Chapter 807: Refining the Fifth Drop of Divine Blood
Cultivators in the Fish-Dragon Realm must perform sacrifices and borrow divine power to have any chance of refining a single drop of Divine Blood.
Half-Saints, however, are different. Their physiques are already extremely powerful. If they possessed a drop of Divine Blood, they could completely rely on their own formidable cultivation to refine the blood into their bodies.
Although refining a drop of Divine Blood has less effect for a Half-Saint than for a Fish-Dragon Realm cultivator, it is still Divine Blood, offering boundless benefits even to a Half-Saint.
Under normal circumstances, if Jia Luoyuan possessed a drop of Divine Blood, he would definitely refine it at the first opportunity. It would be impossible for him to merely carry it on his person without using it.
It was precisely for this reason that Zhang Ruochen was so astonished to find a drop of Divine Blood on him.
"There are only two explanations. First, Jia Luoyuan had just obtained the Divine Blood and hadn't had time to refine it yet."
"Second, Jia Luoyuan carried a drop of Divine Blood on his person for some other purpose, perhaps related to the large-scale entry of evil monks from the Dead Zen Sect into the Underworld."
To verify which guess was correct was actually quite simple.
If he captured another evil monk from the Dead Zen Sect and also found Divine Blood on him, that would prove the second scenario.
Zhang Ruochen held the Divine Blood in his palm, a faint smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "Divine Blood is a treasure that can only be encountered, not sought. If I refine it, I will have refined a total of five drops of Divine Blood. My own cultivation will surely improve considerably."
Putting away the Divine Blood, Zhang Ruochen extracted a mass of Half-Saint Buddhist Light from Jia Luoyuan's body and sealed it inside a jade box.
From Jia Luoyuan's body, Zhang Ruochen also found three Sacred Stones, seven bottles of pills, and the cultivation manuals for *Thousand Ghost Prajna Palm* and *Dead Zen Buddhist Dharma*. He stored all of them in his Space Ring.
The string of prayer beads around Jia Luoyuan's neck was a formidable Buddhist artifact.
At this moment, that string of prayer beads had transformed into golden liquid droplets and merged into the Abyssal Ancient Sword.
"Shua!"
The Abyssal Ancient Sword flew back, its tip pointing downward, hovering above Zhang Ruochen's palm.
Its power had increased considerably again.
"Raising the Abyssal Ancient Sword to the level of a Thousand-Mark Sacred Artifact is truly too difficult."
Zhang Ruochen grasped the hilt of the Abyssal Ancient Sword and swung his arm. Instantly, a pitch-black radiance emanated from the sword's body.
The Abyssal Ancient Sword had absorbed and refined a large number of True Martial Treasures and Sacred Artifacts, yet it remained a Hundred-Mark Sacred Artifact.
However, its power was enough to rank it on the *Hundred-Mark Sacred Artifact List*, and the might it unleashed rivaled that of a Thousand-Mark Sacred Artifact.
At the present stage, the Abyssal Ancient Sword might not be comparable to the Sky-Soaring Sword, and it was far from matching the Void Sword. Yet, it was the most suitable sword for Zhang Ruochen, already connected to him in spirit and blood.
Using the Abyssal Ancient Sword, Zhang Ruochen could unleash his Sword Dao to its most perfect state.
"I will grow together with you. One day, you will become a Thousand-Mark Sacred Artifact, even stronger than the Void Sword." Zhang Ruochen's hand gently caressed the blade of the Abyssal Ancient Sword.
As if it could sense Zhang Ruochen's emotions, the Abyssal Ancient Sword trembled lightly, emitting a joyful sword hum.
Hanxue transformed into a petite figure, carrying the Void Sword on her back, and flew swiftly toward Zhang Ruochen. She said with some delight, "Master, together with Sister Mu Lingxi and Xiao Hei, I helped repel three Wuchangs."
Zhang Ruochen had been paying attention to the entire battle, so he wasn't surprised, but he still praised her. "To repel three Wuchangs at once—your strength has truly impressed me, your master."
Mu Lingxi said, "Actually, it's nothing remarkable. We completely relied on the power of the Void Sword to achieve such a notable result. Without the Void Sword, the strength of the three Wuchangs would have been beyond our ability to withstand."
Mu Lingxi was drenched in fragrant sweat, and the Sacred Qi within her body was nearly depleted.
That battle had clearly not been easy.
Xiao Hei, however, was fuming with anger. He dug the Demon God Rat out from underground, grabbed it by the tail, and dangled it upside down in midair.
"Speak! Earlier, when this Emperor was fighting the three Wuchangs, why didn't you make a move?"
The Demon God Rat stammered, "The three Wuchangs were no match for you, Cat Lord. There was no need for me to intervene. Right, Cat Lord?"
"Oh? This Emperor thinks you're just asking for a beating."
Xiao Hei extended a claw and patted the Demon God Rat on the head, his round eyes gleaming with a fierce light, as if he wanted to eat the Demon God Rat.
When the three Wuchangs had launched their attack earlier, the Demon God Rat had never made a move from start to finish. Instead, he stood by and watched the show.
Clearly, the Demon God Rat had hoped to use the three Wuchangs to eliminate Xiao Hei, Zhang Ruochen, and the others.
Unfortunately, he hadn't anticipated that Hanxue possessed the Void Sword, a supreme Sacred Artifact, which repelled the three Wuchangs and foiled his plan.
How could Xiao Hei not see through this?
"Cat Lord, I won't dare to do it again."
"I can swear to the heavens that I will never harbor disloyalty toward you, Cat Lord... Help!"
In the tomb forest, the Demon God Rat's heart-wrenching screams rang out. He wanted to escape but couldn't, and when he tried to resist, Xiao Hei suppressed him.
None of the Demon God Rat's special techniques worked against Xiao Hei.
Instead, every time Xiao Hei struck, he would pierce through the rat's weaknesses, causing him unbearable pain.
Zhang Ruochen merely shook his head lightly, thinking to himself, "A treacherous, vicious, and ruthless two-faced rat, and yet he's begging for mercy. Truly remarkable."
At the very least, with Zhang Ruochen's current cultivation, defeating a Half-Saint-level Demon God Rat would not be an easy task.
Who would have thought that such a powerful creature, when facing Xiao Hei, would be chased and beaten like a child with no power to fight back?
Zhang Ruochen used his Heavenly Eye to look toward the Blood Lake again. "The Wuchangs of the Underworld and the evil monks of the Dead Zen Sect will certainly not let this go. Let's first hide in the Scroll World for a few days to let the storm pass before coming out again."
Both Heart Technique Buddhist Master and the Beauty Ghost King were beings at the Saint realm. Once they determined the victor and freed their hands, Zhang Ruochen and the others would surely face death.
Moreover, besides those two, Hao Chuan Wuchang was also a top-tier expert, beyond the ability of Zhang Ruochen and his group to contend with at present.
In the Underworld, being cautious was never a bad thing.
Arriving in the Scroll World, Mu Lingxi sat cross-legged beneath the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree and began absorbing Heaven and Earth spiritual energy to recover her expended Sacred Qi.
Xiao Hei, on the other hand, was studying the *Dead Zen Buddhist Dharma*, attempting to control the thirty-four Half-Saint corpses left behind by Jia Luoyuan. Clearly, the power Jia Luoyuan had displayed by drawing the corpse Qi from those thirty-four Half-Saint corpses was something Xiao Hei found quite tempting.
Hanxue, meanwhile, was refining Xuanji Sword Saint's Sacred Source, striving to improve her cultivation and break through to the Seventh Change of the Fish-Dragon Realm as soon as possible.
Zhang Ruochen, however, did not immediately begin cultivating. Instead, he studied the Sun-Moon Crystal Coffin.
The Sun-Moon Crystal Coffin was nine feet long. It was unclear what material it was forged from. Its entire body was crystal clear and translucent, and the icy cold aura it emitted caused the ground for dozens of zhang around to be covered in a layer of white frost.
On the front of the crystal coffin was engraved a crescent-shaped mark.
On the bottom of the crystal coffin was engraved a sun mark.
What was astonishing was that the moon mark and sun mark were slowly absorbing the wood-attribute spiritual energy emitted by the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree, channeling it into the coffin.
"What a remarkable treasure. No wonder beings at the level of Heart Technique Buddhist Master and the Beauty Ghost King would fight so fiercely over it."
Zhang Ruochen tried various methods but could not open the Sun-Moon Crystal Coffin. Even using the Abyssal Ancient Sword to strike with all his might, he couldn't leave a single sword mark on the coffin.
"Since I can't open it, I'll leave it here for now."
Zhang Ruochen was very curious about what changes would occur once it had absorbed enough wood-attribute spiritual energy.
Everyone else was diligently cultivating and improving their strength, so Zhang Ruochen naturally wouldn't idle either.
He took out the Divine Blood, held it in the palms of both hands, unsealed the surface of the Divine Blood, and began to refine it.
Other Fish-Dragon Realm cultivators had to borrow the power of a deity to refine Divine Blood.
But Zhang Ruochen didn't need to borrow a deity's power to refine Divine Blood. Because other Fish-Dragon Realm cultivators refined Divine Blood into a Divine Seal, while Zhang Ruochen mobilized the Seals of the Gods to absorb the Divine Blood.
About half an hour later, Zhang Ruochen had completely refined that drop of Divine Blood.
The Seals of the Gods in his Qi Sea became clearer, taking on various different forms. Each seal emitted powerful divine force, making Zhang Ruochen's Qi Sea even more stable.
"If I could control the divine power contained in the Seals of the Gods, I wonder how much power I could unleash?"
Zhang Ruochen's meridians and Saint Meridians simply couldn't withstand divine power, so with his current cultivation, he couldn't use the power of the Seals of the Gods as a means of attack.
Of course, even so, having refined the fifth drop of Divine Blood, Zhang Ruochen's strength had still increased considerably.
"Right now, my cultivation is only at the initial stage of the Ninth Change of the Fish-Dragon Realm, so there's still plenty of room for improvement. I might as well take this opportunity to raise my cultivation a bit more."
Zhang Ruochen's finger brushed over his Space Ring, and he took out a basin-sized Flood Dragon Pearl. He wrapped it in Sacred Qi and held it aloft three zhang above his head.
The Flood Dragon Pearl contained a powerful aura and emitted scorching energy, causing its surface to ignite into blazing flames, turning it into a massive fireball.
"Chi chi!"
The heat radiating from the Flood Dragon Pearl pushed back some of the cold air from the Sun-Moon Crystal Coffin, causing the frost on the ground to melt into droplets.
This Flood Dragon Pearl was a treasure Zhang Ruochen had dug out from the body of the Black Scaled Flood Dragon King when he killed it on the Ruins Realm battlefield.