Ancient scripture — words that could move any cultivator’s heart, carrying almost a bewitching power.
Ye Fan was naturally startled. He could not help but glance back. This woman was serious — to offer an ancient scripture was no small matter.
“I will not go back on my word. Take me with you, and I will repay you handsomely.” Princess Yudie’s beauty could put the moon to shame and make flowers bow their heads in shyness — her every expression, her every faint smile, stirred the heart.
Behind them, Chunqiu City had fallen. The ancient walls crashed thunderously down. The battlefield had been left with more than ten thousand corpses — broken blades and snapped arrows, blood soaking the earth — and now many cultivators were rushing in pursuit.
Boom!
Great elders were locked in a battle of life and death, cracking the sky apart. Heart-trembling waves of energy rolled toward them from a distance as two supreme figures each devoured mountains and rivers with their aura.
Ye Fan had no other choice but to flee. He could not break the Lightning Talisman quickly, and his only option was to put as much distance as possible between himself and the battlefield.
Slash!
He became a streak of lightning — tens of miles in an instant. In the blink of an eye, the pursuers were left without a trace. This was the Movement Rune: once activated, it commanded the ultimate speed under heaven.
Princess Yudie’s beautiful eyes shimmered with astonishment. She knew she had a chance of escaping now. The evasion technique this man commanded was almost peerless under heaven — it moved her greatly.
The Lightning Talisman was a divine talisman from before the Desolate Antiquity era, and it was extraordinarily difficult to refine. By now, the art of making it had nearly been lost to time.
It did not grant the ability to fly of its own accord — rather, it synchronized with another person. However fast the locked-on individual moved, the one carrying the talisman would match that speed. It was a secret treasure from before the Desolate Antiquity era, most perfectly suited for pursuit and capture.
Ye Fan possessed the Movement Rune, which contained supreme, mysterious, and unfathomable principles. He attempted several times to sever the faint thread connecting himself to the Lightning Talisman — but each attempt failed.
He could feel, however, that a solution was possible. It was only a matter of time. The Movement Rune was without equal; even if Princess Yudie had a divine talisman, she could not maintain perfect synchronization with him indefinitely.
Hum!
Ahead, clouds and fog churned. Dense, ink-dark lead clouds hung heavy and strange. The void ahead was like a quagmire — a surge of divine power driven into it would be swallowed up almost instantly.
“Careful — this area is packed with array formations!” Princess Yudie’s expression changed. The great formation had cut off the path ahead. Escape would be very difficult.
“Trying to leave? It won’t be so easy. Stay here — all of you!” A cold, grim voice carried through the fog.
“This is the Chiyang Nation’s ancient formation — a hundred miles really have been sealed all around. Getting out will be very hard.” Princess Yudie frowned, her fine brows furrowing.
“Most likely a remnant formation?” Ye Fan asked. He had not mastered the various types of array formations — but having spent so long together with the Black Emperor, it had rubbed off on him. He had developed a certain eye for them.
“That’s right — this is a fragment of what’s known as the legendary Void Heaven Ancient Formation. It’s deeply profound. Ordinary people have no way of forcing their way through.” Princess Yudie explained.
Behind them, shouts and the thunder of hooves — a thousand savage beast cavalry charged forward, clad in divine iron armor, cold light flickering off every surface. They trampled through the sky, sending a rolling, rumbling sound spreading in all directions.
“They’ve caught up with us.” Princess Yudie’s expression changed. Several of them were half-step great elders, closing in with terrifying speed, like streaks of lightning.
Slash!
Ye Fan wasted no time. He dissolved into a wisp of smoke and plunged into the ancient formation. Princess Yudie was filled with astonishment — but the Lightning Talisman kept her moving in perfect sync, and she followed right behind him.
“Enter this formation and you sink into a quagmire. Wait there to be trapped and slowly killed!” The guardian watching over the formation called out from the shadows, his voice eerie and cold.
Yet, to everyone’s shock, Ye Fan moved through completely unaffected — streaking like lightning, passing through the fog as though it were empty space with no one to bar his way.
“Impossible!” The person hidden in the shadows was stunned. Even the matchless beauty Princess Yudie’s own beautiful eyes rippled with astonished light.
“How are you doing this?!” The formation guardian activated every last array line — and still it had no effect whatsoever.
For the first time, Ye Fan tested using the Movement Rune to walk a treacherous path. He moved unimpeded — and the ease of it filled his heart with profound joy.
The Movement Rune — trained to its ultimate degree, it could leap to the nine heavens above or plunge to the nine depths below. Every place under heaven could be reached. No innate formation could trap it; no supreme divine art could block it. Nothing could stand in the way.
And at the absolute zenith of its refinement, it would evolve into something beyond — the transformation of time itself. Tragically, throughout all of history, only a single ancient sage who had obtained an immortality divine medicine and lived through two lives had ever probed as far as its outermost boundary.
Today, Ye Fan boldly took a first step, using it to pass through a remnant formation — and already he had glimpsed something wondrous. Though he had only comprehended a fraction, even that fraction had produced astonishing results.
“No wonder the Ancient Heavenly Court was so formidable, so impossible for anyone to stand against — able to walk across every place in the mortal world, overlooking all under heaven. That was not an exaggeration at all!”
Ye Fan’s heart surged with excitement. If he brought the Movement Rune to its ultimate point, what place under heaven could deny him entry? He would move across it all as though on level ground — endless formations laid to seal his path, and none of them would hold.
Through the fog, a figure in green cut through — a sixth-transformation Dragon Metamorphosis powerhouse. He called forth a flying sword, which streaked forward like a rainbow aimed straight at Ye Fan’s neck.
Ye Fan did not dodge or retreat. Holding nothing back, he triggered the Myriad Rune, raising a golden fist and driving it straight at the sword.
Pfft!
The divine iron flying sword crumbled like rotting wood — shattered in an instant into fine powder, its energy scattering and dispersing as it fell from the sky.
“Ahh…”
The sixth-transformation powerhouse let out a shriek. Ye Fan’s palm split him in two. He passed right through the man without a hint of resistance — a single strike, and he was through.
A great sheet of blood rain fell. Princess Yudie quickly summoned a divine light to shield herself, or she would have been drenched entirely — and then she surged forward through the gap.
“Killed in one blow!” She was inwardly shaken. This was a sixth-transformation Dragon Metamorphosis powerhouse. How many people of the younger generation could kill someone like that in an instant?
This man was clearly not old, and yet he had strength this terrifying. It left her deeply shaken. Why had he not gone to the Extraordinary Masters’ Hall? Could it be that, like her, he had been away on matters and missed the opportunity?
Before long, they had burst out of the remnant Void Heaven Formation into the open again — but from behind came a devastating wave of power, and a supreme great elder had appeared.
“This is bad — the Chiyang Nation’s great elder is pursuing us. We have to move fast — head south!” Princess Yudie was urgent.
At this point all Ye Fan could do was flee as well. First he had to shake the pursuing forces — otherwise he would be dragged into this mess. But the terrifying aura from behind was closing in fast.
“That’s not right — how is he moving so fast? Is he actually catching up to me?!” Ye Fan was stunned.
Princess Yudie’s flawless complexion went pale as snow. “He is burning his divine power — sparing nothing to give chase. He wants to capture me.”
“Then let him try!” Ye Fan accelerated again. The Movement Rune surged into motion. He was like a banished immortal, purple robes whipping and snapping in the wind, moving at a speed that made the eyes blur.
From far away, the great elder roared in fury. He ignited his core essence energy, burning it without restraint — like an enormous blazing furnace — turning half the sky blazing red as he charged forward in a torrent of endless radiance.
Dong!
He called forth a great bell, driving it through the void as it came crashing at them. Sound waves swept out like blades. The mountains below were split and toppled across a swath of land — nearly engulfing Ye Fan and Princess Yudie within their reach.
“This person is genuinely terrifying!” Ye Fan’s expression changed. He pushed harder, finally managing to dodge the sound waves of the bell.
“This is one of the Chiyang Nation’s supreme great elders — his divine power knows no bounds and few can stand against him!” Princess Yudie’s face was pale, her heart still hammering.
“Roar…” The supreme great elder of the Chiyang Nation refused to give up the chase. He bellowed, and an entire mountain range below collapsed, clouds of smoke and dust billowing sky-high.
“Whatever is on you — why is he burning his core energy without regard for the cost?” Ye Fan felt a chill. A great elder was going all out, unleashing forbidden arts one after another to push his speed to its mad limit.
“The Chiyang Nation has invaded my Anping Nation. Naturally he wants to capture me to use as leverage against my father, the Emperor.” Princess Yudie answered.
Boom!
Behind them, crimson blood surged toward the sky. An endless tide of bloody energy surged like a sea, filling all of heaven and earth. The great elder’s speed surged up yet another level.
“He is burning his essence blood — is he out of his mind?!” Ye Fan sensed the danger.
Whoosh!
He pushed the Movement Rune to its absolute limit. In the blink of an eye — tens of miles. In a single instant, he left that supreme great elder far behind.
Princess Yudie’s beautiful eyes went wide with shock. She could barely believe what she was seeing. This person before her was so young — and yet he possessed speed like this.
“Roar…”
Behind them, mountain range after mountain range crumbled. The supreme great elder rode his bell through the sky, his entire body burning. He appeared again — and no one could say what forbidden art he had invoked.
“Is he mad?” Ye Fan’s heart lurched with shock. Then a cold smile spread across his face. “I have forbidden arts too. This is truly farewell.”
He had no desire to keep playing a speed game with this lunatic. If something unexpected happened, it would be dangerous. The Myriad Rune triggered — and in an instant, his speed multiplied tenfold.
Whoosh!
He became a streak of light — and in the blink of an eye, he was gone. No trajectory could be tracked, no trail could be followed.
Behind him, the supreme great elder stood there slack-jawed, completely drained of spirit. He deflated all at once — the crimson energy wreathing his body dimmed and went dark. He stopped. Then he tilted back his head and howled with fury: “This defies all reason!”
Two thousand miles away, Ye Fan finally came to a halt. By now he had severed the connection between himself and the Lightning Talisman — which left Princess Yudie deeply astonished, her lips parting slightly, almost unable to find words.
Pfft!
Ye Fan spat blood. He drew the crimson essence back with force — not a trace of golden blood among it, only vivid red blood like any ordinary person’s, staining his lapel.
“What happened to you?”
“I forced myself to use a forbidden secret art. Not only did it consume ten years of my lifespan — it damaged my vital energy as well. I fear it may take years of seclusion to recover.” Ye Fan deflected, concealing the true cause. The speed he had just shown was too extraordinary to explain.
Princess Yudie stepped toward him. A fragrance wafted from her — cool and heart-refreshing, like orchid and musk combined. Her long skirt trailed in rippling folds. Her figure was graceful and sculpted, her bearing graceful as an immortal’s. Her brow was bright and smooth as jade; her eyes were like black gems. The bridge of her nose was fine, her teeth like white jade, her face a perfect oval — and there was something alive and luminous in her entire presence.
“I have a life-extending elixir here — please take it first.”
Ye Fan accepted it. Up close, he could see clearly that this woman was indeed a beauty beyond compare — dark hair like clouds, each strand light and fluid, her body like carved jade, a faint crystalline glow flowing beneath her skin.
“A divine medicine!” He was abruptly struck with a start. Beyond the unique fragrance of a young woman, there was another scent — a subtle, intoxicating fragrance. Faint as it was, it was entirely impossible to conceal.
Ye Fan was no stranger to immortality divine medicine. He was more sensitive to that kind of aura than almost anyone. Even sealed inside jade-quality containers, the faintest hint of fragrance would still seep through.
The sacred fruit on his person was sealed under nine layers of inscription, kept inside the Myriad Things Mother Qi Cauldron before its aura could be isolated — otherwise the faint, clean fragrance would still drift out.
“The aura is considerably weaker — but this is still almost certainly an astonishing divine object.” Ye Fan was astonished. He finally understood why that great elder had been willing to burn away his own life force in pursuit.
“Thank you for saving me, young master. May I ask your honored name?” Princess Yudie’s cherry lips parted slightly. A faint smile graced her face. Her eyes were luminous and clear — and in that instant, even the sun in the sky seemed to dim.
Ye Fan sighed inwardly. She truly lived up to the title of the third most beautiful woman in the Central Province — a single glance back, a hundred charming expressions blooming, making even the six palaces of the harem seem colorless by comparison. A matchless beauty, bone and body sculpted from jade and immortal light.
“Ye Zhetian.”
“Is that your name?” Princess Yudie was momentarily taken aback. It was truly a name that left one at a loss for words — yet very quickly a captivating smile spread across her face. “A name with great spirit to it.”