Ye Chen was his name. He had originally been a nameless disciple of a third-rate sect in the Numinous Realm. Having been born with an inferior spiritual root, it seemed that all he would amount to was a mere outer disciple.
That is, until his sect's top genius had taken his childhood sweetheart.
After taking a beating from the top genius's underling, Ye Chen's blood had dripped onto a divine artifact. The artifact recognized him as his master, which started his rise to fame.
The mirror-shaped divine artifact could refine qi into essence, which boosted his cultivation speed. Not only that, it could hide Ye Chen within spacetime folds, an ability that greatly boosted his survival rate after being booted from the sect because he defeated the top genius to wash away his shame.
Too bad the top genius's father was the grand elder of the sect and didn't like the fact that a no-name disciple had defeated his precious son.
Long story short, Ye Chen successfully caught the attention of the Numinous Sword Sect and became an inner disciple. His aptitude seemed average on the surface, but he could always reveal shocking progress. Such a trait made him one of the candidates to enter the Broken Primordial World.
Ye Chen was already a transcending mortality sage and only suppressed his Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation so that he could reap more benefits in the Broken Primordial Word. Once he returned, he planned to ascend to immortality and exact vengeance on his former sect.
While in the Broken Primordial World, time was unstable, and if he wasn't careful, he could be teleported to another location without warning. Worst of all, the suppression was over a hundred times greater than the Numinous Realm.
Ye Chen understood that the higher the rank of the realm, the greater the suppression and the slower the time passed, but the spiritual qi was richer. Conversely, even with the faster time flow in the lower rank realms, the quality of cultivators was lower.
For the suppression of the Broken Primordial World to be so superior, Ye Chen had to wonder how much more powerful the Broken Primordial World was before it was broken. Still, the suppression didn't just put more pressure on his martial body, but it also prevented his spiritual sense from traveling far, at most ten meters.
But even a blind man could feel the pillar of light that erupted into the distance. Ye Chen knew that it was the birth of a precious treasure, so he made his way towards it, careful not to elicit the attention of the roving monsters.
Compared to him, who had only traveled the Broken Primordial World for a few months, the danger from monsters could not be estimated. On average, they were at least thrice as dangerous as monsters in the Numinous Realm due to their powerful body.
That's why he was so shocked to see another cultivator fighting a true demon level monster. Ye Chen had doubts whether he was a true cultivator because he didn't display any qi usage. Rather, he seemed like a humanoid monster with how powerful his fleshly body was.
But that was a good thing. Both the cultivator and the monster focused on battling each other, ignoring his presence. Ye Chen took this chance to grab the Sovereign Nine Yang Lotus. Once he grabbed the lotus, the pillar of light disappeared, but it was already too late for the two contenders to stop him.
The spatial corridor appeared around Ye Chen, significantly lessening the suppression and increasing his speed in the Broken Primordial World. A smile slowly surfaced on Ye Chen's face as the distance between the cultivator and monster increased, but it didn't stay for long.
There was a heaven-shaking roar, causing Ye Chen's smile to freeze on his face as a gargantuan serpentine body with scales the color of the sky appeared out of nowhere in the sky. The beast had two glowing slitted eyes and two horns growing out of his head, a dragon.
"Why is a dragon here!?" Ye Chen shouted as his body sank to the ground from the dragon's pressure.
The blue dragon didn't deign to speak as a gigantic claw stretched out towards Ye Chen, intent obvious.
When the blue dragon's claw neared Ye Chen, an illusionary mirror materialized in front of him and repelled the dragon's claw.
"Human, it seems you are fortunate to have discovered a divine artifact. Unfortunately, you got too greedy. I'll accept the lotus and the mirror!" The dragon's voice boomed as he spoke.
Ye Chen gritted his teeth and injected qi into the divine mirror, causing it to appear more solid. The blue dragon snorted and attacked again. Blue energy covered his claws and struck Ye Chen, who was protected by an invisible barrier.
Under the blue dragon's assault, Ye Chen's barrier stayed strong, and he used the force from the attack as propulsion to send him further into the distance. The dragon snorted and made a grasping motion, freezing Ye Chen in the air.
With no way to escape, Ye Chen could only hole up in the barrier formed by the mirror, hoping that the blue dragon's assault would not yield anything. Unfortunately, he was too hopeful as cracks appeared on the divine artifact, reflecting the cracks on the barrier.
Upon seeing Ye Chen's face pale, the blue dragon's eyes sharpened. He opened his jaws, and energy began to condense. After a short charging time, the blue dragon unleashed a breath of blue flames against Ye Chen.
Ye Chen's eyes brightened as a smirk appeared on his face. He roared and condensed several hand seals. The barrier protecting him disappeared, and a fully physical mirror appeared. The mirror seemed tiny and inconsequential, only the size of about four hands, in comparison to the blue dragon or even its breath.
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But, against all logic, the blue flame breath that had seemed so menacingly moments before was reflected and enlarged. A roar of pain shook the whole continent and buffeted the environment with hurricane-force winds.
When the roar and flame disappeared, Ye Chen was on his knees, panting. Across from him, the blue dragon had numerous burns and cracks on his formerly perfect scales, with blue blood dripping onto the ground. Each drop resembled metal more than liquid as they drilled holes into the land from the sheer weight.
"Human! Congratulations, you have managed to enrage me. Give me your life!" The blue dragon released another roar and charged straight at Ye Chen with his jaws opened, seemingly wanting to swallow Ye Chen whole.
Ye Chen's smirk didn't disappear as he managed to stand up with great difficulty and raised the mirror above his head. The mirror gave off an eerie light and struck the blue dragon.
The blue dragon roared once more as its body began to twist unnaturally. It was as if time had increased by a hundred times at some parts while other parts slowed down. The land shuddered as everything below the blue dragon's hind legs broke off and fell.
"Dammit," Ye Chen said. He had wanted to twist the dragon's head off, not snap its tail.
The blue dragon roared again, far too angry to speak as a claw pierced towards Ye Chen. At this moment, a small figure, around the size of one meter, suddenly appeared out of the corner of the dragon's eye. There was an explosive sound and even greater tremble as the dragon's body crashed onto the ground.
"You dare!" The blue dragon raised its head and stared domineering at Dandan. The monster Tianyi had been fighting with had long run away after feeling the coercion from the blue dragon's superior bloodline, but Dandan was different. "I purposely allowed a mongrel like you to leave, but since you want to perish, then I'll send you to the Nether Realm."
"Guoh?!" The blue dragon released a strangled cry as something shot down from the sky and hammered his head back into the dragon.
That something was naturally Tianyi. He held his chin and looked at the downed dragon.
"Human, it seems that you can hide your presence quite well, but do you think that you can safely come and leave just because of that?!" The blue dragon roared again.
"Become my mount."
"What?" The dragon paused and stared at Tianyi. It was as if he couldn't process what he had just heard.
"I've always wanted a dragon mount, so become my mount," Tianyi said again.
There was a chuckling sound coming from the blue dragon before it erupted into uproarious laughter. Suddenly, it stopped as the blue dragon emitted a terrifying killing intent as it glared at Tianyi. "Human, you will die in the most painful way possible. To dare humiliate me as you did, I will make sure that not even your soul will be saved!"
'Yeah, didn't think that would work. Worth a try.' He thought as he reared back his fist back and began to do battle against the blue dragon.
Earlier, Dandan had already wanted to attack the blue dragon, but Tianyi stopped him. Only after the blue dragon had been injured by Ye Chen did he release Dandan. In the blue dragon's current weakened state, Tianyi had no fear at all, but he was still wary of any trump cards.
The blue dragon roared and unleashed the blue flame breath again. Dandan zipped behind Tianyi as if saying, "I leave it to you!" Tianyi had no time to scold Dandan as he raised both hands in front of him and started to absorb the blue flames.
When the blue flame breath ended, the blue dragon didn't unleash a breath again. He roared and started to use physical attacks since energy attacks weren't effective against Tianyi.
Tianyi frowned and leaped back. He crouched and pulled out a giant rock and threw it...completely missing the blue dragon's body.
The blue dragon suddenly roared and turned towards where Tianyi had aimed the rock at. Ye Chen had run away, taking the chance that Tianyi distracted the blue dragon.
The dragon roared and rushed toward Ye Chen. The ground beneath Tianyi shattered as he, too, charged toward the fleeing Numinous Sword Sect disciple.
Ye Chen gritted his death and glared at the two. His eyes lingered between Tianyi and the blue dragon before he zeroed in on Tianyi. He raised the mirror again, and the eerie light shot out once more. But this time, his face didn't just pale but also spat out a mouthful of blood.
Tianyi's expression changed. He was confident in his defense, but he didn't dare to have absolute confidence in the face of a divine artifact, and he moved to dodge by punching the air, using the repulsive force to change his direction in midair.
But as the eerie light passed him, it made a u-turn and struck him in the back.
Tianyi's face twisted, and he braced himself for his body to be twisted and snapped like the blue dragon.
And waited.
And waited.
Only nothing happened. He gave Ye Chen a strange look before he resumed his charge.
Ye Chen's eyes widened in disbelief. The divine mirror didn't only unleash a physical attack but also a soul attack. While the soul was under attack, they couldn't focus on the spatial warping, allowing their physical body to be easily broken. Yet, all of that was meaningless.
He didn't know why his attack failed on Tianyi, but the reality was in front of him. To trigger the second attack, Ye Chen had paid the price not only physically but also with his soul. If he used the mirror to attack two or three more times, he would undoubtedly fall into a coma.
Left with no choice, Ye Chen could only stimulate the divine mirror to carry him away. However, Tianyi and the blue dragon were relentless, as if the two had agreed to an unspoken truce.
In less than an hour, Ye Chen's body tumbled onto the ground as he glared hatefully at his two pursuers. No matter what he threw at Tianyi, it would only be shrugged off, and the blue dragon was even more infuriating, being the main culprit preventing his escape.
The time to talk was over as both of his pursuers attacked at the same time. Ye Chen roared in unwillingness. "Since you want my treasures, see if you can keep them!"
He chucked the Sovereign Nine Yang Lotus into the distance and the divine mirror in the opposite direction, but neither Tianyi nor the blue dragon stopped their attacks. They seemed intent on killing Ye Chen first before doing anything.
Ye Chen smiled bitterly, but he fully imprinted the two figures into his memories. As his body shattered and broke, Ye Chen left parting words with his final breath. "Canglong, and you, I will have my revenge in the future!"
Tianyi and the blue dragon didn't take Ye Chen's word to heart. Since he lost, what was the point of swearing vengeance? Instead, the two separated in opposite directions. The blue dragon reached for the Sovereign Nine Yang Lotus while Tianyi grabbed the divine mirror.
In truth, he had recognized the divine mirror the moment Ye Chen took it out. It was none other than the Kunlun Mirror, the divine artifact that Xi Wangmu, the Queen Mother of West, had been born with. After grabbing it, Tianyi didn't put it in his spatial pouch as it couldn't contain a divine artifact.
Tianyi turned around and eyed the Sovereign Nine Yang Lotus in the blue dragon's hand. The blue dragon also eyed the Kunlun Mirror in Tianyi's hand. Now that they had grabbed the object they wanted the most, both of them wanted to snatch the other's gains.
Just as it seemed that a battle would reignite between the two, a light suddenly descended and passed through the blue dragon's neck. Moments later, the blue dragon's head slid off its body and collapsed onto the ground.
Tianyi's pupils shrunk into needlepoints as he snapped his head towards the source of the attack to see a young man in his early twenties wearing a gray robe with silver hair and an ordinary-looking sword in hand.