"Report to the Palace Master, the cell phone you lost three years ago has been recovered by your subordinates!" said Canglong.
"Three years..." Chen Bufan offered a bitter, wretched smile.
"Three years ago, the Tianlang army, one hundred thousand brothers, were cruelly betrayed, leaving rivers of blood and countless graves scattered across this land..."
Looking northward toward the setting sun, one grave after another stretched out endlessly, blanketing eight hundred li of the barren Red Ridge!
"Now that only a cell phone has returned to my hands, what use is it?" Chen Bufan shook his head and casually pressed the power button. The screen instantly lit up, surprisingly still functional.
*Buzz~*
Almost the moment the phone booted up, it suddenly vibrated, and a text message came through.
"Is there really anyone in this world still trying to contact me?" Chen Bufan wondered aloud, tapping on the screen.
"Chen Bufan, since our parting at Wuxiang Temple, your promise to come find me made me wait a full four years, but in the end, I waited for nothing. I hate you!"
*Boom!*
Like a bolt of lightning striking his mind, Chen Bufan began to tremble all over.
"Wuxiang Temple..."
How could he ever forget this place!
Five years ago, the Chen family of Guangling was wiped out overnight, their century-old ancestral home reduced to ashes. He alone had survived, marrying into the Han family of Liyang as a matrilocal son-in-law, living a wretched life and enduring every imaginable humiliation.
Four years ago, his tracks were exposed, and the Han family poisoned him. Amidst a torrential downpour, he tumbled into the Jiang River, drifting for three days and nights before finally being rescued by a young girl.
The other party had even unhesitatingly given him her virginity to purge the deadly poison from his body. To repay that kind-hearted girl, Chen Bufan swore right to her face that he would definitely return.
Then he turned around and headed north to join the army!
Over the past four years, bearing the name of the sole survivor of the Tianlang army, he rose from a drifting duckweed to become a peerless God of War who overawed the nine heavens, driven solely by a single-minded quest for vengeance for his one hundred thousand brothers.
"I never imagined that another girl was waiting for me in the mortal world..."
"Jiang Yurou..." Chen Bufan murmured the name, his heart wrenching violently.
*Buzz~*
At that very moment, another text message arrived.
Before he could even tap it open, an even more frantic wave of vibrations struck, rattling like a machine gun in an endless stutter.
"You have a new text message."
"You have a new text message."
"You have a new..."
...
...
The phone spun completely out of control, the vibration humming continuously for a full few minutes.
Once it finally fell silent, Chen Bufan quickly opened the inbox.
"Daddy?"
"Hiss!" Chen Bufan drew a sharp breath as time seemed to stand still.
Could it be... that night four years ago at Wuxiang Temple...
With his heart surging with turbulent emotions, Chen Bufan continued to scroll down.
"Mommy always remembers this number, saying it belongs to Daddy, but she won't let me contact you. Grandma says you don't want us anymore. Daddy, do you really not want Sisi and Mommy anymore?"
"Daddy, I'm contacting you secretly again, you know. Everyone calls me a little bastard, and only Mommy says I'm not, but why was she crying?"
"Daddy, lots of bad people are beating us, Sisi is so scared!"
"Daddy, we've been driven away. Please, won't you come pick us up?
...
...
...
Message after message flickered past in Chen Bufan's hand, line after line of text piercing deeply into his heart like sharp knives!
He finally understood why Yurou hated him so much—it was because she had been carrying his child!
He could hardly imagine how much suffering she had endured, all alone, raising a child by herself.
"Daddy, Mommy is sick, and Sisi is sick too. The lady in the white coat says I'm going to another world. What does the other world look like?"
"Daddy, they say that before people leave, they need to have a stone tablet with their name written on it. Can I let Daddy write mine?"
"My name is Chen Siru, you know."
His finger stopped. All 1,314 text messages had been read.
By now, Chen Bufan was trembling from head to toe.
*Ru* meant "you," so *Siru* literally meant... longing for me?
His nose stung, and his eye sockets burned hot.
"Palace Master, are you?" Canglong asked in shock. Having accompanied his liege through hundreds of battles, when had he ever seen his liege shed a tear?
*Rumble!*
At that exact moment, Chen Bufan abruptly stood up, an overwhelming aura bursting forth with such frantic violence that it sent sand and stones flying through the air.
Canglong's gaze turned appalled as he watched the scene in utter disbelief.
After annihilating the Ten-Nation Alliance and kneeling here for three hundred and sixty days and nights, the Palace Master had actually stood up at this very moment.
"I dare anyone under these nine heavens to try bullying Chen Bufan's daughter!"
A fierce, thunderous roar filled with bone-chilling killing intent shook the azure firmament.
"Canglong!"
"Your subordinate is here!" Canglong dropped with a heavy thud onto one knee, cupping his fists.
"Pass down my order: activate the Demon God Temple!"
Canglong's pupils violently constricted!
Three years ago, when the Tianlang army and its one hundred thousand brothers were buried in the Red Ridge, Chen Bufan had single-handedly established the Demon God Temple, appointing the Eight Dragon Kings to encompass the strongest martial artists under heaven.
Who in the world today could possibly force the Demon God Temple to mobilize in its entirety?
"Pass down my second order: activate the Xuanying Sect, and have all personnel gather in Liyang!"
With this second command dropping, Canglong was utterly stunned.
With one hand, Chen Bufan had founded the Demon God Temple, gathering the world's strongest fighters and commanding a million blood-cloaked disciples; with the other, he had established the Xuanying Sect, netting eccentric talents and mysterious masters alike.
Two trump cards.
Mobilizing simultaneously.
Terrifying!
Simply too terrifying!!
"Bring wine!" Clutching an aged jar of Daughter's Red wine, Chen Bufan smashed the seal open and drank deeply toward the heavens.
"I'm sorry, brothers, but Chen can no longer stay here to guard your graves."
*Whoosh—*
The remaining wine splashed into the air, a toast to the undying souls of one hundred thousand heroes.
*Thud!*
Chen Bufan slammed the wine jar down, embedding it deep into the yellow sand.
"From this moment on, no one shall set foot within the eight hundred li of Red Ridge!"
*Screech—*
Grasping his battle sword, Chen Bufan unleashed a chilling aura that pierced the highest clouds.
"Back then, I used this sword to slaughter every enemy under heaven. Today, I will use this sword to cut down everyone who dares bully my wife and daughter!"
"Canglong, follow me—to—Li—yang!"
The resonant roar of the dragon echoed endlessly.
On this very day, the Demon God Temple, which had lain dormant for a full year, suddenly burst into motion. Disciples resting across the globe answered an unspoken summons and stepped onto the path of war.
Countless empire leaders were frightened out of their wits, rushing to contact the Divine Dragon Empire as their phone lines were practically flooded to the breaking point.
When the Demon God Temple moved, not a blade of grass would grow; who wouldn't be terrified?
The higher-ups of the Divine Dragon nation were similarly shaken to their cores. The only thing capable of mobilizing the entire Demon God Temple was that man!
After single-handedly obliterating ten nations, he had hidden his sword and retreated from the world, ignoring secular affairs.
What reason could possibly have driven this Palace Master to emerge from seclusion once again?
"SSSSSS, top-secret directive: Chen Bufan is on the move, cooperate with him by all means necessary!"
In the past, one man stood for a nation; today, a nation stands for one man.
Chen Bufan was worth it!
While the movement of the Demon God Temple was noticeable, the operations of the Xuanying Sect remained entirely invisible.
The most mysterious organization under Chen Bufan's command was surfacing for the very first time since its inception.
Without exception, every single one of its operatives converged from all directions, fiercely closing in on Dongzhou.
When all global powers discovered the target of their mobilization, they were completely dumbfounded.
It wasn't the Divine Dragon Empire, nor the entirety of Dongzhou, not even the capital...
It was merely... a single place called Liyang.
What on earth could have happened in such an insignificant speck of land to provoke an entire army pressing down on its gates?
Little Liyang was about to explode!
...
...
Chapter Two: Dire Emergency!
In Liyang, lightning flashed, thunder rumbled, and a torrential storm howled.
Jiang Yurou knelt at the main gates of the Jiang family estate, trembling bitterly.
"Dad, Mom, I'm begging you to lend me five hundred thousand! After all, she is your own granddaughter!"
"You were driven out of the Jiang family long ago. What does your bastard daughter have to do with us?" Jiang Mingyou stood in the doorway, sneering coldly.
"Sisi's illness cannot wait any longer; she urgently needs surgery. As long as you are willing to lend it to me, I'll pay you back with interest later!" Jiang Yurou kowtowed repeatedly, tossing aside all pride for the sake of her daughter.
"She's just a little bastard, let her die if she's going to die, and then you can find someone else to remarry. Besides, if your daughter is sick, go look for her father—why are you coming to us?"
"Oh, that's right, you probably don't even know what his name is, do you? Sleeping with a man you don't even know—why don't you just go sell your body instead? With your looks, making five hundred thousand shouldn't be too hard."
"Hahaha!!!"
The members of the Jiang family burst into raucous laughter, looking down from their high horses at Jiang Yurou as if she were a mere clown.
Jiang Yurou's heart was bleeding. These were her own biological parents, yet they were so cold-blooded they even told her to go prostitute herself.
"Sisi can't hold on for many more days. I'm begging you, for the sake of our blood ties, please lend me five hundred thousand." At this moment, Jiang Yurou had completely abandoned her dignity for her daughter. If not for this, the moment she walked out of the Jiang family gates, she would never have looked back.
"Fine, I'll lend you five hundred thousand, but there's a condition: three days from now, you marry the young master of the Han family. Forget five hundred thousand—even five million wouldn't be a problem then!" Jiang Mingyou said coldly.
The young master of the Han family? That lame man with a face full of pockmarks?
They were pushing her straight into a fiery pit!
"Bitch, aren't you usually so willing? Why aren't you talking now? Dad is giving you a chance, don't be ungrateful!" a spicy-looking girl in her early twenties said with cruel sarcasm.
Jiang Yurou looked at her with a bitter smile. This was her own younger sister, Jiang Meihan, who refused to call her older sister yet routinely hurled abuse by calling her a slut.
"You found some wild man and ended up being abandoned by him, making yourself the laughingstock of all Liyang ages ago. It's already good enough that someone is still willing to marry you, so stop being so picky."
"Exactly, just think about your little bastard daughter; she won't even have a few days left to live, humph~"
Jiang Yurou clenched her teeth tightly. She hated them—she hated everyone before her who was still trying to use her even at a time like this.
"Fine! For Sisi's sake, I'll marry them!" Jiang Yurou cried out with deep hatred, heartbroken to the core.
"Haha, you stubborn brat, you've finally come to your senses! As long as you marry into the Han family, how much money won't you have? Our Jiang family will also soar into the clouds. Just imagine it, a life of wealth and luxury is waiting for you!"
The Jiang family members laughed wildly.
In stark contrast, Jiang Yurou knelt outside the gates, tears and rain blending indistinguishably on her face, drifting like a lonely duckweed with no one to lean on.
...
The news broke out, creating an uproar across the entire city.
As the number one beauty of Liyang, countless people had admired Jiang Yurou. Even now, as a widow with a child, countless men still wanted to take her in.
Yet she had always been fiercely independent, relying entirely on her own hard work and never agreeing to anyone. The sudden announcement that she was going to marry the young master of the Han family stirred up a monstrous storm.
"And here I thought she had some backbone. Turns out she's just a slut who would marry someone as ugly as the Han family's young master for power and money."
When Han Shuai, the young master of the Han family, received the news sent by the Jiang family, he hopped three feet high on his single good leg out of sheer joy.
Care whether she was a widow or not? This was the former number one beauty of Liyang! Just imagining pinning her beneath him made his blood boil with excitement.
A grand wedding was scheduled to take place in three days.
Little did anyone know that at this very moment, high above in the boundless sky, an airplane was streaking directly toward Liyang at extreme speed.
"Warning, warning! An unidentified aircraft is heading straight for Liyang Airport! Immediately evacuate civilians and make all preparations!"
Inside the airport office, everyone stared fixedly at the screen as an airplane steadily approached, holding their breath in terror.
"Look at that!" someone suddenly widened their eyes, staring fixedly at the corner of the aircraft.
There, clearly emblazoned upon the fuselage, was the engraving of a sharp sword.
"That's... the emblem of the Demon God Temple!"
"What? The Demon God Temple?"
The entire office instantly erupted into chaos.
...
The plane landed, and the entire airport was cleared out.
Two neat rows of flight attendants stood in rigid uniformity, while a group of senior executives stood nervously waiting nearby.
The cabin door opened, and a man in white stepped out with long, decisive strides. His posture was upright, his facial features striking like the stars, dazzling from every angle.
Everyone's gaze involuntarily drifted toward him.
The aura radiating from the man was so overwhelming that it momentarily blinded them.
Countless flight attendants felt their hearts skip a beat, fluttering like panicked fawns. They swore they had never seen such a handsome man in their lives.
Especially the aura he exuded—one that overawed the nine heavens and ten earths, concentrating all the world's grace into a single form. Only one word could describe it.
—An immortal!
The flight attendants respectfully bowed. They had no idea who the newcomer was, but as long as he belonged to the Demon God Temple, it was more than enough to hold up the heavens.
The airport executives rushed forward, extending a hand while flattering with obsequious smiles, "We wel—"
Before the words could finish, Chen Bufan interrupted: "The Demon God Temple acts without interference, and nothing is to be leaked. Violators will be executed!"
A single sentence intimidated everyone present.
Until Canglong caught up, and the two men departed entirely, leaving the local officials drenched in cold sweat.
Terrifying, simply terrifying! This was the overwhelming dominance of the Demon God Temple!
Chen Bufan was in too much of a hurry; he didn't want to waste a single second.
A short while later, a car departed from the airport and sped toward the city center.
...
Not long after Chen Bufan left, another private jet landed at the airport, disgorging a young woman with fair skin, stunning beauty, and a cold, haughty temperament.
Behind her followed several bodyguards with fierce, menacing expressions.
The woman removed her sunglasses and glanced into the distance. Seeing so many flight attendants and senior executives, her brows furrowed slightly.
"It seems our arrival in Liyang has been leaked."
"You don't need to hold any welcome ceremonies. We came to Liyang to handle a very important matter; keep it low-profile," the woman in sunglasses said coldly.
The group of airport executives exchanged glances, having no idea who she was. Bound by Chen Bufan's warning, none of them dared to say a word. Given that she could travel by private jet, her background was clearly extraordinary; if she happened to be connected to the Demon God Temple, it wasn't something they dared to meddle with.
"Miss, Professor Li is currently providing free medical consultations at Jixin Sanatorium," a middle-aged man said respectfully.
"Uncle Hui, come with me," the woman commanded with an urgent tone, her slender legs encased in black high heels as she hurried away.
...
Half an hour later, Chen Bufan stepped out of the car.
Before him stood a dilapidated sanatorium that had seen better days. Its wall plaster was peeling, sewage flowed freely across the ground, and the iron-bar gates were rusted solid. Only an old gatekeeper sat basking in the sun by the entrance.
"Canglong, are you sure this is the place?" Chen Bufan asked.
"Reporting to the Palace Master, this is it," Canglong replied.
"To think that I, who have roamed the world and overawed the eight wildernesses, have my daughter fall ill and unable to even go to a regular hospital, forced to live in a dump like this!" Overwhelmed with guilt, Chen Bufan took a deep breath and strode toward the sanatorium.
Chapter Three: With Me Here, Not Even Heaven Can Take Her Life!
"Little bastard, are you going to eat this or not?"
"If you're not going to eat it, I'm throwing it away!"
Inside the ward, a heavy-set woman snatched away a piece of steamed bun, slammed it hard onto the floor, and smashed it to pieces with a single stomp.
"Wuwu~~ Mommy gave you money, why are you bullying me?" The little girl sobbed miserably.
"Money? With the pity pittance your mom gives, what kind of good caregiver do you expect to hire? We charge by the month. If you'd just hurry up and die, I could take on other clients anyway. Since you don't have many days left to live anyway, why eat this and waste food?"
"Right, you hug this tin can every day—is there something good inside? Since you're going to die anyway, just hand it over to me." The woman glared at the tin box on the table, her eyes gleaming with greed.
"No! That's my stuff," the little girl cried out anxiously, clutching the box tightly to her chest.
"Whose stuff? It's mine now." The woman lunged forward to snatch it, lifting the little girl straight off the ground and trying to pry her fingers apart by force.
"Please don't take my things..." the little girl wept and cried, using every ounce of her strength to protect it.
Seeing it was about to be ripped away, she bit down hard on the woman's hand.
"Ow! You little bastard, how dare you bite me? I'm going to beat you to death today!" The woman viciously hurled the little girl to the floor, knocking the tin box open as countless paper cranes fluttered out into the air.
Chen Bufan, accompanied by Canglong, had just reached the doorway of the ward when he reached out and caught one of the paper cranes.
Scrawled upon it were the two characters: "Daddy."
His body instantly trembled, and his gaze locked onto the little girl, only to discover that she looked strikingly like him.
No further investigation was needed; he could instantly conclude that this pitiful little girl was indeed his, Chen Bufan's, daughter.
That miraculous bond of shared blood could never be replaced by anything else!
"A caregiver hired with money dares to bully Chen Bufan's daughter? Scoundrel!"
A terrifying wave of killing intent violently erupted, enveloping the entire sanatorium.
Every single person present felt the chill of death at that exact moment.
When gods and demons rage, heaven and earth change color!
The last time Canglong had witnessed this level of murderous intent from Chen Bufan was when the Tianlang army was buried at the Red Ridge.
"Get lost!" Chen Bufan stepped forward and kicked the woman flying with a single blow.
"How dare you hit me! I'm going to report you!" the woman shrieked, her face twisted in pain.
"The person who has the right to report me hasn't been born yet!" Chen Bufan slapped her across the face with a sharp crack, sending her spinning ten times on the spot until she was completely dazed.
"To bully even a child—in my eyes, someone like you living is the true waste of food," Chen Bufan said coldly.
"Canglong!"
"This subordinate understands." Canglong nodded and immediately dragged the woman away.
If he hadn't been afraid of frightening Sisi, Chen Bufan would have killed the woman right then and there.
"Thank you, mister."
A timid, frightened voice reached his ears.
Chen Bufan lowered his head and looked at the well-behaved little girl gazing up at him with clear, innocent eyes.
All his killing intent instantly vanished, leaving behind only a chest full of overwhelming guilt.
To think that he was peerless under heaven, yet his daughter had suffered such abuse—
"Sisi, I should be the one thanking you," Chen Bufan choked out. If Sisi hadn't sent so many text messages, how would he ever have known the truth?
"Mister, don't cry. You have to be as strong as Sisi," Sisi comforted him.