Chapter 1572 - Saint Sovereign San Dao Makes His Move

“There’s only one other possibility, Xu Zimo isn’t from this world, the Absolute God Heaven, at all. He must have come from another of the Nine Heavens.”

As for Yan Pingfan himself, he firmly believed this. Or rather, he leaned heavily toward the idea that Xu Zimo came from elsewhere.

Because anyone who had lived in the Absolute God Heaven would have left traces, no one could be completely invisible.

He had even looked into every ancestor of the True Martial Sacred Ground across its history, checking one by one. Not a single one matched Xu Zimo.

So Yan Pingfan assumed Xu Zimo’s purpose was the same as his own.

…

In the night sky, the two faced each other from afar.

A cold breeze swept by, blowing their hair in the wind.

Xu Zimo asked, “So who sent you?”

“You don’t need to know my identity,” Yan Pingfan snorted.

“I’m only here to warn you, no matter who you are, this muddy water isn’t something you should dip your hands into. Be careful you don’t attract the killing blades.”

“Well, that’s funny,” Xu Zimo replied. “Because I enjoy licking blood off the edge of the knife and walking the tightrope over fire.”

“So you’re really seeking death,” Yan Pingfan said. “Do you actually think you’re my match?”

Xu Zimo’s eyes narrowed. A powerful force churned around his body. With a sweep of his hand, he reached directly toward Yan Pingfan.

Yan Pingfan’s expression shifted. The moment the attack came, he immediately sensed that Xu Zimo’s strength was at least equal to his own, if not greater.

“When did the True Martial Sacred Ground gain someone like this?” Yan Pingfan thought in shock.

He struck out with a palm of his own.

Their palms collided in midair and exploded.

A booming blast shook the night. Space twisted, chaotic spatial currents erupted everywhere, and the shockwave jolted the entire True Martial Sacred Ground awake.

Yan Pingfan’s palm force shattered instantly. Xu Zimo’s palm didn’t slow at all, the pressure grew stronger and stronger, gathering spirit energy without stopping.

Within a million miles, every trace of spirit energy was devoured as if swallowed by a giant whale.

Yan Pingfan’s expression completely changed. He knew Xu Zimo was strong, but he hadn’t expected this. One exchange was enough to push him beyond what he could handle.

“Damn it,” he growled.

Sword light flashed before him. Endless sword intent burst in the air, powerful enough to annihilate everything in its path. It managed to shatter Xu Zimo’s giant palm.

“We’re comparing weapons now?” Xu Zimo snorted.

Shadow Tyrant shot out of its sheath. The blade was like crackling thunder, carrying the unbreakable Ancient Metal God Dao. It turned into a golden bolt of lightning, slicing through ten thousand sword lights and slashing straight toward Yan Pingfan.

Yan Pingfan hurriedly raised his sword to block.

Another explosion thundered across the sky. His body was blown away like a rag doll.

…

When Yan Pingfan finally hit the ground, he was covered in countless wounds. Flesh was torn open everywhere, and nearly half his body had been blasted away.

He roared with fury.

“Today’s pain, you’ll repay it a thousandfold in the future!”

After shouting this, he didn’t dare continue fighting. He immediately fled into the distance.

He knew he wasn’t Xu Zimo’s opponent. Continuing the fight would only place him in grave danger, and he might even die here.

Xu Zimo didn’t chase him. Instead, he looked toward the True Martial Tribulation Tower.

Softly, he said, “San Dao… back then, I also called you ‘ancestor.’ I wonder if the blade in your hand is still sharp.”

The moment his voice fell, a blade light tore through the night sky, splitting the heavens.

“Live beneath the blade, die beneath the blade. Slay Gods, Slay Immortals, Slay Demons, Slay Buddhas...”

A deep, steady voice followed the knife light.

That flash was only a moment long, brief yet bright enough to illuminate the entire sky.

Then Yan Pingfan’s head fell from his shoulders.

An old man’s silhouette stepped through the air from the distance. His figure was hidden in the void, hazy and indistinct. A moment earlier, he seemed hundreds of meters away; the next instant, with a single step, he was already above the clouds.

The old man sheathed his blade and picked up Yan Pingfan’s corpse, one hand gripping the mangled body, the other holding the severed head. Then he disappeared into the darkness.

…

All of this seemed slow, but in reality it happened in an instant, just like the blade light, here one moment, gone the next.

Because of the explosion earlier, Wang Hengzhi and the elders were naturally startled awake. They all rushed through the air toward Xu Zimo’s mountain to see what happened.

“Ancestor, what happened?” Wang Hengzhi hurriedly asked.

“Nothing. Don’t panic over every little thing. I was just cultivating,” Xu Zimo said.

Wang Hengzhi let out a breath of relief. He had worried a powerful enemy had arrived.

“If you need anything, Ancestor, just say the word.”

“Go on, all of you,” Xu Zimo said with a wave of his hand.

Wang Hengzhi took the elders and left.

Xu Zimo looked again toward the True Martial Tribulation Tower and smiled.

“That blade is still sharp. The old man may be aged, but his knife is even sharper.”

“Ancestor… that Young Master Yan was a bad person, right?” a small voice asked behind him.

It was Xiao An'an. She had been cultivating on the mountaintop and had witnessed the battle as soon as it began. From every angle, her allegiance lay with Xu Zimo, so she couldn’t help asking.

“And that figure in the sky just now… he looked a lot like Grandpa Dao.”

“Girl, I know you’re sharp and quick to understand,” Xu Zimo said. “But some things shouldn’t be touched. Just like I told your sect master today, if your strength isn’t enough, then don’t ask. When your level is high enough, you’ll naturally understand. For now, all you need to do is cultivate well.”

“I’ll listen to you,” Xiao An'an nodded.

…

The explosion that night was covered up by Xu Zimo, who claimed it was caused by cultivation. It wasn’t the powerful enemies Wang Hengzhi feared.

But the enemy Wang Hengzhi feared… did arrive before dawn.

A colossal dragon ship of the Ancient Dragon God-Empire tore through the void.

This time, the dragon ship came with immense force. One could say without exaggeration that even before the ship appeared, the pressure it emitted was already shattering the sky.

Xu Zimo glanced up once, then ignored it and continued cultivating.

As for San Dao sitting before the True Martial Tribulation Tower, his long-sleeping eyes opened just a sliver, knife light flickered within them.

But almost immediately, he closed them again and adjusted into a new sleeping position.

“Getting old… really getting old. Even a tiny commotion wakes me up now. Old, so damn old…”

Xu Zimo and San Dao didn’t care.

But the rest of the True Martial Sacred Ground…

They looked at the dragon ship and the shattered sky as if the apocalypse had arrived.

TL Note: Grand Emperor San Dao’s back story and rise to Grand Emperor was provided in detail in Chapter 171.