Chapter 227 - 190: Executing Xiang Zhe

Chapter 227: Chapter 190: Executing Xiang Zhe

Xiang Zhe was a potential risk, a ticking time bomb.

Zhang Ji wasn’t afraid, but he couldn’t deny that the man had some real power. If Xiang Zhe decided to stir up trouble when Zhang Ji left this realm, it would be a huge headache.

So he decided to take the initiative, find Xiang Zhe, and end this once and for all.

Although Xiang Zhe had invaded the Void Illusion Realm, he had also exposed his own coordinates. He hadn’t even used a proxy; he had connected directly.

It probably wasn’t carelessness. More likely, he was simply fearless.

After all, his power surpassed that of the cultivators in the current world.

If he set up an Array, with the home-field advantage, he theoretically had no one to fear.

Even if the entire Celestial Dao Alliance went after him, he had the ability to fight back.

Worst case, he could just find a new place to hide.

However, the fact that he hadn’t launched a counterattack proved he hadn’t yet recovered his peak strength.

The external Spiritual Qi in the Celestial Essence Realm was so thin these days. For an S-class master at the Divinity Transformation Stage, it would be difficult to fully recover without a year or so, especially with so few resources.

Xiang Zhe had arrived at just such a time.

...

...

「The Mirror Sea.」

This part of the Celestial Essence Realm’s ocean rarely saw rain.

The sea itself was remarkably calm and the water was crystal clear.

Beneath the surface, there was a rich and diverse ecosystem.

Once upon a time, perhaps seventy or eighty thousand years ago, many cultivators gathered here to hunt sea-dwelling Demon Beasts for their Demon Pills and to collect Spirit Grass from the surrounding islands.

Back then, this stretch of sea was extremely dangerous.

But now, the strongest Demon Beast in these waters was merely at Tier One Peak.

And they were hard to find. Even Foundation Establishment cultivators couldn’t make a decent living in a place like this.

Xiang Zhe sat at the edge of an island, holding a fishing rod, waiting for a fish to bite.

"The Spiritual Qi here is pathetic. I went to all the trouble of setting up a Spirit-Gathering Array that covers a radius of more than five hundred *li*, and after all that funneling, the core only has a Level Six Spiritual Qi concentration."

Muttering in dissatisfaction, Xiang Zhe logged into the Void Illusion Realm and started scheming with those anti-Celestial Essence Association elements again.

Most of these anti-Celestial Essence Association members were low-level Loose Cultivators. Back in the days of the Celestial Dao Alliance, they had little talent and weren’t well-regarded. Some had even been bandit cultivators who preyed on others.

Xiang Zhe didn’t expect them to accomplish anything significant. He was just using them to gather information, cause some trouble for the Celestial Essence Association, and plant a few seeds.

When he made his grand return, he would need at least a few followers to answer his call.

These pawns would become useful then.

But when he logged on this time, he noticed something was different.

He couldn’t contact a single one of them.

’The Celestial Essence Association has some skills, huh? They found them all this quickly?’

Xiang Zhe was briefly impressed, but he didn’t really care.

Every organization had its discontented lower ranks, people who were dissatisfied with their lot.

He came from a demonic sect; manipulating people’s hearts was his specialty. As long as he wanted to, he could always sway a few to his side.

Since the original group had been dealt with, he just needed to recruit new members.

He casually sent out a few "advertisements" into the Void Illusion Realm. All he had to do now was wait for the fish to bite.

"A fish is on the hook!"

Suddenly, Xiang Zhe’s hand twitched. From the Mirror Sea, a three-meter-long fish was yanked into the air and dragged to the shore.

"That’s a big fish," Zhang Ji said.

Xiang Zhe’s expression flickered, and he looked behind him.

A figure was standing there in the distance.

’The voice had come from the Void Illusion Realm. When did this person arrive?’

’How could I not have noticed?’

’Wait, that face... Is that Zhang Ji, the leader of the Celestial Essence Association?’

’An otherworldly Celestial Demon? No wonder I didn’t feel any Spiritual Power fluctuations!’

"You’ve got some skill. No wonder those juniors were won over by you," Xiang Zhe said, his voice slow and calm as he maintained his composure.

He had absolute confidence in himself.

Nothing else mattered; this physical body alone placed him in an invincible position.

He was a Spirit-Body Dual Cultivator. He couldn’t even remember how much effort he had expended to forge this body, a body as strong as Tier Six Immortal Copper.

And it was because of this body that no one could bring him to justice, even after he committed such a heinous, heaven-defying act to achieve his Nine-Orifice Exquisite Heart.

To this day, he was still alive and well.

So even though he currently had less than seventy percent of his Spiritual Power, he still didn’t see Zhang Ji as a threat.

"You have two choices. First, submit to the Celestial Essence Association. Second, die," Zhang Ji said directly.

"I choose the third option," Xiang Zhe grinned. "I’ll kill you, destroy that piece of junk Celestial Essence Association of yours, and then pay a visit to your world."

Zhang Ji had been thinking that Xiang Zhe was a man of some talent and had considered sparing him.

But after hearing that, all such thoughts vanished from his mind.

BOOM—!

CRASH—!

In an instant, Xiang Zhe was struck by an attack. The island collapsed, and his body was blasted directly into the sea.

Before he could even react, several more attacks rained down on him.

From start to finish, he couldn’t even catch a glimpse of Zhang Ji’s figure.

There was a fundamental difference in their power levels.

Xiang Zhe’s only strength was his tough physical body!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!

Underwater, Xiang Zhe was relentlessly bombarded. He tried to fight back, tried to mobilize his Spiritual Power to defend himself, but it was all in vain. His Spiritual Power was instantly shattered by the terrifying attacks.

His body plummeted to the seafloor, broke through the earth’s crust, and sank toward the Nine Netherworld at the planet’s core.

But Xiang Zhe didn’t panic. He was sure he wouldn’t die.

This body had been tempered a thousand times and was indestructible against all tribulations.

Before he knew it, his body had been blasted deep underground into the Nine Nether Earth Flame. The being attacking him was also wreathed in true fire, and the intense heat scorched Xiang Zhe’s body, turning it crimson.

He struggled to send out a Divine Thought, crowing defiantly, "It’s useless! Neither astral winds nor earth fire can harm me!!!"

The only answer he received was an even more ferocious bombardment.

The next moment, he was blasted out of the earth flame. At the same time, the true fire wreathed around Zhang Ji’s fists transformed into true water, swirling with the Divine Wind element.

The Cyan True Water turned into freezing ice!

With the rapid heating and cooling, Xiang Zhe’s body was becoming brittle.

A tiny crack appeared on the surface of his skin.

Once again, he was blasted into the Nine Nether Earth Flame.

Xiang Zhe felt pain. Agonizing, excruciating pain...

It was far more painful than the sword wound Ling Xuzi had left him, which had been merely skin-deep.

"Stop... I surrender..."

His pleas for mercy didn’t stop Zhang Ji’s assault.

As the elements shifted, Xiang Zhe was once again blasted out of the Nine Nether Earth Flame.

True fire switched to true water. Intense heat followed by extreme cold.

KRAKA-KRAK~ CRACKLE-CRACK!

After this was repeated more than ten times, Xiang Zhe’s body was covered in a dense web of cracks.

This body, tempered to be as strong as Tier Six Immortal Copper, was finally breaking down. At the very least, Zhang Ji’s energy could now seep into his insides.

BOOM—!

With a single strike of "Solipsistic Supremacy," Zhang Ji shattered and destroyed Xiang Zhe’s Divine Soul Particles. Surprisingly, his physical body remained largely intact, resisting Zhang Ji’s attempt to reshape it.

The particles that made up his flesh were too dense and stable to be easily destroyed.

Probing it with his Spirit, he could see that every single cell was inscribed with dense Spirit Patterns.

This "array body" was far stronger than an ordinary physical body.

But the most shocking part was the heart.

That Nine-Orifice Exquisite Heart.

It no longer looked like an ordinary heart. Instead, it was like a blood-red crystal sphere connected to nine major blood vessels, converting and transporting substances like blood and Spiritual Power. It was also a top-tier energy core.

Xiang Zhe had never cultivated a Golden Core or a Nascent Soul.

He walked a cultivation path of his own creation.

He had modified the *Heart-Devouring Demonic Art* and turned it into a different path.

No one ever decreed that one had to form a Core or a Nascent Soul.

It was just that more people walked that path; it was more common, and its upper limits were higher.

Zhang Ji tossed Xiang Zhe’s body, which had considerable research value, into the "Ship of Hope," flew out of the sea, and then performed a Spirit scan of Xiang Zhe’s lair before turning to leave.

As he left, he even took the fish Xiang Zhe had caught.

’It’s already been caught. Best not to let it go to waste.’

...

Back at the Celestial Essence Association, when Zhang Ji tossed out Xiang Zhe’s corpse, the five elders of the former Celestial Dao Alliance were all utterly shocked.

"He’s... actually dead!"

Mo Ye was the most incredulous.

No one knew better than him just how hard that man was to kill.

Back in the day in the Celestial Essence Realm, thirteen top-tier Divinity Transformation masters had besieged him, and not only had they failed to kill him, but he had managed to kill five of them in return. In the end, they could only resort to sealing him away.

"He was tough to kill, yes, but it was just a bit of extra effort," Zhang Ji said.

Xiang Zhe’s physical body was indeed formidable, his Spiritual Power wasn’t weak, and the various Spirit Skills he had mastered were all top-tier.

However, that was all predicated on him being able to use them.

At his normal strength, he was only on the level of Ling Xuzi and Dugu Yunfeng.

And previously, even when Ling Xuzi and Dugu Yunfeng joined forces, Zhang Ji had completely suppressed them.

The fact that Xiang Zhe alone could withstand Zhang Ji for so long was already quite impressive.

Even though he was basically a punching bag the entire time.

’Just a bit of extra effort?’

Ling Xuzi looked at Zhang Ji, sensing that he had grown even stronger.

’This man’s growth rate is terrifying.’

’If that battle were to happen again, I don’t think Dugu Yunfeng and I would have survived.’

Dugu Yunfeng exchanged a look with Ling Xuzi; he was thinking the same thing.

For them, making a sliver of progress after a hundred years of seclusion was cause for celebration.

But Zhang Ji’s power seemed to change daily, his aura growing stronger at a rate that was almost visible to the naked eye. His speed of improvement was so exaggerated, it was as if he were the reincarnation of an Immortal.

"Now that this problem is dealt with, I’ll leave the rest to you. There can be no mistakes with the Qiankun Nine Heavens Void Tide-Inducing Array. The repairs on the Starship must also be expedited. These matters concern travel between two realms, or even multiple realms. Broaden your horizons a little. Don’t be so narrow-minded."

Zhang Ji said only this much and then stopped.

They could have actually handled this matter themselves, but they had deliberately dragged it out until he had to intervene. That spoke volumes.

They were clearly hoping he would be tied up dealing with Xiang Zhe, creating an opportunity for them to seize some control.

Now, he had made his show of force, and he had dangled the carrot.

If they continued to shirk their responsibilities after this, it would prove they weren’t people he could use.

And if they couldn’t be used, they could only be erased.

"We shall obey the Association Master’s orders."

Ling Xuzi was the first to express his submission.

His will to resist wasn’t strong to begin with; he didn’t care who was in charge.

Since Ling Xuzi had yielded, Nangong Zhiqing followed suit.

Zhuge Mingyuan had no objections. He had already switched sides the moment he saw the model of the Array.

He saw more clearly than anyone who was better suited to lead the world’s future.

Mo Ye and Dugu Yunfeng also bowed their heads. There were no more arguments they could make.

The power to kill Xiang Zhe single-handedly said it all.

Not to mention, Zhang Ji still held the ultimate weapon, the Celestial Intent Seal.

If worse came to worst, the Celestial Essence Realm wasn’t even Zhang Ji’s home base. He could abandon the resources here, use the Seal, and simply run away. They, however, had nowhere to run.

Destruction or rebirth—it all depended on a single thought from Zhang Ji. He had them completely in his grasp.