The human body is like a reservoir. Cultivation attainment is like water. Combat power is the intelligent application of that water. Ye Fan had long since built a reservoir of considerable divine sense attainment — yet before, he had lacked the mental technique to circulate it. Now, having obtained the True Scripture of the Sun, everything fell naturally into place.
In one month’s time, a powerful expert was swiftly forged. His combat power had risen by a full measure, and he now possessed the ability to move openly in the Northern Domain and face various formidable enemies.
Ye Fan sat cross-legged in the void — like an indestructible golden body — streaming golden mist and radiant light. His entire form seemed cast from divine gold, without a single flaw, his supreme physique glowing and shimmering brilliantly.
“Swish!”
A single thought, and he appeared instantaneously on the ground. The two ancient beings trembled immediately. “You said,” they spoke, “that if we translated the ancient scripture, you would let us go.”
“My word is my word. But if you attack me in the future, you will still be killed without mercy.” Ye Fan’s brow shot out a one-cun-long golden celestial sword, which entered their skulls and severed the relevant memories. Then he extended his hand and tapped them once — two beams of golden mist flew out, surging into their bodies and instantly dissolving the prohibitions placed upon the two ancient beings.
Having lost the relevant memories, the two Primordial beings had not, however, forgotten that this was the Holy Body that the young master of the Divine Spirit Valley wanted killed. They immediately raised their eyes and lunged to attack.
“It seems we won’t be waiting until the future — you’re already attacking me now.” Ye Fan stepped back once, and the golden divine sense at his brow transformed into a small cauldron. It flew out in an instant, emanating blazing divine power — like the sun itself plunging downward.
“Puff!”
At such close range, after triggering the Eight Prohibition Domain, a cauldron formed from such powerful divine sense was nearly invincible against anything — in a single instant, the two ancient beings were shattered into fragments, body and divine sense both obliterated.
Ye Fan drew a deep, steady breath. The small cauldron formed from the All-Matter Prime Qi traveled up the great dragon of his spine, then entered the space at his brow — settling there within.
Whichever great secret realm one cultivated, the primary weapon had to be placed there. Now at last, the small cauldron had entered the golden space at his brow — it would become his proof-of-Dao object in times to come.
In the one month he had been in seclusion, many things had occurred in the outside world. The entire Eastern Desolation had been unsettled.
The Northern Emperor had once again entered the Ji Family’s domain — welcomed into the grand imperial hall left behind by the Void Great Emperor. And his profound ancestor had emerged, personally crossing vast distances to arrive, holding extended secret talks with the Ji clan.
Word spread outside that the Ji Family had softened their stance and were very likely to have agreed to the marriage proposal — because someone had witnessed the Ji Family’s little moon throwing a tantrum, tearing a handful of beard from an elder, and attempting to cross the void to flee.
Unfortunately, she was captured and brought back. The matter dissolved into nothing, and no concrete news emerged.
Wang Teng looked down upon the Eastern Desolation. He had encountered few peers who could match him. Over these many days, talented individuals had issued challenges — but not one had lasted through even a single exchange. The difference in power was like heaven and earth.
The Northern Emperor, surveying the Eastern Domain’s younger generation without equal — every word and action drawing notice, not a single person his opponent — the golden ancient war chariot advanced wherever he directed, and even sect masters gave way before him.
His future was limitlessly brilliant and without bound. Step by step he advanced on the Great Emperor’s path — each step unshakably firm. To this day, aside from the Central Emperor, not one person had been able to stop him by even half a step.
Moreover, he kept close company with the Primordial royal clan. They often rode in the same war chariot, traveling together with an ancient being called Zitiandu from the Divine Spirit Valley, who had once pressed a sect master to death with a single hand.
One could say that Wang Teng at present not only crushed all of the Eastern Desolation’s younger generation into breathlessness — even Saint-Master-level figures grew wary of him and preferred not to provoke him.
The Northern Emperor — now at the height of his power, with no one in the current Eastern Desolation willing to offend him. He possessed an air of standing alone at the summit, seeing no rival — his name shaking the vast land.
Throughout this month, Wang Teng and Zitiandu had channeled the Divine Spirit Valley’s small golden lake to search for Ye Fan’s whereabouts — but to utterly no avail. They found nothing throughout.
When Ye Fan came out of seclusion and entered the outside world, he heard many rumors and news. The Northern Yuan Wang Family was still spreading words to disparage him — portraying him as completely worthless, claiming he could only keep his head down and didn’t dare show himself.
“What is Ye Fan? With my elder cousin Wang Teng in the Eastern Desolation, he can only cower in some corner — never daring to step out for as long as he lives!”
“My elder cousin is called the Northern Emperor. With him in this world, what is a Holy Body worth? He should regret being born in the same era!”
Wang Teng’s kinsmen spoke up one after another, condemning Ye Fan as utterly worthless, not even treating him as someone worth considering. Of course, all of this was done on someone’s instruction.
The purpose was simple: keep the hot-blooded, spirited Ye Fan from cultivating in peace. If he jumped out, all the better — crush and kill him with force. If he endured and stayed hidden, it would still disturb his mind and affect the state of his Dao.
Over this past month and more, many people had been indignant. Even Li Heishui and Pang Bo and the others, far away at the Chamber of Extraordinary Scholars, had heard the various arrogant proclamations.
“Damn them — has the young generation of the Wang Family grown tired of living?” Li Heishui fumed.
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll be heading to the Eastern Desolation for the great war. At that point, we’ll let our strength do the talking and shut certain people’s mouths!” Recently, a barbarian had grown close to their group, waving his wolf-fang cudgel as he spoke.
Rumor had it that all the great Primordial royal clans were stirring with restless energy — boundless winds of fate converging on Purple Mountain, with all the major human forces equally unable to sit still.
With Ye Fan absent for an entire month, the Eastern Desolation had naturally been full of discussion. Some said this was as it should be — that before he had grown strong enough, he ought to endure in silence.
Others said a Holy Body lacked a spirit of fearless, forward-charging momentum — having made no response whatsoever, he ought to let his will be made known. Otherwise, even if he became powerful in the future, he would lack the conviction needed to contend with a Great Emperor.
Amid this clamoring outside world, a dog appeared — making arrogant proclamations to all under heaven, bellowing that it would take the Northern Emperor as its human pet, and telling him to hurry up and come kneel down and accept death.
People had seen plenty of arrogant figures, but no one had ever seen a dog this arrogant. At the height of the Northern Emperor’s fearsome prestige, a large dog was howling like this through the Eastern Desolation — dropping jaws everywhere.
“Is this the legendary treacherous dog? Last time it killed two Great Ables and gave the Northern Emperor a serious setback on the Ancient Emperor Mountain — and now it’s jumped out again?”
The Black Emperor bounded out, calling out the Northern Emperor, ridiculing every last one of the Wang Family’s younger generation — proclaiming they didn’t even qualify to be human pets, fit only to be killed and used as fertilizer for flowers.
That large dog lived up to its reputation. After two days of roaring proclamations, it struck — laying down a killing formation that turned one of the Wang Family’s auction halls into a slaughterhouse and razed it to the ground. Not a single person escaped with their life.
The Wang Family made a massive move in response — four Great Ables joining forces, chasing the great black dog through the entire Eastern Desolation with intent to boil it into a pot of dog stew, stirring up a tremendous storm.
Moreover, one of the Wang Family’s Ancestral Elders personally struck out en route, hoping to shackle the Black Emperor and ambush him on the road.
The Black Emperor was straightforward — he ran. He made no attempt to fight back. According to reports, someone had seen it standing upright on two legs, wearing a pair of flamboyant patterned undershorts, carrying a jade-carved little girl on its back, using an extraordinarily swift footwork technique to shake the Wang Family’s Ancestral Elder across eighteen mountain ridges — outclassing him completely in speed and making a clean escape.
Afterward, that Wang Family Ancestral Elder had a face full of gloom and choked on a mouthful of dust. He had only seen a large dog in flamboyant undershorts, standing on its two hind legs, turn back and let off three resounding farts in his direction before vanishing from sight.
“You cursed dog!”
The entire Wang Family itched to flay it alive, but it was faster than a hare — completely impossible to catch. Every carefully laid divine formation failed to trap it.
“Now that Ye Fan himself doesn’t dare show himself, all he can do is rely on a demon dog to stir up trouble.”
“The Holy Body will never be able to catch up with our clan’s imperial scion for as long as he lives. He can only gaze up from a corner his whole life!”
“Ye Fan, you’d better stay hidden far away. With my elder cousin around, you will never rise — you might as well never show yourself for the rest of your life!”
“The Holy Body — his one and only purpose is to serve as a green leaf, a foil for our clan’s younger brother’s unrivaled heroic bearing. Being born in the same era as him is the greatest tragedy of his life!”
The young members of the Wang Family couldn’t catch the Black Emperor, so they vented all their grievances onto Ye Fan — their words vicious and malicious, portraying him as utterly worthless and subjecting him to the full extent of contempt and humiliation.
After emerging from seclusion, Ye Fan heard these rumors along the road and smiled — but it was a cold smile. He had only recently broken through and was looking for just such a chance to temper himself.
“No rush. I’ll take my time.” Along this road he carried the God-Scourging Whip on his back and walked at an unhurried pace, contemplating Source Arts every step of the way.
In this great land of the Northern Domain, he could move freely and fear no powerful enemy — unless an ancient king surpassing the Saint-Master level appeared. He could look down upon all under heaven with complete confidence.
“Source Earth Master… requires the recognition of heaven and earth, and requires gathering fragments of law from within tens of thousands of dragon veins.”
Ye Fan had been thinking constantly about how to achieve the realm of Source Earth Master, finding it incomparably difficult. Though he was already very close, there was a feeling of being separated by an immense gulf despite being so near.
“No wonder only five Source Heaven Masters have existed throughout all of history — just becoming a Source Earth Master is this difficult.”
Just how powerful was a Source Heaven Master? It was difficult to quantify. In the past, they had caused every Sacred Ground to turn green with helplessness and yet left them without recourse. Walking into the Primordial Forbidden Zone, one could see the corpse of the Old Imperial Master — and yet a Source Heaven Master could lay formations there.
The Northern Domain was sparsely populated. Often, no city could be found across a million li. The barren land was bare and lifeless — fully ninety percent of the terrain was wasteland.
Ye Fan pressed forward. At his current level of Source Arts mastery, he could naturally perceive dragon veins, excavating several large chunks of divine source — all the size of washbasins.
During this process, several Primordial ancient beings were roused from their slumber, flying out of an underground dragon vein ancient mine. But they proved unable to do anything to Ye Fan — after all, no Primordial Ancestor-King had yet awakened.
Several days later, Ye Fan arrived at the divine city outside of which he had not stood for several years. He raised his eyes and looked up — it pressed down upon the earth like a celestial capital.
The imposing city was vast and boundless. Its gates could accommodate more than a hundred horses walking side by side. The moment he entered the holy city, he drew the attention of certain people, who looked over toward him.
“He is… the Holy Body!”
“It’s really him — the Holy Body Ye Fan has returned!”
“With the Wang Family searching for him everywhere just now, he actually appears at a time like this — without any concealment!”
Ye Fan was recognized at once. In those years, he had stirred boundless storms in this place. Now that he had returned, it immediately stirred up a wave of sensation.
He did not seek out old friends or go to see An Miaoyi and the others. He went directly to a premier gambling-on-stones house.
The gambling-on-stones establishments of the divine city were the finest in the world. The Sacred-Ground-level stone houses were without equal across the Five Domains. The Wang Family had one as well, situated in a prosperous district, with a Great Able standing guard within.
“The Holy Body Ye Fan is back!”
The entire street buzzed — all eyes turned his way, followed by a great uproar. The great stone-gambling battle from back then was something people still couldn’t forget, and it had driven them to a frenzy.
Now, his circumstances were not particularly favorable — yet he had the audacity to return this openly and without concealment. He was certainly doing so because he had something to back him up.
“Does he want to challenge the Northern Emperor to a decisive battle?!”
“That’s… he’s heading straight for the Wang Family’s stone gambling house!”
“Things are going to get lively. You can be certain that today will see earth-shaking waves — either the Holy Body dies, or the Wang Family is uprooted from the divine city entirely!”
Throughout the city, many people received word. The streets emptied as crowds surged toward this place. Not a few people called out to Ye Fan in greeting.
Back then, the stone-gambling battle had stirred winds too great — many people recognized him, and even more had drunk with him in those days.
Ye Fan walked with unhurried composure — neither fast nor slow — his footsteps landing upon the ground with a particular rhythm, like celestial drums reverberating in people’s hearts. This was a formidable cadence.
“Sure enough — he’s heading for the Wang Family’s stone house!”
Everyone knew: today could not possibly end peacefully. There would be a collision like a comet striking the earth.
“No concealment, coming openly — he’s going to confront them bare and unabashed, to trample the Wang Family’s face?!” Some who longed for the world to be in chaos were intensely stirred.
Not long before, the Wang Family had been making arrogant proclamations everywhere. If at this moment he uprooted their foundation in the divine city, it would absolutely be earth-shaking — equivalent to slapping the face of the most terrifying great power in the Northern Plains.