In the latter half of the night, the heavy black clouds scattered and dispersed. Starlight, like water, cascaded downward. The ancient city lay in a stretch of quiet.
Yet within the city, there was no peace. The stench of blood assailed the nostrils, a dense aura of death pervading the air, as though a field of Asuras had descended upon the mortal world.
The great millstone formed by the Wushi killing formation had vanished. Beneath the clear, cold moonlight, on the ground lay a thick layer of bloody mud — along with shards of bleached white bone.
This was a sight that made the hair stand on end. Bone fragments and pulped flesh intermingled — anyone who laid eyes on it could not help but shudder to their core. This was a living hell on earth.
All had perished except for Jiang Huai’an. Not a single person had escaped. Such was the power of an ancient Great Emperor’s formation patterns — only a single incomplete fragment of it, and yet it had cut down every last one of them.
Ye Fan stood within the ancient slaughtering formation, but had not caught sight of either Yao Xi or the Great Yan Holy Son Xiang Yifei. They had certainly come for him as well — yet had not entered the formation. Frightened away by the might of the Wushi killing formation, no one had dared to remain.
He gazed toward the night sky and could no longer sense even a thread of breath or presence. Those who had not entered the formation had all fled, overawed by the formation’s power — not one had stayed.
A long while later, figures appeared at the far edge of the heavens, watching this place from a great distance — every one of them struck cold from head to foot.
In the latter half of the night, the moonlight was gentle — yet the entire ancient city was heavy with a stifling oppression. No sound stirred, no one moved about.
Ye Fan set a great fire. The bone fragments and bloody mud on the ground burned — crackling in the firelight, and finally crumbling to ash. It burned clean and thorough.
Then suddenly he raised his head, sensing a danger of some kind — yet he could discover nothing.
“Can a holy lord-level figure have arrived? Or is it some terrifying figure from the Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasty, peering at us from the shadows?” Ye Fan’s heart gave a jolt of alarm.
“Let us leave this place!” Wu Zhongtian, Jiang Huairen, and the others had no desire to linger either. This place was about to become the center of a storm — better to depart as soon as possible.
The Black Emperor carved formation patterns and then erased the Wushi killing formation. A flash of light — and they traversed the void, vanishing from where they had stood.
On the second day, news broke — triggering a tremendous uproar!
In that battle at the ancient Smoke-Cloud City, those who had come to attack suffered casualties beyond counting. No one could say how many had lost their lives — bodies had fallen in wave after wave.
Among the dead were five half-step Great Ability experts — each a regional overlord. Had they taken even one more step forward and evolved their own Dao, they would have stood on equal footing with the various holy lords. Yet here they had perished.
“What?! Half-step Great Ability experts have fallen too — what cultivation level has Ye Fan and his group reached? How could they possess such means?!”
“Is this true? Cultivators of the Dragon-Hidden Secret Realm — great and powerful experts — cut down like weeds, one swath after another, casualties beyond count!”
“Every word of it is true. Last night I witnessed it with my own eyes — it was a genuine human hell. Lives were worth less than weeds; no matter how powerful you were, you couldn’t withstand a single blow from the killing formation!”
“The sky has been torn open — cultivators of the Dragon-Hidden Secret Realm fell in wave after wave. Though they concealed their true appearances, no one needs to guess — these were people from the various great sects.”
“What a terrifying method — a single battle wiped out everyone. This young man is truly someone to inspire dread!”
The blood-drenched night battle triggered a great earthquake. No one had expected Ye Fan to possess such means, or that he would dare destroy every last powerful figure. People everywhere drew sharp, cold breaths.
As light flooded the sky, Ye Fan released Little Nannan from the Jade Purity Vase. Last night’s battle had been far too blood-soaked — he had not let the little girl watch.
Now they were in a stretch of green oasis, lying low for a time. It went without saying that the outside world was almost certainly in an uproar.
Liu Kou dragged a person over and dropped him heavily to the ground. “What do we do with him?” The sole survivor captured alive from the killing formation.
Jiang Huai’an’s heart was filled with dread. A great expert at the eighth transformation of the Dragon-Hidden realm, his Sea of Wheels had been shattered by a single arrow, his divine power dried up. He was consumed with despair.
“You… what do you want with me?” His voice trembled. Better to live a wretched life than to die well — he had no wish to die.
“Rest easy. I will not kill you.” Ye Fan gave him a look.
Passing by a small village, Ye Fan stopped. He walked around in front of a fish pond, then said: “This is a very suitable place for you to spend your retirement.”
The color immediately drained from Jiang Huai’an’s face. He had spotted a latrine pit near the fish pond, and Ye Fan’s earlier words came flooding back to him — he felt an urge to die right then and there.
Ye Fan tossed him like a spear — splash — sending him into the pond in a great burst of water, with a stench that could overwhelm the senses.
“Urgh…” Jiang Huai’an nearly retched up his bile, so nauseated he almost fainted. He screamed aloud: “You people… you can’t do this!”
Ye Fan thought about it and said: “Your Sea of Wheels has been destroyed, but your Divine Palace remains. You can live at least one or two hundred years. Tell you what — I don’t want you to die. I’ll just suppress you here for a hundred years.”
“No, please — help! Someone help me!” Jiang Huai’an screamed, wishing he could slap himself for bringing this upon himself — what had he been thinking, provoking these people? What kind of outrageous idea was this?
Ye Fan paid him no heed. Ten fingers shot out beams of light, sealing him at the very bottom of the latrine pit. Then he chiseled out a stone stele and pressed it down on top.
“Finally got some satisfaction out of this. When we were at the Jiang Clan, those wretched people were truly insufferable — this is exactly what they deserve!” Li Heishui burst out in great laughter.
“We should have caught Jiang Yichen — that little wretch is the most infuriating of all. If we don’t suppress him, we’re letting ourselves down.” Liu Kou’s resentment was still not spent.
In the days that followed, the ripples did not die down — they swelled and intensified. So many had died: powerful loose cultivators, experts from the holy lands — it had become the subject on every tongue.
“Did you hear? The Holy Son of the Purple Mansion is dead — Ye Fan cut him down personally with a single sword stroke.”
“What? That can’t be possible — too astounding to believe!”
“Absolute truth — though no one will openly confirm it. Among those who went to ambush Ye Fan that night was this holy son. Unfortunately, he was killed as a nameless nobody.”
“Heavens — what a shocking piece of news. Will the Purple Mansion Holy Land let this go? Their future master has been wiped out just like that!”
“The Holy Son of the Purple Mansion disguised himself and went to ambush the Sacred Physique — only to get himself killed in the process. Who can he blame? Even as a powerful holy land, there is simply no way to openly retaliate.”
In recent years, this was the first time a holy son had died in the Eastern Wilderness. Naturally it stirred a wave of enormous commotion — discussed on every street and in every lane.
People understood that the great age when many kings rose together had arrived, and there would inevitably be great wars spanning the heavens. Holy son-level figures falling — that was now unavoidable. The only question was who would stand supreme in the end, looking down upon all of the same generation.
“The Sacred Physique is so formidable — he cut down a holy son from the Central Region and now another from the Eastern Wilderness, breaking precedents one after another and proving invincible to all.”
“Using a world-shaking killing formation to slaughter so many powerful cultivators, and then personally cutting down a holy son as though he were a nameless nobody — that was absolutely deliberate.”
People talked endlessly, with everyone digging for the inside story.
And indeed, not long after, yet another astounding piece of news spread: the Holy Son Wanchu had also died!
“Two great holy sons dead in a single night?!”
People were struck dumbfounded. One Holy Son of the Purple Mansion had not been the end of it — there was also the Holy Son Wanchu, leaving countless cultivators staring blankly in disbelief.
“The sky has truly been torn open — two great holy sons, both dead! The age of wars spanning the heavens has arrived!”
The Eastern Wilderness shook!
The blood-drenched night battle had surpassed what people had imagined. No one, no matter what, had anticipated that Ye Fan would kill two holy sons in a single sweep.
“This is the great enemy of all holy sons…”
“The Sacred Physique has risen from behind and surpassed the rest — he doesn’t seem to have self-severed after all. Was the divine physician Wang lying?”
Many people were talking it over.
Half a month later, Liu Kou came flying back in high spirits, laughing heartily: “I put some of my connections to work, and they’ve truly borne fruit.”
Liu Kou brought news that Jiang Yichen was coming out — he would be attending the Yaochi Grand Assembly. It was the perfect opportunity to catch him.
“Can we be certain?” Wu Zhongtian asked.
“It was word sent by Sun Kun — it shouldn’t be wrong.”
Sun Kun was the grandson of the tenth great outlaw Sun Tianyun, also a descendant of great outlaws, and had a very deep friendship with them.
Without a word of debate, the group of them traversed the void and set off for the Yaochi Holy Land — though not to truly enter, but to lie in wait outside.
The Yaochi sacred land was filled with the fragrance of flowers and the singing of birds, its scenery as beautiful as a poem. Viewed from a distance, it seemed as though one had arrived at an immortal realm.
“This little fellow really is here!”
After waiting several days, Ye Fan and the others caught sight of Jiang Yichen, walking together with a middle-aged man in purple robes. The purple-robed man carried himself with an air of authority and power — a tiger’s tread, a dragon’s step, like the Heavenly Emperor descended upon the mortal world, truly extraordinary. This was the Jiang Clan’s immensely powerful Thirteenth Patriarch.
“This legendary old Thirteenth — we can’t afford to provoke him…” The Great Black Dog muttered.
Not only was this person’s cultivation immense and boundless, he also had mastered a fragment of Hengyu Great Emperor’s formation patterns. If he truly locked onto them, the entire group would almost certainly be in grave danger.
“Are you sure the spatial trap you laid will work? We’re pulling teeth from a tiger’s mouth here!” Li Heishui said.
“This is a secret art from before the Desolate Ancient era. I refuse to believe he would be so vigilant that he guards Jiang Yichen with every single step.” The Great Black Dog said.
This Thirteenth Patriarch was supremely domineering — extraordinarily self-confident. He would certainly never imagine that anyone would dare to snatch someone right from under his eyes. This conclusion had been reached after carefully studying his temperament — they had truly done their homework.
“Alright — he’s entered that zone. Black Emperor, make your move!” Ye Fan urged.
The Great Black Dog activated the formation patterns. The space in the distance grew blurred. Jiang Yichen stumbled and fell straight into it, letting out a startled cry.
“Hmph!”
The Thirteenth Patriarch gave a cold grunt, reaching forward with his hand to snatch. But the blurred space flashed, and a stretch of black holes appeared. Within it, Jiang Yichen’s figure passed through continuously.
“Consecutive spatial traps…” The Thirteenth Patriarch was startled. He rapidly began carving formation patterns in the void, seeking to lock down this stretch of space with the most profound innate patterns.
“Too late. Aside from fearing your cultivation, this emperor’s mastery of Dao patterns is far and away superior to yours!” The Great Black Dog bared its teeth in secret satisfaction.
Boom!
All the black holes vanished. The void was undisturbed, restored to calm — as though nothing at all had happened.
“Let’s go as well!” Ye Fan and the others traversed the void swiftly and vanished in the blink of an eye.
The Thirteenth Patriarch reacted with great speed. The instant Jiang Yichen disappeared, he immediately locked onto Ye Fan’s group’s position and let out a long shout — arriving in the blink of an eye.
Yet when he arrived, everything had already returned to calm. He had not even seen who the enemy was.
“Good, good, good — you dare to steal someone from right under my hands. Truly a bold spirit indeed!” He stood in place for a long while, silently working through deductions.
A hundred and thirty thousand li away, the Great Black Dog let out a long howl and emerged in a stretch of desert: “Try to deduce my methods if you like — be my guest.”
“You people…”
On a sacrificial altar ahead, the figure of Jiang Yichen manifested from within the spatial trap, pulled to this place and now pinned atop the blood-colored platform.
“Dear nephew — we meet again.” Jiang Huairen walked over with unmistakably ill intent.
“So, boy — we’ve truly missed you.” Li Heishui cracked his knuckles ceaselessly, chuckling softly.
Jiang Yichen was regretting his decision with every fiber of his being. Why had he gone to Yaochi? Now that he’d been cornered by these people, there was nothing worse that could have happened. He genuinely wanted to dash his head against a wall.
“Dear nephew, why won’t you speak when you see your little uncle?” Jiang Huairen asked with a smile.
“Didn’t you want to destroy us? Back at the Jiang Clan you had such prestige and power, throwing your weight around — well, go right ahead then.” Li Heishui laughed heartily.
“This little runt is nothing special — not even worth keeping as this emperor’s human pet. I’d rather pick myself a peerless saintess at the Yaochi Grand Assembly.” The Black Emperor stood nearby, sizing him up with disdain.