Chapter 699: The Young Old Madman
Tianyuan was an ancient city with a long history and an exceedingly long existence. No one knew in which era it originated.
In this barren land outside the city, there were endless secrets. Legend had it that the Ancient Emperor Taiyin had once resided here for a long time, leaving behind countless tales.
Stone mountains stood tall, barren of grass, scorched as if subjected to the most intense solar true fire. The red earth had even melted, crystallizing into shiny substances.
"Didn't the Ancient Emperor Taiyin go into seclusion here? He cultivated the Taiyin True Scripture, the ultimate in softness and yin. How could it have created such a scene?" someone asked softly.
"What do you know? Extreme yin can give birth to yang. When it reaches its limit, it transforms. Otherwise, how could he have achieved the supreme dao fruit of an ancient emperor? This is a manifestation of great perfection and ultimate attainment!" another person said.
Ye Fan wanted to rush forward, but the Old Madman had already disappeared. His movements were too fast—with each step, he vanished, entering the depths of this ancient land.
"Don't crowd. Why are you going inside? This is a living ancient sage! Do you want to provoke his anger? Don't approach his forbidden ground."
"This ancient sage has a very strange temper. He dislikes being disturbed and never accepts anyone's worship. It's better to avoid trouble and not bring misfortune upon yourself."
Some people warned, saying that in recent days, sect leaders had gone to pay their respects, but they were all met with indifference. He remained unmoved, as if completely out of step with the entire world.
"Senior!"
Finally, Ye Fan saw the Old Madman again. He watched him emerge from an underground cave and, in one step, stand atop a mountain peak.
"Old Madman Brother!" he called out again.
The people around him looked at him as if they had seen a ghost. Who was this person, daring to address a sage like that? It was truly speechless. What era was this man from?
"Who is he? How dare he speak like that? Has he lived too long? Even several patriarchs had to perform the rites of juniors when they went to pay respects, and he dares to speak like this?!"
"Who are you? Showing such disrespect to a sage?"
However, to everyone's astonishment, the disheveled strange man in the distance suddenly looked over. His gaze pierced through his tangled hair and locked onto Ye Fan.
Almost instantly, Ye Fan flew up, involuntarily, and appeared on that stone mountain. This shocked many people, who stared with wide eyes.
"Greetings, Senior!" Ye Fan was very excited. He had never imagined meeting the Old Madman in the Ziwei Ancient Star Domain. Was this the means of a sage—able to traverse the dark universe?
"Why are you here?" the Old Madman asked in a low voice. This was the first time he had voluntarily spoken to Ye Fan.
Ye Fan's heart could not calm down. He sent out a divine thought, presenting all the experiences he had been through, and sought help from the Old Madman, hoping to cross the star domain together.
"Ancient Forbidden Land!" The Old Madman's eyes shot out two terrifying beams of light, extremely brilliant, like two divine lamps, piercing through the heavens.
For a full half-quarter hour, he remained motionless, gazing into the distance at the Big Dipper. His emotions surged violently, unable to calm down.
Ye Fan knew that he had a sad past there. All his fellow disciples had died, leaving him alone, half-mad and half-deranged.
When the divine thought Ye Fan sent out revealed the encounter with the purple bronze warship in the dark universe, the Old Madman's expression immediately shook. His eyes blazed with divine light, and he said, "A ship full of ancient ancestral kings?!"
Ye Fan's heart tightened. For the first time, he felt the supreme pressure of a sage. A fierce battle intent surged into the sky, as if to tear apart the universe and charge into the cosmos.
He truly had an illusion—the Old Madman seemed to have become a deity, ready to single-handedly kill his way into the stars to slay those ancient ancestral kings.
"If these people do not die, the human race will face great calamity. Their revival requires endless life essence. Even billions of corpses would not be enough," the Old Madman said coldly, his words chilling.
"What?" Ye Fan was startled and wanted to ask something, but the Old Madman had returned to his usual calm, like a piece of dead wood, saying nothing more.
Finally, gritting his teeth, Ye Fan revealed that he came from the other side of the starry sky, a place called Earth. The Old Madman could travel through the universe. If he could take him home... just thinking about it made his blood boil.
The Old Madman remained silent for a long time. After a long while, he said, "Difficult, difficult, difficult. Without cosmic coordinates, there is no way to reach the place you speak of. One can easily get lost in the desolate heavens and die."
Hearing this, Ye Fan felt as if cold water had been poured over his head. Both Yinghuo and ancient Earth had their exact positions, but how could he know? He certainly could not determine the so-called coordinates.
Suddenly, the Old Madman's eyes blazed with intense light, shooting out two dazzling divine beams that pierced into the starry sky. He stared at the Big Dipper, and then his body began to fade.
"You go... I am about to undergo a change!" he said in a low voice.
Ye Fan's heart skipped a beat. What change was the Old Madman about to undergo? Was his condition very bad? What was going to happen?
The next moment, he was sent flying, thrown out of this barren land, landing among the crowd, far away.
The Old Madman waved his hand, and countless array patterns appeared out of nowhere, instantly flooding the area. A vast, hazy light curtain covered the scorched earth.
This was an ancient formation of extreme complexity and profundity, filled with killing intent at every step, completely sealing off the area!
Ye Fan vaguely recognized that it contained the corner of Emperor Wu Shi's slaughter formation that Black Emperor had taken out, as well as the corner of Emperor Void's divine patterns. The two were combined, along with other vast and intricate dao patterns, densely packed.
The ancient formation sealed heaven and earth, suppressing the Old Madman himself, preventing him from breaking free. It stunned everyone.
"What is he doing? Those look like several fragments of imperial patterns. Is he trying to suppress himself to death?"
"What is wrong with this sage? Why is he treating himself like this?"
No one understood. They all showed expressions of disbelief and looked inside.
"Roar..."
At that moment, the Old Madman let out a great roar. His dense, pitch-black hair instantly turned snow-white, dancing like tangled weeds. In an instant, he aged several thousand years!
Originally tall and majestic, resembling a middle-aged man, he was now incredibly aged. In one moment, he had lost endless years, becoming decrepit and worn.
However, at this moment, he was terrifying. His withered head looked up to the sky, his gaze fierce, as if possessed by a demon. With a second roar, this ancient land completely collapsed.
"Heavens! This was the cultivation ground of the Ancient Emperor Taiyin in ancient times. It had endured countless calamities without being destroyed, but today, it was shattered by his roar!"
Everyone was horrified, their hair standing on end.
With a single roar from the Old Madman, all the stone mountains collapsed, rocks tumbling down. For hundreds or even thousands of miles, hundreds and thousands of great peaks fell into dust, forever erased.
"Pfft"
Some people coughed up blood and fell into pools of blood on the spot. Even separated by the two incomplete imperial patterns and a vast, unfathomable ancient formation, the sound still penetrated, and people could not withstand it.
"The legends are true. An ancient sage's single hair can slay thousands of troops, and a drop of his essence blood can kill a saint lord. It's not false!"
"If not for the incomplete imperial array patterns, everyone outside would have died, shattered into blood mist by the roar, not even a trace left!"
People's hearts trembled. The power of a sage's roar was this terrifying. If he truly wanted to kill, who could stop him? Ordinary people faced an insurmountable chasm before him. He stood high above, looking down on all living beings.
"Roar..."
The Old Madman let out another roar. His white hair was like weeds, disheveled and messy. He had lost himself, his killing intent filling the wilderness. Even with the great formation blocking it, people's skin felt like it was splitting. One could imagine what it was like inside the array patterns.
The cultivation ground of the Ancient Emperor Taiyin was completely shattered, nothing left. Only the array patterns flickered, blocking the aura of this world-dominating demon god from leaking out.
"What is happening? Why is this? What is wrong with the Old Madman's body?!" Ye Fan was greatly alarmed, extremely worried.
The Ancient Emperor Taiyin had attained the dao in the ancient era. Divine texts recorded in ancient books described his power as incomprehensible—plucking stars and capturing the moon, slaying deities, with heaven-defying means!
So many years had passed since his death, but people still held him in awe, worshipping him as a deity. Yet now, a sage had come to his cultivation ground.
"Boom"
With a great shock, the place where the Ancient Emperor Taiyin had passed away surged violently. A black moon appeared on the Old Madman's brow, terrifying and eerie.
"That is... Taiyin sacred power!"
"This sage is incredibly powerful. He has condensed the Taiyin imprint. Has he cultivated the Taiyin True Scripture?!"
"Is he walking the path of the ancient great emperors, comprehending ancient scriptures like Taiyin and Sun?!"
...
People were shocked, discussing among themselves.
But the Old Madman became even more frenzied, completely possessed. The black moon on his brow grew even more terrifying.
His roars grew louder. His messy white hair danced against the wind. His body rapidly changed—first to middle age, then turning toward youth.
"Boom"
Finally, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old youth stepped out from his body, full of vigor and spirit, incredibly imposing, brimming with sharpness.
Behind him, the old body stood wooden and dull, motionless like a clay or wooden statue, filled with the aura of decay.
The youth's eyes were like two heavenly swords, so sharp that no one could meet his gaze. This was an extremely domineering and terrifying youth.
"How can this be?!" Ye Fan was dumbfounded.
This was a young madman. He turned around, opened his mouth, and sucked in the old madman, swallowing him. Then his body shook violently, fully awakening.
Everyone was stunned. What kind of miraculous technique was this? The Taiyin black moon imprinted on his brow, rejuvenating him, then absorbing his original self in one gulp, erasing the traces of time, appearing in the form of a youth.
Although the Old Madman's appearance had changed, his madness from before had not diminished. He was still in a possessed state, his gaze filled with endless killing intent!
With a final roar, the flattened earth sank, forming a bottomless abyss. He waved his hand and gathered all the array patterns.
Then, he drew on the ground, laying down new dao patterns, as if deducing something. The complexity and profundity made even sect leader-level figures dizzy, their heads aching as if splitting.
"Several dozen ancient ancestral kings, and you three great saints like the Thousand-Handed Demon God, all come to the Ziwei Ancient Star Domain. Do you want to massacre billions of living beings? I will kill you to attain the dao!"
The young Old Madman's voice was extremely cold, like a supreme demon lord crossing the myriad worlds to descend here.
"I will go and kill all your ancestral kings!" As soon as the young Old Madman spoke these words, thunder rolled across heaven and earth, as if angering the heavens above.
He stood alone in the void, his black hair dancing wildly, his eyes as sharp as knives, staring in one direction.
Ye Fan's heart shook violently. The young Old Madman was completely different from before—far too domineering and terrifying.