# Chapter 597: Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm, Seventh Palm
"Dragon's Calamity."
Zhang Ruochen lowered his center of gravity, mobilized his true qi, and golden light radiated from his five fingers. He suddenly struck forward, unleashing the sixth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm.
In an instant, crackling sounds erupted from his palm, and a massive dragon shadow flew forth.
"Boom!"
The Artifact Soldier stood motionless in place, while Zhang Ruochen was sent flying backward, crashing down dozens of zhang away. He retreated another dozen or so steps before finally stabilizing himself.
Zhang Ruochen felt as if his right arm was about to shatter from the pain. If he hadn't already reached the "Bone Refined to Jade" realm—possessing immense strength and rock-hard bones—his arm might have been crippled.
"What formidable power, comparable to the full-force strike of an ordinary Fish-Dragon Ninth Transformation cultivator."
Zhang Ruochen executed a Spatial Displacement, his figure flickering as he crossed space and reappeared before the Artifact Soldier.
With his hands clasped behind his back, he appraised the steel giant before him with considerable amazement.
If just a single Artifact Soldier was this terrifying, how horrifying would it be to forge an entire army of Artifact Soldiers?
However, the materials used to create Artifact Soldiers were extremely special, and the inscriptions carved within them were incredibly complex. Refining them was certainly no easy task.
Forging even one would likely require enormous resources.
The Artifact Soldier said, "I just now used only one-tenth of my power. If I were to use full strength, even against a Fish-Dragon Ninth Variation Saintly Body, I could exchange three to five moves."
Zhang Ruochen was slightly startled. "An Artifact Soldier can withstand a Fish-Dragon Ninth Variation Saintly Body?"
A Fish-Dragon Ninth Variation Saintly Body was considered the most powerful existence below the Half-Saint level.
A single Fish-Dragon Ninth Variation Saintly Body could easily defeat dozens of Fish-Dragon Ninth Variation cultivators.
Unless a Half-Saint appeared, no one could oppose them.
For example, in the internal struggle between Red Desire Star Envoy and Di Yi, no matter how both sides recruited forces, the upper echelons of the Black Market could turn a blind eye.
The only thing they absolutely could not tolerate was Half-Saints interfering.
This wasn't just true for the Black Market—across the entire Kunlun Realm, succession struggles among major powers' heirs also forbade Half-Saint involvement.
Therefore, in succession battles, a Fish-Dragon Ninth Variation Saintly Body or a peak forty-fourth-order Spiritual Power Master was like a nuclear weapon, capable of determining victory or defeat.
Why did Red Desire Star Envoy go to such lengths to recruit Zhang Ruochen?
Because Zhang Ruochen was a forty-fourth-order Spiritual Power Master. Given time, he would become one of the most top-tier existences below the Half-Saint level. Even if he couldn't match a Fish-Dragon Ninth Variation Saintly Body, he could at least contend with a Fish-Dragon Ninth Variation Star Envoy.
The Artifact Soldier said, "The Imperial Court once conducted an experiment. Four Artifact Soldiers, each wielding a Hundred-Pattern Sacred Artifact and arranged in a battle formation, could trap and kill a Fish-Dragon Ninth Variation Saintly Body."
"Four Artifact Soldiers? Forget it. Artifact Soldiers are forbidden weapons of the Imperial Court. For Senior Brother to give me one is already a violation of military law. If he gave me four, even if Senior Brother were the War Saint, he would probably face punishment." Zhang Ruochen said with a smile.
Although an Artifact Soldier couldn't match a Fish-Dragon Ninth Variation Saintly Body, it was still the most powerful war tool below the Saintly Body level.
Suddenly, the flames in the Artifact Soldier's eye sockets extinguished, and it became completely still.
"What's happening?"
Upon closer inspection, Zhang Ruochen realized that the spirit crystal in the groove on the Artifact Soldier's chest had been depleted.
"Just one punch at one-tenth power exhausted a top-grade spirit crystal. This consumes too many resources. It seems I really would need sacred stones to sustain an Artifact Soldier through a battle."
Zhang Ruochen only had a single sacred stone on him, and he couldn't bear to use it.
Since he already understood the Artifact Soldier's general strength, there was no need to continue testing it with sacred stones.
Zhang Ruochen put the Artifact Soldier away and muttered to himself, "The Artifact Soldier only used one-tenth of its power and still managed to lightly injure me with one blow. It seems I'll need to master the seventh palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm before I can go head-to-head with the Artifact Soldier at one-tenth power."
Zhang Ruochen had already analyzed that his defeat wasn't due to insufficient cultivation but rather inadequate martial technique.
He had only reached the sixth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm, which ranked this top-tier palm technique at the Spirit-level Upper Grade.
If he could master the seventh palm, he could elevate the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm to the Ghost-level Lower Grade, and the entire technique's power would increase by an entire tier.
The Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm was the number one palm technique of the Ten Thousand Buddha Path—supremely yang, supremely rigid, with overwhelming power.
However, despite the Ten Thousand Buddha Path producing countless geniuses, those who could cultivate the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm to the seventh palm or beyond were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.
One reason was that reaching the seventh palm caused the yang energy within the body to surge tenfold compared to normal.
Reaching the eighth palm would increase it another tenfold.
By this logic, monks who could cultivate the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm to the tenth palm or beyond had been extremely rare throughout history.
It was said that six hundred years ago, the Ten Thousand Buddha Path produced a peerless genius who miraculously cultivated the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm to the eleventh palm.
Just as his technique was perfected, he couldn't suppress the yang energy within his body. His entire body spontaneously combusted, and he nearly died. In the end, no one knew what evil technique he cultivated to suppress the yang energy and save his life.
But because of this, he became a traitor to the Ten Thousand Buddha Path, fell into the demonic path, and declared himself "Dead Zen Ancestor."
For these reasons, even though the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm was called the number one palm technique of the Ten Thousand Buddha Path, few people practiced it. Not only was cultivation difficult, but a single misstep could cost one their life.
"The seventh palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm is called 'Dragon-Elephant Divine Furnace.' It's the watershed of the entire technique. Countless people cultivate their entire lives without mastering the seventh palm. But once mastered, the yang energy in the body increases tenfold, and the palm technique's power reaches an entirely new level."
Even with the tragic lesson of the Dead Zen Evil Monk before him, Zhang Ruochen showed no fear and unhesitatingly began cultivating the seventh palm.
What the Dead Zen Evil Monk couldn't achieve, Zhang Ruochen might not necessarily fail to accomplish.
To cultivate the seventh palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm, one had to go to a place of extreme yang or a place of burning refinement, using the external environment combined with the palm technique's oral formula to succeed.
The Scroll World had no place of extreme yang, but it did have a place of burning refinement—inside the corpse of the Azure Flame Xuanwu.
Even though the Azure Flame Xuanwu had been dead for countless ages, its body was still wrapped in flames, like an eternally burning furnace.
Zhang Ruochen entered the Azure Flame Xuanwu's abdomen, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began recalling the oral formula for the seventh palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm. He murmured, "Use the body as a furnace, yang energy as fire. Externally refine the shell, internally refine heaven and earth..."
Cultivating the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm meant accumulating yang energy within the body. When striking with the palm, the yang energy burned like flames, unleashing unparalleled power in an instant.
Using a flesh-and-blood body to contain ten times the normal yang energy was extremely dangerous. A single mistake could cause the body to spontaneously combust, or even self-destruct.
Following the oral formula, Zhang Ruochen struck with the palm while absorbing the flames of the burning refinement place.
With each palm strike, some of the flames transformed into yang energy, stored in his body—some in his blood, some in his bones, some in his five organs.
After three full days, the yang energy in Zhang Ruochen's body finally reached ten times the normal level.
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen's body had turned completely crimson, like a red-hot human-shaped piece of iron, radiating terrifying heat. Looking closely, his flesh seemed to be burning.
Fortunately, Zhang Ruochen had cultivated the Three Spirit Treasure Body, giving him a physical constitution comparable to a Saintly Body, allowing him to withstand ten times the yang energy.
"Dragon-Elephant Divine Furnace."
Zhang Ruochen suddenly struck a palm forward, aiming at a cliff face ahead.
A thunderous dragon-elephant roar echoed, and simultaneously, a massive palm print flew through the air, colliding with the cliff.
"Boom."
The mountain where the cliff stood shook violently.
Then, from the cliff's direction came the thunderous sound of collapsing rock. That section of the cliff crumbled, revealing a huge palm print.
The stones around the palm print showed signs of melting, with even drops of magma dripping down.
"Striking from a hundred zhang away and still causing such devastating destruction—this is indeed the seventh palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm."
Zhang Ruochen looked at his palm, his smile gradually fading as he gently shook his head.
It had taken three days to condense ten times the yang energy in his body, but one palm strike had exhausted it all.
The yang energy in his body had returned to normal levels.
This showed that his palm technique cultivation had failed.
Yet Zhang Ruochen wasn't disappointed. After all, even a failed palm strike had such formidable power. If he truly mastered the seventh palm to perfection, how powerful would it be?
Zhang Ruochen entered the Azure Flame Xuanwu's abdomen again and resumed cultivation.
With the experience from his first attempt, his second attempt was faster—it took only two days to condense ten times the yang energy.
But just like before, after one palm strike, the yang energy dissipated like air escaping a punctured balloon.
Still a failure.
Failure.
Failure.
...
After five consecutive failures, Zhang Ruochen stopped and began carefully analyzing and reflecting on the reasons for his failure.
"A perfected Dragon-Elephant Divine Furnace should have an inexhaustible supply of yang energy within the body, not expel it all at once. Perhaps I need to form an internal cycle of yang energy."
Zhang Ruochen's eyes lit up as he finally discovered the key issue. It turned out that in his previous five attempts, he had used the wrong method entirely, thinking the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm was too simple.
So he eagerly began his sixth attempt. After two days, he finally condensed ten times the yang energy again.