“Wanting to obtain the divine techniques recorded in the Void Scripture — stop dreaming!”

The Ji Family members’ expressions were ugly. This person was Ye Fan — he had swindled ten thousand catties of ore-essence from them, and now he had the nerve to set his sights on the Void Ancient Scripture’s techniques.

“Why be so possessive? I also have ancient scriptures here. Why don’t we sit down and discuss our scriptures together?” Ye Fan smiled.

“There are only a handful of ancient scriptures in all the Eastern Wastelands. Our Ji Family possesses one of them exclusively. What scripture do you have to discuss?” One of them spoke — trying to stall and buy time to wait for reinforcements.

“I have the Scripture of the Dao, and the Western Emperor Scripture — which one do you find interesting?” Ye Fan saw through their plan, but was entirely unconcerned, and asked casually.

“What?! You also have an ancient scripture — not only the Scripture of the Dao, but also Yao Chi’s Western Emperor Scripture? How did you come to possess them?”

The Ji Family members were astonished. They believed that in these circumstances, Ye Fan had no reason to lie. They were sealed here; everything was within his control.

“So then… discussing scriptures with me won’t be a loss for you, would it? Shall we?” Ye Fan’s smile grew deeper.

“Recite a passage of scripture for us to hear first.” The Ji Family members made this demand.

“How could that be acceptable? Better that we recite together. How does that sound?” Ye Fan spoke in an amiable, consultative tone.

The tense atmosphere eased somewhat. The Ji Family members relaxed and stalled with Ye Fan, buying time.

Ye Fan wore an expression of total harmlessness, earnestly discussing matters with them — and then suddenly, from his brow, a beam of golden light shot out, plunging directly into one person’s skull.

He was not attempting a lethal strike. He was trying to move with sudden, unexpected force and use his divine sense to seize the scripture imprints from their minds.

He was afraid that under normal circumstances he would fail. Not long ago, in the Cloud Peak Mountain Range, he had attempted to strip the memory imprint from a Ji Family disciple’s sea of consciousness — only to have the opponent’s divine sense suddenly shatter.

Splat!

That Ji Family disciple’s skull exploded in an instant. Ye Fan’s divine sense fled in wretched disarray, retreating back into his own brow.

Boom!

A devastating aura spread outward. A terrifying mental force, like a flood bursting free, swept toward Ye Fan. He let out a light shout, and the Myriad Things Mother Qi descended — hanging before him like a barrier.

Clang!

A tremendous sound rang out. An ancient, weathered great cauldron blocked the terrifying killing intent, dispersing the mental force and dissolving it into the void.

Once again, failure. The same outcome as the last time. The seal in the opponent’s sea of consciousness was activated the moment one attempted to steal from it.

“You…” The remaining four Ji Family members’ expressions changed drastically.

“It has come to this — there is nothing more to be said. If you want to survive, hand over the Void Ancient Scripture’s techniques. Otherwise there is only one word — death.” Ye Fan said coolly. He didn’t harbor much hope. The divine sense approach had failed; expecting these people to speak up willingly was an enormous challenge.

“Attack!”

Two of the Ji Family members had not yet lost their fighting capacity. They had no intention of sitting still waiting to die. Each of them brought out seven or eight weapons — all brilliant as stars.

They were going all out, prepared to sacrifice their weapons, intent on dealing Ye Fan a critical wound. Every single weapon was nearly burning — blazing brilliantly and magnificently.

Clang!

The cauldron forged from Myriad Things Mother Qi shuddered lightly. The weapons, moments from shattering, were all drawn inside it. Blinding radiance poured from within, energy surging.

Every weapon burned, cracked, and shattered — yet not a single one could harm Ye Fan in the slightest. In the end the interior of the cauldron fell quiet, leaving behind only a heap of scrap metal.

Ye Fan moved with lightning speed, knocking these two people flat on the ground, stripping them of their fighting ability.

“I don’t wish to say much. Whoever tells me about the Innate Supreme Void Gang Qi — I will spare them. Otherwise, death is the only outcome.”

At first all four remained silent, their resolve iron-hard, refusing to yield. This caused Ye Fan to furrow his brow. Forced seizure caused the opponent’s sea of consciousness to shatter. There was nothing to be done.

“I am giving you a chance…”

In the end, Ye Fan allowed them to restore their combat power, and took them on one by one, covertly using the Battle Saint Art to mimic the Innate Supreme Void Gang Qi.

As time went on, he finally came to understand: this was a secret art of blending innate primal qi with the void. He did not know the operational method — but he grasped the intent behind it.

When Ye Fan drove out this divine art using the Battle Saint Art, Ji Yunteng, Ji Yunsheng, and the other two nearly had their eyes pop out of their heads.

Ye Fan gave a light shout, opened his mouth, and expelled a beam of divine radiance — like a surging tidal wave sweeping across the ten directions, its power immense!

“You… how do you know this divine art?!”

“Let us compare and see which of us is weaker.”

Ye Fan drove it forth using the Battle Saint Art and dueled with them — not the true Innate Supreme Void Gang Qi, but its power was not inferior in the slightest.

This was the Battle Word Secret within the Nine Secrets — it could transform into any attacking and killing divine art, with infinite variations. Truly a supreme sacred art without equal!

As time went on, Ye Fan grew increasingly skilled. One opening of his mouth sent what seemed like an entire waterfall of the heavenly river cascading down — its might without peer. His vital energy and spirit far exceeded that of ordinary people; his innate primal qi was like a sea. This divine art was extremely well-suited to his deployment. Nothing like the people before him — for them, expelling a single breath of Innate Supreme Void Gang Qi drained nearly all their vital energy, leaving them in a near-exhausted state.

“Ha!”

Ye Fan unleashed it again. He opened his mouth — and what emerged was a great scroll, its surface alive with flickering Dao patterns, like an ancient seal scroll from heaven’s beginning. With one move it suppressed all four of them.

“How is this possible?!” Ji Yunteng and the others looked on with expressions of utter disbelief.

Ye Fan’s command of the Innate Supreme Void Gang Qi surpassed all of theirs combined — as though he had been deeply versed in this art for years. They could not fathom it.

“My thanks to all of you for giving me yet another attack and killing art!” Ye Fan had been refining and evolving it for a long time. Finally he stopped. This was not the Ji Family’s technique — it was driven forth using the Battle Word Secret from within the Nine Secrets.

Half a shichen later, Ye Fan returned to Huo Yun City and spread the word far and wide that the Ji Family had broken their promise — that anyone who collected the bounty would face a mortal threat.

Shortly after, he vanished without a trace. The Ji Family scrambled frantically and managed at last to quell the storm, putting out the claim that someone had deceived them into paying ore-essence with false information.

It had to be said — a Desolate Ancient Clan was a towering monolith. In the aftermath, Huo Yun City returned to a state of “harmony,” and not many people believed what Ye Fan had said.

Ye Fan had long since understood that with the Ji Family’s reach, there was no storm they could not smooth over. Everything he had done was simply to leave them with a sense of wariness and caution — to make his next move easier.

Half a month later, Ye Fan returned to Hao Province and came to the stone stronghold.

The Black Emperor had finally recovered. It had lost a great deal of weight, and now recoiled at the sight of anything pink, its mouth corner twitching.

“Black Emperor, you ate one immortal fruit — what effect did it have? Surely you gained some tremendous benefit?” Ye Fan asked with a smile.

“Bring that up again and I’ll turn on you!” The great black dog’s expression was dark. It had never come off the losing end of anything in its life — but one fruit had laid it completely flat. Even thinking about it now still gave it the urge to foam at the mouth.

“There should be some effect. That fruit was clearly no ordinary thing.” Ye Fan rubbed his chin and muttered.

“Effect my foot. That thing has me tasting everything as bitter as yellow lotus root from now until I don’t know when. My mouth is so bitter it’s unbearable. I honestly don’t know how long before it fully fades.” The great black dog could not have been more disgruntled. It had no one to blame but itself — pure greed, snatching and eating that fruit first.

Tu Fei had lived up to expectations. He had gathered twenty-five thousand catties of ore-essence in total — glittering and radiant, all high-quality, pure ore-essence.

“So much ore-essence! This Emperor wants half!” The greedy great black dog pounced forward again, scrambling to seize it — only for Ye Fan to sweep his wide sleeve and pull it all away.

“Woof!”

“Wretched dog — don’t grab!”

“This Emperor has helped you several times, and all I ever get is misfortune. You owe me compensation.”

“Fine, no problem.” Ye Fan agreed immediately. His primary reason for returning was actually to ask the Black Emperor for help.

Afterward, Ye Fan sought out Tu Fei and discussed a plan with him.

“What?! Are you insane?! You want to expose your whereabouts and let someone go collect the hundred thousand catties of ore-essence?!” Tu Fei was stunned.

“That’s right. This is a rare opportunity — and entirely feasible.” Ye Fan nodded.

Tu Fei shook his head: “You’ve already swindled ten thousand catties of ore-essence from them. They’ll certainly be on guard. You can’t keep carving meat off a tiger.”

“The method from last time won’t work anymore — that’s true. I’ve heard that now, anyone providing information must verify it with their divine sense. So this time I intend to reveal my true self and give them information so real it cannot be questioned.”

“That’s far too dangerous.” Tu Fei objected.

“Not at all. As long as it’s well-planned, the probability of success is very high. Once those hundred thousand catties of ore-essence are in hand, I can immediately enter the Fourth Heavenly Layer of the Dao Palace!”

“You’re gambling with your life. If something goes wrong, there’s no going back!” Tu Fei was deeply opposed.

“With the Black Emperor there, I can turn danger into safety…”

“Woof!” The Black Emperor’s expression turned unfriendly: “Brat, I’ve been with you and never gotten a single scrap of benefit. It’s always been bad luck. Don’t count on me this time.”

Ye Fan smiled: “But haven’t you always wanted ore-essence? This time we’re going after a hundred thousand catties — you might want to think this through carefully.”

“A hundred thousand catties…” The Black Emperor’s drool was nearly flowing out. It wanted to refuse — but truly could not resist this temptation.

“To hell with it — I’m in! But brat, if I have bad luck again this time, just wait to be hunted down!”

Ye Fan smiled, then said to Tu Fei and the Black Emperor: “Actually, as long as we plan well, there’s no real danger in this at all.”

“Then explain it in detail.”

“Step one: you must find a suitable candidate — someone who will discover me at the right moment and report it to Yao Guang or the Ji Family, and collect those hundred thousand catties of bounty.”

This presented a considerable challenge. Because those providing information now had to verify it with divine sense, anyone with questionable intent would certainly be exposed. The suitable candidate had to be genuine — someone genuinely kept in the dark, with no knowledge of our involvement.

Tu Fei thought briefly and said: “Finding someone to betray you isn’t the problem. The challenge is making them enter the situation naturally, without leaving any traces of our arrangement. That has some difficulty.”

Ye Fan continued, smiling: “Second is building the situation. After that person reports to the Holy Land, it would be best to stir up a great commotion, making it known to every cultivator in that region — having them follow along as witnesses.”

“But then wouldn’t you be in even greater danger if you’re surrounded?”

Ye Fan chuckled: “The Black Emperor has mastered Dao patterns deeply. Crossing the void is nothing to it. I only need to show my face for a moment — then immediately cross to somewhere thousands of li away.”

Tu Fei said: “Hearing you put it like that, the feasibility is quite high. Maybe it truly could succeed.”

“Black Emperor, can you ensure absolute safety when crossing the void?” Ye Fan asked. This was the most critical step. If they couldn’t escape, death was certain.

“You’re making it sound too easy.” The Black Emperor gave him no mercy: “As a Desolate Ancient Clan, they will certainly have secret treasures that can freeze the void. We might not be able to escape.”

“Such objects actually exist?” Ye Fan was surprised.

“Holy Lands with long inheritances will certainly have forged such secret treasures.” The great black dog narrowed its eyes and thought it over, then said: “Fortunately, this Emperor is not without resources. There’s a way to handle it.”

That very day, they set out from Hao Province, heading off in pursuit of the hundred thousand catties of ore-essence.