The Great Ruler

Boom!

The enormous ancient pagoda fell from above as it sealed off all the exits. As it descended, it encompassed Fang Jing in his form as a gigantic Golden Phoenix Condor.

Mu Chen stretched out his hand, and the crystalized Budur Pagoda shook slightly before it slowly landed in his palm. At the same time, he intended to circulate the Eight Budur to utterly suppress Fang Jing.

Shua!

Just as Mu Chen was about to do that, his eyes narrowed suddenly. The Budur Pagoda in his hand suddenly vibrated vigorously. A bloody ray darted out from the pagoda without any warning.

“Eh?” Mu Chen let out a surprised cry as he looked up. A Golden Phoenix Condor had torn a hole in the air thousands of feet away and had made its escape through it. The condor was Fang Jing! However, a wing with feathers of gold was torn and broken. Blood was gushing out of it profusely, turning the emerald ocean into a red sea.

“The Art of Broken Wing?” Mu Chen squinted and chuckled soundlessly. Fang Jing was indeed a ruthless and decisive person. He had used such a self-inflicted means to escape Mu Chen’s suppression.

Fang Jing’s actual body was a Golden Phoenix Condor. Such Sovereign Divine Beasts had ultimate speed, and their wings could tear space apart. Sacrificing a wing sufficed to break through most of the traps. However, it was a hefty price to pay. Even though Heavenly Sovereigns could be reborn, the physical bodies of Sovereign Divine Beasts constituted their combat power. For instance, if their bodies were burned, it would cause extremely great damage, however, the flesh and blood could condense uncountable bloodlines. In this case, if Fang Jing wanted to fix his broken wing, he would need to cultivate for at least another 100 years.

“Argh, Mu Chen, I’ll never let you off!” Fang Jing fled away, embarrassed, without looking back. At the same time, he let out a berserk yet heart-wrenching bellow. Apparently, Fang Jing knew how hefty the price was that he had paid.

However, Mu Chen only chuckled as he heard his bellow. He flung his robe, and the Crystal Budur Pagoda disappeared into it. With just a flip of his palm, Mu Chen had suppressed Fang Jing, who was in his prime. A broken Fang Jing with his strength significantly reduced would not be a threat anymore.

Mu Chen stowed his Budur Pagoda and suddenly looked up. His eyes were cold as he sensed someone peeking at him. It was probably coming from those Divine Beasts outside the Deification Pool who were observing the events in the pool. Mu Chen did not take it to heart. He turned around and stood quietly beside Nine Nether while he waited patiently for her to devour the blood essence utterly.

…

At the same time, many Divine Beasts stared at the water mirror outside the Deification Pool dumbfoundedly. The entire land remained silent. After a short while, they gradually recovered from their shock. They could not help but gape as solemnness and wariness slowly took over in their eyes. No one would have thought that Fang Jing was such an unworthy opponent for Mu Chen. The latter had taken him down easily, forcing him to flee with a missing wing.

“Mu Chen is rather daunting.”

“He’s only at the middle stage of Spiritual Grade, but the combat capability he possesses is too terrifying, isn’t it?”

“He’s not simple. No wonder he could wreak havoc in the Ancient Budur Clan. This lad is a devil.”

“I’m afraid that only people like Huang Xuanzhi can subdue him.”

“…”

There were many discussions across the land. After all, it was only hearsay, as no one had witnessed what Mu Chen had done in the Ancient Budur Clan. It was only when they saw it with their own eyes today that they realized the daunting combat capacity this young man possessed.

The Phoenix King, Huang Jin, observed the water mirror from a mountain nearest to the Deification Pool. His eyes were slightly squinted, and he spoke with a toneless voice, “This lad is indeed the son of Qing Yanjing.”

An elder who was standing behind him chuckled and said, “This lad might be strong, but he is still far from our young clan leader.”

“Even though Fang Jing was strong, I’m afraid he would not have the courage to fight with Huang Xuanzhi. Hence, the ability to defeat Fang Jing still does not pose any threat to Huang Xuanzhi.”

“That’s for sure.” Huang Jin gave a haughty smile. Huang Xuanzhi was the best talent the Phoenix Clan had had over the past centuries. Otherwise, he would not be able to complete the cultivation of the Nine Rounds Toward Sanctification Technique. Hence, Mu Chen might be considered as a supreme talent, but he was far from Huang Xuanzhi. As soon as Mu Chen and Huang Xuanzhi exchanged blows, Huang Jin would know the difference in their levels.

Nine Nether continued to devour the blood essence for almost 15 minutes in the deep ocean before she finally stopped. After she sucked the last stream of blood aura into her mouth, spiritual light surged behind her as the gigantic black egg darkened. An extremely ancient aura seemed to be brewing within it. Nine Nether opened her eyes. The purple flame in her eyes darkened and became closer to pure black.

Phew.

Her little red lips blew out a breath of air. As Nine Nether felt the magnificent and violent energy from the bloodline in her body, a joyous expression surfaced on her face. Apparently, the blood essence that was equivalent to a Spiritual Heavenly Sovereign was quite beneficial to her.

“It’s a pity. I wonder how much blood essence I would require just to evolve the bloodline completely.” Nine Nether gave a bitter smile. Her intuition told her that she would need vast amounts of bloodline energy in order to accomplish this.

“Take your time. There are plenty of blood essences in this Deification Pool to satisfy your need.” Mu Chen smiled consolingly.

Nine Nether nodded, but she seemed to have thought of something and looked hastily around her. There was no sight of Fang Jing, so she immediately asked curiously, “Where’s that lad?”

“He broke one of his wings and escaped.” Mu Chen chuckled.

Nine Nether could not help but stare with wide eyes. Fang Jing was, after all, a Heavenly Sovereign at the later stage of Spiritual Grade. His mightiness was somewhat famous among the Divine Beast races. Never would she have thought that while she was cultivating, Mu Chen would defeat him, and that he would even break his wing.

Had Mu Chen become so invincible now?

“You’re such a freak. If I do not speed up the rate of my cultivation, I might not even catch up with your shadow.” Nine Nether sighed deeply. In the past, she had been the strongest support behind Mu Chen, and Mu Chen treated her as his most reliable partner. But now, the weak young man from the past had improved to a level which she was far from attaining. The truth was quite a blow to Nine Nether, who had always been competitive.

“You protected me from the time I was young. You should feel proud about this,” Mu Chen teased.

Nine Nether rolled her eyes at Mu Chen. She stood up, and her slender figure was rather attractive. She scanned the surroundings with her beautiful eyes and asked excitedly, “Where shall we go now?”

“I tried to use my sense to detect the fluctuation of the Blood Essence Divine Beasts around the area, but there was none.” Mu Chen shook his head and asked, “Where else can we have a higher chance of locating these Blood Essence Divine Beasts?”

Nine Nether pondered and hesitated before she pointed to the deepest part of the ocean. “The deeper we go into the Deification Pool, the more Blood Essence Divine Beasts we will find. But those supreme talents of the Sovereign Divine Beast races will definitely be there. If we encounter them on our way, having to fight it out is inevitable.”

Generally, Divine Beast races like them would choose to stay in the middle of the Deification Pool because those better spots situated deep in the ocean were all taken by those supreme talents of Sovereign Divine Beasts.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Mu Chen smiled as his eyes looked dauntless. “To achieve success, it is about grabbing that one in a million chance through fierce competition. If all we know is to give in, how can we succeed?”

Nine Nether was slightly stunned and immediately nodded with a serious expression. She finally understood why Mu Chen made progressive improvements. He possessed unlimited courage, and he was fearless. He vowed to clear all the difficulties and obstacles in his way. On the other hand, she had become hesitant after becoming a Divine Beast. This had slowed down her cultivation progress to an extreme degree.

“Okay, let’s fight for it!” Nine Nether clenched her jade-like hands as if some mental barrier had just been eliminated. She smiled with a gleam in her eye. The smile seemed to contain her past haughty attitude.

Sensing the change in Nine Nether, Mu Chen could not help but smile. He nodded, and with a jerk, he darted into the deep sea as a streamer. Nine Nether followed behind quickly, and she was immediately proved right. The number of Blood Essence Divine Beasts increased as they went deep into the Deification Pool. As they went in deeper, they encountered close to ten of them. Those Blood Essence Divine Beasts they encountered became Nine Nether’s food after Mu Chen reduced them to their original forms.

The giant black egg surged with spiritual light behind Nine Nether. Cracks slowly surfaced on the eggshell. Sensing the changes in the egg, Nine Nether could no longer wait. When she looked at those Blood Essence Divine Beasts, her craving radiated in her beautiful eyes.

Just as Nine Nether had said, there were quite a number of supreme talents from the Sovereign Divine Beast races deep in the pool. As such, they were not surprised when they met one while they were roaming around in search of the Blood Essence Divine Beasts. He was a supreme talent from the Divine Eagle Clan, and his strength was not any weaker than Fang Jing’s. Moreover, he was quite famous among the people in the Divine Beast races. Consequently, Nine Nether was rather anxious, and she was on guard as soon as she spotted him.

What amazed Nine Nether was this supreme talent from the Divine Eagle Clan seemed to hesitate after he saw Mu Chen in the distance. Instead of chasing them away, he quickly made his exit.

Watching the escaping figure, Mu Chen chuckled softly and said, “Looks like they all know about what happened to Fang Jing.”

With Fang Jing as their example, these supreme talents of the Sovereign Divine Beasts were not idiots. Hence, they did not dare to come over and provoke him. Upon seeing this, Nine Nether set her mind at ease. She continued to roam and search around the pool for the Blood Essence Divine Beasts under Mu Chen’s lead.

After a short span of 30 minutes, they had a fruitful result with Nine Nether devouring almost 20 beasts. More cracks could be seen on the giant black egg behind her, which was surging with spiritual light.

After devouring the last Blood Essence Divine Beast, Nine Nether looked over excitedly as she spotted another massive beast. “There’s another one over there!”

Mu Chen took a look, but he did not get close to it. Instead, he pulled Nine Nether behind him and looked around with a cold radiance swirling in his pitch-black eyes. With an indifferent tone, he said, “Since all of you are here, why are you hiding?”

“Hehe, the Master of Mu Estate has sharp senses.”

As Mu Chen’s voice faded, the space around them suddenly vibrated as three figures emerged slowly from the ocean. Nine Nether looked at the three of them, and her expression could not help but change. She called them by name, with an unmistakable note of alarm in her voice.

“Kong Ling’er from the Nine Hues Peacock Clan?

“Lin Cang from Nine-Headed Golden Condor Clan?

“Xiao Tian from Heavenly Dragon Crane Clan?”

Even though Nine Nether was more confident with Mu Chen, she still could not help but feel somewhat insecure. These three people were all second to Huang Xuanzhi in fame among the people in the Divine Beast races. Would the three of them join forces to go against Mu Chen?