Ye Hun stood before this mass grave of a thousand souls, staring at it for a long time. In the end, he turned and walked away with resolute determination.
He did not know where he was going, nor what he should do next, but he knew that standing here grieving was completely useless.
When he appeared once more before the settlement of Ye Family Village, his state of mind was entirely different. Gazing at this place where he had lived for sixteen years—a village reduced to blackened charcoal and razed by a raging fire—Ye Hun took one last look, picked up his dropped bundle, and stepped onto a path of no return without looking back.
The last time he left, the young man's silhouette had been relaxed and carefree; this time, the young man's silhouette carried an unspeakable desolation.
Right now, Ye Hun had only a single goal: to grow stronger, to find the murderer who had killed his grandfather, and to make that person pay with their life for the entire Ye Family Village.
Walking along the road, Ye Hun was somewhat unsure of his direction and could only return to Huangyun Town first before making further plans.
Along the way, a nagging question had been lingering in Ye Hun's mind: "Where did Ye Feng go?"
Among those corpses, Ye Hun had not found Ye Feng. Yet Ye Feng had returned early that morning, and judging by the timing, the murderer should have already left by then. When Ye Hun returned, it was evident that the fire had been burning for a long time.
Since the flames had mostly died down, there should not have been much danger when Ye Feng went back, and yet he was nowhere to be found.
Ye Hun could only hope that Ye Feng was safe and sound, though he had no idea where to look for him now.
As for the murderer, Ye Hun had a rough guess: it had to be those figures riding the clouds, mist, and flying swords that he and Ye Feng had seen on the mountain peak.
Ye Hun knew that there was a vast chasm between his current self and those people, but so what? No matter who they were, they would pay for the lives of Ye Family Village with their own.
His grip on the bundle tightened until his fingers turned white. Suddenly, Ye Hun looked down at the bundle in his hands. Aside from some silver taels, the only thing inside was a wooden box he had retrieved for his grandfather.
"What could be inside?"
Normally, Ye Hun would never have opened it, but now he could no longer afford to care. His grandfather's behavior that day had also been very strange, as if he had already anticipated what was coming, urging him to leave and sending him to fetch the item.
Perhaps there was something important inside the box. Ye Hun walked over to a large tree, opened the bundle, and took out the ordinary-looking wooden box.
The box was small and square, about a foot across.
The moment the wooden box was taken out, that familiar feeling of attraction surfaced once more. Ye Hun gently stroked the wooden box in his hands.
At last, he slowly opened it. There were very few things inside—just three items: a letter, a piece of beast skin from some unknown ferocious beast, and a strangely shaped stone.
The instant the box was opened, the stone actually emitted a silver glow, and immediately afterward, Ye Hun's own body began to shine, as though the two were responding to each other in brilliance.
He had a strong premonition that the moment he touched this stone, some unpredictable event was bound to happen.
He did not act rashly. Instead, he picked up the letter first. It was written in his grandfather's handwriting, and the content was brief.
"Xiao Hun, I never expected this day would come after all. By the time you read this, I may already be gone. But it does not matter; you must understand that the road of life is long, and no one can accompany you forever—not even your grandfather."
"Ever since I met you, it has been the happiest time of my life. I truly wish you were my biological grandson, but I cannot change the past, and you have the right to know the truth."
"That strange stone was found by your grandfather right beside you on the day I took you in. It may be related to your biological parents."
"Whether it was your descent from the heavens or this strange stone, your grandfather always knew you were certainly no ordinary person and would eventually venture out into the world."
"Yet I also wished you wouldn't have to leave. The outside world is seductive, but it is also perilous. Your grandfather is a prime example of this. To tell you the truth, your grandfather was formidable in his youth, but he still ended up in such a state—his cultivation completely crippled, reduced to growing old and lonely in a tiny village like this."
"Of course your grandfather hoped you would stay and keep me company forever, but I cannot be selfish. You ought to go out and seek your own origins, to forge your own magnificent legend, so that your trip to this mortal world will not have been in vain."
"When you read this letter, it means you are finally setting out. That piece of beast hide records a powerful martial skill. It was precisely because of this martial skill that your grandfather met his downfall, but your grandfather was useless and no longer had the capacity to comprehend it."
"I intended to give it to you as a gift on the day you left, to watch with my own eyes as you make your mark upon this world. Grandfather loves you dearly. If you grow tired of the outside world, just come back—if I am still around."
...
Reading up to this point, Ye Hun's heart trembled violently, aching to the point where he could barely breathe. He did not want to leave at all, nor did he want to search for some illusory, ethereal ancestry; he only wanted to stay forever in the little mountain village, accompanying his grandfather.
After a long while, Ye Hun finally calmed down. With the utmost care and caution, he folded the letter neatly and tucked it inside his garments, and only then did he pick up the piece of beast hide.
It felt soft and slightly cool to the touch, covered in dense rows of incomprehensible characters. Ye Hun paid them no mind and instead shifted his gaze to the final item: the stone.
The stone had a very bizarre appearance—irregular in shape, neither quite round nor quite square, about the size of an infant's fist, with a streak of silver cutting right through the middle.
Ye Hun reached out and picked up the stone. A bizarre scene unfolded: the stone melted directly into Ye Hun's hand!
Huh?
Ye Hun stood dumbfounded. The next moment, his body grew searing hot, and a blinding silver radiance suddenly burst forth.
Before Ye Hun could figure out what was happening, his vision gradually blurred. In a trance, he seemed to catch sight of a battlefield of unimaginable vastness, where countless colossal figures—neither fully human nor fully beast—were engaged in a cataclysmic battle that threatened to shatter the heavens and earth.
Those giant figures roared, light swirling around their forms. Some were supremely holy, while others radiated demonic malice; all sorts of unimaginable powers wreaked havoc across that battlefield.
They made no distinction between friend and foe, nor between sides; whenever they crossed paths, an earth-shaking clash ensued.
The bodies of the fallen giants underwent transformations, actually giving birth to all things in creation, expanding the heavens and earth. As one giant after another fell, the battlefield grew ever larger.
Finally, amid a cataclysmic destruction, all the giant figures burst apart, transforming into countless particles of brilliant light...!
Ye Hun felt as though he were floating, his body shrouded in an impenetrable mist, devoid of any physical sensation. Before his eyes was a blur of primordial chaos, and dimly, something entered his body, filling him with an intense heat.
Silver light swirled over his body as profound runes, glowing faintly, branded themselves upon his flesh.
At that moment, Ye Hun saw that he was amidst a boundless primordial chaos. The surroundings were pitch black, with only the silver radiance from his own body providing a flicker of light.
He raised his hand, and the scattered points of light instantly converged into his palm, coalescing into a stone—it was precisely that strange stone from moments before, with only one difference.
Ye Hun sensed that he could control this stone. As a thought crossed his mind, the stone in his hand instantly transformed into a long sword! Astonished, Ye Hun changed his thought, and in the next instant, the sword in his hand turned into a broadsword!
"This stone can actually transform into various weapons according to my thoughts?"
Ye Hun arrived at this deduction. And that was not all; changes rippled across his body once more as the runes previously branded onto his skin slowly converged, surging all at once into the center of his brow.
Ye Hun instinctively wanted to cover his forehead, but no pain came; instead, it felt warm and soothing.
As all the silver runes sank entirely into the center of his brow, a scripture materialized within his sea of consciousness.
The scripture was profoundly arcane, yet Ye Hun could understand every word of it.
As Ye Hun silently recited it, he instantly felt a massive surge of spiritual energy rushing toward him. Amidst his astonishment, with a crisp *crack*, something seemed to shatter inside him, and afterward, he felt his entire body surging with boundless strength.
"What is this?"
"I've broken through?"
Ye Hun was stunned. For sixteen years, even after consuming three Azure Spirit Fruits, he had failed to enter even the simplest initial realm, yet now he had broken through with such ease!
A wave of mixed emotions washed over him, leaving him sighing with sentiment.
And that was still not the end. That torrent of spiritual energy seemed endless, continuously pouring into his body, while Ye Hun's aura climbed higher and higher at a rate visible to the naked eye.
After an unknown length of time, it finally subsided. By then, Ye Hun felt stronger than ever before.
He looked at the broadsword in his hand, and with a single thought from Ye Hun, the blade turned into a streak of light and darted into the center of his brow.
Ye Hun casually waved his hand, and the surrounding darkness was dispelled. He blinked his hazy eyes, his vision clearing as he realized he was still standing beneath the original large tree.
Beside him lay the ordinary wooden box and the beast hide. The only difference was that he now felt his entire body brimming with strength, and the injuries on his hands had completely healed.
He sensed that some kind of transformation had occurred within him, yet scanning all around, he found nothing out of the ordinary. He did not know whether everything he had experienced just now was real—those terrifying giant figures, that unimaginable battle, and the peculiar stone in his hand.
To verify it, Ye Hun shifted his thoughts, and a flash of silver light flickered. Sure enough, a silver broadsword appeared in his hand, slender and long, with silver light faintly shimmering across the blade—truly wondrous.
He casually swung the broadsword, and it felt remarkably well-balanced, as if tailor-made for him. He then slashed toward the large tree behind him. Without exerting much force at all, the tree snapped cleanly in two like tissue paper. Looking back at the broadsword, its edge was incomparably sharp, a fleeting glint of cold light flashing and disappearing!
Ye Hun was astonished. Was this his current strength?
A casual swing and a tree that required two people to wrap their arms around snapped so effortlessly!
With a thought, Ye Hun recalled the weapon, and the silver broadsword turned into a streak of silver light and vanished. Another thought, and the broadsword materialized once more.
Repeating this process back and forth, Ye Hun understood: the silver broadsword would appear or disappear entirely at his command.
When not in active use, it resided within his sea of consciousness, right alongside that profound scripture, which carried an aura of primordial chaos!