Even though they had been far away, Zhang Ruochen and Blackie still got chills when they heard the crying from behind. They picked up their pace and moved deeper into the Dragon Temple ruins.
Despite the creepy child telling them that they would encounter the indescribable Mojo if they went forward, it was apparently impossible for them to withdraw from the Dragon Temple ruins now.
Judging by the appearance of those creepy children, both Zhang Ruochen and Blackie could foresee that something big was going to happen. Whether it was the Infernal Court, the ancient civilization, or the Celestial Dragon Realm, they all could suffer massive casualties.
This was a good thing, though. The more complicated the situation in the Dragon Temple ruins, the better. In this way, the Key to the World Gate would be safe.
It would be even better if the situation forced those forces out from True Dragon Island.
On a low hill far away, a golden light arrived at high speed and turned into the figure of a handsome man. Standing on the top of the hill, he was none other than one of the Jinyang Twin Kings.
Since escaping from that hidden dimension, he had run for thousands of miles, making sure that no one was chasing him.
Not long after, ripples appeared in the air around him as his twin brother arrived out of nowhere, as if he had mastered the means of dimensional shift.
The Jinyang Twin Kings had exceptional talent and were born with special abilities. This was the reason the father of Sunshine Tianzi had spent every available resource to train them.
They had two innate abilities, the most impressive one was Shared Life. As the name suggested, their lives were tied together. As long as one of them was still alive, the other could be resurrected, even if killed. It meant that to kill any of them, they must be killed at the same time.
The second ability was Long-range Teleportation. The Jinyang Twin Kings were like two directional dimensional teleportation arrays. As long as they were within ten thousand miles of each other, they could be teleported to each other in an instant.
The Jinyang Twin Kings had fled separately because they were worried that Blackie might get them both. If one of them was killed, the other could still resurrect him.
If they could shake their enemy, they would then find and reunite with each other through Long-range Teleportation.
Such two magical life-saving abilities of the Jinyang Twin Kings were impressive, without a doubt. It was as if they possessed an immortal body; anyone who made them their enemy would have a massive headache.
“Zhang Ruochen has killed the Tianzi, and we will carry the blame for his death. Elder Tianzu and Master will surely get mad at us,” said King Dayang, one of the Jinyang Twin Kings.
King Xiaoyang, the other Jinyang Twin King, could not help but fall into silence. He never expected that such a thing would happen.
The killing of Sunshine Tianzi in front of them was their greatest humiliation.
King Xiaoyang exhaled with a murderous look in his eyes. “Zhang Ruochen must die. Only then can we answer to the elder Tianzhu and Master. The only thing is, that goddamn owl is nasty.”
If it weren’t for the owl’s interference, they could have saved Sunshine Tianzi, and things would not have come to such a pass.
It was apparently not easy to kill Zhang Ruochen with a Saint King being around.
Thinking of the terrifying combat strength of the owl gave the Jinyang Twin Kings heebie-jeebies. They saw with their own eyes that the two reverends of the Bone Clan, who both possessed the bones of the Supreme Saint, but were crushed alive.
If they had not acted decisively to strike out the ancient talisman in time, they would have ended up like the two reverends of the Bone Clan.
King Dayang pondered for a moment and spoke. “I have got a feeling that something is not right with that freaking owl. It is not an actual Supreme Saint being. It must be using some means to get a temporary boost of strength. First of all, if it is a Supreme Saint being, it could have attacked us and the seven reverends of the Bone Clan right from the beginning. Why would it want to conceal its strength? Second, it had not given chase when we fled the hidden dimension. This was not right. I think it could not maintain its Supreme Saint strength and had no choice but to let us go.”
King Xiaoyang’s heart skipped a beat. “If this is the case, then it must not be easy for it to boost its strength. It probably has to make some great sacrifice to do this, too. So no one can really tell if it still can pull that off. If that’s the case, we may have a chance.”
As long as Blackie was not an actual Supreme Saint, and with their level of strength, they had nothing to worry about.
“Supreme Saints are not invincible. Since he killed the Tianzi, he would have to pay the price. Summon all the cultivators of the Sunshine Civilization. I will not only kill Zhang Ruochen and that freaking owl but also want them to walk into my trap.” There was a killer look in King Dayang’s eyes.
There was nothing more important than killing Zhang Ruochen right now.
An army of cultivators of the Sunshine Civilization gathered from all directions under the command of the Jinyang Twin Kings. It was a large-scale mobilization of men this time.
A brutal battle was ongoing in the ruins with the Thousand-Star Civilization on one side and the creepily evil children on the other.
The leading figure of the Thousand-star Civilization was Maiden of a Thousand Stars.
There were six elderly men in white beside her, each exuding an extremely powerful aura, and their auras were interconnected as if they were a unified one.
On the other side were eighteen creepy children, all only one meter tall, with blood-red eyes, sharp fangs, and dozens of black tentacles as their feet, making them extremely hideous.
“Trap them!”
Maiden of a Thousand Stars gave the order after getting no upper hand.
The six elders immediately changed their formation and laid out the Hexagram Array. The Hexagram Array drew a powerful stellar power and trapped the eighteen creepy children.
The children let out a sorrowful cry, unleashing a powerful spiritual shock wave to try to break the Hexagram Array.
Maiden of a Thousand Stars took out the Jasper Scepter. It released a powerful spiritual power to evolve a mysterious illusion that enveloped all the eighteen creepy children.
With the aid of the Hexagram Array, the illusion that Maiden of a Thousand Stars formed was deceivingly real.
“Let me see what these creepy things are all about.”
Maiden of a Thousand Stars waved the Jasper Scepter. With an extremely clever illusion, she invaded the minds of those creepy children.
After a while, there was a serious look in her eyes.
“Your Highness, what have you found?” asked an elder.
Maiden of a Thousand Stars pondered for a moment. “These monsters turned out to be the cultivators who came to True Dragon Island earlier. They have been transformed by an evil creature called Mojo.”
“Mojo? What the hell is that?”
The six elders of the Thousand-Star Civilization were startled.
“Mojo is not from the outside world but was born on True Dragon Island. It is using spiritual power to infest the mind. Anyone who cannot fight back will be turned into its slave, just like these horrible monsters. These transformed monsters have a similar ability. They use crying to launch spiritual attacks. The average spiritual-power Saint King cultivators may be vulnerable to such attacks. By the looks of things, I am afraid that many people have died.”
Maiden of a Thousand Stars had exhausted her means and could only find so much information, of which none was about Mojo.
Suddenly, Maiden of a Thousand Stars’s expression changed drastically. She hurriedly waved the jasper Scepter in her hand and cut off the spiritual power she had released, while she involuntarily fell back a few steps.
“Destroy them, Elders!” she hurriedly ordered.
The six elders had no idea what was going on, but they still responded at once. Driving the Hexagram Array, they used the vast stellar power to crush the eighteen creepy children in the array.
Blaaam!
The bodies of the eighteen creepy children exploded, turning into clouds of dark-red blood mist, and then vanished.
After doing all of this, the six elders came next to Maiden of a Thousand Stars, looking worried.
“Your Highness, are you okay?”
Her face was slightly pale. She took out a sacred pill with the flip of her hand and then popped that pill into her mouth.
“It was Mojo. I wanted to find out things about it, but I didn’t know that it could launch a spiritual attack through these monsters. I cut off the spiritual power in time and nothing is serious,” she said after regulating her breathing for a while.
Having said that, fear still lingered in her. Had she not reacted in time and Mojo’s consciousness invaded her Saint Soul, the consequences would be dire.
Just then, a sacred light arrived from the outer sky and was caught in the hand by an elder.
After reading the content on the communication talisman, the elder’s expression changed.
Noticing his changing face, Maiden of a Thousand Stars could not help but ask, “What’s wrong, Elder Xu?”
“Your Highness, our men sent a message saying that the cultivators from the Sunshine Civilization are gathering on a large scale,” said Elder Xu quickly.
“What is the Sunshine Civilization doing? Could it be that they have found some treasure somewhere?” Maiden of a Thousand Stars was surprised.
“It is said that Zhang Ruochen has killed Sunshine Tianzi, and the Jinyang Twin Kings were furious.” Elder Xu was a little hesitant.
The expression of Maiden of a Thousand Stars changed. “Zhang Ruochen has killed Sunshine Tianzi? Are you sure?”
Elder Xu shook his head. “There are no details yet. But I think it is true.”
“Idiot! Does he still think he has not enough trouble?” There was an annoyed look on the face of Maiden of a Thousand Stars.
From her point of view, for whatever reason, Zhang Ruochen was too reckless to kill Sunshine Tianzi. The elder Tianzhu of the Sunshine Civilization was extremely protective of Sunshine Tianzi. If he knew that his most beloved grandson had died at the hands of Zhang Ruochen, he would not stop until he killed Zhang Ruochen.
The consequences of killing Sunshine Tianzi were probably more serious than killing Shang Ziyan.
The face of Maiden of a Thousand Stars kept changing. “Keep an eye on the Sunshine Civilization and find Zhang Ruochen. Inform me immediately if there is any news.”
“Your Highness, this involves Sunshine Tianzi. I am afraid it is not proper for us to get involved.” Another elder frowned.
“I know what I am doing. Just do what I say,” said Maiden of a Thousand Stars.
That elder said nothing more. He knew Maiden of a Thousand Stars very well; she would see it through once she had decided on something. No one could change her.
“Zhang Ruochen, as if you have not caused enough troubles, you now make the Sunshine Civilization your enemy. Why haven’t you learned to keep your head down?” Maiden of a Thousand Stars quietly sighed.
The gathering of the Sunshine Civilization cultivators soon attracted the attention of everyone. Correspondingly, news of Zhang Ruochen killing Sunshine Tianzi had also spread far and wide. There was no way that anyone could put a lid on things like this.
On the other hand, the Infernal Court was pleased to see this happening. It could not wait to see Zhang Ruochen and the Sunshine Civilization kill each other to death.
Neither the ancient civilization faction was happy with Zhang Ruochen. Zhang Ruochen’s killing of Sunshine Tianzi was akin to a deliberate move in targeting the ancient civilization faction.
The Celestial Dragon Realm, though, was relatively calm. They had given no reaction so far, as if it did not give a hoot of what happened.
Immediately afterwards, the news of the death of two reverends of the Bone Clan also spread like wildfire, causing a great sensation.
In particular, this also seemed to have something to do with Zhang Ruochen, although it was the sacred beat, the owl, that killed them. It had, nevertheless, put Zhang Ruochen on the spot.
There was a strange look in the eyes of Maiden of a Thousand Stars. “I didn’t know that sacred beast was so powerful.”
Back then in the Peacock Manor, she had met Blackie once, but she could see nothing special about it. She thought Blackie only had a high attainment in array, and that was all about it.
Now it seemed that she had been wrong.
While everyone was in an uproar over these matters, Zhang Ruochen and Blackie had no idea what happened in the outside world. They were still looking for treasures in the ruins.
“That’s weird. No one else has yet come to this place. How come there are no treasures here?” Blackie was puzzled.
They had been in the Dragon Temple ruins for a while and had been in many places, yet, apart from that hidden dimension, they had found none treasures—not even those that were run-of-the-mill ones.
“The battle that broke out back then must be too brutal. Many immortals took part in the war. With the Dragon Temple leveled to the ground, I am afraid that most treasures here have been destroyed,” said Zhang Ruochen.
“Impossible. There were so many treasures in the Dragon Temple. Even if most of them have been destroyed, some will remain. Don’t forget that the battle of the immortals was not about the Dragon Temple, and the immortals of the Infernal Court are still thinking about plundering it again. My gut feeling tells me that this has something to do with that taboo character,” said Blackie almost in a whisper.
If there was anyone who could enter True Dragon Island and take away that large number of treasures without triggering the forbidden array, it must be the taboo character of the Divine Dragons.
“Then why are there treasures in that hidden dimension?” asked Zhang Ruochen.
With that taboo character’s ability, and if he wanted to, there should not have been any treasures left.
“I was just making a wild guess. No one knows what has actually happened. Let’s keep looking. Maybe we are lucky and will find another hidden dimension. Of course, the most important thing is the Key to the World Gate,” said Blackie.
Searching for treasures was important, but they would never forget why they were here.
No amount of treasure was more important than the Key to the World Gate, which was a matter of life and death to the Kunlun Realm.
Just as Zhang Ruochen and Blackie were about to move on, a communication talisman flew from the horizon.
Zhang Ruochen reached out and gently clamped the talisman between his fingers.
“Is it from Elder Patriarch Death Zen?”
Zhang Ruochen’s expression changed.
“Quickly take a look at what that bald donkey is saying,” said Blackie.
Zhang Ruochen let go of the communication talisman and read carefully.
Blackie quickly leaned over and glanced at the message on the talisman.
“Huh? The bald donkey is so lucky to find a treasure? We must not miss the party. Don’t worry about the array. I will handle that.” There was a light in Blackie’s eyes.
But Zhang Ruochen’s brows furrowed, as he thought for a long while without saying a word.
“What is in your mind, Zhang Ruochen? It is not like we can find treasures every time. We had better be quick before others take it.” Blackie could not wait.
Zhang Ruochen shook his head. “I don’t know why, I feel very uneasy, as if something bad will happen.”
“Are you still thinking about that ghostly thing that appeared earlier? Don’t worry, with your strength combining mine, that thing can’t do anything,” said Blackie with confidence.
Zhang Ruochen nodded in agreement, although he still felt a little uneasy. “Let’s meet up with Elder Patriarch Death Zen first.”
Since Elder Patriarch Death Zen was asking for his help, he certainly would not say no in time like this.
He and Elder Patriarch Death Zen might have differences, but at least, on the matter of guarding the Kunlun Realm, they had reached a consensus—they were now in the same boat.
Following the guidance of the communication talisman, Zhang Ruochen and Blackie wasted no time heading to meet up with Elder Patriarch Death Zen.
