The Zhenyu Clan was ruled by three main families, namely the Wang family that focused on swords, the Shi family that focused on talisman-making, and the Shen family that was proficient in formation arrays.
The Zhenyu Clan was one of the eighteen ancient clans of the Kunlun Realm, and at the same time, they were also the wardens of the Nether Dungeon. The clan too had its heyday in the past. At that time, the areas outside the clan’s holdings had god-level inscription arrays, and any living being can forget breaking into the Sword Vault.
As the Kunlun Realm fell, so did the Zhenyu Clan.
It was not until the recovery of Kunlun Realm that the Zhenyu Clan saw the birth of a few Saint King realm elites. The head of the Shen family, Shen Jia, was one of them.
When Zhang Ruochen and the others entered the grounds, it was Shen Jia who came out to greet them.
Shi Ren asked, “Uncle Shen, where’s the patriarch?”
“The patriarch is in the Sword Vault Palace, let’s go, we’ll head there together.” Shen Jia said with a smile.
A color of doubt flashed past Shi Ren’s eyes, as he walked he asked, “I’ve heard that a large number of Immortal Vampires have rushed out of the Darkmourn Mountains, they will certainly aim for the Sword Vault. Has anything happened in the Sword Vault recently?”
“The Sword Vault has ancient wards protecting it. It won’t be easy for the Immortal Vampires to break in.” Shen Jia said.
Shi Ren and Shen Jia walked in the front and spoke, while Zhang Ruochen at the back, his expression became a little heavy as he noticed something wrong.
“The air isn’t flowing. Fairy, you know what’s going on?” Zhang Ruochen sent a telepathic message to Ji Fanxin.
Ji Fanxin’s spiritual power was much stronger than Zhang Ruochen’s. The things that he could not see through, perhaps ji Fanxin could.
Ji Fanxin looked on straight, as she transmitted a voice into Zhang Ruochen’s mind. “It’s an illusion. Everything you see before you is an illusion.”
Zhang Ruochen was secretly surprised. “To transform a whole place to an illusory world, and to be able to hide it from a spiritual saint king of the fifty-ninth level. Beneath a Supreme Saint, there’s someone whose attainment in illusions have reached such a point?”
Ji Fanxin said. “To deploy a real-world illusion, the biggest flaw would be wind. So the illusionist who had deployed the illusion here had stopped the wind, so naturally, the air will stop flowing as well.
“Wouldn’t it make the flaw even more glaring?” Zhang Ruochen asked. Ji Fanxin continued. “Perhaps, that illusionist had taken us for budding young cultivators. Or perhaps, our arrival was too sudden that he had no chance to set up a more elaborate illusion.”
As they spoke, they had come to the square outside of the Sword Vault Palace.
The Sword Vault Palace was eight hundred meters high and occupied an area in a ten miles radii. It was made out of carved boulders like a pyramid.
“The patriarch is in there, distinguished guests, please.”
Shen Jia stood before the Sword Vault Palace, and made a welcoming gesture, trying to get Shi Ren, Zhang Ruochen, and the rest to enter the palace door.
Shi Ren did not budge and looked at Shen Jia with a quizzical gaze. “The Sword Vault Palace is an important place of the Zhenyu Clan, there should be many of our clansmen guarding here. Why isn’t there anyone here today?”
Shen Jia said. “Sir, you may not know that the Zhenyu Clansmen had all went to the Sword Vault.”
“Sir? Uncle Shen. You don’t know that I’m the young chieftain of the Zhenyu Clan?” Shi Ren asked.
Shen Jia’s eyelids twitched a little, as he mumbled. “Young chieftain…”
Duuushh!!
Murong Yue, like a phantom, appeared behind Shen Jia and used the Bluelight Blunt Crescent to slash through his chest.
A grunt slipped out of Shen Jia’s mouth.
However, there was no blood flowing out of Shen Jia’s body, and instead, his expression became strange as his body slowly dissipated.
“It’s just an illusion.”
Murong Yue pulled back the Bluelight Blunt Crescent out and looked at the surroundings on guard.
“Shatter.”
Zhang Ruochen raised his left foot and stomped the ground violently
Immediately, billowing flames burst out and torched the illusory realm into cinders.
The real world reappeared again.
It was still the square outside the Sword Vault Palace, however, the square was wrecked with broken stone and ruined walls, with bloodstains all over.
The Sword Vault Palace disappeared, and in its place was a three-hundred-foot-tall monster.
The monster had a menacing face, with blood-red scales, razor-sharp fangs, and a strong bloody scent coming from its mouth. It had been laying in front of Zhang Ruochen and the rest. If they had stepped into the Sword Vault Palace earlier, they would have been swallowed by the blood beast.
The beast let out a powerful aura which sent chills down everyone’s spine.
Zhang Ruochen immediately released his saint Qi and enveloped the group as they rapidly pulled back.
BAAM!!
Just as they pulled back, a bloody claw slammed at the position they were standing earlier, sinking the ground, and sending a large number of soil and stones flying into the distance.
After retreating all the way to the edge of the square, Zhang Ruochen and his group stopped and looked at the monster.
“A Bloodhunch Netherbeast. One of the war beasts raised by the Immortal Vampires.” Ji Fanxin said.
Zhang Ruochen’s eyes fell onto the top of the Bloodhunch Netherbeast, and he saw a two-meter-tall sharp-eared man standing there, with a glittering gemstone in his hand.
The surrounding area was enveloped by the light from the gemstone and reflected an illusory realm.
A loud voice came out of the sharp-eared man’s mouth. “It turned out to be a group of elites, I have underestimated you lot.”
Shi Ren rumbled. “Who are you? Where are the Zhenyu Clansmen?”
“HAHAHA!”
The sharp-eared man smiled and spoke slowly. “Young chieftain, you’re too late! All of the Zhenyu clansmen have already been eaten by my mount.”
“Impossible… No… you are looking for death.”
Shi Ren gritted his teeth, furious, as dense blood lines appeared in his eyes. He charged towards the sharp-eared man and blasted out twelve talismans.
Each talisman was like a white beam, which flew out very fast.
The sharp-eared man did not block the talismans, but instead stood on the top of the Bloodhunch Netherbeast’s head, and staring contemptuously at Shi Ren.
BAM! BAM!!
The talisman fell upon the Bloodhunch Netherbeast and the sharp-eared man’s body and instantly tore apart, unleashing a large amount of lightning and enveloping them within it.
After so many years of cultivation, Shi Ren’s spiritual power had already reached the fifty-eighth level, and the offensive talismans he created were of a certain threat to a Nine-step Saint King.
The twelve talismans burst open, and tore the Bloodhunch Netherbeast and the sharp-eared man into pieces, reducing them into blackened ash.
“That weak?” Shi Ren was doubtful.
“HAHAHA!”
The Bloodhunch Netherbeast and the sharp-eared man reappeared in another position and said in a mocking tone, “You can’t even find my true body, and you seek revenge?”
Shi Ren was completely enraged by the sharp-eared man’s words and blasted out another flurry of talismans as he continued his attack.
Zhang Ruochen opened The Maleficent Records of the Infernal Court’s Ten Clans, and on one of the pages found a portrait that looked exactly like the sharp-eared man.
“Baihuan Shenzi, danger index level seven, the 37th son of Jiwu Blood God of the Immortal Vampires’ Azuresky Tribe…”
After reading through Baihuan Shenzi’s information, Zhang Ruochen kept The Maleficent Records of the Infernal Court’s Ten Clans, and his gaze became solemn. “Be careful everyone. This is a person with a danger index level of seven. The mount he’s on, the Bloodhunch Netherbeast has power matching an elite of the Precept Dominion realm, and it’s a rather powerful foe.”
Murong Yue, Xie Chengzi, Xiang Chunan, Luo Yi all flew over, each taking out their most powerful saint artifacts, and was at the ready to attack.
At the same time, Zhang Ruochen deployed the Domain of Space and found Baihuan Shenzi’s true form.
“Dragonform.”
Zhang Ruochen’s body transformed into a golden dragon and flew out. He then blasted out a dragon claw the size of a house and smashed down towards a position in the void.
In the void, Baihuan Shenzi and the Bloodhunch Netherbeas’s true form appeared.
Baihuan Shenzi’s expression changed slightly and was quite surprised that someone could see through his illusions. However, his reaction was not slow, and he immediately lifted the gemstone in his hand and created a translucent crystal wall.
BOOOMMM!!!
The dragon claw collided against the crystal wall, as a powerful energy storm blasted out in four directions.
With a crack, the crystal wall broke.
The strength of the dragon claw was undiminished and continued to smash downwards.
Baihuan Shenzi’s eyes shrank, and with a gentle stomp, the Bloodhunch Netherbeast under him stretched out a blood claw and clashed against the dragon claw.
The Bloodhunch Netherbeast let out a mighty roar, as its massive body was pushed backward by the dragon’s claws.
After refining the beast-shaped sacred medicine, and also obtaining a great opportunity within the divine gate, Zhang Ruochen’s strength had increased by several magnitudes, and even if he was to face a being with a danger index of seven, he still had a fighting chance.
Baihuan Shenzi said. “That’s rather strong. Who are you, tell me your name?”
“If you can leave the Sword Vault alive, then you will naturally know who I am.”
Zhang Ruochen returned to his human form, and once again blasted out the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm Strike, at the same time, he mobilized the precepts of truth into it, unleashing seven times the offensive power.
BAAAMMM!!
Baihuan Shenzi’s form was destroyed and turned into a cloud of blood.
The palm strike landed on the Bloodhunch Netherbeast, and piercing through its scale, leaving a massive bloody pit in its wake.
The Bloodhunch Netherbeast screamed in pain and landed heavily on the ground.
“Human, you have angered me.”
Baihuan Shenzi was not dead, and instead, he appeared above Zhang Ruochen with his arms unfolded. Thousands of figures appeared and struck at Zhang Ruochen at the same time.
Each figure was like the true body and had the power to kill Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen dared not let any of the figures to get close to him, and could only mobilize his saint Qi before infusing them into his left leg.
“Yanshen’s Leg.”
Zhang Ruochen raised his left leg, and suddenly the heaven and earth changed.
The skies suddenly turned red, and flaming clouds were roiling.
While the lava burst out of the ground and was as hot as a furnace.
BOOOMM.
With a stomp, a powerful divine power gushed out.
All of the figures attacking Zhang Ruochen were all shattered and turned into grains of sands.
Baihuan Shenzi’s true form appeared, and he was struck by the waves of flame and sent flying backward. After landing in a spot over ten odd miles away, he looked at Zhang Ruochen standing in the flames, as if he was looking at a god of fire, and his eyes were full of horror.
“That leg of his, it can’t be a leg of a god, right?”
Baihuan Shenzi was pretentious and had never put any cultivators of the Celestial Court in his eyes.
At this moment, this mindset was finally changing.
Even the Celestial Court seemed to have incredible powerhouses.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen walking out of the flames, Baihuan Shenzi’s eyes moved quickly as he glanced at Ji Fanxin and the others. A bad premonition appeared in his heart, this group of people was would not be easy to deal with.
A single person alone had already made him feel the situation was sticky.
Who knew if there were any other stronger existence among that group?
He was outnumbered, and the situation was extremely unfavorable to him.
Baihuan Shenzi was decisive and did not rescue the Bloodhunch Netherbeast, and instead turned around and rushed into the distance before disappearing into the horizon.
Zhang Ruochen looked at the direction Baihuan Shenzi escaped, pulled out the Azuresky Bow and the Whitesun Arrow, and drew the bow.
With Zhang Ruochen current saint path cultivation, and physical strength, his arm strength had increased by several times, and the power of the Azuresky Bow and Whitesun Arrow was naturally far beyond before.
Just as he drew the bow, the skies that were thousands of miles away all turned turquoise, while a dazzling white light appeared on the ground.
