“Let’s not act rashly for now. The situation in Yan Capital is complicated at present, and every move I make will likely draw attention — let’s not act while we’re the center of attention,” Ye Fan said.

What concerned him most was still the matter of the Ruthless One. That inheritance was too powerful and too terrifying — if such an heir were allowed to grow to full strength, he would surely become an unparalleled enemy in the future.

A Single Thought Blooms into Flowers, Reigning Over All Under Heaven represented the supreme bearing of the Ruthless One in ages past. Combined with the unrivaled Myriad Transformations Sacred Technique, it was almost enough to slay every hero under heaven, or close to it.

According to legend, the Ruthless One had also pioneered a supreme secret technique specifically for slaying kings, unparalleled in the world — the legends alone were enough to make people shudder.

“He used his aged body to birth a divine embryo, reborn in his later years — isn’t that basically living through two lifetimes as an Emperor!” Li Heishui exclaimed in shock.

“They say he lived the longest of all — could he possibly still be alive in this world right now?” Tu Fei also had his doubts. His grandfather held the ancient Heaven-Devouring Demon Cauldron, and the deeper he learned about the Ruthless One, the more his heart trembled, feeling this was a hot potato.

“Impossible. If he were still alive in this era, the Emperor Wushi would surely have had a battle with him that would shake the ages,” the Black Emperor muttered.

“Could it be that not a single one of the ancient Emperors survived? They were brilliant beyond compare, looking down upon all ages — I truly can’t believe every single one of them has passed away,” Pang Bo said.

“If he hadn’t died, and I’d dug up his dojo and desecrated his grave, with his temperament he’d surely have jumped out and skinned me alive,” the Big Black Dog muttered.

The group fell silent for a moment, thinking it over — this did indeed seem to be the case. If he were still alive, how could he possibly allow the Heaven-Devouring Demon Cauldron to be split apart and scattered across the world, rather than keeping it in his own hands?

Ye Fan felt the pressure mounting — all the sacred techniques corresponding to the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Technique were peerless sacred arts, and the Undying Heavenly Technique was even more mysterious, its corresponding wondrous technique unknown even to the Black Emperor.

“I need to go to the Sacred Cliff, to find the third of the Nine Secrets…” Ye Fan had this thought in mind.

Although he had learned the Dao Scripture and the Western Emperor Scripture, both were merely mental cultivation methods from certain secret realms, not complete scriptures, and did not contain any supreme sacred techniques.

At this moment, he felt keenly that he lacked secret techniques — having a powerful mental cultivation method alone was far from enough.

Fortunately, the Battle Warfare Sacred Method was unrivaled in the world, the foremost in offensive power, capable of ever-changing transformations, evolving endless life-taking arts — otherwise, when facing his mortal enemy, he would surely find himself at a disadvantage.

“Did you find out where the Divine King is?” Ye Fan asked.

Originally, when he had crossed over from North Region, he had made an agreement with several people that once he had healed his Great Dao injury, he would surely take action and have them seek out the Peerless Divine King.

“No, nothing at all — not a single trace of news. I asked Jiang Huairen to inquire, and even his grandfather Jiang Yi personally went to the Jiang Clan, but got no leads either,” Tu Fei said.

Li Heishui also sighed: “East Wilderness is simply too vast — finding the Peerless Divine King is easier said than done.”

Ye Fan furrowed his brow. After going through life and death nine times over, he had finally managed to produce the flawless Undying Divine Medicine, yet had no way to find the Divine King — this troubled him greatly.

“Don’t worry, if the Jiang Clan gets any news, we’ll know immediately,” Li Heishui said.

The Peerless Divine King had shown Ye Fan a great kindness. He did not want to see the Divine King fade away in despair, and wished to find a path to his rebirth — now that he saw a glimmer of hope, yet had no way to act on it.

“I think the Divine King probably hasn’t passed away yet — after all, little Tingting is with him. I think that when he sensed his time was running short, he would send that little girl back to the Jiang Clan,” Pang Bo judged.

Ye Fan shook his head and sighed: “That’s exactly what worries me most.”

He worried greatly that the Divine King might use his last remaining strength to defy heaven and alter Tingting’s fate, exhausting the last thread of hope for his own revival. This was a very real possibility, and ever since the Divine King had disappeared with Tingting, Ye Fan had harbored this fear.

The Divine King had lived a tragic life. If such heart-wrenching news were to emerge again, it would truly be heartbreaking, enough to bring tears.

At this moment, outside, the world was in an uproar as many great figures rushed toward Taixuan, heading to the Star Peak.

The emergence of the Ruthless Emperor’s inheritance concerned everyone — if it were true, it would be a great calamity, an unbearable disaster for humanity.

The eyes of the entire world had turned toward this matter. Compared to when the Sacred Body had broken the curse, this stirred even greater attention, with figures from the supreme sects also arriving.

Ye Fan had succeeded — he had shifted the world’s attention away from himself. A Sacred Body about to die no longer needed to be feared, but the inheritance of the ancient First Ruthless One was an entirely different matter.

He finally smiled — turning the tide, redirecting the disaster eastward, all eyes now fixed on someone else, while people scrambled to search for the Ruthless One’s heir.

Hua Yunfei had vanished. Everyone was searching, investigating his whereabouts. Though there was still no concrete proof, he had almost become the enemy of the entire world.

“This move was brilliant. Hua Yunfei being alive is far more useful than him being dead — he takes on this crushing pressure in Ye Fan’s place!” Tu Fei laughed.

“Indeed, pushing him out lets little Ye rest easy and cultivate quietly, gradually building up strength. By the time those people realize what happened, it will be too late,” Li Heishui laughed loudly as well.

“Don’t be so optimistic. The more I listen, the more I feel this Hua Yunfei is very difficult to deal with — deep-minded, ruthless in his methods. Such a person won’t die easily. Whatever you do, don’t force him into becoming a second Ruthless One,” the Black Emperor warned.

Pang Bo laughed: “From now on we can plan calmly — pushing out a Ruthless One this time, next time we can push out an Emperor Wushi.”

Outside, the world boiled with commotion, discussions spreading everywhere, and Ye Fan could finally relax for a while.

Over the following days, he continuously searched for Xiao Nannan — this little girl absolutely had to be found, or else he felt he could not live with his own conscience.

But it was like searching for a needle in a haystack — not a single clue could be found.

“Ye Huiling should be emerging soon — once she hears I’m safe, she’ll come to collect the sacred fruit.”

Ye Fan took out the sacred fruits and distributed them among the group. The Black Emperor drooled greedily, its old bad habit of snatching from its own companions flaring up again.

Fortunately, Li Heishui and Tu Fei knew it well and reacted quickly enough — though bitten a few times, they managed to keep the fruits safe.

“Damn it, this dead dog is infuriating — everything else about it is fine, but this habit of grabbing anything valuable it sees just can’t be cured!” the two of them cursed repeatedly.

“Am I really that kind of creature? I was just testing your reaction speed,” the Big Black Dog’s shamelessness left people speechless.

At first, the group all insisted on refusing, because they knew they needed to combine various sacred fruits together to produce the flawless Undying Divine Medicine, to save the Divine King and little Tingting.

Ye Fan still insisted on giving each of them one fruit, though he himself did not take another dose, because he truly barely had enough already, needing a Divine Root to make up the remainder.

Days passed without any trace of Xiao Nannan, and Ye Fan grew increasingly uneasy, fearing something might have happened to her.

Finally, he and Pang Bo left Yan Capital together, going to visit some old friends — former classmates who had come to this world together with them, who should still be in the Yan territory if nothing had gone wrong.

Their first stop was naturally Lingxu Cave Heaven, where the two of them had lived for nearly a year, and everything that had happened there still felt vivid in their memories.

But when they arrived, they heard tragic news — the classmate named Zhang Ningfei had died.

Back then, the thirteen of them, including Ye Fan, had been brought out from the eight-hundred-li primeval forest by Weiwei, and the six Cave Heaven paradises had each taken in two disciples as students.

Lingxu Cave Heaven had accepted Pang Bo and Zhang Ningfei as disciples, while Ye Fan merely followed along with Pang Bo, not truly being a formal disciple, since at that time he had been identified as having a Desolate Ancient Wasted Body.

After arriving here, Zhang Ningfei had been taken away by his master for secluded cultivation, and Ye Fan and Pang Bo had rarely seen him even a few times. They never imagined that by the time they returned, this classmate had already been buried in the earth for over a year.

“Let’s put some soil on his grave.” Both of them felt a pang of sorrow — having come to this world together, they never imagined someone had already passed away, and they would never be able to see him again.

Zhang Ningfei had not been killed by a cultivator. A year earlier, he had gone to gather a certain spiritual herb and had been torn apart by a ferocious beast — he had died a horrific death.

“Do you remember, at graduation, you got drunk and cried and laughed, talking about your dreams and regrets…”

“After coming to this world, we never had much time together, and in the end, none of us got to see you one last time.”

The two of them poured wine onto his grave and remained silent for a long time — such was the world of cultivators, entirely ruthless, filled with danger and hardship.

When the two returned to Lingxu Cave Heaven, many people dared not even breathe loudly. Both sect leaders of Lingxu were extremely nervous, for even they were merely at the first heaven of the Dao Palace realm, fearing the two might grow angry because of this and bring calamity upon them.

“There’s no need for that. Lingxu has shown us great kindness — his accident had nothing to do with Lingxu Cave Heaven.”

Nearly six years had passed, and they were now cultivators of the Four Extremes Secret Realm, more than capable of looking down upon the entire Yan territory.

East Wilderness was truly vast — Lingxu Cave Heaven was among the lowest-tier sects, and the figures at the Dao Palace first heaven level here were already considered the very top experts of the Yan Kingdom, while a cultivator of the Four Extremes Secret Realm could dominate over a dozen kingdoms.

Perhaps only among dozens of kingdoms could a mid-sized sect emerge, and even hundreds of kingdoms might not produce a single great sect — in the boundless, vast East Wilderness, there were countless kingdoms beyond counting.

Elder Wu Qingfeng was invited out to see them. The sect leaders of Lingxu Cave Heaven still felt somewhat uneasy, knowing this elder had shown great kindness to the two of them.

In truth, aside from visiting their former classmate, the main reason Ye Fan and Pang Bo had come was to see this old man, for it was he who had first led both of them onto the path of cultivation.

Over the years, Elder Wu Qingfeng had aged somewhat, but his spirit remained good, and he was overjoyed to see them.

“My children, I’ve heard about your situation, your Great Dao injury…” the old man sighed.

“It’s alright, his fate is strong, he’ll get through this trial, don’t worry,” Pang Bo laughed, unable to tell him the truth, for the stakes were far too great.

“I never imagined you would achieve such accomplishments, able to contend with those Sage Children now,” Elder Wu Qingfeng said, very moved, for one of them was his own disciple.

The two spent a long time with Elder Wu Qingfeng, and before they left, Ye Fan left behind several jin of spirit spring water, within which a Divine Root was soaking — only then did they depart. Today’s farewell might well be the last time they would ever meet again…

As they walked far into the distance, they noticed the old man still standing at the sect gate, his hair entirely white, his back no longer straight, his figure thin and withered — the old man seemed as though he had turned to stone, standing there watching them depart into the distance.

This was very likely the final meeting between them. Ye Fan and Pang Bo also felt a deep sorrow. They turned and bowed deeply toward him from afar, then soared into the sky and flew away.