Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
The rain had stopped.
But the clouds were still in the dark sky. And it was a little cold.
Zhang Ruochen's power dispersed quickly, and the Buddhist Light died out. He soon fell back to the state of a Fourth Level Half-Saint.
In addition, a strong feeling of exhaustion pa.s.sed on to his whole body. All the Holy Qi in his lower abdomen and meridians disappeared in just one second.
Zoom.
Zhang Ruochen couldn't go on flying anymore. He landed slowly from midair at the bank of an old wide river, carrying the stone beauty.
The old river was wide and misty. Water flowed slowly but smoothly in it. It was hard to see the opposite bank, as if it was a sea.
Zhang Ruochen's legs started to shake. It was hard for him to support himself.
The exhaustion and his wounds almost pressed him down on the ground.
Now, a soldier at the Heavenly Realm would have probably beaten him, not to mention powerful saints.
Luckily, the saints of the Evil Ways in the Black Market didn't catch up with him. Otherwise, Zhang Ruochen would hardly survive.
"Put me down! No saints are after us. You are in a bad condition. If you don't treat yourself quickly, you might be left with incurable chronic diseases," the stone beauty said attentively and softly with concern.
Zhang Ruochen was surprised. He put her down and observed her eyes closely.
Her eyes were no longer dark and vague like a stone statue, but expressed some human kindness like a lively beauty.
To be accurate, the stone beauty had changed slightly when they left the Black Market.
But Zhang Ruochen was then occupied by the fights with the elder from the Qi Family of the Demonic Sect and the saints of the Evil Ways in the Black Market, so he didn't have the time to ask.
"You've recovered your will?" Zhang Ruochen's face lit up.
The stone beauty's eyes were like still water. She stared at Zhang Ruochen directly and shook her head. She fell into silence. It seemed that she was thinking about something, or comprehending something. But her eyes turned dumb gradually.
Zhang Ruochen worried that she might turn into a cold and silent stone beauty, so he said immediately, "I don't think that we are out of trouble. We have to keep moving. The further, the better."
The stone beauty stared at Zhang Ruochen with concern. She said, "You are severely wounded. You'd better stop and have a rest."
Zhang Ruochen was severely wounded indeed. His face had lost color, like an ordinary patient beyond recovery.
Besides, as he had used up the power of the Third Seal of the sarira, he was weakened even more. He could hardly stop himself from falling down.
The stone beauty had to help him, so that he wouldn't fall down on the ground.
Zhang Ruochen took in a Withered Pill. Before he could begin to refine it, all of a sudden, he raised up his head and looked at the sky. He said gloomily, "It's…the army of the Immortal Vampires…"
The bright red color appeared on the horizon. A b.l.o.o.d.y cloud rolled in, carrying a scary Qi with it.
It was not just one Immortal Vampire. It was an army, which might have come for the Taotian Sword.
Zhang Ruochen planned to call the Elephant-swallowing Rabbit out from the Scroll World to take them away, but now it seemed needless.
There were more than one Saint Blood King in the army of the Immortal Vampires.
Elephant-swallowing Rabbit's speed was the top among the Half-Saints, but was thousands of times slower than that of the Saint Blood Kings.
Even if they could hide in the Scroll World, the Saint Blood Kings would find the Universe Spiritual Map by tracing Zhang Ruochen's Qi.
Once the Universe Spiritual Map fell into the hands of the Immortal Vampires, things would become worse.
Zhang Ruochen thought that he had never been put in a deadlier situation before. Dangerous as they might have been, he always had a way out. But now, he had no way out.
Zhang Ruochen appeared to be calm. He smiled and gave a stare at the stone beauty. He said, "We will die today, one way or the other. How about we make something big before we die?"
"What do you mean?" The stone beauty wondered.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Although you've lost all your cultivation, you still have the Saintly Source inside your body. I can give you a hand to explode it. Then we can die together with the Immortal Vampires. I look forward to seeing how powerful the explosion of a Sword Saint's Saintly Source can be."
The Stone Beauty softened her eyes, and nodded in agreement.
But an elegant female voice was heard from the riverside nearby. "Junior Brother Zhang, will you get on the boat for a talk?"
Zhang Ruochen looked to the old river, and saw a green wooden boat, which was more than 30 meters long, stopping beside the bank.
An elegant and refined woman in white stood at the bow like a Fairy Lingbo, making people feel like they were in fairy land.
Zhang Ruochen was a little lost and a little surprised. He said, "Senior Sister Apprentice Luo, what are you doing here in the Central Region?"
The woman on the boat was Luo Shuihan. She, Huang Yanchen and Mu Lingxi together were called the "Three Demons in the West Yard."
But Zhang Ruochen had left the Eastern Region Saint Academy later and went on a different path to the saint state, so he hadn't seen Luo Shuihan in years.
He never thought that they would ever meet again in this life, and yet he ran into her in such a special situation.
To Zhang Ruochen's surprise, Luo Shuihan had reached the state of Half-Saint. She didn't fall back.
While they were back in the Eastern Region Saint Academy, Luo Shuihan was the best student. Her talent was above that of Huang Yanchen or Mu Lingxi.
And, like Zhang Ruochen, her body kept building up and making progress, as if she had unlimited potential.
Her adventures in the recent years might compare with Mu Lingxi and Huang Yanchen. Her being a Half-Saint at such a young age was the best proof of it.
Luo Shuihan was still like graceful poetry or drawings. She said, "I'm here for both of you. Or I should say, it's the other person on the boat who would like to meet you."
"Us?"
Zhang Ruochen wondered who should have connections with both him and Ling Feiyu.
Zhang Ruochen wanted to tell Luo Shuihan that an army of the Immortal Vampires was coming this way, and they should run away.
But since he could see them coming with his poor state, how could Luo Shuihan miss it?
Why was she still calm?
Could it be…?
Zhang Ruochen looked at the inside of the green boat, and made a wild guess.
Could it be that he was in the boat?
Zhang Ruochen and the stone beauty got on the boat, and entered the cabin under Luo Shuihan's guidance.
In the cabin, there was a monk in green robes, who was around the age of 30, and an old man, whose hair was half white and half black.
A scroll was placed on the table before them both, which was drawn with Chinese ink. It's hard to tell what the drawing was about.
The looks of the monk in green robes was average. But he looked clean and neatly dressed. Each of his hairs was combed in place.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen and the stone beauty walking inside, the two men stopped talking about the drawing and raised their heads.
But the monk in green robes looked at Zhang Ruochen first.
And the old man with half white hair and half black hair stared at the stone beauty with curiosity.
The monk in green robes smiled and said, "I had heard from Shuihan that a rare talent born in the Yunwu Commandery of Heavenly Devil Mountain was in the Eastern Region Saint Academy, so I wanted to meet you. But I worried that the Princ.i.p.al Xuanji would mistake my intention for attempting to steal his student, so I waited. I didn't know that so many things could happen, and that I wouldn't see you until today."
Zhang Ruochen had a guess of the monk in green robes' ident.i.ty, so he held his fists and bowed. "Greetings, my elder."
The old man now stared at Zhang Ruochen as well, and said, "No wonder the Empress commanded your capture. You, the reckless boy, are truly bold to have killed two saints of the Demonic Way in a row. If you keep messing around, the already disordered Kunlun's Field would have more uprisings."
Zhang Ruochen started to observe the old man with half white hair and half black hair.
The old man had a high spirit with a pair of flas.h.i.+ng eyes. He appeared to be about the age of 50, not very old.
Most importantly, he was in the clothes of the Way of Confucius.
The Way of Confucius had close connections with the Imperial Court. Many outstanding scholars were officials of the court. Those great scholars and saint scholars were in high positions of the court. Some even joined the Six Ministries and the Cabinet, making policies for the First Central Empire.
If the man were truly a senior official of the government, Zhang Ruochen had to watch out.
The old man in the clothes of the Way of Confucius was unhappy that Zhang Ruochen had put on his guard. He scolded with rage, "Why do you put me on guard? I'm not with the government! I'm just a painter who draws!"
The monk in green robes stared at Zhang Ruochen, and said peacefully, "He isn't an official of government. He will not hurt you. Sit down, don't answer him."
Before Zhang Ruochen sat down, the old man in the clothes of the Way of Confucius raised his jaw, and said proudly, "Although I'm not an official of the government, my student is the governor of the Tiantai State. And a grand-student of mine is the new bangyan, second place at palace examinations, this year."
Zhang Ruochen frowned and wondered, why did the old man at such an old age brag this way in front of a young man? What's the meaning of it?
Zhang Ruochen didn't bother to answer him. He sat down directly.
The old man in the clothes of the Way of Confucius saw Zhang Ruochen sit down, and became even more enraged. He seemed to believe that Zhang Ruochen's status was too low to sit together with him.
Unscholarly, disrespectful, having no manners…
Were it not for the monk in green robes, maybe the old man in the clothes of the Way of Confucius would have already left in anger.
Now the monk in green robes stared at the stone beauty instead. He put on a complicated expression, and said, "Palace Ruler Ling, actually, I'm here to meet you."
The stone beauty smiled in sorrow. "You are here to take revenge, like her?"
Zhang Ruochen put on a curious face near them. He wanted to know the past stories between these two leading figures of the Kunlun's Field in different ages.
The old man in the clothes of the Way of Confucius also listened carefully with interest.
The monk in green robes shook his head, and said, "I know that she hates you and unleashed on you. Your mind state was hurt by the fight with Blood Emperor Qingtian. And she found you. Maybe she used the past to attack you, attempting to destroy your will, so that she could seek revenge and make you pay for what you did in the past."
He added, "I'm here to stop her, and to tell you: I never blamed you for the past. You did nothing wrong. You don't have to blame yourself."
Hearing this, the look of the stone beauty changed.
