This wooden whip was heavy — though made of wood, it was heavier than metal. Its Dao patterns looked as though they had formed naturally, brimming with ancient character, with a mysterious and primal aura.
To call it a wooden whip was, if anything, less accurate than calling it an edgeless iron sword — not only because of its weight, but because even its shape was much the same.
Ye Fan turned it over and over in his hands. The whip was ancient and natural in form; when swung, it moved with perfect responsiveness. Yet no divine radiance shot forth from it.
He channeled his divine power into the whip, pouring energy through it, but it had little apparent effect. The whip remained aged and plain, without a single gleam of light.
“What is going on?” Ye Fan said in surprise. He swung the wooden whip toward the void — heavy and powerful, like a ten-thousand-ton cauldron pressing down, warping the space it struck.
“Not a bad thing, actually — it looks ordinary, but when you swing it, it carries immense weight. It’s enough to withstand the strike of any other weapon.”
Ye Fan was quite satisfied. Plain and unassuming, returning to simplicity — such a weapon was, in its own way, excellent. It gave nothing away to the eye, yet had killing power all the same.
He tried sending a wisp of divine sense out into the shrine, letting it roam freely. It experienced no attack from the wooden whip.
But when he directed that wisp of divine sense to probe slowly toward the wooden whip, he felt a needle-like prickling of pain. Having understood this result, Ye Fan was now certain — this truly was a weapon specifically designed to strike divine consciousness.
Ye Fan rubbed his chin and turned the matter over carefully in his mind, tracing back through the figures of the pre-Qin era, from the Shang Dynasty through the Western Zhou. It was some time before he came back to himself.
The Black Emperor’s final anguished howl at last faded away. It stopped leaping about and slowly recovered, then called out, “What kind of treasure is this — it specifically attacks divine consciousness, and even I came off worse for it.”
“Black Emperor, your divine sense is so powerful — go ahead and attack me with it all you like.” Ye Fan said.
“Are you deliberately provoking me, you little… Put that damned stick to one side or I’ll tear you apart!” the Black Emperor said with an unpleasant expression. It had just suffered a significant loss.
By now, Tu Fei had recovered as well. He looked at the wooden whip with lingering dread — that wisp of divine sense had been shattered, leaving him deeply shaken.
“So this is the weapon of the world on the other side of the starry sky. How was it possibly tempered and refined? It’s astonishing!” Tu Fei took the wooden whip and examined it closely.
“A shame there’s no one to test it on. I want to see the true extent of this wooden whip’s power,” Ye Fan said.
Tu Fei said, “It can strike a person’s divine sense — that much is beyond doubt. Let’s now test its other combat capabilities.”
The two men and one dog moved outside the shrine. Ye Fan stood holding the wooden whip, while Tu Fei gripped a silver spear in both hands and thrust toward Ye Fan — the spear’s tip gleaming snow-bright, its radiance flashing.
Ye Fan struck forward with the wooden whip. No divine radiance shot forth, yet it issued a sharp crack. Beneath the night moon, silver light scattered in all directions — the silver spear snapped in two.
Tu Fei switched to a purple lightning hammer — purple clouds swirled around it, dazzling to the eye. The result was the same. Ye Fan swung the wooden whip, its momentum heavy and fierce, and shattered the purple lightning hammer, leaving a brilliant scattering of shards across the desert.
After these tests, the unusual wooden whip proved to be exceptionally sturdy and difficult to destroy — yet it unleashed no particularly unusual divine techniques.
The purple-gold gourd could absorb people; the Eight Trigrams Mirror could reflect and illuminate people; the wooden whip’s only quality was solidity. Held in the hand, no particular power seemed to flow from it.
“Though it can shatter ordinary weapons, there is no interweaving of ‘Dao’ and ‘principle’ within it — no other distinct power,” Tu Fei said.
“Isn’t being able to strike a person’s divine sense enough?!” the Black Emperor interjected from the side, its expression full of envious longing.
“True — that is the most terrifying power of all.” Tu Fei nodded.
“Wait!” The Black Emperor seemed to suddenly remember something. “This thing specifically attacks divine consciousness. Just now, Tu Fei held a silver spear for a direct physical exchange. But what if you were to project your divine sense to unleash a treasure in an attack?”
Tu Fei’s heart gave a sudden leap. “You don’t mean…”
Ye Fan’s heart also stirred, and an expectant expression appeared on his face. Perhaps this wooden whip was about to give him a pleasant surprise.
“Let me try!” Tu Fei steeled himself, produced a silver brick, and pressed it down toward Ye Fan — gleaming like a silver rainbow.
Ye Fan held the wooden whip and stepped forward, striking toward the sky. A resounding crack rang out, and beneath the night moon silver radiance splashed in all directions — the silver brick shattered.
Tu Fei let out a startled cry. The wisp of divine sense lodged within the silver brick was hit by the impact. Had Ye Fan not pulled back in time, Tu Fei would have been hurt again.
“Truly monstrous — this weapon’s destructive power is extreme!” The Black Emperor’s eyes glowed green with hunger, and it nearly lunged forward to snatch the whip.
“Black Emperor — project your weapon and come at me with it. Let’s see.” Ye Fan spoke up. He knew the Black Emperor possessed a golden bell — a divine object of great-master caliber.
The Black Emperor did not refuse. It had full confidence in its own weapon. A flash of radiance from its brow, and a bell flew out — trembling faintly, it rapidly enlarged and transformed into a towering golden divine bell.
Dong…
The bell’s resonant tone carried for dozens of li. Dazzling golden radiance turned the vast desert bright as day.
Ye Fan stepped forward and swung the more-than-twenty-segment wooden whip down onto the bell — plain and unassuming but heavy and powerful, blurring the very space around it.
Clang!
The wooden whip struck the divine bell — deafeningly loud. The great golden bell rang and reverberated. In the desert, sand and dust billowed skyward, surging like a tide in all directions with a thunderous roar.
The golden bell was, after all, a divine object refined by a great master. It trembled and hummed, sending a numbing vibration up through Ye Fan’s arm — yet the wooden whip suffered not the slightest damage. It was extraordinarily sturdy.
The Black Emperor had lodged a wisp of its divine sense within the divine bell. The bell had not shattered, so it was unharmed — yet it was still deeply startled.
“This wooden whip is extraordinary. It has truly moved my heart — a genuine rare treasure!” it declared.
According to the Black Emperor’s assessment, the wooden whip could manifest a divine technique specifically targeting divine consciousness; beyond that, it was incomparably solid. The greater the wielder’s combat strength, the greater the power it could unleash.
“Imagine — if your combat strength were extraordinary, this whip could shatter anything without exception, striking down and damaging divine consciousness. How terrifying would that be?!”
Ye Fan understood as well — this was a rare treasure, the likes of which the world had rarely seen. He could not help asking, “How much does it fall short of an extreme-path weapon?”
The reason he asked was that this weapon strongly resembled a divine artifact from the ancient mythology of his homeland.
“Let’s… not compare them.” The Black Emperor shook its head.
“Why not?”
“Do you know what an extreme-path weapon is? If someone could fully unleash its power, it would be nearly equivalent to a Great Emperor reborn!” The Black Emperor’s face was filled with longing.
“But this weapon is…” Ye Fan opened his mouth, yet in the end could not bring himself to say the words.
Tu Fei also shook his head. “This wooden whip can be called a rare treasure — but compared to the weapons of the ancient Great Emperors, it truly falls far short.”
Ye Fan thought it over. The legends surrounding extreme-path weapons were terrifying — possessing the might to split open heaven and earth — and this wooden whip truly could not be compared to them.
“Pre-Qin Qi Cultivators — how many crossed the void and came to this world? And how many of them are still alive today?” Ye Fan pondered. His thoughts ran wide. In the pre-Qin era, the legends of the Immortals — all of those, he thought, should be Qi Cultivators.
“What kind of person, exactly, was an ancient Great Emperor?” Ye Fan asked the Black Emperor with gravity.
The Black Emperor pondered for a moment, then responded with uncharacteristic seriousness. “Those who stand at heights where coldness is unbearable — the loneliest few in all of history.”
“Could they cross the void?” Ye Fan asked.
“That…” The Black Emperor seemed momentarily lost in thought.
“Think about it,” Ye Fan said. “Pre-Qin Qi Cultivators came from the other end of the starry sky. Even if they followed a path left by someone ancient, it still proves that someone was capable of traveling between star domains.”
“I understand now — he most likely visited the Purple Tenuity Star Domain…” The Black Emperor murmured to itself.
Tu Fei was given a tremendous shock. Someone had visited the Purple Tenuity Star Domain — that was earth-shattering news!
“Who are you talking about?” Tu Fei asked.
Ye Fan’s expression was one of astonishment as well. Someone in this world had visited the Purple Tenuity Star Domain? He too fixed his gaze on the Black Emperor, waiting for its answer.
“Ahem…” The Black Emperor coughed, masking its expression, and muttered, “Naturally a Great Emperor. I deduced it from an ancient record.”
“What ancient record? Why have I never come across it?” Tu Fei was suspicious.
“By the time I was reading ancient records, your grandfather was still nursing at his mother’s breast — even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand.” The Black Emperor’s expression was one of supreme impatience.
“This damned dog… its way of speaking is unbearably rude!” Tu Fei felt like punching it.
“Black Emperor — which Great Emperor visited the Purple Tenuity Star Domain? Tell us more specifically,” Ye Fan pressed.
“How would I know? I was just guessing wildly!” The Black Emperor slithered back into the shrine with a whoosh — and then a cloud of dust rose to the sky.
“What are you doing?” Ye Fan demanded.
The Black Emperor was tearing apart the entire shrine — even digging up the foundations. Without turning its head, it answered, “Looking for rare treasures. Maybe we’ll find another one.”
“You damned dog — just to change the subject, you’re tearing apart a structure of significant historical importance!” Ye Fan wanted to give it a thorough beating.
The shrine was torn apart, rocks rolling everywhere. Alas, no other unusual objects were to be found — the Black Emperor found nothing.
Come morning, the rosy light of dawn spread from the east. The red sun leapt above the horizon, and Ye Fan and the others set out again, attempting to find their way out of the Divine Desert.
The Black Emperor still had not given up on the wooden whip and turned to Ye Fan again. “This rare treasure — have you decided on a name for it yet?”
Tu Fei laughed. “Does it even need thinking? Since this whip injured you first, just calling it the ‘Dog-Beating Whip’ would be quite fitting.”
“Woof!”
Whenever those two were together, they would inevitably come to blows — temperamentally incompatible from birth.
Ye Fan smiled. “It comes from the other end of the starry sky and was the weapon of a pre-Qin Qi Cultivator. I’ll call it the Divine Whip — the God-Striking Whip.”
“A wooden whip that specifically strikes divine sense — a fine name. That’s good. It should be called the God-Striking Whip.” Tu Fei nodded in agreement.
“The God-Striking Whip… that name is actually rather elegant,” the Black Emperor muttered.
“I think the pre-Qin Qi Cultivator gave it the same name,” Ye Fan murmured to himself, gazing up at the sky — but the sun had already risen and the star domains could no longer be seen.
The vast golden desert was immense and boundless — they could never reach its edge. They walked for another three days and still saw no hope.
“What sort of place is this Divine Desert, and why is it so strange? Is there no way to break through it?” Never being able to find a way out — even Ye Fan could no longer remain calm.
“There are far too many legends about it. This place is perversely bewitching.” Tu Fei sighed.
“Black Emperor — do you know what this vast desert is really about?” Ye Fan asked.
“Naturally I do.” After walking for days, the Black Emperor was also somewhat listless. “This is a boundless desert burned out by the Solar Divine Furnace.”
“What — this is connected to the Jiang Family’s Eternal Universe Great Emperor? What happened?!” Both Ye Fan and Tu Fei were stunned.
“The Eternal Universe Great Emperor engaged in a great decisive battle with someone, and used the Solar Divine Furnace to strike out this Divine Desert.” The Black Emperor said.
“How is that possible — the ancient Great Emperors were invincible under heaven. How could they be fighting for their lives?” Tu Fei did not believe it.
“What if the opponent was also a Great Emperor?” the Black Emperor asked in return.
“Impossible. How could a single era produce two Great Emperors? Ancient records have never recorded such a thing!”