Chapter 1760 - A Blessing in Disguise (1/2)

The lotus was comparable to a powerful vortex.

The Saint Qi in Zhang Ruochen’s body rushed uncontrollably out of his pores and were consumed by the lotus flower.

“How is this possible?”

Zhang Ruochen unleashed his full strength, trying to break free from the vortex. Yet, the lotus’ devouring force grew even stronger and basically held him down. He was unable to pull his fingers away.

A moment later, all of Zhang Ruochen’s Saint Qi had been absorbed.

He thought that the lotus would stop there, but to Zhang Ruochen’s despair, it did not. Instead, it began to absorb his blood, spiritual strength, Saint Soul, and Saint Precepts.

“I have survived so many life-and-death battles, I will not end up being nutrients… for a lotus flower, will I?”

Zhang Ruochen only felt a bone-chilling pain strike him, and even his iron will did not make the pain easier to bear. His body trembled, and a terrible scream was about to come out of his mouth.

The Nine-heavens Maiden, Luo Xu, and the rest noticed that something was not right and immediately rushed to the statue’s head.

However, when they were about a dozen feet away from Zhang Ruochen’s position, the lotus shook slightly, and a white circle of light blasted out, sweeping all of them away like mosquitoes.

“Is this another trap set by the Heavenly Realm?”

“Look, Zhang Ruochen…”

Both the cultivators from the Kunlun Realm and Heavenly Realm looked up at the top of the Buddha’s head. Some were elated, some were saddened, while some were confused.

Above the Buddha’s head, next to the lotus.

Zhang Ruochen’s body became desiccated as if his body was just a layer of skin over his bones. Even his hair became white, and his body showed no signs of life.

The heir of Saint Monk Xumi had actually fallen inside Xumi Dojo, and such a ridiculous thing just had to happen in front of everyone.

The Saints Kings of the Heavenly Realm were ecstatic. They never expected such a thing to happen; it was as if the heavens were helping them.

“Zhang Ruochen died just like that?” Shang Ziyan found it unbelievable.

In the past, he had used, G.o.d knows, how many methods and lost how many elites but still failed to get rid of Zhang Ruochen. Yet, Zhang Ruochen was ultimately killed by a lotus.

A Six-step Saint King said, “Master Ziyan, since Zhang Ruochen is dead, we should use this opportunity to break into Xumi Dojo and rescue the Saint Kings who are being held captive in the temple. Then, we can destroy the Kunlun Realm.”

Shang Ziyan’s eyes were still fixed on the top of the Buddha statue, and he nodded gently. “Since the heavens are standing with us, naturally, this battle must play out.”

Soon after, the sound of battle roared to life.

The Saint Kings of the Heavenly Realm rushed into Xumi Dojo continuously.

As sorrowful as the cultivators of the Kunlun Realm were, in the face of the menacing Heavenly Realm’s Saint Kings, they had to leave the Buddha statue to join the battle.

Zhang Ruochen had a great influence over the cultivators of the Kunlun Realm.

Aside from a handful of cultivators, most of them admired Zhang Ruochen from the bottom of their hearts and felt that he was the Kunlun Realm’s premier hero. Even after he left Kunlun, he still fought for them.

As long he was there, everyone was confident.

The moment he died in Xumi Dojo, the cultivators of the Kunlun Realm felt demoralized as if something had gone missing. It was like they had lost their pillar.

Within Xumi Dojo, the number of Kunlun cultivators were less than a hundred, and there were at least three to four hundred foes from the Heavenly Realm, with most of them in the Saint King rank. Even under Equality, their personal combat abilities were more than enough to overwhelm Kunlun.

The battle had just begun, but it already heralded a one-sided slaughter.

…

Zhang Ruochen’s consciousness slowly came back to him.

A white world before him. He had no body and took the form of shapeless sentience that floated in the void.

“Even though I’m dead, my consciousness is still around. Have I turned into a ghost? No… a ghost should consist of a soul. Where is my soul?”

In fact, a ghost was the soul of a dead ordinary creature, the “battle soul” of a dead martial cultivator, or the “Saint Soul” of a dead Sainthood cultivator.

“Am I just a blob of consciousness?”

Zhang Ruochen was plagued with new doubts. His Saint Soul had already been absorbed by the lotus, so how had his consciousness been preserved?

One needs to know that only the G.o.ds could preserve fragments of their consciousness after they lost their corporeal form, and their consciousness would wander between the heavens and Earth for eternity. Living beings could then communicate with the fragments of the G.o.ds’ consciousness through rituals.

A G.o.d’s fragments of consciousness could only have the power to affect the material world by absorbing blood, incense, and faith from the rituals.

Zhang Ruochen’s consciousness constantly changed direction as he looked for an exit to return to Xumi Dojo. However, he noticed that the white world seemed to be endless, and no matter which direction he flew in, he could never reach the end.

Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen felt a fluctuation in his soul power.

The soul power was very familiar to him, and it was undoubtedly his own.

“Could a shred of my Saint Soul have been preserved and not been absorbed by the lotus?” Zhang Ruochen was overjoyed.

As long as a shred of his Saint Soul was preserved, no matter how weak it was, he could switch to ghost cultivation or take the body of another living being to return to the material world.

Zhang Ruochen’s consciousness chased after that little shred of Saint Soul.

Gradually, Zhang Ruochen was surprised to find more and more Saint Souls appear around him, and all of them were his.

Thousands of Saint Soul fragments converged together and formed a soul shadow.

Immediately after, a second soul shadow formed.

Then, a third…

A fourth…