1814 Ashuran

Zhu Xia was confident of the bagua robe, which was his favorite rare item. He had used it to kill countless powerful enemies.

The cloth bag suddenly swelled. It became larger and larger, almost the size of a typical house.

And then it swelled to the size of a mountain.

Zhu Xia was shocked, his narrow eyes wide open. He scrambled to summon his spiritual power into the bag to activate the array of inscriptions on the bagua robe.

"How does the cripple grow to become this big? Could it be that he isn't a human but a wild giant beast in his true form?"

Zhu Xia was shocked, but still confident of the bagua robe.

His belief was based on the fact that when the black hou was still alive, it was some thirty-thousand-foot tall, when it opened its mouth, it could gulp down the water of an entire river, and it could trample a towering mountain to the ground.

Gradually, the cloth bag swelled ten times in size in the shape of a gourd.

The mountains in the surroundings looked like mounds in comparison.

A few hundred miles away, Fool and Butcher looked struck dumb. At first, when they saw Zhu Xia got the cripple and put him in the cloth bag, they thought of going to rescue him.

Now they stopped in their tracks and looked at each other.

"It's a giant gourd!" Fool exclaimed.

As the cloth bag was stretched bigger and bigger, the bagua robe finally gave way and burst. A loud bang followed by a violent air current spread in all directions.

A gourd was suspended in the air.

Lightning was dancing on the surface of the gourd.

The area surrounding the gourd was affected by a strange energy. Water vapor gathered and formed into clouds, then came the drizzle.

The thing that tore the bagua robe apart was the Mercury Gourd.

Mercury Gourd grew on the Mercury Vines, which attached and intertwined around Divine Bajiao Tree, the water spirit root in the Kunlun Realm. Each Mercury Gourd could grow as large as a star.

In a sense, Mercury Gourd was something growing out of nothing. If extremely agitated, it could grow to several miles in diameter and crush billions of lives to their death as it rolled on the earth.

However, Zhang Ruochen had still not fully mastered the ability of the Mercury Gourd.

Before Zhu Xia knew it, Zhang Ruochen had appeared behind him. He thrust his sword into Zhu Xia's heart from behind, and sword Qi shattered the saint soul in his saint heart.

It did not matter if it was the array master or the cultivators of the spiritual power, their biggest weakness had always been their fragile bodies.

Zhu Xia's head fell back and plunged toward the earth.

Bang!

His body hit the ground and smashed.

Zhang Ruochen landed beside the smashed body and collected the saint soul.

Zhu Xia was a prominent figure among the Immortal Vampire. Killing him could earn him a lot of merit points.

He could exchange merit points for merit treasure at the terminals of merit. Merit treasure could elevate one's cultivation base and spiritual power, improve a cultivator's physique, increase one's wisdom, and many more. All in all, it had many benefits.

"Retrieve!"

Zhang Ruochen grabbed with his hand in the air and retrieved the Mercury Gourd. "Excellent stuff! Wait until my spiritual power achieves the 59th order and my attainment in the Path of Dimension and Path of Time elevates to a higher level, I will refine you into a dimensional treasure."

The three-headed bat that Zhu Xia was riding on earlier was circling in the air, looking down at Zhang Ruochen with a murderous look in its three pairs of eyes. A strange shrill came out of its mouths. It formed into rings of ripple and broke apart the clouds within thousands of miles in the surroundings.

Not good!

Without time to react, Zhang Ruochen was hit by the sound wave. He felt his head was going to explode, his vision turning dark and losing his body balance. Who could have known that a bat used as a transport possessed such a level of strength?

The three-headed bat's cultivation base was of the Nine-step Saint Kinghood. Its voice could directly attack the saint souls of the cultivators. It was a very scary species of being.

Qi Sheng and Ying Huo had fled to a thousand miles away. But the sound wave still hit them. They dropped to the ground, hugging their heads with their hands, and screamed in pain.

Meanwhile, Fool and Butcher were much farther away. Coupled with their high level of cultivation base, the sound wave had little effect on them.

"No wonder Zhu Xia has a danger index of five in The Maleficent Records of the Infernal Court's Ten Clans. His pet is such a nasty creature!"

Butcher hissed and pulled out the machete he carried on his back. With the machete in his hand, he then rapidly swung his arm like a windmill.

The machete was flung out several hundred miles and cut off one of the three heads of the bat with precision.

The three-headed bat cried in pain. It became even madder as it plunged toward the ground.

Claws growing on the edge of its golden flesh wings were sharp and glinting like cold sharp blades. When the claws pierced through the air, aiming at Zhang Ruochen, the air suddenly went up in flames.

The power of this move was equal to the full strength of a Nine-step Saint King.

In this life-or-death moment, a huge shadow lunged out and stopped in front of Zhang Ruochen. A skeleton hand struck the three-headed bat, sending it flying out and crashing to the ground.

That shadow was the Yi Huang Bone Scepter that had transformed into a skeleton.

The black skeleton lunged out again, pressed the three-headed bat on the ground, and started eating it, swallowing its saint soul in the process.

Losing its saint soul, that bat's body convulsed a couple of times before gradually turning cold.

As that happened, the pain slowly left Zhang Ruochen's head. He finally recovered.

"That was a close call. Luckily, the Chaotic Space-time Lotus has enhanced my saint soul. Otherwise, it would have been broken up."

He took a pill that could heal his saint soul, then walked over to the three-headed bat and collected a drop of saint blood from its body.

"Is this three-headed bat coming from the Ashuran Clan of the Infernal Court?" he mumbled to himself with his hand prodding his chin.

"You are right. It is Ashuran." The pleasant voice of a lady came from the clouds.

Three shadows descended from the sky and appeared in front of him.

He recognized them all. They were the Fairy of Tianchu, Butcher, and Fool.

Zhang Ruochen was startled for a second when he saw Butcher and Fool standing behind the Fairy of Tianchu. But he quickly figured out why. "Apparently Her Highness Heavenly Lady whom they mentioned was you, Luo Ji."

Zhang Ruochen had a mixed feeling when he saw Luo Ji again this time.

One of them was the Heavenly Lady, who was a figure of importance, talented and beautiful. And one was the prince of a perished kingdom of a declining macroworld.

They were not supposed to have any relationship, but fate had it they were destined to meet.

Zhang Ruochen thought after giving her the Divine Spring, they would have nothing to do with each again. But fate was playing tricks with them and let them meet again, right here, this time.

Butcher retrieved his machete from the ground and guffawed. "Hey, mate, you are badass! The three-headed bat is a nasty species in Ashuran. Yet you could survive its sound wave attack. Your saint soul must be no less powerful than that of a Nine-step Saint King."

Zhang Ruochen did not look at the Fairy of Tianchu, but he could sense that she was staring at him.

Zhang Ruochen pretended not to know her. "Thank you for lending me a hand, Butcher." He cupped his hand in a sign of respect.

"I didn't manage to kill the thing. Why thank me? It was your skeleton that was badass. With just the strike of its hand, it pinned the thing on the ground. By the way, what is that skeleton of yours?" asked Butcher curiously.

"Yi Huang Bone Scepter." Before Zhang Ruochen could open his mouth, the Fairy of Tianchu spoke.

Zhang Ruochen finally looked at her. "You have a keen eye, lady. You are right, it is the Yi Huang Bone Scepter."

"So you are the Divine Envoy of Yueshen, Zhang Ruochen?"

The Fairy of Tianchu stared at him, carefully observing his every subtle expression and movement.

Her eyes seemed to have seen through him.

Zhang Ruochen's expression became a little unnatural. Could it be that she has found out who I am? But that is not possible. No matter how good her eyes are, she could not have possibly seen through my Thirty-six Formless Transmogrification.

Zhang Ruochen did not answer her question. He just let out a smile and walked over to the black skeleton, retrieved it, so it transformed back into the bone scepter.

Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Butcher quickly guffawed. "Apparently you are the renowned The Scion of Time and Space Zhang Ruochen. I heard that you killed the divine clone of Blackheart Demonlord? That was awesome, man! Oh, let me introduce; this is the Fairy of Tianchu, the Heavenly Lady whom I have mentioned to you last time. She is one of the fairies in the Portrait of the Nine Beauties." 

The atmosphere was still awkward as Zhang Ruochen and the Fairy of Tianchu were still silent.

Butcher was like 'What the heck?'. Supposedly, any male cultivator who saw the Fairy of Tianchu would be awestruck by her beauty and tried to chat her up. At least all eyes would be on her and saying something to compliment her.

But this Zhang Ruochen had none of those reactions. Was he still a man?

Butcher hemmed to clear his throat. "Frankly, Fool and I are the cultivators from the Tianchu Civilization."

"I heard that Tianchu Civilization and Ashuran Clan of the Infernal Court had been at war for a long time. You must know one or two about the Ashuran Clan, I guess?" Zhang Ruochen asked Butcher.

"I do, naturally."

"The three lower clans of the Infernal Court. The Immortal Vampires feed on the blood of the livings to enhance their cultivation base. The Rakshasas feed on the flesh of the livings to boost their cultivation base. And the Ashurans, on the other hand, feed on the will and Qi of war to elevate their cultivation base," Butcher explained in length.

"So the three lower clans of the Infernal Court have to resort to killing and destruction to grow stronger."

"The Immortal Vampires and the Rakshasas are races in their truest sense. But the Ashurans comprise different living beings, and many of them are beings ascending or sneaking from the macroworld into the Ashuran planet."

"Those who love killing, destruction, and war could transform into Ashuran. Of course, they need to go through the baptism of the Ashuran Sea of Warring Souls to become a true Ashuran and a member of the Infernal Court."