God Emperor

Crackle, crackle.

Struck by the two ice hand prints, the kneeling soldier instantly turned into hard ice. Then the man-shaped ice block cracked in dozens of places.

With a loud crack, the man shattered. His armor and flesh had all turned to ice crystals.

“Not Zhang Ruochen?”

Qingyi Chan’s expression changed again. She felt fine spatial ripples coming around three feet behind her. At the same time, tumultuous murderous intent exploded like a flood breaking the dam and swallowed her.

Whoosh—

Zhang Ruochen stepped out of the space and charged. He immediately put five time prints into his sword technique and used the Eight Scales of Change.

The surrounding time slowed a bit, but the sword quickened.

This sneak attack had to take Qingyi Chan’s life, so Zhang Ruochen used both time and space. If he couldn’t kill Qingyi Chan with one strike, the following battle would be very difficult.

Light flashed. The Abyss Ancient Sword’s tip was already at Qingyi Chan’s head. It was about to pierce the helmet.

Then an odd change occurred.

Qingyi Chan’s head shone with blinding green light. An ancient little tripod flew out of her skull and stopped the Abyss Ancient Sword.

Boom.

There was the ear splitting sound of metal clashing. Sound waves rippled out, smashing a large portion of the buildings in the residence.

The ancient tripod spun quickly, forming seven green halos that surrounded Qingyi Chan.

“You actually melded the Ice Tripod into your skull.” Zhang Ruochen was shocked.

With a Ninth Level Half-Saint’s strong vitality, they wouldn’t die even if stabbed in the heart. They could take some precious pills to recover from their injury.

The most direct way to kill a Ninth Level Half-Saint was by stabbing their skull and destroying their Sea of Qi.

However, Qingyi Chan had put the Ice Tripod into her skull. This made her head the most heavily guarded spot. Zhang Ruochen had missed the best timing to kill her.

“You dared to come even though you know I have the Ice Tripod?”

Qingyi Chan huffed. Rich Holy Qi surged through her five Saintly Meridians with crashing sounds. Her five Saintly Meridians were like five wide saintly rivers.

Martial Holy Qi rushed to her head and filled the Ice Tripod. The ancient tripod’s green glow grew ten times brighter. It set off extreme power by just swaying. The power rushed at Zhang Ruochen.

Boom.

He was thrown hundreds of feet away.

The power from Qingyi Chan’s strike had surpassed what Zhang Ruochen could take. His organs shook violently. Immense pain registered in him.

In the end, Zhang Ruochen’s power was still far from someone in the later stage of the Ninth Level. However, his attainments in other aspects far surpassed them. With the addition of the powers of time and space, he could counter someone in the later stage of the Ninth Level.

He would lose tragically if he fought directly.

Qingyi Chan extended a metal hand. Holding the dark green tripod, her eyes filled with scorn. “Zhang Ruochen, you entered the Half-Saint Realm less than a year ago and you already dare to kill Ninth Level Half-Saints. Do you really think you’ll be undefeatable if you control time and space?”

Zhang Ruochen circulated his Holy Qi and the pain in his organs disappeared. He smiled. “I entered the Half-Saint Realm less than half a year ago, but I haven’t only cultivated for a year.”

“I’ve been in the Half-Saint Realm for a century. My accumulation from the years is nothing you can imagine.”

Qingyi Chan was still very calm. She had an extraordinary temperament.

Zhang Ruochen indeed felt pressure from Qingyi Chan. He hadn’t felt this when he faced Liao Huacheng, Yan Honglie, and Han Ying. This made him even more careful.

Four high level Half-Saints flew in from four directions of the residence. Each had a battle flag and formed a battle formation.

Thousands upon thousands of ghostly images emerged in the formation. Some had unruly hair, some rode beasts, some gripped spears… The entire Provincial Military Governor Residence became ghostly and eerie.

The ghostly images overlapped on the four high level Half-Saints. Like Ghost Kings from the netherworld, the four Half-Saints emanated auras stronger than a Ninth Level Half-Saint.

Qingyi Chan smiled coldly. “I guessed that you would come, so I asked the princess of the Ghost Cultivation Race earlier to prepare a Grade Four Ghost King Formation for you.”

“Princess of the Ghost Cultivation Race?” Zhang Ruochen was surprised.

Graceful pipa music sounded within the residence. Zhang Ruochen looked in the direction of the music. He saw a girl in an inky black dress sitting in a navy pavilion.

The curvaceous frame was hidden in a ghostly cloud. Her slender and long fingers strummed the instrument strings lightly, playing a sad song.

In addition, there was one white and one black Wuchang King standing behind her. The two Wuchang Kings were close to ten feet tall. Metal chains wrapped around their ghostly shoulders and waists. They looked extremely tall and big while giving off an eerie feeling.

Zhang Ruochen remembered that Feng Yinchan of the Ghost Cultivation Race and Yin Xuanji of the Necromancer Race should be trapped in the netherworld.

The Thousand-bone Empress’ stone tablet now blocked the passage between the netherworld and Kunlun’s Field. How did they escape?

The girl in the fog stopped playing the pipa. “After our farewell in the netherworld, I really missed you,” she said gracefully. “Zhang Ruochen, long time no see.”

“You’re Feng Yinchan?” Zhang Ruochen asked.

The girl with the pipa giggled. Her voice was resonant. “You didn’t expect this right?”

“It’s indeed unexpected,” Zhang Ruochen said.

Qingyi Chan held the Ice Tripod with one hand. The other behind her back, she announced, “I planned everything and just waited for you to fall in before collecting the net.”

“I already guessed that killing you wouldn’t be easy.” Still composed, Zhang Ruochen added, “Of course, it won’t be easy to capture me either.”

Qingyi Chan’s eyes were cold. “I can’t capture you with the current formations in the residence?”

Zhang Ruochen shook his head. “Still a bit off,” he said with a strong voice.

In addition to the Grade Four Ghost King Formation, the residence also contained Qingyi Chan and strong cultivators of the Ghost Cultivation Race. It was definitely a pit of snakes. Even someone from the Half-Saint Rank or Outer Rank would find it hard to leave freely.

Was Zhang Ruochen sure he could escape?

Qingyi Chan didn’t want to keep waiting lest something happened. “Attack,” she ordered immediately.

The four Half-Saints waved their black battle flags and led millions of ghostly souls to attack Zhang Ruochen. With the addition of the ghostly souls, they’d become abnormally strong.

A red-haired elder waved his battle flag, creating a gust of icy wind and setting off thousands of ghostly images.

Looking over from Zhang Ruochen’s position, one would feel like a stampede of soldiers and horses was flooding over. Like thousands of arrows shot at once, it was about to swallow him.

Whoosh.

Powerful Masculine Qi surged out of Zhang Ruochen. His body turned red and even had the sheen of firelight.

Having cultivated the Ninth Palm of the Dragon and Elephant Prajna Palm, the Masculine Qi within Zhang Ruochen was 1,000 times stronger than the average man.

Ghosts and dead souls feared Masculine Qi and the Great Spirit the most.

“Thousand-hand Dragon and Elephant.” Zhang Ruochen hit his hands forward at once to execute the eighth palm. He released 35 times the combat power.

Strong Masculine Qi was sent forward with the palm strength.

Kaboom.

In an instant, hundreds of ghostly souls dissipated into fog. The red-haired elder was also sent flying.

The elder was shocked. He immediately retreated. Blood dripped from his hands that were holding the battle flag.

Zhang Ruochen was shocked too. After all, his palm print had been in the Saintly level but could only send the elder flying. It couldn’t hurt him. How could the four Half-Saints become this strong with the help of the ghostly souls?

“Attack together. Finish quickly.”

Qingyi Chan attacked with the Ice Tripod. The delicate tripod enlarged and became huge. Finally, it was the size of a pavilion and emanated with terrifying strength.

The Icy Qi radiating from it turned the entire residence into a world of ice and snow.

In the distant pavilion, Feng Yinchan, in her black dress, began playing the pipa again. Her fingers flew and murderous intent peaked through her music. It felt like a warning of what was to come.

“Zhang Ruochen, I’ll gift you two Wuchang Kings! Remember to return them when you go to Hell!” Feng Yinchan’s giggles rang out like silver chimes.

She jumped and her mesmerizing figure landed on the top of the pavilion. Below her, the white and black Wuchang Kings flew out. They attacked Zhang Ruochen from two opposite directions.

The two Wuchang Kings had swallowed hundreds of regular Wuchangs. After continuously evolving, their cultivations were close to Ghost Kings. They only needed to go through a trial before changing.

“With so many ghostly spirits here, I think I need to invite two monks to send them off.”

Zhang Ruochen had communicated with Sikong One and Two in the scroll world beforehand. They were willing to come and send the dead souls back to the netherworld.

Asking them to come kill people would result in bad karma and affect their cultivations. However, asking them to send dead souls off was very good for their cultivations. It would challenge their Buddhist hearts too.

Of course, Zhang Ruochen was a bit worried if the two monks had read the scriptures for sending souls off before. Sikong One especially didn’t look like a monk who read scriptures.