Chapter 842: The Princess of the Ghost-Raising Ancient Clan
Yin Xuanji said, "My strength surpasses yours, so what I say is the rule."
"First, return the Divine Stubborn Fruit to me. Second, hand over the treasure you dug out from the magma ocean. Once you complete these two points, I will tell you the third rule."
Zhang Ruochen toyed with the dragon horn in his hand, saying, "There's a third rule?"
This time, it was a woman's voice answering Zhang Ruochen: "You are the Heir of Time and Space, so you must be able to cross the spatial barrier of the Corpse River. As long as you take us back to the Kunlun Realm, we can spare your life."
He could hear the voice but could not see her figure.
All he could sense was a gust of yin wind sweeping across the sky above the magma ocean.
Zhang Ruochen's eyes narrowed. He swung his arm sharply, and the dragon horn in his hand shot out like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, instantly breaking the sound barrier several times over.
About forty zhang away from Zhang Ruochen, a boom resounded.
A war chariot built from the white bones of humans and barbarian beasts materialized in midair. The sharp dragon horn pierced through the chariot, shattering it into pieces of bone that clattered to the ground.
A woman veiled in black gauze flew out of the bone chariot, looking quite disheveled. Her robe had been pierced through, leaving a massive hole.
This woman was the princess of the Ghost-Raising Ancient Clan, Feng Yinchang.
She was also Yin Xuanji's fiancée.
Feng Yinchang held a gray-black ghost banner in her hand. She landed on the ground, glaring furiously at Zhang Ruochen. "Zhang Ruochen, how dare you attack me?"
"Whoosh."
The dragon horn circled through the air and flew back into Zhang Ruochen's hand.
Zhang Ruochen held the dragon horn, looking quite calm. "I don't like talking to people who hide their faces. As for your rules, I actually find them quite agreeable. But since it's the strong who set the rules, shouldn't we fight first to decide who has the final say?"
"What? You're not convinced?"
A powerful sacred might radiated from Yin Xuanji's body. He continued, "Don't think that just because you fought me to a draw last time, you're something special. Let me tell you the truth: for us of the Corpse-Driving Ancient Clan, our greatest strength lies in the battle corpses we refine. Our own power is secondary. When we truly fight, you're still far from my level."
Zhang Ruochen glanced at the three battle corpses beside Yin Xuanji and said flatly, "How would I know without trying?"
Though Yin Xuanji's body was wrapped in white cloth, the corner of his mouth could still be seen curling upward into a disdainful smile.
"Since you're not convinced, I'll have to crush you with absolute power until you submit."
Yin Xuanji was exceptionally aggressive. He took a bell from his waist and shook it lightly.
Immediately, a battle corpse with three heads and six arms let out a roar, spewing a large cloud of corpse qi from its mouth.
Its legs bent slightly, and with a bang, it leaped from the dragon corpse's back, landing opposite Zhang Ruochen.
This battle corpse was a super corpse refined from three half-saint battle corpses. Its six arms each held a hundred-pattern sacred artifact: a sword, an axe, a pearl, a seal, a tower, a cauldron, and a mirror.
The six sacred artifacts all carried an ancient charm, with numerous inscriptions interwoven within them. The sacred power they emitted cracked the hard ground beneath, sending fissures spreading far and wide.
Zhang Ruochen thought to himself, "This inheritor of the Corpse-Driving Ancient Clan might have actually broken into a Great Saint's tomb. Otherwise, there's no way he'd equip a battle corpse with so many sacred artifacts."
The bell rang again.
One arm of the three-headed, six-armed battle corpse swung forward, unleashing a sword qi several hundred meters long. It was like a massive wall of sword energy, splitting the ground in two.
The sword qi surged forward, all the way to Zhang Ruochen.
Just this one strike alone unleashed power stronger than that of an ordinary third-step half-saint.
Yet, as this powerful sword qi reached Zhang Ruochen, it gradually dissipated and vanished entirely, without even breaking through his protective true qi barrier.
"How is this possible?" Yin Xuanji was quite shocked.
A full-force strike from a third-step half-saint—even he couldn't neutralize it so easily.
The Ghost-Raising Ancient Clan's princess, Feng Yinchang, standing farther away, had a clearer view. She warned, "That sword qi was neutralized by his space domain. Only by breaking through the space domain can you suppress him."
Yin Xuanji snorted coldly and shook the bell more violently.
The three-headed, six-armed battle corpse emitted crackling sounds from within its body. Its frame grew five or six times taller, becoming the size of a small mountain. All six giant arms reached out simultaneously, as if trying to tear the very heavens and earth apart.
As corpse qi surged through its body, the six sacred artifacts blazed with blinding light, like six burning suns, majestic and radiant, all flying toward Zhang Ruochen at once.
Zhang Ruochen extended both hands, drawing upon the spatial rifts above the magma ocean. Seven or eight of them converged and struck the three-headed, six-armed battle corpse simultaneously.
"Rip!"
The battle corpse's body was instantly severed into dozens of pieces, then sucked into the spatial rifts, turning into a mist of blood.
The six sacred artifacts, now uncontrolled, were easily collected by Zhang Ruochen.
After the Abyssal Ancient Sword absorbed the six sacred artifacts, over a hundred more inscriptions grew within the sword's body, bringing it closer to becoming a thousand-mark sacred artifact.
Although the divine corpse had been taken away by the Dead Zen Ancestor, this space had not fully stabilized. Many spatial rifts and spatial vortices still floated in the air.
For other cultivators, this was an extremely dangerous place.
But for Zhang Ruochen, fighting here gave him a huge advantage. Even someone stronger than him would be suppressed here.
Losing a powerful battle corpse and six sacred artifacts infuriated Yin Xuanji to the point of spitting blood. It was a massive fortune, equivalent to the total wealth of a deeply established half-saint clan.
"Zhang Ruochen, you have angered me."
Yin Xuanji gritted his teeth, his muscles tensing. The corpse qi around him grew denser, gathering above his head into a cloud of corpse qi.
The aura erupting from his body was so strong that it cracked the surrounding space, creating tiny fissures.
Zhang Ruochen turned his gaze to Feng Yinchang and said, "Want to come at me together?"
"Zhang Ruochen, you are the most arrogant man I have ever met. Do you really think that by wielding spatial power, you can remain undefeated?"
Clearly, Feng Yinchang was also quite angry. She waved the ghost banner in her hand.
"Whoosh."
A vast expanse of ghost qi flew out from the banner.
Every wisp of ghost qi that touched the ground condensed into a ghost soldier clad in armor. A total of eight thousand ghost soldiers gathered, arrayed before her, exuding a formidable presence.
Among them, eight ghost soldiers had solidified into physical ghost bodies, the most powerful of all—eight Wuchang commanders.
The most fearsome aspect of the Corpse-Driving Ancient Clan and the Ghost-Raising Ancient Clan lay here: they could control vast numbers of battle corpses and ghost soldiers.
A half-saint from the Corpse-Driving or Ghost-Raising clans could match several, or even dozens, of ordinary half-saints.
(Note: The website organized a trip to Thailand this past week, so updates may be unstable. I hope everyone understands, and I will try to update daily.)