Within this painted scroll, the mountains and rivers were vivid and alive, ancient trees grew in vast groves, silver waterfalls stretched endlessly — a treasure consecrated by the Celestial Prince to deal with the human race’s Dao Severers. Ten thousand strands of Dao energy coiled within it, the grandeur magnificent and awe-inspiring.
Ye Fan stood on a bluestone slab and looked down at the group, strands of Dao light flowing across his body, its pressure causing those before him to break into a cold sweat, every bone in their bodies misaligning.
Thud!
Unable to bear this pressure, the bones of their lower legs were nearly crushed. Every last one of them collapsed to their knees, expressions of horror written across their faces.
Who was this person before them? This aura alone had brought them to the brink of despair — this was a being that could stand as an equal to the ancient princes, and yet belonged to the human race.
“Why have we never seen you before?” The grey-haired, antlered man asked. He was a Dao Severer, the only one who had not knelt — yet his body was convulsing.
Ye Fan paced forward. Someone at the first small threshold of the Dao Severing realm posed little threat to him. He pressed forward one step, and the grey-haired man immediately coughed up a mouthful of blood. Though unwilling, he collapsed to the ground.
“As a captive, you had best have the awareness to match. I am asking you questions — and yet you turn around and question me.” Ye Fan said with cold disdain.
Without wasting words, he stretched open a palm. Rosy light erupted outward, submerging one of them. He seized that person’s divine consciousness and dragged it out.
The expressions of the others all changed. Right now they had not even a chip to bargain for their lives. This person before them could learn whatever he wished simply by reading from their sea of consciousness.
“I will tell everything!” One of them cried out in fear, truly terrified of a fate worse than death.
“You speak. I am listening.” Ye Fan said in a calm and measured tone.
“How dare you! Betray the prince, and all ten clans shall be wiped out!” The grey-haired Dao Severer barked.
Crack!
Ye Fan raised a hand and sent the man flying with a single slap. Blood splattered across the ground, and the man slammed into a mountain body in the distance, leaving behind a human-shaped bloodstain.
The expressions of everyone else changed completely. An initial-stage Dao Severer was so utterly helpless — like a clay chicken or a clay dog before this person — filling them with a spine-chilling dread.
Immediately, every remaining person prostrated themselves there. The scales on their bodies opened and closed — the ancient race’s sign of extreme terror.
“You are… an emperor’s child?!” One of them asked in a trembling voice.
As members of the ancient races, they feared the human race’s ancient great emperors above all else. A primordial king had once speculated that there would most likely appear in this world a child of an emperor — someone capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the ancient princes.
The corner of Ye Fan’s mouth curved into a cold smile. He revealed his true appearance — and those present were immediately stunned speechless, then could not help but cry out.
“Human race Holy Body!”
“You actually came back!”
After that, their courage failed them completely. Without reservation, they told everything. How could anyone dare to provoke a person who could cross the celestial void?
In this world, death was not the most terrifying thing. They feared that Ye Fan would render them unable to even seek death, subjecting their primordial spirits to the most extreme methods of torment.
“You are saying that the Celestial Prince spent a full year refining those blood samples?” Ye Fan was astonished.
“Yes — the prince let it slip in a private moment, and I happened to hear it.” One of them trembled.
A person’s reputation precedes them as a tree grows by its name. Back in the day, Ye Fan had cut down the primordial ancient one. He had killed ancient race powerhouses like reaping wheat. Blood had flowed from the flat summit of the Heavenly Severed Mountain Range all the way down to the foot — that battle had made ghosts wail and spirits cry, leaving the sun and moon without radiance.
Nowadays, when speaking of the human race’s arch-enemies, many among the ancient races could not help but see his silhouette rise in their minds — like a stone monument pressing upon their chests.
“Over the course of this past year, the Celestial Prince once traveled to Blood Phoenix Mountain and paid a visit to the Fire Qilin Cave, borrowing several ancient imperial weapons and cultivating in seclusion for a period of time.”
Another ancient race member said this, shaking all over, daring to conceal nothing under Ye Fan’s Pressure Aura. They recounted every suspicious detail they knew.
Ye Fan mulled it over. This Celestial Prince truly harbored no small ambitions. Using the ancient imperial weapons for cultivation was a pretext — most likely he had been refining those divine blood samples all along. Had he used the imperial weapons to imprint some kind of legacy mark?
“The prince once instructed us to keep watch on every cultivator entering and leaving the Jade Pool, and to record all those with exceptionally powerful bloodline energy during this period, so as not to ruin his great scheme.”
Several powerful figures — such as the Feathered King and the Twin Kings of the Central State — had been kept occupied by those the Celestial Prince had dispatched, so that they could not break free during this stretch of time. Other king-level bloodlines posed no concern and could not disrupt his plans.
Another person added that they had once been acquainted with a handmaid who had served the Celestial Prince. She had once mentioned that the divine child would recite scriptures each time he entered seclusion, as though he were imprinting the divine scripture’s texts into something.
After listening to everything they said, Ye Fan remained silent for a long while. The light in his eyes flickered as he contemplated for an extended time.
“What exactly is he trying to do — do you truly not know?”
“We do not know. Only once did we overhear a half-saint mention something — something about entering the immortal realm together, and something about a ‘Dao companion.'” One of them said, trembling with fear, knowing full well that before this great enemy who had returned, there would certainly be a storm of blood and carnage ahead.
“Yes — a half-saint mentioned it in passing: when the path to immortality opens in the future, there will be great gains, and the divine embryo will aid the Celestial Prince.”
Upon hearing this, Ye Fan’s heart shook. A pure stream of vital energy surged from the top of his head, condensing into another form of himself. He took one step and exited this painting — and did not go in the direction of the Jade Pool’s pure land.
This was truly a terrifying matter! The only thing he could do was inform the Jade Pool of what he knew, leaving the decision and preparation to them. He was confident that the sect’s possession of the Western Emperor Pagoda would exert an immense deterrent force.
Ye Fan could not leave those captives alive. They too had already made peace with death, asking only for a swift end. In the end, every one of them had their blood splattered within seven steps.
That Dao Severer had been steadfastly defiant throughout, refusing to cooperate. When he attempted to take his own life at the last, he found he utterly could not.
Ye Fan pointed a finger, and the immortal platform at the man’s brow burst into flame.
“Ah — you cannot do this!” He cried out in agony.
Ye Fan carefully observed, and from within the immortal platform he obtained a critical piece of information that made his entire body shudder: five years ago, the Celestial Prince had entered the Primordial Ancient Mine!
“Did he succeed?” Ye Fan seized the man by the collar and demanded loudly.
“I… do not know!” The man was defiant and unyielding.
Ye Fan had no choice but to search his chaotic sea of consciousness himself, sifting through it carefully to find the truth. The Celestial Prince had gone bearing his father’s “Divine Mandate Token” — and had been gone for several days. Whether he had successfully entered the Primordial Ancient Mine, no one could be certain. But at any rate, he had returned alive in the end.
This gave Ye Fan a massive headache. The Primordial Ancient Mine was absolutely one of the most terrifying places in the world!
What lay within, no one yet knew.
The Monkey had once said that its father had entered — but had never spoken a single word of it. Even his uncle, the Fighting God of Conquering Battles on Mount Sumeru, knew nothing.
An hour later, Ye Fan appeared in the Divine City — returning to an old haunt, with a measure of feeling. In the past, when he had been a minor cultivator, he had stirred boundless storms here — the great stone gambling battle, breaking the curse — all had their roots in this very place.
Boom!
At that very moment, all people in the Divine City were startled. Everyone felt a vast and surging blood aura, as though a demonic mountain had flown in from the distance and come crashing down.
“What is happening — could a half-saint be in great battle?” Many people flew up into the high sky and all looked in one direction.
“Ah — that is the mysterious powerhouse who appeared at the Fire Spirit Gorge!” Many people cried out in shock.
This entire stretch of the region immediately fell into chaos. Countless cultivators and many stone gambling participants flew up into the sky, all gazing toward a stretch of ancient palace halls.
A cultivator holding a black spear shaft, in one thrust, sent an imposing celestial palace soaring into the air and shattered it in midair — it was Ye Fan. He had not come here for anything else. He had come to kill. Within this place was one of the Celestial Prince’s strongholds — his foothold within the Divine City.
“It really is him! During the battle at the Fire Spirit Gorge that shook the world — it was this man, wielding a black divine spear, who killed in every direction. Even the many powerhouses of the ancient races had to bow their heads!” Many people had witnessed him make his move, and recognized him at a single glance. They were not Celestial Masters of Origins and could naturally not see through his true form.
“Celestial Prince — hear me. I have come to kill you!”
Ye Fan’s voice cut through the long sky, reverberating like thunder over the Divine City, causing many ancient structures to tremble. Many people covered their ears, swaying on the verge of falling.
Not a single person in this entire stretch was not shaken. Who was the Celestial Prince? For so many years he had reigned over the Eastern Wastelands, looking down on all under heaven, encountering no match — with only one Monkey as exception. Who would dare oppose him?
Yet now, a single person declared his intent to kill the prince. This was undeniably earth-shaking. This entire stretch of the region immediately exploded like a detonation — voices swelled like a tide, a pandemonium of commotion!
In that moment, one could not know how many pairs of eyes looked over, all fixed upon those palace halls, watching that towering and heroic silhouette.
Ye Fan held the spear in one hand, entering these palace halls alone. A single thrust of the spear sent all twenty-eight enormous palaces ahead flying into the sky, then exploding and disintegrating into powder.
Everyone drew sharp, cold breaths. These palace halls were inscribed with ancient arrays, with lethal formations running in every direction. Even ordinary Dao Severers who ventured within would have their blood splattered — yet now they were more fragile than papier-mâché.
Not even the arrays personally carved by the Celestial Prince were of any use — a single spear thrust reduced them all to ashes!
“Who are you, to dare come here causing havoc?!” From within the final palace hall, over a dozen figures burst out — one after another their fury boiled over, scales and antlers bristling, each face fierce and savage.
Ye Fan’s brow furrowed. The Celestial Prince was not here — though this was not surprising. The so-called divine child, though incomparably powerful, was also very cautious, and rarely showed himself in the Divine City.
“Last time I killed a strand of your prince’s primordial spirit. He proclaimed he would wipe out my ten clans. Now I have come — to kill his true body!” Ye Fan said in a cold voice.
Whoosh!
The entire Divine City erupted at this. Everyone’s blood surged faster, every person clenching their fists tight — this host was simply too audaciously domineering!
All were overwhelmed with shock. Killing a strand of the Celestial Prince’s primordial spirit was not enough — now he had come to hunt the true body down, to wipe it out entirely.
The first person in fourteen years to dare do this!
Over all these years, apart from the Holy Prince of the ancient races, this was the one and only person of the human race bold enough to be this domineering — openly challenging the Celestial Prince to battle and death!
“You speak with brazen arrogance! Coming here to cause trouble — leave behind your worthless life!” The Celestial Prince’s subordinates erupted on the spot, standing before the final great palace hall, all eyes blazing with fury, killing intent flooding the entire city.
Pff!
Ye Fan was simple and direct. The black spear in his hand flashed with cold light, thrusting forward with extreme swiftness, piercing through one of them. With a loud crack the man shattered, collapsing into a mass of bloody pulp, blood mist billowing upward.
The crowd was overwhelmed with shock, erupting in cries of disbelief. For so many years, who had dared do anything like this! Even when the Celestial Prince’s servants went abroad, the rulers of all factions were wary and dared not provoke them, for they all held themselves high above.
Yet now, this man came alone with a spear, killing in public — decisive and cold-blooded — and the blood of all who witnessed it surged in unison.
“If the Celestial Prince does not come out, today I will fight my way across the entire world, ripping out every one of his strongholds, killing them all clean!” Ye Fan said coldly. The black spear in his hand tilted obliquely toward the southern sky.
“You dare?!” Before the great palace hall, the most powerful Dao Severer among them bared his teeth with a savage expression, raising a finger to point at him. “Today I will take your worthless life!”
Hum!
The void trembled and utterly distorted. The black spear in Ye Fan’s hand left his grip, tracing a dark arc. With a pff, it pierced through that person, sending a great spray of blood flying. It carried the man’s body with it, and with a clang, pinned him into the plaque above the palace hall’s entrance — nailing him alive to that spot.
“What is there I dare not do? Today I will kill my way down this entire path, wiping out every last one of his strongholds. Let us see what he can possibly do to me!” Ye Fan said coldly.
Strands of blood dripped down from that plaque. The Dao Severer pinned there was soaked in blood, the black spear having pierced through the center of his brow. He was pinned there, unable to move a single inch!