There were thirty-three towering saint mountains surrounding the Phoenix Nest. They were around Fire Ocean and Cold Ocean, filled with formations and hazards.
Each saint mountain was a road leading to the Phoenix Nest.
At this moment, most of the saints from Shatuo Seven Fields had chosen their roads and arrived at the top of a saint mountain, observing what Zhang Ruochen and the others were doing.
At the peak of King Kong Saint Mountain gathered a large group of saints, and there were more than seventy of them. The four leaders were all half-step saint kings.
They were the seniors from Tianmu Field.
A half-step saint king who had a leopard head looked at Cold Ocean and said, "Zhang Ruochen really knows how to pick a spot. With Pluto Winter Cold Ocean as his back road, it's impossible for us to seize the Merits Record Wall."
"Are we really going to trade merits with him? I heard Zhang Ruochen requires thirty percent of our merits. That's such a rip-off."
"Let's wait till our heir and priest get here."
…
There were lots of saints gathering at the peak of other saint mountains, and they were all fiercely discussing like the saints from Tianmu Field.
Some were plotting against Zhang Ruochen by trying to suppress them and seize the merits record wall, while some were suggesting negotiating with Zhang Ruochen.
At this moment, a group of saints was walking down the mountain, and they came from Kunlun's Field.
Wan Zhaoyi, Chu Siyuan, Qing Xiao, and some Taigu remains were walking at the front. They were all top-tier great beings among the saints.
Wan Zhaoyi, Chu Siyuan and Qing Xiao walked up on the Divine Phoenix Tree and talked to Zhang Ruochen.
They'd all known each other for a long time, and Qing Xiao was a close senior brother of Zhang Ruochen, so the negotiation went very smoothly.
Zhang Ruochen took out the Merits Record Wall, putting it on the trunk of the Divine Phoenix Tree. The saints from Kunlun's Field went along to exchange their merits.
All the saints from Kunlun's Field were top-tier great beings, so they had collected lots of merits, increasing the merits of Kunlun's Field by more than sixteen million points.
Zhang Ruochen gained more than five million merits from that, after which Guanghan's Field's merits reached ninety-nine million.
Chu Siyuan looked very upset. He asked, "Can you spare Qiu Yu's life, Zhang Ruochen?"
Chu Siyuan was disappointed at what Qiu Yu did as well, but he was the future spiritual root of Kunlun's Field, so he didn't want Zhang Ruochen to kill Qiu Yu.
To Chu Siyuan, Qiu Yu might be the cornerstone of a large field if someone spent enough time guiding him.
Weirdly, Zhang Ruochen wasn't tough at all. He smiled. "Why don't you stay and protect him, if you're so worried about his life? If he crosses me again someday, I might knock him into the hollow."
Chu Siyuan knew how important the Divine Phoenix Tree was, and it would be a huge loss for Kunlun's Field if Chu Siyuan was killed by Zhang Ruochen.
If he stayed, he might be able to stop Zhang Ruochen.
He certainly didn't want an old guy to stick with him. Instead, he wanted to use Chu Siyuan to check Princess Luosha.
As long as Chu Siyuan could stay with Zhang Ruochen, Princess Luosha wouldn't be able to use her mind power to deliver messages that easily.
If he could sever the connection between Princess Luosha and the Luosha race, Princess Luosha wouldn't know anything about changes in the Luosha race.
Princess Luosha heard the conversation between Zhang Ruochen and Chu Siyuan. She frowned and whispered, "Aren't you worried he's going to seize the Merits Record Wall?"
Zhang Ruochen said, "I don't think he's capable of doing that."
Chu Siyuan was pissed by what he said. "How dare you underestimate me like that? I'm not leaving today. Be careful; I can take the Merits Record Wall any time!"
Zhang Ruochen knew Chu Siyuan very well, which was why he instigated him on purpose.
Obviously, Zhang Ruochen's strategy worked.
Just as Wan Zhaoyi and Qing Xiao were about to leave…
Boom!
The air trembled.
A trace of tumbling saintly way ripple came from the top of a saint mountain, and a giant white light ball ascended, hitting toward the Divine Phoenix Tree.
It was a ten-thousand-patterns saint weapon, covered by two layers of saint Qi light.
The saintly way destruction Qi from the hammer-shaped ten-thousand-patterns saint weapon made Pluto Winter Cold Ocean cave, and traces of piercing cold Qi spread.
Zhang Ruochen then wielded Buddha sarira and infused it with saint Qi.
Whoosh!
Le, Princess White Li, Demonic Sound, Han Qiu, and Princess White Li all wielded a trace of saintly Qi light pillar and infused them into the Buddha Emperor sarira.
The original power of the sarira was triggered. It turned into a golden Buddha shadow, and it slapped toward the hammer ten-thousand-patterns saint weapon.
Boom!
The giant purple hammer was knocked away by Buddha Emperor sarira, hitting the mountainside of a saint mountain.
Traces of light gushed out of the saint mountain. Even with the protection of the formation inscriptions, a large part of the mountain still collapsed.
At the top of Wujin Saint Mountain, Fang Yi, Sword Master Dongliu, and the other twelve saints all gasped and took a few steps back.
Those twelve saints had exhausted their saint Qi, so they all sat down and started to mobilize their techniques to recover.
Fang Yi and Sword Master Dongliu also consumed most of their saint Qi. They felt feeble after getting back their hammer-shaped ten-thousand-patterns saint weapon.
Although the second Yao complete power of a ten-thousand-patterns saint weapon was tremendously powerful, it required an incredible amount of saint Qi. Not even ordinary saint kings were able to support it.
Zhang Ruochen took back the sarira and looked to the peak of Wujin Saint Mountain.
"It's got to be those from Hell Blade Field and Purple Mansion Field. Let's kill them first so that they won't be in our way," Han Qiu said.
Zhang Ruochen shook his head and said, "The most important thing is to collect merits."
And then, Zhang Ruochen started to set up a space formation to ward off the attacks from Hell Blade Field and Purple Mansion Field.
It took Zhang Ruochen three days to complete that space formation, which covered an area of three square miles. Even a ten-thousand-patterns saint weapon with second Yao complete power wouldn't be able to break it in a short time.
The saints from Kunlun's Field, Guanghan Field, and Great Devil Ten Square Field kept coming to exchange their merits, and the data on the wall kept being updated.
Great Devil Ten Square Field was still at the top with two hundred million points.
Guanghan Field was in second place with one hundred and sixty million points.
Kunlun's Field was in third place with ninety-four million points.
As for the other four fields, nothing changed, as no saints came to exchange merits with Zhang Ruochen.
On the fourth day, some saints from Eight Ministry Field came, led by Mad Man.
On the sixth day, the heir of Tianmu Field led more than one hundred saints to meet Zhang Ruochen for the first time, and they reached a consensus.
The saints from Hell Blade Field and Purple Mansion Field attacked the formation several times, but they failed to break it.
On the tenth day, the almost one thousand top-tier saints from Hell Blade Field and Purple Mansion Field dashed toward the Divine Phoenix Tree at the same time.
Unfortunately, Zhang Ruochen and the others had retreated to the deep area of Cold Ocean.
They were in a stalemate for five days, and the saints from Hell Blade Field and Purple Mansion Field were forced to leave under the pressure of five large fields. And then, Zhang Ruochen and the others went back to the shore of Cold Ocean.
Le and Han Qiu were in charge of merit exchange these days, and as for Zhang Ruochen, he had been spending most of the time refining Nine True Saint Dew in the space crystal.
Time flew, and it was only three days left until the merits battle was over.
Zhang Ruochen had refined twenty thousand drops of Nine True Saint Dew, and most of the saintly way rules in his body had reached the level of 'truth and absoluteness'. Only time rules and space rules were left.
If he could refine his time rules and space rules to 'truth and absoluteness', then he would become an absolute saint.
"I've refined so much Nine True Saint Dew, yet time rules and space rules haven't changed a bit. Is Nine True Saint Dew useless when it comes to time rules and space rules?"
Zhang Ruochen needed to explore it himself with the guidance of a teacher, which meant it would take him more time.
Zhang Ruochen stopped refining Nine True Saint Dew and walked out of the space crystal. He decided to give himself some time to reflect first.
Even though he still wasn't an absolute saint yet, Zhang Ruochen was confident that only a few in Zuling Field could rival him.
Zhang Ruochen walked to the Merits Record Wall and looked at the ranking.
First place, Great Devil Ten Square Field, three hundred and ninety million merits.
Second place, Guanghan Field, three hundred and eighty million merits.
…
Hell Blade Field was ranked in last place while Purple Mansion Field was ranked in second to last place.
"Great Devil Ten Square Field is indeed powerful. Even if they give me thirty percent of their merits, they'd still be in first place, but the gap between Guanghan Field and Great Devil Ten Square Field is very small already. Three days is enough for Guanghan Field to surpass Great Devil Ten Square Field."
Zhang Ruochen then looked to Princess Luosha.
Weirdly, Princess Luosha was very calm, even though she couldn't send out any messages anymore.
She was sitting on a branch of the Divine Phoenix Tree, refining with her hands on her knees. Her black hair waving in the sky, making her look dashing.
She also practices space way, and she's already an absolute saint. I can ask her for some help, Zhang Ruochen thought.