“Trying to snatch something from me? It will not be that easy!”
Zhang Ruochen raised both of his arms. Immediately, his bones and muscles crackled as if thunder as he cast out thirteen dragon souls and thirteen elephant souls to spin around him, forming a light shield of palm energy tens of yards in diameter.
Boom!
Mountain after mountain plunged and shattered as they clashed with the light shield of palm energy.
At last, the chain that was as thick as a bucket hit the light shield of palm energy, breaking the sacred light on its surface as the thirteen dragon souls and thirteen elephant souls dispersed in all directions.
The chain was about to hit Zhang Ruochen for real.
“This chain of mine is forged with Abyssal Cold Iron, an Eighth Radiance Thousand-Inscription sacred artifact. I hope it will not crush you into ashes, wasting a jar of mouth-watering blood.” Prince Wujie snickered.
“Don’t be full of yourself. You are not as powerful.”
The acupoints on Zhang Ruochen’s arms glowed brightly, spurting and infusing a vast amount of Saint Qi into the Fire God’s Gauntlet and Fire God’s Bracers.
As the gauntlet and bracers were on fire with streaks of ancient patterns appearing, they gave out a powerful divine power.
Zhang Ruochen raised both of his arms with one hand, turning into a cloud of fire to clash with the chain.
An ear-piercing clank from the collision of metals rang in the air.
In that instant, the land under Zhang Ruochen’s feet started to burn with balls of fire flying in the air.
“Has Prince Wujie crushed him into pieces?” The long-faced princess watched from afar.
“I am afraid that it is not so easy. He isn’t called the Scion of Time and Space for nothing.”
“I don’t think so. There is an absolute realm of difference between them. Even if Zhang Ruochen is a young deity, he will have to die.”
…
Prince Wujie stood in midair, his eyes staring down at the sea of fire, the smile on his face disappearing. Because he was the one fighting Zhang Ruochen, he knew very well that Zhang Ruochen had withstood his earlier attack move.
A light column shot out of the sea of fire. It was a golden dragon, giving out an ear-splitting roar.
“Is this an intermediate-level Saint Technique that you’ve cultivated?”
Prince Wujie was a sharp cookie. From the engagement earlier, he knew that the gauntlet and bracers on Zhang Ruochen’s arms were divine ancient artifacts that possessed divine power, something that he could not underestimate.
How powerful it would be if these things were to combine with an intermediate-level Saint Technique?
“Dragon in the Nine Heavens!”
Zhang Ruochen gathered all the Precepts of the Palm from all over his body. He infused them and cast them out as a dragon claw.
On the other hand, Prince Wujie was unperturbed, the chain in his hand emanating a shocking level of chill. As the chain swung continuously, snowflakes fell from the sky and frost started to build up on the ground.
The spinning, chilly air formed by the chain finally clashed with the dragon claw.
Boom!
A powerful energy storm burst out, ripping through the land around the two of them, producing a terribly destructive force. This destructive force spread until the Ancient Divine Sigils blocked within its vicinity.
“Not half bad! He could still find an opportunity to attack in front of Prince Wujie,” said Prince Yun.
“Haven’t you heard of the cat-and-mouse game? Prince Wujie hasn’t performed his best move yet! Right now, he is just playing with his opponent. When the cat finally decides to eat the mouse, it will kill it at once,” said a princess with a smirk.
“If Prince Wujie really treats Zhang Ruochen as a mouse, I wonder who will be the mouse and the cat at the end,” said Xia Wenxin.
“What do you mean, Xia Shenzi?”
“Watch on and you will know,” said Xia Wenxin faintly.
Prince Wujie swung his chain continuously to parry Zhang Ruochen’s palm attack. “Everything will end here if this is all you have got!”
“Vortex of Ripping Storm!”
Dense precepts gushed out from Prince Wujie’s body to combine with the Eighth Radiance Thousand-Inscription sacred artifact-class chain.
Following immediately, the chain spun rapidly and turned into a nine-layer vortex, flying inside which contained wind-blade valleys that could rip apart heaven and earth.
This was a high-end intermediate-class Saint Technique.
The realm of difference was so obvious, and Zhang Ruochen took no chances. He focused his mind to gather his precepts to combine with his palm technique.
“Sky Soaring Dragon-Elephant!”
He cast out both palms, producing seven times of attack strength.
Boom!
Vortex of Ripping Storm collapsed as the palm energy ripped through the cloud and air.
The skin on Prince Wujie’s arms cracked with blood oozing out as he was sent flying out backward like a cannonball.
Taking advantage of this victory, Zhang Ruochen grabbed the chain and pulled Prince Wujie toward him.
Like he had expected it, Prince Wujie flew back like a kite tied to a string.
But at a distance of a hundred yards from him, Prince Wujie suddenly sped up several times as he spread his wings with a smile on his face.
“Not good! He seems to be not hurt badly. Is he feigning it?” said Zhang Ruochen quietly to himself.
“It is rare for the cultivators in the Celestial Court to cultivate the Path of Truth to your level. No wonder you dare to challenge me with only Eight-Step Saint Kinghood.”
The wound on Prince Wujie healed in just the blink of an eye.
“However, the attack strength of the Path of Truth isn’t up to snuff. The Path of Truth has a counterbalance.”
“A counterbalance? Could it be…”
The bloody candor emanating from Prince Wujie’s body became stronger and stronger as he guffawed. “That’s right. The counterbalance to the Truth. It is Destiny. Here comes the Gate of Destiny!”
The Precepts of Destiny formed a translucent light gate behind Prince Wujie.
Affected by the energy of the light gate, Zhang Ruochen felt that his strength was rapidly dwindling by four to five times.
Zhang Ruochen had heard from other cultivators before this that in the Fane of Truth in the Celestial Court, cultivating the Path of Truth could boost the attack strength of Saint Techniques several times higher.
On the other hand, there was the Fane of Destiny in the Infernal Court.
Cultivating the Path of Destiny could reduce opponents’ strength several times.
“How did Prince Wujie form a Gate of Destiny behind him? He could suppress my strength with Gate of Destiny! Even with the Precepts of Truth, a Saint Technique could only produce a higher attack strength for just a split second. Besides, it takes time to perform Precepts of Truth. No way he could have performed it in a matter of a split second.”
Zhang Ruochen had sensed that the situation was turning against him. “Could he be a disciple of the Fane of Destiny?”
Only disciples of the Fane of Destiny could have cultivated Gate of Destiny, with the power of which they could suppress their opponents.
With Gate of Destiny’s suppression, the disciples of the Fane of Truth could easily kill enemies of a higher realm.
Meanwhile, the divine scions of the Fane of Truth could cultivate Realm-frame of Truth, which was something the other Celestial Court cultivators could not do.
“Is it necessary to use Gate of Destiny to deal with Zhang Ruochen?” Nine-Eye Heavenly Lord shook burst into laughter and shook his head.
“He is just showing off his skill. You know, not everyone could cultivate Gate of Destiny.”
“The way I see it—he is trying to capture Zhang Ruochen alive with Gate of Destiny. By the looks of things, Zhang Ruochen will have no way to escape his grab. No one could flee from Destiny.”
Before they all knew it, Prince Wujie had come in front of Zhang Ruochen with Gate of Destiny on his back, aiming a punch at Zhang Ruochen’s chest.
Zhang Ruochen felt unstoppable, powerful energy coming with the punch. It was as if a Supreme Saint was performing the punch, capable of shattering this heaven and earth.
“No. Not that he has become stronger. It is I who has become weaker!”
Zhang Ruochen did not bother to summon the Precepts of Truth to take on Prince Wujie as it was too late.
He knew that before he could gather all his Precepts of Truth, Prince Wujie’s punch would have hit him.
Bang!
Prince Wujie’s punch hit Zhang Ruochen on the body, breaking him apart.
But Prince Wujie’s expression did not look good. He quickly pulled back his fist, scanning his surroundings as he mumbled to himself. “Finally, a Power of Dimension.”
Zhang Ruochen’s shattered body faded into the air and just left behind his afterimages.
The next second, he reappeared above Prince Wujie and struck down with the Abyssal Ancient Blade in hands.
Prince Wujie had been on high alert all this while. So the moment Zhang Ruochen emerged from the dimension, the chain wrapping around his body automatically swung out at once.
But Zhang Ruochen was not performing an ordinary sword move but a Sword of Time.
The chain could have hit Zhang Ruochen. But as it approached, it became slower and slower until it came to a complete halt.
“Not good!”
Prince Wujie had vast combat experience and gone through countless life-and-death moments. In a split second, he reacted and performed a step, an intermediate-class Saint Technique, to dodge rapidly.
Instead of piercing through Prince Wujie’s skull, the Ancient Abyssal Blade scraped past his face, shattering the Hundred-Saint Blood Armor on the face.
The Sword Force left behind a shadow bloody mark on his face.
“Damn it!”
Fury rose within Prince Wujie.
An Eight-Step Saint King was posing a lethal threat to him, which was something that should not have happened.
What shocked Prince Wujie more was, if not for the early warning from others that this male human was the Scion of Time and Space, he would have underestimated him and not watched out for his Powers of Time and Dimension.
Under such circumstances, would he still be able to dodge that sword move?
Baihuan Shenzi dying at the hands of Zhang Ruochen was possibly real.
Those princes and princesses watching from afar were all in disbelief.
“How could this be? Prince Wujie has obviously been forewarned! Did he underestimate his opponent and not foresee the use of Power of Dimension by Zhang Ruochen?”
“Prince Wujie has vast experience in combat; he shouldn’t have made such a mistake.”
“This is not a mistake. He almost lost his life.”
“Do you all really think that knowing that the opponent is the Scion of Time and Space will give you an edge over the dimensional and time techniques? This only shows that those Time and Dimension cultivators whom you all encountered last time were not powerful enough, whose delivery of power was not up to snuff,” said Xia Wenxin.
“Not that Prince Wujie has not foreseen Zhang Ruochen’s attack move. He had expected it but still couldn’t dodge it. Is that what you mean, Xia Shenzi?” asked a princess.
“You are right, partially,” said Xia Wenxin.
