The light faded, and the land returned to peace.
"Pfft!"
At this moment, the triumphant Huang Chao spat out a mouthful of blood, his body pierced through, and he looked utterly miserable.
This blow would have been fatal even against any Nascent Soul stage martial artist, whether they were at their peak or not.
But for a half-step Grand Ascension stage martial artist like him, as long as his foundation was not damaged, it would not be fatal.
"Hahahaha!"
Huang Chao let out a wild laugh, "Even if you used your full strength, so what? You still didn't succeed, did you?"
"Crack!"
With a crisp sound, the formation instantly shattered. The Old Celestial Master's face was pale, and he knelt on the ground. After all, this was his full-force strike.
It was a pity that he still couldn't kill Huang Chao.
Seeing this, the people in the small world fell into despair, never expecting that even this ultimate killing move could not deal with Huang Chao.
At this moment, after their despair, they even wanted to surrender to Huang Chao, but they were quickly awakened by the reality of the situation.
For a tyrannical figure like Huang Chao, how could he accept their surrender? After all, Huang Chao had awakened after a thousand years.
What he wanted was to increase his blood energy through slaughter and break through to that legendary realm; he certainly didn't need lackeys or followers!
It seemed that only death awaited them; it was a pity that the Fengchan Land did not intervene.
Otherwise, there would still be hope.
At this moment, Huang Chao walked step by step towards the Old Celestial Master.
"Junior, you will be the first person whose blood energy I shall devour!"
Huang Chao asked triumphantly, "Are you ready to meet your death?"
The Old Celestial Master said, "Even if I die, I will destroy you!"
"Hahahaha! It's this late, and you're still daydreaming!"
Huang Chao said sarcastically, "You have nothing left to gamble with!"
"You guessed wrong!"
The Old Celestial Master roared, and after consuming a pill, his entire being instantly strengthened. This scene exceeded Huang Chao's expectations.
However, although the Old Celestial Master's strength had increased, in Huang Chao's eyes, it still wouldn't change the outcome, so he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Time is up!"
Huang Chao wasted no more words, wanting to finish the Old Celestial Master quickly.
However, at this moment, the Old Celestial Master activated all the malevolent energy of the Blood Prison Forbidden Land, dragging Huang Chao into the abyss of the Blood Prison's Eye together.
"No..."
Huang Chao, filled with unwillingness, was forcibly dragged into the abyss by the Old Celestial Master, with almost no chance of survival.
Before long, heaven and earth returned to silence. If not for the scattered ruins everywhere, no one would have imagined that a cataclysmic battle had just taken place here.
The survivors breathed a sigh of relief. In the eyes of the powers in the small world, they felt no gratitude towards the Old Celestial Master.
All they felt was the relief of having survived a disaster, and from now on, they could live their lives without worry.
...
When Yun Fan emerged from his secluded cultivation, it was ten days later. He had now broken through to the Divine Profound Realm.
That is to say, the beginning of the peak of the Nascent Soul stage.
At this moment, he was still reveling in the joy of his breakthrough, completely unaware of the nightmare of the past few days.
When Yun Fan came out, Mo Yun and the others had only sadness on their faces.
"What's wrong?"
Yun Fan asked, confused.
He could see that everyone's expressions were not good. Had something major happened during his seclusion?
Mo Yun finally said, "Little friend Yun, the Old Celestial Master might..."
"Might what?"
Yun Fan quickly pressed, a bad premonition suddenly arising in his heart.
"Might have sacrificed himself!"
"What?"
Yun Fan's vision went black, and he almost fell to the ground. He simply couldn't understand how his master, with such powerful strength, could have sacrificed himself so easily.
What had happened during this time?
At this moment, Mo Yun recounted the battle between the Old Celestial Master and Huang Chao, and how they both perished.
"Master!"
Yun Fan collapsed and knelt on the ground.
At this moment, all he felt was infinite guilt. If he hadn't gone into seclusion, and had fought alongside his master, would the outcome have changed?
Undoubtedly, he had broken down. This was the second time he had broken down since his debut.
The first time was when Jiang Xueyan was ambushed and almost died.
He simply couldn't believe that his master was gone.
At this moment, Mo Yun and the others quickly comforted him, "Little friend Yun, we all know you are in great pain, but please don't blame yourself. The disparity in strength was too great; even if you had intervened, it would have been in vain!"
"No, I absolutely refuse to believe it!"
With that, Yun Fan did not linger in the Medicine King Valley and rushed directly towards the small world.
When he arrived at the small world, the various factions did not show any distress over the Old Celestial Master's sacrifice.
They continued to live their lives from their high perch.
Yun Fan ignored these clowns and went directly to the Blood Prison Forbidden Land.
At this moment, the Blood Prison Forbidden Land was filled with ruins. His heart grew increasingly uneasy.
Just then, he saw two figures in the Blood Prison Forbidden Land.
It was Yao Chi, who had returned, and her mother, the Jade Pool Holy Lord.
When she saw Yun Fan arriving, she reprimanded him sternly, "Kneel!"
Yun Fan did not hesitate at this moment and knelt down involuntarily, facing the direction where his master had sacrificed himself.
Whether this kneel was for atonement or guilt, perhaps only Yun Fan knew.
"You scoundrel!"
The Jade Pool Holy Lord angrily cursed, "Where were you when your master fought alone? You didn't even help your master; has your conscience been eaten by dogs?"
Yun Fan remained silent, tears streaming down his face.
At this moment, Yao Chi quickly said, "Mother, don't blame him. With the strength of the culprit Huang Chao, even if he had helped, he would have only added another corpse!"
At this moment, Yao Chi was not only not angry with Yun Fan but also felt fortunate that Yun Fan had not rushed to support them at that time.
After all, given Yun Fan's personality, he would have fought desperately, but in the face of absolute power, desperate fighting was merely the final performance of a clown before death.
"Wuwu..."
The Jade Pool Holy Lord couldn't help but break down in tears. She knew it in her heart too! But at this moment, she wanted to vent her anger.
At this moment, Yun Fan asked, "Shi-niang, where is my master's body?"
The Jade Pool Holy Lord ignored him and cried her heart out alone.
At this moment, Yao Chi said to Yun Fan, "We couldn't find Father's body!"
"What?"
At this moment, Yun Fan did not delay in the slightest and rushed to the center of the battle, hoping to find a sliver of hope there.
Upon reaching the center of the battle, it was still dangerous here, as the martial aura of the two peerless experts had not yet dissipated.
Fortunately, he was already a Divine Profound Realm expert and could barely withstand these auras.
However, the residual energy still cut several wounds on his body. Yun Fan ignored the pain and searched for his master's trace.
Alas, after searching all around, he found nothing. Finally, he arrived at the abyss of the Blood Prison's Eye.
"Master! I'm sorry, I'm late!"
Yun Fan collapsed and knelt before the abyss, as he carefully sensed the interior of the abyss but found no aura whatsoever.
He originally wanted to jump down to search for the body, but unfortunately, the malevolent energy was swirling, and with his strength, even going down would mean his end.
It wasn't that he feared death, but without his master, he still had to carry the banner of Ghost Valley.
"When I one day reach the Soul Refining realm, I will personally retrieve your body and bury it with my own hands!"
Yun Fan prostrated himself deeply a few more times, then turned away in grief.
Although he had not experienced the battle, it was not difficult to guess that his master and Huang Chao had most likely perished together.
It was just a pity that he didn't even have the strength to retrieve the body now; what a mockery!
Afterward, Yun Fan returned to the thatched hut and found his master's farewell letter.
So, he immediately opened the letter.
Upon reading the letter, Yun Fan was stunned.
Because his master had already written down the situation in the letter.
It turned out that his master had long foreseen such a day. For many years, his master had been trying to find a way to destroy Huang Chao.
But it was a pity that all attempts had ended in failure. His master had even known about his demonic cultivation physique since he was an infant.
It was just that his master had never announced it to the public. To stimulate his demonic cultivation physique, he had specifically arranged for him to marry Lin Tianxin.
His master also said that the dark age had already arrived. According to his master's deductions, this dark age would surpass any previous dark age.
To suppress the dark age, one had to be even darker than them, and his demonic cultivation physique was the only hope to resist the darkness.
His master also published his conjecture in the letter, which was that according to the deductions of successive Ghost Valley Celestial Masters, the dark age seemed to have an orchestrator behind the scenes, and this time, the dark age had advanced by a hundred years.
All of this was too incredible.
At the end of the letter, his master instructed him to take good care of Yao Chi and also told her to instruct his mistress not to commit suicide.
The day of Nirvana's return would be the day of reunion.
He did not know if his master could achieve Nirvana, or if this was just a reason for his master to comfort his mistress.
Its purpose was to give his mistress a good hope, under which she could live strong.
Therefore, he took this letter out.
It was a pity that the Jade Pool Holy Lord had already fainted. Under his questioning, Yao Chi said that her mother had tried to commit suicide to follow the Old Celestial Master, and she had knocked her out.
At this moment, Yun Fan handed the letter to Yao Chi.
Yao Chi was also stunned after reading it. She didn't know if her father had any hope of Nirvana under such desperate circumstances.
But this was the best way to prevent her mother from committing suicide for now.
Afterward, the three of them left the Blood Prison Forbidden Land. However, outside the Blood Prison Forbidden Land, there was a large group of people, all of whom were the highest-ranking figures from various sacred lands and aristocratic families.
Yun Fan, who was in grief, was completely bewildered, not knowing the purpose of these people.
"What are you doing here?"
Yun Fan asked angrily. Just a few days ago, his master had protected them and perished with Huang Chao, otherwise, the small world would have likely become scorched earth by now.
But on their faces, he only saw relief and schadenfreude; honestly, their expressions disgusted him.
The Heavenly Punishment Holy Lord said weakly, "Little friend Yun, the formation that isolated our small world from the outside world has been shattered!"
"So..."
Yun Fan looked at him with displeasure.
"So we hope that little friend Yun can use the Ghost Valley formation to help us reshape the small world!"
As soon as he said this, everyone quickly agreed, "Yes, yes, yes!"
"If we are not isolated from the barren lands, our world will surely be enveloped by the corrupting energy of the barren world!"
"We still hope that little friend Yun will uphold the duty of Ghost Valley and help us!"
A group of people pleaded with Yun Fan.
Yun Fan was greatly disappointed. He never expected that even at this time, these people were still not united.
They were afraid that the corrupting energy of the mortal world would contaminate them. He had lived in the mortal world for years, and it hadn't corrupted him.
It was just that these people considered themselves superior. Therefore, Yun Fan, who was already angry, became even more furious at this moment.
The next moment, under everyone's expectant gaze, Yun Fan suddenly made a move. Instantly, before the Heavenly Punishment Holy Lord could react, his body exploded.
"Why?"
"Why did you kill him?"
Although the crowd was terrified, they couldn't help but question Yun Fan.
Yun Fan said coldly, "Selfish people like you are not worthy of my protection! Nor are you worthy of my help!"
Hearing this, the crowd was filled with disappointment. They hadn't dared to complain about Yun Fan before, but they were numerous, and they didn't believe Yun Fan would kill them all.
Therefore, at this moment, they actively forgot how powerful and terrifying Yun Fan was and instead accused him, "Yun Fan, you are so inconsiderate of our feelings; do you want to fight alone in the future?"
"That's right, if you had a better attitude and helped us, we might have united and fought against the dark age together!"
"Exactly, you are pushing us to the opposite side! Without our help, how can you possibly resist the dark age alone?"
Upon hearing this, Yun Fan was truly angered. He didn't know how these fellows managed to be so shameless.
When the crisis erupted, they didn't choose to fight alongside his master, but instead wanted to escape to the Fengchan Land for protection.
The outcome was that they were abandoned by the Fengchan Land.
Now that the crisis had passed, they were standing on the grounds of righteousness and criticizing him.
Yun Fan said, "Where were you when my master was fighting alone? And now you want to threaten me; do you think you are worthy?"
Without waiting for their reply, he continued, "Out of sight, out of mind. You selfish little men have no need to live in this world anymore!"
With that, he was about to make a move.
"You can't kill us! We promise to fight against the darkness with you!"
"That's right, we will fight alongside you; we hope you don't act rashly!"
However, at this moment, nothing they said mattered anymore.
"Counting on you to fight the darkness with me is not as simple as a sow climbing a tree; even a sow would be flying to the heavens!"
With that, Yun Fan decisively made a move. The crowd was terrified, but before they could escape, they all exploded.
No one expected Yun Fan to be so decisive and not give them any chance to react.
After dealing with these people, Yun Fan's mood finally eased a little.
At this moment, Yao Chi said to him, "Yun Fan, the small world will likely be your enemy from now on!"
After all, Yun Fan had killed the leaders of all the major factions this time, and these factions would likely resent him.
Yun Fan said dismissively, "They are not worthy of being my enemy!"
At this moment, he reminded Yao Chi, "The small world is no longer safe, and I'm not sure if there are any sleeping powerhouses. After all, they shielded all their auras before falling asleep, so they are impossible to find. Therefore, the best course of action now is to go to the mortal world!"
"Mm-hmm!"
Yao Chi nodded, agreeing with Yun Fan's suggestion.
"You go and pick up Uncle and Aunt, and I'll take Mother to the mortal world first!"
Yao Chi said to him.
"Okay!"
Yun Fan nodded. This time, he would not only pick up his parents but also all the women in the Yang family. With the arrival of the dark age, it would be inconvenient to be separated.
Only by gathering together could they come up with better countermeasures. However, he also knew that the world was vast, but nowhere was safe now.
As for the Fengchan Land, forget it; after all, the Fengchan Land had never cared about the world.
Now, his heart was only worried about his second senior sister. He did not irrationally believe that his second senior sister had abandoned them, nor did he blame her for not coming to their rescue.
He understood his second senior sister well and knew she was not that kind of person. To meet his second senior sister again, they would probably have to wait until the dark age ended.
However, even he did not know when the dark age would end. It was already causing him a sense of powerlessness and despair, and he didn't know what other cruel scenes he would have to face next.
Without his master, he felt like he had lost his backbone, but he knew that he had to carry this banner himself.