147: The Ancestral Symbol first appeared, and undercurrents surged in the Southern Wilderness.
Ye Chen stood in mid-air, Chaos currents circling around him like dragons, pushing away all the filth and miasma of the swamp, creating a Domain of his own. The guixu sword in his hand hummed incessantly; its grey luster was restrained, yet it emitted a deathly aura ten times more terrifying than before.
The shock on the Sinister Deacon's face froze, replaced by a ghost-like disbelief. "You... you broke through? How is that possible! Where are the Death Soul Attraction and the Blood Soul Seal?!" He clearly felt that not only had Ye Chen's injuries completely healed and his cultivation skyrocketed, but more importantly, the Dark Hall's mark, which had been like a maggot on a bone, had completely disappeared!
This completely exceeded his understanding! Even a Tiangang Realm expert would need some effort to remove the Blood Soul Seal planted by an Elder of the hall, let alone a kid who had just broken through to the Earth Fiend Realm Fourth Level?
"The dead don't need to know much." Ye Chen's voice was flat, yet it carried an unquestionable majesty. His gaze swept over the six Earth Fiend Realm subordinates below who had just scrambled up in confusion, finally locking onto the Sinister Deacon.
Without any superfluous words, Ye Chen moved.
He took a step forward, and the Void Realm beneath his feet seemed to ripple as his figure appeared before the Sinister Deacon as if teleporting. His speed was at the extreme, far exceeding what an Earth Fiend Realm Fourth Level should possess!
"Playing tricks! Yellow Springs Netherworld!" Though startled, the Sinister Deacon did not panic. His cultivation at the Peak Ninth Level of Disha Realm erupted fully as he thrust both palms out. The vast Demonic Astral Power transformed into two roaring Netherworld Rivers—one to defile the Physical Body and the other to corrode the Divine Soul—intertwining as they surged toward Ye Chen! This was his ultimate technique, its power even greater than the previous Yellow Springs Palm!
However, facing this attack that would make any Cultivator of the same level turn pale, Ye Chen simply thrust out his sword.
At the tip of the guixu sword, a point of extreme darkness emerged. It was not nothingness, but the end where all things return to silence, the ultimate manifestation of Chaos! Wherever the sword tip passed, the two Netherworld Rivers were like they had met their nemesis; the river water parted, evaporated, and annihilated on its own, unable to get within three feet of the sword blade!
The Guixu Sword Intent, bolstered by the chaos ancestral talisman, possessed an Innate suppression over such sinister Demonic Techniques!
"What?!" The Sinister Deacon's pupils shrank, and alarm bells rang in his heart. He retreated hastily while sacrificing a black shield engraved with a hideous ghost head. The shield grew with the wind, the ghost head roared, and it emitted a powerful defensive fluctuation.
"Break."
A single word escaped Ye Chen's lips. The guixu sword's speed increased again, and that point of darkness at the tip lightly tapped the center of the Ghost Head Shield.
"Crack... Boom!"
The High Grade Spiritual Artifact shield, capable of withstanding a full-force blow from the Ninth Layer Earth Fiend Realm, was like paper. Starting from where the sword tip landed, cracks instantly spread across the whole thing. In the next moment, it exploded violently. Before the fragments could even scatter, they were completely annihilated into nothingness by the surrounding Chaos currents!
The sword's momentum didn't stop. Like piercing through a thin veil, it went straight through the Sinister Deacon's Protective Aura and pointed toward his brow!
"No!! I am a Dark Hall Deacon, you kill me..." Extreme fear of death overwhelmed the Sinister Deacon, and he let out a desperate roar.
The sound stopped abruptly.
The tip of the guixu sword lightly touched his brow. No blood flowed out, but his eyes instantly dimmed. All his vitality, Divine Soul, and even the pure Demonic Astral Power he had cultivated for many years were completely annihilated and swallowed by the Guixu Sword Intent in an instant, transforming into the most primal energy to feed back into Ye Chen himself.
Peak Ninth Level of Disha Realm, Dark Hall Deacon, dead!
All this happened in an instant, so fast that the six Earth Fiend Realm subordinates who had just regained their footing had no time to react. When they saw the Deacon's body slowly dissipate like dust without leaving a single trace, a boundless chill rushed from the soles of their feet to the crowns of their heads!
Escape!
This was the only thought in their minds!
The six of them were like startled rabbits, fleeing for their lives in different directions!
Ye Chen's gaze was cold, and he did not pursue them. He slowly closed his eyes, communicating his mind with the chaos ancestral talisman deep within his Qi Sea. Although it was only initially activated and far from being refined, he could already borrow a sliver of its true Chaos Origin power.
With a thought, the Chaos currents surrounding him suddenly split into six strands, like sentient grey threads. Ignoring the distance of space, they instantly caught up to the six fleeing Dark Hall members.
"Chiss, chiss, chiss..."
Six almost inaudible soft sounds rang out nearly simultaneously. The figures of those six Earth Fiend Realm experts suddenly stiffened, and then they quietly dissipated as if erased from the world by an eraser, leaving no evidence of their existence.
The swamp returned to a deathly silence, with only the ripples brought by the breeze blowing across the water's surface proving that a brief but perception-shattering battle had just occurred here.
Ye Chen slowly landed, feeling the surging power within his body and the faint pulsation from the chaos ancestral talisman, his heart churning with emotions. The power of this chaos ancestral talisman far exceeded his imagination! Not only did it allow him to recover and break through instantly, but it could also trigger a sliver of true Chaos law power, causing his Guixu Sword Intent to undergo a qualitative leap.
"Dark Hall... Tiangang Realm..." he muttered to himself, his gaze turning toward the vast mountains deeper in the Southern Wilderness. With the chaos ancestral talisman, he had the confidence to establish himself in the Southern Wilderness and even resist the Dark Hall's pursuit. However, he also knew that he had only initially triggered the talisman's power, which consumed a lot of energy, and if the talisman's aura were used frequently, it would likely attract the attention of even more terrifying existences.
The priority now was to familiarize himself with his new power as quickly as possible and find a way to further refine the chaos ancestral talisman.
His Divine Sense swept the area, and after confirming there were no more trackers, his figure flashed, turning into a faint grey shadow, and he sped toward the depths of the more deserted primeval forest in the opposite direction of the Blackwater River... A few days later, a piece of news began to circulate quietly among some hidden outposts and small tribes on the edge of the Southern Wilderness.
A Peak Ninth Level of Disha Realm Deacon of the Dark Hall, along with an entire Soul Chasing Squad he led, had been wiped out in the Southern Wilderness swamp area, with not even their bones remaining! And their target, the young man named Ye Chen, was suspected of carrying an ancient treasure. Not only had his injuries fully healed and his cultivation greatly improved, but he also possessed some kind of strange power that countered the Dark Hall's Demonic Techniques!
As soon as the news came out, the Dark Hall's forces in the Southern Wilderness were shaken, and more spies and experts were sent to that area. At the same time, many local Southern Wilderness forces, rogue experts, and even evil Cultivators who had heard the news began to take a strong interest in the name "Ye Chen" and the "ancient treasure" he carried.
The waters of the Southern Wilderness began to grow murky and turbulent because of Ye Chen's arrival.
Meanwhile, in a valley filled with toxic miasma thousands of miles deep into the Southern Wilderness.
Ye Chen sat cross-legged in a simple cave he had temporarily carved out, with a Concealment Formation set up at the entrance. Chaos currents slowly circulated around him, constantly absorbing the dense but poisonous Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi in the valley, which was converted into pure Chaos Gang Qi through the Chaos Myriad Transformation Art.
In front of him, the chaos ancestral talisman floated quietly, emitting a faint light. The ancient runes on its surface moved slowly like living things, expounding the ultimate principles of heaven and earth.
Suddenly, his brow twitched slightly, and he opened his eyes, his gaze piercing through the Formation to look toward the valley entrance.
From there came the sound of intense fighting and a woman's cry of alarm and anger, interspersed with a few stiff, strange, and greedy Southern Wilderness dialect phrases.
"The Witch Poison Sect is handling business, bystanders get lost! Our Young Lord has taken a fancy to the 'wood spirit heart' on this little lady!"
Trouble seemed to always come uninvited.