In a single moment, Ye Fan made up his mind to unleash a devastating move. Whether it was those ancient lineages or the two Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasties, he was prepared to drag them all into the chaos.

“Kid, you really have no decency — how could you even come up with something this underhanded? This is going to cause great upheaval.” The Great Black Dog snickered.

“What underhanded? This is called strategy. I’m only doing this to protect myself.” Ye Fan corrected him.

“Isn’t it the same thing? Scheming against people is scheming against people — stop making it sound so noble.” The Great Black Dog’s two copper-bell eyes spun about, gleaming with light.

“This dead dog is definitely cooking up something!” Li Heishui took one look at that expression and knew it was plotting something underhanded.

“Damn it, is this emperor really that disreputable? I was just thinking about whether I could fish out an ancient scripture.” the Great Black Dog said, baring its teeth.

“Big brother, what are you all going to do?” Xiao Nannan tilted her head and tugged at the corner of Ye Fan’s robe, her soft little face full of confusion, her large eyes entirely innocent and pure.

“Ahem…” the Great Black Dog cleared its throat. “Don’t corrupt the child.”

They had nearly forgotten about Xiao Nannan, and felt it wouldn’t do to be too blunt. Some things were still best kept away from a little girl with a pure heart, at least for now.

“We’re thinking about how to get rid of the bad people.” Ye Fan smiled and ruffled her hair.

“Oh.” Xiao Nannan fluttered her big eyes and gave a serious nod.

The Sacred Cliff was located in the northernmost part of the Central Region, already bordering the Northern Region. Though they had traversed more than a million miles, they were still within this area, because the Eastern Wasteland was simply immense.

This region was filled with endless mountain ranges, and after Ye Fan looked around carefully, his eyes lit up with interest — even the mountains of the northernmost Central Region produced source stones.

“Those are definitely source mountains. Though they’re far less abundant than those of the Northern Region, they should still yield something.”

Rather than hurrying off, Ye Fan and the others continued to cultivate while wandering through these boundless great mountains. If they could find a vein of divine source, it would be truly worthwhile.

By now, Ye Fan’s mastery of source divination was extremely high — few could match him. After half a month of moving through these vast and desolate mountains, he had indeed located a small dragon vein.

“Source has emerged — we’ve dug down to the heart of the dragon vein, and it’s… divine source!”

Several lumps of source floated in the void, their divine radiance shooting toward the sky, never sinking. They were dazzling and spectacular, illuminating the entire ancient underground mine in a brilliant glow.

Though none of the individual pieces was large — none bigger than a fist — taken together, they were worth the equivalent of six hundred thousand catties of pure source. This was already extraordinarily remarkable.

Any other cultivator would have gone wild with joy — a windfall like this was genuinely a treasure trove. But Ye Fan had seen sums exceeding tens of millions of catties of source before, so naturally he felt no excitement.

“Use this source to buy the life of one Sacred Son — do you think the Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasties will accept?” Ye Fan asked.

“Damn it, this is divine source of the rarest kind in all the world — worth six hundred thousand catties of pure source. You might as well give it all to me and I’ll go deal with a Sacred Son for you!” the Great Black Dog drooled, its heart moved at the sight of such treasure.

“This greedy dog…” Li Heishui muttered.

“Is six hundred thousand catties of source a reasonable price?” Ye Fan asked again.

“If the Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasties truly intend to make a powerful return, they’ll definitely take this job — killing a Sacred Son would establish their prestige. And who wouldn’t be tempted by that much source?” the Great Black Dog said.

Ye Fan had no intention of eliminating all the Sacred Sons at once. That would be too obvious, and the Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasties wouldn’t necessarily accept.

“Yao Guang’s Sacred Son.”

He said those four words. Among all the Sacred Sons, this figure was representative — nearly unrivaled among the younger generation of the Eastern Wasteland. If he were eliminated, the waves it caused would be enormous.

“If Yao Guang’s Sacred Son were killed by an Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasty, the winds and waves that followed would be boundless!”

“This person is extraordinarily powerful — not quite first among his peers, but close. It would presumably be very difficult to kill him, though he could certainly give the Divine Dynasty’s seeded killers a serious headache.”

Both Li Heishui and the Great Black Dog were deeply surprised, but both agreed wholeheartedly — this was undoubtedly the ideal candidate.

Yao Guang’s Sacred Son was unfathomably deep. He had never fought in a life-or-death battle with anyone, and no one knew what cards he held. Yet Ye Fan had always felt he was extraordinarily dangerous.

Two days later, Ye Fan set off alone to seek out the ancient assassin divine dynasties, traversing the void to the Central Region.

He visited several ancient locations in succession, only to find them already long since ruined — overgrown with weeds, with no way to make contact, and whatever ancient traces had existed were nearly completely worn away.

Half a month later, he drew near the Ancient City of Qingming. According to what the Black Emperor had told him, there was a very ancient village somewhere nearby that served as an important contact point.

The Ancient City of Qingming had a long history, ranking among the ten great ancient cities of the Central Region, and naturally had many legends attached to it.

Legend had it that in ancient times it had been very close to the heavens, able to breathe in the essence of the sun and moon, with numerous stars swirling all around it — a place imbued with mythological wonder.

Today, none of those extraordinary phenomena remained, but the city was extraordinarily prosperous — a brilliant jewel of the central domain and one of the most important ancient cities.

Ye Fan concealed his true appearance using the Heaven and Earth Reshaping Art, transforming himself into the image of a frail-looking scholar, and wandered through the city without any apparent purpose.

Eventually, he found an ancient map inside the city lord’s estate and studied all the surrounding towns carefully, narrowing down several possible locations.

The Black Emperor had only told him that hell had one important contact point somewhere near the Ancient City of Qingming, but it didn’t know in which direction or in which specific village.

Ye Fan set out from the city to search, eliminating nine villages one by one. He couldn’t help but furrow his brow — he hadn’t found anything resembling the supposed contact point.

In the end, he could only circle around the Ancient City of Qingming and search everywhere there had been signs of human presence.

“Most likely there will be ancient yin trees growing there…”

This was the only clue he had to go on. According to what the Black Emperor had said, hell’s people moved through the shadows like a host of dark gods, and every contact point would have ancient yin trees planted there.

Ye Fan conducted his careful search, and after consuming a full three days’ time, he finally spotted several ancient yin trees at dusk on the third day — his spirits lifting instantly.

It was a dilapidated ruin with no trace of any village remaining — desolate and abandoned, with wild grass having completely swallowed the place.

Half a broken stone stele lay on its side, while several ancient yin trees towered overhead with dense foliage, their branches wreathed in thick, murky yin mist that gave the place an eerie feeling.

“This must be that ancient village — consistent with what the Black Emperor described. Though it’s already been abandoned for who knows how many tens of thousands of years.”

Ye Fan broke apart soil and stone and pushed through the weeds, uncovering some ancient foundations below ground, their scale matching what the Black Emperor had described.

“Can contact still be made here?” His brow furrowed.

But as he completed a circuit of the ruins, his brow smoothed out — deep within the ruins stood a few more ancient yin trees, and there between them sat a stone table and two stone chairs.

“Hell’s style.”

Ye Fan strode over, and following the Black Emperor’s instructions, carved four characters into the stone table: Yao Guang’s Sacred Son.

Then he turned and left without lingering.

Three days later, Ye Fan returned to the site. The four characters were still there, unchanged — no response of any kind.

He departed again and waited patiently. The Black Emperor had said that the Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasties would give their final answer no sooner than three days and no later than nine.

Six days later, he came again — still no change. He murmured to himself: “Hell is being very cautious…”

On the ninth day, Ye Fan returned once more. At last, the surface of the table had changed — a blood-dripping divine sword lay across those four characters.

Below it, two numbers had been written: two hundred and seventy. Hell had accepted the commission.

Ye Fan’s heart jumped. The ancient divine dynasty truly dared to go after Yao Guang’s Sacred Son — utterly fearless of the sacred ground. It seemed hell had restored its ancient strength.

However, the price was truly savage. Killing Yao Guang’s Sacred Son required two hundred million catties of pure source, with seventy million catties to be paid upfront.

“This expensive…” Even Ye Fan was a little stunned. It was an absurd price — he had thought one hundred million catties would be sufficient.

But after thinking it through, Ye Fan accepted it. Killing Yao Guang’s Sacred Son had enormous implications — this person was the future master of Yao Guang, and aside from the Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasties, no other power would dare provoke an immortal lineage like this.

Ye Fan left some fist-sized lumps of divine source on the stone table. Their divine radiance was resplendent, casting the entire ruins of the ancient village in a crystalline glow — worth the equivalent of seven hundred thousand catties of source.

“The Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasties really know how to earn source…” he reflected inwardly. These cold-blooded killers were probably even wealthier than source diviners.

Ye Fan wasted no more time, turned, and left, disappearing into the wilderness. Shortly after, the lumps of divine source on the stone table vanished without a sound.

Half a month later, a startling piece of news arrived: Yao Guang’s Sacred Son, who had been out on a training expedition, had gone on a killing rampage beneath the night moon — slaying thirteen mysterious individuals in a single night.

That night, everyone in that entire region heard a roar like crashing ocean waves, as the mountain range was utterly destroyed and leveled to flat ground.

This news caused an immediate sensation. Yao Guang’s Sacred Son had gone berserk — slaying so many powerful enemies in a single night. What on earth had happened?

An investigation afterward found that the thirteen individuals had been obliterated in both body and soul, with not even a fragment of bone remaining.

That mountain range had been physically beaten into collapse by the fighting — only several dozen broken peaks remained, a scene of terrifying devastation, as though a great calamity had struck.

Everyone who witnessed this was horrified.

It required no imagination to understand what sort of great enemy Yao Guang’s Sacred Son had faced — the sheer power that had reduced even the mountains to this state, the strength of those mysterious individuals, was enough to make people tremble.

Without a doubt, those people had set up a must-kill formation. Combat power of that level was sufficient to eliminate several top-tier Sacred Sons simultaneously — yet they had still underestimated Yao Guang’s Sacred Son.

He had killed every single one of them himself, without letting a single one escape.

No one had witnessed the battle, but through scattered clues a terrifying truth had emerged: Yao Guang’s Sacred Son was even more fearsome than people had imagined. This was the first time he had ever displayed his combat power.

Ye Fan received the news, rubbed his chin, and was silent for a long while. This Yao Guang’s Sacred Son was truly unfathomably deep — this was his first time revealing his true strength.

He began to laugh. Hell’s people had made their move, yet lost thirteen powerful fighters in the process. They could not possibly let this rest — the great performance was only just beginning.

Ye Fan was now considering whether to draw the human world into this as well, perhaps commissioning another suspicious Sacred Son to be taken care of and stirring up even more chaos throughout the Eastern Wasteland.

But on that very same day, news arrived from the Northern Region that shook him to his core — and it was related to the Unparalleled Divine King.

The Northern Region, which had been silent for so long, erupted in boundless waves that day: the little princess of the Jiang Family, Jiang Tingting, had returned and come back to her clan.

It had to be remembered — she had been taken away by the Unparalleled Divine King in the past. No one knew where they had gone, and it had been completely impossible to find out even the slightest clue. Even the Jiang Family’s own members had known nothing.

After Ye Fan had picked the Imperishable Divine Fruit, he had been searching for her ever since — without a single trace.

And now, the long-vanished little Tingting had appeared, electrifying the nerves of everyone. Whether the Unparalleled Divine King was alive or dead might finally come to light.

Countless people rushed toward the Northern Region to learn the truth, and Ye Fan’s heart was stirred with excitement as well. He felt it was time to go repay a debt of gratitude.