Shang Feng’s cultivation was very advanced. He was a fifth step Saint King, but his Spiritual Power was at the same level as Zhang Ruochen. He seemed to have reached level 55 not too long ago.
This kind of Spiritual Power obviously couldn’t hide from Zhang Ruochen’s perceptions.
Zhang Ruochen walked down the street with no change in expression. Deep down, he thought, There’s a Hundred Flower Palace cultivator following me. He seems to have a high cultivation too. What exactly are they thinking? Do they want to kill me outside of the palace?
Thinking of this, the feeling of crisis shot up within him. He quickly thought of a strategy.
With his current cultivation, he wasn’t a match for the Hundred Flower Palace. It was extremely dangerous to continue staying in the Heavenly Capital Saint Market.
However, he couldn’t bring himself to escape immediately. After all, he’d just paid five million saint stones as a deposit. Would it just go to waste?
Whatever. I’ll see what the Hundred Flower Palace wants.
Zhang Ruochen had been walking down the street. Now, he used the Spatial Move and vanished.
The next moment, he appeared on a nearby rooftop. He also activated the 12 Buddhist pearls immediately to cover up his aura.
“What? He disappeared just like that? Is he that fast?”
Shang Feng ran forward to where Zhang Ruochen had disappeared from and looked around. He even used his Spiritual Power to check, but he couldn’t find a bit of Zhang Ruochen’s aura.
“Could it be Spatial Move? I’m even more certain that he’s Zhang Ruochen now.”
Shang Feng guessed that Zhang Ruochen had sensed him, so he didn’t return to Hundred Flower Palace. Instead, he started strolling through Heavenly Capital Saint Market.
This took up quite some time.
“Could I have been more careful? How can a half-step Saint King notice that I was following him?”
Shang Feng didn’t sense anyone following him, so he instantly felt like he’d overestimated Zhang Ruochen. Instead of continuing to stroll, he passed through many streets and came to a quiet alley close to the Yin and Yang Palace.
Shang Feng took out a rune and swiped his finger on it.
Poof!
It immediately started burning and transformed into a streak of firelight, flying into Yin and Yang Palace.
A moment later, demonic mist rose up from the ground and consolidated into a mysterious figure. It seemed like it wasn’t a physical body, but the aura that came out of it was extremely strong.
“You actually dare to come see me with your true body. Quite brave.”
A garbled voice sounded from the mist.
Shang Feng seemed very calm. He flicked his fingers and a seed flew out. It landed on the ground and sprouted immediately. Veins and a flower bloomed quickly too.
When the white flower grew, the two of them gradually disappeared from the spot. Even their auras were covered by the faint fragrance.
“What a great hallucination flower,” the man in the mist said. “This move is more powerful than many hallucination masters.”
“It’s just an elementary move. I can’t use it in official situations.”
Shang Feng’s expression turned serious and he continued, “I want to see Shang Ziyan.”
“Is Lord Ziyan someone you can meet easily?” the man in the mist said. “If you have anything important, you can tell me.”
“I’m afraid it’s not the same. I have very important information to sell to him.” Shang Feng’s expression was cold.
“Lord Ziyan isn’t at the Heavenly Capital Saint Market. If you really have something important, I’ll notify him at once. I won’t steal your credit.”
Considering this, Shang Feng said in a low voice, “Zhang Ruochen has come to the Heavenly Capital Saint Market, but only I know where he is.”
“Really?”
The figure inside the mist solidified more. Clearly, this was important to him, because he knew that Zhang Ruochen was the one that Lord Ziyan wanted to kill the most.
If Zhang Ruochen really was in the Heavenly Capital Saint Market, then this information was definitely worth ten million saint stones or even more.
“Ha.”
Shang Feng naturally wouldn’t tell him Zhang Ruochen’s exact location. He just said simply, “Go notify Shang Ziyan. If he can give me a price that satisfies me, I don’t mind telling him Zhang Ruochen’s specific location.”
With that, Shang Feng walked away with his hands behind his back.
Sizzle.
The hallucination saint flower on the ground started burning. The fire went from the petals to the root. A speck of light flew out of the ashes and landed in Shang Feng’s hands.
It was the flower’s seed.
No one knew if the seed had actually bloomed earlier or if it was a hallucination from the seed.
“You better be careful too. If the Fairy Extreme King or Ji Fanxin senses anything wrong or they learn that you’re from the Black Demon Field, you won’t live to see tomorrow.”
Hearing this, Shang Feng’s figure paused. With a hard expression, he scoffed. “None of your business.”
Shang Feng and the demonic mist disappeared from the alley.
After a few minutes passed, the space in the alley trembled. Zhang Ruochen appeared out of thin air. He looked up at the Yin and Yang Palace in the distance. “A strong figure from the Hundred Flower Palace is actually from the Black Demon Field. Interesting, interesting… So, does this mean that the Black Demon Field is part of the undercover group?”
From Zhang Ruochen’s recent misfortunes, he was mostly sure that Wang Xu’s Ruiya Field, King Hun’s Soul Field, and this Black Demon Field that was probably related to Shang Ziyan were the undercover force that the Moon Goddess had mentioned.
These three worlds were all in the top 1,000 strongest worlds. Only they were strong enough to make Zhang Ruochen feel pressure.
The worlds that were still hidden went without saying too.
When all these undercover forces were exposed, even a Supreme Saint might feel suffocated from the pressure.
No wonder the Moon Goddess didn’t tell Zhang Ruochen just how large the undercover force was. If he couldn’t withstand that pressure, he might shrink back, feel despair, have a mental breakdown, or give up on himself.
Now, it was like Zhang Ruochen was rowing a small boat on the river. He could only go forward and couldn’t retreat. But chains covered the river, blocking the path. If he continued forward, he would definitely capsize and die.
Right now, he could only break through the chains with determination. Otherwise, he would die from despair.
Next, he changed his features again. He visited the store of the Time Godly Palace and bought a time and space agate with five million saint stones. Then he spent another one million to buy a bottle of water from the time river.
This process was very smooth.
The Saint King managing the store asked Zhang Ruochen if he was a time cultivator and planned on studying in the Time Godly Palace.
Zhang Ruochen just answered, “How can I learn the Way of Time? These things are for my master.”
Hearing this, the manager lost interest in Zhang Ruochen and stopped asking.
Time cultivators were indeed rare, but the major worlds all seemed to have some with the inheritance of time. A few time cultivators could be born, so some of the worlds even had ancient sects that cultivated the Way of Time.
It wasn’t strange for a time cultivator to appear in the Truth Heavenly Domain.
It would only cause a commotion if a time manipulator appeared.
Zhang Ruochen considered all the pros and cons. In the end, he returned to live in the Hundred Flower Palace.
After entering the Swallow Palace, he immediately activated the Forbid All Formation. Then he took out the egg-sized time and space agate, and a small jade bottle.
“This is really expensive. Such a small piece of time and space agate is actually worth five million saint stones. I can buy an earth class pill with that.”
The agate that Zhang Ruochen had was a lower grade, but if he wore it, he could cut the speed of time in half within 30 feet.
He could also form a 30-foot range of chaotic space.
This meant that if he wore this agate, he could have two times the amount of cultivation time. He could also form a chaotic defensive space to automatically undo sneak attacks.
Countless people yearned for such a treasure. It was worth the five million saint stones.
However, Zhang Ruochen was going to pulverize this valuable treasure. The pain went without saying.
After crushing the agate completely, he poured the powder into the bottle of time river water. He shook it a dozen times to mix the two. Then Zhang Ruochen took out the Abyss Ancient Sword and a rune pen.
“This tiny bottle of liquid is worth six million saint stones. It better work, or else it’ll be a total waste!”
Zhang Ruochen took a deep breath to maintain his best state. Then he picked up his pen, dipped it in the liquid, and started drawing a time print on the sword.
He was scared of wasting, so he was extremely careful and actually finished the time print in one go.
“Let’s try.”
Zhang Ruochen held the Abyss Ancient Sword and poured Holy Qi in. Gradually, runes emerged on the sword. One thousand, two thousand, three thousand…
When 10,000 runes emerged on the sword and it unleashed the complete power, the time print carved on it still didn’t disappear.
“Did I succeed?”
It might have been due to the Emotion Pill’s side effect, but Zhang Ruochen couldn’t push down his joy and let out a loud whoop.
He waved his sword and a time print flew out along the sword Qi, going toward a spiritual crane in the air.
Sword Qi flew above the crane and only the time print hit it.
The crane cried out and it was weakened, falling from the sky.
Zhang Ruochen extended a hand, sending out thick Holy Qi to slow down the crane’s falling. In the end, it floated softly to the ground.
Next, Zhang Ruochen split some Spiritual Power to check the crane’s condition.
“Its vitality was indeed reduced as if it suffered from a great illness. It lost 60 years of its lifespan.” With Zhang Ruochen’s current Spiritual Power, he could accurately calculate the lifespan of those with lower cultivation than him.
Zhang Ruochen glanced at the time print on his sword. It didn’t disappear and only dimmed a little. He could probably use it more than once.
“With the help of the time print, I have a new way to hurt people without a trace.”
Zhang Ruochen didn’t feel cocky due to this, because it wasn’t easy to combine the Sword Way with the power of the time print. He had to keep testing it in battle to use it naturally.
“I must take out Shang Feng. I can’t let him tell Shang Ziyan that I’m in the Hundred Flower Palace. Otherwise, with Shang Ziyan’s methods, I will suffer from a fatal challenge before I can get the dragon and elephant soul.”
Earlier, Zhang Ruochen had already learned about the white-robed scholar from Swallow. He knew that he was a fifth step Saint King.
Murderous light flashed past Zhang Ruochen’s eyes. He picked up the bottle and placed it in his spatial ring. There was still three-fourths of liquid left.
After coming up with the best plan, Zhang Ruochen finally left Swallow Palace.
