Chapter 1889: First Encounter with Lord Ming
Zhang Ruochen was a highly capable sword cultivator who had a special connection with swords that gave him the ability to sense the intensity of the sword path emitted by the six swords.
The sword path radiation revealed that they were of top-grade, definitely above Ten-Radiance Thousand-Inscription sacred artifact.
Looking into the distance, Zhang Ruochen saw a blood cocoon under the six sacred swords.
The cocoon was about 100 feet in diameter, made up of blood-red striations.
The blood-red striations descended and spread on the ground, dyeing tens of miles of land red.
The face of a man suddenly poked out from the blood cocoon. His hair was unkempt and he let out an evil smile at Zhang Ruochen.
“What is that?”
Zhang Ruochen felt a pain in his eyes, his body shuddering, followed by a sense of lightheadedness.
Before coming, Bao Lie had warned Zhang Ruochen that Lord Ming’s spiritual and soul powers were leaking, spreading as far as five hundred miles away, affecting cultivators to some extent. The cause of the leak was unknown; probably it was because of the loosening of the seal of the six sacred swords, or Lord Ming was growing stronger.
Right now, Zhang Ruochen and Bao Lie were about five hundred miles from Lord Ming, which should be a safe distance.
Zhang Ruochen knew that Lord Ming’s mind power would attack him and immediately gathered the spiritual power from his saint heart to form a defense perimeter.
“Zhang Ruochen, you are the son of Blood Empress, one of the Immortal Vampires. Why are you so afraid of me and resenting me? It is unbecoming of you!”
A good-looking figure appeared in front of Zhang Ruochen at the sound of the voice speaking.
The figure wore a glinting blood armor, having long arms, sharp facial features, his eyes bright. He was emanating an otherworldly air, unlike a blood-thirsty demon but more like a fairy on earth.
Hearing what might sound like sand flowing, Zhang Ruochen looked over at Bao Lie beside him and saw his body disappearing like quicksand.
In this barren heaven and earth, he and the stalwart man opposite were the only souls left.
“Who are you, and how do you know that I am the son of Blood Empress?”
Zhang Ruochen summoned the Azuresky Pagoda, carrying it in his right hand as he tried to trigger the Supreme Power. But his saint Qi seemed to have frozen inside his body; he could not use it, and this horrified him.
“If according to how the cultivators in the Kunlun Realm address me, you should call me Lord Ming.”
“How could it be, Lord Ming?”
Zhang Ruochen looked toward the mountain of swords formed by the six sacred swords. It had collapsed, the six sacred swords broken, and heaven and heart shattered.
Lord Ming looked at Zhang Ruochen with a smile. “Since I can read your mind, so I know that you are my young sister’s descendant. In fact, you should call me uncle.”
“You could read my mind? But I am not even sure if Blood Empress is my mother. Hold on a second. What did you just say? You are the elder brother of the Blood Empress?”
Zhang Ruochen could not calm himself down.
There had never been a record in the classic literature and documents about the relationship between Lord Ming and Blood Empress, who were ten thousand years apart in age. How could they be brother and sister?
There was an unquestionable look in Lord Ming’s eyes as he nodded lightly. “At my level of cultivation, there is no reason for me to lie to a junior like you.”
Lord Ming continued. “I could see what you have been through all these years. That god from the Kunlun Realm had killed you. You were forced to leave the Kunlun Realm in exile. There is bad blood between you two, yet you don’t have the ability to seek revenge.
“As long as you call me Uncle, I can help you kill her or emasculate her cultivation so you can deal with her however you want it.”
Zhang Ruochen laughed as he shook his head. “It is between her and me. I don’t need anyone to intervene. It is my business alone, even if I want to kill her. How could I ask a demon of the Immortal Vampires like you to do that? You are just trying to delude me, but you have got the wrong person.”
Lord Ming looked at him with a smile, as if he had seen through Zhang Ruochen. “You say the Immortal Vampires are demons, but deep down, you hate and are disappointed with the Celestial Court even more.
“If so, why don’t you join the Infernal Court to become one of the Immortal Vampires? You would not have to hold yourself back anymore. Instead, you can kill as many enemies from the Celestial Court as you wish, drink their blood, and make them your slaves. Isn’t that awesome?
“There is nothing for you to look forward to in the Kunlun Realm, Zhang Ruochen. Follow me to the Infernal Court, where you can get the highest right and power.
“If you want revenge against Empress Chi Yao, I can help you. Even the whole of Immortal Vampires can help you.”
Zhang Ruochen stared at Lord Ming in front of him with a cold expression. “The Celestial Court might have disappointed me and I want revenge against Chi Yao, but these are not my soft spots. You have underestimated me by trying to use them to attack my will.”
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes suddenly looked penetratingly sharp. He gathered his strength in his fingers to carry the Azuresky Pagoda as he lunged at Lord Ming at a steady pace.
Yet Lord Ming just smiled and nonchalantly stood on the spot. “You can’t hurt me with your current level of cultivation. Why bring destruction to yourself? You should know that I have my prestige, and I will not allow any cultivators to violate that.”
Speaking of which, Lord Ming’s smile faded and replaced by a frosty expression, an above-all, hegemonic aura.
At the same time, Lord Ming’s body was growing larger and large, the sky above him turning blood-red, the land under his feet breaking apart.
Facing the power of the Path emanating from Lord Ming, all living things except the Supreme Saints would quake in their boots.
But Zhang Ruochen gritted his teeth and launched himself into the air before smashing down the Azuresky Pagoda at Lord Ming.
Lord Ming reached out a gigantic hand and struck at Zhang Ruochen as if he was just an ant.
When even Zhang Ruochen thought that he would surely die, he penetrated Lord Ming’s hand and hit Lord Ming with the Azuresky Pagoda, crushing his body into pieces.
That suffocating power of the Path had disappeared.
Zhang Ruochen landed on the ground and gasped for air.
When he looked up again, he saw that the blood-red heaven and earth were torn apart like a paper by his earlier move.
The real world was revealed.
The sword mountain made of the six sacred swords was still standing on the horizon, suppressing the blood cocoon.
“Brother Zhang, have you been attacked by Lord Ming’s mind?” asked Bao Lie with concern.
Zhang Ruochen had no time to explain. “Lord Ming’s mind could have spread far and wide! This place is dangerous. We have got to get out of here.”
Before Zhang Ruochen and Bao Lie could make it far enough, an ear-piercing sound wave came out of the ground, causing the entire dimension to tremble.
The sound wave came from afar and rapidly approached Zhang Ruochen and Bao Lie.
“It is that monster; it appears again!”
Bao Lie leaped forward and stood in front of Zhang Ruochen, his hands on his belly, which swelled bigger and bigger and emitted a bright sacred light as if there was a start inside his abdomen.
Sound wave spurted out of Bao Lie’s mouth.
The ground heaved from under Bao Lie’s feet and spread over hundreds of miles away with soil and stones brought into the air. It was not until it came within the vicinity of the sword mountain of the six sacred swords that the sound wave was broken by the sword Qi.
About a dozen miles from where Zhang Ruochen and Bao Lie were, the sound wave had forced the monster with white silky stuff on its body out of the ground.
Zhang Ruochen could finally see it clearly. Those tens of thousands of feet of white silky strands were hair, beneath which was a skinny and old body with wrinkled skin, its face hideous and eyes blood-red.
“I knew it. It is Shi Mingyuan.”
Zhang Ruochen and Bao Lie quickly retreated while the monster gave chase.
When they lured it to a place several thousand miles from the sword mountain, Zhang Ruochen and Bao Lie exchanged a look and they stopped dead in their tracks.
Bao Lie raised the golden spear, performing the full strength of the Seventh Radiance. As golden energy waves of the Path spread, the entire world turned into a golden sea.
Boom!
The spear struck down as if it was a staff.
The golden spear seemed to have turned into a sky-connecting divine pillar, landing on the monster and sending it flying out backward as it shrieked in pain.
Meanwhile, Zhang Ruochen was performing a Dimensional Shift to come behind the monster, blocking its way of retreat. With the Azuresky Pagoda in hands, he summoned a Supreme Power as he was ready to strike.
With Bao Lie’s high level of cultivation and combat strength, every move of his spear was causing a large area of land to cave in.
But that monster was no slouch as it continued to draw runes to neutralize Bao Lie’s attacking energy.
“This won’t do, Brother Zhang. We can’t break up the evil energy in its body. Lord Ming must have controlled his mind, and also poisoned it with its blood toxin,” said Bao Lie.
Zhang Ruochen frowned. “Suppress it and bring it out of the Nether Dungeon. We will find a way to detoxify it and expel the evil will in its body.”
“Got it.”
Bao Lie performed a Precept Domain without holding back anymore.
Bao Lie’s Precept Domain was solid like a wall, dragging the monster into it, preventing it from escaping and limiting its movement and speed.
Boom!
The golden spear hit the monster’s back, sending it flying out again.
Meanwhile, Zhang Ruochen had been waiting nearby. He cast out the Azuresky Pagoda to capture and suppress the monster inside.
The Azuresky Pagoda shook with an ear-piercing shrill coming from within.
In the distance, where the six sacred swords were, a voice came. “Not half bad, Ruochen. You didn’t disappoint me. We will meet again, and by then, I hope we will not be enemies again.”
“What does he mean?” Bao Lie was puzzled.
“Just ignore him.”
Bao Lie was looking worried. “Lord Ming’s mind power has become so powerful that it has spread hundreds of miles away. Who knows, he might defeat the seal and break free from the Nether Dungeon?”
“I am more worried about the Immortal Vampire cultivators. They could infiltrate the Nether Dungeon and help him escape early. With Lord Ming’s current level of cultivation, I am afraid that he no longer needs the six secondary swords as keys to unlock the seal. He just needs someone to deliver a Supreme Artifact to him and he could defeat the seal.” It looked like Zhang Ruochen was more worried than Bao Lie was.
…
Half a day later, Zhang Ruochen, Shi Qiankun, Shi Ren, Bao Lie, and Bao Xinghun left the Nether Dungeon to rendezvous with Ji Fanxi and others before they returned to the Zhenyu Clan.