Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
Zhang Ruochen tried to crack the Sun-moon Crystal Coffin again. He even borrowed the Void Sword from Han Xue this time. But still, he couldn’t open it.
At last, he had to give up and stop trying.
“It is written in ancient books that the Sun-moon Crystal Coffin was a saint weapon of the Moon Worship Demonic Sect, which had been passing it on for a long time and learning of its many uses. After this woman died, she used Sun-moon Crystal Coffin to contain her body, which means that this woman was at least a Palace Ruler or a Saintess, or even an old Hierarch,” Zhang Ruochen said.
Neither Zhang Ruochen nor Blackie knew much about Sun-moon Crystal Coffin. They had to return to Kunlun’s Field and go through all the files of the Moon Worship Demonic Sect to find this woman’s identity.
Such a figure like her must be well-known. Therefore, it shouldn’t be of much trouble to find her identity.
Although Wood Spirit Xi and the demon rat were members of the Demonic Sect, they had hardly read any files. Until now they had never heard of the Sun-moon Crystal Coffin, let alone the identity of the woman.
Han Xue tilted her head sideways, and said with curiosity, “How can you be sure that she’s dead, teacher? She could still be alive, only in deep sleep.”
Zhang Ruochen shook his head with smile. “It has been more than hundreds of thousands of years since the ancient times. Even if she was a Supreme Saint, she should have turned into bones. Only deities could have the slightest possibility to live such a long time until now.”
“What if it was really a deity?” asked Han Xue.
Zhang Ruochen rubbed her head as he explained. “After ancient times, no one could ever become a deity again. All deities have disappeared from Kunlun’s Field.”
Han Xue said, “Didn’t you just mention that this Sun-moon Crystal Coffin was a saint weapon before ancient times, teacher? In that case, why couldn’t the woman lying in it be a deity?”
Zhang Ruochen was left speechless after he heard this.
Han Xue dared to imagine things that he didn’t. Had he become rigid?
Zhang Ruochen said, “If I was right, she should have died. Otherwise, Ghost King Bloodmoon shouldn’t have been born out of Blood River.”
Han Xue figured this out. “You mean that Ghost King Bloodmoon was her soul, teacher?”
“I think so,” said Zhang Ruochen.
Han Xue’s face turned bleak. “In that case, she was really dead. Will grandmaster come back to life, teacher?”
Zhang Ruochen stared at the body of Sword Saint Xuanji with grave eyes, and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
How could Zhang Ruochen not want Sword Saint Xuanji to come back to life? It’s just that even though all his wounds had recovered, there was still no trace of life on him.
How could he revive when his soul had already dispersed?
As Blackie said, it might work if Zhang Ruochen could find a Supreme Saint of Spiritual Power and ask him to help recall his soul.
But a Supreme Saint of Spiritual Power was too rare to be seen. In the past thousands of years, only Emperor Wen and Emperor Buddha out of the Nine Emperors had reached that level.
Emperor Buddha could be left out as he had already died.
Emperor Wen was the leader of the Way of Confucius. He had helped Emperor Qing and Chi Yao to unify Kunlun’s Field. In return, after the establishment of the First Central Empire, Chi Yao had largely encouraged the development of the Way of Confucius, making it as influential as the Way of Buddha and the Way of Taichi.
It’s a pity that after the establishment of the the First Central Empire, Emperor Wen had retired and disappeared in Kunlun’s Field. He never showed up again. Nobody knew if he was still alive.
Even if Emperor Wen was still alive, and Zhang Ruochen could find him, so what?
Would Emperor Wen stand out and help save Sword Saint Xuanji?
Absolutely impossible.
It would cost a Supreme Saint of Spiritual Power dearly to recall the soul of the deceased. Why should he help Zhang Ruochen?
What’s the difference between Zhang Ruochen and an ant in his eyes?
Zhang Ruochen could only leave the body of Sword Saint Xuanji at the foot of Divine Sky-Connecting Tree, letting it be cultivated by two strands of Qi of Life, and wait for the miracle.
…
…
The minute Ghost King Bloodmoon entered Scroll World, she sensed that the air of life had filled between the heaven and earth. Everywhere was green and full of vigor, which was totally different from the gloomy netherworld.
But she disliked it because she needed to feed on continuous Qi of Death, souls and evil spirits to maintain her existence.
Otherwise, even if Zhang Ruochen wouldn’t kill her, it wouldn’t take long for her to die from the exhaustion of Ghostly Qi.
But today, she had found a terribly strong Qi of Death, which was from the place where the strongest Qi of Life was generated.
That’s why Ghost King Bloodmoon kept searching for the Divine Sky-Connecting Tree.
Standing on the top of the mountain, she looked down and found a very shocking scene. A gigantic dead trunk about 100 meters tall lay on the ground.
The trunk was like a huge and smooth round platform, whose boundary went beyond the horizon. The growth rings were densely printed on its platform, the number of which was uncountable. Every growth ring was like a history book, recording the changes happening between heaven and earth from the very beginning.
It was hard to imagine how big it would be if it were still alive.
The trunk was the root of Divine Sky-Connecting Tree.
According to Ghost King Bloodmoon’s observations, the diameter of its root could be more than 100,000 meters. If the tree were still alive, it would take a month for an ordinary person to finish going around its trunk.
Other monks could only perceive the strong Qi of Life given out by the new branches when they arrived here, but Ghost King Bloodmoon had detected the roaring Qi of Death given out by the root instead.
It was the remaining power of the Divine Sky-Connecting Tree. After the tree had died, it had been hiding in the root and mixing with Qi of Life.
Ghost King Bloodmoon had never seen any Qi of Death as strong and of great quality as this before.
“If I could absorb all the Qi of Death in the root, what high level might my cultivation reach? Maybe even Ghost King Shenchu couldn’t beat me. And I’ll become one of the most powerful ghosts in the periphery of the netherworld.”
Fires lit up in the eyes of Ghost King Bloodmoon. She spread her arms and became a big bird, then flew lightly to the root of the Divine Sky-Connecting Tree.
But before she landed on the surface of the root, a human shadow appeared ahead of her. It arrived at the edge of root before she did and condensed into a handsome young man. His hands were folded behind his back, staring at her with a smile.
“Zhang Ruochen.”
The happy color on Ghost King Bloodmoon vanished. She flew down and stopped opposite Zhang Ruochen. “I’ve thought it through. I can surrender to you.”
Zhang Ruochen was a little surprised. “Really? In such a short time?”
Ghost King Bloodmoon asked him, “Do I have other choices? Even if you won’t kill me, I’ll soon be dead being imprisoned in this world. I’m not ready to die now.”
Zhang Ruochen nodded. “That’s a wise decision.”
“But, you are rather weak in cultivation. If I surrender to you like this, other ghost kings will definitely laugh at me. Therefore, you must agree to my two conditions.”
Ghost King Bloodmoon had considered her words before, so she appeared to be very calm.
Zhang Ruochen also expected that Ghost King Bloodmoon should have him agree to conditions. Unless they were too outrageous, he would say yes to her.
After all, it was not easy to ask a ghost king to surrender. Suppressing her too much might cause backlash.
No one could ever be too harsh or too kind in mastering others, whether they were ghosts or humans. Being too harsh would force them to rebel. And being too kind would result in the same.
It didn’t matter if Ghost King Bloodmoon would surrender to him with sincerity or not. As long as he became her master, he had many ways to train her and truly control her in the end.
There would be a day that Zhang Ruochen would convince her that she had made a wise decision.
“You name it,” said Zhang Ruochen.
“The first one: even if I surrender to you now, before your cultivation surpass mine, we have to stay in equal positions. I will execute your orders, but for those unreasonable ones, I can choose not to. If you don’t agree to my first condition, there’s no need for me to say the second one.” Ghost King Bloodmoon raised her jaw and looked very haughty.
“An equal position?”
A strand of strong Masculine Qi burst out of Zhang Ruochen’s body. It was like a burning sun, and forced Ghost King Bloodmoon to retreat. He said, “What do you mean by reasonable orders and unreasonable orders? If there is no clear boundary between them, what’s the meaning of your surrender? If you keep playing tricks with me, I can’t see why I should keep you alive.”
The powerful Masculine Qi evaporated the Ghostly Qi of Ghost King Bloodmoon. Her face turned pale, but she refused to give in. “If there were great dangers in your orders, surely I wouldn’t execute them.”
But her words became less uncompromising than before.
Zhang Ruochen walked to Ghost King Bloodmoon with powerful Masculine Qi, and forced her to go on retreating.
Ghost King Bloodmoon didn’t look like a powerful king any longer, but more like a helpless girl being pushed to the corners by a burly chap. Who knows what would happen next?
Ghost King Bloodmoon had been already very weak. Being attacked by Masculine Qi in such a short distance weakened her further. She couldn’t even defend herself, and would turn into ashes in any minute.
After a short while, Zhang Ruochen was satisfied and put away his Masculine Qi. “Don’t worry. I would never do things that even you think were dangerous. I’ll agree to your first condition. What’s the second one? Say it.”
Ghost King Bloodmoon was relaxed, and cast a look toward the root under her feet, “I want all the Qi of Death in this root to cultivate my strength.”
Divine Sky-Connecting Tree was known to be the last deity of Kunlun’s Field. It had existed from the birth of Kunlun’s Field to the end of ancient times.
The cutting of Divine Sky-Connecting Tree was like the fall of a deity, so naturally there was a massive amount of Qi of Death left.
Zhang Ruochen understood instantly and said to himself, the reason why Ghost King Bloodmoon suddenly changed her mind and surrendered to him was because of this Qi of Death.
