Chapter Ninety-One: The City

A fierce killing intent swept down, causing the entire passage to tremble and loose stones to rattle and roll from the walls. This was a great master awakened from slumber, his whole body radiating a terrifying and overwhelming power. Yet he seemed wary of something and did not strike with full force, or perhaps he deemed Lin Fan and the others unworthy of it.

“You have disturbed me. Your crime merits ten thousand deaths.”

A heavenly decree descended from above. Wang Yan’s ancient forebear had truly awakened, shocking all who heard it.

“Break everything before me!”

Lin Fan roared. The black spear in his hand thrust out, and time and space fell into chaos. This was the power of the Judgment Spear itself; his own spirit did not act.

“Leave!”

The passage shattered. The black spear destroyed all before it. Even without his spirit acting, it remained unimaginably terrifying. Brilliant radiance surged upward, shaking all realms.

“This is the aura of antiquity. Who are you?”

The heavenly voice sounded again, but this time it carried a trace of surprise, and the outstretched hand withdrew.

“You bear a great secret. But in my present state I cannot exert my full power, and I cannot probe everything within you. Still, I am about to walk out of my tomb. When that time comes, you will have nowhere to run.”

Wang Yan’s ancient forebear withdrew his hand. Through the haze, Lin Fan glimpsed a towering figure standing in the distance, his face submerged in primordial divine light, only his eyes visible.

A boundless tide of blood energy swept forth, vaster than the ocean, deeper than the firmament. This was a true supreme ancestor, possessing unimaginably strong battle power, capable of casually felling stars with a wave of the hand.

“Do not worry. His condition seems off, and his realm has already fallen below that of a supreme ancestor. Having such a presence is nothing more than a matter of sheer will; in terms of true battle power, he is not even as strong as a titled expert.”

The Judgment Spear comforted Lin Fan. It had already seen through some of the truth. Just now, it had merely let out a faint trace of its own presence to force Wang Yan’s ancient forebear back.

“Who exactly is he? If he fell in the ancient age, how could he possibly appear in this world again?”

Lin Fan frowned, his mind filled with doubt. Supreme ancestor experts may be hard to kill, but they were not impossible to kill. According to Yi Xiaoxian, the supreme ancestor of the royal clan had already been slain by some great figure. For him to still appear here was simply impossible.

“There were indeed hidden circumstances in that matter, because I was the one who acted.”

The Judgment Spear spoke, its words so startling they could kill, leaving Lin Fan dumbfounded on the spot.

“What is so strange about that? Their clan committed a monstrous crime back then, so of course they had to be eradicated. Not to mention that Mount King Residence held an even greater secret, and in the end that person chose it to become a Fallen Immortal Land.”

The Judgment Spear’s tone seemed faintly disdainful. Who knew what kind of colossal figure it had been in the past, to speak of a supreme ancestor in such a manner now.

On this point, Lin Fan had never once doubted it. The Judgment Spear’s bearing was not an act; it truly possessed such capability.

“What exactly did they do? And why has that person managed to live until now?”

Lin Fan was full of questions, feeling as though dark clouds had gathered overhead and everywhere there were earth-shaking secrets.

“They were killed because they colluded with an alien race. As for why he can still live until now, the answer is simple: this person had long ceased to be who he was in ancient times. His consciousness was already annihilated by me. What remained was only a wisp of malicious intent. After countless years it unexpectedly gave rise to life, and now it even dares to run wild. If I had not been restrained by certain concerns, I would have killed him just now.”

Killing intent raged, and mountains of corpses and seas of blood manifested. The Judgment Spear represented justice between heaven and earth, and it was terrifying beyond measure.

“You keep saying you are constrained by certain concerns. What exactly is going on? Could it be that even you cannot withstand the calamity of slaughter?”

Lin Fan was filled with bewilderment. The terror of the Judgment Spear needed no explanation, yet even such an existence had things it feared. One could only imagine how dreadful those things must be.

“I know what you are thinking, but I cannot tell you. You are not yet in a position to be involved, and for certain reasons you may even attract the attention of some people. I can only tell you this much: it is not that I cannot withstand the calamity of slaughter. It is that I cannot escape it.”

As the words fell, Lin Fan’s aura became somewhat unstable, and a ripple of power swept outward.

“Master Lin, what is wrong with you?”

Yi Xiaoxian, walking ahead of Lin Fan, noticed something amiss and turned back to ask.

By now they had already left the royal clan’s ancestral land, advancing all the way along the passage Lin Fan had opened. At this rate, they should be able to get out soon.

“Brother Lin, are you injured?”

Young Master Falling Blossom was also full of concern. If not for Lin Fan’s action just now, they would likely have already been slain by Wang Yan’s ancient forebear.

“I am fine. It was only a sudden stir of the blood that caused some fluctuations.”

Lin Fan smiled and shook his head, choosing not to speak of these matters.

Seeing this, the others said no more and continued forward. Soon, a glow appeared in the distance, and the passage was about to end.

“Is that a person, or a group of people?”

In the end, Lin Fan asked this question. Whether singular or plural, the wording carried an entirely different meaning.

“A group of people. They stand high above all, gazing down upon the nine heavens and ten lands, ruling over the three thousand clans. Or rather, they are not human at all.”

The Judgment Spear seemed about to say more, and strange distorted patterns manifested, as it sealed off heavenly secrets to prevent anything from being overheard. Even it had to treat this matter with such caution.

“But...”

Lin Fan seemed about to ask something else, but he was cut off. A blazing radiance swallowed the path ahead, warm beyond measure, while the air was thick with moisture.

“What place is this?”

Young Master Falling Blossom lowered the purple-marked jade token in his hand and looked up into the distance. A vast city appeared before his eyes.

“What a majestic city. It seems to stand apart from time and space, and to have existed since before the ancient age.”

Lin Fan was equally astonished. He only knew to move in this direction, but he had no idea what lay ahead.

“Traces of antiquity. There are supreme beings here, yet it also seems to lie far from this stretch of time and space. Is this the return of the ancient age, or have we once again come to the ancient age ourselves?”

Yi Xiaoxian murmured to herself. Her eyes shone brilliantly, and divine marks manifested one after another.

“This is not a great city. Even in the ancient age it would have belonged only to the lower ranks. Yet even so, it bears an aura of crushing the ages and standing alone above all else.”

Yi Xiaoxian seemed to be speaking in a daze, words spilling from her lips one after another, drawing many glances.

At that moment, dust and sand billowed in the distance. An iron cavalry unit rode ahead, led by a young man. He was entirely clad in iron armor, only his face exposed.

“Spies! Kill without mercy!”

The man roared, sitting astride his horse with saber in hand. His cold gaze pierced through everything, dazzling to the extreme. A battle halberd appeared in his grasp, its divine light blinding, shaking the heavens. Its aura was vast beyond measure, suffocating all who felt it.

He seemed to have noticed that Purple Mark was gravely injured, and he was the first to strike at her.