Chapter 422 – Zhuque Zi
“Du Tian!” Zhuque Zi was wearing a fiery-red robe and his hair was moving without any wind. Although he looked ancient, he still exuded a very oppressive aura.
This person casually stood there as the sky darkened. All of the light was coming from his fiery robe, completely displaying his dominance over planet Suzaku.
One couldn’t feel a strand of spiritual energy or even celestial spiritual energy in his body, but early stage Ascendant cultivators would be forced to retreat, and even mid stage Ascendant old monsters would unconsciously back up.
He was the only late stage Ascendant cultivator on plant Suzaku.
The true ruler of planet Suzaku!
Zhuque Zi calmly said, “Back then, my country of Suzaku made an agreement with your Soul Refining Sect. When the country of Suzaku is in danger, you must lend us the one-billion-soul soul flag. Today this old man is here to borrow the flag. Du Tian, bring it here!”
“Nonsense!” Du Tian gripped the one-billion-soul soul flag tightly as he stared at Zhuque Zi and shouted, “How come I have never heard of this agreement from any of the ancestors before? Old thief Zhuque, if you want to steal it, just come and take it; no need to put on this disgusting act.”
Zhuque Zi looked at Du Tian, shook his head slightly, and sighed. “This matter was decided between the first generation Suzaku and your founding ancestor, so it’s natural that you don’t know about, but I found out about it in some old records. Today I’m not here to steal but to borrow!” With that, he reached out. The sky changed colors and red light gathered from all directions. The red light formed a giant red hand that pressed down toward Du Tian.
Du Tian shouted, “Old thief!” He waved the soul flag and without any hesitation released all one billion soul fragments. Aside from the fourth soul, the remaining 35 primary souls were also sent out.
Everything 100 kilometers was covered in soul fragments. Their screams and shrills filled the area.
The combined voice of the one billion soul fragments was more powerful than any soundwave treasure. The earth within 100 kilometers began to tremble and the surrounding mountains collapsed.
The 35 primary souls of the one billion soul fragment all had fierce expressions as they tore the red hand to pieces. Then they surrounded Zhuque Zi and stared at him viciously.
Zhuque Zi looked at the surrounding one billion soul fragments. His pupils shrank slightly as he calmly said, “Du Tian, since you remain so stubborn, this old man will have to punish you in place of your ancestors. I said I only wanted to borrow the one-billion-soul soul flag, so I’ll borrow it and then I will return it to you.”
Du Tian laughed with mockery in his eyes. “Borrow? How long do you want to borrow it for?”
Zhuque Zi’s expression was serious as he said, “Lend it to the country of Suzaku for 10,000 years. After 10,000 years, we will naturally return it.”
“Old thief Zhuque, my Soul Refining Sect has a saying: if the the flag is here, the sect still exists. If you want it, you can try to take it!” Du Tian’s eyes became cold as his hands formed a seal and then he pointed at Zhuque Zi.
“Fuse!”
The surrounding one billion soul fragments immediately began to gather on the 35 primary souls and then the primary souls began to fuse with each other.
Zhuque Zi’s eyes lit up. He couldn’t allow this fusion to continue. He reached out and a red feather appeared in his hand.
He sent the feather forward, then it suddenly began to burn and release a ghostly light.
“Holy Suzaku Flame!” Zhuque Zi’s ancient voice boomed from his mouth.
The burning feather trembled and suddenly collapsed. A surge of fire began to spread with the feather as the center and immediately covered the surrounding 100 kilometers.
The power of this flame was unimaginable. The three mountains of the Soul Refining Sect were turned into black, viscous liquid. However, this liquid quickly turned to gas.
Even the cave Wang Lin was in disappeared, and Wang Lin disappeared along with the cave.
The entire Soul Refining Sect disappeared from planet Suzaku. The hundreds of disciples and even the three Soul Formation elders hiding in the three golden rings weren’t able to escape this calamity.
The 35 primary soul fragments that were about to fuse were also surrounded by the fire. Black gas was floating up from their bodies and they all had painful expressions on their faces.
“Holy Suzaku Flame…” Du Tian’s face was very ugly. There were three ancient jades floating around him. They were blocking the flame.
Zhuque Zi’s expression was calm as he slowly said, “Du Tian, the heavens are just. I originally didn’t want to do this, but you’ve forced me!”
Du Tian took a deep breath, bit the tip of his tongue, spat out a large mouthful of blood, and sat down in the lotus position. Then his hand formed a seal and he said, “Soul escape!”
Du Tian wasn’t his original name but his daoist name that his teacher had given him. He once told Wang Lin that all users of the soul flag have different ways of using it, and his special method was escaping.
The 35 primary souls released a green light and then disappeared from within the fire. When they reappeared, they were before Du Tian.
“What’s this?” Zhuque Zi was surprised.
“Fuse!” Du Tian spat out more blood. This time the blood landed on one of the primary souls. Then, in an instant, the 34 other primary souls fused with it.
In the blink of an eye, an aura that could match Zhuque Zi appeared and the sky seemed to have been split in two. The left side was fiery red, representing Zhuque Zi.
The right side was black, representing the late stage Ascendant soul formed by the 35 primary souls and one billion soul fragments.
The moment this soul fragment appeared, it waved its hand, pushing all of the flames that were on the right side to the left side.
Like the sky, the ground was split between black and red.
Zhuque Zi’s pupils shrank. His expression was a bit ugly as he stared at the soul and said, “Not bad. With that power, it can be considered the top treasure of planet Suzaku.”
Du Tian’s face was deathly pale. He only had less than two years left, and now that he had used the soul flag’s fusion technique, he was almost out of time. He softly whispered, “Kill him!”
The late stage Ascendant soul fragment didn’t go forward but raised its hand. A rumbling sound came from all directions as clouds gathered to form a human-shaped body.
This body was made of clouds and at a glance was no different from a mortal.
The Ascendant soul fragment took a step forward and fused with the body made of clouds. The cloud person opened his ghostly eyes and stared at Zhuque Zi.
“To form a body from the clouds, that is indeed only something late stage Ascendant cultivators can do! However, you are created from fusion. I want to see how long you can last!” Zhuque Zi’s expression was ugly.
With that, he waved his hand. A red light appeared in front of him and transformed into a short, red sword.
The moment the sword appeared, the flame on the ground was sucked into the sword.
“This sword is very ancient and no one knows its true name. The first generation Suzaku got it and named it the Suzaku Sword.” With that, Zhuque Zi pointed at the sword with his right hand.
The flying sword immediately glowed red as if it were filled with celestial spiritual energy. This sword was no different from the sword of a celestial.
This sword was a celestial treasure.
The cloud person’s eyes lit up and he waved his right hand. His entire right hand flew off and became a sword that was the same as the Suzaku Sword. Aside from the color, it looked exactly the same as the Suzaku Sword; even the enormous amount of celestial spiritual energy was the same.
Then he pointed at Zhuque Zi and the small, white sword shot forth.
The red and white swords collided with each other like meteors. After a series of collisions, the white sword was clearly no match and was pushed back. However, the red sword had taken hits from the white sword’s powerful celestial spiritual energy, so it was slowed down.
The cloud person stared at Zhuque Zi and let out a faint smile. Then his cloud body collapsed to form eight more copies of the exact same sword. Each one of them contained an enormous amount of celestial spiritual energy. The eight swords shot out at once. Three of them went after the Suzaku Sword and the remaining five went toward Zhuque Zi.
Zhuque Zi’s expression was ugly as he backed up few hundred feet. He slapped his bag of holding to take out a gourd, then he muttered, “Collect!”
The five swords were surrounded by a powerful force and then, in the blink of an eye, were trapped inside the gourd.
Zhuque Zi’s eyes lit up. He was about to use the gourd to collect the three other swords, but just at that moment, he heard crackling sounds coming from the gourd. A second later, a heaven-shattering sound escaped from it.
With a bang, the gourd shattered. The five swords flew out and stabbed toward Zhuque Zi without any hesitation.
At the same time, the swords that were fighting the Suzaku Sword seemed to have received an order, because they ditched the Suzaku Sword and quickly flew over.
Zhuque Zi’s expression changed greatly and he quickly backed up.
It was not that he was no match, but the soul formed by the soul flag was filled with death and was attacking him without any regard for its own safety. Although he was confident he could win, he would definitely be injured. Normally it wouldn’t matter, but right now he didn’t have much lifespan left either. If he was injured here, his lifespan would shorten.
Another important matter was that the second battle with the Forsaken Immortal Clan had already begun. If he got injured here, it would be very unfortunate.