“Crack!”

Crimson lightning, like ten thousand feet of blood-red radiance, swept downward, splitting Li Heishui’s skin open and sending his long hair standing straight toward the sky.

“Boom!”

Azure lightning, like a true dragon crossing the heavens, suddenly struck down, blasting the black dog hundreds of feet away, leaving scorch marks all over his body.

“Damn it, Black Kid, can you stop following me? You’re drawing all the lightning to my side!” the Great Black Dog bellowed in fury.

“You wretched dog, weren’t you the one who said I should be your shield? If I don’t follow behind you, where am I supposed to go — charge straight into the sea of lightning?” Li Heishui fumed.

The endless sea of lightning chased after them relentlessly, which was enough to show just how terrifying the heavenly tribulation Ye Fan had triggered was — the entire mountain range had been submerged beneath it.

At first, it had only been purple lightning, but now crimson blood-lightning and azure divine-lightning had descended as well, with all manner of colors flashing without end.

“Besides the Five Elements Lightning Tribulation, there’s now Seven-Colored Divine Lightning too — don’t tell me this kid is going to get struck into dust?” the Great Black Dog muttered while sprinting away at full speed.

“Whether Little Leaf gets reduced to dust or not, I have no idea, but what I do know is that I’m about to become ash.” Li Heishui’s entire body was puffing out black smoke as he ran, baring his teeth and howling.

“Black Kid, stop following me! Let’s split up and run separately!” the Great Black Dog snapped.

“Damn it, the only direction without lightning is forward — everywhere else is a sea of thunder. How are we supposed to split up? How about you flee backward and I flee forward — how does that sound?” Li Heishui shot back angrily.

“Doggy, run fast — the lightning is coming again.” Xiao Nannan was tense, perched on the Great Black Dog’s shoulder. The seven-colored light swirling at her brow had kept her from getting hurt.

“Here it comes again!” Li Heishui shouted, charging forward with all his might.

Behind them, the endless crimson lightning surged like a great flood, filling the sky and crashing forward, grinding mountains, ancient trees, and everything else to rubble. This was a sea of lightning in every sense of the word.

“Ahwooo—” The Great Black Dog howled in agony as he was struck again. The glossy black fur he had painstakingly regrown over the past two months got singed once more.

Behind him, Li Heishui was shrieking like a ghost. Every inch of his flesh had turned coal-black — he was genuinely charred — with only his teeth remaining brilliantly white.

“Damn it all, why is this emperor so unlucky?! I’ve been struck seventeen times now — I’m in so much pain!” the Great Black Dog wailed, his two long legs pumping furiously forward.

Li Heishui bellowed from behind: “You dead dog, I’ve been hit fourteen more times than you — what do you have to complain about?!”

“Ahwooo—” Another wave of the lightning sea descended, and the Great Black Dog was struck again, howling as his whole body crackled with electric radiance.

“I’m dying — if it weren’t for the secret treasure my grandfather gave me, I’d already be ash. Little Leaf is getting through his stupid tribulation and he’s going to get us killed!” Li Heishui cried out in misery.

“Woof! Black Kid, you are not allowed to follow me anymore — you go left, I’ll go right. Damn it, all that lightning is coming because of you!” the Great Black Dog barked.

“You dead dog, how is this my fault?! Your dog character is atrocious — the lightning is all coming because of you!” Li Heishui fumed.

No matter which direction they ran, the lightning kept chasing after them, as though they too were undergoing a tribulation. It was a wretched sight.

“Damn it, this emperor has figured it out — it must be because we entered the Sacred Cliff and picked up some impure energy. The heavens are purifying us!” the Great Black Dog said, as though something had just occurred to him.

“If this purification keeps up, we’re going to be finished before Ye Fan even is!” Li Heishui’s head was spinning. He then shouted: “You dead dog, you’re practically defying heaven with how fast you run! Carry me on your back too — I’ll give you a ten-thousand-year spirit herb afterward!”

Had the sea of lightning not been surrounding and cutting off every escape route, the Great Black Dog would have long since left Li Heishui in the dust. Those two long legs were displaying the first movement technique of the Glyph of Traversal to its absolute limit.

“Unless you hand over an imperishable divine medicine, don’t even think about asking this emperor to turn back and carry you — not a chance!” the Great Black Dog snarled.

“You dead dog, you really have no conscience. You ate so much of my roasted meat, and those patterned shorts you’re wearing — I was the one who gave you those!” Li Heishui bellowed.

“Damn it, it’s just a pair of patterned shorts — I’ll give you back a whole stack later!” the Great Black Dog shot back, his large floral shorts as vibrant as ever as he sprinted.

“Doggy, save Brother Li.” Xiao Nannan gently patted the Great Black Dog’s ear and whispered.

“It’s fine — that Black Kid has thick skin and tough flesh. Getting struck by more lightning will be good for his cultivation going forward.” The Great Black Dog had ten thousand reasons not to turn back.

“You dead dog, you really are worthless — then don’t blame me for this!” Li Heishui raged, then flicked his wrist and hurled an iron sword out, transforming it into a streak of azure light that shot toward what lay ahead.

“Boom!”

Ten thousand feet of crimson lightning detonated in an instant, chasing after the iron sword and crashing down.

“Woof!” The Great Black Dog leapt and bounded with all his might, the fur all over his body standing on end as electric radiance danced around him. Furious and humiliated, he barked: “Black Kid, what you just did is absolutely vile!”

“Dead dog, you were the one who was disloyal first!” Li Heishui, also getting struck by lightning, tucked his head down and fled in a panic.

“Woof!” the Great Black Dog howled miserably. “Damn it — scorched! Fully cooked!”

Xiao Nannan was at a loss for words, watching the two of them flee while squabbling with each other, unable to figure out how to mediate. By now the little one was no longer particularly frightened — the seven-colored light point at her brow was deflecting the electric radiance, leaving her unharmed.

The Great Black Dog and Li Heishui were getting struck by lightning and suffering miserably, which was enough to imagine what Ye Fan was enduring at the center of the sea of lightning, where he had received heaven only knew how many layers of heavenly tribulation.

The great mountains all around had been reduced to flying ash — not a single one had survived. Everything had ceased to exist, and the ground below had split open into vast abysses that seemed to have no bottom.

Five Elements Lightning, Seven-Colored Divine Lightning — one bolt after another had utterly obliterated this place, and even someone with a physical body as powerful as Ye Fan’s had his skin split open and flesh torn apart.

“Even more terrifying than the heavenly tribulation I endured in the Divine City of the Northern Region!” Ye Fan was inwardly alarmed. This wasn’t breaking through a curse — it was merely crossing a cultivation boundary — yet it had brought down a lightning tribulation like this.

“Could it have something to do with the Sacred Cliff? Perhaps my body absorbed some form of aura there. Fine, then — I’ll use this lightning as a baptism.” A vague inkling had taken shape in his mind.

“Boom!”

The nine-five heavenly tribulation struck down again and again, and Ye Fan’s physical body was like iron being forged in a furnace. Golden blood splattered in all directions, but he clenched his teeth and endured.

Two months in seclusion had yielded him great gains. He had cultivated the Glyph of Traversal to a very high level — truly unpredictable, appearing and vanishing without a trace, moving through treacherous terrain as though on level ground.

Most importantly, he had broken through to the peak of the third tier of the Four Extremes Secret Realm and could enter the final tier of this secret realm at any moment. His combat power had risen by a massive margin.

After a full hour, Ye Fan finally made it through the heavenly tribulation. The ancient mountain range was a scene of devastation — scorched earth and ash everywhere, with many distant mountains cracked and shattered.

“Woof!”

From far away came the sound of a dog barking, along with Li Heishui’s cursing.

“Little Leaf, you’ve finally finished your tribulation! We got dragged into this suffering along with you — I was hit by a full fifty-seven bolts of lightning.” Li Heishui opened his mouth and electric sparks shot out from his throat.

“Cooked — fully done. Kid, you owe me a divine herb!” the Great Black Dog snarled, his entire body wafting the aroma of cooked meat, a broken sword hanging from his bald tail, fire in his eyes, and electricity crackling around him. He and Li Heishui had been fighting for quite some time.

“Look at the two of you — how embarrassing!” Ye Fan scolded.

Rather than leaving, they continued their seclusion, seeking to advance further. Ye Fan in particular felt an urgent pressure — the Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasty weighed on his mind and made it difficult to rest easy.

Over the following months, the sound of wind and thunder periodically rang out from that mountain range, and occasionally the barking of a dog could be heard.

They cultivated in bitter seclusion in this place, with only Xiao Nannan living free of any worries, chasing colorful butterflies and picking wildflowers through the mountain terrain.

For a full six months, Ye Fan trained almost all of the various secret arts passed down through the Heavenly Court until he had a solid grasp of them. Though he could not possibly reach the absolute pinnacle of perfection, he had reached the limit of what a Four Extremes cultivator could operate.

“After the Four Extremes, one must achieve comprehension — it truly is in life-and-death confrontations that the greatest gains are made.” Ye Fan was somewhat reflective.

He had broken through a full realm in two months of seclusion, yet in the four months that followed he had been unable to break through into the final tier of the Four Extremes Secret Realm.

The reason he had been able to break through so smoothly during those two months was intimately connected to the insights he had gained in the past.

In the Southern Region, during his great battle against Hua Yunfei, when he faced down “One Thought Blooms a Flower, Sovereign Over All Under Heaven,” he had achieved enlightenment of the Great Dao and gained enormously. In the Central Region, he had battled the Golden-Winged Little Peng King, and in order to break through the first four stances of the Demonic Heaven Slaughter Scripture, he had stood at the very edge of death before achieving comprehension — only then did he find a way out of that desperate situation.

His breakthrough in two months could be said to be entirely the result of accumulated progress, a gradual buildup finally releasing all at once in a single breakthrough, without the slightest hesitation.

“I need to keep comprehending the Dao without stopping!” Ye Fan’s cultivation speed was already fast enough to make both the Great Black Dog and Li Heishui find him freakishly talented, yet he himself was not the least bit satisfied.

Half a month later, Ye Fan’s eyes snapped open. He had sensed an unusual aura. He left behind an afterimage in the ancient cave and appeared in a mountain meadow thick with blooming flowers.

“Thud!”

He thrust one hand into the void and pulled out a dark shadow — a young man with a cold, detached complexion who was now wearing an expression of utter shock.

“A killer from the human world has tracked us here!” Li Heishui’s heart lurched.

“Woof — something’s very wrong. They must have used the Divine Art of Celestial Calculation and divined our location!” the Great Black Dog came running out, his expression grave.

Ye Fan said nothing. He pressed his hand to the top of the young man’s skull, intending to extract the memories from his spiritual consciousness.

“Thud!”

However, the moment his hand drew close to the other’s head, the skull exploded. Terrifying energy wrapped in shattered flesh and gore surged toward Ye Fan like a tide.

The void itself was riddled with black holes punched through by the debris — one could imagine what force was contained within it. It was absolutely capable of dragging an enemy along into complete obliteration of both body and soul.

“Bang!”

But Ye Fan’s golden great hand shook once, and all the flesh and energy were reduced to flying ash — completely annihilated.

“The Sacred Physique at the peak of the third tier of the Four Extremes is truly terrifying!” Li Heishui exclaimed.

“Not good!” A warning surged through Ye Fan’s heart as he sensed something with keen perception. He activated the Glyph of Traversal, dissolving into a wisp of smoke and vanishing in the blink of an eye.

In almost the same instant, he arrived at the valley behind the mountain — just in time to see a woman walking toward Xiao Nannan, a cold smile on her face.

“Who are you, big sister? Don’t come any closer — I’m scared…” Xiao Nannan spoke in a timid voice, backing away step by step.

“Big sister is here to send you to the ancient hall of hell…” The black-robed woman’s entire body radiated the chill of dead bone, carrying with it a breath of death.

“Boom!”

Ye Fan came through the air with speed pushed to its absolute limit. When the black-robed woman noticed him, her eyes went ice-cold, and a blood-dripping divine sword appeared in her hand, slashing toward the top of Xiao Nannan’s skull.

“Clang!”

But what she hadn’t anticipated was that Ye Fan’s speed surpassed her imagination entirely — striking after but arriving first, he intercepted her in front of Xiao Nannan. His golden great hand slashed down against the blade’s edge.

“Thud!”

Ye Fan’s palm was completely unharmed, but the blood-dripping divine sword shattered into powder in an instant, crumbling to the ground in a shower of dust.

Refined from the finest gold through a hundred forgings and branded with the power of laws — yet it still could not withstand a single strike from Ye Fan’s physical body, and was reduced to fine powder in an instant.

The black-robed woman’s expression changed completely. She turned and fled, trying to escape, but Ye Fan’s strength had grown enormously. One great hand pressed down and pinned her in midair, then grabbed her back.

“Monstrous — he can subdue a Divine Dynasty assassin at the peak of the Four Extremes with a mere raise of his hand.” Even the Great Black Dog let out a cry of astonishment.

Ye Fan tried to extract the memories from her spiritual sea, but this woman’s skull likewise shattered — completely beyond her control. Buried deep within her brow was a forbidden power laid down by a supreme grandmaster.

“How did those from the human world and from hell find their way here?” Li Heishui’s heart pounded.

“They are skilled in the Divine Art of Celestial Calculation. If they invite some of those ancient undying ones to divine the situation, they can pinpoint an enemy’s location. We’ve been in seclusion for over half a year without showing ourselves — they must have moved a supreme grandmaster to perform a divination. These two were sent to confirm the result.” The Great Black Dog delivered this very unwelcome piece of news.

“We leave this place.”

Ye Fan had the Great Black Dog etch formation patterns, and then they swiftly traversed the void, subsequently opening domain gates one after another and changing direction multiple times until they emerged a million miles away.

“This isn’t a real solution. If all else fails, Little Leaf, just leave the Eastern Wasteland — it’s not like they’d pursue you all the way to the Central Region or the Western Desert, would they?” Li Heishui said.

“Trying to drive me away like this is not going to happen!” Ye Fan had developed a certain degree of confidence in himself by now.

Having mastered the Glyph of Traversal, he was more than capable of protecting himself. Now that he could move freely through the heavens and the earth below, there was no need to flee in haste. He was actually thinking about going to look for trouble with the Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasty.

“If you don’t leave, you may genuinely face a life-threatening calamity!” Li Heishui warned. “Two Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasties have simultaneously issued kill orders against you, and now they’ve even moved supreme grandmasters to divine your whereabouts. This is a catastrophe — it will be very hard to avoid.”

“Indeed, this is very bad. Those ancient living fossils in the ancient halls are certainly divining your location. If you don’t leave, their seeded killers will all be deployed and they will use you as prey to sharpen themselves.” The Black Emperor likewise cautioned.

Li Heishui added: “For two great Divine Dynasties to issue kill orders, many people must have approached them simultaneously and requested your death.”

“To be able to reach an Ancient Divine Dynasty, they must belong to the oldest bloodlines. And a single kill order requires more than ten parties commissioning it.” Ye Fan began to smile as he said this. “Just how many ancient lineages are there in the Eastern Wasteland?”

“You already know — there are definitely people from the sacred grounds involved, plus some of the supreme great sects.” Li Heishui nodded.

“In that case, they can’t blame me for being ruthless.” Ye Fan’s smile grew even more brilliant. “Black Emperor, you should know how to make contact with the Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasties, correct?”

“Kid, what are you planning? Are you trying to get yourself killed? No, wait — that smile of yours is too sinister. You must be cooking up something wicked. Don’t drag me into it!” the Great Black Dog said, baring its teeth.

“This has nothing to do with you — not even a copper coin’s worth. I’m planning to send a sum of source stones to both Divine Dynasties.” Ye Fan said with a laugh.

“You… what exactly are you trying to do?” Both the Great Black Dog and Li Heishui looked at him with deep suspicion.

“Now, I’m giving both of you a chance to deal with someone you hate. Tell me every Sacred Son you can’t stand to look at — list them all out. I’ll commission both Divine Dynasties to take them all out.” Ye Fan said with a cold laugh.

“Are you out of your mind?!” Li Heishui and the Great Black Dog were both completely stunned.

“Those who can commission an Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasty are certainly ancient lineages. I’ll drag them all into this mess too!”

“You want to make the Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasties go to war with all the sacred grounds — you want to throw the whole world into chaos?” the Great Black Dog’s eyelids twitched uncontrollably.

Li Heishui also drew a sharp breath. “This is a vicious move.”

If the Ancient Divine Dynasties dared accept the kill commissions, those Sacred Sons would undoubtedly face great disaster — and it would ignite endless turmoil.

And if they refused, Ye Fan would find a way to publicize that refusal and shatter the myth of the two Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasties’ unbroken record.

“Here’s what we’ll do — have them each kill one Sacred Son to start. I believe they’ll certainly accept. Then we proceed from there. If that alone isn’t enough, I’ll take the Heavenly Court’s supreme scepter to ‘assist’ them.” A thin, cold smile tugged at the corner of Ye Fan’s mouth.

“This is far too ruthless, Little Leaf — you’ll throw the Eastern Wasteland into great upheaval…” Li Heishui said, but then burst out laughing immediately after.

“What an absolutely wicked idea…” The Great Black Dog also began to snicker.