1837 Chen Yuhua

Deep within the Saint King Manor was a steep, towering spirit mountain, and colorful Saint Light radiated from the ground.

A thirty-three-story ancient tower was built within the mountain, and it gave off a mystical feeling.

Xie Canghai had consumed a Heaven-grade healing pill that was worth hundreds of millions and managed to recover sixty to seventy percent of his strength before rushing here immediately.

It was because Mister Godcliff had told him that this Saint King Manor, which sat above all of the nodes of all of the ancient wards in the holy city, was a key location.

The node of the ancient wards was not in the main city of the Eastern Region Holy City, but here instead, this itself was an unusual thing.

Xie Canghai stepped into the spirit mountain, and like passing through a layer of water curtain, and came into a vast microworld.

The spirit mountain was still standing before him.

However, the ancient tower within the spirit mountain revealed its true form. It was actually a three-hundred-and-thirty-three-story tower that pierced directly into the sky. Its majesty was awe-inspiring. Compared with its appearance outside, it was ten times taller and a thousand times larger. A smile appeared on Xie Canghai's face. "So this is the tower's true form. The form outside is just an illusion. It should be the main control hub of the Holy City's ancient wards. Mister Godcliff's calculation was on point."

Suddenly, the smile on his face froze, as he saw an old man with silver hair sitting beneath the tower.

The old man was plainly dressed, with wrinkles all over his face and his eyes cloudy.

Before him was a decayed tree root, and the root was so thoroughly rotten that a gentle touch would have shattered it.

Yet, the old man seemed reluctant to give up, as he carved on it with a small knife in his hand, as if trying to carve out a masterpiece.

Tap, tap.

Xie Canghai took step after step until his tall form stood opposite the old man, and he said, "Decayed wood cannot be carved; you'd be better off changing a new tree."

The old man did not raise his head as he was immersed in his world of carving. "There will be a carving method for decayed wood. That saying of decayed wood cannot be carved only serves to show the carver's insufficient skills," he said.

That old man's hand, though thin as a stick, and seemingly unable to hold on to the knife in a table manner. However, each pattern he had carved out was wondrous, with similar traces of the Precepts of Heaven and Earth. Each carving had Precepts of Heaven and Earth attached to it.

He was both carving and understanding the Path of Heavens at the same time.

Most cultivators could not see the mystical part of it.

"How may I address you, Sir?" Xie Hong asked with a calm look.

The old man said, "Chen Yuhua."

Zhang Ruochen, who was hiding in the distance, was stunned when he heard the name.

Chen Yuhua was still alive?

Chen Yuhua was an ancestor of the Chen Clan and had assisted Emperor Qing to pacify the Eastern Region eight hundred years ago. After the establishment of the First Central, Chi Yao named him as one of the twelve founding lords.

Eight hundred years ago, Chen Yuhua was a first-rate powerhouse under the Nine Emperors.

And just now, the moment an emotional fluctuation appeared in Zhang Ruochen, both Xie Canghai and Chen Yuhua's gaze turned to his hiding place.

Yet both of them ignored him.

Clearly, in the eyes of both Xie Canghai and Chen Yuhua, their opposite number was the enemy.

Xie Canghai folded his hands in salute and said, "Ah, so you are an ancestor of the Chen Clan. Pardon my rudeness. I want to enter the tower and have a look at the scenery of the Eastern Region Holy City. I wonder if you could make way?

"The scenery of the Eastern Region Holy City belongs to the Kunlun Realm, not a foreign realm."

Chen Yuhua's voice became rather hoarse as he continued, "This old man is staying here to guard the tower. You will not get in. Please leave, and don't disturb this old man carving this decayed wood.

Xie Canghai smiled and said, "Although your cultivation rank is high, due to your advanced age, you are long past your prime, and your vitality is declining, your body is unlike before. If we really fight, you will definitely fall within a hundred blows. So why don't you pull back now, and even possibly save your life?"

"I don't have long to live anyway, so what's the difference if I retreat or not?" Chen Yuhua said impassively.

Xie Canghai shook his and sighed as he said, "A pity, a pity indeed. Your aptitude is just a tad too short, and you are destined to never be able to attain Supreme Sainthood. Otherwise, you would at least be able to extend your lifespan for another thousand years."

Upon hearing this, the knife in Chen Yuhua's hand stopped.

The lines that were being carved were broken.

Clearly, Chen Yuhua's calm heart was disturbed by Xie Canghai's words.

Eight hundred years of severe cultivation, yet his progress was slow. In fact, Chen Yuhua had long known that he had already reached his upper limits, and there was no hope in becoming a Supreme Saint in this life.

Being restricted by his aptitude was the biggest regret in his life.

At that moment, Xie Canghai seized the opportunity as Demonic Qi exploded out his body, and a black demonic dragon formed in his palm, letting out an earth-shaking roar as it zoomed toward Chen Yuhua.

The sound of air exploding, the earth buckling, and the Demonic Qi surge all intertwined like rolling thunder and shook Zhang Ruochen, who was hiding in the distance, so hard that his eardrums were about to burst.

Zhang Ruochen could no longer care about exposing himself, as he activated the divine pattern engraved in him by Yueshen before he was able to withstand the shock of the attack.

By the time he looked at the ancient tower again, he saw the small knife in Chen Yuhua's hand had transformed into a huge flaming blade, and cut the head of the black demonic crown off with a slash.

Whoosh!!

Xie Canghai had already launched his second attack while he held the Xuantian Battle-ax in both hands and slashed downward.

Not only did the battle-ax unleash the full power of the Seventh Radiance but also a divine power that could split the world apart.

If that ax strike had been delivered elsewhere, it would have split thousands of miles of land apart and exterminate thousands upon thousands of life within that area.

A solemn look appeared on Chen Yuhua's face as a seven-layer Saint Lightwave appeared on the flaming blade in his hand, and clashed against the Xuantian Battle-ax.

Bam!

Countless ancient wards in the spirit mountain were activated, as a colorful light rushed into the air and neutralized both Chen Yuhua and Xie Canghai's power, without letting them seep outside.

The battle that followed was even more brutal.

The full power of the Seventh Radiance kept emanating and caused Zhang Ruochen's eyes to be wracked with pain, as he saw a small half of the spirit mountain was enveloped in light as two figures were fighting fiercely, with brutal abandon.

"That's terrifying. How did Xie Canghai recover so quickly after being wounded so badly earlier? Did he have a Heaven-grade healing pill?" Zhang Ruochen became a little nervous.

If Chen Yuhua was defeated, then Xie Canghai would control the ancient tower, and through it, control the ancient wards of the Eastern Region Holy City.

The two most important trump cards for the Chen Clan to be the master of the Eastern Region was the control of the ancient wards, and the Greater Orbital Array. The control hub of the ancient wards was this tower itself.

The hub for the Greater Orbital Array was in the main city of the Saint King Manors.

By controlling the ancient wards, one could restrain the Greater Orbital Array.

Bam!

Chen Yuhua was pushed back violently, all the way until the bottom of the tower, with Saint Blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.

Xie Canghai's figure appeared like a demonic god carrying a battleax as he laughed out loud. "I've told you, that you are long past your peak, and now you're as old as a piece of decayed wood. You may be able to withstand a hundred blows, but anything after that will be your death. Old man, time to enter your grave!"

Crack!

The huge flaming blade in Chen Yuhua's hand shattered and turned into pieces of scrap metal as they fell onto the ground.

A Seventh Radiance sacred artifact was destroyed just like that.

"It seems like Chen Yuhua is really too old and not as powerful as he was in his heyday. I guess he won't be able to stop Xie Canghai."

Zhang Ruochen summoned the Azuresky Pagoda and rushed toward the ancient tower as he prepared to join forces with Chen Yuhua to fight against Xie Canghai.

Xie Canghai glanced sideways and recognized Zhang Ruochen as a strange smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. "For all the effort I made to look for you, only for you to serve yourself up on a silver platter. Youngster, you really are problematic."

Xie Canghai dared not tarry as he took out a battle portrait from his sleeve.

The battle portrait was refined from the skin of a Thicketbeast.

As the battle portrait unfolded, on the picture scroll was a picture of a menacing Thicketbeast with horns and claws.

Xie Canghai's palm pressed against the portrait, and suddenly the Thicketbeast from the portrait rushed out, with a body tens of feet tall, as it charged toward Zhang Ruochen while unleashing its monstrous Saint Aura.

It was not a real Supreme Saint Thicketbeast, but a soul shadow that had been incorporated with various special inscriptions by a master of the art.

"Dragon-Elephant Divine Furnace."

Zhang Ruochen did not have the time to rouse the power of the Azuresky Pagoda, and could only use the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm as his whole body was aflame. With a counter-palm strike, he clashed against the Thicketbeast.

The Thicketbeast was so powerful that it knocked Zhang Ruochen away.

Divine patterns flickered all over Zhang Ruochen's body and neutralizing over 90 percent of the Thicketbeast's power. So, after falling to the ground, Zhang Ruochen slammed his palm against the ground before darting forward as he charged again.

Chen Yuhua wiped the blood off the corner of his mouth and said, "You are indeed very strong, but this is the turf of the Chen Clan, and as long as I activate the ancient wards, your death is all but assured."

Xie Canghai sniggered. "Since I'm here, I naturally have the means to deal with the ancient wards."

"Pearl of Circuit Suppression. Formation Break."

Xie Canghai took out a pearl the size of a human head and tossed it upward. The pearl then suspended itself in the air.

Within the spirit mountain, all of the Saint Qi in the area were absorbed by the pearl as if it had become a vacuum.

Whether it was ward or arrays, the power that could be unleashed from them did not appear out of thin air. Saint Qi was required for it to be activated, and Saint Stones or even Godstones were necessary to operate it.

The ancient tower was indeed the hub that controlled the ancient inscription wards, but with all of the surrounding Saint Qi being sucked away, the ancient tower had temporarily lost its function.

Xie Canghai laughed. "You should feel desperate now, eh?"

Chen Yuhua was still calm, as his eyes gradually became fierce and unrelenting, and was no longer the doddering old man he was earlier, but instead, he was energetic and imposing.

"Weren't you lot just want to seize the Chen Clan's Four-Nine Mystical Arts? I will let you witness today, how powerful a technique of the Four-Nine Mystical Arts is."

Xie Canghai did not believe that Chen Yuhua could reach his peak form again and was sure that he had used some sort of secret technique to burn off his remaining lifespan. He wanted to fight him to the death.