Chapter 1813: Zhu Xia, the Array Master
The Sacred Cauldron of Blood Sacrifice was as large as a typical palace, layers of blood appearing on the surface with the full strength of the Seventh Radiance.
Its shock wave was a tad more powerful than that of the golden hairpin. Before it hit the ground, the land around Mount Wanwu cracked open and swallowed up a large area of vegetation.
Since Mount Wanwu had the protection of the inscription array, it was spared from the destructive energy of the Sacred Cauldron of Blood Sacrifice.
Nevertheless, Zhang Ruochen’s bones were crackling loudly. He was seemingly losing control of his legs as they sank into the ground. He felt as if the terrifying energy was going to shatter his body.
“Holy moly! The full strength of the Seventh Radiance is powerful enough to kill a Nine-step Saint King!”
Zhang Ruochen quickly summoned and injected his spiritual power into the Yi Huang Bone Scepter.
It exuded strong, evil energy. As the scepter turned into a black skeleton, it roared into the sky.
But Ji Fanxin made the move first, chanting something in her mouth. “Mirror of the Moon in the Water and Heavenly!”
She then pointed at the sky with her white finger.
A large number of Precepts intertwined. Combining with the spiritual Qi, it turned into a white sacred mirror, which looked like a moon thousands of feet in diameter. It then collided with the Sacred Cauldron of Blood Sacrifice.
The sacred mirror was just a thin layer of light. Zhang Ruochen was worried that it would shatter at once.
But he was surprised. The Sacred Cauldron of Blood Sacrifice equipped with the full strength of the Seventh Radiance had failed to defeat the sacred mirror.
The status of The Heavenly Light Technique in the Qianhui Realm was akin to the importance of the six great books of the Kunlun Realm.
Mirror of the Moon in the Water and Heavenly Light was the most powerful intermediate defense technique in The Heavenly Light Technique book. The more Precepts it infused, the more powerful its defense capability.
Other than that, Ji Fanxin had also mobilized the Precepts of Truth to boost the defensive capability of Mirror of the Moon in the Water and Heavenly Light several folds.
“How could it be?” Qi Xiaotian was stunned.
In Qi Xiaotian’s eyes, that lady seemed to have so effortlessly stopped the Sacred Cauldron of Blood Sacrifice in its tracks. This move of Ji Fanxin had indeed applied great pressure on him.
The golden hairpin took an about-turn and came back toward Qi Xiaotian.
He was forced to pull the cauldron in front of him to block the golden hairpin.
After dozens of rounds of the collision, Mount Wanwu was almost flattened with many parts of it crumbling. Even with the protection of the Eight Stratum Defense Array, it could not withstand the continuous impact of the full strength of the Seventh Radiance.
Qi Xiaotian was thinking of retreating. He knew that he would most likely lose to the lady. If the combat were to drag on, things were going to end up bad for him.
So he ordered Qi Zeng to retreat first with the cultivators of the Immortal Vampire.
“Trying to flee?”
Zhang Ruochen performed a Dimensional Shift, traveling across the void and reemerged among the cultivators of the Immortal Vampire. Immediately, a Divine Purification Flame burst out of his body.
“Run! It is the Divine Purification Flame!”
“It is Chenyan-class Divine Purification Flame. My blood saint body… I-I don’t want to die!”
Those cultivators of Immortal Vampire turned into balls of fire and fell out of the sky.
Immortal Vampires of Saint Kinghood and below would be burned to ashes if they encountered the Chenyan-class Divine Purification Flame. Twelve of them survived and were running for their dear lives.
“Go to hell!”
Qi Zeng was full of hatred, his eyes were bloody red.
Shooting out of his bloody eyes were two beams of light, aiming straight at Zhang Ruochen.
It was Crimson Demonic Eyes, an intermediate saint technique of incredible power. It could cut mountains and rivers in half and kill its targets from hundreds of miles away.
Zhang Ruochen summoned all his spiritual Qi. Using the Ancient Abyssal Blade in his hand, he drew a circle of swords to block the two beams of Crimson Demonic Eyes.
Following immediately, he mimed a sword with his fingers and pointed at the sky.
A powerful sword Qi exploded, triggering a change in the Precepts of Heaven and Earth.
Thunder and lightning suddenly appeared above Qi Zeng.
Streaks of lightning intertwined and turned into a sword of lightning. It struck down, hitting Qi Zeng on the head. Immediately, lightning ran through him and shrouded his body like a spider web.
Some runway lightning struck the ground and spread out in all directions like a purple wave, scorching the ground in its path.
Zhang Ruochen’s move was the True Thunderflame Sword Technique, one of the top sword techniques in the Kunlun Realm.
Qi Zeng half-kneeled on the ground, badly wounded as even his Hundred-Saint Blood Armor could not protect him. His body had been mutilated underneath the Blood Armor.
Boom!
Zhang Ruochen summoned a massive palm and crushed Qi Zeng into minced meat.
Even the Hundred-Saint Blood Armor had shattered.
While Zhang Ruochen was dealing with Qi Zeng, the other Saint Kings of the Immortal Vampire had fled. Some of them had gone as far as 250 miles away.
Can’t underestimate the damage a Saint King of the Immortal Vampire could inflict. They all have to die.
Zhang Ruochen took out the Azuresky Bow and Whitesun Arrow and killed every Immortal Vampire that tried to flee, turning them into clouds of blood mist.
Qi Xiaotian roared furiously at seeing what happened, looking as if he would devour anyone standing in his way. “I will kill you, Cripple!”
“Let’s see if you can.”
Zhang Ruochen aimed the Whitesun Arrow at Qi Xiaotian.
As he shot out the bolt, a powerful shock wave traveled out in all directions, sending dust and gravel several thousand feet in the vicinity flying.
The Whitesun Arrow turned into light, dragging its long tail as it flew toward Qi Xiaotian’s forehead.
Qi Xiaotian struck with a punch and blew the Whitesun Arrow away.
“This arrow of yours looks like the wooden bolt shooting from a child’s hand.” Qi Xiaotian sneered.
Zhang Ruochen pulled back the Whitesun Arrow and shrugged. “It is a miracle that an arrogant person like you could survive until now.”
With Zhang Ruochen’s current cultivation base, his power was limited. It was only natural that he failed to kill an elite like Qi Xiaotian.
But there was Marks of Time on the Whitesun Arrow.
The bolt itself might have failed to kill. But so long as the Marks of Time had landed on the enemy’s body, it would reduce the health of the enemy and make the enemy weak.
Zhang Ruochen could see that the Mark of Time had landed on Qi Xiaotian’s body.
At first, Qi Xiaotian was belittling Zhang Ruochen. But the next moment, he suddenly went weak at the knees, shivering with sweat all over his body. He seemed to lose control of the Sacred Cauldron of Blood Sacrifice.
“What’s going on? Am I poisoned? Oh, no! This is…”
Ji Fanxin shot out a golden hairpin, piercing through Qi Xiaotian’s abdomen, leaving behind a through-and-through wound.
Like a leaking hot-air balloon, Qi Xiaotian became weaker and weaker, a sense of powerlessness hitting him. Before this, he thought it was pure bad luck to bump into the cripple and the mysterious lady who appeared to be worthy opponents.
But now, he felt that he was dying.
Flee!
Right now!
After taking a mouthful of Supreme Saint blood, Qi Xiaotian regained some strength. He then quickly retrieved the Sacred Cauldron of Blood Sacrifice, flapped his wings, faded into a streak of light, and lunged into the clouds.
At the same time, Zhu Xia, the array master, activated all the arrays on Mount Wanwu.
He wanted to use these arrays to bog down Ji Fanxin, buying himself some time.
Ji Fanxin looked back and shot Zhang Ruochen a look. “I will leave the array master to you while I go after Qi Xiaotian.”
“No problem,” said Zang Ruochen with a smile.
Zhu Xia was riding on the back of the three-headed bat and fleeing. When he heard the conversation between Zhang Ruochen and Ji Fanxi, he sniggered.
That cripple is thinking too highly of himself. I am unlike Qi Zeng. If he comes after me, I will overpower him and turn him into a vampire’s slave.
Zhu Xia’s major concern was not Zhang Ruochen, but Ji Fanxin.
Since Ji Fanxin was tied up with the arrays in Mount Wanwu, she would not come out of it until a few hours later.
Boom!
A loud noise rose in Mount Wanwu’s direction.
Zhu Xia’s expression changed, and he glanced back. A mysterious lady had breached the layers of arrays, flying up into the clouds like a flying fairy to go after Qi Xiaotian.
How-How could it be? Yuanguang Golden Turtle Array and Yellow Sancai Array are Eighty Stratum Arrays. There are also the Seven Stratum Arrays. Yet they are useless against her. Who is she, really?
Zhu Xia quickly instructed the three-headed bat to change its course, fleeing in another direction.
That mysterious lady would surely go after him after killing Qi Xiaotian.
Before that happened, he must flee as far as he could.
Before this, Ji Fanxin had only used the Power of the Path to fight Qi Xiaotian. It gave Zhu Xia the impression that they were equal in strength.
Little did he know that Ji Fanxin’s attainment in spiritual power was far higher than that.
She had used her spiritual power to defeat the arrays.
“Where are you trying to flee?”
A voice came from above Zhu Xia.
Zhang Ruochen emerged from the void, striking down with a thousand-feet-long sword at Zhu Xia. Thousands of streaks of sword Qi formed and shuffled in the air.
Zhu Xia quickly raised his sacred staff and pointed it into the air.
An array disc appeared. It spun slowly and collided with the sword Qi, blocking the attack from Zhang Ruochen.
“I will kill you if you come after me, Cripple!”
A hideous smile spread across the wrinkled face of Zhu Xia. “Spectral Chains of Thousand Ways!” he chanted softly.
A noise came within the array disc, then tens of chains the thickness of a bucket shot up into the air toward Zhang Ruochen. The chains looked like countless steel dragons went after its target in a spiral motion.
This array master is nasty, not easy to deal with!
Zhang Ruochen performed a Dimensional Shift again. When he reappeared behind Zhu Xia, he thrust the sword forward.
Zhu Xia spotted him from the corner of his eye. He quickly spread his arms, and immeasurable inscriptions appeared on the bagua robe to form a golden array.
The Ancient Abyssal Blade struck the array inscriptions. It felt like it had fallen into a vortex, pulling the sword and Zhang Ruochen into it.
Zhu Xia quickly took off the Bagua robe and chanted “close!”, capturing Zhang Ruochen in his robe.
“You have thought too highly of yourself, Cripple! How could you fight an array master like me?”
The bagua robe in Zhu Xia’s hand was made of the skin of the Black Hou, the king of beasts. The material was so robust that even Thousand-Inscription sacred artifacts could not tear it apart. It was a robe when it was opened, and a bag when folded. It had many inscriptions intertwined on the surface, capable of enclosing elites of Nine-step Saint Kinghood.
Zhu Xia landed on the back of the three-headed bat and continued to flee toward the horizon.
That aside, the bag in his hand continued to wriggle and stretch, some time in a big way, some time small, into different shapes. It was as if it was going to burst.