Chapter 790: Slaying Three Saints in Succession
As the dragon-vulture bone knife slashed outward, sharp wind blades materialized from the air, following the trajectory of the blade as they swept horizontally toward Zhang Ruochen's waist.
Zhang Ruochen stared at the incoming bone knife, his expression unchanged. He stomped his foot against the ground, causing the entire space to tremble as if the earth itself had sunk.
"Space Domain."
Zhang Ruochen silently recited in his mind.
The Space Domain was unleashed, rapidly expanding outward. With an overwhelming force, it shattered the Saint Soul Domains of the four Half-Saints.
Instantly, the thousandfold gravity pressing down on Zhang Ruochen vanished completely.
Instead, the power of the Space Domain bore down upon the four Half-Saints.
Xin Feng, who was at the forefront of the attack, never expected such a sudden turn of events.
Xin Feng silently cried out, "Not good," and was about to withdraw his bone war blade and retreat. But as he stepped on the ground, his foot met empty air, and his body plummeted downward, throwing off his balance entirely.
The ground remained the same, but the spatial structure had changed.
How could Zhang Ruochen let such an opportunity slip? He mobilized all the Saint Qi in his body and thrust his sword forward with lightning speed, piercing through Xin Feng's physical defenses.
"Pfft."
A massive bloody hole appeared in Xin Feng Half-Saint's chest. Through it, one could clearly see that his bones and internal organs had suffered severe damage.
The Undying Blood Clan possessed formidable vitality. Although Xin Feng's injuries were grave, they were not fatal.
"Big Brother!"
Xin Lei and Xin Yun roared loudly.
Just as Zhang Ruochen was about to strike a second blow to completely kill Xin Feng Half-Saint, he sensed Xin Lei Half-Saint and Xin Yun Half-Saint charging at him from two other directions at breakneck speed.
Forced to abandon Xin Feng Half-Saint for the moment, Zhang Ruochen put away the Abyssal Ancient Sword and met Xin Lei Half-Saint and Xin Yun Half-Saint head-on.
"Sword Thunder Art!"
Xin Lei Half-Saint unleashed a Ghost-rank top-grade martial technique. Both his palms were enveloped in lightning, raised above his head, and brought together before striking downward violently.
The lightning in his hands surged outward, forming a seven-meter-long giant sword that descended from above toward Zhang Ruochen's crown.
The full-force strike of a Half-Saint naturally could not be underestimated.
"Sword Two."
Zhang Ruochen neither dodged nor evaded. He swiftly swung the Abyssal Ancient Sword, tracing a circular sword aura. Faintly, one could discern the circle taking on black and white hues, spinning rapidly.
"Boom."
The seven-meter-long lightning giant sword struck the center of the circular sword aura, unleashing a deafening explosion.
The entire ground shook violently.
A violent wave of energy spread outward, flattening the entire forest into level ground. Trees turned to splinters, boulders became dust, and even the two-hundred-meter-tall mountain split apart.
"Pfft."
Xin Lei Half-Saint spat out a mouthful of blood and flew backward.
Xin Yun Half-Saint was utterly shocked. Both his elder brothers, who were at the peak of the First-Rank Half-Saint level, had been defeated in an instant.
Just how terrifying was this young man's combat power?
This person was not someone he could contend with.
With that thought, Xin Yun Half-Saint immediately halted his advance and retreated rapidly.
"Great Space Teleportation."
Zhang Ruochen mobilized the power of space, taking a step forward as if plunging through a curtain of water, vanishing from his spot. Only ripples of fine energy remained in the air.
The next moment, Zhang Ruochen appeared behind Xin Yun Half-Saint, three zhang above him.
"Die!"
Zhang Ruochen gripped his sword with both hands, fully activating the inscriptions within the Abyssal Ancient Sword. Dragging a long sword beam, he slashed down toward Xin Yun Half-Saint's head.
Xin Yun Half-Saint felt a powerful force restraining him, making even moving a single step extremely difficult.
His face turned pale.
"I refuse to believe that a Half-Saint's cultivation cannot withstand a single strike from a Fish-Dragon Realm cultivator."
Xin Yun Half-Saint spread his legs apart and crossed his arms. Using his powerful Saint Soul, he continuously drew in the world's spiritual energy, channeling it into his two black arm guards.
He thrust his arms upward. From his left arm guard surged a dragon shadow, and from his right, a lion shadow.
The phantom images of the two beasts manifested two completely different forces—one of ice and one of fire—spinning rapidly to form a tower-shaped defensive barrier.
"Boom!"
The Abyssal Ancient Sword came crashing down, breaking through the tower-shaped barrier and striking Xin Yun Half-Saint's arms. Unable to withstand the immense force of the sword, the bones in his legs shattered, and he fell to his knees.
Zhang Ruochen's gaze was piercingly sharp. He pressed down relentlessly on Xin Yun Half-Saint, forcing a Half-Saint to kneel, completely unable to counterattack.
"Sizzle."
The Abyssal Ancient Sword began to refine the two black arm guards. Soon, the arm guards melted into liquid and merged into the sword's blade. Thus, Xin Yun Half-Saint lost all means of self-defense.
"Boom."
The sword blade fell without mercy, striking Xin Yun Half-Saint's head and cleaving his body in two.
From the shattered corpse, wisps of blood energy surged out, madly rushing toward Xuanji Sword Saint's remains, trying to burrow into his pores and devour his blood.
The Half-Saints of the Undying Blood Clan possessed incredibly strong vitality. As long as their Saint Souls were not extinguished, even if their bodies were severed in two, they could absorb enough blood to reform their bodies and recover from their injuries.
Only if the physical damage was extremely severe would they fall directly.
"How dare you!"
Zhang Ruochen naturally would not give Xin Yun Half-Saint a chance to revive. He took out the Ruyi Treasure Bottle, held it in his hand, and collected the blood energy in the air, including Xin Yun Half-Saint's Saint Soul, into the bottle.
On the ground, only a broken Half-Saint corpse remained.
Everything that had just happened was too fast. The other Undying Blood Clan Half-Saints had no time to intervene before Xin Yun Half-Saint was slain by Zhang Ruochen.
Silence fell around them. The remaining Undying Blood Clan Half-Saints all wore grave expressions, no longer daring to underestimate the man before them.
Four Half-Saints had attacked together, yet he had severely wounded two and killed one. Such a brilliant feat, once spread, would undoubtedly cause a massive uproar.
"The power of space—he can control the power of space," Xin Feng Half-Saint said.
Half-Saints possessed keen perception and could naturally detect the fluctuations of spatial power. If not for the power of space, the four Half-Saints would not have been defeated so quickly.
Feng Han had already suspected as much. Seeing Zhang Ruochen unleash the Space Domain, he was not particularly surprised. Instead, he laughed and said, "Sixth Junior Brother, so you really aren't dead. It seems everything Jiuyou Sword Saint said was true—he didn't kill you."
Zhang Ruochen did not deny his identity. "Do you even have the right to call me Sixth Junior Brother?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
Feng Han retorted, then laughed again. "I might as well tell you. When Xuanji Sword Saint took me as his disciple, he already knew I was a member of the Undying Blood Clan."
"How could the Master take an Undying Blood Clan member as a disciple?" Zhang Ruochen said coldly.
"This is the truth. Whether you believe it or not, it remains the truth."
Feng Han chuckled. "Xuanji Sword Saint could take a barbarian beast as a disciple, so why couldn't he take an Undying Blood Clan member as one?"
"Zhang Ruochen, your realm is still far too low compared to the old man's. In his eyes, not all Undying Blood Clan represent evil, and not every human is pure-hearted."
Everyone knows wolves eat people, yet some who are confident in themselves still dare to raise wolves. If not for such people, how would dogs exist in the world?
Feng Han sneered. "The old man believed that the Undying Blood Clan's nature was not inherently evil. As long as they didn't drink blood or commit evil deeds, they could be civilized and taken as disciples. Sounds noble, but in reality, it's far too arrogant."
"The Undying Blood Clan saw this weakness in him and arranged an opportunity for me to become his disciple."
"At that time, he didn't know that the seal on Manji Island had been broken, nor did he know I was the Sixth Prince of the Undying Blood Clan. He only saw me as a pitiful orphaned child of the Undying Blood Clan. I was being hunted by a group of humans, my mother killed, my father killed as well."
"The old man thought of himself as the embodiment of justice, a bodhisattva saving the suffering. He actually saved me and took me as his disciple."
"Human nature always has weaknesses. Once you grasp those weaknesses, even a Saint is vulnerable. Zhang Ruochen, don't you agree?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "You exploited others' sympathy to achieve your despicable and sinister goals. Thank you for teaching me this lesson. From now on, if I encounter any Undying Blood Clan, I will show them no sympathy or mercy."
"Do you think you still have a 'from now on'?" Feng Han laughed.
Zhang Ruochen retorted, "I was about to say the same to you."
"Whoosh."
Zhang Ruochen once again used Great Space Teleportation, vanishing from his spot.
Feng Han's expression shifted slightly, and he immediately said, "Everyone, be careful!"
Before his words even faded, Zhang Ruochen had already appeared behind Xin Feng Half-Saint, his eyes filled with killing intent. With the fastest speed possible, he swung his sword and slashed at him.
Xin Feng Half-Saint, already severely wounded, was much slower to react.
By the time he reacted, Zhang Ruochen had already struck him thirty-six times in succession, slicing his body into chunks of flesh that flew in all directions.
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen was completely enraged, wanting nothing more than to slaughter every Undying Blood Clan member before him.
By the time Feng Han rushed to Xin Feng Half-Saint's side, Zhang Ruochen had already used Great Space Teleportation again, charging toward Xin Lei Half-Saint.
"Damn it!"
Feng Han stomped his foot in fury and dashed toward Xin Lei Half-Saint's direction, roaring, "Zhang Ruochen, do you dare to face me in a direct battle?"
"Don't worry, you won't live much longer."
Zhang Ruochen appeared above Xin Lei Half-Saint's head, fully mobilizing the power of space to tear open a dozens-of-meters-long Space Rift.
Inside the rift was the pitch-black, icy Void Space, emitting a powerful suction force.
"No..."
Xin Lei Half-Saint had already been severely wounded by Zhang Ruochen earlier, his cultivation greatly diminished. He wanted to flee but could not resist the Space Rift.
After holding out for only a moment, the Space Rift swallowed him whole.
Standing outside the rift, one could clearly see that inside, Xin Lei Half-Saint's body had exploded into a cloud of blood mist.
In the blink of an eye, two more Half-Saints had fallen.
Such terrifying killing methods would be difficult even for a Fourth-Rank Half-Saint to achieve. Only the unpredictable power of space allowed Zhang Ruochen to come and go without a trace, turning him into a Half-Saint assassin.
Of the remaining three Undying Blood Clan Half-Saints, only Feng Han remained calm. Taixi Half-Saint and Xin Yu Half-Saint were trembling with fear, activating all their defensive measures, terrified that they might be slain by Zhang Ruochen at any moment.
As Half-Saints, being so frightened by a Fish-Dragon Realm cultivator was nothing short of humiliating.