Chapter 2029: Ten-Year Seclusion
In the Grand Guiyan Hall, all saints of the Sect of the Blood God took their seats one after another. Their eyes were fixed on Zhang Ruochen.
A moment ago, they were all ready to fight to the death with the Black Demon World to defend the majesty of the Sect of the Blood God.
But now, they were sitting in the Grand Guiyuan Hall, with all of the attacking foes being swept away. It felt like they were dreaming.
Moreover, Zhang Ruochen had subdued a large number of Black Demon Realm powerhouses, which greatly increased their strength. If they were to encounter any trouble in the future, they would at least have some power to fight back.
Over the years, the Sect of the Blood God had gradually declined, and after the Supreme Elder had gone missing, the Sect of the Blood God did not even have a Saint King-level elite.
And even with Kunlun Realm’s revival, the Saint Kings born to the sect could be counted with ten fingers.
Compared with the other six ancient sects, the Sect of the Blood God was undoubtedly too weak.
“Grand Master, I know you will come back. No matter how strong you had become, you are still the Boss Gu that I knew from before.” Sun Dadi said very excitedly.
Back then, he had gone adventuring with Zhang Ruochen, and the bits and pieces that had happened during that time were still fresh in his memory, as if they had only happened yesterday.
There were not many people who could impress Sun Dadi, Zhang Ruochen was undoubtedly one of those he was the most impressed with.
“Elder Yuanzhou, how did you came back with the Grand Master?” Elder Yuanxing asked curiously.
Elder Yuanzhou laughed and said. “Both Xianyan and I fled desperately to the Shangguan manor, and that Du Mosheng pursued us there. But he did not expect that the Grand Master happened to a guest of the Shangguan family. With the Grand Master’s intervention, that Du Mosheng naturally did not have any means to fight back, and after that, we rushed back together with the Grand Master.”
Hearing that, Elder Yuanxing and all of the saints of the Sect of the Blood God had a stunned look. This was really pure coincidence. No matter how the Black Demon Realm had planned, they did not account for Zhang Ruochen to be at the Shangguan manor.
Fortunate for them that such a coincidence happened. Otherwise, the Sect of the blood God would have been ruined.
Zhang Ruochen said with a solemn expression. “The sect had suffered greatly from this calamity, and our losses are not small. I plan to shut access to the mountain, and let everyone in the sect go into seclusion to cultivate, and increase their strength. The situation in Kunlun Realm is getting more and more chaotic. Without strength, even the most ancient of powers will face the likelihood of being destroyed.”
“We shall follow your arrangements, Grand Master.”
All of the saints stood up and responded.
The attack of the Black Demon Realm made the various saints of the sect realize how weak it was. Without any top-level elites, no matter how [powerful their foundation was, they could not unleash that power.
One needed to know, the Black Demon Realm had only dispatched five top powerhouses, and that alone almost destroyed the Sect of the Blood God.
If all of the Black Demon Realm powerhouses were to charge in together, they would not have lasted until Zhang Ruochen’s return.
If they did not want to be on the back foot, then they must increase their own strength.
It was a pity that Kunlun Realm’s recovery had been short, and even if the Sect of the Blood God had acquired many cultivation resources, it would not be able to cultivation a large number of top-level powerhouses in a short period of time.
“Elder Yuanxing, summon all of the sect disciples and gather them at the top of Qianyuan Mountain. I will use a secret treasure to assist everyone in their cultivation.”
Zhang Ruochen gave another order.
Elder Yuanxing quickly responded, “Yes, Grand Master.”
Immediately, Elder Yuanxing walked out of the Grand Guiyuan Hall to act on Zhang Ruochen’s order.
The Sect of the Blood God was extremely efficient, and it did not take long for all of the sect members to gather at the top of Qianyuan Mountain.
Qianyuan Mountain was an important place of the sect, with the power of the Blood God remaining on it. There are holy meridians inside the mountain, and the saint Qi was extremely rich, which was most suitable for seclusive cultivation and refining.
After suffered the raid by many demon cultivators, the sect suffered massive losses as many disciples were unable to retreat back to Yingzhu Peak in time. Now, only about eight thousand elite disciples were left.
With Zhang Ruochen as the center, more than eight thousand sect disciples were sitting cross-legged within a two hundred feet area.
Aside from that, Zhang Ruochen had also summoned a few old Shengming cadres out, leaving very few empty spots.
“Take all of the medicines and elixirs after the revival of Yingzhu Peak and Qianyuan Mountain out, and use them all. You have ten years to do your best to increase your cultivation.” Zhang Ruochen said as he looked around.
As he said that, Zhang Ruochen took out the Sundial, and put the Godstones into and activated it.
The Sect of the Blood God did not have any treasure of time, so if they wanted to quickly improve their strength, they had to use such a method.
As for as Zhang Ruochen was concerned, he had just broken through the realm of Precept Dominion, and it was undoubtedly necessary for him to seclude himself to cultivate.
What made Zhang Ruochen happy was that the Sect of the Blood God had four Godstones hidden in their collection, and with the remaining six on him, that made a total of ten Godstones. That meant that he could activate the Sundial for ten years worth of seclusive cultivation and refinement time.
Ten years should be enough to increase the overall strength of the Sect of the Blood God.
With such a good thing in hand, Zhang Ruochen naturally did not forget about Han Xue, and the first thing he did was to send her a message for her to rush over from the Peacock Manor.
After activating the Sundial, its mysterious power of time spread out and enveloped a radius of two hundred feet.
First, Zhang Ruochen had already gotten Blackie to deploy a Ninth-Rank formation array, and with Qianyuan Mountain’s own magical properties, breaking in would be very difficult, so they could seclude themselves for cultivating and refining without worry.
The Sect of the Blood God was totally amazed by the Sundial’s magic, and cherished this opportunity to cultivate.
The Sect of the Blood God had plenty of resources, and now with plenty of time as well, the entire sect was full of enthusiasm as they wanted to try to become a top-level elite within this ten-year period.
Sitting cross-legged under the Sundial, Zhang Ruochen took out a piece of jade that was extremely liquid. It was the gift given by Fairy Tianchu back at the Peacock Manor.
“The eleventh level of the Divine Stream Fist. I’m afraid only Luo Ji can master this.”
Thinking of Fairy Tianchu, Zhang Ruochen could not help but reveal a slightly different smile on his face.
If he were to cultivate the eleventh level of the Divine Stream Fist recorded in the jade, the power of his Divine Stream Fist would reach the level of a High-level Saint Art.
If nothing went wrong, when Fairy Tianchu came out from her seclusion inside the divine gate, she should have had successfully cultivated the eleventh level of the Divine Stream Fist.
What Zhang Ruochen cultivated was not the Divine Stream Fist, but Luoshui Fist, but the fact of the matter was, the two fist techniques had the same origins, and there were not many differences in nature.
So, by comprehending the eleventh level of the Divine Stream Fist, Zhang Ruochen was confident that he would be able to perform the eleventh level of Luoshui Fist.
And when he successfully does that, he would be able to master another high-level Saint Art.
One water and one fire, just right in keeping a balance.
“I hope these ten years are enough to allow me to successfully perform the eleventh level of Luoshui Fist, and successfully cultivate it. Let’s start.”
With a whisper, Zhang Ruochen refocused himself as he began to fully study the eleventh level of the Divine Stream Fist recorded in the jade.
Correspondingly, Zhang Ruochen planned to focus his understanding on the precepts of the fist in these ten years, which will help him deduce and train the eleventh level of Luoshui Fist.
Of course, he would not fall behind on his comprehension of the Path of Time, Path of Dimension, Path of the Sword, Path of the Palm and Path of Truth. The improvement of his cultivation needed to be balanced and comprehensive.
With the aid of the Canon of Truth, whether it was to comprehend the saint path precepts, or to cultivate saint arts, it was twice the result with half the effort.
That eight-ten thousandths of the Canon of Truth he had gained after killing Shang Ziyan was probably the biggest gain Zhang Ruochen had.
However, when Zhang Ruochen went into seclusion to cultivate, there was an uproar in the outside world.
What happened in the Sect of the Blood God had spread out and had attracted the attention of all parties.
Although the battle of the Sect of the Blood God was not fierce, and there were not many powerhouses killed, the impact was no lesser than that of the battle of Peacock Manor, and was even more.
The reason was, this time around, Zhang Ruochen had subdued a group of demonic cultivators, including two of Black Demon Realm’s top thirty-six elites, which greatly tarnished the reputation of Black Demon Realm.
“Zhang Ruochen actually used the Blood God’s Curse Seal. This is a deliberate humiliation of the Black Demon Realm!”
“Just wait and see, the Black Demon Realm will definitely not take this lying down, and they will definitely find ways to retaliate.”
“Zhang Ruochen is really brave. He had annoyed the Heavenly Realm faction earlier on, and now he dares to humiliate the Black Demon Realm to this extent. Is he really not afraid of the threats coming from the Heavenly Realm faction?”
“I have to admit, Zhang Ruochen is indeed very powerful, and his cultivation level had improved so drastically, making one unable to get a feel of his true power. Trying to kill him is extremely difficult. Even if one manages to, they’ll probably pay a very dear price in return.”
“Hehe, anyway, I’m looking forward to Zhou Yu, Xu, and the other terrifying folks taking action. I want to see how Zhang Ruochen will deal with them.”
…
But those who were not of the Heavenly Realm faction did not mind the commotion being turned up a notch and wanted to see the battle between Zhang Ruochen and the Heavenly Realm faction heat up even more.
For a time, the Heavenly Realm faction became a little quiet, without much movement at all, letting people think that they were giving up on dealing with Zhang Ruochen.
However, many had already realized that this should be the calm of the storm, and the Heavenly Realm faction’s moves to come will only be very astonishing.
No matter how big the waves were kicked in the outside world, inside the Sect of the Blood God, it was a sea of calm.
With a group of demonic cultivators doing the hard work, the mess at the Sect of the Blood God was soon cleaned up as a series of powerful formation arrays were being redeployed by Blackie.
Many of the sect’s disciples outside also returned one after another.
At times like these, staying inside the sect is probably safer.
In a blink of an eye, ten days had passed, and for those at the peak of Qianyuan Mountain, a full decade had passed.
When the power of the Godstone was exhausted, the Sundial calmed down as the power of time enveloping the area instantly disappeared without a trace, and the flow of time in the area returned to normal.
“Huh…”
Zhang Ruochen let out a deep breath as he opened his closed eyes.
One could see that there was a glint of brilliant light in Zhang Ruochen’s eyes, which meant his cultivation had been greatly improved throughout these years.
“With twenty of ten-thousandths of the Canon of Truth, cultivation is now really twice the effect for half the effort. Every year, I could comprehend four to five hundred thousand saint path precepts, and within these ten years, I’m now close to the peak of the Precept Dominion realm. Sadly, the Godstones have all been used up, and I’ll not be able to borrow its strength any longer. I wonder where else can I get those Godstones?”
At the end of the cultivation, Zhang Ruochen was both happy and frustrated.
The Godstones were just too rare. He had already tried to obtain them through various channels, and from now on, trying to get more of them would undoubtedly be extremely difficult.
Shaking his head, Zhang Ruochen did not want to continue thinking about this headache-inducing trouble.
However, overall, his gains from the seclusion this time was great. Not only had his cultivation base seen a great increase, but more importantly, he had managed to deduce the eleventh level of Luoshui Fist and successfully cultivated it.
Of course, the reason why he could successfully cultivate the eleventh level of the Luoshui Fist had a great deal to do with his cultivation of the twelfth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm.
With fire and water balancing each other out, and the yin and yang in perfect balance, this should be the realm many would like to reach.
In addition, Zhang Ruochen’s Precepts of Time had increased to nearly sixty thousand while his Precepts of Dimension was now close to a hundred thousand.
For the Path of Time and Path of Dimension to see such great improvements, was not only due to the Canons of Truth, but also a great deal through the integration of the divine power inside the Secret Tome of Time and Space.
Back then when Zhang Ruochen entered the null dimension in Xianji Mountain, the divine power left behind by Saint Monk Xumi naturally integrated with the Secret Tome of Time and Space. It contained a great amount of Precept of Time and Precept of Dimension, which greatly helped Zhang Ruochen’s comprehension of the Path of Time and Path of Space.
It had to be said that Saint Monk Xumi had planned things thoroughly and thoughtfully for his heir, Zhang Ruochen. Leaving a strand of his beard in the Thousand-star Civilization, leaving some of his divine power in the null dimension in Xianji Mountain, so that Zhang Ruochen could constantly enhance his attainment on both of these two ancient paths.
Otherwise, Zhang Ruochen could only go to the Fane of Time and Fane of Dimension to train, otherwise, it would have been extremely difficult for him to improve upon two Ancient Eternal Paths that he had majored in. Correspondingly, his cultivation base would not have increased that fast either.
Also, Zhang Ruochen had a breakthrough with the Path of Truth, with its precepts reaching over hundred and eighty thousand, almost doubling in number. Although this was not enough for him to unleash nine times the attack power, he must undoubtedly much closer to it now.
With Zhang Ruochen’s amazing gift on the Path of Truth, he naturally will not give up cultivating the Path of Truth.
Now, with Zhang Ruochen’s achievements on the Path of Truth, even in the Fane of Truth, beneath a Supreme Saint, there were scant few who were comparable to him.
Putting away the Sundial with a wave of his hand, Zhang Ruochen stood up and looked around as he could not help but smile.
The ten years’ time had indeed allowed the Sect of the Blood God’s overall strength to greatly improve.
The nearly three hundred Demi-Saints whom he had bestowed upon saint sources had now all cultivated to the realm of Saints, and among those who are the most talented, some had already reached the Tongtian-realm.
What made Zhang Ruochen even happier was that many saints had also broken through to the realm of Saint Kings.
Sun Dadi and another four Saint Kings also had seen great improvement in their cultivation. Sun Dadi had already broken through to become a Six-step Saint King, crossing three whole levels in a single breath.
Zhang Ruochen had never expected the power of the Sect of Blood God to be able to reach the pinnacle all at once, and he was already very satisfied with the results as it was.
After some thought, he took out another batch of saint sources as he bestowed them upon the disciples who had broken into the realm of a Demi-saint.
“Blackie, during my seclusion, was there anyone who came here looking for trouble?”
Upon walking out of his seclusion, Zhang Ruochen immediately looked for Blackie and asked about the recent situation.
Blackie raised its head and snorted. “With me around, who dares to cause trouble here? There are a lot of people who are spying in secret, but with my formation array, they won’t be able to glean anything at all.”
“That’s good. By the way, when you were deploying your formation arrays, had you noticed a very powerful existence inside the Sect of the Blood God?” Zhang Ruochen asked seriously.
Blackie was puzzled. “A powerhouse? No, aside from the Blood God Altar being a little weird, I did not notice anything unusual. Why are you suddenly asking about this?”
“Not long ago, I’ve met the vessel spirit of the Azuresky Pagoda and the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death. According to the vessel spirit of the Bronze Furnace, all of the vessel spirit in Kunlun Realm had already returned, and the Sect of Blood God has one Supreme Sacred Artifact as well, the Blood God’s Swordbreaker. So, it stands to reason that the vessel spirit of the Swordbreaker had already returned.” Zhang Ruochen said with a slight frown.
Originally, Zhang Ruochen had thought that the Blood God’s Swordbreaker’s vessel spirit would intervene when the sect was under attack, but he never thought that the vessel spirit was nowhere to be found.
Hearing this, Blackie could not help but look surprised as he said, “All of the Supreme Sacred Artifact’s vessel spirits have returned? Then where were they previously?”
“The reason why the vessel spirit’s had disappeared was to avoid the Yuanhui Tribulation, and also a divine artifact of the Infernal Court. Prior to this, they had been hiding in the Altar of Path’s Spirit, one of the Ten Great Divine Artifacts.” Zhang Ruochen said.
Hearing the term, ‘Altar of Path’s Spirits’, Blackie’s eyes immediately lit up, as it asked. “Where is it now? Who is behind it?”
Zhang Ruochen shook his head. “That I don’t know. If you were to meet a vessel spirit of a Supreme Sacred Artifact, you can ask in person.”
“Where do I even find one, to begin with?” Blackie glared at him.
Zhang Ruochen ignored Blackie as he ran through his thoughts. He remembered very clearly that Yan Liren held the Blood God’s Swordbreaker and entered the second level of the Endless Abyss. There had not been any news since.
If the swordbreaker’s vessel spirit were to return, it should have followed its senses to look for its body.
If that was the case, the vessel spirit might have gone to the Endless Abyss, but no one knew what happened in the end.
If he wanted to find out, he needed to make a trip to the Endless Abyss himself.
“It’s almost time to leave for the Endless Abyss, and hopefully this trip will resolve many questions in my heart. Let’s go to the Sword Vault first, and get the Supreme Saint-level Blood Suppressant Talisman.”
Zhang Ruochen thought to himself.
This was a dangerous trip, so he needed to make more preparations to ward off all eventualities.
…