Chapter 857: The Eighth Drop of Divine Blood
At the edge of the Fallen God Tomb Forest, a glazed palace floated in the sky.
Inside the palace, Wan Qingtong, who was in the midst of cultivation, suddenly felt a stir in his heart and abruptly opened his eyes. His two pitch-black pupils emitted two sharp beams of sacred light, transforming into white pillars that pierced through the void.
The soldiers of the Ministry of War, who were constructing the fortress, were all startled and looked up toward the palace in midair, curious about what had happened.
"Wan Ji's sacred edict was actually destroyed by someone."
Wan Qingtong muttered to himself. The next moment, one of his sacred avatar doppelgangers turned into a streak of light, flew out of the palace, merged with the heaven and earth spiritual energy, and vanished at the horizon at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.
Soon after, his sacred avatar descended from the sky and appeared outside Shentai City.
With a wave of his sleeve, he rolled up the broken pieces of the sacred edict from the ground, pinched them in his hand, and sent out a strand of spiritual power to examine them carefully, yet he could find no clues from them.
"Who exactly dares to help Zhang Ruochen and oppose our Wan Clan?"
Wan Qingtong's gaze was extremely sharp as he lifted his head and looked in the direction of the Liangyi Sect.
The fact that someone could damage his sacred edict indicated that the opponent was at the same cultivation level as him, or perhaps even stronger.
Such figures in the entire Eastern Domain were only a handful, each a renowned overlord.
Shentai City was very close to the Liangyi Sect's mountain gate; only the Liangyi Sect's experts could have arrived in time to save Zhang Ruochen. Therefore, Wan Qingtong naturally suspected the Liangyi Sect.
"Was it Ning Xuan Dao? Or Zangyue Sword Saint?"
Wan Qingtong was quite furious, clenching his fists tightly. His eyes burst forth with purple electric light, and he stomped heavily on the ground. The earth cracked into patterns, and then a rumbling sound echoed as the entire Shentai City sank into the ground.
He did not directly go to the Liangyi Sect to demand the person, after all, the Liangyi Sect's influence was vast, and they also held considerable power in the Ministry of War. Even he could not recklessly storm the sect to arrest someone.
If he caught the person, it would be fine; if he didn't, it would mean completely offending the Liangyi Sect.
"From the looks of it, I can only rely on the power of the Central Domain to capture Zhang Ruochen. If this child is not eliminated, the consequences will be endless."
Wan Qingtong took out a message light talisman and carved a line of text on it with his finger.
With a wave of his hand, the message light talisman turned into a streak of light and flew toward the Central Domain.
By the time the Liangyi Sect's disciples arrived at Shentai City to investigate, Wan Qingtong had already left.
...
...
Han Qiu returned to her cultivation cave. Her snow-white little hands were clasped in front of her perky chest, and she smiled as she glanced at Zhang Ruochen. "I've already found out. In five days, Yuanlong Half-Saint will lead a group of disciples to the Central Domain for training. At that time, the wormhole will be opened."
"Yuanlong Half-Saint."
Hearing this name, a strange expression appeared on Zhang Ruochen's face.
Yuanlong Half-Saint was a venerable master of the Shangqing Palace. It was he who had personally given the Void Sword to Zhang Ruochen back then. Later, when he learned the truth, he became utterly depressed, and his temper grew extremely irritable, making it impossible for him to cultivate peacefully.
Thus, this time, he had voluntarily applied to lead disciples to the Central Domain for training, as a way to relieve his pent-up frustration.
Indeed, it was understandable. A treasure like the Void Sword, even more precious than the Liangyi Sect's sect-guarding treasure, had been given away by him. If it had been someone else, they would have surely gone mad from the rage.
"Since there are still five days left, I can use this time to cultivate and improve my cultivation a bit more."
Zhang Ruochen took out the Cosmic Divine Wood Map and hung it on the wall. Suddenly, he paused slightly, glanced at Han Qiu, and asked, "Do you want to go in and take a look?"
Han Qiu was extremely interested in Zhang Ruochen's scroll painting and had long wanted to see it for herself. His invitation naturally made her even more tempted.
Her eyes narrowed, revealing a very charming smile. "Alright! This scroll painting should be a time-space treasure similar to the Sword Pavilion, right?"
"Go in, and you'll understand."
"Whoosh!"
The space gate opened, and Zhang Ruochen and Han Qiu entered one after the other.
Arriving in the scroll world, as expected, Han Qiu showed all kinds of amazed expressions, as if she had entered a peaceful paradise.
Moreover, this paradise had extremely rich heaven and earth spiritual energy, making it a true cultivation holy land.
Zhang Ruochen led Han Qiu to a city. This city was built beside the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree, and looking up, one could see the huge leaves floating in the clouds.
To the west of the city was a crimson medicinal field.
The soil in the medicinal field was the Red Blood Divine Soil dug from the bottom of the magma ocean. The medicinal herbs planted in the field were very ordinary, but the medicinal fragrance they emitted was quite rich, like thousand-year spiritual herbs.
Three hundred miles away from the medicinal field stood a towering mountain. Thick ghostly aura shrouded the mountain, turning the surrounding dozens of miles into a sunless ghost domain.
That was the territory of the Blood Moon Ghost King, known as "Ghost Mountain."
The Blood Moon Ghost King had already begun absorbing the death energy from the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree. Every so often, one could clearly feel the increasingly intense baleful aura emanating from Ghost Mountain, indicating that her cultivation was rapidly improving.
Zhang Ruochen had deliberately brought Han Qiu into the scroll world to make her more aware of his strength.
Zhang Ruochen was not a man without foundation. If it came down to a real comparison, the power and resources he currently possessed were already enough to rival an ordinary sacred clan.
Han Qiu stood beneath the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree, closed her eyes, and greedily absorbed the wood-attribute spiritual energy emanating from the leaves. She said somewhat intoxicatedly, "Zhang Ruochen, it's truly incredible that you control a world."
"If you spend more time in the scroll world, you'll discover even more incredible things," Zhang Ruochen said.
Han Qiu naturally understood Zhang Ruochen's intention. She blinked her eyes and smiled gracefully. "In that case, I'll cultivate here for a while."
Han Qiu stayed beneath the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree to cultivate. Since she had obtained a drop of Dragon Emperor's blood, she naturally wanted to refine it as soon as possible to enhance her cultivation.
Zhang Ruochen arrived at a valley not far from the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree and began to sit in meditation, adjusting his state, preparing to refine the eighth drop of divine blood.
In the past, refining seven drops of divine blood had been Zhang Ruochen's limit.
But now, having cultivated the Five Elements Chaos Body, his physique had been enhanced several times over, far surpassing his previous Four Symbols Treasure Body. Refining the eighth drop of divine blood should not be difficult.
Zhang Ruochen grew calmer and calmer, his mind peaceful, embracing unity and guarding the primordial. His entire being was in an ethereal state, and the distracting thoughts in his mind dissipated into nothingness.
Unconsciously, a mass of five-colored chaotic qi surged out from the pores all over Zhang Ruochen's body, forming the shape of a lotus flower that enveloped him at the center.
Only then did Zhang Ruochen take out a drop of divine blood, hold it in the palms of his hands, and begin to circulate his cultivation technique to absorb and refine it.
While absorbing the divine blood, Zhang Ruochen was also comprehending the Dao.
By the time Zhang Ruochen had completely refined this drop of divine blood, one major Dao rule and seven minor Dao rules had condensed within his sacred soul. All the rules were centered around the space rule, intertwined together.
The space rule was like a pillar supporting the heavens and the earth, while the other rules were like vines entwining around the pillar, simultaneously branching outward.
After refining the eighth drop of divine blood, two more divine imprints detached from the walls of his Qi Sea and converged into Zhang Ruochen's ears, making his hearing incredibly sharp.
It could be said that Zhang Ruochen was now even more formidable than someone with clairvoyance or clairaudience. His perception ability was probably more powerful than that of some saints.
"Continue to refine the ninth drop of divine blood."
Zhang Ruochen had a strong premonition that he was not far from the legendary Fish-Dragon Tenth Transformation. It was very likely that after refining one more drop, or two drops, a qualitative transformation would occur. (To be continued.)