The fighting outside the Peacock Manor was extremely fierce, and within a short period of time, there were already heavy casualties.
The 26 Nine-step Saint Kings that were orignally controlled by Feng Gudao’s Soulbender were each very strong, buty now six have perished, while several others were seriously injured.
On the Heavenly Realm side, although some were injured, none were killed so far.
If this continued, the situation will undoubtedly become even more and more unfavorable for Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen held the Five-colored Merit Stele with all of his might, but his body was constinuously sinking into the ground.
If not for the fact that his body was tyrannically strong, anyone else in his place would have been crushed into paste by the Five-colored Merit Stele long ago.
Shang Ziyan’s figure moved and reappeared above the stele as he looked down at Zhang Ruochen with contempt.
“Sink.”
With a violent roar, Shang Ziyan unleashed a terrifying force and applied it onto the Five-colored Merit Stele.
Suddenly, the Five-colored Merit Stele exuded an even more brilliant and dazzling five-colored holy light a a majestic and dense Merit Qi permeated.
Zhang Ruochen’s body trembled violently as a series of tiny cracks appeared on both of his arms, and there was a slight sound of bone cracking.
The next moment, the cracks on Zhang Ruochen’s arms became more obvious as a large amount of saint blood seeped out of it.
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes suddenly became very sharp.
All of the blood that seeped out all condensed together, and he forced out even more saint blood from his body, turning them into an exalted blood Qi.
At the same time, a vigorous saint Qi emerged, and within it was half a million precepts of the palm.
An incomparably large phantom of Lord Ming appeared, unleashing a surge of monstrous blood Qi.
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen did not hesitate to expend a large amount of his own blood, and pushing the Seven-Orifice Netherblood Palm to the extreme.
As a result, Zhang Ruochen mobilize nearly one hundred thousand precepts of truth in his body with all his might to amplify the power of the Seven-Orifice Netherblood Palm.
The Five-colored Merit Stele was indeed magical and could suppress the Eternal Paths, but the suppression was not absolute.
Zhang Ruochen’s attainment in the Path of Truth was extremely high, especially when he also possessed twelve of ten thousand of the Canon of Truth. At this very instance, while he could not unleash the usual eight times the power, he coulds still manage to unleash two to three times the power.
BAAAMMM!!!
The strength in Zhang Ruochen’s body erupted like an unstoppable volcanic eruption as he lifted and tossed the Five-colored Merit Stele away.
This way, he had finally managed to temporarily escape.
However, that palm strike had cost him dearly, with large amount of saint blood was lost and both of his arms were badly damaged, and were almost destroyed.
“Being able to use the Path of Truth even when you are suppressed by the Five-colored Merit Stele, Zhang Ruochen, you surprise me more and more, but it is because of this you must die.” The murderous intent in Shang Ziyan’s eyes grew even greater.
The more amazing Zhang Ruochen was, the bigger the threat he was to Shang Ziyan, and that meant Zhang Ruochen needed to be killed to avert future troubles.
If it was him in that situation just now, it would have been extremely difficult for him to use the Path of Truth.
Speaking of which, Shang Ziyan’s talent in the Path of Truth was very high, and could unleash seven times the power. Although he was not as good as Zhang Ruochen, he was still far better than most cultivating the Path of Truth.
At this moment, there was a sudden bizarre movement at the edge of the battlefield.
A black shadow appeared, and killed several Saint Kings of the Heavenly Realm faction with lightning speed, and devoured all of the essence and precepts in their body.
At the same time, a ruthless swordsman appeared and unleashing his life-taking sword technique. With one strike one kill, he also instantly killed several Heavenly Realm faction Saint Kings in an instant.
Zhang Ruochen could not be more familiar with these two. They were Han Qiu and Le who had joined the Fane of Death.
Soon, the Heavenly Realm elites reacted and a few of them joined the fray and intercept Han Qiu and Le.
“Zhang Ruochen, did you see it? Another two had came to die for you.” Shang Ziyan sneered.
He had in fact hoped more people related to Zhang Ruochen to come, so that he could take all of them down in one go, rather than him looking for them one by one.
As he said that, Shang Ziyan struck again, offering the Tower of a Thousand Temperings and the Bloodbairn together.
Zhang Ruochen did not have the time to look at Han Qiu or Le, and could only deploy the Zangshan Demonic Mirror as quickly as possible.
It was a pity that the Azuresky Pagoda had been taken away, otherwise he would not have been in such a difficult state.
The Zangshan Demonic Mirror was after all still an incomplete Supreme Sacred Artifact, and did not have its vessel spirit, so no matter how compatible it was with him, it could not unleash the greatest of powers.
BAAAMMM!!!
The Zangshan Demonic Mirror flew back, slamming onto Zhang Ruochen and sent him flying as well.
DUSSHH!
Zhang Ruochen immediately spat out a mouthful of blood, and his aura became much weaker.
Upon seeing this, Shang Ziyan could not help but to show a bright smile on his face. The feeling of beating Zhang Ruochen up like this felt very good as it allowed him to let out all of the repressed anger in his heart one by one.
As time passed, Shang Ziyan’s cultivation was slowly stabilizing, and his strength was steadily increasing.
The Earthen Soul Fluid and that saint pill had had consumed earlier not only allowed him to break through and consolidate his cultivation base, but also cause his cultivation to be greatly improved as the saint path precepts in his body had reached more than 17 million.
In this situation, Shang Ziyan was extremely confident of his own strength, and any attacks that he made was not something Zhang Ruochen could block.
On the other side of the battlefield, the Nine-heavens Maiden and the demon toad fought to a standstill.
At a certain moment, she suddenly revealed an opening.
The demon toad immediately took it and slammed a palm strike out.
BAAAMMM!!!
The demon toad’s palm slammed on the Nine-Heavens Maiden’s left shoulder, leaving a black palm print.
At this instant, a brutal glint flashed in the eyes of the Nine-Heavens Maiden as she held the silver kitchen knife and slashed at the demon toad which was in striking distance with lightning speed.
“You…”
The demon toad was shocked, and immediately wanted to fall back.
How could it not understand that the opening the Nine-Heavens Maiden had exposed was done deliberately just to bait it.
Alas, it found out a little too late.
DUSSHH!
A silver light flashed pass, and a hideous wound appeared on the chest of the demon toad as a torrent of foul, pitch black blood spurted out.
With just a cut, the demon toad was almost split in half.
A shred of divine power penetrated into the body of the demon toad as it ran rampant inside it, causing the demon toad extreme pain.
This was original a good opportunity to get rid of the Demon Toad, but the Nine-Heavens Maiden did not press her advantage, but instead darted to the center of the battlefield at the fastest speed.
“Stop her.”
Sensing the actions of the Nine-Heavens Maiden, some of the top elites of the Heavenly Realm immediately acted.
The Nine-Heavens Maiden was extremely fast and appeared beside Zhang Ruochen in a blink of an eye.
“Zhang Ruochen, this is the complete set of the Armor of the Fire God, consider yourself lucky.” Warrior Saint Canglan’s cold voice rang out in Zhang Ruochen’s ears.
Immediately after, Zhang Ruochen saw a blob of flame flying towards him, so fast that even Shang Ziyan could not stop it.
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes lit up, as he immediately put away the Meritorious Armor of Flowing Light away and at the same time released his own saint Qi to envelope the oncoming flames.
The next moment, the flames reached him and transformed into a set of red armor, almost covering Zhang Ruochen from head to toe.
“Armor of the Fire God.”
Zhang Ruochen was shocked.
This set of armor had an extraordinary origin, and was handcrafted by Huoshen, the Fire God in the past. Later on, when Huoshen was cultivating the Tyrant’s Divine Flames and was completely incinerated by the divine flames, yet the armor survived intact.
The Armor of the Fire God was originally stored in the treasury of the imperial court, and the reason it was kept there collecting dust was because no one could use it at all.
That Wutong Qiuyu was quite special, so Empress Chi Yao bestowed the Fire God’s Armguards to him.
Later on, Wutong Qiuyu was killed by Zhang Ruochen, and the Fire God’s Armguards and Gauntlets fell into Zhang Ruochen’s hands.
At the very beginning, Zhang Ruochen could not use the Fire God’s Armguards and Gauntlets. It was only until he used the Canon of Truth that he managed to activate it.
In Zhang Ruochen’s mind, even ordinary gods could not use the Armor of the Fire God, and one must either be a powerful god that had mastered the Canon of Flames, or one of the Nine Great Eternal Paths to fully utilise the armor.
Zhang Ruochen had always wanted to get the full set of the armor, but he never expected to get his wish granted in tihs situation.
“This is a gift from Master Blood Dripper, and there’s no need to return it to the court. Master Blooddripper is now being held back by elites and cannot come to your aid.”
At this moment, another voice rang out by Zhang Ruochen’s ears again.
This voice was extremely soft and gentle, but it belonged to the Divine Scripture Maiden.
Hearing this, Zhang Ruochen suddenly understood what was going on. With Chi Yao no longer in Kunlun Realm, the one with the highest status in the court is undoubtedly the Blood Dripper, and it was only the Blood Dripper could call the shots and give him the full set of the Armor of the Fire God.
In this way, he owed the Blood Dripper another favor now.
“It’s actually the Armor of the Fire God, such a good item, I want it.” Looking at the Armor of the Fire God on Zhang Ruochen’s body, Shang Ziyan’s eyes suddenly flickered.
The Yanluo-clan powerhouse had taken away his top-level Meritorious Armor of Flowing Light, and this Armor of the Fire God was just nice as a replacement.
Zhang Ruochen’s gaze was sharp as he spat. “You want it? I’m afraid you won’t have it.”
As he spoke, crimson flames rose from the surface of the Armor of the Fire God, forming a huge domain of fire with Zhang Ruochen as the center.
The flames were extremely terrifying, with extraordinarily high temperature, as it burnt the space so much that they began to distort, as if they were melting.
Shang Ziyan snorted. “Zhang Ruochen, do you think you can fight me after getting the Armor of the Fire God? Then I will let you know what true despair is.”
With the Bloodbairn in hand, Shang Ziyan activated his majestic saint Qi and unleashed the evil divine power inside the Bloodbairn, forming a monstrous wave of fire as it slashed at Zhang Ruochen.
There was no trace of fear in Zhang Ruochen’s eyes as both of his arms shook, and a dragon and an elephant appeared, each of them covered in roaring crimson flames.
“Sky Soaring Dragon-Elephant”
With the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm Strike blasted out, the flaming divine dragon and divine elephant flew out at the same time, both of them exuding powerful divine might.
BAAMM!!
The wave of fire was unstoppable, and instantly drowned the flaming divine dragon and divine elephant.
A wave of terrifying power rippled outwards, causing the formation array outside the Peacock Manor to quake violently.
“Fall back!”
All of the spectating cultivators were terrified and quickly pulled back.
Zhang Ruochen was the first to bear the brunt of the attack as he was pushed a dozen steps back by the shock before finally stabilizing himself.
Although the blood Qi in his body was surging violently, he managed to forcibly suppress them and did not spit blood out.
“How can that be?”
Shang Ziyan showed a look of shock.
He had went all out with that strike, and thought he could severely wound Zhang Ruochen with it, and cause him to lose his ability to fight. He totally did not expect Zhang Ruochen to block it, and this was something simply beyond all imagination.
