All the large sects in the Star Ocean had more than one Divine Prince, and the ones who had traveled to Earth were the weakest ones. This made Chen Fan’s heart sink. He wasn’t afraid of them; nobody on Earth could frighten him, other than Soul Formation Cultivators. However, that also meant that the cultivators present were only the vanguard and the main forces of the large sects hadn’t arrived yet.
“I must find Jiang Churan immediately, then take care of those so-called ‘Divine Princes’ in the deity ground and return to the surface,” Chen Fan thought.
He then asked a few more questions about the general situation in the area.
The entire deity ground was extremely vast. Even though there were fiends everywhere, some dead bodies of Deities and Saints of the ancient times were also buried in battlefields, so treasures could be spotted from time to time.
Wu Xiu had heard about it more than once.
Someone found a broken dagger in the mountains. It was extremely shiny and sharp, comparable to Divine Treasures. However, it had been forged ages before, so its quality had degraded and it couldn’t perform Divine Powers.
Someone also found a jade box with an old book in a lake. The book was written with scripts that nobody could recognize, but none of their flying swords and Dharma Treasures could destroy the book. A few Nascent Soul Cultivators almost died fighting over it.
Someone…
There were all kinds of opportunities in the deity ground. Although there were many fiends, cultivators sometimes heard about people finding treasures, Divine Medicine, books or weapons. Even a broken weapon was comparable to a Quasi-Divine Treasure.
“Ah, we’re only on the outskirts of the deity ground. The deeper you go, the more opportunities and treasures you can find. However, it’s also more dangerous inside. There are many arrays and more powerful fiends. I heard that there are even Soul Formation Beasts at the center. It’s not a place we can go to.” Wu Xiu shook his head.
“I’m looking for people from the Taichu Divine Realm and Apollo Palace. Do you know where they are?” Chen Fan asked.
“Apollo Palace?” Wu Xiu was shocked. “They’re the top sect in the Little South Heavenly Realm. If I’m not mistaken, they should be deep inside the deity ground. I heard that there’s a magnificent temple that’s ten thousand feet tall. There must be a Grand Opportunity inside. Almost all the cultivators of the large sects have gone there. However, you must be careful. There are a lot of dangerous fiends in that district. Some Nascent Soul Cultivators have already been killed…”
“Thank you. I understand.”
Chen Fan nodded.
He then turned into a beam of black light and flew to the center of the deity ground.
“Lin He doesn’t seem as vicious as people say he is!” a female disciple in a pink shirt said.
Elder Wu turned around and glared at her. How could she be that shallow? He would have killed everyone on the boat if he found anything offensive in their conversation. Then, they would have been able to see how cruel Lin He was.
“Boom!”
Chen Fan kept going forward.
There were more fiends as he went deeper into the deity ground. Nascent Soul Fiends were seen everywhere and their power also increased. At first, there were just early-stage Nascent Soul Fiends; but then, mid-stage Nascent Soul Fiends appeared. In the end, there were even peak-stage Nascent Soul Fiends.
Those fiends were dozens of feet tall. Some of them had black scales and horns; some had a hundred heads and a hundred eyes, while others were flying in the sky like dragons. They were dominators of an area. They weren’t scared of Chen Fan and even wanted to challenge him.
Chen Fan let out the Six Sacred Fiend World and imbued the power of the six Ancestor Fiends on the six demons. They immediately tore the fiends to pieces when they flew out.
“Phew! I’m almost there.”
Chen Fan heaved a sigh of relief.
This deity ground was indeed vast; he had finally reached the core district after flying for a long time. There were peak-stage Nascent Soul Fiends at every step; everywhere was dangerous.
“This is the temple?” Chen Fan looked up.
A towering temple appeared. He found that it wasn’t merely ten thousand feet tall when he flew closer. It was much taller than the mountains around it and was made with black stones. There were some old and mysterious patterns on it, which were Divine Patterns from ancient times. The temple was full of mysterious energy and was enveloped in Deity Light.
There were also three large words above the doors.
“Origin Divine Palace.”
What did that mean?
Even Chen Fan frowned and had no idea what it meant.
He got closer and saw many people gathering around that temple. Some groups were on hundred-foot ships, riding powerful Nascent Soul Beast, inside a sword array, while others stayed on a mountain… They were all powerful; each group had at least one Nascent Soul Cultivator.
A few of them even had several Nascent Soul Overlords.
Lone cultivators like Chen Fan were very rare, but all of them were powerful and could not be disdained.
“Are you from ‘Luofeng Abyss,’ ‘Heavenly Evil Valley’ or the ‘Demon Sun Sect?’” someone moved closer and asked when he saw Chen Fan alone, surrounded by Fiend Qi.
“I’m Lin He from the Demon Sun Sect,” Chen Fan said.
“Oh, Divine Prince Lin He. No wonder you managed to come to the center alone.” That man’s eyes immediately brightened. He invited Chen Fan to the Flying Dharma Artifact of his sect. It was an enormous bronze castle with more than one Nascent Soul Cultivator and a hundred Golden Core Cultivators inside.
The Nascent Soul Cultivator called Ling Yun said, “We’re from the Xuanfeng Sect in the ‘Wuluan Planet Region.’ Although our sect isn’t as powerful as the Demon Sun Sect, we have a few Ancestral Patriarchs who are about to become Soul Formation Cultivators. Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to enter the temple.”
“Why? Can those large sects stop you from entering?” Chen Fan wondered.
He looked at the largest ships. All were a thousand feet long; they were surrounded by an aura and were apparently much more powerful than ordinary Heavenly Treasures—they were in fact top Spirit Treasures used for wars. They could kill a Nascent Soul Cultivator with one attack when countless disciples activated them.
“Not only that.” Master Ling Yun shook his head and pointed at the temple in front of him. “Do you know what this temple is?”
“Please, do tell.” Chen Fan bowed.
“Ha!” Master Ling Yun touched his beard and said with a smile, “Normal people wouldn’t have recognized it, but I like reading old books and I’ve finished reviewing all the records from the ancient times in my sect, especially the anecdotal stories. That’s why I know a bit about this kind of script.
“As written above the doors, this temple is called ‘Origin Divine Palace.’ When seen together with the records on the nearby steles, the answer becomes clear.” Master Ling Yun smiled.
“You mean this is the center of energy of the entire deity ground, a supply hub?” Chen Fan asked.
Master Ling Yun nodded, seemingly pleased.
“So, the temple might have been built by the Celestial Sects, not by some Deities in the ancient times. It was used to store Deity Essence refined from the Fiend Qi. After all, the characters the Deities wrote in the past were different.” Chen Fan thought. However, the “Deity Patterns” around the temple were connected with the entire deity ground. Master Cangqin and the others didn’t seem to know much about the Deity Patterns and they might not have built the palace.
But no matter what—
If there really was Deity Essence inside, that would be the greatest opportunity. Even Chen Fan was excited about it. The Deity Qi would gather to form Deity Stones and Deity Crystals. Even just one of them would already be much more powerful than a hundred million Spirit Stones. That high-level energy was difficult to be absorbed even for Chen Fan, but it was extremely valuable.
“With a Deity Crystal like those, I’m sure I’ll reach the Nascent Soul Level. I can even take the opportunity to turn my deity-grade Golden Core into a Deity Body and Deity Soul!” Chen Fan was thrilled.
But Master Ling Yun continued.
According to him, the large sects had locked the doors of the palace, and the Divine Princes of the Taichu Sect and the Apollo Sect had already entered. Normal cultivators like them could only wait outside until the Divine Princes finished searching.
“Ah, you can’t deal with those large sects alone. You’d certainly be able to enter if a few more elders and disciples of the Demon Sun Sect were here.” Master Ling Yun sighed.
Chen Fan glanced around.
He saw a few large ships surrounding the main entrance, barring other cultivators from entering. The energy of many Nascent Soul Cultivators rose from those ships and their leader was even a mid-stage or peak-stage Nascent Soul Cultivator. They were all enveloped in an aura and it was extremely powerful. Ling Yun said that they were the “Divine Generals.”
A “Divine General” was an extremely powerful Nascent Soul Cultivator.
Cultivators could only receive that title when they reached the mid-stage Nascent Soul Level. Every Divine Sect had a different number of Divine Generals following their Soul Formation Cultivators. The most powerful ones were terrifying.
“Divine General Yun of the Wuji Sect, Divine General Xuanming of the Niekong Sect, Divine General Lin of the Taichu Divine Realm… There are Divine Generals from six imperishable sects in total, but only Divine General Naran of Apollo Palace entered the temple with their Divine Prince.
“Those five Divine Generals closed the entire temple and not even the top ten cultivators on the Little South Heaven Roll were able to get in!” Master Ling Yun shook his head and sighed.
He hadn’t noticed that Chen Fan was looking at a woman next to Divine General Lin. She was wearing a white long dress and she looked as cold as snow. She was as gorgeous as the female cultivators from other planets, and was in fact even more elegant.
It was Jiang Churan!