# Chapter 948: Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant
With Zhang Ruochen's current mastery over space, even if he performed a spatial displacement, those below the Saint realm would not be able to sense any fluctuation in spatial power.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen vanish from beneath her blade, Su Bai was momentarily stunned, at a loss for what had happened.
A killing blow that should have been certain—yet it had missed.
How could Gu Linfeng have suddenly disappeared?
Almost at the same instant, Zhang Ruochen silently appeared above and behind Su Bai. Both his palms turned blood-red, the six apertures in his palms opening as he struck downward simultaneously.
It was precisely the Seven Apertures Blood Nether Palm.
Su Bai, no slouch as a seventh-rank Half-Saint, possessed incredibly fast neural reflexes. Sensing the power fluctuation behind her, she immediately twisted her body and swung her blade in a diagonal upward slash.
Because her sword speed was extremely fast and her strength formidable, the bones in her arms emitted cracking sounds, and the air itself exploded with sharp reports.
"Boom!"
Palm and blade collided.
How could the palm force of the Seven Apertures Blood Nether Palm be weak? How could Su Bai's hastily gathered power possibly withstand it?
Struck by the palm force, Su Bai's internal organs trembled violently. Her blood qi churned as she plummeted rapidly toward the ground.
"Boom!"
Su Bai's body crashed into the mountainside of a snow-covered peak, causing the mountain to collapse inward, forming a crater a hundred meters wide.
Rumbling sounds echoed as the eight-thousand-meter snow mountain triggered a massive avalanche, quickly filling the crater.
Below, white mist rolled, and a wave of cold air surged straight toward the sky.
Su Bai was no weakling. As a high-ranking Half-Saint, she possessed many formidable techniques. To avoid falling into an ambush, Zhang Ruochen did not recklessly plunge beneath the snow layer. Instead, he used his spiritual power to lock onto Su Bai's position.
His spiritual power detected a very strong life force fluctuation beneath the snow. This indicated that although Su Bai was severely injured, she was not dead.
Thus, he needed to be even more cautious, lest she turn the tide of battle.
"Why are you ambushing me?"
Zhang Ruochen stood in midair, his gaze sharp as he stared downward. At the same time, a blood-red dragon soul surged forth, coiling around his body, radiating an overwhelming and domineering aura.
From beneath the snow, Su Bai's voice rang out: "With such powerful palm force, how could your cultivation be merely second-rank Half-Saint? You must be a seventh-rank Half-Saint too, right?"
Zhang Ruochen did not answer her. Instead, he countered, "The armor you wear bears the special mark of a Netherword Heavenly Palace member. So your identity must be one of the flag masters of the Netherword Heavenly Palace. Yet, as far as I recall, I have never offended you. Speak—who sent you to kill me?"
From beneath the snow came only a low, gloomy, cold laugh: "Come down here, come to my side, and I'll tell you."
Zhang Ruochen glanced downward and said, "Do you believe I can send a message to Sea Nether Dharma King right now, telling him that a flag master of the Netherword Heavenly Palace wants to kill me? With the Dharma King's status, dealing with you shouldn't be difficult, should it?"
Zhang Ruochen said this only to force Su Bai out. He had no intention of actually contacting Sea Nether Dharma King.
After all, if Sea Nether Dharma King learned of this, Zhang Ruochen's identity would also be exposed.
"Boom!"
Su Bai shot upward, breaking through the snow layer and landing atop the mountain peak.
She gripped her blade with both hands, forming a blade qi domain a hundred zhang in diameter, completely enveloping her body.
Her rough face was deathly pale, with dark red blood stains at the corners of her mouth.
"You still want to send a message to Sea Nether Dharma King? Do you think you can escape today?"
Su Bai's gaze was cold and heavy. She glanced toward the northeastern corner and shouted, "Zhao Shiqi, make your move now!"
"There are other experts?"
Zhang Ruochen released his spiritual power again, covering a thousand li in radius. Soon, he detected faint spiritual power fluctuations in a nearby mountain hollow.
Zhao Shiqi's spiritual power intensity surpassed Zhang Ruochen's, allowing him to conceal his aura. Without careful investigation, Zhang Ruochen would never have discovered him.
The power Gu Linfeng had displayed naturally shocked Zhao Shiqi greatly.
But since they had already made their move, they absolutely had to kill Gu Linfeng here. They could not let him escape.
The wrath of Sea Nether Dharma King was not something two flag masters like them could withstand.
What Zhao Shiqi and Su Bai did not know was that Zhang Ruochen harbored the same intention. He had already resolved to kill both Su Bai and Zhao Shiqi to prevent his true strength from being exposed.
Zhao Shiqi mobilized his spiritual power, channeling it into the white leaf the size of a palm fan in his hand. Complex patterns emerged on the leaf, emitting a blinding white light.
"Whoosh!"
The white leaf flew into the air. With a gentle wave, a large cluster of interwoven white inscriptions flew out, imprinting themselves onto the several-thousand-meter snow mountain opposite.
At the same time, a powerful wind force peeled away the snow covering the mountain's surface, revealing the black soil beneath...
No.
That was not soil—it was the hide of a savage beast.
The white inscriptions surging from the leaf were precisely imprinted onto the surface of the beast's hide.
Immediately after, the massive "snow mountain" began to shake, gradually rising to transform into a colossal savage elephant several thousand meters tall, radiating an immense and primal wild aura.
Its body was covered with millstone-sized black scales. If it lay on the ground covered by snow and ice, it would be indistinguishable from any snow mountain.
Even Zhang Ruochen had never seen such a massive creature before.
"Sixth-rank upper-level savage beast, Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant."
Zhang Ruochen stared at the giant beast below, his expression grave. He extended his arm and summoned the Abyssal Ancient Sword.
The power of a Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant was comparable to a ninth-rank Half-Saint. It was undoubtedly one of the most powerful savage beasts below the Saint realm.
If one controlled a Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant to assault a city, few city-protecting grand formations could withstand its charge.
Of course, the Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant also had an obvious weakness—its body was too massive, making it insufficiently agile. It was suited for large-scale battlefields, not for one-on-one combat against top experts.
"Whoosh—"
Zhao Shiqi stepped onto a long bridge formed by wind power and flew to the top of the Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant's head. Then, he activated beast-controlling techniques, commanding the Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant to attack Zhang Ruochen.
The Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant lowered its head and spat out a green wave of air.
Within the air wave came a rustling sound, containing hundreds of thousands of wind-blade attacks. These wind blades coalesced into a torrent dozens of li long, surging toward Zhang Ruochen like a sky-covering tide.
This was a natural martial technique of the Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant clan, known as "Eight-Sided Divine Wind." With just one breath, it could annihilate all life within a radius of several hundred li.
Zhang Ruochen did not clash head-on with the Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant. Instead, he performed another spatial displacement, vanishing from his spot and reappearing to Su Bai's left.
"Kill this seventh-rank Half-Saint first, then deal with the Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant and that beast-taming master," Zhang Ruochen decided in his mind, formulating this tactical plan.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen charging toward her, Su Bai did not flee. Instead, she gathered her sacred qi, preparing to fight him.
In Su Bai's view, Zhang Ruochen was merely a seventh-rank Half-Saint. Earlier, she had completely underestimated his cultivation and was caught off guard, failing to block his palm strike.
In a real fight, with her richer combat experience, she might not necessarily lose to a junior.
What she did not know was that Zhang Ruochen's Seven Apertures Blood Nether Palm had been delivered without sufficient power buildup, unleashing only thirty percent of its full strength.
If Zhang Ruochen had struck with full force, Su Bai would not have been able to get up from the ground at all.
"Buddha-Slaying One-Blade Kill."
Su Bai gripped the blade handle with both hands, drawing a circle. The powerful blade qi also formed a massive ring of ripples.
"Whoosh!" All the blade dao rules between heaven and earth converged, merging with the sacred blade. Dense, blade-shaped blade qi materialized, floating behind Su Bai.
Her arms exerted force as she slashed downward.
Tens of thousands of blade qi followed, flying out with a wailing sound.
Zhang Ruochen showed no fear, maintaining his original speed. Just as he was about to collide with the blade qi, he kicked off the ground, leaping upward, and slashed down with his sword, uttering two words: "Sword Three."
Rip!
It was a simple, unadorned sword strike—no flourish, yet it connected heaven to earth.
All the blade qi was annihilated.
A blood line appeared from Su Bai's brow to her chin. Her entire body stood rigidly in place, her sacred qi spiraling out of control, becoming extremely chaotic.
"Boom!" Her body, including the black armor, split in two, flying to the left and right.
The blood that spilled out dyed the snow on the ground a vivid red.
With a single sword strike, a seventh-rank Half-Saint had fallen atop the snow mountain, reduced to two halves of a corpse.
The Abyssal Ancient Sword emitted a joyful sword cry as it flew out from Zhang Ruochen's hand, refining Su Bai's armor and sacred blade into metallic droplets, absorbing them into the sword body.
In truth, if Su Bai had been determined to flee, with Zhang Ruochen's current strength, he could not have killed her. However, she had overestimated her own power and underestimated Zhang Ruochen.
From beginning to end, she had consistently underestimated him.
Seeing this, Zhao Shiqi, standing atop the Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant's head, was greatly startled. "Su Bai's cultivation was quite profound—how could she not withstand a single sword strike from Gu Linfeng? No, Gu Linfeng specializes in palm techniques. How could his sword dao attainments be this high?"
Zhao Shiqi sensed something was amiss, but he did not retreat. Instead, he extended a finger and struck the center of the Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant's head.
Powerful spiritual power emanated from his fingertip, forming three hundred and seventy-eight light shuttles that completely enveloped the Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant's body.
Immediately after, the Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant let out a furious roar, lifting one of its massive legs to stomp down on Zhang Ruochen, who stood atop the snow mountain.
Even just one foot was over two hundred meters long, like a black demonic cloud pressing down from the sky.
Around Zhang Ruochen, four walls of wind rose up, trapping his body at the center.
The Heaven-Spanning Sacred Elephant's power was too great. Although it was merely a stomping attack, the formidable sacred dao force completely locked onto Zhang Ruochen, making it impossible for him to escape.