jiusi Yitianhuang and Bone Yanluo. It won't be easy to find him."
Panyuan Ancient God said, "I have already summoned Meng Ge's remnant souls hidden in Lihentian, but it failed. Clearly, these remnant souls have been cursed and killed. Jiusi Yitianhuang and Bone Yanluo have been thorough, leaving us no chance to find them."
"Then we can only wait for them to show themselves again?" Feng Yan frowned, worried that Xiang Chunan couldn't handle such a dramatic blow.
"Nonsense! Offend me, and they're dead!"
Void Heaven fiercely punched, shattering space.
"Boom!"
All the space fragments flew like petals, converging in the Void World into a long channel connecting distant star regions.
"Feng Caiyi, give me the *Fate Heavenly Scripture*!"
Void Heaven's divine voice, through the space channel, reached a certain point beyond the universe.
Moments later, six volumes of the *Fate Heavenly Scripture* flew through the space channel, passed Void Heaven, and directly entered Zhang Ruochen's Taiji Four Symbols Diagram scene.
Void Heaven flew in as well, releasing all his spiritual power, transforming into six beams of light that struck the heavenly scriptures.
The six volumes circled around Meng Ge's false body.
Soon, on one of the volumes, Meng Ge's name appeared and flew out like a meteor.
"Found him!"
Void Heaven pointed a finger, splitting open a space path with sword qi, chasing after that volume of the heavenly scripture, disappearing into the Void World.
The other five volumes attached themselves to Void Heaven's body.
Well Daoist, seeing Zhang Ruochen and Panyuan Ancient God unmoved, worriedly said, "Jiusi Yitianhuang and Bone Yanluo are both top-tier experts. Void Old Ghost alone might not be their match."
"Then please, Well Daoist, go and assist him."
Zhang Ruochen stuffed the Celestial Pivot Needle into Well Daoist's hand and pushed him.
Well Daoist's body tilted, and before he could utter a refusal, he sank into a Space Teleportation Array, disappearing from the Truth Heaven Domain.
Panyuan Ancient God, a Half-Ancestor with extraordinary perception, sensed something amiss and said, "Why is there only a trace of Bone Yanluo's heavenly mechanism? Has Jiusi Yitianhuang completely ceded Meng Ge to Bone Yanluo?"
Zhang Ruochen shook his head slightly, "The distance is too great; I can only deduce a vague outline. The true situation is unknown. Perhaps Jiusi Yitianhuang is hiding in the night curtain, or perhaps because Bone Yanluo obtained the main part of Meng Ge, including the Divine Sea and Divine Source, making it easier to deduce. For now, we can only wait for the result."
The gods present understood Zhang Ruochen's intention.
Only by having Void Heaven chase alone would the hidden Jiusi Yitianhuang possibly act, helping Bone Yanluo repel him.
With Zhang Ruochen's space mastery, once Jiusi Yitianhuang was forced out, he could rush over in time.
Soon, in the distant starry sky, Void Heaven's divine power clashed with Bone Yanluo's, releasing brilliant light like a stellar explosion.
The two encountered on a tributary of the Santu River, fighting and moving, shifting positions a hundred billion miles in an instant.
In speed, Void Heaven far surpassed Bone Yanluo.
Bone Yanluo did not want to fight him, fleeing at the first encounter, but could not shake him off, like encountering a stubborn leech.
In the ruins of the Truth Divine Temple, Zhang Ruochen extended two fingers, drawing a Truth Light Mirror.
On the mirror's surface, thousands of sword qi converged, then burst outward like blooming flowers, sending Bone Yanluo flying and shattering sections of the Santu River.
Bone Yanluo was no match for Void Heaven, who had cultivated Sword Twenty-Five, and soon had several bones severed.
Well Daoist, following cautiously behind, muttered complaints, but when he saw the bones fall, he swooped in, picked them up, and sealed them.
Clearly, Void Heaven intended to use the dismemberment method to kill Bone Yanluo.
"Not good! Bone Yanluo, seeking survival through death, is fleeing toward the Eternal Heavenly Kingdom!"
Panyuan Ancient God's eyes gleamed, and his massive body crashed to the right, breaking the world barrier, entering Lihentian to intercept Bone Yanluo.
In Lihentian, the ancestral battle fluctuations in the Formless Realm were still strong and unresolved.
Bone Yanluo knew well the consequences of his exposure. Just the openly visible Void Heaven was already difficult to handle.
Now, only by using the aftermath of the ancestral battle could he intimidate those who wanted to kill him, allowing him to hide again.
This was a very dangerous act; one misstep and he would die in the Formless Realm.
"He threw out the remnants of Senior Meng Ge's body and shattered them, with fragments flying to all directions in the Void World. He is willing to sacrifice, a clever move."
Zhang Ruochen was about to rush into the Void World but sensed that Wen Tianjun had entered first, rescuing Meng Ge.
Void Heaven and Panyuan Ancient God formed a pincer formation, determined to intercept and kill Bone Yanluo before he reached the Formless Realm.
After a moment of thought, Zhang Ruochen chose to stay.
Feng Yan's spirits lifted, "Senior Meng Ge's remnant body still exists, meaning Bone Yanluo hasn't broken his Dao yet. With Wen Tianjun's Half-Ancestor cultivation, he can surely gather all the remnant fragments and help Senior Meng Ge return."
Xuanyuan Lian questioned, "Jiusi Yitianhuang hasn't acted yet, clearly not traveling with Bone Yanluo. Where did he go?"
"To the Wuding Divine Sea."
Just now, Zhang Ruochen received a spiritual will telepathic message from Wu Yue, filling his mind with countless distracting thoughts, and he very much wanted to return to the Sword Realm immediately.
According to Wu Yue's description, Jiusi Yitianhuang's disappearance was too strange.
In the earlier deduction of Meng Ge's heavenly mechanism, no trace of him was found, as if he had never existed in this world.
"What exactly happened?"
Zhang Ruochen murmured to himself, already having no mind to deal with the doomed Bone Yanluo.
Feng Yan asked, "Big Brother, what's wrong? Did something happen in the Sword Realm?"
"Nothing."
Zhang Ruochen quickly composed himself, a sharp gleam in his eyes, "Jiusi Yitianhuang couldn't have completely ceded the Nine-Headed Stone Man substance on Meng Ge to Bone Yanluo. That he could avoid deduction means he must have received protection at the Ancestor level."
"Is there still an Ancestor in the world?"
Xuanyuan Lian was shocked and also weary.
Feng Yan thought of something, "It might not be an Ancestor, but something like an Ancestor Realm."
Zhang Ruochen said, "Could the Nuwa Divine Palace do it?"
Feng Yan nodded deeply.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Hiding within an Ancestor Realm would indeed make deduction more difficult. But there are only so many Ancestor Realms in the universe. The process of going from the Heavenly Court to an Ancestor Realm would leave traces. Yet, I couldn't even find traces of him. If I'm not mistaken..."
He didn't finish his sentence.
Because it involved a true taboo in the universe.
Xuanyuan Lian saw the deep worry in Zhang Ruochen's eyes, "What is Imperial Dust worried about?"
Zhang Ruochen didn't answer her but suddenly asked, "Has Kongming Ruins emerged?"
Kongming Ruins, alongside Dragon Nest, Demon Ancestor Ridge, and Nuwa Divine Palace, were all legendary places.
Legend said it was the place where one of the Nine Great Demon Ancestors, Xuanyuan Xuandi, achieved the Dao, the first ruin of the Ten Thousand Ruins Realm.
Xuanyuan Lian was slightly surprised, not expecting Zhang Ruochen's thoughts to jump so far, asking such a strange question.
The strangeness lay in the fact that whether Kongming Ruins had emerged had no possible connection to Jiusi Yitianhuang's disappearance.
Xuanyuan Lian noticed that the Heavenly Court gods present were more or less paying attention to this side, extremely interested in this secret Zhang Ruochen had asked about.
She released a corner of her Divine Realm World, facing only Zhang Ruochen, "Jiusi Yitianhuang cannot be in Kongming Ruins."
Zhang Ruochen stared into her eyes, "So Kongming Ruins has also come to this era?"
Xuanyuan Lian was puzzled by Zhang Ruochen's phrasing. What did "come to this era" mean?
Kongming Ruins wasn't a living thing.
She said, "The secrets of Kongming Ruins are known to only a few in the entire Xuanyuan Clan. I shouldn't have told you. But since you asked, and I absolutely cannot lie to you... Zhang Ruochen, what exactly do you want to know?"
"Nothing! Knowing that Kongming Ruins has emerged alongside Dragon Nest, Demon Ancestor Ridge, and Nuwa Divine Palace is enough!"
After Zhang Ruochen walked out of Xuanyuan Lian's Divine Realm World, he took Feng Yan and Xiang Chunan away from the Heavenly Court gods, and the three of them ascended Truth Mountain together.
Truth Mountain was located at the center of the Truth Sea.
After the Truth Sea dried up, its bottom was covered with blood, appearing especially red under the setting sun.
Xiang Chunan squatted on the ground, gazing at the starry sky, only hoping his master would return soon without any mishap.
Feng Yan got straight to the point, "Big Brother is looking for the Nether Ancestor? Does Big Brother think Jiusi Yitianhuang's disappearance is related to the Nether Ancestor?"
"How did you guess?"
Zhang Ruochen released the Taiji Four Symbols Diagram Seal, isolating the outside world.
Feng Yan said, "Legend says Xuanyuan Xuandi lived three lives. The first life was Hei Qi, a disciple of the Space-Time Human Ancestor. The second life was Ancestor Jiaye. The third life was the Nether Ancestor. When Big Brother asked Lian Gongzi about Kongming Ruins, weren't you asking about the Nether Ancestor?"
Zhang Ruochen smiled, "Second Brother's insight far surpasses before; you will surely lead the Wind Clan to glory. But legends may not be true; they could be lies deliberately woven by someone to guide the world in the wrong direction. Just like Great Brightness Ma Er and Ancestor Chi, weren't they arranged by some mysterious existence to mislead later generations?"
Feng Yan was puzzled, "Who is arranging this, and why? Is it the Immortal?"
"Since you have found the ultimate secret of Nuwa Divine Palace, you are qualified to know." Zhang Ruochen said solemnly, "What the Immortal fears are only the Nine Great Demon Ancestors of the ancient times. So someone cut off the River of Time to prevent the Demon Ancestors from coming to this era."
"The Demon Ancestors cannot come to this era, but they have sent their power to this era, stored in Nuwa Divine Palace, Dragon Nest, Demon Ancestor Ridge, and possibly Kongming Ruins."
Feng Yan was greatly shaken, "Is Xuanyuan Xuandi also fighting the Nether Ancestor? The past self and the future self clashing? Can the past and future coexist?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if the first life and the third life fought. But for the first life to cross the River of Time and desperately kill his own third life—that makes no sense! Not that it's impossible, but it's unnecessary." Zhang Ruochen said.
Feng Yan said, "Does Big Brother think there is no necessary connection between the Nether Ancestor and Xuanyuan Xuandi, and we have been misled? Is it the Nether Ancestor's doing? Why would He do that?"
"Perhaps He wants to hide better! This is a game of catching ghosts. Whoever can hide to the end might become the final winner. And the person they have cultivated to catch the ghost is me." Zhang Ruochen said.
Feng Yan smiled bitterly, "Big Brother shouldn't have told me these secrets. I feel that those who know will die."
"On the contrary, I think you will be very safe. Anyone who wields the power of the Demon Ancestors is my helper, a tool used by the Immortal to eliminate opponents. We are all in the game, all pawns."
Zhang Ruochen grew more certain of his guess, "Tell me, what is the secret of Nuwa Divine Palace?"
Feng Yan absolutely trusted Zhang Ruochen, bringing him into his Divine Realm World, beneath the magnificent Nuwa Divine Palace.
Five-colored light illuminated heaven and earth, and the shadow of Nuwa stood tall, reaching the sky.
This aura was like a living Ancestor standing before them, full of oppressive force.
Feng Yan and Zhang Ruochen walked side by side on the steps, ascending step by step, "It is the Five-Colored Pool and the Heaven-Mending Battle Soul! When Panyuan Ancient God was injured by the Ancestor Curse Seal, it was in the Five-Colored Pool that he quickly recovered his injuries and battle power."