74: Chapter 74 The Veteran of the Boundary Gate, A Belated Guidance

Three streaks of light, like meteors struck down by immense force, slammed violently into a dim region floating with countless shattered rocks.

"Boom!"

Dust and smoke erupted as a deep crater was smashed into the ground.

Intense pain washed over him like a tide. Ye Feng felt that at least thirty percent of the bones in his entire body were broken.

Gritting his teeth, he struggled to stand, but instead vomited a large mouthful of stagnant blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs.

Beside him, Mo Qianxue had long since fainted, and the compass in her hand had shattered into powder.

Iron Tower was in an even worse state; his skin had split open, making him look like a bloodied man. If not for that savage Bloodline protecting his heart, he would already be a corpse.

This was the Cliff of Broken Void.

The surroundings were terrifyingly silent, with only the occasional silver line streaking across the distant Void Realm—those were spatial rifts; to touch them was to die.

"Cough... as long as we are still alive."

Ye Feng wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Just as he was about to check on Iron Tower's injuries, a bone-chilling cold suddenly pricked the back of his neck.

That was Killing Intent. An extremely pure, iron-blooded Killing Intent, forged through countless baptisms in mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Ye Feng's pupils contracted sharply. His right hand instinctively reached to his side, but grasped only air—the dragon spear was gone, lost in the self-detonation just moments ago.

Without any hesitation, he formed his fingers into a sword, forcefully squeezing the dried-up spiritual power in his body, and turned to strike.

"Clang!"

His fingers struck cold metal.

A tattered red-tasseled spear, its tip rusted and spotted, held firmly against Ye Feng's fingertips.

The person holding the spear was a one-armed old man. He wore worn-out leather armor whose color could no longer be discerned, his face a web of deep wrinkles, yet his cloudy, aged eyes flashed with a sharp, hawk-like brilliance.

This old man was strong. But what shocked Ye Feng even more was that the aura emanating from this broken spear actually caused the Chaos Sword Body within him to produce a strange resonance.

That feeling was like seeing a relative... of the same clan and Origin?

"Not bad reactions, pity the spear is gone." The old man's voice was hoarse. His gaze fell on Ye Feng's empty palm, then swept over the residual metal fragments on his body—the remnants of the dragon spear's self-detonation.

"That was the standard-issue dragon spear of the Ye Family warriors. Only the blood of a direct descendant of the Ye Family could detonate that thing with enough power for a 'Star-Shattering Explosion'."

The old man slowly retracted the red-tasseled spear, his cloudy gaze turning complex, and whispered: "Little Master?"

Ye Feng's tensed muscles did not relax; he still stared intently at the other party: "Who are you?"

The old man did not answer, merely walking silently to the side of the unconscious Iron Tower. He formed a seal with one hand, a soft green light rising from his palm, and slammed it onto Iron Tower's chest.

"Pfft!" Iron Tower spat out a mouthful of black blood, and his breathing, which had been as weak as a gossamer thread, miraculously stabilized.

After finishing all this, the old man turned around, pulled at the corner of his mouth to reveal a mouthful of broken yellow teeth: "People here call me Old Nine. I used to guard the gates for the Ye Family, but now... I am just a lonely ghost guarding the ruins."

Ye Feng's heart jolted. A former Ye Family subordinate. Ever since learning of his heritage, besides his long-missing, convenient father, this was the first time he had seen a living person connected to his Family.

"This is the edge of the Spirit Realm; it is not safe." Old Nine looked up at the gray, hazy sky, his tone becoming hurried. "That scum named Ling Yun has issued a 'Demon-Slaying Order', and now the entire border of the Spirit Realm is searching for you three 'remnants of the Lower Realm'."

"Where are my parents?" Ye Feng interrupted him, staring dead into Old Nine's eyes. "Since you are a former Ye Family subordinate, tell me, what happened to the Ye Family back then? Where are they?"

Old Nine fell silent. The wind wailed, whipping up sand and gravel from the ground, stinging their faces.

For a long time, Old Nine slowly raised his one arm, pointing toward the depths of the Cliff of Broken Void, to that forbidden land shrouded in black mist all year round.

Vaguely, one could see the wreckage of half a massive tower, slanted and stuck deep in the abyss; even from such a great distance, one could feel that suffocating sense of oppression.

"That is the Demon Suppressing Pagoda." Old Nine's voice trembled slightly. "Eighteen years ago, the three major Sects of the Spirit Realm joined forces and framed your father with the crime of 'colluding with the Demon Race'. Eight thousand Ye Family warriors—seven thousand nine hundred died in battle, and the rest... along with your parents, were locked alive into the bottom of that tower, becoming 'human pillars' to suppress the Devilish Qi."

A thunderclap exploded in Ye Feng's mind, and his eyes instantly became bloodshot and crimson. Suppressed as 'human pillars'? Wouldn't that mean being eroded by Devilish Qi for eternity, unable to live, yet unable to die?

"The three major Sects... Ling Yun..." Ye Feng's teeth chattered as he ground them together, his fingernails digging deep into his palms, blood dripping down.

Just then, a vast and unparalleled ripple of Divine Sense swept across from high above like a dragnet.

"It is here!" Old Nine's expression changed drastically; it was Ling Yun's Divine Sense search.

"Quick! Get inside!" Old Nine violently flicked his sleeve, and a massive rock nearby flipped over, revealing an ancient bronze bell covered in moss.

Without allowing any argument, he shoved the three of them inside. "Do not make a sound, and suppress all your auras to a state of deathly stillness!"

As the ancient bell lowered, his vision fell into darkness. Ye Feng could only see Old Nine sitting cross-legged outside the bell through a crack in the wall.

He pulled a black incense stick, only the length of a finger, from his bosom and lit it with trembling hands. Wreaths of blue smoke rose.

This smoke was strange; it did not diffuse into the surroundings but rose vertically, forming an eerie vortex in mid-air. The Heaven-Veiling Incense.

That was a secret treasure the Ye Family used back in the day to evade the investigation of the Heavenly Dao; every stick used was one less in existence.

Almost the instant the incense was lit, that terrifying golden Divine Sense swept across the Cliff of Broken Void.

It paused on Old Nine for a moment, seemingly confused by that on-the-verge-of-death aura and the mist of Karma created by the Heaven-Veiling Incense, and ultimately did not stop, sweeping off into the distance.

Only when the Divine Sense completely disappeared did Old Nine extinguish the incense and carefully put away the remaining half.

"Temporarily safe." Old Nine opened the ancient bell, looking as if he had aged ten years.

He fished a tattered black command feather from his bosom and shoved it into Ye Feng's hand. The command feather was ice-cold, bearing only a single, ancient 'Ye' character, yet it had been split in two by a deep sword scar.

"Take this." Old Nine coughed violently a few times. "To save people, you must enter the Demon Suppressing Pagoda. But outside the tower is the 'Nine Heavens Ten Earths Demon Sealing Formation' set up by the three major Sects; to force your way in is to court death."

"Where is the key?" Ye Feng gripped the command feather tightly.

"In Heavenly Sword City. That bunch of hypocrites will bring out the Formation Plate that opens the grand formation as a prize for the champion to show off. If you want to save your parents, go and snatch that championship back."

Snatch it back. Such simple words. But Ye Feng knew this also meant he would have to, with the strength of one person, overturn all the Prodigies of the entire Spirit Realm.

"Good." Ye Feng had no superfluous words. He tucked the command feather close to his body.

Inside his body, that nine-striped Golden Core vibrated frantically. The Sword Demon Origin he had previously swallowed seemed to sense the monstrous hatred of its master at this moment, no longer resisting, but instead actively merging into his limbs and bones.

Hatred is also a form of power. And it is the purest form of power.

Crack. The cracks on the surface of the Golden Core healed, and an aura of extreme violence erupted from within Ye Feng's body. Peak of the Golden Core! Only one step away from shattering the core to form a Nascent Soul.

Ye Feng took a deep breath, hoisted the still-unconscious Iron Tower onto his back, took the weak Mo Qianxue with his other hand, and bowed deeply to Old Nine.

"Senior, take care."

Old Nine waved his hand, sat back down on that rock, and held the broken spear, looking like an eternal stone statue: "Go, do not look back. The day you fight your way back, this old servant will open the door for you again."

Ye Feng turned around and strode toward the outside of the Cliff of Broken Void. The wind here was even stronger. Ahead lay a canyon of jagged rocks, which was also the only way out of this forbidden land.

Just as he turned a corner, Ye Feng's footsteps came to a sudden halt. In the air, there drifted a faint scent of blood, and... the faint sound of horse hooves.