Where Did He Come From?

"Hmm, where are we going?"

Di Yi watched as the old man with crane-white hair and a youthful face led him somewhere else instead of deeper into the sect grounds. They followed a road heading west, and the farther they went, the more desolate it became, like a stretch of undeveloped land.

"The Primordial Battlefield," the old man explained to Di Yi. Their destination was the Heaven Mending Pavilion's trial grounds, once a vast ancient battlefield that the pavilion now used for its own purposes.

"What are we going there for?" Di Yi asked.

If the old man had taken him to such a place at the outset, he would have thought it perfectly normal. After all, anyone wishing to enter the Heaven Mending Pavilion would surely need to undergo a test.

But now, it struck him as strange.

"What else? Anyone wishing to cultivate in the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Ancient Sacred Academy has to compete for a place. Your younger siblings are undergoing their trials there, so naturally, that's where we must go to find them," the old man explained.

"The Ancient Sacred Academy... can I take part?" Di Yi asked, choosing to ignore the latter half of the old man's explanation.

"You? In principle, yes, but do you intend to compete with your younger siblings for that place?" The old man looked at Di Yi and said, "Places in the Ancient Sacred Academy are limited, and the candidates have already been decided. If you join midway, you can only replace someone under the Fire Kingdom's name."

"Can't I enter under my own identity?" Di Yi asked. Replacing someone under the Fire Kingdom's name was out of the question; he was not actually from the Fire Kingdom.

"Places are limited. If you want to enter the Ancient Sacred Academy under your own identity, you'll have to wait until the Sacred Academy opens again," the old man replied.

"Is there no other way?" Di Yi felt that the Ancient Sacred Academy must be an extraordinary place, and he wanted to see it.

"There is, but you would need the venerable Sacrificial Spirit's consent. Still, I advise you to abandon that thought," the old man said.

"All right, then. Getting into the Heaven Mending Pavilion is enough." Di Yi did not dwell on the matter of the Ancient Sacred Academy.

"Hmm, you aren't serious, are you? Besides coming to see your younger siblings, you really want to enter the Heaven Mending Pavilion to cultivate?" The old man gave Di Yi a peculiar look.

"Is there something wrong with that?"

"No. Never mind. If you truly wish to enter the Heaven Mending Pavilion to cultivate, your aptitude is more than sufficient, and we certainly won't turn you away from a thousand miles off. It's just..."

"Just what?"

"It's just that there has never been a precedent like this. If you truly enter the Heaven Mending Pavilion to cultivate, frankly, we wouldn't know how to arrange things for you. After all, your strength is on an entirely different level from those youngsters. There's no way we could assign someone specifically to teach you."

"That doesn't matter."

"Never mind. We can discuss this later. Let me take you to see your younger siblings first."

The old man led Di Yi westward, and before long, they reached a stretch of wilderness on the western side of the Heaven Mending Pavilion.

The Primordial Battlefield had once been an ancient battlefield, vast beyond measure and covering an immense area. Later, however, the Heaven Mending Pavilion had taken control of it and turned it into trial grounds.

As soon as he arrived, Di Yi spotted the Dragon Elephant, the Five-Colored Peacock, the imperial carriage, and the others he had seen earlier. Quite a crowd had gathered at the entrance to the Primordial Battlefield.

Those people had been talking among themselves while gazing toward a certain region of the Primordial Battlefield. Upon hearing movement, they all looked toward the mountain road. When they saw the old man and Di Yi, they were visibly taken aback.

Still, they were all people who had seen much of the world, with broad horizons and ample perspective. Though they were unsure of Di Yi's identity, they greeted him with smiles and nods.

"That is the trial area, part of the third tier of the Primordial Battlefield. But it looks as though the trials haven't ended yet, so we'll have to wait a while," the old man said, pointing toward a region of the wilderness.

"There?" Di Yi instinctively looked that way. Among those wooded hills,

he saw quite a few children, mostly in their teens, both boys and girls. "Runes have been laid out there, sealing off the wooded hills into a domain of their own. Those outside cannot see what's happening inside. I was merely showing you where they were," the old man said, thinking Di Yi was trying to peer into that region and indicating that he should not waste his effort.

"I can see it." Di Yi saw no reason he should be unable to and said so plainly.

"Right? That's what I was saying-what, you can see it!?" The old man's eyes widened. His first thought was that something had gone wrong with the runes in that region, and he hurriedly used his spiritual sight to look over.

Yet everything there was normal. Nothing had changed, and the runes were functioning perfectly.

"You really... can see it?" Deeply shocked, the old man looked at Di Yi in disbelief.

"Yes. I see a boy in silver robes..." Di Yi nodded, then described the appearance of a child in his teens.

"That's the Wood Clan's genius..." The old man swallowed. That child had left a deep impression on him.

"Oh? That girl is quite fierce. She's fighting a flood dragon and even has the upper hand." Di Yi caught sight of a girl who had yet to reach adulthood, but fought with such ferocity that there was nothing girlish about her.

"What does she look like?" the old man asked, running through several possible candidates in his mind.

"She's wearing a fiery-red battle skirt, with blazing sunlight flowing over it, and her hair is tied into twin braids..." Di Yi described the girl's appearance.

"That's the legitimate daughter of the Blazing Sun Marquis Estate in the Stone Kingdom..." From Di Yi's description, the old man immediately recognized the girl's background.

She, too, was an exceptional prodigy. Like her grandfather, the Blazing Sun Marquis, she favored domineering methods of combat above all else.

"Where did he come from?"

Hearing the exchange between Di Yi and the old man, the people from the powerful clans and great sects could no longer remain composed. Shocked and shaken, they began speculating about his identity.

The runic arrangement in the Primordial Battlefield had been created by the Heaven Mending Pavilion's Sacrificial Spirit, who had lived from ancient times to the present. It was a powerful field capable of blocking attacks from Primordial Remnants.

Normally, even the great kings and marquises would be unable to see through that region, which formed a little world of its own.

Yet now, this person of unknown origin had seen straight through it. He had not even used a Precious Technique, nor had he given off fluctuations from a spiritual heavenly eye or anything similar. That was terrifying in the extreme.

What did that mean?

They dared not pursue the thought.

"Oh? Someone else knows this Precious Technique?" Just then, Di Yi saw a bird suddenly rise on fluttering wings in one part of the battlefield. Its shape resembled the Precious Technique he had once used.

He guessed that its user must be one of the people the old man had mentioned-one of the younger siblings the old man had attributed to him based on his mistaken idea of Di Yi's identity.

It was a girl who had yet to reach adulthood, with curved dark brows and bright, sparkling eyes. There was a special liveliness about her as she performed her Precious Technique.

Though she was not yet an adult, she was tall and slender, with fair skin and long, straight legs, standing a good deal taller than girls her age.

"Someone else?" Hearing Di Yi's words, the old man knew that he had spotted the young prodigies from the Fire Kingdom. His aged face immediately flushed. "Ahem, I was mistaken earlier. How could those children from the Fire Kingdom possibly be your younger siblings? But are you truly not from the Fire Kingdom?"

In his view, Di Yi was no longer merely strong in the ordinary sense. If he could see through a runic barrier, how could anyone still judge him by his appearance?

His actual age might well be greater than the old man's own.

Could those teenage children really be his younger siblings?

What a load of bull.