“Milord, it’s our incompetence that Shengming’s foundation was destroyed.”
The four generals all knelt on the ground; their hearts filled with self-admonition.
Seeing Prince Mingjiang and the four generals looking like this, Zhang Ruochen immediately shouted. “With me around, Shengming will never perish. For those who destroy my city, and kill my people, I will make sure those butchers pay this blood debt with their own blood.”
Hearing this, Prince Mingjiang could not help but look up. “Ruochen, how can you fight them all by yourself? Leave, leave this place. As long as you are alive, Shengming shall have hope of revival.”
“Leave? Where do you think you’re going?”
At this moment, an extremely cold voice rang out.
In a blink of an eye, dozens of figures appeared and surrounded the sacred mountain.
The dozens of people who had appeared all exuded powerful auras, and all were at the very least of the Precept Dominion realm, and there was no weakling among them.
Zhang Ruochen ognored these people, and instead cast his gaze of Prince Mingjiang and the four generals, saying. “Twelfth Imperial Uncle, your wounds are not yet healed fully, heal up first and leave the rest to me.”
Without waiting for Prince Mingjiang and the four generals to say anything, Zhang Ruochen took out the Exquisite Dimensional Orb out and send all of them inside it.
After putting away the Exquisite Dimensional Orb only did Zhang Ruochen turned his attention to the powerhouses that appeared.
Moyin had already killed all of the elites that were pursuing Prince Mingjiang and had returned to Zhang Ruochen’s spine.
A powerhouse with a spatial distortion around him walked out, holding an Exquisite Dimensional Orb in his hand as he said coldly. “Zhang Ruochen, the orb in my hand contains almost half of the Shengming City’s population. So, you better obediently surrender or else they will die.”
Hearing tihs, Zhang Ruochen immediately cast his gaze on the Exquisite Dimensional Orb and saw there were a large number of figures inside it, ranging in the tens of thousands in both cultivators and ordinary persons.
Shengming City had a large population, and there were few cities in the entire Kunlun Realm that can match Shengming City in terms of scale.
“Even after Gong Ziyan’s death, the Fane of Space seemed to not have learned its lesson.” Zhang Ruochen said coldly.
Zhang Ruochen had never liked the Fane of Space as the latter was simply too close to the Heavenly Realm faction. Back then, the young leader of the Fane of Space, Gong Ziyan had teamed up with Shang Ziyan to try to get rid of him, but Gong Ziyan was the one who fell instead.
It was because of this, there is a great schism between Zhang Ruochen and the Fane of Space.
In fact, the schism had already arisen since the days of Saint Monk Xumi and was irreconcilable.
The Fane of Space powerhouse snorted coldly. “Zhang Ruochen, I advise you not to be so stubborn. Follow me back to the Fane of Space, and you may still have a way to live, otherwise your death is assured.”
Zhang Ruochen did not say anything, and only waved a hand to let a person out.
The person had four huge blood wings, and his body exuded an extremely powerful dark blood aura, but unfortunately for the person, he was bound by the Saint Binding Rope and could not move.
“Hm? Tian Chen?”
A powerhouse also with four large blood wings showed a look of shock.
Without a doubt, like Tian Chen, this was also a Scarlet Angel raised by the Fane of Bloody War.
Tian Chen was captured by Zhang Ruochen when he attacked the Eastern Region Holy City with Mister Shenya and had been suppressed inside Qiankun Realm.
Unlike this scarlet angel, Tian Chen was a Scarlet Angel of the previous generation, and although his cultivation level had not reached the realm of Precept Dominion, but his strength was stronger than most Precept Dominion-realm elites.
As far as talent was concerned, there were not many in the Fane of Bloody War that could be compared to Tian Chen, so Tian Chen was highly valued by the Fane of Bloody War and was a key cultivation focus.
“Zhang Ruochen, let Tian Chen go!” The Scarlet Angel who recognized Tian Chen shouted loudly.
THWACK!
Zhang Ruochen stepped on Tian Chen’s back, planting him into the ground.
“You want to save Tian Chen, then hand me that Exquisite Dimensional Orb.” Zhang Ruochen said coldly.
The Scarlet Angel glanced at Mu Jian and then said grimly. “Zhang Ruochen, know your situation, you have no right to negotiate terms with us now.”
“Is that so? Tian Chen can just die then!”
As he said that, Zhang Ruochen lifted his leg and stomped down hard.
BAAMM!!
The force of the stomp actually ripped Tian Chen’s body apart, causing his saint soul to be instantly annihilated.
“Zhang Ruochen, you…”
The Scarlet Angel of the Fane of Bloody War was extremely furious as the flames of rage burned in his eyes.
He did not expect Zhang Ruochen would dare to stomp Tian Chen to death right in front of him. It was like trampling an ant, and it was clearly meant to humiliate the Fane of Bloody War.
Insolence, absolute insolence!
Zhang Ruochen ignored the Scarlet Angel, and as if nothing had happened, turned his gaze towards Mu Jian, saying. “I know what you want. How about we make a deal? I’ll hand over the Secret Tome of Time and Space to you, and you hand over the Exquisite Dimensional Orb to me. How about it?”
With a flip of his hand, Zhang Ruochen took out the Secret Tome of Time and Space, as he displayed it clearly to the Fane of Space powerhouse.
Seeing the Secret Tome of Time and Space, the powerhouse’s eyes immediately lit up.
The Secret Tome of Time and Space left behind by Saint Monk Xumi was something even the gods of the Fane of Space eagerly coveted.
Pondering for a moment, the Fane of Space powerhouse nodded and said. “Alright, I will exchange with you, but you better not play any tricks, or I will immediately obliterate everyone inside the orb.”
In fact, he did not care about the life or death of those inside the Exquisite Dimensional Orb, and if he could use them to trade for the Secret Tome of Time and Space, it was undoubtedly better.
The dozens of Heavenly Realm elites around did not step forward to stop them and was obvious that they were giving face to the Fane of Space.
In any case, Zhang Ruochen was on the sacred mountain, and was like a bird with its wings clipped, a slight delay did not matter at all.
Almost at the same time, Zhang Ruochen sent the Secret Tome of Time and Space while the Fane of Space elite sent out the Exquisite Dimensional Orb.
Zhang Ruochen’s gaze was locked onto the orb while the Fane of Space elite locked his gaze on the tome. The nerves of the two were equally tensed and the atmosphere was extremely grim.
Seeing the two treasures was about to meet in mid-air, Zhang Ruochen and the Fane of Space powerhouse both acted, using techiques of space as both of them tried to seize the two treasures.
With the attainment of the two on the Path of Space, it was extremely easy for them to move items through the air.
For a time, the two treasures were deadlocked in mid-air, and no one could move them away.
“I did not expect Zhang Ruochen’s attainment in the Path of Space had reache such a point that he could fight Mu Jian on equal footing.”
“Although Mu Jian is not a Master of Space, he is still a divine disciple of the Fane of Space. He has cultivated for more than 1,500 years, and had long reached the realm of Path’s Anterior, and his attainment on the Path of Space is unfathomable, yet he is still unable to easily deal with Zhang Ruochen. It does seem like the inheritance left behind by Saint Monk Xumi is really extraordinary. No wonder the Fane of Space had always wanted to get their hands on it.”
“Should we help Mu Jian?”
“Better not. If we make a move and spoil Mu Jian’s plans, we’ll only earn his ire. We only need to seal this mountain off, and not allow Zhang Ruochen to escape.”
When Zhang Ruochen and Mu Jian were confronting each other with techniques of space, the group of Heavenly Realm elites secretly talked between themselves.
Regardless of the outcome between Zhang Ruochen and Mu Jian, Zhang Ruochen will never be able to escape anyway.
“He had never stepped into the Fane of Space to train, yet his attainments in the Path of Space is so high. The Secret Tome of Time and Space is really extraordinary, and I must get it.” Mu Jian said to himself.
At this moment, Mu Jian was very frustrated. He had already used a precious Talisman of Space, and yet he still could not gain the upper hand. If he did not use the talisman earlier, he would have already lost.
On the surface, Mu Jian yelled while fighting for the Secret Tome of Time and Space. “Zhang Ruochen, you dare to play tricks, seems like you don’t really care about their life or death.”
As he spoke, Mu Jian activated the precepts of space and launched his most powerful attack, trying to wipe out everyone inside the Exquisite Dimensional Orb.
“Don’t even think about it!”
Zhang Ruochen used the Dimensional Shift and appeared near the Exquisite Dimensional Orb.
Tens of thousands of precepts of space rushed out of Zhang Ruochen’s body and filled the space, trying to freeze the area in place.
On the other hand, Mu Jian was the Dimensional Collapse to rip the space apart and destroy everything.
Two completely different spatial forces collided in an instant.
BOOM!!
The space did not collapse ubt several large rifts appeared instead. They were extremely dark, like a primordial beast with its jaws wide open.
Terrifying spatial ripples appeared and spread in all directions at an extremely fast speed, causing some of the Precept Dominion elites to stagger backwards.
At this critical moment, Zhang Ruochen grabbed the Exquisite Dimensional Orb and retreated quickly backwards.
The Secret Tome of Time and Space on the other hand was sent flying by the spatial ripples and was caught by Mu Jian.
“Hahaha, the Secret Tome of Time and Space belongs to me from now on.” Mu Jian could not help but to burst out laughing.
Without a word, Zhang Ruochen quickly retreated to the top of the sacred mountain.
After confirming that there was nothing wrong with the Exquisite Dimensional Orb, Zhang Ruochen immediately put it away.
Being able to a good half of the people of Shengming City, no matter how big the risk was, it was undoubtedly worthwhile.
Upon seeing this outcome, all of the Heavenly Realm faction elites smiled. Since Mu Jian had achieved what he wanted, they can now safely deal with Zhang Ruochen.
With the sacred mountain as the center, the area of thousand of miles had been tightly sealed, and Zhang Ruochen will never be able to escape even with his techiques of space.
So, even if Zhang Ruochen had captured the Exquisite Dimensional Orb, it will not be long for those people inside the orb to die as well. Everything was already predetermined, and Zhang Ruochen cannot turn the tide alone.
“ARRRGGHHHH!!!”
Just as the elites was about to strike at ZHang Ruochen, Mu Jian’s screams suddenly rang by their ears.
Immediately, everyone turned their heads around and looked at Mu Jian.
They only saw Mu Jian with a horrified look as three washbasin-sized God Eater Bug had latched onto his body as his body was engulfed in blue flames.
A raging flame immolated Mu Jian, and in a blink of an eye, he was reduced to ashes, leaving nothing behind.
“God Eater Bug.”
Some of the elites reduced the blue flames, and their expression changed dramatically.
None of them had seen the God Eater Bug before, but all of them had heard of what happened in the Northern Region.
Zhang Ruochen had collected the Divine Sky-connecting Tree trunk, and inside it was a large number of terrible God Eater Bugs. Even if one was a top-tier elite, should they accidentally let the bugs touch them, it was very possible that they might lose their lives.
OBviously, it was Zhang Ruochen who had hid three God Eater Bugs inside the Secret Tome of Time and Space. Mu Jian did not take any precautions before opening the tome and was instantly struck down.
Seeing Mu Jian being killed by the God Eater Bug, the expressions of all of the elites’ present became extremely uncomfortable. They were too careless.
Zhang Ruochen stretched out one hand and grabbed the air, using the Spatial Grasp as he took the Secret Tome of Time and Space back into his hands.
For him to dare to use the lives of half the population of Shengming City to threaten him, Mu Jian deserved more than just death.
The three washbasin-sized God Eater Bugs instantly locked onto other prey and wanted to launch their attacks.
However, suddenly, all bodies of all three God Eater Bugs froze and could no longer move.
“Zhang Ruochen, do you think a mere God Eater Bug is enough to threaten us?”
One of the powerhouses spoke, his eyes full of contempt.
The person was thin in stature and was less than five feet tall. He was dressed in a black robe, his eyes were sunken, and like a viper, he exuded an extremely chilly aura.
He was named Feng Gudao, the number one elite of the Soul Realm beneath a Supreme Saint. His spiritual powers were extremely powerful, and his Soulbender technique has been cultivated to an astonishing level. Even a Nine-step Saint King could be easily controlled by him.
Being stared at by Feng Gudao, Zhang Ruochen could not help but to feel dizzy, as he became drowsy and was about to fall asleep.
“Soulbender.”
Zhang Ruochen reacted immediately and quickly protected his soul.
Fortunately, he was not just a martial arts cultivator, he was also a spiritual power cultivator, and his spiritual power was extremely powerful, close to the peak of the fifty-ninth level. Otherwise, he would have fallen prey to that.
“Hmm? You can actually resist my Soulbender. Zhang Ruochen, you sure are something.” A look of slight surprise appeared in Feng Gudao’s eyes.
Another powerhouse stood out and said with a gruff voice. “Feng Gudao, let me instead. I’ll just beat Zhang Ruochen to a gulp, why make things so complicated?”
The person’s figure was very tall, more than ten feet tall with his upper body exposed. His skin had a bronze hue with many arcane patterns clearly appearing on it.
He also had big eyes the size of brass bells, with ears like cattail leaf fans, with an even bigger mouth. As he spoke, two rows of jagged teeth were revealed, looking extremely hideous and terrifying.