Ye Fan knew he had stirred up catastrophic trouble. The Southern Region had become extremely dangerous for him.

The Ji Family was immense — their lineage ancient, their foundations deep, their powerful experts as numerous as clouds. They would absolutely not let this rest.

This time, he had slain the old steward Ji Ren and even destroyed a thread of Ji Hui’s spiritual imprint. Far from resolving the problem, it would only make the Ji Family’s response more violent.

Hide. Right now, that was the only word. There was no other option.

The Great Void Technique was one of the core essences of the Void Ancient Scripture. The Ji Family could not tolerate it being leaked. Even if the Holy Master of Yao Guang were to obtain it, they would find a way to reclaim it — to say nothing of a minor cultivator like Ye Fan.

In recent days, he had heard much news, and every piece of it had shaken the Southern Region.

The battle between the Peacock King and Nangong Zheng had come to a close. The mountain range had been scorched to cinders, reduced to a wasteland. But who had prevailed, the outside world did not know — by the time people arrived, both great powers had already vanished without a trace.

The Holy Master of Yao Guang and the Holy Master of the Ji Family had set out together, hunting the Peacock King across the entire Southern Region, vowing to strike him down. The declaration sent waves crashing through the land for a thousand li, yet for a time, he could not be found.

The Ancient Bronze Immortal Palace flickered in and out of sight, sealed by the Dark Yellow Barrier, and was slowly sinking into the earth of the Eastern Desolation. Yet even now, no supreme powerhouse had ventured deep inside. The great figures harbored reservations and were making their final preparations.

It was said that Ji Haoyue, the divine body of the Ji Family, had been gravely wounded — nearly destroyed — and his whereabouts were now unknown. Many were quietly searching for him in secret.

The one surviving member of the Tianxuan Holy Land, long since turned to dust and earth — the Mad Elder — had entered a chrysalis within the Supreme Mystery Sect and fallen into deep slumber. Not a few powerful experts had been standing guard. Yet when he finally emerged from his chrysalis, no one had noticed. He had vanished into thin air, leaving all who heard of it in shock.

Across the entire Southern Region, undercurrents surged. Every major faction was dispatching powerful experts in all directions, quietly investigating all manner of things.

Ye Fan revealed a wry smile. At present, two people in the Southern Region were in the most perilous of circumstances — one was Ji Haoyue, and the other was himself.

Ji Haoyue’s divine body had nearly formed. He could already be considered a formidable expert, and as long as he did not encounter the Peacock King, he still had a path to survival.

As for Ye Fan — his sacred body was not yet complete. The moment he was discovered, the danger would be extreme.

The Southern Region of the Eastern Desolation was far from calm. An astonishing incident could erupt at any moment.

“Ji Family — you who have passed down your lineage since the ancient era — if you intend to hunt me to my last breath, do not blame me for being merciless. I will spread the Great Void Technique throughout the land, and I do not believe you would dare to slaughter the endless millions of the Southern Region!”

Ye Fan’s expression was cold and detached. He had resolved to fight to the bitter end.

Because in these past two days, he had clearly sensed that the atmosphere was wrong. Ji Family venerable elders were searching for Ji Haoyue, but even more young powerful experts had been mobilized, conducting a frantic search — as though intent on turning the earth upside down.

Of course, that was only his worst-case contingency. The Southern Region was vast beyond measure. Ye Fan did not believe that if he found some remote mountain hollow to hide in, anyone could still find him.

For the past several days, he had been moving stealthily through the wilderness, one location after another, afraid he had not fully shaken off those tracking him.

This life of constant flight was wretched — always on guard, always dreading discovery by the Ji Family.

It was not until the seventh day that Ye Fan finally stopped. He did not know what region he had reached. He entered a deep mountain forest where ancient trees blotted out the sun, and there he decided to cultivate quietly in secret — waiting until the danger had fully passed before leaving the Southern Region for good.

The outside world was far too dangerous. He could only lay low for the time being.

Ye Fan set his mind on cultivation, intending to reach the Shore Realm as soon as possible. Right now, above his Bitter Sea, a divine vein stretched across the sky — crystalline as a rainbow — pressing ever closer toward the outer reaches of the Sea of Wheels.

The celestial vein had formed, and the divine bridge spanned the void. Reaching the Other Shore realm was only a matter of time; what he needed now was accumulation.

He had in his possession a pure piece of yuan ore — as large as his fist — shimmering with flowing light. Ye Fan did not plan to use it yet; he would save it for when he made his breakthrough to the Other Shore, where it would play its most vital role.

A piece of yuan ore this large contained an unimaginable amount of life essence. In the past, it would have been enough to raise his cultivation by an entire realm.

But as Elder Wu Qingfeng had said, the further one progressed in cultivation, the harder it became — everything required ten times the effort of the early stages.

This piece of yuan ore could help him break through his current boundary. If he refined it at the peak of the Divine Bridge, it would certainly enable him to advance into the Other Shore realm in one stroke.

In the days that followed, Ye Fan began to contemplate all the cultivation methods he had practiced.

The Sea of Wheels scroll of the Dao Scripture was his very foundation — the source from which he had set foot on the path of cultivation.

This method contained no secret arts, no killing techniques. It was devoted entirely to unlocking potential. Though it lacked secret arts like the Great Void Technique, it was revered as the most powerful chapter for cultivating the Sea of Wheels — and with good reason, for it placed absolute emphasis on foundation.

Now, the golden page had lost more than half of its text. What remained was precious little — many of the ancient characters bright as stars had been completely erased.

Dimly, Ye Fan sensed a correspondence between this and his own realm. The vanished characters represented the portions he had fully mastered. He surmised that once he reached the full completion of the Other Shore, this scroll of the Dao Scripture would bear no ancient characters at all.

Beyond the golden scripture, he had mastered three supreme secret arts: one of the Nine Secrets, the movement technique passed down by the Mad Elder, and the Great Void Technique. In their respective domains, nothing surpassed them.

Over the past several days, Ye Fan had been continuously meditating on all three secret arts. The techniques he had mastered were too few — yet these were the supreme abilities upon which his life depended.

The cauldron had still not taken full form. It needed more time to be tempered. But it was not hard to imagine — once the All-Things Mother Qi had gathered sufficiently and the cauldron was complete, it would be unstoppable in all directions.

Ye Fan had no desire to give the cauldron a name. He felt the single word cauldron was sufficient to represent everything. Names like “Dark Yellow Cauldron” or “All-Things Mother Qi Cauldron”… none of them conveyed the word alone.

Ye Fan drank deeply of the divine spring water, cultivated with a settled mind, and gained much in the way of insight. The celestial vein above his Bitter Sea had grown yet another stretch — reaching the mysterious Other Shore was coming into view.

On the ninth day, Ye Fan held the Bodhi Seed in his hand. His mind became a vast emptiness, his body like a luminous glass lamp, untouched by a single mote of dust, crystalline and transparent — he had entered a wondrous state.

In that moment, he became one with the stone and earth, merged with the grass and trees, co-existing with the deep mountains. His heart and spirit were still, and he heard the breathing of the vegetation, felt the pulse of the mountain depths.

He seemed to fuse with all things between heaven and earth. His divine sense made itself manifest — like a gentle breeze, like a drifting cloud — threading through the deep mountain, his spirit seeming to depart from his body entirely.

Had a great power been present, they would surely have been astonished. Powerful cultivators in their later stages must rely on enlightenment to advance their realm, entering that higher level where even the finest heavenly treasures are of little use.

Ye Fan’s cultivation was not high, yet here he was, fully able to immerse himself in the rhythms of heaven and earth for extended periods of lucid emptiness — this was truly rare.

Suddenly, Ye Fan’s heart surged with alarm. Merged as he was with all things, his divine sense wandering the depths of the mountain, he sensed a dangerous aura.

In almost the same instant, he saw her — Ji Hui, the venerable elder of the Ji Family.

In an instant, his divine sense snapped back. With a sharp sound, his eyes flew open. He rose from the grass and trees, standing tall.

“That undying hag… how has she found me…”

Ye Fan transformed into a wisp of smoke and wove through the mountain forest, rushing swiftly toward the distance.

“This child’s spiritual awareness is so keen — truly strange.” Ji Hui murmured to herself, then waved a hand behind her and called out: “Send the signal — close in from all ten directions. Do not allow him to escape!”

Ye Fan had made preparations well in advance. He had carved numerous Dao markings throughout the area — taken from the ancient animal-skin texts, which he could not fully comprehend and had simply replicated as best he could.

Now, at last, those markings served their purpose. He had broken through the encirclement, while those closing in were obstructed.

“Child’s play!”

Ji Hui called out coldly and swept her hand in a great motion. With a thunderous crash, the mountains ahead split apart and boulders flew through the air. The area carved with Dao markings was wiped away by her divine power.

Behind him, the sky was dense with silhouettes. To track down Ye Fan, to reclaim the Great Void Technique, they had mobilized a vast number of cultivators.

Ji Hui was not the only supreme powerhouse among them. To deal with one minor cultivator like Ye Fan, they had summoned several venerable elders of comparable standing to Ji Hui herself.

The Great Void Technique must not be allowed to leak!

Ye Fan rushed forward tens of li, yet was astonished to find that even his proud speed could not shake several of the elders. At their level of power, their speed was naturally terrifying as well.

“Young man, today you have no road to heaven and no door into the earth. There is no escape left for you!” Old woman Ji Hui’s voice carried coldly from behind.

“How did you find me?” Ye Fan could not understand.

“Do you think a spiritual imprint of mine can be erased so casually?” Ji Hui’s expression was far from pleasant. As powerful as she was, having a spiritual brand wiped out by a youth was a humiliation. She said coldly, “Even though Ziyue gave you the Numinous Jade, it cannot render you completely untrackable. You had the audacity to take away my Great Net of Heaven as well!”

Ye Fan let out a sigh. He had refined the Great Net of Heaven repeatedly, wiping away every trace of her presence. Every thread of the net now shimmered like jade, pure and untouched, bearing no residue of divine sense whatsoever — and yet she had still found him.

The venerable elders of the ancient families truly were unfathomable — they could not be measured by ordinary logic.

Ye Fan moved like a beam of light, like a flash of lightning. Mountains and plains flew past behind him, yet he still could not shake Ji Hui and her three companions. The distance between them was slowly, steadily closing.

Now, truly, it was the end of the road. He had no way out. Ye Fan thought hard, then resolved — he had to gamble. He surged out of the mountain range and flew toward the most densely populated area he could find.

This was a powerful nation of the Southern Region. Its capital held no fewer than a million inhabitants — a city of immense scale, its interior teeming with life, people flowing through it like an endless river.

Ye Fan shot to the sky above this unknown city and stopped, turning around. He projected his voice to the four of them through his divine sense and roared: “If you dare advance one more step, I will spread the secrets of the Great Void Technique throughout this entire city, letting every one of its million inhabitants hear it. And then I will press on to the next great city, proclaiming it to all under heaven — making the Great Void Technique a secret no longer. I do not believe you would dare slaughter the Southern Region down to nothing!”

Old woman Ji Hui’s expression changed. The other three venerable elders instantly halted as well. If the Great Void Technique became common knowledge, the consequences were unthinkable.

“You Ji Family want it kept secret? I will make all the Southern Region know. I have no path left in any case — I might as well do something for the cultivators of the world.”

Ji Hui’s expression darkened like still water. The other three were beside themselves with fury, finding this young man infuriatingly troublesome, wishing they could slap him dead on the spot.

Ye Fan looked at them coldly, then opened his mouth and roared aloud: “Get lost — get lost right now!”

Since the ancient era, the Ji Family had stood in supreme authority. No one dared to insult them. And yet here was this minor cultivator, acting in exactly this manner.

The several venerable elders of the Ji Family — Ji Hui especially — went pale with fury, the veins on their foreheads throbbing visibly. Yet they held themselves back.

At that very moment, the other Ji Family cultivators caught up. Most were young people. The sky above was packed with silhouettes — figures everywhere.

“And the rest of you — all of you, get lost together!” Ye Fan transmitted his voice loudly. He had been driven into a corner through endless pursuit, and now he had nothing left to hold back. They had already burned all bridges between them.

If escape is impossible, then take everyone down together!

His voice shook like heavenly thunder — the entire great city below heard it with perfect clarity. Cultivators below were not few in number, and every one of them showed an expression of stunned disbelief.

“Aren’t those people the powerful experts of the Ji Family? And someone actually dares speak to them that way — truly remarkable. He could be compared to the Peacock King himself!”

“Who is that young man? He dares to tell Ji Family venerable elders to get lost and holds every single one of them in check — not one person daring to advance. He must be a great power.”

Ye Fan had until this day moved through this region without leaving a trace — but from this day forth, he was destined to become known to all.

He dared to challenge the authority of an ancient family. Alone, he had stood against the numerous powerful experts of the Ji Family, forcing a standoff. It left people stunned.

“Did you not hear what I said? All of you — get lost! I will give you ten breaths! Then the consequences are yours to bear — you know what will happen!” When a man no longer fears death, he fears nothing. He no longer cares about anything.

The venerable elders of the Ji Family had veins pulsing visibly on their foreheads, black mist coiling around them, their eyes fearsome. Cultivators who had walked out of the Ji Family had never been treated this way by anyone.

“Kill him!”

“Honored ancestors, why won’t you let us go forward?”

The young disciples of the Ji Family had eyes nearly bulging from their sockets, their hair standing on end with fury. Wherever they went, they were regarded as chosen ones. To be humiliated this way by a single youth today was utterly intolerable.

This was the first time Ye Fan had made a name for himself among the younger generation — and he had done so in this particular fashion. It was plain he would become the common enemy of every young member of the Ji Family.

“Ye Fan…” Ji Hui slowly spoke, making every effort to keep her voice even. “Do you know what you are doing?”

“Old hag, shut your mouth — I have nothing to say to you. Mention my name one more time and there will be no turning back!” Ye Fan had thrown all caution to the wind.

If he could not keep these people in check right now, he would have no hope of surviving whatsoever.

Ji Hui’s chest heaved violently. The tendons along her neck stood out clearly, thick as vines, twitching and trembling.

She could no longer remember how many years it had been since anyone had dared speak to her this way. Even as powerful as she was, having lived through an age this long, she could barely swallow this humiliation.

“Honored ancestor, what are we waiting for — kill him!”

“Let us through so we can kill him!”

The young generation of the Ji Family had reached the end of their endurance. Their killing intent surged sky-high.

“I will say only one more thing — get lost right now, all of you. I am giving you ten breaths!” Ye Fan swept his gaze over those before him.

Some of the Ji Family’s younger generation howled with fury, venting their rage.

Below, cultivators throughout the great city stood wide-eyed and slack-jawed.

There was no question — Ye Fan was about to have his name ring out across the entire Southern Region, becoming the common enemy of the ancient family’s younger generation.

“Ha ha ha…” At that very moment, someone burst into laughter.

A figure appeared in the blink of an eye — with speed so inconceivable it seemed as though he had been standing above the great city all along, rather than having appeared out of nowhere.

He was a youth of sixteen or seventeen, of singular beauty — soft hair, clear eyes, an air of refined otherworldliness, clean and fresh as a flowering tree dusted with snow. It was the Peacock King.

“Well said. Did you all hear that? You’d better get lost!”

The Peacock King commanded the Southern Region with unchallenged supremacy — a figure who stood atop the absolute pinnacle. His arrival caused every face to change color. Many people were trembling, for it was known that a single great roar from the Peacock King had once directly shattered a Ji Family venerable elder. His power was beyond measure.

The Peacock King walked over and clapped Ye Fan on the shoulder. He looked as transcendent as a lotus blossom — not the slightest air of a great power about him.

Everyone was astonished. Just what was the relationship between Ye Fan and the Peacock King? Could it be that Ye Fan truly had an extraordinary background?