"Peak Nine-Star Dou Saint!"
Sensing the terrifying aura emanating from the white-robed man before it, the nihility devouring flame clicked its tongue in wonder.
"Hun Tiandi, I never imagined you would actually survive. If Xiao Xuan knew of this from beyond the grave, I wonder what he would think."
The Dou Qi Continent, the Central Plains, the Soul Realm.
Clan Chief Hun Tiandi sat cross-legged on the Jade Meditation Cushion, clad in flowing white robes. He looked refined and amiable, but a lingering gloom shrouded his handsome face. His starry eyes were dull and lightless, filled with uncertainty and suspicion.
"Hun Tiandi, while you were recovering, the Gu Clan certainly threw its weight around. Not only did they claim the Heavenly Tomb for themselves, they also swallowed up more than half the Xiao Realm. They're now the greatest power on the Dou Qi Continent." Seeing that Hun Tiandi remained silent, the nihility devouring flame continued needling him.
It was not remotely worried that Hun Tiandi would suddenly lash out. It understood this man all too well and knew exactly what it could and could not say.
Besides, it had sheltered the Hun Clan for a thousand years. What was wrong with a few barbed remarks?
A thousand years earlier, the Hun Clan and the Xiao Clan had fought a bloody battle in the Heavenly Tomb. After Xiao Xuan advanced to a pseudo-Dou Di and detonated himself, the Xiao Clan had been all but exterminated, the Hun Clan had suffered grievous losses, and Hun Tiandi himself had been severely wounded. The Gu Clan had become the sole dominant power across the Dou Qi Continent, while the Hun Clan had survived only under the protection of the nihility devouring flame.
So what was wrong with a few barbed remarks? What was wrong with that?!
Watching Hun Tiandi ignore it completely, the nihility devouring flame was momentarily at a loss. This was the first time it had ever seen him so unsettled.
After a long while, Hun Tiandi finally spoke. "Nihility devouring flame, do you believe in fate?"
"Heh, heh, heh." The nihility devouring flame laughed. "Fate? Whoever believes in that is asking for misfortune."
Hun Tiandi could not help frowning, his expression growing grave.
Yet there were some things he could not simply refuse to believe.
"Leave. The Soul Realm no longer needs to remain hidden." Hun Tiandi waved his hand irritably.
"Aren't you afraid Gu Yuan will come looking for trouble? He's a Peak Nine-Star Dou Saint now, too." The flames around the nihility devouring flame surged. For a thousand years, the Gu Clan had been searching for the Soul Realm, trying to seize the Tou She Ancient God Jade.
It had assumed that, even if the recovered Hun Tiandi intended to take revenge, he would first devise a careful plan. It had never expected him to act so brazenly.
"If he had that kind of courage, he would have charged into the Heavenly Tomb after Xiao Xuan detonated himself and killed us both. Would we still be sitting here talking?" Hun Tiandi laughed disdainfully.
Gu Yuan was a different sort of man from Hun Tiandi and Xiao Xuan. He had neither the ambition to break through to Dou Di nor the resolve to fight to the death.
Had Hun Tiandi been in Gu Yuan's position after the battle in the Heavenly Tomb a thousand years earlier, the Dou Qi Continent would already have seen another Dou Di born after Tou She Ancient God.
Back then, after gathering the power of his clan's bloodline and failing to advance to Dou Di, Xiao Xuan had entered the pseudo-Dou Di realm. His self-detonation had wiped out most of the Hun Clan's elites and severely wounded Hun Tiandi. Even the Xiao Clan itself had suffered near-total casualties, with only a handful of survivors fleeing.
If Gu Yuan had hardened his heart then, forced his way into the Heavenly Tomb, and killed Hun Tiandi through the lingering shock waves of Xiao Xuan's self-detonation, he could have seized the Hun Clan's Tou She Ancient God Jade. Then, with a thousand years to track down the Xiao Clan and exterminate the remaining five great clans one by one, he would surely have advanced to Dou Di.
But Gu Yuan had done no such thing.
"Heh, heh, heh. You really do think nothing of him." The nihility devouring flame withdrew with a cold laugh.
After the nihility devouring flame left, Hun Tiandi was alone in the vast secret chamber. All was silent.
Suddenly, the space around Hun Tiandi shifted, sealing him completely within it.
"Tch. What a crafty bastard. He's even guarding against me."
Out in the void, the nihility devouring flame, which should already have departed, was hiding in the unseen realm. Reluctantly withdrawing its prying gaze, it cursed under its breath.
Inside the sealed space, Hun Tiandi looked toward the nihility devouring flame's hiding place, an amused smile curling his lips.
"Nihility devouring flame, you really have concealed a great deal from me..."
With a beckoning motion of his jade-white hand, a book appeared out of thin air before him. Four large, gilded characters adorned its cover:
"Battle Through the Heavens"
At some unknown moment, this book had appeared inside the secret chamber. When Hun Tiandi awoke from his slumber, it had been lying quietly before him.
The novel told the story of a young Xiao Clan descendant named Xiao Yan. After his fiancée, Nalan Yanran, broke off their engagement, he made a three-year agreement, then followed an old man living inside a ring on a journey of cultivation and revenge.
And at the end of the novel, Hun Tiandi himself was actually killed as the final villain.
Was this real or fake?
Hun Tiandi found it laughable. A junior who had cultivated for less than a hundred years could actually become a Dou Di and kill an established powerhouse like him?
Hun Tiandi fell into thought, then suddenly chuckled. "Interesting."
Xiao Yan, a future Emperor-Grade Alchemist and Dou Di powerhouse?
Should I snuff him out in his cradle, or...
First, I need to find out how much of this book is true and how much is false.
Most importantly, who delivered this book to me?
Unless it was a high-level Dou Di, no one on the entire Dou Qi Continent could silently pass through the nihility devouring flame's blockade, enter the Soul Realm, and place a book before him, a Peak Nine-Star Dou Saint.
Could the nihility devouring flame itself have placed it here?
The novel clearly described how the nihility devouring flame had deceived him, leaving him completely unaware of the existence of the Dou Di inheritance.
Judging by the various details in the novel, the nihility devouring flame had originally intended to secretly intercept the Dou Di inheritance, advance to Dou Di, and rebel against him. In the end, however, Xiao Yan had obtained it instead.
Hun Tiandi's gaze pierced the sealed space once more and settled on the nihility devouring flame, which was gradually withdrawing the pitch-black flames enveloping the Soul Realm.
At that moment, the nihility devouring flame suddenly sensed a wave of malice. Yet it vanished in an instant, as though it had never existed.
Nevertheless, it grew tense. Having already reached Early-Stage Nine-Star Dou Sheng, it could not possibly experience an unfounded premonition. Someone far stronger than it must have just harbored intense malice toward it.
"Who's there? Who's skulking around, too afraid to show themselves?!" the nihility devouring flame suddenly roared. Towering flames swept through the boundless void, drawing countless gazes from the shadows.
Those gazes held bewilderment, fear, delight, and doubt.
When the Dou Shengs of the Dou Qi Continent, who had lived through long ages, finally saw the nihility devouring flame again after a thousand years, they actually found it raging like a mad thing?
Meanwhile, Gu Yuan, seated in the clan's great hall in the Ancient Realm, was shocked to discover that the Soul Realm had reappeared-and that the nihility devouring flame had already advanced to Nine-Star Dou Sheng.
Then another terrifying possibility occurred to Gu Yuan: Hun Tiandi was still alive.
Flames sprang to life at his fingertips. Having committed the entire contents of "Battle Through the Heavens" to memory, Hun Tiandi briskly burned the book to ashes.
He transmitted his voice to a certain location in the Central Plains. "Hun Miesheng, I need you to handle a few matters personally. Remember, personally. You are not to send your subordinates one after another!"
Before you continue