Chapter 1

Chapter One: His Remarkable Perseverance Without an Audience

The sun hung high in the sky, casting its light and heat impartially upon the earth, regardless of age or status. Great love is as merciless as it is universal.

A fawn crossed a stream, while birds flew through the forest.

At first, only a dark red dot appeared on the horizon, but it quickly approached in the blink of an eye.

The fiery tail formed a line of fire, like a divine hand drawing across the sky.

The line of fire almost swept through the thousands of miles of mountains and rivers of the State of Zhuang, when suddenly a black light shot up into the sky, blocking its path.

A cold and ruthless connection was established between heaven and earth, with primordial energy surging. From all directions, the deadly aura arose and connected!

The northeastern corner of the sky over the State of Zhuang was shrouded in dark clouds.

The clear day suddenly turned dark.

A muffled groan echoed in the air: "Nine Shackles of Dark Yin!"

The red dot tangled with the dark clouds for only a moment before plummeting from the sky.

The red dot fell faster and faster, growing larger and larger, until finally...

It whistled like a meteor!

...

The outskirts of Maple Forest City were sparsely populated. Only a small, dilapidated and abandoned Taoist temple remained.

"Boom!"

The fiery dot hit the ground, creating a large, deep crater. However, it seemed to be restrained by some force, and the shockwave did not spread. When the dust settled, a man in a flame-colored robe appeared.

He had arched eyebrows and a handsome, heroic appearance. His flame-colored robe was adorned with intricate and ancient patterns, making him stand out. However, his hair was disheveled, and his robe had cracks, showing a hint of distress.

"I never thought I, Zuo Guanglie, would die in such a remote and desolate place..." The man in the flame-colored robe glanced around, a sense of melancholy in his voice. "What is this place called?"

The sudden darkness and the falling meteor had already frightened the few beggars living in the dilapidated temple. They were prostrating themselves at the temple door, and when they heard the question, one of them hesitantly replied, "Sir... Sir, this is the outskirts of Maple Forest City. This temple... we... we don't even know its name."

The man in the flame-colored robe's fingers twitched, ready to erase these beggars.

In the current era of great strife, wars between nations never ceased. But in recent years, no war had been as intense as the great battle between Qin and Chu. Nearly ten thousand cultivators were involved, and the central battlefield, a river valley plain, was left barren, with the ground sinking for a hundred miles.

As a key figure of the defeated side, especially after breaking through the Hangu Pass alone and nearly turning the tide of the battle, it was not surprising that he was being pursued relentlessly.

However, these beggars were also beggars of the State of Zhuang. The State of Zhuang had dared to secretly assist the tyrannical Qin, allowing them to set up an ambush within its territory... These people deserved to die.

But Zuo Guanglie turned his hand over and extinguished the spark at his fingertips.

"Zuo Guanglie, is this your capacity? To vent your anger on these pitiful people who no one cares about?"

After muttering to himself, Zuo Guanglie sighed, "You may go."

He crossed his arms and turned his head, his gaze already fixed on the sky, as dark as ink. His enemies were there, those hidden, wolf-like strong individuals, and they were the ones he, Zuo Guanglie, intended to kill!

The beggars, feeling as if they had been granted a reprieve, immediately ran away. The one who had first replied hesitated for a moment, but his companions pulled him along, saying, "Do you want to die?"

The beggars ran as fast as they could, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

Zuo Guanglie did not shift his gaze but frowned, "Aren't you going to take your companion with you?"

Within the range of his spiritual perception, there were no secrets.

The wooden statue of the deity in the temple was long gone, possibly used as firewood by the beggars. But beneath the altar, a weak and lifeless beggar lay motionless, probably counting the days until his death—this was the reason for the earlier beggar's hesitation.

It was natural for people to leave behind burdens when fleeing for their lives. But Zuo Guanglie could not ignore it.

A person who had come from the battlefield knew the value of companions. Zuo Guanglie was well aware of his nearly exhausted body, but he would not forget what had brought him to this point.

The beggars dared not refuse the mysterious immortal's words. They even rushed back in a frenzy.

They exerted all their strength, panting heavily.

But to those who observed them, they were no more resilient than ants and no faster than snails.

It was truly... too slow!

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

The dense, sharp whistles from the sky grew closer.

Countless semi-transparent water arrows, gathered by some force, shot towards Zuo Guanglie like a swarm of locusts.

Water elemental energy surged wildly in the sky.

The semi-transparent arrow rain formed a huge funnel, blocking half the sky!

This was a highly representative large-scale killing technique of the Qin military, the Ten Thousand Stream Arrow Rain.

"Here they come!"

Zuo Guanglie looked up at the sky, the wind stirring his flame-colored robe and long hair. He raised his right hand. The wide sleeves of his flame-colored robe slid down, revealing an arm carved like jade.

Pale and powerful.

A red light orb formed in his palm, and in the next moment, it burst into intense light, radiating in all directions.

It was as if Zuo Guanglie had lifted a sun with one hand!

This was a technique he had created, which brought him fame at the age of fifteen at the Yellow River Gathering.

Blazing Sun!

The countless semi-transparent water arrows refracted the sunlight into a rainbow of colors, only to be instantly dyed red in the next moment.

It was an incredibly fierce and blazing red!

With Zuo Guanglie's right hand as the center, a hundred-foot radius of the sky was enveloped in red, and the Ten Thousand Stream Arrow Rain was completely dissipated.

This scene was so magnificent that it was hard to notice the faint ink marks at the edges of the canvas.

Before the Blazing Sun spread, countless arrows had already scattered and fallen. The group of running beggars fell one after another, their bodies riddled with holes.

They didn't even have the chance to scream before they died.

Life was so fragile.

"Is wanton killing also part of your path?" A hint of sarcasm appeared at the corner of Zuo Guanglie's mouth, but it was unclear to whom he was speaking. However, his star-like eyes were gradually covered by a cold emotion.

"Whoever holds back when killing Zuo Guanglie is a complete fool." Accompanied by a cold voice, a group of cultivators in dark robes landed, forming a loose circle.

The lead cultivator had a gaunt face and pale skin. His dark robe had frost patterns at the hem.

He had narrow eyes, which he fixed intently on Zuo Guanglie: "Are mere ants even worth your attention?"

As he spoke, the dark-robed cultivators who had arrived with him began to form hand seals. Their movements were astonishingly synchronized, as if they had been carved from the same mold.

Eighteen semi-transparent water snakes suddenly formed in the air, whistling and darting towards Zuo Guanglie.

From their appearance to their attack, not a moment was wasted.

The low-level technique, the Water Snake Bind, was particularly fierce and vicious under their skillful manipulation.

Zuo Guanglie remained calm, pulling his hands apart to form a flame sword in his palm.

"Go Yang Bai."

He casually held the flame sword, spinning through the air, and cut the approaching water snakes in half.

A technique of this level required no hand seals for him.

"Since you've even brought the Nine Shackles of Dark Yin Formation, why waste our lives with such trivial techniques?"

"Please don't misunderstand..." Go Yang Bai spread his hands, which had been clasped in front of him, and suddenly raised them, "My respect!"

The bodies of the fallen water snakes did not dissipate but instead leaped up, regenerating heads and tails.

One became two, two became four... Under the influence of the Nine Shackles of Dark Yin Formation, these water snakes became even more ferocious.

This was a new variation of the Water Snake Bind, never seen before. It could be said to have given the technique a new life, expanding its application. It was undoubtedly the result of the Qin military's painstaking research.

It was the Chaotic Water Snake Pit.

Sss~ Sss~ Sss~

The sound was piercing and grating.

Dense, vicious water snakes surrounded Zuo Guanglie, as if he were trapped in an endless snake pit!

He seemed to be in a hopeless situation.

But his voice still rang out, clear and firm.

"Ying Wu, who would dare to use the Nine Shackles of Dark Yin Formation to bury me? But this dilapidated temple, which doesn't even have a name... How can such a place have the right to bury me, Zuo Guanglie!?"

Flames suddenly erupted from his body.

Burning fiercely, they spread out like a beast.

This fire ignited anything it touched, forming a line that instantly spread.

The Fire Elemental Technique, the Wildfire.

At the age of seventeen, he used this technique to burn and kill thousands of demons, earning him a fearsome reputation in the borderlands!

The entire Chaotic Water Snake Pit was engulfed in flames, and countless water snakes struggled and screamed, turning into steam.

Amidst the rising and roaring steam, Zuo Guanglie rose into the sky, his hair flying, his aura fierce.

At that moment, an eagle's cry echoed.

A large black eagle swooped down from the sky, facing Zuo Guanglie, and flapped its wings.

Hundreds of iron feathers, each carrying a blade of light, whistled through the air. Each blade of light had a different style, some fierce, some venomous.

The blades of light rained down like a torrent, forcing Zuo Guanglie back into the snake pit.

The mechanical beast, the Blade Feather Eagle.

On the back of the eagle, a barefoot man with a mask and a copper box on his back stood silently. Or rather, his words were in the blades of light.

Under the support of the Nine Shackles of Dark Yin Formation, the snakes grew wildly, regenerating endlessly. The Wildfire technique, lacking endurance, was gradually being neutralized.

As time passed, more and more water snakes began to pierce Zuo Guanglie's body, drawing blood. Zuo Guanglie could only grunt, swinging his flame sword with one hand to fend off the snakes targeting his vital points.

The snakes bit and the dark yin energy gnawed at his soul.

The veins on his forehead bulged, showing the pain he was enduring, but his gaze remained resolute. His other hand continued to form hand seals.

He never gave up for a moment!

Go Yang Bai glanced at the man on the eagle's back and no longer hesitated. He clasped his hands together, raised them in front of him, and his long hair moved without wind, "Surrender now, and you can still have a complete body to return to your homeland! Because... the power of the next technique is beyond even my control!!"

The temperature dropped sharply, and a layer of frost formed on his eyebrows. The entire Chaotic Water Snake Pit came to a halt, covered in a layer of solid ice.

This was the coldest and most unbreakable ice, the Extreme Cold Dark Ice.

This technique was a secret, bloodline-powered technique of the Go family of Qin, the Dark Ice Dungeon.

Those who entered this dungeon would exhale frost in one breath, have their blood freeze in two, and their bodies stiffen in three.

The water snakes turned to ice snakes, and Zuo Guanglie was covered in frost.

Go Yang Bai silently watched this, and in the next moment, his blood would freeze.

But!

Suddenly, everyone heard the sound of a river rushing, the turbulent and surging sound of his blood!

"Boil! Blood! Burn! Soul!"

His flame robe burned, his long hair burned, his eyes burned, his flesh burned, his soul... burned!

His body, mind, life, and soul, everything burned.

The solid ice turned to water, the water turned to steam, and both the Chaotic Water Snake Pit and the Dark Ice Dungeon disintegrated in an instant. In the white mist, Zuo Guanglie had become a man of fire.

He looked down at his flaming hand and muttered, "Worthy of being a royal technique. In such power, I see... the true essence of fire."

Then he looked sharply at the Blade Feather Eagle in the sky, "Too weak."

As he spoke, he appeared in mid-air.

The barefoot masked man on the eagle's back touched the ground with his toes, then fell backward, allowing his precious Blade Feather Eagle to be reduced to ashes by the raging flames!

"Too weak, Mo Jingyu!" Zuo Guanglie crossed his hands, and the technique was instantly formed.

Flame flowers seemed to sprout from nowhere, endless and unceasing. The entire sky was filled with flames, and everything in the battle space, sky, and earth, was engulfed in flames.

Even the dark clouds of the Nine Shackles of Dark Yin Formation in the sky seemed to become fuel for the flames!

Flame Flower City!

This technique could be said to be Zuo Guanglie's most brilliant creation. At the age of nineteen, he used it to break through a city in a single battle!

The flame flowers were extremely beautiful and extremely powerful.

Mo Jingyu, with his mask, spread his hands wide, and each finger connected to a semi-transparent thread, which led into the copper box. He suddenly pulled the threads out!

Puppet Crows!

His fingers moved like weaving, and a dense swarm of puppet crows flew out of the box, rushing towards the flame flowers. Each crow extinguished a flame flower, but the flame flowers seemed endless, and the number of crows flying out became fewer and fewer.

Go Yang Bai, unable to withstand the backlash of the broken Dark Ice Dungeon, formed hand seals with his index finger touching his chin and suddenly opened his mouth. A white, frosty mist spewed out, extinguishing the flame flowers wherever it