364 Back to School

Omen Ridge was located in a bleak area of the Eastern Region. Many places there were desolate and uninhabited, where wild and savage beasts roamed. It gave off a primitive feeling to the people.

At the moment, in the depths of the woods full of purple maple pines, a woman wearing a blood-red robe was sitting cross-legged on the ground, which was filled with fallen leaves.

It was Blood Spirit King.

After half a day, she had finally suppressed the power of the chaos Half-Saint's Light in her body. And as her power was restored, she stood up.

"Zhang Ruochen is proficient in the Evocation Formula and has refined the Holy Blood of the Golden Cloud Half-Saint. He must be killed. Otherwise, I will face endless trouble."

Blood Spirit King owned a part of the memory of the Golden Cloud Half-Saint. Therefore, she knew what Zhang Ruochen had previously displayed was the Evocation Formula.

The strength of Blood Spirit King was much more powerful than Zhang Ruochen's. However, Zhang Ruochen possessed the Holy Blood of the Golden Cloud Half-Saint, so he could fiercely restrain her.

Even if she became a Half-Saint, she would be suppressed by Zhang Ruochen as long as he was still alive.

A Blood Spirit flew in from the distance and knelt down in front of Blood Spirit King. It said in a husky voice, "Your Majesty, Zhang Ruochen went to Devil Martial City."

Blood Spirit King frowned and soliloquized, saying, "There are many great masters in Devil Martial City, over half of the superiors of the 36 commanderies in Omen Ridge are there. With my current strength, I can't blatantly enter Devil Martial City."

After pondering for a while, Blood Spirit King finally decided to go to Devil Martial City. Even if it might be quite dangerous there, Zhang Ruochen had to be eliminated.

Of course, she was not going to directly go into Devil Martial City, but prepared to sneak into it, slowly looking for opportunities to kill Zhang Ruochen.

...

......

When Zhang Ruochen returned to Devil Martial City, he immediately went to the Silver Gowned Elder Pavilion to visit Lei Jing.

Seeing that Zhang Ruochen had returned to the school safe and sound, Lei Jing's mood was greatly boosted. But soon he frowned slightly and asked, "Zhang Ruochen, your Spiritual Blood loss is serious and you were severely hurt. Was it really that old donkey, Hua Qingye, that hurt you?"

Returning from the Tongming River, Lei Jing immediately rushed to Yunwu City of the Yunwu Commandery, but it was still too late. At that time, the battle between Zhang Ruochen and Hua Qingye had ended, which left the entire palace in ruins.

Once Lei Jing had searched around and asked the surviving maidservants and eunuchs, he finally confirmed that the one-armed old man who had fought against Zhang Ruochen was Hua Qingye, the chief chairman of the Poisonous Spider Club.

He mobilized all of the manpower of the Martial Market Bank in Yunwu City to look for three days, but he still could not find Zhang Ruochen and Hua Qingye.

As Lei Jing returned to the School of the Martial Market today, he was ready to mobilize all of the manpower of the School of the Martial Market and the Martial Market Bank in the 36 commanderies of Omen Ridge to make every effort to find Zhang Ruochen.

Unexpectedly, however, Zhang Ruochen returned to the School of the Martial Market.

Because of his excessive blood loss, Zhang Ruochen looked very pale. He shook his head gently and answered, "Hua Qingye is dead."

"Dead?"

Lei Jing's eyes just stared as he was a little surprised and he asked, "You killed him?"

Zhang Ruochen smiled and replied, "Master, do you think that I can kill a superior in the Fish-dragon Realm with my ability?"

"That's right, Hua Qingye is only in the First Change in the Fish-dragon Realm, which could be regarded as the lowest level of Fish-dragon Realm warriors. But with your cultivation, even a single one of his hairs cannot be hurt," Lei Jing said.

Lei Jing said this not to belittle Zhang Ruochen, but they were the most realistic words.

Only a few of the warriors who had entered into the Heaven Board could contend with warriors in the Fish-dragon Realm. Let alone that Zhang Ruochen was in the Mid Stage of the Heaven Realm and there was still a large gap between him and warriors of the Heaven Board.

Lei Jing asked, "In Omen Ridge, there are only a dozen people who have reached the Fish-dragon Realm. Each one of them is the dominator of a force. So who killed Hua Qingye?"

"Blood Spirit King," Zhang Ruochen replied.

"Is there such a superior in the Martial World of Omen Ridge?" Lei Jing asked.

Zhang Ruochen shook his head and said, "Master, do you remember that blood-sucking demon which escaped from Chikong Secret Mansion?"

"Of course I remember that. At that time, the School of the Martial Market dispatched its top 10 masters to kill her. But three of them were killed by her, and in the end, she still escaped."

"In recent years, almost all of the 36 commanderies in Omen Ridge have experienced blood-sucking tragedies. The people in a village all died from being sucked dry, the people in a city all vanished, and the people in a Suzerain were turned into dried corpses. She might be the murderer of all of these events."

"Not only the School of the Martial Market, Yuntai Suzerain, the Tai Qing Palace, and the School of Theology, but also the heretics are investigating her. But her whereabouts are so strange, and masters of all parties have never seen her true body. Everyone who has seen her has disappeared. Maybe they've been killed by her."

"According to the information collected by the School of the Martial Market, the number of people who have been killed by the blood-sucking demon is 1.6 million, many of whom were warriors. Sucking the blood of so many people is such a horrifying power. Who knows what level has she reached?"

"Did..."

Lei Jing stared at Zhang Ruochen with a sharp light in his eyes, and said, "Is Blood Spirit King that you mentioned a blood-sucking demon?"

Zhang Ruochen nodded and affirmed it, saying, "It is her."

"How powerful is her strength now?" Lei Jing asked.

Anyone who could kill Hua Qingye was definitely a dangerous character. If it was necessary, Lei Jing would report the news of Blood Spirit King to the headquarters of the Martial Market Bank in the Eastern Region.

The headquarters in the Eastern Region would then send masters to Omen Ridge to kill her.

Or, the Martial Market Bank would report the news to the imperial court of the First Central Empire and the First Central Empire would send troops to annihilate her.

Since Empress Chi Yao's enthronement, what she emphasized was "internal stability, external expansion". Within the territory of the First Central Empire, any factors that affected stability would be stifled the first time.

Just like the Four-winged Earth Dragon who once dominated Omen Ridge—even if it had become a Saint, it was still suppressed by troops of the First Central Empire.

It was because the foundation of "internal stability, external expansion" that the Martial Arts in Kunlun's Field boomed, and Saints and geniuses came out in succession. The power of the humans became stronger and stronger. It seemed that a flourishing age would soon arrive.

Zhang Ruochen said, "According to my best guess, Blood Spirit King now has the cultivation in the Fourth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm."

"She was that strong?"

Lei Jing frowned, deeply lost in thought.

Given the strength of Blood Spirit King, only three people in Omen Ridge could suppress her other than Half-Saints.

And Lei Jing was one of them.

However, if Blood Spirit King wanted to run away, it was unknown whether Lei Jing could hinder her with his strength.

Should a Half-Saint come to solve this?

There was only one Half-Saint now—Half-Saint Han Jue of Yuntai Suzerain in Devil Martial City.

"It seems that I need to find time to travel to Yuntai Suzerain to visit predecessor Han Jue," Lei Jing thought.

Given that all of the power of Omen Ridge could suppress Blood Spirit King, it was not necessary to report it. Even if he did report it, the officers of the Empire would analyze the strength of Blood Spirit King and the final decision would be to let them solve it themselves.

If the cultivation of Blood Spirit King were to reach the Seventh Change in the Fish-dragon Realm, the headquarters of the Eastern Region and the imperial court of the First Central Empire would take it seriously. After all, a superior in the Seventh Change of the Fish-dragon Realm had the chance to become a Half-Saint, and so should be subdued.

Lei Jing's eyes fixed on Zhang Ruochen as he said with a smile, "You were able to escape from her, which means you were quite lucky. Just stay in the School of the Martial Market and don't go out. As for Blood Spirit King, I have a method to deal with her. Once she dares to appear, she will die a graveless death."

Lei Jing thought that Zhang Ruochen's successful escape was due to Blood Spirit King's main aim having been to kill Hua Qingye. So Lei Jing did not ask anything further.

Suddenly, Lei Jing said seriously, "There's another thing. This time, the issue that you defeated Di Yi in Tongming River will cause a sensation. Presumably, the black market and heretics will send many masters to kill you, so you should be prepared."

"You have to go to the Saint Academy as soon as possible. They can do nothing after you enter the Saint Academy.

"You don't have to worry about any issues of the Yunwu Commandery, I will help you arrange them. From now on, you are the Commandery Prince of the Yunwu Commandery."

Zhang Ruochen frowned slightly. Actually, he wanted the fourth prince, Zhang Shaochu, to be the Commandery Prince of the Yunwu Commandery.

He did not want to be a Commandery Prince. What he wanted was to pursue the higher realms of Martial Arts.

Lei Jing looked deeply at Zhang Ruochen and said, "I know what you're thinking. You want your brother, Zhang Shaochu, to be the Commandery Prince of the Yunwu Commandery, don't you?"

"I actually think so."

Zhang Ruochen knew that he could not conceal his thoughts in front of Lei Jing, who held the Martial Market Bank, the biggest intelligence agency. There were few things that he did not know.

So, it was impossible for Zhang Ruochen to hide his views in front of him.

Lei Jing said, "Making you the Commandery Prince of the Yunwu Commandery has profound meaning. Soon, you'll be going to the Eastern Region to take part in the examinations of the Saint Academy."

"A Commandery Prince from an inferior commandery is not a big deal for those powerful families that have Half-Saints and Saints." However, it represents the title of nobility, which means you are a government official designated by the imperial court of the First Central Empire. Anyone that wants to kill you is setting himself against the imperial court of the First Central Empire. And who would dare to do that?"

Zhang Ruochen finally understood what Lei Jing meant and gently nodded. "It turns out that's how it is."

Lei Jing laughed and said, "Actually, what you just need is the title of nobility from an inferior baron. Your brother can temporarily help you administer the Yunwu Commandery. In the future, as you become so powerful that you don't need the protection of the title of nobility, then it won't be too late to pass the throne to him."

"Moreover, in my opinion, your brother doesn't have excellent talent, so his success is limited. How about your sister, whose talents are higher than Zhang Shaochu's? She is the top master of the Western Campus. I believe that it won't be long before she enters the Internal Academy."

"Sister? You mean my ninth sister? She's become the top master of the Western Campus?"

Zhang Ruochen felt happy. Luckily, his ninth sister had been practicing in the Western Campus so she could escape from that incident. Otherwise, Zhang Tiangui would not spare her life.