“Did I pass?” the wild man in animal skins asked, looking rather earnest and simple.
The right hand of the great elder of the Extraordinary Masters’ Hall was still trembling. Could he possibly fail him? It had been untold years since a prodigy like this had ever been seen.
“You may enter.”
“Sure thing!” The wild man, his hair loose and disheveled, picked up his wolf-fang club and tramped through the mountain gate with heavy steps.
With each step he took, the ground gave a boom of vibration — like a colossal dragon moving across the earth, carrying boundless might that made people’s hearts flinch.
“It’s possible this really is the prodigy from the Eastern Desolation. He received the inheritance of a Source Heavenly Master, which means he can change his appearance — he could have come disguised as any face.” A voice drifted from somewhere in the crowd, floating free without a clear source, sharing this piece of hidden knowledge.
The moment the wild man stepped through the mountain gate, countless gazes locked onto him. Many people had quietly tagged him as a suspected Ye Fan — and in the days to come, this would naturally give rise to no small amount of turbulence.
Five days later, the final monstrous existence arrived. He struck and injured an elder guardian of the mountain gate, and was selected as a special exception and allowed to enter the Extraordinary Masters’ Hall.
“Two hands, one forming the Sun Seal and one forming the Moon Seal simultaneously — a single strike that made a great elder at the ninth transformation of the Dragon Metamorphosis cough up blood?!”
“Isn’t that the hand seal Ye Fan has always used? Could it be that he’s arrived?”
The last prodigy was shrouded in mystery. Few people managed to witness the battle when he entered the Extraordinary Masters’ Hall, but everyone had heard about it — and speculation about his identity was rampant.
With only a single blow, he had severely injured a great elder powerhouse at the ninth transformation of the Dragon Metamorphosis. People marveled at what kind of beyond-human existence this could possibly be.
Everyone was shaken. The Extraordinary Masters’ Hall’s selection of heroes had come to an end. No more newcomers arrived. A chapter had finally closed.
“Do you think the Eastern Desolation prodigy actually came or not? I kind of feel like that wild man could be him.”
“Hard to say. Maybe he slipped in, maybe he’s still holed up in the Eastern Desolation and never made the trip. Can’t be certain.”
“I vaguely heard that the prodigy is in serious trouble — probably fleeing the Eastern Desolation to avoid disaster. He might be right among us.”
People had not seen the Holy Body with their own eyes, yet they kept talking about him — the only person who had never shown his face and yet was brought up again and again.
Several people in particular had come under suspicion of being his true form, and in the days that followed, there would be no shortage of tests and probing — and from those, some turbulence was sure to emerge.
Over the course of that month, stunning news emerged each day, flying out across the five great domains. All the people of the world were watching, all wanting to know who could stand above every hero — who was the strongest.
One roaring month filled with commotion, and the selection had finally drawn to a close. The world was shaken — it was more than just a few prodigies who had appeared. The future would without question bring a contest of dragons and tigers.
Many people looked forward to that day coming sooner — to witness the rise of an invincible figure.
“Black Emperor, you son of a—!” Somewhere an untold number of miles away, Ye Fan cursed, staring at the sky with nothing to say.
He had been flying over a boundless great steppe for half a month and had yet to see a single person. The desolation was absolute — even birds and sparrows were almost impossible to spot.
He had been eating rabbit meat for half a month straight and now felt like retching at the sight of it. He directed a torrent of curses at the big black dog — the array formations it had carved for him were utterly absurd. Heaven only knew how large the margin of error was.
Ye Fan strongly suspected he had been transported to the Northern Plains. How else could there be a steppe this vast, stretching without end or boundary?
This dog handled things in the most outrageous way imaginable — truly impossible to rely on. This time, the array formations had managed to transport him and lose him in an unknown location, with no idea where he was.
A vein throbbing at his temple, Ye Fan finally came upon a stone stele on the steppe. Written clearly on it were the two characters for “Northern Plains.” His suspicion had proven correct.
He had planned to find Pang Bo in the Central Province. After all his calculations, he never could have anticipated that the big black dog’s array formations would leave him so utterly speechless — the margin of error was no longer in the millions of miles; it now had to be measured in the tens of millions.
Once he confirmed where he was, he stood there in a daze for a long time. Finally, he pulled out another array formation platform, preparing to cross through the void again — otherwise, if he tried to fly back, it would take at least a decade.
“This is bad — that dog rattled me so much that I grabbed the wrong array formation platform!” Ye Fan realized he had made a mistake in his haste.
He abruptly remembered that this particular platform was connected to the Western Desert. But it had already been activated, and he was already in the void. There was no stopping it.
“I didn’t want to go to the Western Desert to trace the footsteps of Shakyamuni…”
The Western Desert — the waters of Buddhism ran deep there. At his current level of power, it was not the right time to venture in. To enter prematurely would in all likelihood bring disaster.
It was worth remembering that even Shakyamuni had become a forbidden subject. Heaven only knew what kind of secrets lay within. To blunder in and start investigating rashly could easily court calamity.
His plan had been to head for the Central Province, training as he traveled while searching for Pang Bo — and once his power was sufficient, for the two of them to journey together to Mount Sumeru.
Slash!
A flash of clear light — and he flew out of the void, back into the broad world below. Ahead, battle cries shook the earth. Corpses and bones lay scattered everywhere. It was a scene of brutal devastation.
“Where is this? Have I arrived in the Western Desert? Are these Buddhist soldiers fighting?” Ye Fan was taken aback.
Before him lay an enormous battlefield. Endless savage beast cavalry was charging forward. Spear tips gleamed white as snow, piercing through enemies’ bodies, showering blood as they carried the corpses forward.
Farther out, longswords swept in slashing arcs — blades flashing like lightning. Men shouted, horses screamed. Blood flowed like rivers. Dead bodies lay everywhere. Both sides were locked in a battle to the death.
An ancient city stood tall and imposing in the distance — but its walls were already cracked and broken, stained with blood everywhere. In the sky above, powerful cultivators drove ancient treasures, attacking without pause.
The city itself still glowed with light, yet could no longer hold. The protective barrier over the city had long since cracked and fractured, and it looked as though it would be breached at any moment.
Boom!
A great cauldron descended from the sky, crushing dozens of cultivators into a pulp. Even Ye Fan was hurled backward by the shockwave, nearly caught in the blast.
“A place of Buddhist peace and quiet — how can there be killing and slaughter like this? This is an enormous battlefield!” He was at a complete loss.
Not only were ordinary soldiers fighting, but many powerful cultivators had joined the battle as well. Those commanders were of unfathomable strength, killing each other endlessly in the sky above.
“Roar…” Savage beasts bellowed, their cries splitting the field of battle.
The attacking side had received powerful reinforcements — a group of cultivators mounted on fearsome beasts, charging forward like a surging tide, crashing against the city’s protective barrier and sending it shattering and crumbling faster and faster.
Boom!
The entire battlefield shook. This was a terrifying charge — and the battle had reached its climax. Both sides were engaged in ferocious, bloody combat.
“Cultivators joining a war — what a stunning sight!”
Ye Fan was in awe. The destructive power was immense. Both sides fighting this way affected a vast area. Even though it was cultivators against cultivators and ordinary soldiers against ordinary soldiers, the scale was still extraordinarily immense.
Dong!
High in the sky, a great bell tolled. Its sound waves swept out like blades. Not only were many cultivators in the air shattered to pieces — even the ordinary soldiers on the ground fell in swaths.
Bang!
An ancient cauldron stirred, blocking the great bell. Clash after clash followed, the sky churning and boiling, cultivators falling one after another.
Mysterious light flashed. Someone sat cross-legged in the void, plucking zither strings, sweeping down at the lower-altitude cultivators. Ye Fan was within range — a dozen or so zhang of blue-green light dropped like a strip of silk.
Pfft! Pfft!…
Cultivator heads were severed. Blood poured. Body after body plummeted downward.
Pop!
Ye Fan formed a seal to block it, scattering that streak of blue-green light — which drew a moment of surprise from the ninth-transformation cultivator playing the zither. He plucked the strings again, sending hundreds of streaks of blue-green light raining down at once, like a curtain of rain.
Boom!
Suddenly, a thunderous sound came from the ancient city not far away. It had been completely breached. The barrier collapsed. A great section of the city wall crumbled.
“Charge! The city is broken — capture Princess Yudie alive!”
“Don’t let a single one escape — use the Void Heaven Formation to surround them!”
“Charge! Chunqiu City is broken — capture Princess Yudie, one of the ten great beauties of the Central Province! Fifty thousand Sources as the reward!”
…
Battle cries shook the sky. The ancient city had fallen. The morale of the attacking side soared — like wolves and tigers, they charged forward, seizing the absolute advantage.
On the other side, the defeated troops crumbled like a toppling mountain, fleeing like a tidal wave. Yet no one paid them any attention — everyone was surrounding and closing off the powerful cultivators.
The ninth-transformation powerhouse in the sky no longer bothered with Ye Fan, turning instead to charge at the city, hunting down the core figures there. The various divine treasures of the other combatants all flew toward the same targets.
“The Central Province…” Ye Fan was left open-mouthed. It wasn’t the Western Desert at all — he had arrived in the Central Province.
The vein on his temple twitched again and again. The platform meant for the Central Province had deposited him in the Northern Plains. When he grabbed the wrong platform in his panic thinking he was heading to the Western Desert, he had ended up in the Central Province instead.
“This damned dog is completely hopeless!”
And yet, wandering by accident, he had actually ended up in the Central Province — which gave him some small measure of comfort. He let out a long breath.
Once he understood where he was, Ye Fan turned and began walking away — wanting to use the chaos to slip clear of the battlefield without getting drawn into this great war.
“Charge! Princess Yudie has broken through — intercept her! She must not be allowed to escape!”
“The third most beautiful woman in the Central Province — whoever can catch her gets to enjoy her favor!” Someone cried out at the top of his lungs, triggering a wave of howling from the hot-blooded young cultivators.
“Charge! Capture Princess Yudie alive!”
The battlefield descended into frenzy. The cultivators pouring down in pursuit grew more and more spirited with each enemy they cut down — swords dripping with blood, closing in fast.
Ye Fan turned and looked. He had been caught up in a disaster not of his own making. He’d been blending into the chaos of the routed army, planning to slip away without drawing attention. He had not expected Princess Yudie and her group to break through from this very direction, with pursuing forces behind them, unleashing a torrent of divine treasures all at once.
He cursed to himself and wasted no more time. He shot straight up into the air and fled openly, no longer bothering with any pretense.
“That speed — a big fish has slipped through the net. Don’t let it escape!” Someone fixed their eyes on Ye Fan and passed out the command.
“There are even great elders in this battle…” Ye Fan’s heart lurched. He began to accelerate.
“Your Highness, run — I will hold them here!” An old man gave a great shout, leading a group back to charge at the pursuers and slow their advance.
“None of you are getting away. For a hundred miles in every direction, a great formation has been laid. Not even crossing through the void will save you!” Behind them, a great elder’s voice was ice-cold.
Large numbers of savage beasts trampled across the sky like a flooding tide, a thousand riders charging in pursuit — unstoppable, with nothing able to resist them.
Ye Fan curled his lip. He had arrived by crossing through the void himself — the so-called great formation was nothing the Black Emperor’s Dao formations couldn’t break through. It was not truly impassable.
Even so, he dared not be careless. After all, a great elder-level figure was at his back. He activated the Movement Rune and accelerated his flight.
“That’s odd!” Ye Fan’s heart lurched. Someone behind him was following like a shadow, locked onto him — and no matter how fast his Movement Rune carried him, he could not shake them.
He looked back. A young woman — dark hair flowing like clouds, bright eyes and white teeth — turned toward him with a smile that could topple cities, of a beauty so dazzling it seemed dreamlike. Her robes rippled like water as she moved, like a banished immortal gliding across the waves, following close behind him.
“A Lightning Talisman!” The thought struck Ye Fan in a flash.
Among the ancient divine talismans, there was one called the Lightning Talisman — something that only a supreme sect master could refine and activate. Once it locked onto a person, the one carrying it would match that person’s speed no matter how fast they moved.
“Save me…and I will repay you handsomely.” The young woman’s voice was like song, like lament. Her lashes were long, her beautiful eyes softly hazy, her rosy lips moist, her teeth like flawless jade.
Ye Fan groaned inwardly. This was no question a woman of matchless beauty — but she was also an enormous catastrophe. He had no desire to be drawn into this.
Yet the Lightning Divine Talisman simply could not be broken in a hurry. It was as though it were pulling her along beside him, making her move with him in perfect sync.
“Charge! Don’t let them escape! That’s Princess Yudie of the Central Province, the third most beautiful woman!”
The pursuers refused to give up. Their voices carried from far behind. At the same time, the terrifying surges of power from great elders clashing in combat sent shockwaves rolling through the air.
Two ancient great nations had gone to war — and the consequences ran deep. Ye Fan had no wish to become entangled in it. This was merely one battlefield; heaven only knew what further upheavals might follow.
“Come with me — I will give you an ancient scripture.” The third most beautiful woman of the Central Province, Princess Yudie, sent the words directly into his mind, her voice like a heavenly maiden plucking a celestial zither — melodious and enchanting.