Shrouded Sky

Chapter 165 - The Storm II

The cauldron expanded to a foot tall and crashed down with overwhelming force. The Ji Clan elder had no way to dodge, it was like he threw himself into it.

Boom!

Forged from the Motherly Energy of All Things, the cauldron’s weight was beyond comprehension. Even someone as powerful as this Ji Clan elder, who had reached beyond the Dao Palace Realm, couldn’t bear it. His right shoulder collapsed on impact.

Spurt!

He vomited blood like a scarecrow struck by a ten-thousand-pound hammer, flung backward and smashed into a stone pillar over ten meters tall.

“Ancestral Uncle!” The Ji Clan elder was stunned. Looking at the corpse nearby, his face filled with disbelief. Trembling, he stammered, “It’s... you...”

Ye Fan had no time to respond. He launched a second strike. Though the cauldron bore no dazzling light, it exuded a grand, majestic pressure. When it descended, the ground beneath trembled.

This time, the Ji Clan elder was ready and turned into a streak of light, dodging just in time.

“You little brat, you’re still alive?!”

His face was a mix of fury and shock. He never imagined he would run into Ye Fan in the sixth layer of the Flame Domain.

It had been half a year, no one believed Ye Fan could have survived. Everyone assumed he had turned to ash long ago.

“I’m full of life, how could I die? Even if your Ji Clan gets wiped out, I still won’t die,” Ye Fan quipped as he directed the cauldron and fled toward the seventh layer.

Failing to kill his opponent in two strikes, Ye Fan didn’t hesitate. The Ji Clan elder had reached the third realm of cultivation; Ye Fan simply couldn’t match that level of power head-on.

“You survived before, today, you’ll die!” the Ji Clan elder shouted, taking to the air in hot pursuit. His right shoulder had completely caved in, turned to bloody pulp. Even with strong life force, it couldn’t regenerate immediately.

“Worry about yourself first. Don’t die in the Flame Domain,” Ye Fan replied, his speed incredible. Now that he had reached the Other Shore Stage, he used a mysterious footwork technique, flying like a meteor.

“Brat, you dare live after stealing my Ji Clan’s Grand Void Art? Delusional!” The elder’s face darkened, his killing intent sky-high as he pursued without pause.

“Fuck your whole damn clan! You people repay kindness with enmity, and now act like you’re the wronged ones…” Ye Fan growled. “One day, when I’m strong enough, I’ll turn your Ji Clan upside down and give you something real to cry about!”

“Even those a hundred times stronger than you wouldn’t dare say such things. You… even after a thousand years of cultivation, you’ll still amount to nothing,” the elder retorted with sorrowful rage. “How did my uncle die?!”

For such a high-ranking figure of the Ji Clan to die here, it was a massive event.

“He couldn’t take it anymore and slit his own throat,” Ye Fan mocked. In this hostile situation, he had no intention of explaining anything.

“How did he really die?” The Ji Clan elder calmed down. He couldn’t believe Ye Fan was responsible, his uncle ancestor was immensely powerful. Only someone like the Peacock King could have slain him silently.

“You can ask him yourself once you join him.”

“Kid, when I capture you, I’ll skin you alive and search your soul!” the elder trembled with rage. A Ji Clan powerhouse had died here, and they still didn’t know how, it enraged him.

Up ahead lay the Five-Colored Cloud Flame. Scorching waves hit like an oven. Ye Fan vanished into the flame.

The Ji Clan elder was stunned and immediately stopped. He didn’t dare enter. Though he wore a flame-resistant robe, it couldn’t withstand the seventh layer’s fire.

“You… how did you do that?”

He remembered Ye Fan was unfazed by the Purple Qi of the sixth layer, and now even the multicolored flames couldn’t stop him. The elder was dumbfounded.

“You old relic, why don’t you come in? Don’t you have a fire-resistant treasure robe?” Ye Fan taunted, standing comfortably within the flame. “I challenge you, let’s battle three hundred rounds right here. Dare to accept?”

Buzz!

The Ji Clan elder remained expressionless and suddenly unleashed a silver spear, about the length of a chopstick, aiming to kill Ye Fan.

Crack!

As soon as the spear flew out, it trembled violently. Cracks ran across it before it shattered completely, burned to ash by the purple flames.

“So that’s your ‘legendary’ flame-resistant robe? I expected something better,” Ye Fan mocked, grinning as he stepped forward.

“This place is called ‘Purple Qi From the East’, and clearly, it lives up to its name,” the Ji Clan elder muttered, visibly rattled.

Zap! He raised his left hand and unleashed a bolt of lightning from his palm.

Zzzap! The lightning surged forward but was quickly dissolved by the purple flames and faded away.

Seeing this, Ye Fan fully relaxed. He took out the Jade Purification Vase and drank a mouthful of divine springwater to recover his energy, then strode out from the seventh layer.

“I thought your treasure robe would be more impressive. Turns out it’s trash.” He now had no fear. No matter how strong the Ji Clan elder’s godpower was, he couldn’t unleash it here.

Ye Fan’s body was as tough as a divine weapon. With powerful divine sense and a cauldron immune to flames, he was confident.

The Ji Clan elder hesitated. Ye Fan was too bold, he clearly had something up his sleeve. The elder didn’t dare be careless and started backing away.

“Too late, old man! Looks like you can’t send me to my grave, I’ll send you to meet that other fossil instead!” Ye Fan shouted from a distance, summoning the golden book. A beam of light, like the blazing sun, cut through the purple void.

Though it wasn’t a true weapon, the Dao Scripture pages were sharper than any blade. Not even these flames could burn them. Once turned into golden light, they became near unstoppable.

“What a powerful spiritual artifact! Are you gifting it to me?” the elder asked, stunned and delighted. Even he didn’t possess such a weapon, and here was a mere youth wielding one.

“If you can take it, it’s yours!” Ye Fan laughed.

Swish! The golden book swept past him, nearly slicing him in two.

The elder didn’t respond, instead striking repeatedly with his palm, trying to knock the book down and seize it.

Ye Fan silently assessed him. The elder’s body was powerful, after cultivating through three secret realms, he had undergone a transformation. Still, Ye Fan felt superior in many ways and was more confident than ever.

Just then, the elder smirked. He activated the Grand Void Art, turning into a wisp of black smoke and darted forward. “You’ve gotten cocky, boy! In close combat, let’s see you escape now!”

He was certain Ye Fan couldn’t escape at this range.

But Ye Fan had anticipated this. He had only used the golden book as bait, he had been waiting for this very moment.

Rather than dodge, he struck head-on. A golden fist met the elder’s only remaining hand, his left, with crushing force, like a divine hammer falling from the sky.

Boom!

The elder's face contorted in pain and disbelief. He heard a clear crack, his left hand was broken, completely twisted out of shape.

His entire arm went numb. His body flew backward like a stone flung through the air.

“You…”

Without hesitation, the elder tried to flee, once again using the Grand Void Art.

Only now did he realize the true meaning of “cursed.” This boy was bizarre, clearly weaker than him, yet everything kept going wrong.

But Ye Fan had long prepared. His cauldron was already summoned. It expanded to a meter tall and slammed down with a weight that made the sky tremble. Purple Qi seemed to evaporate, leaving a vacuum.

The Grand Void Art failed!

The Ji Clan elder was crushed under the cauldron. His bones cracked and groaned under the massive weight.

Crack!

His left arm shattered into blood mist. Then, his skull split, his expression twisted in agony.

“What is this cauldron?!”

“A cauldron forged from the source root of the Motherly Energy of All Things,” Ye Fan answered calmly.

“What?!”

The elder was horrified. “A single thread of primal essence could crush a mountain… and you’ve forged a whole cauldron?!”

Indeed, a thread of the Motherly Energy of All Things could crush mountains. If Ye Fan had enough godpower, even without etching Dao runes, this cauldron alone could make him unstoppable.

It could pierce the heavens, shatter the earth, and evaporate rivers. But now, its terrifying power was hidden, its strength was completely internalized.

Crack!

The Ji Clan elder's body broke further. His face turned ashen. The cauldron was just too heavy, too terrifying.

Ye Fan was struggling too. The cauldron was like a bottomless pit, endlessly devouring his godpower. In this intense clash, the cost was immense.

Within moments, he had gulped five mouthfuls of divine springwater just to stay standing.

“Old bastard, hurry up and die already!” Ye Fan growled, pushing forward through the void. Each step was so heavy it seemed to bend space itself.

Boom!

He finally closed in. With a sideways swing of his leg, he kicked the Ji Clan elder hard in the chest. Blood sprayed everywhere. The man’s chest collapsed and he was blasted away.

BOOM!

The one-meter-tall cauldron descended again.

This time, the Ji Clan elder had no power left to resist. His body shattered completely, reduced to powder.

Nothing remained. Even the blood mist was instantly vaporized by the purple flames. The so-called flame-resistant treasure robe? Gone, not a scrap left.

Ye Fan’s admiration for the cauldron deepened. Plain in appearance, yet monstrous in power. Even someone who had cultivated through three secret realms couldn’t resist its crushing might.

Its only flaw: it consumed too much godpower. It was almost unsustainable. Worse still, it had to be kept hidden, if people knew it was forged from the Motherly Energy of All Things source root, chaos would erupt.

Ye Fan considered staying in the sixth layer and waiting for Ji Hui to come investigate, so he could kill him too. But he held back. Right now, he had to lay low.

With a Ji Clan elder slain by Dark Crow, a storm was already inevitable. The Flame Domain would soon become a battlefield. He needed to leave now.

The Peacock Monarch had once killed the Ji Clan’s Grand Elder, triggering retaliation from both the Patriarch Ji and the Radiant Light Sacred Lord, who invaded the depths of the Sunset Glow Mountains. Now, another great figure had fallen, the coming storm would be even worse.

Losing two mighty figures back to back, the Ji Clan would have to respond, or lose face.

Ye Fan quietly slipped out of the Flame Domain from another direction, waiting for the storm to explode.

Sure enough, that very day, Patriarch Ji arrived in person with many powerful cultivators.

Desolate beasts roared, stomping across the sky with earth-shaking thunder. Outside the Flame Domain, the land was packed, countless figures, endless iron cavalry. The entire Flame Domain boiled over with tension.