Chapter 1081: Chaos of Ancient Times

The gleaming, sharp spear tip shimmered with dark golden light. Horrifying bloodstains dripped from it, and a head was impaled upon it, its black hair matted into strands by the gore.

Wang Teng’s expression was ferocious, his eyes filled with endless chill and blood-red defiance. He transmitted a mental wave, roaring, "You won't get the Chaotic Ancient Scripture, nor the Ancient Emperor Scripture! I'd rather die than leave them to you. As for the Pre-Secret among the Nine Secrets, only I know it in this era. Let it be lost forever!"

He shouted and roared, his mind in chaos. The demonic patterns on his forehead became even clearer, making him appear inhuman. Dark light shot skyward from his skull, as if an unknown creature was about to materialize.

Ye Fan flicked his finger, and golden immortal light scattered the dark energy. Thunder rumbled in his palm as he tried to forcefully extract Wang Teng's soul for examination.

"You are no longer the pure Wang Teng; you are a combination of your original resentment and the shattered mark of the Undying Mountain. Rather than living in such torment, a life worse than death, it would be better for you to be freed sooner."

Ye Fan recited a true scripture, intending to purify Wang Teng, or at least dissolve the mysterious mark that made him feel uneasy.

"I am immortal... Void Emperor, I'm not finished with you!" A beast-like roar erupted from Wang Teng's mind, and his entire skull cracked.

Ye Fan was fearless. He continued reciting the Scripture of Salvation. He wasn't worried about any ancient emperor's reincarnation; if that were the case, Wang Teng would have been controlled long ago, not in such a state.

Thinking about it, it was merely a wisp of evil thought, a fragmented spiritual imprint—formidable as it might be, it couldn't stir up much trouble!

"Kill, kill, kill..." Wang Teng continuously roared, emitting cold demonic sounds, and an inexplicable secret art unfolded.

Dark light surged from his crown, condensing into a demonic fetus that was completely black, with wind-thunder wings on its back, an ancestral dragon horn on its head, and treading on chaotic light, possessing considerable power!

"You were killed by the Void Emperor over a hundred thousand years ago, just a wisp of remnant thought. You don't even know who you are anymore. Be annihilated quickly!"

Ye Fan said coldly, reciting the Scripture of Salvation. His entire body radiated boundless light, becoming increasingly sacred and auspicious. The black clouds immediately shattered and continuously dissolved.

"Ah..." Wang Teng and the phantom screamed together.

*Bang!*

Ye Fan was shocked; the head cracked. He immediately extracted the soul, intending to read its memories. This was an invaluable immortal treasure, containing emperor inheritances and profound arts from the Nine Secrets.

"I won't let you succeed!" Wang Teng yelled, his entire soul exploding and burning fiercely.

Ye Fan tried to seize it, even using a sacred artifact to suppress it, but it was peculiar. His soul was uncontrollable, burning even more intensely. Even severing or cutting it off didn't work.

"You won't get it! The Pre-Secret cultivates the soul! You can't control me, hahahaha! Let the Nine Secrets be lost forever, an eternal绝响!"

Ye Fan tried his utmost to prevent his soul's destruction. The Pre-Secret was immensely important; it was a supreme method for cultivating the soul, allowing one to perceive crises in advance.

If not for the green immortal cauldron within his body, which could obscure heavenly secrets, otherwise, if someone had divined his whereabouts, Wang Teng might have used the Pre-Secret to foresee it and wouldn't have come to ambush him here.

"Hahahaha! You will never get the Pre-Secret! Let's go to the end together!" Wang Teng's soul turned into a patch of fire, disappearing inch by inch.

If a person truly seeks death, no one can stop them, especially with something like a soul. It cannot be confined. Having cultivated the Pre-Secret, his soul was incredibly special, making it difficult for Ye Fan to seal, and it almost escaped several times.

At the same time, the black demonic fetus, which had taken form with wind-thunder wings and treading on chaotic light, also struggled, trying to escape.

Ye Fan unleashed all of the Nine Secrets, employing various profound techniques simultaneously, suppressing it on the spot. Then, he once again observed Wang Teng's soul.

"It's over!"

Wang Teng cried out. The demonic fetus moved in unison with him, struggling violently, then exploded with a bang.

"It's finished!" Ye Fan's heart sank halfway. Their souls contained secret treasures, which all exploded. Even a sacred artifact couldn't contain them, almost severely injuring him.

The black arrow emitted dark light, blocking the energy storm. He only managed to intercept a few fragments of the soul; all the light was annihilated.

"Damn it!"

Wang Teng's body and soul were utterly annihilated. In Ye Fan's palm, only a dozen shattered imprint fragments remained. A careful search yielded nothing useful; they were just chaotic thoughts.

"Ancient Return Art, Reconstruct Sea of Consciousness!" Ye Fan moved his hands, performing the only secret technique from the Vedic Sutra.

Fragments of spiritual consciousness floating in the world gathered, but alas, still no discoveries, prompting a long sigh of helplessness from him.

"Wait a moment, let me try." An Miaoyi gracefully approached, the ancient green lamp on her shoulder casting faint Buddhist light, illuminating the area and creating a world within the sea of consciousness.

"In the Northern Plains, within a vast Gobi desert, there is a divine lake. This is the deepest memory, nothing else besides it," An Miaoyi said.

She used Buddhist methods to restore the memory, but only obtained this much, unable to trace further, as the light of the green ancient lamp flickered.

"Never mind, I can't force it. Perhaps the Nine Secrets are destined to be scattered. It will take time to gather them all." Ye Fan didn't believe that the Pre-Secret would truly lose its inheritance.

"Take care!" An Miaoyi departed, as they were destined to part.

Ye Fan nodded, watching her disappear into the horizon.

The golden ancient war chariot and the golden battle sword were rare secret artifacts, difficult to destroy. Ye Fan couldn't even estimate their grade. These were sealed items that Wang Teng had never managed to activate from beginning to end.

"It's perfect; I was just missing a vehicle for travel. It's truly good." Ye Fan tossed the golden battle sword onto the chariot and stored them both. This war chariot and battle sword were most suitable for battlefields and chaotic melees.

Ye Fan traveled through the Western Desert for half a month, observing dozens of ancient temples, finally arriving at Mount Meru. He did not approach but merely observed from a distance.

It was a mysterious and sacred mountain, as if cast from gold. From afar, it shone brilliantly, emanating large swaths of immortal light.

Countless streams of faith power flowed towards it, pure and sacred, transforming into countless rays of light that converged into innumerable rivers, cascading down and submerging the area.

Mount Meru was immeasurably vast, but the power of faith was even greater, covering the entire mountain range like an ocean obscuring the sky, a boundless expanse, making the mountain range appear as mere islands.

From afar, the Great Thunder Sound Temple could not be seen, only the majestic mountains, tens of thousands of feet high, reaching straight into the clouds, golden and sacred, with various spiritual birds flying, like an immortal realm.

Ultimately, Ye Fan departed without ascending the mountain because he felt uneasy in that place. As he didn't believe in Buddhism, entering the mountain could cause great harm to his body.

Emperor Amitabha was astonishing throughout history, almost the most mysterious of all emperors, with heaven-defying methods. Who knew what he had left behind? Ye Fan did not want to get involved.

"Leaving West Desert!"

Ye Fan departed, stepping into a domain gate, traversing the void, and heading directly towards the Northern Plains. He was still quite fixated on the Pre-Secret and the Chaotic Ancient Emperor's scriptures.

Luotian Wilderness, overgrown with weeds, was a desolate grassland in the northeastern part of the Northern Plains, rarely inhabited. For tens of thousands of years, almost no one ventured deep into it.

In this place, wolves roamed in packs, and their howls could be heard every moonlit night.

The bright moon hung high. In the distance, a celestial wolf howled at the moon—a giant silver-white wolf, dozens of feet tall, swallowing moonlight and howling.

Ye Fan traveled alone, holding a black long spear. Along the way, he had killed many demonic beasts and strange creatures, finally arriving at this wilderness.

He was searching for a place called Chaotic Ancient Gobi, which contained a divine lake.

"Finally... it's just ahead."

The silver giant wolf was startled and transformed into a ball of silver flame, fleeing. Ye Fan continued forward and saw a Gobi desert hidden at the end of the grassland.

In the early morning, veiled in thin mist, he found the divine lake deep within the Gobi, steaming with colorful clouds, sparkling and translucent.

An immortal crane let out a long cry, spreading its wings and tearing through the sky as it soared from a cliff face, transforming into a streak of immortal light that landed on the ground, its depth unfathomable.

"It's you... the powerful Human Sacred Body," the immortal crane spoke in human language, standing by the divine lake. Its wings were pure white like jade, glowing luminously.

"I killed Wang Teng!" Ye Fan had already heard that an immortal crane protected Wang Teng, having rescued him from the Yaoguang Holy Son in the past.

"I know. His soul lamp has been extinguished, and I sense his death qi on you. Everything was destined."

The immortal crane sighed deeply, showing no intention of attacking.

Ye Fan gazed at the divine lake, brimming with spiritual energy, and observed it carefully.

The immortal crane spoke again, saying, "When he was young, I brought him here, and he received the inheritance of the Chaotic Ancient Emperor. What a pity, an immortal seedling. After being defeated by you, his soul's origin was tainted by the mark of the Undying Mountain. Even if he hadn't been defeated by you, he was destined for little achievement."

The old crane sighed in sorrow. After all, Wang Teng was nurtured by it, and learning of his death naturally brought a wave of melancholy.

"I want to know, is the Chaotic Ancient Emperor truly another life of the Ruthless Emperor?" Ye Fan asked.

There were rumors in the world that the Chaotic Ancient Emperor was a certain reincarnation of the Ruthless Emperor after her rebirth, because his Dao of Severing Self and Enlightenment and other techniques were extremely similar to the Ruthless Emperor's cultivation methods.

"No." The old crane shook its head, directly denying it.

The Chaotic Ancient Emperor's life was fraught with difficulties, experiencing repeated defeats and often feeling disheartened, his will depressed. However, he had a great serendipity, obtaining parts of the Ruthless Emperor's techniques and also some of the Void Emperor's methods. It was only after a hundred defeats that he gave birth to a demonic fetus, finally reaching a profound level of mastery.

"Other great emperors lived lives without defeat. Only the Chaotic Ancient Emperor was defeated repeatedly, almost losing his spiritual resolve, his mind nearly collapsing in the end," the immortal crane said.

The Chaotic Ancient Emperor was reborn from his cocoon, and his demonic fetus reached completion, finally turning everything around, defeating all his past opponents, and ascending to the peak alone.

The Northern Region was vast and sparsely populated; since ancient times, there had only been this one emperor.

The Chaotic Ancient Emperor's path to emperorship was very arduous. To say he experienced repeated great defeats might seem trivial, but the process was extremely cruel: separation from loved ones, the death of his beloved, the tragic demise of relatives, the murder of his master, the annihilation of all his friends, and other tragic events that outsiders could hardly comprehend. It was precisely because of this that he could still struggle after a hundred defeats, refusing to yield, driven by an unwillingness to give up, compelled to strive!

"I came here, you must understand," Ye Fan said.

"If you came for the Chaotic Ancient Emperor's inheritance, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. The underground palace is closed and cannot be opened by anyone for a thousand years, unless a Great Emperor personally arrives," the old crane said.

Ye Fan frowned, feeling unwilling.

"I feel regret for not finding a successor for the Chaotic Ancient Emperor. In a thousand years, I will definitely choose the most outstanding successor to make amends." Saying this, the old crane flapped its wings, conjuring an ancient piece of wood, about half a foot long, and gave it to Ye Fan, saying, "This might contain the secrets of the Pre-Secret, keep it for your enlightenment. Wang Teng brought it back from the Eastern Wasteland when he was young. I do not wish for the inheritance of the Nine Secrets to be broken."

Ye Fan accepted it, performing a deep bow. Although the old crane had nurtured Wang Teng, it was fair and just, not showing favoritism, considering the larger picture.

"This piece of blue gold that fell from the Ji family's ancestral temple is stained with the Void Emperor's blood, it's no small matter..." The old crane flapped its wings, and an eerie and terrifying piece of blue gold appeared in the void!