“You alone are the law?” A cold smile curled at the corner of Ye Fan’s mouth. The bronze sword in his hand struck the ground with a clang, throwing off a burst of brilliant sparks. The city’s sealing formations tightened in response — the ancient city eternal and indestructible.
“You may think of it that way.” The captain’s gaze was icy. The bronze halberd in his hand was plain and unadorned, yet it grew increasingly menacing by the moment — like an ancient ferocious weapon just rousing from slumber.
“Then I will break your law with one sword strike!” Ye Fan raised the long sword. Sword radiance pulsed and swelled, killing intent spreading vast and boundless — cascading forth like waterfall after waterfall of white snow.
This battle was inevitable. Clouds roiled in all directions, the sword qi shifting through a thousand forms. Streams of killing light burst outward, vigorous energy flourishing, as the traces of the Dao intertwined in complex patterns.
The many sealing formations throughout the ancient city awakened one by one, flickering with radiance, their mysterious power manifesting from time to time to protect the city’s every corner — keeping it from collapsing into ruin.
The two transformed into two streaks of light, and in the blink of an eye had already traded four hundred blows. Heaven split and earth cracked. Stars and constellations shifted. All manner of extraordinary phenomena manifested in succession.
Slash!
Ye Fan drove a sword strike straight up toward the heavens, piercing through the sky, and shattered a meteorite — one of the artificial moons suspended above the first city of the Human Race — which came crashing down.
The crowd was moved. That sword just now had rent through the sealing formation — incomparably sharp, leaving many powerful figures feeling a sense of inadequacy.
Five hundred exchanges came and went, and still there was no decisive result. This was a man who far exceeded the lord of the Junwei Mountain, powerful to an inconceivable degree.
Many found it impossible to believe he was a man who had been defeated. To possess such peerless sharpness and still fall short — just how terrifying were the outstanding figures who awaited further down the road?
The six soldiers could hold out no longer and finally charged forward, disregarding the captain’s warnings. They pressed their attack, eager to help him end the purple-robed powerhouse quickly.
A cold and merciless light flashed in Ye Fan’s eyes. No matter how many of such figures there were, they were useless — incapable of posing any threat to him.
The bronze sword rang out sharply. Wave upon wave of sword qi — each like a surging sea, its crashing tides lifting to the heavens — rolled outward, boundless sword intent descending together with the stars.
“Crack!”
He brought the sword down heavy as a mountain — not a slashing cut but a crushing smash, driving heaven and earth into collapse. The soldier charging straight at him erupted in blood, then detonated entirely — gore spraying in all directions.
A heavy-sword strike, pure and simple, had reduced him to pieces.
“Fall back!” The captain’s eyes turned frigid. He issued the command again, unwilling to see these men advance — they could offer no aid and would only throw their lives away.
Yet Ye Fan abandoned his confrontation with the captain and activated the Character Art of Movement, giving direct chase to those soldiers. Sword light blazed and flashed, illuminating heaven and earth above and below in brilliant clarity.
The bronze sword in his hand shone like a sun radiating divine radiance. With one wet sound, he swept away the head of another man. Blood streamed down, and the corpse collapsed into a pool of crimson.
The captain’s expression turned glacially cold. He spoke not a word. His bronze halberd swept horizontally across the long sky as one star after another materialized before and behind him — as if a god had descended upon the mortal world, radiating a vast and overwhelming pressure.
“Boom!”
It was a momentum of colossal power. When the bronze halberd struck, it was as though an entire star domain had crashed down. Ancient stars rotated, star rivers flowed — the sight shaking the souls of all present.
The long sword in Ye Fan’s hand rang with clear resonance, striking the war halberd in rapid succession, the impacts dazzling to behold — killing intent surging like startled waves and crashing billows.
And the stars themselves shuddered violently, as if an entire vast star domain was heaving. Each ancient star radiated boundless power.
Starlight grew dim and hazy, enveloping Ye Fan within it. To those watching from outside, this appeared to be a small world — but seen from within, it was boundless and vast.
The void roared. This was a terrifying Dao fruit the captain had cultivated — his body towering a hundred million zhang, standing firm in the river of cosmic stars, his divine might supreme over all the world.
He embodied the vast expanse of the heavens, rendering himself its sole sovereign — capable of annihilating all things. When the bronze halberd descended, the star rivers collapsed, ancient stars shattered, and nothing was left unbroken.
Within his star-and-sky domain, all living beings were no more than insects and specks of dust. Those watching from outside very nearly suffocated.
“Within the universe of my body, all life is extinguished — no one can defy my will.” His words rang like thunder, the long halberd blazing.
“Clang!”
The bronze halberd, comparable to a star river in scope, was blocked. Ye Fan thrust the sword forward and shattered a field of stars, pouring out surges of sacred power.
“Let us see how long you can hold.” Outside the battlefield, the four surviving soldiers looked on with icy, predatory eyes. The deaths of several of their comrades had filled them with hatred. Each gripped their weapon, watching and waiting like hungry tigers.
Then something terrifying happened. The bronze swords in the hands of several of the soldiers all reversed themselves — some cleaved open their own skulls, others pierced through their own foreheads. All of them perished on the spot by their own blades.
The ringing of steel filled the air, blood trickled down, and corpses crumpled to the ground — it all happened at nearly the same moment, drawing sharp intakes of breath from the crowd.
“What… just happened?” Many in the audience were baffled.
“Could that be the legendary… Character Art of Soldier?” A few individuals cried out in shock, their eyes blazing with intensity as they stared toward the center of the field, fixing their gaze on the purple-robed man in the star river.
“It is the Character Art of Soldier!” The second-ranked member of the Tianhuang Thirteen Riders had blue-gray eyes that were cold and oppressive — a demonic light gleaming within them. The large blue-gold halberd in his hand gleamed with chilling brilliance.
Ye Fan and the captain had now fought to over a thousand exchanges, their speed extraordinary — every blow landing like a lightning strike, with fierce and violent impact.
This man far exceeded the lord of Junwei Mountain. That he had held his own against Ye Fan to this degree was the product of genuine ability — astonishing even Ye Fan himself.
Clang!
Ye Fan seized the moment. With a deft flick, the bronze sword quivered. Sword qi like an ocean roared to life.
The captain stumbled back. Blood surged through his body like a mighty river, and his heart was shaken — he had not anticipated that this battle would prove so thorny. More than a decade of cultivation and comprehension of the Dao, and he had encountered such an adversary again.
Ye Fan had cultivated the Character Art of Soldier, yet kept it concealed without deploying it — creating a form of psychological pressure on the captain. Now, at this precise moment, he unleashed it suddenly, intending to eliminate the captain with a single decisive blow.
“Clang! Clang…”
The sharp ring of metal was ear-splitting. Bronze weapons clashed in rapid succession. The long halberd flew out of control toward the sky, and at the same time the captain’s iron armor ignited — his helmet in particular exploding apart.
Goosebumps rose on the skin of the onlookers. The Character Art of Soldier’s secret technique was running rampant — seeking to destroy the enemy in an instant. The piercing ring of metal filled the air as the armor shattered piece by piece, burning.
Ye Fan intended to offer the captain up as a living sacrifice. This technique set every observer’s skin crawling. Wearing armor had become a burden — it was turning against its own wearer.
“Boom!”
The captain was sent flying horizontally, crashing through the upper sky. His armor shattered. Blood ran from his wounds, and he fell tumbling back to earth.
“Is it over?!” The voices of many trembled.
The captain was so enormously powerful — surpassing many of the trial participants by a wide margin — and yet someone had shattered his armor, nearly offered him as a living sacrifice. Many felt a chill run from the crown of their heads all the way to the soles of their feet.
The captain hit the ground, staggering briefly, but quickly straightened his body. Half of him was drenched in blood — in particular, a crack had appeared across his forehead, the injury far from light.
Ye Fan had to acknowledge it — this man was extraordinarily powerful and posed a genuine threat. The captain’s body blazed with the light of life, rapidly repairing the damage.
The captain’s true appearance was revealed: a remarkably handsome young powerhouse. Black hair fell in loose strands around him, his complexion fair as white jade — a figure of striking and vibrant beauty.
No one had imagined that this was not a battle-hardened veteran soldier, but a refined and elegant young noble. His martial spirit was held inward, and he carried with him an air of exceptional bearing.
The only flaw was his pair of eyes — far too cold and bleak, impossible to feel any warmth toward, carrying a quality of bone-deep chill.
“This is the second defeat of Guan Cheng’s life. More than a decade ago, I was pierced through — man and mount together — by a single spear, nearly nailed to death on an ancient and desolate land. Though I was furious and aggrieved, I had no choice but to swallow my bitter defeat and retreat. Today, though I have suffered defeat again, I am not convinced. I will take your head!”
Guan Cheng roared. Life essence surged through his entire frame, his black hair standing on end, his expression fearsome. The radiance of life blazed forth as his body rapidly mended itself, restoring to its original state.
This was a powerhouse who had once stained the starry sky with blood and endured countless trials of life and death — his strength at the very pinnacle, awe-inspiring to all!
“Brother Guan, allow me to lend you my strength.” The second-ranked member of the Tianhuang Thirteen Riders was terrifyingly formidable — clear eyes flickering, large halberd in hand as he stepped forward.
As he did so, he placed a peculiar seal upon himself: a yellowed divine proclamation board, affixed to his body.
Ye Fan’s heart gave a start. This was clearly a countermeasure against the Character Art of Soldier — yet he had no idea what origin that yellowed divine proclamation board held.
“I will handle this myself!” Though Guan Cheng was exceptionally handsome, in this moment his face was somewhat savage — his head full of black hair thrashing wildly as he charged in, as if he had entered a state of demonic frenzy.
Hum!
At the same time, another incomparably terrifying aura swept in — like a purple sun detonating, its ferocious flames flooding the heavens!
The leader of the Tianhuang Thirteen Riders, Gu Ling, had made his move. His upper body was bare — the bronze-colored skin taut over muscles like coiling flood dragons. Lightning crackled in his eyes, and the purple war lance in his hand drove toward them with the swiftness of a thunderbolt!
Heaven and earth crumbled. Who could say how terrifying this lance thrust was — even part of the ancient city’s sealing formations were broken by it.
Boom!
Like a vast ocean surging — shattering the sky!
Gu Ling was powerful to the point of awe, his depths impossible to fathom. His eyes blazed with wild and savage radiance — brutal beyond reckoning.
He harbored no thought of using numbers to overpower a single opponent. This was a primitive and instinctive wildness, driving him to release this lance thrust — peerless in its sharpness.
Ye Fan activated the Character Art of Soldier. Yet this man’s wild and savage power was world-shaking. The sinews of both hands bulged as he gripped the purple war lance with an iron hold — maintaining its trajectory unchanged as it drove downward, stripping away more than half of the Character Art of Soldier’s power.
At the same moment, the large blue-gold halberd of the second-ranked member of the Tianhuang Thirteen Riders cleaved in. And the bronze halberd of the captain Guan Cheng fell as well, ripping through the vault of the sky.
“Kill!”
Ye Fan gave a sharp, low shout. Behind him, the golden divine treasury materialized, all manner of Dao weapons surfacing within it. Golden sacred light shook the nine heavens — launching an indiscriminate attack on all sides.
When it came to group combat, this was undoubtedly the optimal choice — there was no distinction between killing one person or killing ten million!
A golden great bell rang deep and resonant. A brilliant celestial pagoda descended to suppress. Immortal swords shot outward. A golden gourd swallowed all things… it was a full-range peerless assault.
“Ah…”
Two screams rang out. The ninth and eighth members of the Tianhuang Thirteen Riders met their end — each shattered by a golden Dao weapon, as pillars of blood shot more than ten meters into the air.
Ye Fan’s heart tensed. The leader of the Tianhuang Thirteen Riders, Gu Ling, was undoubtedly a formidable enemy. And that captain, Guan Cheng, was no ordinary figure either — the two of them transformed into two streaks of killing light, obliterating a vast number of the golden Dao weapons.
Beyond them, the second-ranked member of the Tianhuang Thirteen Riders was also terrifying — transforming into a mass of azure light, impervious to ten thousand techniques.
When everything fell still, both sides stood in confrontation. Neither moved. Each regarded the other with cold indifference.
Then, all at once, Ye Fan’s Dao body furrowed its brow. Time was up — it was about to dissolve into clear energy and vanish.
“We will fight another day!” He sank into the earth below and disappeared in an instant — no one could give chase.
By now, no one could count how many people had come to watch, all of them observing the battle. No one had anticipated this outcome. Their hearts were shaken, yet also filled with a measure of regret — they had not been able to witness the great decisive battle they had hoped for.
The crowd was utterly silent, long unable to return to their senses.
Ding!
A cup fell to the ground, shattering on the street. Ye Fan’s true body drained the last cup of wine and stepped out from the small tavern.
“The man in purple is you!” Gu Ling, leader of the Tianhuang Thirteen Riders, spoke up. His wild eyes were cold and pressing, black hair loose and draped over his shoulders.
“Correct — my instinct tells me the man in purple is you!” Guan Cheng also stepped forward with bone-chilling coldness, his complexion fair as white jade.
“Evidence?” Ye Fan was calm and composed.
“My instinct telling me it is you is sufficient!” Guan Cheng advanced like a divine demon — his handsome features ice-cold enough to cut to the bone.
Ye Fan laughed aloud, calm and unhurried. He drew out a black long spear, tilting it to point toward the southern sky, his battle energy flooding the heavens.
At the same moment, Long Ma came galloping from the distance. Ye Fan leaped onto his back, facing all present, and said: “Whoever wishes to kill me — come ahead!”
Everyone’s hearts lurched. Was the man in purple truly him? His true body had not even entered the fight, and he was already this terrifying — just how powerful was he?
This place erupted rapidly. Many believed the man in purple must indeed be him — even though he had not confirmed it. The implications were staggering.
“Stand down!” The void twisted, and a blurred silhouette appeared — the Escorting Envoy manifested.
The crowd was astonished. This was the first time anyone had managed to force this irresponsible Escorting Envoy to show himself.
“All of you — get on the road. Do not linger for even a moment!” His voice was low and deep, yet it struck many in the chest with such force that their blood and energy churned, making it difficult to stand.
Ancient horns sounded — vast and ancient, spanning untold distances — summoning all trial participants. An altar appeared, settled high in the vault of the heavens, radiating hazy and drifting radiance.
“I intend to set out again and storm the strongest ancient road once more!” Guan Cheng’s gaze was cold and piercing as he stared fixedly at Ye Fan.
“From here onward, you must fight your way through to the second checkpoint. You may take action against anyone — every single person will be an enemy to every other person. Those who survive to the very end will have passed the trial!”
The Escorting Envoy’s words shook every person present. They all understood: a storm of blood was about to begin!