Ten heavenly passages surrounded him, spewing divine radiance in a dazzling display. Standing there, Lin Fan resembled a heavenly god, his light illuminating the mortal world, sacred and transcendent.
"Little Yueyue, still want to fight?" Lin Fan smiled brilliantly. The heavenly passages behind him rumbled thunderously, runes emerging within them one after another and radiating a terrifying, utterly intimidating aura.
Yue Chan stood where she was, speechless for a long time, feeling as though she had come here to make a fool of herself. While she was still congratulating herself on opening nine heavenly passages, he already had ten. The gap was far too wide.
It was not that she could not attain ten heavenly passages. On the contrary, Yue Chan was confident that reaching the heavenly passage extreme realm was only a matter of time. But she lagged far behind Lin Fan in speed, and that was what frustrated her most.
"No more fighting. You win this time. I'll challenge you again once I've opened ten heavenly passages," Yue Chan said defiantly. Much as she hated to admit it, the difference in their realms was right there before her. There was nothing she could do.
In the Cave Heaven Realm, every additional heavenly passage brought a substantial increase in strength. Ten heavenly passages went even further, representing a qualitative transformation.
Otherwise, why would opening ten heavenly passages be so difficult? Only a handful of exceptionally gifted beings could achieve it, and they were said to have touched upon the forbidden.
But once someone attained ten heavenly passages, they could look down upon all rivals within the Cave Heaven Realm, wielding supreme divine might that none could match.
Even though Yue Chan had made extensive preparations and found ways to counter Lin Fan, faced with the difference in their realms, he could simply crush them all through sheer strength.
"Um... that little mirror..." Lin Fan rubbed his hands together, his large eyes gleaming slyly as he stared covetously at the supreme treasure hanging from Yue Chan's waist.
"Take it!" Yue Chan tossed it over without hesitation, not even glancing at it as she forced herself to look composed.
In truth, her heart was bleeding. She had begged her great-uncle for ages to obtain it, a lethal weapon meant specifically for dealing with her sworn rival. Yet she had lost it before using it even once. It hurt so much!
"Little Yueyue, you're so generous!" Lin Fan chuckled, catching it with great care and studying the patterns on its surface. He could hardly bear to put it down.
If used well, this thing would give him a little more confidence when he ventured out in the future. It would be an excellent tool for tricking people and seizing their treasures, too.
"Is the ancestor here?" Yue Chan suddenly asked, cautiously looking around the small world as though she had something important to discuss.
Lin Fan froze, somewhat speechless. Is it really appropriate to call such a beautiful fairy sister that?
Had he not deliberately persuaded Qing Yao to turn a blind eye, Yue Chan would probably have been strung up and beaten for daring to speak of her that way behind her back.
However, Qing Yao really was absent from the Pure Land that day. She had already been gone for seven or eight days.
"Beautiful Sister isn't here. She went out to find treasures for my baptism. She probably won't be back for a while," Lin Fan said.
Hearing this, Yue Chan pursed her lips and said with considerable envy, "She really does treat you well. Even for your baptism, she insists on giving you the very best. She actually went to search for phoenix blood herself."
"Phoenix blood?!" Lin Fan was startled.
"You didn't know?" Yue Chan looked puzzled, but soon cleared up her own confusion and continued, "That makes sense. You spend every day here, so you don't know much about what's happening outside."
"Three months ago, someone discovered the Phoenix Nest in the Uninhabited Zone, along with a Nirvana Blood Pool left behind by a true phoenix. There might even be a complete precious art of the ten fiends there. But somehow, the great sects learned of it, and word spread like wildfire, drawing countless people to explore it."
"Oh? What happened after that?" Lin Fan asked curiously. He was desperately short of precious blood like that right now. If he could obtain some, it could help him break through the extreme realm.
Yue Chan continued, "You must have heard about the dangers in the Uninhabited Zone."
Lin Fan nodded. He knew a great deal about them. The Uninhabited Zone had once been a battlefield during Immortal Ancient. Not only had immortals died there, but dark beings from another world had as well.
Though they were dead, they had been supreme experts in life. A single drop of their blood could kill a whole group of sect masters. Moreover, some beings' obsessions lingered after death, giving rise to all manner of strange phenomena within.
The Longevity Calamity, for instance, was one of them, and it was exceptionally terrifying. A Dark Immortal King's remnant soul had survived and possessed the head of an ancient longevity family in the Nine Heavens, remaining hidden ever since.
"Could the Phoenix Nest be very dangerous?" Lin Fan suddenly thought of a possibility. News of the Phoenix Nest must have been made public because the treasures inside were difficult to obtain. It might even be fraught with deadly peril.
"Exactly. A sect master once entered and tried to open the Phoenix Nest, but a strange creature inside nearly killed him, biting off half his body." Yue Chan's expression was grave. Even hearing about it sent chills down one's spine.
That was a sect master, a peerless expert capable of roaming unhindered across the Three Thousand Provinces and founding his own sect. It was difficult to imagine how powerful the creature that injured him must have been.
Rumors had long circulated that several sect masters from the Upper Realm had led their disciples on a joint expedition into the Uninhabited Zone, only for all of them to be bloodied. One sect master had died in a particularly bizarre way: he had merely caught a single drop of water shining with ten-colored light, and both his flesh and primordial spirit had dissolved completely.
Then there was a Demon Emperor of the Three Thousand Provinces over a hundred thousand years ago, who had ultimately died while campaigning in the Uninhabited Zone. He had been someone even stronger than a sect master!
After hearing this, Lin Fan's eyes widened. The reality was far more frightening than what the books described, beyond comprehension and utterly uncanny!
After a long while, worry rose in him again. "If Beautiful Sister went there, wouldn't that mean..."
After pondering for a moment, Yue Chan said, "Hmm... it should be fine. Quite a few sect masters have gone to the Phoenix Nest. I heard several dozen of them are working together."
At this, Lin Fan felt considerably more reassured. If Qing Yao were injured or something happened to her because of his baptism, he would feel terribly guilty.
"By the way, who was that Demon Emperor you mentioned?" Lin Fan asked with interest. Perhaps he had spent too long alone and rarely found someone to chat with. He was also quite interested in some of the rumors about the Upper Realm.
Yet when it came to this Demon Emperor, Yue Chan shook her head. "I'm not really sure. He seems to be a taboo in the Upper Realm, and very few people discuss him. I only heard my great-uncle mention him in passing. The elders of the Heaven Mending Sect who have lived for a very long time are especially secretive about him and refuse to say a word."
"That serious? Could our Heaven Mending Sect have had some unpleasant history with him?" Lin Fan asked in surprise. Sitting on a bluestone, he sank into thought once more.
"Don't ask me. I don't know either. Our elders won't talk about it, but the ancestor lived in the same era as that Demon Emperor. She should know."
Yue Chan waved a hand. The two chatted for a long time, and before they knew it, more than half the day had passed, bringing them into the afternoon.
As they talked, Lin Fan grew increasingly alarmed. Many things were far more serious than he had known. Countless questions filled his mind, making him itch to investigate the truth and lift that veil of mist.
"But there's another version of the story in the Upper Realm. That Demon Emperor never actually died. After returning gravely wounded, he underwent nirvana, lived another life, and left the Three Thousand Worlds," Yue Chan said, holding her lustrous chin. Her red lips were moist and deeply alluring.
"Really?" Lin Fan pondered.
He did know that this world was called the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. The Three Thousand Provinces where he currently lived were only one of those earths, with the Nine Heavens above them.
Ancient longevity families stood in great numbers there, and many ruins from Immortal Ancient remained. The cultivation environment was better, unlike the Three Thousand Provinces, where one had to wait for the three thousand Great Dao flowers to bloom before entering the ruins to cultivate immortal energy.
Besides, Ye Qingxian herself had tossed him down from the Border Pass in the Nine Heavens. He could clearly sense that the spiritual essence of heaven and earth in the Three Thousand Provinces was inferior to that of the Nine Heavens.
"In any case, those taboo figures possess heaven-reaching means beyond anything we can imagine," Yue Chan said lightly. Longing shone in her eyes, along with the determination to surpass them-to become an immortal and transcend!
Before you continue