Chapter 713: The Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Book
“Bang! Bang!”
The powerful blade aura sent both Golden Snake Sacred Swords flying, and then the sacred blade descended straight down, slashing toward Zhang Ruochen’s head.
Even Shengshu Cainü was visibly moved at this sight, her five fingers tightening around her folding fan as she prepared to intervene and save Zhang Ruochen. Even if he lost, it was already quite remarkable for him to have fought a Half-Saint for so long.
However, Zhang Ruochen seemed unwilling to admit defeat. Activating the speed and defense of the Meteor Invisibility Cloak, he kicked off the ground with both feet and shot forward.
The sacred blade struck down, hitting the spot where Zhang Ruochen had just been standing.
“Boom!”
The ground split open more than ten meters wide, and the powerful blade aura extended all the way to the Corpse River, even causing the river to cease flowing for a single instant.
However, the Fallen God Cemetery possessed a mysterious force, and the cracked ground quickly fused back together.
Zhang Ruochen had dodged the sacred blade from that strike, but he hadn’t fully evaded the blade aura.
The blade aura struck his chest, and although the Meteor Invisibility Cloak absorbed most of the force, he still suffered considerable injury.
Beneath the Meteor Invisibility Cloak, a bloody gash appeared on his chest, stretching from his neck down to his navel. Inside his body, the Dragon Pearl protected him, blocking the blade aura.
“Without using the power of time and space, facing a Half-Saint with my current cultivation is truly exhausting,” Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
In this battle, Qi Yun was fighting with great frustration, but wasn’t Zhang Ruochen equally frustrated?
Shengshu Cainü and Qi Qiankun were standing nearby, so many of his trump cards couldn’t be used. If he were to unleash those cards, Zhang Ruochen was seventy percent confident he could defeat Qi Yun.
Qi Yun withdrew his sacred blade and saw Zhang Ruochen climbing out of the fissure left by the blade aura. His heart sank.
He… was still alive?
Shengshu Cainü let out a slight breath and said, “Lin Yue, there’s no need to fight so desperately against a Half-Saint. You should use the trump cards you’ve hidden; it’s better to finish this quickly.”
She was reminding Zhang Ruochen to use the spiritual power within the chess piece.
Zhang Ruochen certainly wouldn’t risk his life just because of a bet with Shengshu Cainü. He recalled the two Golden Snake Sacred Swords and said, “My exchange with Senior Qi Yun just now was purely to test my current strength. As it turns out, with my current cultivation, I’m still somewhat lacking when facing a Half-Saint.”
When Qi Yun used a sacred artifact, the power he unleashed far exceeded Zhang Ruochen’s. Only by employing spatial power could Zhang Ruochen contend with him on equal footing.
The combat strength of a Half-Saint was not to be underestimated.
Hearing such words from a Fish-Dragon Realm cultivator, Qi Yun felt insulted and said coldly, “Junior, whatever trump cards you have, bring them out.”
“Very well,” Zhang Ruochen nodded.
Since he now had a general understanding of his own strength, there was no need to continue fighting Qi Yun desperately.
Zhang Ruochen took out the black chess piece and held it in his palm.
From the chess piece, specks of light emanated, spreading out in all directions, quickly covering an area ten miles in radius.
“Such a strong fluctuation of spiritual power—could he still perform spells?”
After their earlier exchange, Qi Yun was well aware that Lin Yue’s strength was formidable and not to be underestimated, so he became even more cautious.
“Heaven Split Earth Cleave.”
Qi Yun prepared to attack. His body lifted off the ground, and he gripped the sword hilt with both hands.
Five streams of scorching sacred qi surged from his hands, feet, and spine, swirling around his body to form a massive flame vortex.
The five streams of sacred qi spiraled upward, all converging toward the sacred blade.
“Whoosh!”
The sacred blade became extremely bright, like a crescent moon hanging in the sky, and slashed down toward Zhang Ruochen.
“Wrath of the Thunder General.”
Zhang Ruochen channeled the spiritual power from the chess piece, pouring it continuously into the Thunder Pearl, and raised his hand above his head.
“Crackle!”
Hundreds of bolts of lightning surged from the Thunder Pearl, coalescing into a ferocious, glaring thunder giant. The thunder giant wielded a lightning hammer and smashed it toward the sacred blade.
The light of lightning and flames exploded instantly, forming a powerful storm of energy that surged toward Zhang Ruochen and Qi Yun respectively.
Zhang Ruochen condensed a layer of lightning light curtain to block the energy storm.
“Pfft!”
Three bolts of lightning pierced through Qi Yun’s body, turning him completely black. His internal organs were severely damaged, and with a bitter taste in his throat, he spat out a mouthful of blood.
With a “whoosh,” the sacred blade also fell from midair, embedding itself into the ground beside him.
“You… you’re actually a spiritual power master as well…” Qi Yun’s eyes widened, his whole body trembling. He found it hard to accept that he had lost to a Fish-Dragon Realm cultivator.
Due to the massive consumption of sacred qi and the severe injury, the sacred light on Qi Yun’s body became quite dim.
Zhang Ruochen walked out from the black smoke, still holding the chess piece and the Thunder Pearl in his hands, looking quite calm. “Senior Qi Yun, you have lost.”
Shengshu Cainü lifted her chin, revealing her snow-white, slender neck like a proud white swan, and looked at Qi Qiankun. “Qi Qiankun, you have lost.”
Qi Qiankun’s eyes flashed with a venomous cold light. “The spiritual power in that chess piece doesn’t belong to Lin Yue. This bet is unfair.”
Shengshu Cainü said, “Is there any fairness in a Fish-Dragon Seventh Change cultivator fighting a Half-Saint? Regardless, Lin Yue ultimately defeated Qi Yun with his own means. Could it be that the renowned Qiankun Saint intends to go back on his word?”
“Haha!”
Qi Qiankun let out a loud laugh, his gaze becoming extremely sharp. “You want me, this old man, to surrender? You’re dreaming.”
Qi Qiankun waved his hand, sweeping Qi Yun up from the ground, and transformed into a streak of sacred light, flying out of the Fallen God Cemetery.
“I gave you a chance, but you didn’t cherish it.”
Shengshu Cainü seemed to have anticipated that Qi Qiankun wouldn’t honor the agreement. She gently shook her head, extended a hand, and a jade book appeared in her palm.
She sent the book flying, suspending it above the sky.
A white sacred light radiated from the book, instantly purifying all the yin and evil qi within the entire Fallen God Cemetery.
The book opened, and countless characters surged out, forming an ocean of text. Some were close at hand, while others flew high in the nine heavens. The number of characters was like the stars in the sky—impossible to count.
“The Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Book.”
Qi Qiankun looked up, seeing only characters before his eyes, hearing what seemed like billions of scholars reciting poetry in his ears. Fear immediately appeared on his face, and he activated all his sacred qi, desperately fleeing toward the horizon.
Zhang Ruochen was also greatly shocked as he gazed at the sacred book suspended in the sky.
When a Confucian cultivator reaches the Saint Realm, they all compose a sacred book based on their lifelong learning.
Each sacred book possesses extremely powerful divine power.
Among all sacred books, the Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Book is the most formidable.
Throughout Kunlun Realm’s history, only four Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Books have ever been created, written by the four ancestors of the Confucian path. They contain profound knowledge and boundless divine might.
Who would have thought that Shengshu Cainü possessed one of the four Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Books?
“No…”
Without any resistance, Qi Qiankun and Qi Yun’s bodies shrank to the size of a mustard seed, fell into the ocean of characters, and were finally absorbed into the Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Book.
The Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Book flew back and landed in Shengshu Cainü’s hand.
“How powerful! If you could eat that sacred book, you’d definitely become the most knowledgeable person in all of Kunlun Realm,” Xiao Hei transmitted to Zhang Ruochen.
It licked its lips, its round cat eyes gleaming with light, eager to rush forward and snatch the Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Book.
“The Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Book is a supreme treasure of the Confucian path. Anyone who dares to eat it would be hunted by all Confucian cultivators in the world. Besides, the knowledge and sacred might contained in the Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Book are so vast that even a Saint would probably be overwhelmed to death by eating it,” Zhang Ruochen said.
Shengshu Cainü’s spiritual power was strong, and she vaguely heard the transmissions between Zhang Ruochen and Xiao Hei, roughly grasping their meaning. She turned and stared at them.
Zhang Ruochen’s heart jolted—had Shengshu Cainü heard their conversation?
Shengshu Cainü’s gaze fixed on Xiao Hei. “Anyone who dares to covet the Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Book has been exiled to the Ruins Realm battlefield, never to return to Kunlun Realm.”
Shengshu Cainü’s cultivation had recovered, so Xiao Hei naturally didn’t dare provoke her. It immediately put on a very obedient demeanor and shook its head vigorously.
Shengshu Cainü smiled slightly and chose to ignore it.
Suddenly, her gaze shifted to the underworld on the other side of the Corpse River, and her pretty face turned pale. “Not good. The aura of the Confucian Ancestor’s Sacred Book seems to have alarmed some powerful being in the underworld.”
What kind of terrifying existence could frighten even Shengshu Cainü?
Zhang Ruochen looked across the Corpse River and indeed saw a patch of black yin clouds covering the entire sky, rolling toward their direction.
Shengshu Cainü grabbed Zhang Ruochen and Xiao Hei, fleeing rapidly out of the Fallen God Cemetery.
They barely escaped the cemetery before the black yin clouds caught up.
The black yin clouds in the sky seemed to be suppressed by an invisible force, unable to break out of the Fallen God Cemetery. After a moment, they retreated back.
“What secrets are hidden in the Fallen God Cemetery?” Zhang Ruochen’s robe was completely soaked with sweat.
He gasped for breath, his heart unable to calm down.
Since it was a relic from the Middle Ages, what had happened here during that distant era?
Zhang Ruochen’s mind was full of questions, and he wanted to rush in and investigate, but he knew that with his current cultivation, doing so would be no different from seeking death.
Shengshu Cainü stood on the mountaintop, her eyes also fixed on the retreating black yin clouds on the horizon.
Although she had already grasped many secrets about the Fallen God Cemetery before this, venturing in once still left her deeply shocked.
Such a forbidden ground—even with her cultivation, she dared not recklessly enter.
Returning to Liangyi Sect, Zhang Ruochen parted ways with Shengshu Cainü.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t go to the Sword Pavilion but instead went straight back to Zixia Spirit Mountain.
The Sword Discussion Assembly was drawing closer, and only by using the Scroll World could he improve his sword dao realm as quickly as possible.
Just as he arrived at the foot of Zixia Spirit Mountain, he encountered a female outer disciple dressed in a white Daoist robe.
That female outer disciple stood at the top of the stone steps, her figure very graceful, her waist as slender as a coiled rope. Her charming, seductive eyes were fixed directly on Zhang Ruochen, and she said in a sweet voice, “Senior Brother Lin Yue, I’ve been waiting for you at Zixia Spirit Mountain for three days. Where have you been?”
When Zhang Ruochen saw her face, he was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. “Senior Sister Duanmu, when did you become an outer disciple of Liangyi Sect?”
This female outer disciple in the white Daoist robe was none other than Mu Lingxi.
“For me, becoming an outer disciple of Liangyi Sect isn’t difficult.”
Mu Lingxi gently stroked her snow-white chin and smiled charmingly. “I received your letter and rushed to Liangyi Sect immediately. So, did that fox spirit Qi Feiyu try to seduce you?” (To be continued.)