1757 Two Shang Ziyans

The illusion formation platform, which was a few dozen meters tall, went up in flames, and black smoke billowed from it as it fell down from the clouds.

Xiao Qianji and Yun Bing, the disciples of Phantom Princess[1], plunged from the platform into the endless lake below, creating a giant splash. Immediately after, two patches of blood began to spread in all directions on the lake's surface.

"The illusion formation has been defeated?"

"How could Phantom Princess not even protect the platform and her own disciples? Don't forget how powerful her spiritual power and sorcery are!"

"Could something have happened to Phantom Princess ?"

The Saint Kings[2] from the Heavenly Realm[3] became nervous.

Phantom Princess was one of the ten most powerful figures from the Heavenly Realm in the Celestial Domain of Truth[4]. Even the Saint Kings at the scene had to salute her when they saw her.

If even Phantom Princess was defeated, one could imagine how powerful the attacker was.

Today's battle turned out far more tragic than they had imagined.

It was nothing like Shang Ziyan's description—they supposedly could wipe out the cultivators of the Kunlun Realm and still incur no casualty. Instead, the continuous accidents that happened got many of them killed.

Even the sons of the deity and emperor who had died on the Battlefield of Merits were not that high in number. 

Above the island, Maiden of a Thousand Stars and Red Wish Emissary stood against the wind on a black-gold battleship. They looked heroic and captivatingly beautiful like two goddesses from heaven.

"Phantom Princess' escape spells trouble. What a shame!" Maiden of a Thousand Stars sighed.

She had been too confident when she fought Phantom Princess, revealing her true form.

However, Phantom Princess was more powerful than she had imagined. Even though she deployed a talisman that was powerful enough to exterminate the Eight-step Saint King[5], she only managed to destroy the illusion formation platform but not kill Phantom Princess.

Phantom Princess might not have known Maiden of a Thousand Stars, but someone from the Heavenly Realm had seen Maiden of a Thousand Stars' face.

Now, with Phantom Princess getting away, great troubles awaited Maiden of a Thousand Stars.

Looking at Maiden of Thousand Stars standing farther ahead, Red Wish Emissary could not be more amazed by her spiritual power, which was at Level 58 right then. Her achievements in sorcery had far surpassed that of Red Wish Emissary.

Even her master, the Phantom Saint, might not be more powerful than her.

What surprised Red Wish Emissary further was how the woman seemed to possess an endless number of precious articles, each of them beyond her reach.

Not to mention, there was the out-of-this-world, black-gold battleship under their feet.

Who was she?

Much to Red Wish Emissary's surprise, Zhang Ruochen had invited the powerful woman with a possible mysterious background. She needed to reexamine her understanding of Zhang Ruochen—she could not offend her at the very least.

If she could befriend Zhang Ruochen, she would have something to fall back on in case the Kunlun Realm was destroyed.

Shang Ziyan could not see Maiden of a Thousand Stars and Red Wish Emissary, but her expression turned grave when she noticed the floating black-gold battleship. It had numerous inscriptions of the Supreme Saints[6] on it, and the battleship looked like a living thing—it breathed and exhaled the Saint Qi of heaven and earth.

A battleship of that nature was uncommon. Its combat strength probably reached the level of a Supreme Saint. Of course, the probability was low because everything of the Supreme-Saint level would be sealed off upon entering the Celestial Domain of Truth.

"Zhang Ruochen, I have helped you defeat the illusion formation. As for saving yourself from Shang Ziyan, you are on your own now!"

After she communicated through telepathy, Maiden of a Thousand Stars flew the black-gold battleship and disappeared into the horizon faster than a Nine-step Saint King.

Since Phantom Princess had fled, Maiden of a Thousand Stars needed to return to make up an alibi. The last thing she wanted was to get in trouble with the behemoth forces from the Heavenly Realm and drag the Thousand-Star Civilization along.

The cultivators all wondered who had defeated the illusion formation. Why would the person leave just like that? 

Red Wish Emissary descended behind Zhang Ruochen in a stream of red light. Her sexy lips parted as she wanted to know who Maiden of a Thousand Stars was, but she choked back her words because it was not the right time to ask.

With the illusion formation gone, the actual Xumi Dojo finally revealed itself.

It was very close. Just over twenty miles ahead, there were plenty of temples and towering Buddha towers. The Buddha statue, which stood at one-thousand-feet-tall, was especially impressive.

Soothing singing in Sanskrit was coming from the hall even though there were no monks chanting in there.

"Go to Xumi Dojo," Zhang Ruochen and Luo Xu ordered almost in unison.

In response, the cultivators of the Kunlun Realm[7] instantly leaped toward Xumi Dojo.

As long as they entered the dojo and activated equality for all beings, they might be able to match the kings of the Heavenly Realm.

The key, however, was to find the previous article that Saint Monk Xumi had left behind.

A fleeting sense of disdain flashed across Shang Ziyan's eyes. With a wave of his hand, a large group of the Heavenly Realm's Saint Kings advanced to pursue the cultivators from the Kunlun Realm.

Another brutal battle broke out.

A large swarm of dead souls intercepted those Saint Kings from the Heavenly Realm, and all they could do was watch as the Kunlun Realm's cultivators approached Xumi Dojo.

"Few cultivators in the Heavenly Realm can attain the same achievement in the Path of Darkness[8] as you do."

As Shang Ziyan drew his crimson sword and swung it toward the sky, a waterfall-like Sword Way Xuangang descended on Han Qiu, who was standing inside a dark sphere.

Han Qiu sensed the danger and summoned all the available dark forces.

Two intertwining dark air pillars shot out, increasing in intensity as they collided with the Sword Way Xuangang.

Yet, the moment both energies collided, the Sword Way Xuangang tore apart the two dark air columns and broke the dark sphere around Han Qiu as well.

"WTF?"

Han Qiu's heart skipped a beat. As she tried to summon her dark escape technique, she discovered that her enemy's power had locked and immobilized her.

Crash!

A purple beam shot up into the air from the Purple-Gold Bagua Mirror in Awesome's[9] hand, shattering Shang Ziyan's sword energy.

Han Qiu was stunned. She bounced back and disappeared into the center of the dark sphere. She realized that she was no match for Shang Ziyan and the others at the moment.

After the dark force disappeared, all those dead souls dropped to the ground lifelessly.

The kings from the Heavenly Realm managed to free up their hands at last, and they shot out projectiles to attack the Kunlun Realm's cultivators in the distance. But, with the help of a few Saint Kings from the Kunlun Realm, Luo Xu blocked the first wave of attacks using his Light Myriad Scroll.

Shang Ziyan's gaze appeared resolute as if he had made a crucial decision. "Let's do this!"

Taking the lead, he shot out a Five-colored Merits Stele toward the top of Awesome's head before he struck it down.

Shang Ziyan could see that Awesome, the Little Taoist was the top fighter on Zhang Ruochen's side. He held a badass weapon that made him almost invincible against the Supreme Saint.

As long as that thing was suppressed, dealing with Zhang Ruochen and the cultivators of the Kunlun Realm would be like a walk in the park.

Boom!

Awesome held up the Purple-Gold Bagua Mirror and summoned his most powerful energy. Unfortunately, that was barely enough to withstand the Five-colored Merits Stele. "Not bad for a junior from a realm that's one level below mine. He is able to bog me down," he said to himself.

However, what happened subsequently shocked Awesome, the Little Taoist even more.

While Shang Ziyan stood on the Five-colored Merits Stele, a second "Shang Ziyan" came out of him, striking a crimson sword at Zhang Ruochen down below.

No, it was not the Shadow Clone technique because the level of energy released from both Shang Ziyans was not reduced but equally powerful. It was extremely incredible.

Everyone at the scene was struck dumb.

Zhang Ruochen sucked through his teeth; he had previously seen the skill that Shang Ziyan was using.

In the past, Di Yi from the Black Market Excellence Hall had cultivated the Picture of Utmost Omen on the Demonstone Engraving. One of the secret cultivation techniques was to find a being that had the same talent as him and turn it into his own shadow.

That way, the shadow would have the same combat strength as the principal.

It was obvious that Shang Ziyan's cultivation technique was just as bizarre as the Demonstone Engraving. It surely involved the integration of another being into his own body to turn it into a ghostly counterpart that had the level of strength as him. 

The attack from Shang Ziyan came quickly and locked on to Zhang Ruochen.

With Zhang Ruochen's current level of cultivation, he was definitely no match for Shang Ziyan. Nevertheless, Zhang Ruochen had come prepared. He looked cool, calm, and collected.

"Rise!"

As Zhang Ruochen lifted his hands, a Violet Peak[10] rose into the air.

At the same time, the Yi Huang Bone Scepter turned into a giant black skeleton, which exhaled a black evil breath into the Violet Peak. With an endless supply of energy from the Bodhi Emperor's sarira[11], the evil spirit's strength could almost match that of a Nine-step Saint King.

Together with Zhang Ruochen, it raised the Violet Peak. Big changes occurred as dense purple patterns appeared on the mountain and a thick layer of purple fog emanated from its surface.

Boom!

The collision of the Violet Peak with the crimson sword produced a powerful shock wave that shook the entire island, sweeping up giant waves from the lake while the potent cultivation energy penetrated down to its depths.

The shock wave blew Shang Ziyan away, and he crash-landed several miles from his original position. He stared gravely at the Violet Peak above Zhang Ruochen.

Something seemed to strike Shang Ziyan because his eyes were filled with a scorching light. "This is it. This must be it. Zhang Ruochen has gotten his hands on the insanely precious thing that can make a Supreme Saint go insane. He is such a lucky bugger."

Boom!

The sound of a loud explosion came from the direction of Xumi Dojo.

A dozen of the Kunlun Realm's cultivators, who were approaching the dojo, were flung back and away. Two saints were blown to pieces while the other cultivators were badly wounded.

It turned out that Shang Ziyan already had a watertight plan in mind by rigging Xumi Dojo with explosives beforehand.

[1] Formerly translated as Illusion Princess, was a powerful illusion cultivation practitioner who had reached spiritual power level of 58.

[2] Rank of cultivator

[3] Formerly translated as Heavenly Field. One of the realms of Celestial Court.

[4] Formerly translated as Heavenly Domain of Truth. The region in which was under the influence of Fane of Truth (formerly translated as Truth Godly Palace).

[5] Rank of cultivator; eight-step refers to the level within the rank.

[6] Rank of cultivator

[7] Formerly translated as Kunlun's Field. One of the realms of Celestial Court (formerly translated as Heaven World).

[8] Formerly translated as Way of Darkness. A cultivation path.

[9] Awesome, the Little Taoist, formerly translated as Amazing Little Taoist

[10] Formerly translated as Purple Mountain. It was a weapon transformed from Violet Godly Stone (Purple Godly Stone).

[11] Sarira of Bodhi Emperor (formerly translated as Buddha Emperor). MC was able to defeat others from rank higher than him with it.