Fault Zone Leading

The Desolate Ancient Mountains.

Ye Chuan followed the cracked stone steps downward. Violent beastly aura constantly seeped from the black rock walls around him, powerful enough to erode the bodies of ordinary Great Luo Golden Immortals.

Yet the moment that aura came near Ye Chuan, it was directly refined by his black-gold chaos power, failing to stir even the slightest ripple.

At the end of the stone steps stood a massive underground altar.

Countless desolate beast skeletons were piled around it, every bone radiating an ancient aura. The origins of the desolate beasts Ye Chuan had slain were slowly converging toward the center of the altar.

A dark-red heart gradually took shape above the altar!

Every time the heart beat, the entire underground space trembled with it. Ye Chuan stared at it for a moment and decided that this thing was probably worth more than the thousand desolate beasts he had just killed.

[The Desolate Beast King is reviving.]

[Killing the Desolate Beast King will grant the core reward of the Desolate Ancient Mountains region.]

After reading the words before him, Ye Chuan’s gaze returned to the constantly beating heart.

“This should be worth quite a few points, right?”

The instant he finished speaking, countless skeletons around the altar began to tremble at once.

One enormous bone after another rose from the ground and rapidly assembled around the dark-red heart. In the span of a few breaths, a terrifying desolate beast standing tens of thousands of zhang tall rose from the altar.

Its body resembled a mountain of bones that had crawled out from beneath the earth, while dark-red flames burned within its eyes. The moment it raised its head, it smashed straight through the rock layer overhead!

The entire outer region of the Desolate Ancient Mountains began to collapse!

Outside, a new notification appeared beneath Ye Chuan’s name on the Heaven’s Chosen Stele.

[Ye Chuan has triggered a Heaven-ranked hidden event: The Desolate Beast King’s Revival.]

[Original cultivation realm of the Desolate Beast King: Immortal Venerable.]

[Due to the suppression of the Ancient Realm’s laws, its cultivation realm has been reduced to the peak of the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm.]

[Its Immortal Venerable-level physical body and battle instincts have been preserved.]

After seeing these lines, the entrance to the Myriad Dao Ancient Realm, which had only just quieted down, erupted into another commotion.

An elder from an ancient immortal sect’s expression shifted slightly.

“The Desolate Beast King has already been awakened? According to past records, it shouldn’t appear until at least the third day, and even then, it usually takes dozens of heaven’s chosen working together to surround and kill it.”

Another person said gravely, “The fact that its cultivation has been suppressed to the peak of the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm doesn’t mean it is truly only a Great Luo. It still retains an Immortal Venerable-level physical body and battle instincts. Ordinary Great Luo Golden Immortals wouldn’t last a single exchange against it.”

Many people instinctively looked toward the area where the Taiyi Immortal Sect was gathered.

They did not say anything too openly, but inwardly, they all wanted to see Ye Chuan encounter some trouble. Otherwise, this Myriad Dao Ancient Realm trial was practically becoming a one-man performance.

Lu Taixu’s expression also grew slightly more serious.

The Desolate Beast King was, after all, no ordinary desolate beast. No matter how astonishing Ye Chuan’s performance had been, it could not be said that he would face no pressure at all against a hidden leader that retained an Immortal Venerable-level physical body.

……

When the Desolate Beast King rose from the underground altar, the entire Desolate Ancient Mountains seemed to have been forcibly awakened from its slumber. The black mountains continuously collapsed, and countless remnants of desolate beast souls surged out from the cracks.

Those remnant souls gathered behind the Desolate Beast King, forming a blood-red tide that blotted out the sky. It lowered its head and looked at Ye Chuan, the dark-red flames in its eyes flickering violently. Clearly, it possessed an almost complete combat consciousness.

If it had been any other Great Luo Golden Immortal, their physical body would have begun to crack from the pressure alone.

Ye Chuan merely looked up at it.

“An Immortal Venerable?”

“So this is the power of an Immortal Venerable? The strength of a sect master?”

This Desolate Beast King was indeed far stronger than the thousand desolate beasts from before. Although its cultivation realm had been suppressed to the peak of the Great Luo realm by the Ancient Realm, the strength of its bones, the density of its blood and qi, and its battle instincts had all clearly surpassed the Great Luo level.

In a sense, it was more like an Immortal Venerable-level fiend wearing the shell of a Great Luo Golden Immortal.

The Desolate Beast King gave Ye Chuan no time to continue observing it.

It raised one enormous bone claw and viciously slapped it toward Ye Chuan’s position. The surrounding space could no longer withstand the force. It caved inward, forming a small black hole from which even light could not escape.

The stone pillars around the altar shattered one after another, as if an entire sky were pressing down.

Ye Chuan finally moved. Without using any complicated immortal art, he simply stepped forward and threw a punch.

Black-gold chaos power erupted from his fist and collided head-on with the enormous bone claw.

Boom!

Space exploded completely!

The Desolate Beast King’s massive body was actually sent flying backward by that single punch. It smashed through several mountains tens of thousands of meters high, one after another, while countless bones broke off its body and scattered into a white storm of fragments.

“So, in the end, an Immortal Venerable is merely one level higher than a Great Luo. That’s not enough.”

Ye Chuan had already appeared above the Desolate Beast King’s head.

The Desolate Beast King had just steadied itself. The flames in its eyes were still burning fiercely when it saw Ye Chuan descend from above. His second punch slammed directly into the center of its skull.

Crack.

A fine fracture appeared at the center of its skull before rapidly spreading in every direction.

The Desolate Beast King let out a roar that shook heaven and earth. All the desolate ancient blood and qi within its body erupted at once, attempting to blast Ye Chuan away.

Yet the moment that blood and qi approached Ye Chuan, his black-gold chaos power tore open a massive gap through it.

The third punch descended.

The Desolate Beast King’s skull exploded completely.

Its mountain-sized body still maintained the posture of charging forward, but the dark-red heart within it had already been pierced by chaos power.

In the next instant, countless cracks appeared across the surface of the heart.

The entire Desolate Beast King, along with the blood-red tide that had yet to disperse, shattered into a sky full of specks of light.

The entire Desolate Ancient Mountains suddenly fell silent.

[Ye Chuan has killed the Desolate Beast King.]

[Received: one billion Myriad Dao points.]

[Heaven-ranked difficulty multiplier activated.]

[Final points received: two billion.]

[The outer region of the Desolate Ancient Mountains has been completely subdued.]

[Additional regional reward: two billion points.]

The number on the Heaven’s Chosen Stele surged once again!

[Ye Chuan: seven billion points.]

This time, no one outside immediately spoke.

When Ye Chuan had killed a thousand desolate beasts in nine breaths, everyone could still force an explanation using reasons such as his exceptionally powerful area-of-effect attacks or the fact that the Ancient Realm had failed to replicate his true Great Dao.

But the Desolate Beast King was a hidden leader that retained an Immortal Venerable-level physical body and battle instincts. Under normal circumstances, it would require several top-tier heaven’s chosen working together to surround and kill it.

Yet Ye Chuan had used three punches.

The white-haired elder stared at the seven billion points on the Heaven’s Chosen Stele. His lips moved, but in the end, he could not utter a single word.

He had presided over the Myriad Dao Ancient Realm for many years, but this was the first time he had begun to suspect that his understanding of the Ancient Realm might be wrong.

An immortal sect elder could not help murmuring, “Is he really only at the peak of the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm?”

No one answered.

Because ever since Ye Chuan had reached the top of the Heaven’s Chosen Stele, no one had been able to answer that question.

In the area where the Taiyi Immortal Sect was gathered, Lu Taixu finally stopped pretending to be calm.

He took a deep breath, turned to several Supreme Elders, and lowered his voice.

“After we return to the sect, raise Holy Son Ye’s privileges another level.”

One of the Supreme Elders hesitated. “How much higher can we raise him? We’ve already given him Moon God Peak to live in and granted him access to most of the sect’s treasury. If we go any further, we’d practically be serving him like an Ancestor.”

Lu Taixu fell silent for a moment.

“Then serve him.”

The Supreme Elder: “…”

Although it sounded somewhat absurd, on closer consideration, it seemed perfectly acceptable.

If Ye Chuan did not meet with an untimely end, then even at the very least, he would become a figure surpassing the Immortal King realm in the future—not to mention that he possessed the potential to become a Great Emperor. The better the Taiyi Immortal Sect treated him now, the greater the rewards they would receive in return.

Perhaps they might even gain entry into the Central Continent.

Besides, Ye Chuan had only joined the sect a few days ago, yet the sect’s fortune had already risen to a level they scarcely dared imagine.

Keeping him enthroned like an honored ancestor did not seem to be a problem at all.