“You actually dare come alone to kill me — what audacity!” The blue veins on Han Yishui’s forehead stood out violently. His opponent had killed all ten of his greatest disciples and still dared to return and kill him. Such decisiveness and calm composure were rare among anyone — it sent waves crashing through his heart.
“You sent out ten greatest disciples to eliminate me without delay and drove the blade toward me. Naturally I would not simply endure it. I came to kill you at your very door!” Ye Fan was enveloped in golden radiance, divine light blazing all over his body. Like a golden war god clad in divine armor, his presence was overwhelming.
“Do you honestly believe you can kill me? Do you believe you can walk out of the Lingxu Cave Paradise alive?” Han Yishui’s expression was as dark as standing water.
“Killing you is not difficult. Once the deed is done I will shake off my sleeves and leave — it will not stir up any waves.” Ye Fan was perfectly composed.
Han Yishui was furious and shaken at once. This was not merely an expression of self-confidence — it was a form of contempt directed at him. In a cold voice he said: “So young and already this frightening. If you are allowed to grow, who in the Yan territory could ever suppress you? Today I will commit an act of extermination and strangle you in the cradle.”
Ye Fan laughed lightly. “Strangle me in the cradle? Stop dreaming. I know exactly what you are planning — stalling for time, isn’t it? Too bad you won’t have the chance. You are destined not to escape death today.”
Han Yishui’s expression suddenly changed. His opponent had come alone to kill him — this decisiveness and composure gave rise to a cold dread in his heart. On the spot he decided not to fight but to retreat, charging forward in an attempt to flee.
“Han Yishui, you are a great disappointment to me…” Ye Fan transformed into a streak of golden light, arriving ahead of Han Yishui and blocking his path before he could even react.
Han Yishui had never imagined that this young man, who appeared no older than fourteen with a trace of youth still on his face, could be so terrifying — possessing a speed far exceeding his own.
“The Grand Supreme Elders will arrive at any moment — you haven’t the slightest chance.” Han Yishui’s face was suffused with killing intent, trying to create psychological pressure in the hope of finding an opening.
Ye Fan revealed the sunny smile befitting a young man of his age. “Han Yishui — first you stalled for time, then you transmitted your voice loudly. Did you really think I had not noticed?”
“And what if you did?”
“Since I dared come to kill you, how could I be so careless? After entering the valley, I imprinted quite a number of ‘Dao markings.’ From outside, this place appears perfectly tranquil with no sign of anything unusual. Your efforts were wasted.”
“You are so young — how could you possibly understand how to arrange ‘Dao markings’? I don’t believe it.” Han Yishui’s expression flickered between dark and light.
“I actually have your ruthless and malicious little brother to thank for that. Not only did he send me every last spirit herb he had spent half his life gathering, he also left me two scrolls of ancient beast-skin texts. One of them was an exposition on ‘Dao markings.’ Although I cannot penetrate their deeper meaning, imitating the patterns well enough to paint a tiger after seeing a cat is within my ability.”
“My younger brother has been missing for over three years. Was he… killed by you?” Han Yishui’s brows shot up, and two terrifying beams of light blazed from his eyes.
“He sought to refine me into medicine. Regrettably, things took an unfortunate turn for him and he ended up paying with himself. Today you and your brother will be reunited.”
“Little brat — do you think you can provoke me so easily into making a mistake? You will find no opening.”
Ye Fan’s smile faded. “Now I will send you on your way.” He threw out a fist. The void trembled, and all elemental energy within the surrounding area was completely drained. His golden fist was like a mountain, bringing with it an immense pressure that bore down on everything.
“Hiss!”
Elder Han first brought out a silver ruler, which rapidly enlarged and measured the heavens and earth. It shone with a pure white radiance, like a silver dragon surging forward, slamming down toward Ye Fan’s skull.
“Clang!”
Ye Fan’s golden fist smashed heavily into the silver ruler. A crisp “crack” sounded, silver light scattered in all directions, and the silver-lustrous ruler dimmed in an instant before shattering in mid-air with a resounding “bang.”
Han Yishui’s pupils contracted sharply. He simply could not believe what his eyes were showing him. His opponent had broken one of his powerful sacred objects bare-handed. Was this still a fist? It was comparable to a divine weapon’s blade.
Ye Fan rushed forward like a violent storm. The golden divine flames surged in like a tide, and his golden fist grew larger and larger, bringing with it a force of incomparable ferocity as it smashed down, causing the very void to shake.
Han Yishui’s expression underwent a dramatic shift. He had never expected a cultivator of this level to engage in physical combat — to directly clash bare-handed against sacred artifacts. Especially for someone so young, the impact on him was extraordinary beyond measure.
“Clang!”
Before him, a flash of blue-green light appeared. A cyan-blue shield materialized and expanded rapidly in the wind, growing four to five meters tall. It shone with the distinctive luster of metal, appearing enormously heavy and solid, shielding him behind it.
“Thud!”
The cyan-blue shield, though a sacred object, was still unable to withstand Ye Fan. His golden fist, as if possessed by some demonic quality, held strength without equal. In one blow it struck the four-to-five-meter heavy sacred shield, which instantly shattered into pieces.
The unstoppable impact and the golden energy like a roaring river sent Han Yishui tumbling backward on the spot. A trace of blood hung at the corner of his mouth. His eyes were filled with shock — this was merely the force of a fist wind. Had the blow directly connected, he dared not imagine the consequences.
Han Yishui retreated in rapid flight, divine radiance blazing from within his body. As a weapon-forger, the one thing he never lacked was weapons. Nine jet-black bone spears burst forth, fog rolling about them, black in a way that sent chills to the bone — like nine sharp claws of a demon — and surged forward all at once.
Ye Fan stood in place, swinging his golden fists. His terrifying combat power distorted the space around him as he collided again and again with the nine black bone spears, producing continuous “clang, clang, clang” sounds.
Then something truly fearsome occurred. The sky full of black mist was shattered and dispersed by those golden fists, revealing the bright and clear heavens beneath. The nine bone spears crumbled inch by inch, reduced to dust that scattered with the wind, completely pulverized.
“This…” Han Yishui stared wide-eyed, completely speechless. This was simply not the body of a normal cultivator. Such a formidably powerful physique was without equal in the entire Yan territory — in and of itself, it was a sacred artifact that surpassed any weapon.
“Bring out whatever other treasures you have. Let me see the limits of my own body.”
“You…” Han Yishui was at once furious and shaken. His opponent had not taken him seriously at all and was treating him as a testing stone. A flash of purple light appeared, and a great net materialized in his hand, surging downward rapidly. Within the net, a purple Eight Trigrams pattern flickered in and out of view.
This gave Ye Fan pause. He sensed a powerful wave of divine energy and dared not be careless. The roaring waves within his body surged, divine power rushing forth.
“Boom!”
Ye Fan swung both fists, golden divine flames burning outside his body. His divine power was as vast as the sea — far more powerful than before. His golden fists were unstoppable. The purple great net shattered in an instant, dissolving into a haze of light that vanished into the sky.
Han Yishui’s face turned pale. For him this was an enormous shock beyond all imagination — he simply could not conceive of why a person’s physical shell could be so monstrously powerful. It flew in the face of all common sense.
“Little brat, you have truly surpassed my expectations…” At this moment, a gleaming silver gourd appeared in Han Yishui’s hand, pulsing with waves of treasure-light. He removed the gourd’s stopper and said: “Perhaps it is time to end this!”
The silver gourd flew upward, rapidly enlarging until it was the size of a small mountain. Its mouth pointed downward, swirling with a hazy, misty energy. Its entire body blazed with radiant light — like a silver mountain hanging in the sky.
Ye Fan felt a powerful force pulling at him, instantly lifting both feet from the ground as he flew toward the silver gourd. It was like the eye of a whirlpool, draining all surrounding spiritual energy dry and beginning to devour everything tangible.
“This weapon has been refined by me over half a lifetime. I don’t believe your physical shell can withstand this — I will draw you inside, dissolve you into a puddle of blood and pus, and avenge my disciples!”
“Then you are welcome to try!” Ye Fan suddenly accelerated, his body like a trailing comet. In a single burst he reached the gourd’s mouth, fist intent surging skyward, radiance blazing brilliantly. His golden fist — crushing all resistance — split the gourd’s mouth apart with a succession of cracking sounds.
“Boom!”
Ye Fan’s body was crystalline and luminous like a thousand-times-forged slab of divine iron — nothing could withstand it. His golden fist erupted with a torrent of blazing divine flames, and with one blow he detonated the silver gourd.
“You… this is impossible!” Han Yishui’s face was ashen, entirely drained of blood. He could not accept the reality before his eyes.
“I have no time to waste entangling with you. Han Yishui — I am sending you on your way!”
“I am an elder of the Lingxu Cave Paradise. If you kill me, you will face endless pursuit — in the end you will not escape death.”
Ye Fan laughed lightly and mimicked his tone: “I am a mere ordinary person. You sent your ten greatest disciples to kill me — naturally you will face a killing in return. You cannot escape death.”
“You…” Han Yishui’s color changed. He knew his fate was looking grim. This young man was too decisive — he had come alone to kill him, and there was no possibility he would stop here.
“You harbored the desire to kill me — how could I possibly leave such a great threat to myself alive? Be a good person in your next life.” Ye Fan surged forward. Han Yishui in his panic brought out seven or eight more sacred objects, yet none could withstand Ye Fan’s sacred body. In his eyes, Ye Fan’s golden fist grew larger and larger.
“Bang!”
Han Yishui’s body was blown apart, blood blossoming in all directions. He fell from the sky, and his life came to its end.
Ye Fan descended to the ground. The tremendous presence gradually faded, and the brilliant treasure-radiance that had shone from his skin slowly returned to something unremarkable, the divine luminance no longer flowing. He searched the valley thoroughly, but found nothing of particular value.
A moment later, he walked out of the valley. Not a trace of harm showed on his face — the picture of an innocent young man, smiling and composed, walking unhurriedly toward the mountain gate.
Not long after leaving the Lingxu Cave Paradise, Ye Fan sensed a terrifying wave of energy surging toward him from behind — this was absolutely a cultivator who had transcended the Divine Bridge realm. He was nowhere near mad enough to face a confrontation with an Other Shore realm or Grand Supreme Elder who had transcended the Other Shore realm. The gap in strength between different great realms was colossal and unbridgeable. He did not look back, and departed swiftly.
Ye Fan possessed his distinctive golden Sea of Bitterness. At this moment, within his body, waves roared and lightning interwove. He was completely submerged in a golden ocean interlaced with lightning — brilliant and blazing beyond measure — and in the blink of an eye, he vanished at the edge of the sky.
Half a month later, Ye Fan appeared in the Wei nation — separated from the Yan territory by five nations, a full seventeen thousand li away. No one had pursued him.
The Wei nation stretched five thousand li from north to south and six thousand li from east to west. Its territory was considerably larger than the Yan territory, though by the measure of the entire Eastern Wilderness, it was still an insignificant drop in the ocean.
When he asked someone where the Yaochi Holy Land lay, the answer he received left him reeling. The distance was far beyond anything he had imagined. An ordinary person walking their entire life and then some could never reach that region, and even a cultivator traveling by divine rainbow flight would need a full several years to get there.
He let out a helpless groan and rubbed his temples, muttering to himself: “Is this a planet? It simply cannot be — how can there be such a vast territory? It completely defies common sense.”
If he were to travel by divine rainbow flight, there would be no way to cultivate along the way. To fritter away several years in this manner was a truly extravagant waste. Ye Fan felt he could not afford to squander time like that.
After inquiring widely of people, he learned there was another method available. One could inscribe the most profound and abstruse Dao markings to gather heavenly momentum, seize the creative work of heaven and earth, and open a “domain gate” to traverse the void. Many great sects were capable of this.
However, to cross more than half the Eastern Wilderness in a single leap — only two factions in this region possessed such sky-reaching ability. One was the Ji Family, twenty thousand li to the west. The other was the Yao Guang Holy Land, thirty thousand li to the east. Both had deep and ancient foundations, and were absolutely capable of it.
Opening a domain gate and traversing the void — the greater the distance, the more energy was consumed. Neither of these two factions would open a path of convenience for someone who was merely a Divine Bridge realm minor cultivator. This gave him quite a headache.
The one thing worth being grateful for was that he still had time. He was in no immediate rush to obtain the cultivation method for the “Dao Palace” secret realm. Ye Fan planned to take up residence in the Wei nation for a time and seek a way to traverse the void.
The Wei capital was extraordinarily prosperous — bustling with carriages and people, shoulder to shoulder and foot to foot, a constant flow of motion. Ye Fan took up residence within the city. Though immersed in the rolling currents of the mortal world, he kept up his cultivation every day and occasionally ventured into the deep mountains outside the city.
Each day as he cultivated, Ye Fan was pondering how to become stronger.
His bones were pure white as jade, hard as divine iron. His five viscera and six bowels were immaculate and without blemish, not a trace of impurity — like divine artifacts. His flesh was crystalline and translucent, brilliant with radiance, extraordinarily tough and resilient. This was a great advantage.
Ye Fan kept reflecting on how to continue expanding this advantage further. In the battle at the Lingxu Cave Paradise, the pure force of his physical shell had made him feel a raw, primal, and feral combat power. He felt that if this could be combined with divine arts and weapons, it would undoubtedly bring about a further elevation in strength.
“I have consumed sacred medicine and undergone complete physical rebirth twice. My body is powerful — it can be tempered further…” His mind went to the various martial arts of his homeland. He had practiced some of them in the past. He had always wanted to use them to temper the physical body, but felt that ordinary fighting arts alone could not compete with those who cultivated immortality.
In the Wei capital, the tumult of ten thousand zhang of red dust stood in stark contrast to the serene stillness of the deep mountains. After a month in the city, he had found no solution to traversing the void, but a new understanding had come to him. His thoughts turned to Taiji.
“Taiji moves and gives birth to Yang. Movement reaches its extreme and becomes stillness; stillness gives birth to Yin. Stillness reaches its extreme and returns to movement. One movement and one stillness each serve as the root of the other. Yin and Yang divide; the two energies interact and transform, giving birth to the ten thousand things…”
“That’s it — cultivate Taiji!” He did not mean to practice Taiji boxing. Rather, drawing on the accounts found in various ancient texts and referencing the ancient sages’ understanding of Taiji, he wished to cultivate a Taiji body technique to temper his physical shell.
“Taiji is itself the evolution of the Dao. If I cultivate such a body technique, it would no longer be mere fighting arts — it would be fully comparable to the various profound cultivation methods of immortal cultivation.”
Though he had read many ancient texts relating to Taiji and understood its deep implications, to give concrete physical form to a body technique from such a concept was — without question — an extraordinarily long and arduous process.
“If I succeed, it may one day surpass even the various mysterious ancient scriptures. After all, this is the crystallized wisdom of ancient China…”
Ye Fan had no intention of abandoning this world’s cultivation methods. On the contrary, he would approach them with even greater earnestness. This was, after all, a complete and mature cultivation system. Tempering the physical shell was merely a means to elevate combat power — it would require slow, careful exploration, and was destined to be an extraordinarily long journey.