It Ended Before It Even Began

Wuling County.

The Hundred-Household Office.

Only four people were present in the small courtyard.

Hundred-Household Officer Zhu Xiuwen and Acting Hundred-Household Officer Jin Chuan stood to one side, listening to the two seated men converse.

"Han Tianling should be here soon."

Seated opposite Pacification Commissioner Tie Shan was a handsome young man of twenty-five or twenty-six, dressed in standard-issue robes.

He was presumably a Five-Officials Spirit Terrace Officer of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, and he was the one who had just spoken.

"The Imperial Astronomical Bureau only sent you?"

Tie Shan looked at the young man across from him.

The young man was extremely powerful, ranked on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, and had completed the sixth refinement of his true essence.

He was Huang Tianfu, the ninth personal disciple of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau's director.

But this time, a disciple of Saber-Nurturing Valley was facing Xu Fan, who was suspected of being a Weapon Lord.

Forces from all sides were certain to be watching from the shadows. One careless move could easily cause the situation to spiral out of control.

"The Imperial Astronomical Bureau may keep watch over the realm, but it's still up to your Northern Pacification Office to make arrests and quell disturbances."

"Compared to what's happening here, the Six Paths of the Demonic Sect and the Buddha of Ultimate Bliss are more important."

Huang Tianfu shrugged, looking unconcerned.

He had only come by on his orders to confirm whether a Weapon Lord had emerged.

He was also quite interested in Xu Fan.

The Imperial Astronomical Bureau had studied providence extensively and had already investigated Xu Fan's past down to the last detail.

It all began with that celestial phenomenon.

That celestial phenomenon seemed to have created three people blessed with providence at Peach Blossom Spring Lake.

Lin Chu had been captured by the Northern Pacification Office and taken back to the capital, where he was imprisoned with a group of Wedding Robe Divine Art practitioners.

Liang Chi kept an extremely low profile. After joining the Clearwater Sect, he disappeared and was taken away by an expert from the Five Dragons Cult. He was suspected of possessing a Celestial Person Divine Weapon, one of the Five-Colored Great Dragon Flags.

Xu Fan, on the other hand, was unlikely to possess a Celestial Person Divine Weapon.

Could two great Celestial Person Divine Weapons have emerged in the same place at the same time?

The more information they gathered on Xu Fan, the less his methods resembled those of someone possessing any known Celestial Person Divine Weapon.

Three of the five Five-Colored Great Dragon Flags had been lost; the Five Dragons Cult possessed only the metal and fire flags.

Liang Chi was suspected of possessing the Water Dragon Flag, but that accounted for only three.

Among the great Celestial Person sects, most of their Celestial Person Divine Weapons had yet to choose masters and awaken, and had not been lost.

"This battle will decide both victory and defeat, and life and death."

Tie Shan nodded slightly.

As he understood it, no one from Saber-Nurturing Valley's branch in Qin State would intervene.

If Han Tianling won this battle, he would take everything Xu Fan possessed.

That was the outcome all sides had tacitly accepted.

If Xu Fan won, that would be another matter.

They might take him under their wing, or they might try to seize what he had.

The Northern Pacification Office also wanted Xu Fan to join.

A genius this outstanding might one day become a Land Immortal, even if he was not a Weapon Lord.

"Let's go. Han Tianling has arrived."

Huang Tianfu rose and looked in the direction of Peach Blossom Spring Lake.

He could clearly sense a sharp "spirit" bearing straight down on Peach Blossom Spring Lake.

"That Xu Fan really is bold, waiting so openly for his opponent to come to him."

"I wonder whether he's confident or conceited."

Tie Shan nodded slightly and rose to his feet, voicing his thoughts.

After a thorough investigation, they were eighty percent certain that what Xu Fan had learned did not come from any known Celestial Person martial art.

But that only made him more curious: how had Mu Fangjin died?

Wasn't Xu Fan's cultivation advancing far too quickly?

"What if he's a legendary banished immortal reincarnated?"

"Or perhaps he's a genius seen only once in ten thousand years, one who can stand alongside those first Weapon Lords."

Huang Tianfu shrugged and smiled.

As far as he knew, people with wisdom from past lives were not unheard of over the countless years of the Divine Continent of the Vast Land. There were records of at least five.

The clearest account concerned one from three thousand years ago.

At the time, providence was surging, and geniuses emerged everywhere, as numerous as crucian carp crossing a river.

Even more than half of the Celestial Person Divine Weapons had awakened.

Yet a man who called himself a banished immortal reincarnated had been a Land Immortal the moment he emerged. He had also suppressed several Weapon Lords of his era, reigned invincible under heaven, and claimed the only Celestial Person's seat of that millennium.

The great Celestial Person forces had been left with no choice but to withdraw from the world.

"Not likely."

Tie Shan shook his head slightly.

Rather than believe Xu Fan was a banished immortal reincarnated, he was more inclined to believe he was a genius seen once in a thousand years, one who had created numerous martial arts and possessed the qualities of a first-generation Weapon Lord.

"We'll know if we get a chance to ask him."

Huang Tianfu did not argue. They were only guessing, after all.

Perhaps Xu Fan had hidden it well and really did possess a Celestial Person Divine Weapon.

Or perhaps he was a banished immortal reincarnated.

Or a rare, peerless genius.

Or else he had received a Celestial Person's inheritance.

As things stood, those were the only four possibilities.

Whichever it was, it would be best to try to tie him to Qin State's chariot.

Peach Blossom Spring Lake.

The central island.

After watching me for so long, has the one behind it finally arrived?

Xu Fan slowly rose from the boulder and looked toward the distant sky.

There, a young man carrying a saber was walking toward him.

With every step, his imposing presence grew stronger.

His "spirit" swept out in every direction, utterly undisguised.

Gold and fire intertwined, and saber intent swept across the sky!

So they were waiting for Han Tianling to fight me?

Xu Fan understood at once.

During this time, aside from the Brocade-Clad Guards, with whom he was reasonably familiar,

there were others of considerable strength watching Peach Blossom Spring Lake from its outskirts, including the Yin Mountains across the water.

At first, he thought they were looking for a chance to strike at him, but that did not seem to be the case.

So he had settled down to cultivate the Great Sun True Yang Art, and had now completed his seventh Blood Exchange.

With so many eyes on him, he did not want to enter the Land of Wu either, so he had simply continued cultivating as usual, familiarizing himself with his Qi Refinement cultivation and martial strength.

"You've got some nerve."

His voice boomed like thunder. Han Tianling had already arrived above Peach Blossom Spring Lake, and he looked down as he spoke, enunciating every word:

"Is it because you know you have nowhere to run?"

With every word he spoke, the pressure of his divine intention grew heavier.

His terrifying divine intention, imbued with three kinds of True Intention, bore straight down. Before even making a move, he sought to subdue his opponent with it.

As the divine intention pressed down, the flowers, grasses, and trees on the island seemed to wail, as though they were about to spontaneously combust and crumble from within.

"I don't like looking up when I talk."

Xu Fan raised his eyes slightly. His tone was flat, yet as heavy as Mount Tai.

Buzz!

As his words fell,

Han Tianling's figure trembled in the air, and he was forced slowly downward.

Han Tianling's body shook, and his divine intention turned violent as he tried to resist, but his efforts were in vain.

"No... this can't be!"

"I'm a genius on the Hidden Dragon Ranking, one of Saber-Nurturing Valley's True Disciples. How could I lose?!"

Han Tianling could not straighten his body, but he still fought to raise his head, staring fixedly at Xu Fan as their gazes gradually came level, his heart full of unwillingness.

Why is the gap so enormous?

A single sentence had left him unable to stand straight.

How can this divine intention be so tyrannical, so powerful?

We're both Divine Intention Great Grandmasters. I've completed three refinements and mastered three kinds of Martial Dao True Intention, so why can't I match him?!

What answered him was a ribbon of silvery-white light.

Yin Sha Mysterious Light swept past, and Han Tianling's "spirit" instantly dimmed. The strange phenomenon shrouding the sky above Peach Blossom Spring Lake vanished with it.

Splash!

The corpse fell into the lake, but all around was silent.

"Is it... over already?"

Huang Tianfu's eyes widened. He could hardly believe what he was seeing.

It was nothing like what he had expected.

Han Tianling was a True Disciple of Saber-Nurturing Valley, and his divine intention was so powerful that even Huang Tianfu could not claim he could defeat him so easily.

Yet with a single sentence, Xu Fan had suppressed him with divine intention.

And then one flash of silvery-white light had finished him?