Chapter 838: The Empress’s Leftover Talisman
At the bottom of the large pit, the light was quite dim, giving a cold and gloomy feeling.
The Blood Moon Ghost King stood in midair, her body suspended, strands of jet-black hair hanging straight down. Dozens of ghostly mists shuttled around her body. Her gaze was extremely indifferent as she said, "Zhang Ruochen, your heart is truly bold. Do you realize you have already offended the Divine Beginning Ghost King? If he wants you dead, even if you flee to the Kunlun Realm, you will still die."
Zhang Ruochen temporarily stopped cutting the rock and instead stared at the Blood Moon Ghost King. "Is that so? At least for now, the Divine Beginning Ghost King should be more concerned about how to escape the pursuit of the Dead Zen Ancestor before his cultivation recovers. He nearly killed the Dead Zen Ancestor; I don’t believe the Dead Zen Ancestor will let him off."
The reason Zhang Ruochen dared to excavate the divine remains here was precisely because he was certain that the Divine Beginning Ghost King and the Dead Zen Ancestor would inevitably check each other.
For no other reason than the divine corpse itself, they would be irreconcilable, and in the end, only one could survive.
Of course, at present, the Dead Zen Ancestor held the absolute upper hand. Before the Divine Beginning Ghost King’s injuries healed, there was no way he could come to the Ghost Spirit Valley.
The Blood Moon Ghost King did not know who the Dead Zen Ancestor was, but she could guess.
Earlier, when the divine corpse had walked out of the Ghost Spirit Valley, it had caused an astonishing commotion, alarming many ghost kings in the Underworld.
She was naturally very curious—how could such a powerful existence as the Dead Zen Ancestor spare the life of a mere brat like Zhang Ruochen?
"What exactly is your relationship with that Dead Zen Ancestor?" the Blood Moon Ghost King asked.
"You don’t need to know that much. Just understand this: if the Dead Zen Ancestor wants to kill you, the Divine Beginning Ghost King cannot save your life. But I can," Zhang Ruochen said.
Zhang Ruochen had gradually come to realize that the Dead Zen Ancestor helping him cultivate the Five Elements Chaos Body might indeed be to repay a favor, but it could also have another meaning.
After all, he and the Dead Zen Ancestor shared a common great enemy—Empress Chi Yao.
In the last hundred years, the only person Empress Chi Yao had personally ordered captured was the Heir of Time and Space, Zhang Ruochen. The Dead Zen Ancestor would certainly suspect the purpose behind Empress Chi Yao’s actions.
Could it be that Empress Chi Yao feared the Heir of Time and Space growing too powerful?
Thus, by helping Zhang Ruochen, the Dead Zen Ancestor was also helping himself. Because the Dead Zen Ancestor currently lacked the strength to oppose Empress Chi Yao directly, he had to use other methods to restrain her.
If Empress Chi Yao had not pushed him too hard, why would the Dead Zen Ancestor have staked everything on coming to the Underworld to find the divine corpse?
Therefore, at least for now, the Dead Zen Ancestor very much wanted to see Zhang Ruochen grow stronger. The greater Zhang Ruochen’s influence, the more it would restrain Empress Chi Yao. That would be more advantageous for him.
Before long, Xiao Hei, Hanxue, and the Divine Demon Mouse also arrived, appearing at the center of the magma ocean.
At the same time, they brought Zhang Ruochen an important piece of news: the cultivators of the Dead Zen Sect had not left. Instead, they were outside the Ghost Spirit Valley, subduing the powerful figures of various major forces.
The Dead Zen Ancestor’s actions were within Zhang Ruochen’s expectations.
All the major forces had sent powerful Half-Saint ancestors to the Ghost Spirit Valley in search of the resurrection medicine. Now that everyone’s hopes had been shattered, the only way to return alive to the Kunlun Realm was to submit to the Dead Zen Sect.
No one wanted to wait for death in the Underworld.
Xiao Hei said, "That Dead Zen Ancestor is truly a remarkable figure. Cultivating for five hundred years and achieving such accomplishments—he is an extraordinary talent."
Zhang Ruochen pondered for a moment, then shook his head. "The Dead Zen Ancestor is no ordinary person. To have such achievements after five hundred years of cultivation is truly astonishing."
Xiao Hei nodded. "Even in the Middle Ages, the Dead Zen Ancestor was a figure like a warlord, possessing the potential to become a god."
"Master… look… the Void Sword…"
Hanxue held the Void Sword with both hands. On the sword’s body, circles of white light emerged, like ripples on water, surging toward the bottom of the rock.
"Shua shua."
The Void Sword trembled lightly. Suddenly, breaking free from Hanxue’s control, it flew into the large pit at the center of the magma ocean and plunged toward the depths.
"Could the Void Sword have sensed something?"
Zhang Ruochen immediately activated his movement technique and rushed toward the bottom of the magma pit.
Following him, Xiao Hei, Hanxue, and Mu Lingxi transformed into three streaks of light, rapidly chasing downward.
The tip of the Void Sword pointed downward, spinning quickly, shattering the rock as it went, leaving only a sword hole as it disappeared deep into the earth.
"Dig down along the trail left by the Void Sword," Zhang Ruochen ordered.
Xiao Hei was extremely excited, his cat claws trembling uncontrollably. "It must be the Empress! She left something down there. Otherwise, the Void Sword’s reaction wouldn’t be this strong."
Suddenly, a wave of icy cold air came from beside Zhang Ruochen.
He turned his head and saw the cold face of the Blood Moon Ghost King.
"Hua!"
Without a word, the Blood Moon Ghost King’s ghostly body dissolved, turning into a wisp of ghostly energy that followed the sword hole, flying downward ahead of them.
Zhang Ruochen also accelerated his digging, continuously splitting the rock. After about an hour, he finally penetrated the magma layer and reached the bottom of the magma ocean.
Instantly, a powerful deathly evil aura surged up from below.
Zhang Ruochen immediately unfolded the Cosmic Divine Wood Map, channeling all his sacred Qi into the scroll.
On the surface of the scroll, countless inscriptions emerged, transforming into a golden sacred tree dozens of feet tall, purifying the surrounding deathly evil aura.
With the golden light emitted by the sacred tree, they could see that the bottom of the magma layer was made of blood-red soil. Deathly Qi continuously seeped from the soil, but it was all purified by the golden tree.
Xiao Hei grabbed a handful of the blood-red soil, his eyes gleaming with greed. He laughed, "The soil here has been soaked in divine blood, turning it into the legendary Divine Blood Red Earth."
"Zhang Ruochen, we must dig up all this Divine Blood Red Earth and take it back to the Scroll World. It’s enough to cultivate a divine soil medicinal garden."
"Only in a divine soil medicinal garden can the most top-tier sacred medicines be nurtured. In the entire Kunlun Realm, the number of divine soil medicinal gardens definitely doesn’t exceed ten."
Hearing Xiao Hei’s words, the Devouring Elephant Rabbit immediately pounced forward, opening its mouth wide and swallowing more than a dozen mouthfuls of Divine Blood Red Earth.
Since it was soil soaked in divine blood, it must be good stuff.
But as soon as it swallowed the Divine Blood Red Earth, a sharp pain shot through its abdomen, as if it had swallowed a hundred thousand pounds of lead and iron. It plopped down on the ground, its eyes wide, its furry face puffed up, looking as if it had gone dumb.
Zhang Ruochen examined it and found that the Devouring Elephant Rabbit was actually circulating its technique, refining the Divine Blood Red Earth in its body. Moreover, the Divine Blood Red Earth was slowly melting.
He had to admit, this Devouring Elephant Rabbit was truly extraordinary, as if there was nothing it couldn’t digest.
Following the aura left by the Void Sword, Zhang Ruochen and his group quickly found the Blood Moon Ghost King, who had entered the depths ahead of them.
"Any discoveries?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
The Blood Moon Ghost King cast a cold glance at Zhang Ruochen, then turned her gaze in another direction.
Zhang Ruochen also looked over and narrowed his eyes. Beneath the Divine Blood Red Earth, a green stone tablet had appeared, thirty feet tall, looking quite rough, no different from an ordinary boulder.
If not for seeing it with his own eyes, using spiritual power from above the magma ocean, he would never have detected it.
But how could a stone that had been in prolonged contact with magma without melting be just an ordinary rock?
At that moment, the Void Sword was stuck at the base of the green stone tablet, its body still emitting white light, illuminating the tablet like jade.
Zhang Ruochen cautiously approached. As his foot stepped on the ground, it created small ripples of energy. He reached the base of the green tablet and pressed one hand lightly against it.
"Crack."
A crack appeared on the tablet’s surface, followed by a second, a third…
The stone skin on the tablet’s surface shattered into pieces, falling off, revealing the tablet’s true form.
On the green stone tablet, mysterious sword patterns appeared. These patterns intertwined, forming ancient characters that completely covered the tablet.
Xiao Hei’s eyes bulged wide. He rushed forward and exclaimed, "The Empress’s handwriting! This is a talisman left by the Empress… Oh heavens! Back then, the Empress really did come here."
"It’s clearly a stone tablet. How is it a talisman?" Mu Lingxi asked curiously.
Xiao Hei said, "You can’t recognize the Empress’s script, but this emperor can. The tablet clearly states that this is a ‘Heaven and Earth Two Realms Talisman,’ a stone talisman inscribed with the Empress’s lifelong power. If this stone talisman is brought to the Corpse River, it can seal the Underworld for a few more years."