The unscrupulous Daoist clasped his hands behind his back, furrowed his brow deeply, and paced back and forth, murmuring to himself: “The Demon Emperor truly lives up to his name — to have set up two tombs, a Yang Tomb and a Yin Grave. This place… is it a deliberate weakness he left behind?”
The fat Daoist remained deeply uncertain. He stared at the distant active volcano, then gazed at the unfathomably deep black pool nearby. His two brows were knitting together almost completely as he said: “If I am not mistaken, this Yin Grave is no simple matter. Everyone who goes in will die…”
“But Daoist, aren’t you alive and well?” Ye Fan interjected from the side.
“You’re deliberately trying to rile me up, aren’t you?” The unscrupulous Daoist was finding fault with everything about Ye Fan at this point. “You wasteful child — why don’t you go down and keep the Demon Emperor company!”
“Please, Daoist, don’t take your frustrations out on me. This really has nothing to do with me.”
“Sigh!” The unscrupulous Daoist plopped down on the ground, his expression one of utter despondence. “Though I have discovered a world-shaking secret, I have no way to open the Yin Grave. I expect that a killing formation has been laid out below. Just now, if I had dived to the bottom of the black pool and entered the Yin Palace, I would most likely no longer exist in this world.”
“In that case, the Eastern Wasteland human race’s supreme treasure — the Desolate Tower — is in the Yin Grave beneath this black pool?” Ye Fan sat on a distant boulder, keeping a safe distance to avoid inviting trouble. “No wonder those five great figures could find no trace of the Desolate Tower no matter what they did — it turns out it is sealed away right here.”
The unscrupulous Daoist ignored him. He assumed a thoughtful expression and began sketching and marking on the ground again, seemingly deducing the various connections between the Yang Tomb and the Yin Grave. In the end, he let out a long sigh, revealing a helpless expression. “To have missed the supreme treasure, only to stumble upon this world-shaking Yin Grave by chance — yet be unable to enter it. Truly, it is a source of both regret and anguish!”
“Aren’t there several great figures over there?” Ye Fan gestured toward the five supreme powerhouses hovering in the air above the active volcano.
“Even if they enter, they will likely find it difficult to escape with their lives intact. This is a killing formation with no way out. The Yang Tomb is a deliberate weakness the Demon Emperor left behind, passing his demonic clan’s supreme treasure and his source of power to later generations. But this place is his true resting ground — not to be disturbed by outsiders. By revealing the Yang Tomb, he concealed the Yin Grave. Perhaps there are other wondrous purposes as well — one yin and one yang, embracing the Taiji, abstruse beyond measure.” At this point, the unscrupulous Daoist wore a look of wistful melancholy. “Unless one possesses the Eastern Wasteland human race’s supreme treasure — otherwise, even if some peerless powerhouse could break through the killing formation, they could not hold the Yin Grave in place. It would plunge beneath the Eastern Wasteland’s earth, like a dragon returning to the sea, leaving no trace to be found.”
“The Desolate Tower is so miraculous that it can hold the Demon Emperor’s Yin Grave in place — it is even more powerful than a peerless powerhouse?” Ye Fan revealed a look of astonishment.
“Of course!” The unscrupulous Daoist wore an expression of yearning admiration. “It is said the Desolate Tower has existed for endless ages. From what era it was passed down, no one can say — in this world there is no person or thing it cannot suppress!”
“Is it truly that fearsome?”
The fat Daoist’s expression took on a look of faraway longing. “Throughout the ages, whether immortals truly exist or not has never been settled — no one can say clearly. But in the Eastern Wasteland, every legend about immortals is connected to the Desolate Tower.”
“What does it have to do with the Desolate Tower?” Ye Fan revealed a look of surprise.
“It is said that throughout this endless span of ages, there have been immortals who appeared in the Eastern Wasteland on several occasions, and these occurrences were recorded in ancient texts. In every single one of these instances, without exception, every one of these ‘immortals’ was suppressed to death by the Desolate Tower!”
“That can’t be — the Desolate Tower is that terrifying?!” Ye Fan was quite astonished. Whether immortals truly existed was a matter without consensus in the current age. But one could well imagine that if immortals did exist, they would necessarily stand above every cultivator in the world. To be so supremely powerful, yet still unable to resist the Desolate Tower’s suppression — this was truly shocking to hear.
“Naturally it is terrifying. Otherwise, why would so many great figures come here? I imagine it won’t be long before the masters of the Sacred Grounds come here in person. After all, the Eastern Wasteland is simply too vast — some received word later than others. But once they learn of this, they will surely carve ‘Dao Runes,’ traversing the void directly to arrive.”
“Just what is the origin of the Desolate Tower, for it to be so exceptional and so powerful?” Ye Fan’s heart could not settle.
“Legend has it that even before the first living beings were born in the Eastern Wasteland, it already existed in this world. No one knows where it came from.”
“What a shame — a treasure already in hand, and you threw it away, Daoist. Treating a supreme treasure as scrap bronze and iron.” Ye Fan shook his head and sighed, putting on an act.
Hearing these words, the unscrupulous Daoist’s face immediately turned very ugly — even greener than the green bronze — and he fumed indignantly: “If it weren’t for you, I would have had it in hand already.”
“Daoist, that’s not how it should be said. You were the one who discarded it first yourself. What a pity — that Desolate Tower.”
“Who told you it was the Desolate Tower? Which of my words said it was the Eastern Wasteland human race’s supreme treasure?”
Ye Fan was greatly surprised. “If it’s not the Desolate Tower, why were you so anxious and upset? It’s just a piece of old bronze — I also feel it has nothing to do with the Desolate Tower.”
“What do you know — you little brat. I can’t be bothered with you!” The unscrupulous Daoist was bursting with suppressed anger and refused to say any more about the green bronze.
Though Ye Fan appeared to be only eleven or twelve years old, his true age had long since exceeded twenty, so being called a little brat naturally left him displeased. He muttered under his breath: “What the hell!”
“Who are you telling off?” The unscrupulous Daoist asked with an uncertain and suspicious look.
“You!” Ye Fan was inwardly annoyed and answered accordingly without any grace.
“You’re telling me off? What nonsense — I haven’t time to deal with you.” With that, the unscrupulous Daoist turned around and stared blankly at the black pool.
“Daoist, you don’t dare go deep into the Yin Grave anyway, and there’s nothing else to do either way. Why not tell me what’s going on with the green bronze? Let me know its background — after all, it was thrown away from my hands…”
“You… have the nerve to bring that up!” Hearing these words, the fat Daoist could not contain his rage, his eyes going red.
“It seems it really is quite extraordinary. I’m guessing it’s only slightly inferior to the Desolate Tower…” Ye Fan was truly harboring no good intentions — he was deliberately provoking the unscrupulous Daoist, though of course he did not dare to go too far.
“You little brat, trying to play tricks with me — I’ll keep you in suspense. I’m not going to tell you.” The fat Daoist turned away and stopped paying him any attention.
“Daoist, you really have no sense of decency. You took three spirit-awakened weapons from my hands, yet now that I ask you one simple thing, you put on this kind of attitude…”
The unscrupulous Daoist, seeing Ye Fan rattling on and showing off without stop, wanted nothing more than to grab him by the throat. He said: “Even ten, a hundred, a thousand spirit-awakened weapons could not be exchanged for the green bronze that you threw away!”
“Daoist, do you have to harbor such deep resentment? I only casually tossed it into the black pool — who told you not to inform me earlier that it was a supreme treasure…”
Watching this eleven- or twelve-year-old little brat jabbering on relentlessly and showing off without end, the more the unscrupulous Daoist recalled the whole affair, the worse he felt, until he was nearly on the verge of bitter, tearless weeping — he wanted to cut off both his own hands. How could he have been so careless with them? Why hadn’t he held on to it at the time?
“Boundless… damn it all!” He let out a heavy breath. “Stop your jabbering and behave yourself!”
“Sigh!” Ye Fan shook his head and let out a sigh, but inwardly he was bursting with exhilaration. In just a short while, he had made the unscrupulous Daoist consumed with regret — successfully stirring up his negative emotions — and had finally vented the breath of resentment he had been holding.
When Ye Fan stopped talking, the fat Daoist began speaking on his own, as though in lamentation: “Who says this scrap of bronze is inferior to the Desolate Tower? Ten thousand years ago, the Eastern Wasteland nearly turned upside down because of that piece of green bronze.”
“Such a thing happened?” Ye Fan revealed a look of confusion.
“Indeed — even when the Desolate Tower was lost, nothing like that upheaval occurred. But that piece of green bronze threw the entire Eastern Wasteland into unrest.”
“The Desolate Tower can suppress immortals to death — its might is irresistible, and it is already counted as the Eastern Wasteland’s supreme treasure. Could the green bronze be even more powerful than it?”
The fat Daoist listlessly replied: “The green bronze is something from the Central Province. When it was lost back then, every supreme powerhouse of the Central Province came out in force, and the Eastern Wasteland, the Southern Ranges, the Western Desert, and the Northern Plains were nearly overturned entirely. It was a tremendous upheaval!”
Ye Fan heard this and drew in a sharp breath of cold air.
He knew deeply that the Central Province was even more vast and boundless than the Eastern Wasteland — even a cultivator riding a divine rainbow would struggle to traverse it. To travel from one end to the other, one could only carve “Dao Runes” into the veins of the mountains and great earth, condense “celestial momentum,” and pass through the void.
It was said that the Central Province was rich in ancient sites and had nurtured extraordinary people, with powerful individuals emerging in great numbers — an extremely mysterious and prosperous ancient land.
“Who had such audacity, provoking all the supreme masters of the Central Province to come out…”
“Naturally it was the last great emperor to unify the Eastern Wasteland’s demonic clan — who brought enormous trouble down upon the human race of the Eastern Wasteland!”
“It seems the Demon Emperor was very powerful — stirring up winds and clouds in all directions. Truly a remarkable figure.”
The unscrupulous Daoist gave him an irritated look and said: “Did you really need to say that? If he weren’t strong enough, how could he have unified the Eastern Wasteland’s demonic clan and achieved an immortal imperial legacy?”
Ye Fan thought for a moment and asked: “How can you be certain that the piece of green bronze belongs to the Central Province? And what exactly is it?”