God Emperor

The forces all thought that cultivators from Yin and Yang Field, Black Demon Field, and Thousand Devil Field would quickly return to attack the Moon Goddess Dojo. At the very least, they should take back the 100 Evil Way cultivators’ heads.

Surprisingly, King Yan, Queen Lian, Qiong Lin, Xie Cheng and the others who’d terrorized the Truth Heavenly Domain never appeared again.

Were they really able to take this defeat?

Even stranger was that Zhang Ruochen didn’t take this chance to continue fighting for the remaining 19 dojos of Guanghan Field.

This bloody storm seemed to pass like this. The entire Truth Heavenly Domain calmed down.

However, when people walked past the Moon Goddess Dojo and saw the 100 hanging heads, they would still feel frightened.

They couldn’t help but wonder how both parties could leave this matter alone.

The current peace may be the calm before the storm.

The Truth Way image that the Moon Goddess had left behind was carved on a white 220-foot-tall jade tablet. It was called the Stars Orbiting Moon Image.

Zhang Ruochen didn’t immediately join in on studying this, because he wanted to reach the Saint King Realm first.

However, this picture was extremely precious to the Guanghan Field cultivators.

Thus, Zhang Ruochen spent some time and effort in creating a 2:1-ratio time formation under the tablet.

Before entering isolation, Zhang Ruochen handed the Abyss Ancient Sword to Mu Lingxi. “The sword spirit can comprehend the Way of Truth too,” he told her. “Please take care of it for the time being.”

Now, the sword spirit had only cultivated nine rules of truth, but it could unleash double the power when using them.

In a life-or-death battle, it was great help for Zhang Ruochen.

If the sword spirit could cultivate 82 rules of truth and unleash triple the power, then it would be an even greater help.

Zhang Ruochen also handed Mu Lingxi a storage bag.

It contained all sorts of saint weapons.

Mu Lingxi knew that these were the “food” for the Abyss Ancient Sword. Every day, the sword had to refine multiple saint weapons—even dozens—to improve its grade.

“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely take care of the Abyss Ancient Sword. When you come out, it might even be a Third Yao Ten-thousand-pattern Saint Weapon.” Mu Lingxi smiled.

Zhang Ruochen stared deeply at her. Seeming to think of something, he said, “In the lowest level of the Euphoria Underground Palace, there’s a Yin pool. It has a large amount of Yin Qi and should be able to improve your Extreme Yin Nether Ice power.”

After that, Zhang Ruochen told Blackie some things before entering the time and space crystal.

The Holy Carnivorous Flower also joined Zhang Ruochen in cultivation isolation.

Its cultivation was now a first step Saint King. Small flower buds grew at the top of the vine again. It was going to flower for a third time.

Every three times, the fruit of the Holy Carnivorous Flower was its dharmakaya.

The so-called dharmakaya was like a Supreme Saint’s undying saint body.

Once combined with the dharmakaya, the Holy Carnivorous Flower’s abilities would skyrocket and be able to fight with a Supreme Saint. If wrapped by the flower, it could swallow an entire planet. Everything under the Supreme Saint Realm would be its food.

If a ninth step Saint King received a dharmakaya fruit and ate it, it was highly possible for them to cultivate an undying saint body and instantly become a Supreme Saint.

It could be said that the dharmakaya fruit was a priceless treasure, even more precious than a Supreme Saint’s saint source.

If a cultivator received a Supreme Saint’s saint source, it was only a bit easier to create an undying saint body.

Of course, if the Holy Carnivorous Flower were to flower a third time, it needed a great amount of nutrients. If it wanted to ripen, it needed even more.

Now, Zhang Ruochen could only work to provide enough nutrients. After it combined with its dharmakaya fruit, it would be a truly great help for Zhang Ruochen.

He took an Evil Way cultivator’s corpse out of the spatial ring and gave it to the flower as fertilizer.

Now, he had more than 200 Evil Way cultivator corpses. They were at least Absolute Saints and some were even Saint Kings.

When they were still alive, they’d been the top prides of their worlds and had strong bloodlines and bodies. They were able to at least fight one level above them.

By absorbing them as nutrients, the Holy Carnivorous Flower could gain some special abilities and become even stronger.

Zhang Ruochen was excited to see how the flower would develop after digesting all of those cultivators.

Next, Zhang Ruochen took out the Emperor Yi Bone Staff to study it.

There was a big Supreme Saint’s soul in the skull at the top. It had already become an evil spirit.

It was very powerful. It had once suppressed Shang Feng’s saint soul and swallowed it. Shang Feng was a fifth step Saint King.

Now, the evil spirit had strengthened more. With the Emperor Yi Bone Staff, it could unleash power comparable to a fifth step Saint King.

After killing those Evil Way cultivators, Zhang Ruochen had collected all their saint souls. He’d actually planned to feed them to the evil spirit.

But he wasn’t sure if he could still use his Spiritual Power and sharira to control the evil spirit after it grew stronger.

He didn’t dare give all the saint souls to the evil spirit at once. Thus, he took them out one by one and fed the evil spirit while observing.

He would stop as soon as he sensed something amiss.

The days passed like this. Soon, one month was over.

During this month, Zhang Ruochen spent very little time feeding the evil spirit. He spent the rest of his time holding the rules emperor weapon and studying the Rules of Saintly Way.

He also cultivated palm and sword techniques. Sometimes, he studied the fist techniques that Luo Xu gave him.

After feeding more than 40 strong saint souls, a shriek came from the skull one day. It instantly pierced Zhang Ruochen’s eardrums and his ears started bleeding.

Zhang Ruochen’s expression changed drastically. He quickly used Holy Qi and Spiritual Power to activate the spiritual strength and Buddhist Qi of the sharira. While purifying the evil Qi from the skull, he worked to repress the spirit.

The evil spirit was countless times meaner than before. Even with the sharira’s help, Zhang Ruochen still took a long time to suppress it again.

It’s now a sixth step Saint King. Without the sharira’s suppression, it could kill me instantly.

No, I can’t feed it anymore before I reach the Saint King Realm.

Zhang Ruochen put the Emperor Yi Bone Staff away. Then he took out the rules emperor weapon, lit a Honghua Vine, and focused entirely on studying the Rules of Saintly Way.

Whoosh!

Five beams of white light burst from his body. They landed on the ground and transformed into identical shadows.

His saint soul had split into six clones with six Saint Looks.

Right now, five saint souls broke free from the five Saint Looks. Only one still remained in his body.

The rules emperor weapon flew out of his true form’s hands. It hovered in the center of his true form and five saint souls. It spun slowly, shining with brilliant light. Rules of Saintly Way flowed out like threads of light.

If the six saint souls studied at the same time, Zhang Ruochen could learn six times faster.

Of course, he could only cultivate in this state when in utter isolation and when he didn’t have any disturbances. Otherwise, no matter how strong his saint soul was, his mind would become chaotic if he received any disturbances. The consequences would be unimaginable.

After entering that state, the Mysteries of Truth in him became active. They transformed into specks of light and spread from his true form, filling the time and space crystal.

Instantly, the consciousness of his true form and five saint souls all became bright and open. His speed of comprehension multiplied.

In this state, time passed unknowingly. Zhang Ruochen had already been in isolation for a year.

There had been 30,000 saint stones piled in the time and space crystal. Without realizing, Zhang Ruochen had absorbed them all. Only powder remained.

Without the saint stones providing Holy Qi, Zhang Ruochen woke up with a start. The specks of light that filled the air rushed into his body like birds returning to their nest.

Zhang Ruochen noticed that his body was covered in dust. “I actually used up 30,000 saint stones,” he murmured to himself. “How long have I cultivated for?”

He put his hands together and the five saint souls flew back into his body.

Next, he closed his eyes again. He spent three days to completely organize the Rules of Saintly Way that the six saint souls had comprehended.

When he opened his eyes again, they gleamed with joy. “There are 2,300 Rules of Saintly Way in the Heaven Pass River. I should be in the first step Saint King Realm now.”

In the Heaven World, a Saint King could only accurately measure their realm by going to the Nine Steps to the Sky Path.

But according to the experience from seniors, one would typically become a first step Saint King after having more than 1,000 Rules of Saintly Way.

The second step Saint King Realm was around 5,000 rules.

The third step Saint King Realm was around 30,000 rules.

…

Of course, this wasn’t definite.

For example, imagine a cultivator who focused on one of the 72 Supreme Saintly Ways. Then, he might be able to take a compete step on the path after cultivating 800 Rules of Saintly Way and become a first step Saint King.

But then imagine a cultivator who focused on one of the 3,000 Major Ways. Even if he had 1,500 rules inside, he might still not be able to take a complete step. He’d still be a half-step Saint King.

The nine steps were actually quite fuzzy. There wasn’t a specific boundary and there weren’t even different so-called “realms.”

But when a cultivator was studying the Rules of Saintly Way, they would meet large and small bottlenecks. They may even be unable to comprehend any rules and stay in place, or their Rules of Saintly Way would suddenly skyrocket. In the end, after summarizing countless generations of cultivators, they created the “nine step realms.”

On the Nine Steps to the Sky Path, each step was a different level of heaven.

Each step would stump a large group of untalented figures.

Only the true talents could forge on bravely and finally reach heaven with nine steps. They would cultivate their undying body and become a Supreme Saint.

It could be said that every bottleneck would frighten a Saint King. They’d fear that they would stay in place from now on and be part of the untalented figures stuck on the path.

But after this year of isolation, Zhang Ruochen didn’t run into any bottlenecks. His cultivation was quite smooth.