God Emperor
chapter-553

Cyan-fire Xuanwu was one of Mythical Beast Xuanwu's three off-springs. Although it was not as strong as Mythical Beast Xuanwu, it was still a formidable monster by human standards.

Although the Cyan-fire Xuanwu at the bottom of the Bloody Trench had been dead for many years, its internal body was still burning with blazing cyan flames.

The closer one gets to the abdomen, the cyan flames become hotter and more exuberant.

Zhang Ruochen propped up a 10-meter diameter Space Domain to block out the cyan Xuanwu flame.

It took him 15 minutes to get through the layers of obstacles and arrive at the abdomen of Cyan-fire Xuanwu.

What he saw was a rusty iron pillar that had penetrated through the body of the Cyan-fire Xuanwu. At the center of its abdomen where the iron pillar was standing, streaks of dark Death Qi was pouring out.

A burly man in a golden armor was sitting cross-legged in the midst of the dark Death Qi. He was two meters tall and looked like he was around 40 years old. He had sharp features, a foot-long beard, and appeared to be hale and hearty.

Hanging on his waist was a token from the Ministry of War.

It turns out that he was also a soldier of Primitive World.

There was a terrifying aura emanating from him, one that was much more powerful than that of Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King. They could guess that he was probably a Half-Saint.

The only human monk who had reached Half-Saint realm throughout the entire Xixuan Sea was King Jinhuang.

This makes it easy for people to guess his identity and it would soon be exposed.

Zhang Ruochen instantly recognized him, and said, "King Jinhuang had arrived at the bottom of the Bloody Trench a long time ago."

A spot of light appeared between King Jinhuang's eyebrows.

In the spot of light between his eyebrows, there was a Qi Sea. There was a blue star in it and the star was emitting a formidable, powerful Holy Qi.

Zhang Ruochen took a step forward with caution.

"Swoosh!"

In an instant, the blue star in between King Jinhuang's eyebrows exuded ripples that propagated towards Zhang Ruochen.

Zhang Ruochen felt the pressure coming from King Jinhuang, it was pressing on his body, and he felt as if he was being pushed down by force 10 times stronger than gravity.

When Zhang Ruochen took another step forward, the pressure doubled. It felt like there was a force 20 times stronger than the force of gravity pressing down on his body.

Zhang Ruochen took nine steps forward, but his body felt like he was holding up pressure that was nearly a 100 times stronger than that of gravity.

Zhang Ruochen looked intently at the spot in between King Jinhuang's brows and thought to himself, "Although King Jinhuang has a reasonably high level of cultivation, he had only reached the Half-Saint Realm. It is not possible for him to possess the Holy Aura. The blue star in the Qi Sea between his brows must be the holy source of Xuanwu, and that must be how he had gotten so powerful."

Half-Saint enables the progression of Martial soul into the Divine Soul.

When triggered, the Divine Soul could explode with Holy Aura. Hence, monks who wished to come near to it could not help but feel a sense of fear and awe towards it.

However, a Half-Saint is still one step behind a Saint. The power of the Holy Aura still has its limitations.

One could only be deemed a true Saint if he can condense the holy source.

The Holy Aura of a Saint would be much more powerful.

When a Saint becomes infuriated, his emotion alone could disturb the nature's law of heaven and earth, striking fear in all living creatures, propelling them to bow down in fear.

Just as Zhang Ruochen neared King Jinhuang, King Jinhuang suddenly opened his eyes to glare at Zhang Ruochen.

There were no pupils in King Jinhuang's eyes because the whites of his eye have turned black. His eyes looked like two black holes emanating massive death Qi.

"This is bad. King Jinhuang's body had been taken over by the Death Qi of the iron pillar; thus he has become an evil Half-Saint now." After realization hit him, Zhang Ruochen's face fell, and he quickly retreated.

King Jinhuang has conquered the holy source of Xuanwu and wanted to keep it in the Qi Sea. At the same time, he also wanted to take possession of the iron pillar filled with evil Qi.

The iron pillar was indeed a powerful warrior. The evil Death Qi contained in the iron pillar had amazing strength, and King Jinhuang would not be able to suppress it.

For this reason, King Jinhuang has lost control of himself and surrendered to the power of the iron pillar instead.

"Swoosh!"

King Jinhuang's black eyes shot two beams of chilling light, resembling two lightning bolts. The rays of light struck Zhang Ruochen on his chest.

Zhang Ruochen had no choice but to escape by opening the Yin Yang Wooden Graph, injecting Genuine Qi into it and using it to defend himself.

The inscription on the scroll instantly emerged, sending out streaks of white light that collided with the two black light beams.

"Ch-ch!"

Zhang Ruochen was pushed five feet backward before he found his footing again.

The two light beams that shot out from King Jinhuang's eyes gradually faded with the white glow that was emitted by the Yin Yang Wooden Graph. They disintegrated into black light spots that eventually dispersed in the water.

Yin Yang Wooden Graph possessed the power of surpressing evil Qi, just like how the Blood Spirit Queen was once suppressed by it.

Caught by surprise, King Jinhuang said, "Young man, you may possess remarkable skills, but I would advise you to leave this place as quickly as you can. If not I might strike again and you will not escape death."

Zhang Ruochen held the Yin Yang Wooden Graph in one hand and the Ancient Abyss Sword in the other and took a step forward. He said, "King Jinhuang, you are the one who should be leaving, not me. You weren't even aware that your heart had been taken over by the evil Death Qi contained in the iron pillar. I am afraid you have become an Evil Slave to the iron pillar."

King Jinhuang roared with laughter and confidently said, "As a king, I have accumulated a 100 years of experience in the Battlefields of the Primitive World, fought through countless bloody fights. My mind is steadfast and unwavering. What can the evil power of the iron pillar do to me?"

Zhang Ruochen shook his head and said, "If only you have a mirror in front of you right now, you will be able to see how hideous you look."

As Zhang Ruochen finished his sentence, he lifted his finger and pointed it forward.

"swoosh!"

A halo started diffusing out of his fingertips and condensed into a circular spirit light mirror that was suspended right in front of King Jinhuang.

The moment King Jinhuang saw his reflection in the mirror, his expression was painted with horror.

The person in the mirror was wrapped entirely in dark Evil Qi, his eyes were so dark that the pupils were not visible, and all the meridians on his face were swollen. He resembled an evil ghost.

King Jinhuang shook his head violently, unable to accept that the person in the mirror was himself. He roared with a hoarse voice and said, "No... Not me... That is not me..."

"I am the king of the army of the Battlefield of Primitive World. I have never lost a single battle. How it is possible for Death Qi to invade my body? It was you; it was definitely you. How dare you play a prank on me? I am going to cut you into pieces once I finish refining this iron pillar."

"Bam!"

As soon as Zhang Ruochen closed his fingers, the light mirror dissipated into thin air.

Zhang Ruochen took yet another step forward and said, "Look, King Jinhuang, I am one of the soldiers of Primitive World, and you are the Commander in Chief of the soldiers of Primitive World; but here you are, and you want to kill me. This goes to show that evil Qi of the iron pillar has corrupted your heart and you are now addicted to killing."

As King Jinhuang felt more distressed than ever before, he clenched his teeth and his intention to kill swelled.

With a twisted expression, King Jinhuang said coldly, "Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King, go and kill this young fellow for me."

Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King?

Zhang Ruochen's heart dropped upon hearing this. He became alert and quietly mobilized his Genuine Qi.

All he could see was King Jinhuang stretching out his arm and a shadow of a red python emerging from his sleeve.

"Roar!"

The three-foot-long redcloud python flew in circles around the iron pillar, sending out a scarlet glow that formed a bright ball of light.

Moments later, the body of the redcloud python swelled and condensed into a human form. He flew out of the ball of light and landed on the ground. As he knelt on one knee in front of King Jinhuang, he said, "My greetings, master."

It was indeed the Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King.

Earlier, in the Scroll World when Zhang Ruochen was in the process of reaching the Fish-dragon Realm, the Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King had dashed into the abdomen of Xuanwu with the intention of forcefully taking possession of the holy source of Xuanwu from King Jinhuang.

Unfortunately, after King Jinhuang took hold of the holy source of Xuanwu, the level of his cultivation elevated so quickly that the Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King was suppressed by King Jinhuang.

Also, King Jinhuang used the Inscription of Beast Taming to make the Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King his riding vehicle.

After some careful studying, Zhang Ruochen realized that the Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King's aura was erratic and its eyes were lifeless. It was evident that he had sustained some serious injuries.

Moreover, there were streaks of Inscription of Beast Taming on Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King's eyeballs. He has submitted himself to King Jinhuang and has become one of King Jinhuang's war beasts.

Zhang Ruochen started to get an idea of what happened. He looked at King Jinhuang and said, "I didn't come here to fight with you, King Jinhuang. I am here to do a transaction for the holy source of Xuanwu. I would like to use Dragon Pearl for exchange."

Zhang Ruochen could easily summon the Dragon Pearl out of his body since he had reached the Fish-dragon Realm.

"Who do you think you are? Did you think you were worthy enough to make deals with me?"

King Jinhuang had no intentions of dealing with Zhang Ruochen. With a smirk, he commanded, "Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King, kill him for me, and you can have the Dragon Pearl on his body."

Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King eyes sparkled, and his expression turned greedy.

It belonged to the dragon species, which meant that if he ingested a Dragon Pearl, he could morph into a flood dragon, which was a Seventh Level Savage Beast.

"Thank you, Master. I will do my best to get rid of this fellow."

Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King bowed to King Jinhuang, took out the Roaring Flame Hammer and walked towards Zhang Ruochen.

Zhang Ruochen wavered a little. He knew that there was no way he could negotiate a deal with King Jinhuang now that the iron pillar has corrupted king Jinhuang's consciousness and turned him into an evil monster.

The only thing he could do now was to take it by force.

Zhang Ruochen steadily lifted the Ancient Abyss Sword and said, "You are injured, Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King. You are not my match on the sea. I would advise you to flee now."

"Haha, human boy, aren't you injured as well? Do you seriously think that you can defeat me using the water pressure of the sea? Let me tell you honestly. Even if I were to be suppressed by the water pressure of the sea, I would still be the Lord of Flood Dragon, and to me, you are only a mere ant," laughed Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King.

Despite the environmental constraints, Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King was confident of his abilities. He was confident that a human junior would not be able to defeat him.

Time was running short, and Zhang Ruochen did not want to waste his energy on Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King. With some footwork, he enacted nine bodily transformations and executed twelve streaks of sword Qi with one wave of his sword.

Having broken through to the Fish-dragon Realm, Zhang Ruochen's Genuine Qi was on another level. To top that, he possessed powerful Martial Soul far surpass the Ninth Change in the Fish-dragon Realm, so he could greatly rouse the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

His skills allowed him to activate more inscriptions from within the sword, and the Ancient Abyss Sword could manifest its fullest potential power.

The power that can be manifested from a Holy Weapon differ depending on whether you are a warrior of Heaven Realm or a monk of the Fish-dragon Realm; the power would be vastly different.

"Bang bang!"

There were 12 streaks of sword Qi, each 10 feet long, that were arranged into the shape of an arc. It created a potent attack and struck the Black Skeleton Flood-dragon King, causing him to fall.