In Taihua Evil Thought's view, the Supremes outside had always preferred another friend to another enemy. Luo Yan would surely agree to his demand.
Unfortunately, he was wrong.
Not only did Luo Yan refuse, he extended his divine sense to examine the stone statue instead. It turned out that a flawless Emperor Formation Diagram had been engraved inside it, with the mark serving as the formation's core. As time passed, cracks had accumulated in the formation patterns within the statue, eventually causing its suppressive power to diminish drastically. This had allowed part of the Divine Remnant in the coffin below to escape and occupy the statue.
In another three thousand years at most, the statue would likely split apart, and the Emperor Corpse in the coffin would return to the world under the evil thought's control.
Then he would become a Supreme in a forbidden zone-and unleash Dark Turmoil in the future!
Luo Yan had already foreseen Taihua Evil Thought's future.
Among the Supremes who unleashed Dark Turmoil later in the original story, quite a few had once been human Great Emperors. They had later fallen to become Forbidden Zone Supremes in pursuit of immortality. Taihua Evil Thought would most likely be one of them!
Luo Yan acted immediately, repairing the Emperor Formation within the statue. To be safe, he even engraved an Emperor Formation he had mastered to reinforce it. Naturally, it was not complete, merely one fragmentary corner, but that was enough to strengthen the mark inside the statue and ensure that nothing went wrong even after tens of thousands more years!
"What are you doing?" The voice inside the statue was terrified and trembling, as though the mark was grinding it out of existence!
That consciousness had originally held the upper hand within the statue, but as the formation patterns were reinforced, the mark left by Great Emperor Taihua regained control of the statue and began annihilating the evil thought.
"Ah! No! I'll kill you!" The evil thought was terrified and unwilling to accept this. After finally waiting until the statue cracked and gaining a hope of escape, he was now being suppressed once again. He resisted with all his might.
Boom! A terrifying sound erupted from the coffin. The thing inside struggled desperately, trying to escape.
A crack opened in the coffin below. Hidden formation patterns emerged, using the statue as their core, and thundered downward. The ground seemed to sink.
"I've memorized your aura... I won't let you get away with this, human!"
The consciousness within the statue was truly ground away, annihilated.
Luo Yan breathed a sigh of relief. This was a terrifying enemy. Once freed, he would be comparable to a living Great Emperor, no weaker than the Supremes in the forbidden zones!
Outside the Thatched Cottage.
Several divine senses exchanged messages high in the sky.
"He actually repaired the statue's seal! Could this man also be a human Great Emperor?"
"Impossible. Since ancient times, no Great Emperor has shared an era with another, nor has any sovereign! This man cannot possibly be a human Great Emperor! He's most likely a Quasi-Emperor!"
"A Quasi-Emperor! No wonder he dared to hide in our Tianxuan Holy Land with such confidence!"
Anyone whose title bore the word "Emperor" possessed unimaginable means and terrifying strength capable of ordering heaven and earth. Setting foot in this realm signified one truth: such people were mighty figures who could once have attained the Dao and become emperors. Had they not been born at the wrong time, they would surely have become Great Emperors!
The entire Tianxuan Holy Land had only three Great Saints, and not a single Quasi-Emperor, which showed just how difficult it was to enter this realm. They were a transcendent holy land with the complete legacy of an Ancient Great Emperor, yet even they could not necessarily produce a Quasi-Emperor to preside over them.
"Pass down the order. From now on, no one is permitted to investigate the person on Brilliant Peak!" that Great Saint said.
With their status and strength, they needed only to investigate to discover who had disappeared within the holy land.
Luo Yan had already been one of their suspects.
The main reason was that Luo Yan had spent too much time in the Thatched Cottage. Otherwise, they would not have discovered his true identity.
As for the statue in the Thatched Cottage, they naturally knew what it suppressed. However, in the more than two hundred thousand years since its founding, the Tianxuan Holy Land had never produced a Quasi-Emperor apart from its Founding Ancestor. With only the means of Great Saints, they could merely slow the deterioration of the formation patterns inside the statue, not repair and reinforce them as Luo Yan had.
Luo Yan left the Thatched Cottage. Now that he had obtained Nine Secrets: Xing, he only needed to wait for the Time Mirror to awaken.
Brilliant Peak.
Little Madman woke up, looked around, and scratched his head in puzzlement. "Where's Brother Luo Yan?"
He did not see Luo Yan, but he spotted someone else. "Yun Yue, you actually dare to come here!"
Little Madman stared at that figure with gritted teeth, his gaze utterly hostile!
Two years ago, despite knowing that the holy land's elders had forbidden anyone from attacking Brother Luo Yan, this man had secretly targeted him and Wei Yi instead, causing both of them to suffer severe injuries during a mission.
Afterward, his father, Elder Yun Shan, had confined him. Little Madman had not expected him to be released already.
It looked like punishment, but it was protection!
"This is our Tianxuan Holy Land. I can go wherever I please!" His tone was icy, as though he still bore a grudge over his two years of confinement.
"I hear you two are now among the Three Heroes of Tianxuan? What a coincidence. I'd like to be one of those Three Heroes of Tianxuan myself!" Yun Yue said darkly.
"Fine by me. I've wanted to beat you up for ages!" A dangerous divine gleam flashed in Little Madman's eyes. He had never forgotten the ambush Yun Yue had arranged two years ago!
Yun Yue remained unmoved. "Who said I was challenging you? I'm challenging Wei Yi!"
Little Madman was now at the great perfection of Dragon Transformation. As someone in the Four Extremes Secret Realm, Yun Yue was nowhere near his match. Two years ago, when Little Madman had only been at the first heaven of Dragon Transformation, he had already been able to kill cultivators at the seventh heaven. Now that he had reached the great perfection of Dragon Transformation, it was not impossible for him to cross an entire major realm and kill an Immortal Platform expert.
"How can you have the nerve to say that when you're in the Four Extremes Secret Realm? Wei Yi is only in the Dao Palace Secret Realm!" Little Madman wanted nothing more than to attack immediately, but he sensed an extremely powerful aura hidden nearby-one at the level of an accomplished King!
He did not need to think to know who it was!
That old dog Yun Shan!
For them to come so brazenly, they must have been acting on the Tianxuan Saint Son's instructions.
Little Madman had once been a strong candidate for Tianxuan Saint Son. The two had fought a match, but because he had cultivated for less time than the Saint Son, his lower realm had put him at a disadvantage, and he had narrowly lost.
Over the past two years, Brother Luo Yan's guidance had allowed his cultivation to advance by leaps and bounds, and every bit of that progress was solid. The current Saint Son was only at the great perfection of Dragon Transformation, on par with Little Madman.
Perhaps he had sensed his position as Saint Son becoming shaky, so he had secretly instructed the father and son to deal with them.
Yun Shan and his son were staunch supporters of the Tianxuan Saint Son!
"Fine. Then let Wei Yi fight him!" A voice came from up the mountain. A figure walked down, with Wei Yi following behind him.
At the sight of this man, Yun Yue gritted his teeth, fury surging within him. "Luo Yan!"
This was the very man who had killed his follower back then. If his father had not stopped him two years ago, he would already have slain this man to avenge Min Wen!
Ignoring his anger, Luo Yan looked toward Yun Shan, who was hiding in the shadows. "I don't want any outsiders interfering in their spar!"
This fellow really is no ordinary man!
Yun Shan's pupils contracted. In that instant, he felt his imposing aura being suppressed.
Could he be a Half-Saint?
Or an old monster in the Saint realm?
"Then we shall do as you say, fellow Daoist!" he said, though his thoughts had undergone an earth-shattering upheaval.
Before you continue