Inside the secret chamber of Sanmiao City, the Defensive Arrays etched upon the walls pulsated with a rhythmic, ghostly blue luster. The sun had long since dipped below the horizon, and the final blood-red rays filtering through the lattice cast long, ghastly shadows against the intricate stone carvings. The air within the chamber grew so dense, so pressurized, that even City Lord Wang Long—a master who had transcended the First Step—felt his breathing stutter.
Wang Long looked at his father, Elder Wang Shen, who sat motionless before him. The Elder's eyes were shut, yet his face was etched with a primal, haunting dread—a vulnerability that sent a jolt of terror through Wang Long's heart. For centuries, Elder Wang Shen had been the pillar of this barren land, a man who had never bowed his head to any living soul. Today, however, he was trembling at the mere memory of the past.
Wang Long reached out, gently touching his father's icy hands. His voice was a blend of a helpless son's curiosity and profound fear. "Father... I beg of you. What truly transpired within that mythical Sacred Realm? How did time flow within its boundaries? And why are you so certain about the 'Third Step' status of Ye Fang's master? Grant me the clarity of that terrifying truth!"
Elder Wang Shen opened his eyes, heavy as molten iron. He gazed at his son, yet his vision seemed to pierce through Wang Long, fixed upon an endless abyss of time. He drew a breath so cold that the temperature of the entire chamber plummeted.
"Long'er..." Wang Shen's voice resonated like the cracking of a mountain. "You know the cycle of this world—day turns to night, night to day. But within that Sacred Realm, concealed by the Heavenly Dao itself, time did not flow linearly. It was twisted, illusory, a labyrinth that consumed itself."
Wang Long gasped, stunned. "A twisted cycle? How, Father? How can such a thing exist, and how could you know? The laws of cultivation should be universal across the cosmos. What made that Sacred Realm so different?"
Elder Wang Shen stroked his long, white beard with trembling fingers. A flood of ancient memories washed over his face. He rose, walking slowly toward the window. "I did not survive through my own wisdom or strength, my child. If I stand before you today, it is not due to my cultivation base, but because I was plucked from the jaws of death by a powerhouse... nay, calling him a 'cultivator' would be a grave insult!"
Wang Shen's voice held a deep, unshakable reverence for that unknown savior. "His power was boundless—millions of times greater than the greatest master of this continent. He was a divine existence who danced with the very laws of the universe at his fingertips!"
Wang Long stood frozen, his spirit going numb. His father, a master at the 'Star Shattering' stage, a man capable of shaking the stars with a single shout, was speaking of this being as something beyond mortal comprehension.
"Father, who was he? What did he tell you?"
Wang Shen turned, a strange glint in his eyes. "That divine entity saved me and dispelled the ignorance of my heart. It was he who explained that the path of cultivation does not end in this mortal world. He revealed the 'Five Steps' of cultivation, within which the entire cosmos is contained! He taught me that what we deem the supreme peak... is but the very first step."
Wang Long felt the ground vanish beneath him. Five Steps! The thought alone was suffocating.
"Father... if that place was so terrifying, and time was distorted... how did you survive the ancient Guardian of that realm? Did a cataclysmic war erupt? Did your savior destroy that Guardian with his full might?"
Wang Shen shook his head slowly. A faint, awestruck smile appeared beneath his fear. "There was no great destruction, Long'er—that was the most terrifying part. When the ancient, colossal Guardian of that Sacred Realm—whose single breath could have turned hundreds of cultivators like me into ash—advanced to crush my soul, the Divine Protector did not unsheathe a blade, nor chant a mantra, nor summon a vortex of energy."
Elder Wang Shen's body shuddered as he recalled the scene. He raised a single finger into the air. "He simply... with the flick of a single finger, plunged that invincible Guardian deep into the earth, pinning him beneath the soil! A mere, casual gesture!"
Wang Long's eyes bulged. To subdue an invincible Guardian with a single finger!
"And do you know what was most astonishing?" Wang Shen continued, "His control was so precise, so divine, that the Guardian was forced to his knees without the destruction of even a blade of grass. He did not take the Guardian's life, nor did he shatter a single pebble in that sacred domain. Zero destruction... to bring the greatest power in the universe to its knees without breaking a thing... can you even conceive of such might, Long'er?"
Beads of cold sweat formed on Wang Long's forehead. In the world of cultivation, when two titans clash, mountains are pulverized, rivers run dry, and the heavens fracture. But to possess such overwhelming power and leave not even a scratch on the surroundings—this defied every law of cultivation he had ever known.
"What... what did he look like, Father? Was he a demon, or an ancient elder?"
A strange enchantment glazed Wang Shen's eyes. "He was beautiful, Long'er. His beauty was as if Nature itself had mixed all her colors to craft him. An ethereal radiance shone from his face, impossible to look upon directly. I could never gauge his stage; there is no scale in this world that could measure such energy."
Wang Shen closed his eyes, as if hearing that melodic voice once more. "And when he reached out his hand to save me from that dark abyss, he said in a voice of infinite melody—'Come, my friend... your task here is finished. You may return safely to your world.'"
The Elder paused, his eyes filled with a mix of suspicion and profound devotion. "Long'er, he spoke to me as if he knew everything! The past, the future, the present... my destiny, my world, my history... he knew it all. In his voice lay the wisdom of the entire cosmos and an infinite peace. Effortlessly, he shattered the twisted web of time and sent me back to these barren lands."
Wang Shen turned from the window to face his son directly. The candles in the chamber flickered their last, leaving his face half-hidden in shadow.
"Do you understand now, Long'er?" Wang Shen demanded, his voice stern and grave. "Yesterday, when I entered Ye Fang's mind during my Soul Search, and that black-golden energy erupted from his spirit's defense protocol—the sensation, the nature of that recoil—it was identical to the pressure I felt from that protector 300 years ago!"
He gripped his son's trembling shoulders tightly. "That is why I am one hundred percent certain! Ye Fang's master is not a common cultivator. He is that very same supreme warrior of the 'Third Step'—a Mythical Reaper Soul capable of crafting creation from nothingness! And Ye Fang... he is the sole, cherished disciple of that divine man, currently feigning memory loss or perhaps recovering from a celestial accident!"
Wang Long trembled violently, the horror and awe of the revelation sinking into his marrow. He now understood that his father's fear was no delusion; it was a living, invincible truth from three centuries past.
In that secret chamber of Sanmiao City, the discourse between Elder Wang Shen and City Lord Wang Long reached its solemn conclusion. Based on his centuries of cultivation and that ancient divine experience, the Elder was fully convinced he had unraveled the secret of Ye Fang's existence.
However... these two titans of the Tianxia Continent remained blissfully unaware that the 'Third Step Expert' and 'Guardian of Zero-Destruction' they so feared was nothing more than a minor 'Security Protocol' of the Universal Cultivation System, quietly slumbering within Ye Fang's mind.