The Man Who Did Not Exist

One stone stirred a thousand waves.

News that the Luo Family's Saint ancestor had shattered the mountain gate with a punch and slain an elder of the Yaoguang Holy Land spread throughout the Southern Region, and even the entire Eastern Wasteland, unleashing a tremendous uproar.

"Quick, go wake the ancestor!"

"Prepare to revive the Dragon-Patterned Black Gold Cauldron!"

The Yaoguang Holy Lord issued his orders in haste.

Unless a Saint emerged, who could contend with him?

This era was already ill-suited to cultivation, yet a Saint had appeared in defiance of heaven. If they failed to stop him today, the holy land would not merely suffer grievous damage-it would lose face and authority. That was utterly intolerable.

Luo Yan seemed in no hurry. He led Donkey through the holy land without obstruction.

Of course, no one dared stop him.

Their earlier attempt to suppress him with overwhelming force had not only failed but cost them a Great Accomplished King, casting a deep shadow over their hearts.

"Cui Jinhua, get out here! Hand over Yixian! You old bastard, you dare lay a finger on our Luo Family's divine physique?" Just then, a thunderous shout came from outside the Yaoguang Holy Land, followed by three figures charging in with murderous fury.

The Luo Family had arrived!

"Ancestor!" The Luo Family members turned toward that figure in excitement, their voices trembling with barely contained emotion.

Luo Yan spotted several familiar figures in the crowd. Luo Zongqi and his son Luo Tianlin were among them.

Luo Yan looked toward the people of the Yaoguang Holy Land and raised his voice. "Which of you is Cui Jinhua?"

No one answered.

"If you won't speak, don't blame me for striking!" Luo Yan threw another punch indiscriminately in one direction. Its vast power descended like a divine mountain, collapsing that stretch of space.

Boom!

"Ah-"

"No! Ancestor, save me!"

Several cries rang out. This man had actually killed more disciples and elders of the holy land right before its assembled experts. Was this the confidence of a Saint?

"Senior, do you intend to fight our Yaoguang Holy Land until one side is annihilated?" Even with all his restraint, the Yaoguang Holy Lord could not help growing furious at Luo Yan's slaughter.

Luo Yan looked at him. "Until one side is annihilated? You aren't worthy! All you rely on is that Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon. Unless it fully awakens, no one can stop me from killing whoever I wish!"

"Where is Cui Jinhua? Get out here!" Luo Yan swept his imposing gaze over the holy land's people again, as though he would immediately launch another massacre if no one answered.

Six thousand years ago, Luo Yan had held a healthy fear of Extreme Dao Emperor Weapons. Once battle began, he truly had no confidence in handling one, for he was constrained by the laws of heaven and earth.

Six thousand years later, even if an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon could unleash ultimate Dao laws, Luo Yan had nothing to fear.

It was only a weapon, not an actual Ancient Great Emperor!

"Fellow Daoist, spare others where you can. This era is not yet suitable for people like us to emerge, much less wage a great battle! We were in the wrong first. What would it take for you to let this matter rest?" A magnificent aura emanated from the depths of the holy land, like that of a deity.

A Saint ancestor of the Yaoguang Holy Land, sealed within divine source, was awakening.

His condition was strange, hovering in a half-awakened state. His body remained asleep within the divine source, but his divine sense was awake. He spoke as amiably as possible, seemingly unwilling to leave the divine source at this time.

"Fang Jin, don't you remember me?" Luo Yan recognized the aura. It belonged to Fang Jin, the Candidate Holy Son who had once threatened that he would never leave the Tianxuan Holy Land alive.

The aura hesitated, seemingly searching his memories. "Your aura seems familiar. Have we met before?"

After a long while, he continued, "Since we are old acquaintances, grant me some face today, fellow Daoist. In three days, I will have those who offended the Luo Family come to your door to offer compensation and apologies. What do you say?"

"Not enough! You killed members of my Luo Family, destroyed our gates, and abducted our divine physique. How could compensation and an apology possibly settle this?"

"What do you want, fellow Daoist?" asked the voice within the divine source deep in the holy land.

"Every person who helped plot this must atone with death. Their corpses must kneel before my Luo Family's graves for a hundred years, and you must compensate us with ten thousand jin of high-quality divine source!"

Arrogant!

Domineering!

They were accustomed to the arrogance of holy lands, but this was the first time they had seen someone act so arrogantly toward one. What breathtaking audacity!

Most of the source circulating among cultivators nowadays was low-grade and offered them little benefit. Thousands of pieces of low-grade source were worth only half a jin of high-quality source, and even then, an exchange was not necessarily possible!

This Luo Family ancestor demanded tens of thousands of jin of high-quality source the moment he opened his mouth. The Yaoguang Holy Land could afford it, but it would certainly wound them to the bone!

Moreover, demanding that everyone involved atone with death and that their corpses kneel before the Luo Family's graves for a hundred years was simply forcing the Yaoguang Holy Land to bow its head.

Making a holy land swallow its anger before an aristocratic family was a fantasy beyond belief!

"It seems you have no intention of reconciling today, fellow Daoist! Very well. In that case, do not blame me for going too far!"

Deep within the holy land, an old man broke the seal on his divine source and stepped out.

With every step Fang Jin took, the Five Great Mysteries of the Human Body within him continued to awaken. By the time he emerged, he had transformed from an ordinary mortal into a mighty Saint.

He stood still, staring directly at Luo Yan with his brows tightly knitted. "Have I seen you somewhere before?"

Fang Jin stared fixedly at that face. It was both familiar and unfamiliar, as though he had seen it somewhere.

Luo Yan said in disappointment, "It seems you really don't remember me!"

It looks like the laws erased the traces of my existence after I left, Luo Yan thought.

"Six thousand years ago. The Tianxuan Holy Land!" Luo Yan reminded him. Although Fang Jin had lived for six thousand years, he had not advanced far along the path of a Saint. He had not even touched the threshold of the Saint King realm and was nowhere near Luo Yan's match.

Fang Jin kept sifting through his memories. That was a distant stretch of history, when he had still been only a Candidate Holy Son of the Yaoguang Holy Land.

Had they met six thousand years ago? But there was no trace of this man in his memories.

No... there seemed to have been someone else...

Someone who did not exist in his memories!

It was as though the laws of the world had erased that person, yet he had still left traces in Fang Jin's memories, creating a gap!

"You are... the man who did not exist! The man on Brilliant Peak back then!" Fang Jin's voice trembled. For the first time in thousands of years, shock appeared on his face.

"What is the ancestor talking about? What man who did not exist?"

"Could this man have survived from six thousand years ago, just like Ancestor Fang Jin?"

"That isn't right. Wasn't the Luo Family's ancestor a figure from forty-eight hundred years ago? He and the Jiang Family's God King were hailed as the two peerless prodigies of their age. What a pity he was born three hundred years too early. Otherwise, he could have fought Jiang Taixu, who was once acclaimed as having the greatest offensive power in five thousand years!"

Everyone was puzzled. The Luo Family's ancestor had risen to prominence forty-eight hundred years ago. How could he have appeared in the Tianxuan Holy Land, which had been destroyed six thousand years ago?

Only Fang Jin's expression changed drastically. He remembered that day, when the entire Tianxuan Holy Land had attacked the Desolate Forbidden Zone, provoking the supreme being within-the forbidden zone's master, Desolate-to act personally. It was said that the Tianxuan Holy Land's Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon had been destroyed by Desolate, though others said it had been lost beneath the forbidden zone.

The outcome had been unimaginably tragic. The disciples of the Tianxuan Holy Land were wiped out, some driven mad and others killed.

That holy land, the most flourishing of its time, had been annihilated overnight. Only a single lineage remained, hidden away in the world and never revealing itself.

Yet after that day, a saying suddenly began circulating throughout the world.

"The Tianxuan Holy Land had a heaven-defying expert who saw through the future and changed its fate! This holy land should have been utterly extinguished six thousand years ago, when its entire sect attacked the Life Forbidden Zone. It should never have left behind a lineage of successors!

"And that person was very likely the man on Brilliant Peak whose traces had been erased!"

This information had come from the reigning patriarch of the Heavenly Secrets Lineage at the time!