Chapter 482: Breaking Through a Realm
“Fat cat, you... what are you doing?”
Ao Xinyan clenched her teeth, speaking coldly.
Xiao Hei refined a cyan-green spiritual herb into a thumb-sized blob of medicinal liquid, applied it to the wound, and chuckled, “Of course I’m healing your injuries. If it weren’t for this cat finding a thousand-year-old Green Bodhi Herb in the Wood Essence Ruins Realm and using it on you, do you think you’d still be alive?”
“Why didn’t you just let me die?” Ao Xinyan said.
Xiao Hei immediately grew displeased, “This cat has always eaten people, rarely saved them, precisely to avoid meeting someone like you. I finally had a rare moment of kindness to save your life, and you still want to die?”
Ao Xinyan’s eyes flashed with despair, “My martial body is already shattered. Even if my injuries heal, I’ll be a cripple. What’s the point of living?”
“Who told you you’d definitely become a cripple?” Xiao Hei rolled his eyes.
Ao Xinyan, like a drowning person grasping at a lifeline, felt hope rekindle in her heart, “Can you help me recover from my injuries?”
“Of course, don’t you see what kind of existence this cat is? But I’ll need to borrow Zhang Ruochen’s Dragon Pearl. Using the Dragon Pearl to nurture a half-dragon body might even raise a true dragon.” Xiao Hei cackled.
“Tap, tap.”
Outside the tree hollow, light footsteps sounded.
Then, a woman’s voice came, “A cat that can not only set up formations but also refine medicine and heal wounds—truly a rare breed. How about you come with me from now on?”
“Someone caught up this fast?”
Xiao Hei shook his head, feeling unlucky. He wrapped Ao Xinyan’s robes around her, then walked out of the tree hollow at a leisurely pace.
The air carried a faint, delicate fragrance.
Not far away, a young woman draped in thin red gauze sat weightlessly on an extremely thin branch. Her long, jade-like legs dangled, and she smiled playfully at the black cat emerging from the hollow.
This woman was none other than the Red Desire Star Envoy from the Black Market First Class Hall.
Xiao Hei glanced at her, “Girl, how did you find this place?”
“Girl?”
The Red Desire Star Envoy’s slender brows furrowed slightly, then she laughed, “A little cat dares to call me a girl? Hehe, you’ve got some personality. I’m liking you more and more.”
Xiao Hei snorted coldly, “If you want to seduce someone, go find Zhang Ruochen. This cat isn’t interested in you.”
“Zhang Ruochen and Pei Ji are still locked in a life-or-death battle. Our Black Market First Class Hall’s experts have already gone there. When they’ve both worn each other out, we’ll take them both down at once,” the Red Desire Star Envoy said with a smile.
In truth, the Black Market First Class Hall had been hiding in the shadows earlier, watching from afar as the three great Saintly Clan factions besieged Zhang Ruochen and Ao Xinyan.
When Zhang Ruochen and Pei Ji clashed, the Orange Moon Star Envoy led eighteen Crystal Knights to follow them, waiting for both to be weakened before striking.
As for the Red Desire Star Envoy, she had tailed Xiao Hei and Ao Xinyan all the way here.
The Red Desire Star Envoy smiled coquettishly, “Little cat, tell me, what exactly is Zhang Ruochen doing in the Wood Essence Ruins Realm? I have a Hundred Beast Star Pill here that I might reward you with.”
Saying this, she took a grain-sized beast-patterned pill from her jade belt, pinching it between two fingers.
A sixth-grade pill, the Hundred Beast Star Pill, could help barbarian beasts improve their physique and even increase their rank. Thus, it was quite a valuable treasure.
Even from over ten zhang away, a rich medicinal fragrance wafted over.
Xiao Hei didn’t even glance at the pill, saying lazily, “Zhang Ruochen came to the Wood Essence Ruins Realm for something important, of course.”
“What important thing?”
The Red Desire Star Envoy’s eyes lit up as she pressed.
“Do you think I’d tell you?” Xiao Hei rolled his eyes.
“Hmph, hmph.”
The Red Desire Star Envoy curled her lips, smiled, and extended a delicate jade hand. Her five slender, graceful fingers moved rapidly, forming countless hand shadows.
With a swoosh, pink light threads flew from her fingertips.
Faint, barely visible light strands spread out, weaving through the forest for dozens of zhang, forming a net. Without careful observation, these threads were invisible.
Xiao Hei rolled his eyes again, “Little girl, your illusion techniques couldn’t even fool Zhang Ruochen. You think they’ll work on this cat?”
“Shua!”
Xiao Hei’s eyes turned cold, his tail tucked in, and he charged forward, turning into a streak of black shadow. In a flash, he reached the Red Desire Star Envoy.
He extended a sharp claw wrapped in electric light, aiming for her neck.
“Crackle!”
Xiao Hei’s claw scraped against the air, leaving three meter-long electric claw marks.
Startled, the Red Desire Star Envoy immediately used her movement technique, leaping from the branch as a red phantom, landing several zhang away on the ground.
With a tearing sound, Xiao Hei’s claw ripped a layer of red gauze from her body. The powerful electric force shredded the gauze into fragments, turning them into black smoke and dust.
But the Red Desire Star Envoy, now standing on the ground, still had a layer of red gauze covering her exquisite figure, seemingly unharmed. She said coldly, “Impressive. A cat can also block my illusions.”
The Red Desire Star Envoy lightly flicked her sleeve, lifted off the ground, and flew toward the tree hollow.
“Not good, she’s after that half-dragon body.” Xiao Hei immediately gave chase.
Ao Xinyan’s half-dragon body was quite rare. Xiao Hei was still planning to help her forge a true dragon body, so he couldn’t let the Red Desire Star Envoy kill her now.
The Red Desire Star Envoy carried Ao Xinyan out of the tree hollow and swiftly flew into the distance, leaving a trail of fragrant breeze.
“Little girl, what exactly are you doing?”
Xiao Hei pursued closely behind the Red Desire Star Envoy, somewhat annoyed.
The Red Desire Star Envoy laughed, “Zhang Ruochen has already saved her twice. Of course, I’m taking her away to see if he’ll come save her a third time.”
Xiao Hei and the Red Desire Star Envoy, one after the other, turned into two shadows, flashing rapidly through the jungle like ghosts.
In the distance, Pei Ji stood on a cliff edge, his pupils turning blood-red. Watching the chase a hundred li away, he muttered to himself, “The Red Desire Star Envoy has taken Ao Xinyan. Fine, let the Black Market First Class Hall lure Zhang Ruochen out first. Let them fight until both are weakened, then I’ll come out to clean up.”
Pei Ji knew that with his strength, he could defeat Zhang Ruochen but couldn’t kill him.
So, he shared the same idea as the Black Market First Class Hall: let the other side deal with Zhang Ruochen first, while he stayed in the shadows to reap the benefits.
...
Inside the Time-Space Crystal’s inner space, six days had passed.
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged at the center of the space, completely enveloped by Azure Void True Qi. The true qi grew denser and denser, so thick it seemed to turn liquid, then from liquid to solid.
At a glance, Zhang Ruochen looked like he was frozen inside a spherical piece of jade, his body slowly rotating.
He took a deep breath, and a loud sound erupted from within his body, as if breaking through some bottleneck. Instantly, the surrounding true qi surged toward him continuously.
“Crack!”
At the riverbed, a crack appeared on the surface of the Time-Space Crystal.
Then, more and more cracks spread across the crystal, extending like a spiderweb.
With a bang, the Time-Space Crystal exploded, turning into countless specks of light that shot out in all directions like rays.
Suddenly, the specks of light converged again, flying into the center and into Zhang Ruochen’s brow.
Zhang Ruochen stood at the riverbed, his Space Domain naturally spreading out, withstanding the immense water pressure and pushing the river aside, forming a space ten zhang in diameter.
“The energy contained in the Time-Space Crystal has finally been completely depleted and vanished. But after absorbing that residual Time-Space power, my understanding of space seems to have improved a bit.”
Since arriving eight hundred years later, Zhang Ruochen had carried the Time-Space Crystal with him. It was precisely because of this treasure that he had been able to catch up to the top geniuses in just a few years and reach his current realm.
Now, the Time-Space Crystal’s energy was exhausted, and it had disappeared.
Though Zhang Ruochen felt some emotion, he wasn’t disappointed or panicked.
The Time-Space Crystal was, after all, just an auxiliary cultivation treasure. The essence of cultivation lay in cultivating one’s own power. Overemphasizing the superficial at the expense of the fundamental wasn’t a good thing.
Zhang Ruochen closed his eyes, carefully sensing the space power he had just comprehended, digesting it.
Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. He extended a finger and pointed forward: “Space Collapse.”
“Boom!”
Twenty zhang away, space violently shook, then rapidly collapsed. It was as if the entire world had shattered—heaven and earth trembled, and spiritual energy became chaotic.
“Rustle!”
The river was fifty zhang wide.
The water was deep and the current swift.
But now, a massive whirlpool appeared at the river’s center. The turbulent waves madly surged toward the whirlpool’s core.
In moments, all the river water was swallowed by the collapsing space, revealing the dry riverbed, creating a stunning scene of the river’s flow being cut off.
Zhang Ruochen used Space Teleportation, his legs moving slightly. In the next instant, he crossed several dozen zhang and stood on the riverbank.
The collapsed space quickly returned to calm.
“Rumble!”
The upstream water surged like a giant wave, flooding back, restoring the river to its original state.
“Such a powerful Space Collapse. If I use this move, even if Pei Ji’s speed is unmatched, he won’t be able to escape.”
Space Collapse was the true killing move. In terms of power, it was far stronger than Space Rift.
As Zhang Ruochen’s cultivation deepened, the power of this move would become even more terrifying.