Ch. 169 - Shockwaves

Crossing through the void was incredibly dangerous, any mishap could mean instant annihilation. If Ye Fan hadn’t prepared in advance, he wouldn’t have survived. As space collapsed around him, he hid inside his cauldron and felt a shiver of dread.

The power of annihilation was like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, or snow burying blooming flowers, an unstoppable force of grand momentum against all life.

Space disintegrated. The physical body couldn't resist, it destroyed everything and obliterated life itself, as if trying to return the world to its origin.

The Godrune Cauldron didn’t budge, and the flowing Motherly Energy of All Things protected Ye Fan. In this storm of destruction, the cauldron was like a lifeboat, crashing through a stone wall before finally coming to a halt.

When the dust settled and the sky cleared, Ye Fan stepped out of the cauldron to find devastation all around. A mountain range had been razed to scorched earth. Life was wiped out, nothing remained.

“They really went all in, destroying the Domain Gate just to trap me in the void...” Ye Fan laughed wildly toward the sky, all his frustration from the past half year washing away.

He had been relentlessly hunted by Ji Quan, forced to hide in the Flame Domain without showing his face. But now, with one move, he had vented all his rage.

To burn a Supreme Giant alive, he could barely believe it himself. More than a dozen renowned cultivators had been reduced to ashes. It felt like a dream.

“Even if the Ji Clan finds me and I end up dead, it was worth it,” he said calmly. “But I won’t die, I have to find a way out of this void.”

He didn’t linger. In an instant, he turned into a shadow and vanished. The explosion had been too massive, others would surely be drawn to it. Best to leave as quickly as possible.

Ye Fan knew that escaping the Southern Region would be difficult. Since he couldn’t cross into the Northern Region right now, he decided to do the opposite, head further south.

The Southern Region was vast and boundless, filled with countless nations. The territories occupied by major powers like the Ji Clan, Supreme Mystery Sect, Radiant Light Sacred Ground, and Freespirit Sect were only a small corner of it.

Further south, it was said there were still one or two Sacred Grounds, but they were incredibly distant, just flying there would take half a year. That spoke to the enormity of the Southern Region, let alone the entire Eastern Wilderness.

Without Domain Gates to transmit messages or ways to traverse the void, regions within the Southern Region would remain isolated and disconnected.

Soon, Ye Fan discovered he was already sixty thousand miles from the Freespirit Sect. In just moments of void travel, he had gone that far, it was astonishing.

But what surprised him most was that he had ended up near the region of the Radiant Light Sacred Ground, only about a thousand miles away. “Maybe I can just hide here. No need to go farther,” he thought.

The fall of Ji Changkong sent shockwaves throughout the region. In less than a year, the Ji Clan had lost three Supreme Elders, like a tsunami crashing in from nowhere!

This wasn’t some dark age from ancient history. There was no grand catastrophe, yet the Ji Clan’s heavyweights kept dying, it was stunning.

It was one thing for beings like the Peacock Monarch and the Dark Crow, figures whose mere footsteps could shake the Southern Region even a thousand years ago.

But Ye Fan? Just a teenager? How could someone like him do something so earth-shattering, killing a Supreme Giant of the Ji Clan? It defied belief.

Cultivators everywhere were shaken. This was a massive event. The Ji Clan's fury might engulf the world.

"Ji Changkong was burned alive by a teenager who has only cultivated to the Oceanic Wheel Sea!"

"A Supreme Elder of the Ji Clan, completely incinerated, by a kid no older than fifteen!"

"This is unbelievable. Ji Changkong, dominant in the Southern Region for decades, reduced to ashes by a boy named Ye Fan."

"It’s like a fantasy story. A mighty figure, turned to charcoal, a lifetime of glory, now dust."

The whole region buzzed with chatter. The news spread like wildfire, and everyone was shocked.

The Five Elements True Flame could destroy everything. Anyone within the five elements couldn’t resist. Many cultivators felt a chill just thinking about it.

That Ji Changkong had died in this multi-colored godly flame only proved how lethal it was. Not even top figures could resist, turning back into elemental dust.

Ye Fan’s unique physique was no longer a secret. Word spread fast, and with it came endless trouble, not just from the Ji Clan, but from Sacred Grounds as well.

Worse still was the exposure of the Motherly Energy of All Things, a sacred treasure that countless cultivators would kill for.

Right now, Ye Fan was only at the Other Shore Stage, far from a true powerhouse. He wasn’t like the Peacock Monarch, who could roam free and dominate. Owning such a divine cauldron at his level was a curse more than a blessing.

While he had killed a Supreme Elder, shocking the Southern Region, people soon realized it wasn’t his own strength but the Five Elements True Fire that did the job.

That made many see him as an easy target, one with a treasure but not enough power to protect it. Many began hunting him.

"Kill him!"

That was the Ji Clan's decree. To send a kill order for one low-level cultivator, it was unprecedented in millennia.

Other forces could only move in secret. No one dared offend the Ji Clan openly. Right now, anyone who tried would be destroyed.

Ye Fan didn’t head farther south. Instead, he hid in a mountain range about a thousand miles from Radiant Light Sacred Ground. He thought the Ji Clan wouldn’t look there, it was too close to a rival power’s doorstep.

He was dead wrong.

The Ji Clan’s heritage was terrifying. They had profound knowledge of spatial runes, Domain Gates, and void travel, far beyond common imagination.

From the ruined altar, the depleted divine source, and the timing of the void rupture, they calculated Ye Fan’s trajectory across tens of thousands of miles.

That same day, a Domain Gate opened above the scorched earth. More than a hundred cultivators emerged, twenty-some elders and the rest elite young talents.

Some had a stillness like mountain abysses, deep and unreadable. Others radiated fierce auras, like peerless swords thirsting for blood.

All were strong. Even the youngest among them were exceptional, the Ji Clan’s top ten prodigies had nearly half show up.

"This scorched earth was caused by void collapse. That bastard didn’t die..." An elder gave orders: spread out, search the area, report any signs immediately.

And this was only the first wave. More cultivators were en route. If the Dark Crow and the Peacock Monarch hadn’t recently provoked the Ji Clan, one of their stronger Supreme Giants would’ve come to personally kill Ye Fan.

Ji Quan, powerful beyond measure, sent messages to lock down the area. They planned to trap Ye Fan.

He had no idea how they found him so fast. That very night, Ji Clan cultivators flew overhead. “How the hell did they locate this place?” he wondered, unaware of the Ji Clan’s spatial calculations.

Realizing danger was imminent, Ye Fan fled overnight. But to his horror, the region was already sealed, dozens of cultivators scouring the land.

Two days later, they discovered his trail.

“The Ji Clan’s depth is terrifying. They even calculated where the void ruptured,” Ye Fan thought in awe.

He had to get out, if Radiant Light Sacred Ground got involved, things could get worse.

If not for his supreme movement techniques, he would've died the moment they found him. Even so, shaking them was nearly impossible.

By the fifth day, he had looped around to a vast grassland, ten thousand miles from Radiant Light Sacred Ground. But the Ji Clan tracked him like hounds. They wouldn't let go.

On the sixth day, Ye Fan finally clashed with some of the Ji Clan’s youth. A bloody fight broke out, and with his cauldron, he forced his way out.

On the eighth day, deep in the grassland, a tall man blocked his path. He looked about twenty, dark as ink, with razor-sharp eyes, bronze skin, and a solid frame. His aura was heavy and calm.

“Who are you?” Ye Fan asked. For someone to chase him down solo, they had to be formidable.

“Ji Haiyue!” the man replied, his voice like a bell.

“Never heard of you.”

“That’s your ignorance.” From the grass behind, over a dozen people emerged.

“Of the Ji Clan’s younger generation, three have reached the third realm. Haiyue, our Fifth Brother, is one of them.”

Ye Fan’s heart tightened. Even many senior cultivators only reached the third realm after cultivating their entire life. Anyone among the younger generation who had done so was exceptional, there were only a handful in the Southern Region.

He knew of maybe a dozen such individuals. The Ji Clan had three. Radiant Light likely had three as well. Then there were others like Hua Yunfei, Li Youyou…

“Your Five Elements True Fire is spent. You’ve got nothing left. Let’s see how you survive now,” Ji Haiyue said, eyes sharp like lightning, blocking Ye Fan’s path.

Ye Fan smirked. Without a word, he shot into the sky. He wouldn’t fight head-on, he wasn’t surrounded yet.

But as he ascended, the air turned gray. A strange power dragged him back to the ground.

Something was wrong. This place had been prepared. Runes had been etched into the terrain, forming a trap that locked the area's energy lines and sealed him in.

“Don’t waste your energy,” Ji Haiyue sneered. “The moment you stepped into this place, your fate was sealed.”

He stepped forward, but cautiously. The Ji Clan's past losses made them wary.

A black battle flag flew from Ji Haiyue’s Oceanic Wheel Realm, rising into the air. It radiated ominous fog and strange magic, pulling at Ye Fan’s spirit.

Then, a sweet laugh echoed in Ye Fan’s ears, like heavenly music.

“Little Brother Ye, need a hand?” came the telepathic voice of the Radiant Light Saintess.

Ye Fan frowned. So Radiant Light Sacred Ground had been alerted after all.

“If you want to help, take out Ji Haiyue first,” Ye Fan replied.

“You make it sound so easy. He’s second only to Ji Haoyue and Ji Biyue. Before Ji Ziyue matures, he’s the undisputed number three of their younger generation.”

The Saintess's voice was silky smooth, seductive and elegant. “If I kill him, I’d incur a massive karmic debt with the Ji Clan. But... I have another way to get you out. You want to go north, right? So do I. We can travel together.”

“Sure. I'd be honored.”

In a situation like this, any help was welcome. He knew the Saintess wasn’t to be trifled with, but survival came first.

Her laugh tinkled like silver bells, soft as a spring breeze. “I need to prepare. You hold off Ji Haiyue a little longer…”

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