Chapter 501: Xian Fan
Everyone was aware that the Phoenix Maiden was Di Zuo’s fiancee. She fled in defeat so it was understandable that Di Zuo, as her fiance, would take her side. However, no one expected for it to escalate to a life and death battle.
But then again, it was not too strange either. Li Qiye didn’t only defeat the maiden but also killed the Divine Spark Prince. The two sides had reached an irreconcilable point so Di Zuo would take revenge for his little brother-in-law!
The crowd eagerly held their breaths, waiting to see if Li Qiye would accept the challenge or not! The truth was that everyone was looking forward to this fight.
“Fellow Daoist Di Zuo, our Guardian is training in seclusion.” Daoist Bao Gui shook his head and said: “I’m afraid we can’t meet your demand at this moment. If you want to fight, then wait till our Guardian comes out.”
This answer invoked a rowdy commotion from the unhappy ghost cultivators. One of them scowled and said: “Hmph! That Li guy is definitely too afraid to show up for the battle.”
Another one sneered: “That is just what a human ant does — only picking on the weak. Well, Sir Di Zuo can slay that brat Li as easily as turning his palm! At the moment, that ant is probably cowering in fear. Actually, he might have already run away.”
“He doesn’t have the choice to refuse!” Di Zuo’s overbearing voice came again: “It is better to tell him to come out, or else bear the consequences!”
“What consequences?” A lazy voice appeared: “A wild dog like you will come and bite me?” Li Qiye leisurely appeared with Lan Yunzhu right behind him. He furrowed his brow at Di Zuo and asked: “You want to fight?”
Li Qiye’s arrival immediately shut the ghost cultivators up while the human cultivators instantly became excited. A human cultivator looked at the ghost cultivators who were yelling earlier and quipped: “Who is this Di Zuo? Li Qiye is our human race’s young Immortal Emperor! You think someone like Di Zuo can stop our young Immortal Emperor’s path?”
In the Sacred Nether World, the relationship between the humans and ghosts was quite poor. It was especially obvious since a few ghost tribes relied on their numbers and strength to bully the humans, causing resentment to form in the hearts of many human cultivators.
Li Qiye’s sudden rise to fame and killing of ghost cultivators elated many humans with pride.
The ghost cultivators became annoyed from the remark and refuted: “That junior Li is nothing! Just wait and see, our Sir Di Zuo will kill him within three moves!”
And this was met by an instant rebuttal from the humans: “What’s so great about Di Zuo? He isn’t much compared to our young emperor. Our young emperor can also kill him within three moves!”
Suddenly, a bunch of cultivators began to argue, and many people joined both sides. The ghost race despised the humans while the humans also hated the ghosts.
Di Zuo sat in the sky above the Thousand Carp River’s camp to look down at Li Qiye as he gravely said: “I’m just afraid you won’t fight.”
Li Qiye cracked his knuckles. It was obvious that he was itching for a fight as he said: “We can fight any time!” Recently, he had created a new merit law and he wanted to test its strength. Di Zuo would make a great sharpening stone!
“Very well! You choose the time!” Di Zuo said in a very domineering manner: “I shall take your dog life for sure! From now on, I shall be the only one to kill you, and I will use your head to warn the human ants that those who oppose me shall be slain without mercy!” He then took out his flag and threw it towards the river sect’s camp. His flag’s power was quite formidable; once it pierced the ground, it would mean that those in its vicinity would become his enemies and outsiders must not intervene.
“Clank!” However, Di Zuo’s flag did not reach the Thousand Carp River’s camp and instead was struck by a ray in midair. This ray was a golden plume that shattered the flag into pieces.
Everyone was startled; someone actually destroyed Di Zuo’s flag. This was akin to opposing Di Zuo, and very few in the Sacred Nether World would dare to do this.
At this point, everyone saw a person standing in the air. This individual was adorned with a full set of divine armor. The golden plume then flew back into this armored person’s hand and revealed itself to be a piece of golden armor.
No one saw when this person got there. The person was covered in divine armor from head to toe and one couldn’t see their face nor determine their gender.
This divine armor was huge. It was half again the height of an ordinary man and decorated with bright colors. Within these bright colors were five strange images. There was a divine tree that towered into the sky, a flame that burned the air, an immense earth that stretched far and wide, a vast ocean that spanned the horizon, and an opened treasure trove glistening with wealth. These five images floated up and down and were very spectacular, moving as if it was the opening of an immortal world, as if this armor was from originally from said world, or perhaps it was even the tool to reach this immortal world.
The sudden appearance of this armored person caused everyone to look at each other and murmur: “Who... is this person?”
It didn’t matter if many cultivators didn’t know this person, a nobody daring to destroy Di Zuo’s flag was too arrogant.
Di Zuo’s eyes became as bright as a divine lamp after seeing the person. He then exclaimed: “Xian Fan!” Two divine lights shot out from his eyes and flew towards the divine armor as if he wanted to see through it. [1. Xian Fan = Immortal Mortal, or Immortal Human, or a mix of the immortal world and the mundane world.]
“What is so great about the ghost race?” A sound as clear as metal emanated from within the divine armor: “Daring to call my human race ants?!” It was very difficult to tell whether it was a man’s or a woman’s voice since it carried a metallic tone.
“Then let me see just how great a genius from the ghost race is!” The armored person declared.
“Xian Fan, you really wish to oppose me?” Di Zuo glared at the divine armor and retorted with gravity. [2. This “me” here is a form of arrogance.]
“Di Zuo, wait until you become an Immortal Emperor, then you can speak to me with that kind of tone. As of now, you are still far from it, yet you still dare to bluster in front of me?” The voice from the divine armor responded.
“Xian Fan, you want to fight? Fine, wait until I finish my business here, then I’ll deal with you at any time!” Di Zuo spoke in a serious manner. His aura was quite unstoppable and aggressive.
“No need to wait when we can do it now!” The Xian Fan adorned with divine armor retorted.
A person named Xian Fan who was completely covered with divine armor suddenly appeared and challenged Di Zuo! Despite this show of overbearing arrogance, no one had ever heard of this person before.
“Xian Fan!” Lan Yunzhu exclaimed by Li Qiye’s side: “They finally came out. This person is really heaven-defying.” [3. I really hate unknown gender characters, especially when I have to put it in English.]
“Who is Xian Fan? What’s his background? How come such an unknown person dares to challenge Sir Di Zuo?” Many confused ghost cultivators looked at each other.
No one knew who Xian Fan was because they had never heard of this name before.
“Is this a human expert?” Even the human cultivators were lost. This person named Xian Fan was clearly backing the humans, but even they themselves had never heard of this fella before.
“Xian Fan!” A great character from the southern Distant Cloud clapped his hands together and said: “I remember now. More than ten years ago, the Simple Mountain Immortal Kingdom had a descendant named Xian Fan, but the person disappeared later on and never showed their face again.”
“The descendant of the Immortal Kingdom?” The crowd was shocked and the ghost cultivators no longer dared to look down on the newcomer.
The Immortal Kingdom was a lineage with two emperors, so it had one less emperor than the Myriad Bones Throne. However, it was not any weaker than the throne of bones.
Keep in mind that there was a legend about the young Immortal Emperor Di Yu obtaining a grand creation from the Prime Ominous Grave. Some people later on speculated that he even opened a supreme treasure trove inside. Because of this, many people believed that the Immortal Kingdom had quite a great secret reserve!
“The descendant of the Simple Mountain Immortal Kingdom?” A person murmured. Not too many had heard about this particular descendant.
For a very long time now, the Immortal Kingdom’s prestige stood strong over the world, but they kept a very low profile and rarely participated in external matters.
Many didn’t know the Immortal Kingdom’s sect master or the next descendant because ever since the Immortal Kingdom became reclusive, it slowly disappeared from everyone’s eyes.
“Come to think of it, the Immortal Kingdom really did have a descendant. I heard that, at that time, a few lineages attended the ceremony. In addition, only emperor’s lineages in the Distant Cloud were invited, including the Thousand Carp River.” A sect master from the Distant Cloud suddenly recalled.
Xian Fan — this was the descendant of the Simple Mountain Immortal Kingdom, but this very mysterious person was not famous in the Sacred Nether World. No one knew Xian Fan’s background or gender.
In the past, at the successor’s appointment ceremony, the Immortal Kingdom didn’t declare it to the world and instead only invited a few people. Only emperor’s lineages like the Thousand Carp River were invited, and no ghosts were present!
At this point, Di Zuo and Xian Fan were at an impasse in the sky. Di Zuo was glaring at the divine armor while Xian Fan — within this armor — had their expression shrouded.
As the main character of this turmoil, Li Qiye was suddenly forgotten by everyone. He was quite surprised to see the five wondrous images inside the divine armor.
“This guy is pretty good, what is his background in the Immortal Kingdom?” Li Qiye asked Lan Yunzhu who was standing by his side.
Lan Yunzhu glanced at her master. Daoist Bao Gui also participated in the successor ceremony that year and knew some secrets. He then replied: “I don’t know the exact details, but they’re most likely human. The Immortal Kingdom kept Xian Fan’s background a secret, and Xian Fan maintained a low profile as well. However, one thing is certain; after the ceremony, Xian Fan did an amazing deed.”