Chapter 514

Chapter 514: A Character Like the Protagonist

The battle between humans and demons has begun, incredibly fierce, with both sides forging a new generation of strong opponents through countless deaths.

In this competition, many talented individuals perish while many new talents emerge.

The Qian Yuan Dynasty, already at a complete disadvantage, truly has no strength left to continue oppressing either the commoners or the lower family clans. As long as someone can be transformed into combat power, they will be trained in hopes of quickly producing more cultivators at the Mystic Realm and even the True Realm.

Among them, a boy named Ye Cang rises rapidly. Though born a commoner, he possesses astonishing comprehension and talent. He independently deduces Spiritual Law and creates the most suitable technique for himself. Relying on this technique, he continuously defeats strong opponents and rapidly grows stronger.

At fifteen, he practices diligently, and by sixteen, he has already reached the peak of the spiritual realm, just one step away from the law realms.

While considering how to merge Dao artifacts to break through his current realm, the team is struck by a Great Disaster, resulting in near annihilation. He is severely injured and falls into the Ice Dragon Lake.

The Ice Dragon Lake, legend has it, is where the Ice Sky Dragon was born, giving rise to dragon aura. The demons infused with dragon aura possess formidable strength; there are even demons that can annihilate entire nations. Furthermore, due to the unique nature of the dragon aura, even the calamity virus did not infect this place, preserving the complete evolutionary lineage.

For humans that fall in, even those at the Mystic Realm are in extreme danger, let alone someone merely at the spiritual realm.

Yet Ye Cang does not give up. He repeatedly battles the demons in the lake, and ultimately, in a moment of blurred consciousness, he crashes through a barrier and falls into a waterless cave. He can finally hold on no longer and fades into unconsciousness.

After he faints, a brilliant light bursts forth from the cave, and eighteen shining orbs descend from the heavens, surrounding Ye Cang and enabling his body to repair itself as he floats in mid-air.

When Ye Cang awakens again, it has already been several months. He doesn’t have time to rejoice at being alive. Calculating with his fingers, his face changes drastically: “Three months have already passed! This is bad! I fear I have been treated as a deserter!”

The Qian Yuan Dynasty has a way to confirm Ye Cang’s life or death. Given he is not dead yet has not returned to his team for a long time, he would naturally be regarded as a deserter.

If labeled a deserter, the enforcers will not care about the reasons behind it; they will simply capture him as a merit!

This is a dire situation. He does not truly wish to escape. If classified as a deserter, his entire family will face brutal consequences!

A sense of urgency fills Ye Cang’s heart as he quickly surveys his surroundings. His gaze is immediately drawn to the eighteen crystal orbs—each exuding an unusual aura of deep power, making him feel refreshed all over.

“I survived because I inadvertently entered a cave of an ancient cultivator, which isolated me from the outside? I didn’t expect to gain such an opportunity! Could these treasures have chosen me as their master, washing my physical condition to such a high level?”

Ye Cang notices his own transformation. His once ordinary spiritual body, lacking the boost from the Heavenly Path, now reaches a mystic quality. He feels an undercurrent of rolling waves within him, as if housing an entire ocean, his strength has increased greatly, leaving him stunned.

“I cannot have received such great fortune without reason. This cave must be related to me, perhaps it wants me to accomplish something.”

After hesitating for a few seconds, he cautiously enters the cave. Naturally, as someone who expects to encounter great opportunities, he does not wish to miss out.

A few hours later, Ye Cang emerges from the cave, a joyful expression on his face, tightly clutching a jade book.

“True Dragon’s Nine Transformations! I never expected the legend of the Ice Dragon Lake to be true; there really was an Ice Sky Dragon that came into existence. The predecessors utilized this dragon to create the True Dragon’s Nine Transformations, enabling gradual transformation of the body and stepping into the peak realm! I’ve never heard of such a technique for enhancing spiritual bodies postnatally?”

“This is feasible! How wonderfully profound! I was too confident in my exceptional talent, but now I can find a new path. The wisdom of the predecessors must not be underestimated!”

Ye Cang does not get too carried away with joy; instead, he examines himself and finds that his injuries have long since healed. He promptly leaves the cave and, despite the obstruction from the demons, he charges toward the water surface.

He must return to his team!

The Qian Yuan Dynasty can locate the position of a deserter, and with such a long absence without being searched for, they must know of his situation and have not labeled him a deserter. Otherwise, those greedy enforcers would have come to kill him already.

Even with rules in place, the Qian Yuan Dynasty merely opened the path for advancement; it did not mean that the original group of people became better.

Those holding key positions do not exert themselves for the sake of the dynasty but merely take as much as they can within their scope of duties.

While higher-level cultivators could, in theory, eliminate such practices, they have been high above for too long to care.

The overall environment remains extremely poor, just slightly better than the past with no opportunities. Their encounter with the Great Disaster this time is due to overly deep tasks assigned.

Difficult tasks are given to commoners while simple tasks go to members of powerful families. There may be a commoner who can alter their fate and grow against the odds, but more will fall, even those who should shine brightly, because they cannot overcome such vast difficulties.

Ye Cang is well aware of the true colors of those enforcers and the members of powerful families, so he harbors some hope that he has not been defined as a deserter; otherwise, they would have come for him already. The merits for capturing a deserter are far greater and easier than slaying demons.

Of course, he remains cautious, sneaking back to consult familiar faces to understand the situation in advance.

However, when he meets his colleagues, their emotions seem strange. After the transformation of his physique, he can sense emotions from the water streams; since the human body consists of so much water, it’s no exception. At least among the fellow cultivators of the spiritual realm, he can clearly sense their emotions, leading Ye Cang to discover something abnormal. He decisively strikes and kills a few individuals.

As expected, several small teams have quietly surrounded him, aiming to capture him, the deserter.

A cold dread fills Ye Cang’s heart as he realizes that he has not been pursued simply because the cave shielded him from tracking methods, not because the enforcers do not seek the merit of capturing him.

His family has already been brutally slain!

Under these circumstances, even if they know his predicament, the Qian Yuan Dynasty will certainly kill him; after all, what he has done cannot be undone.

However, Ye Cang has never been one to endure. He fights his way out of the encirclement, fleeing before the great cultivators notice.

Despite being pursued by law realm great cultivators afterward, Ye Cang, who is much stronger now, uses one of the eighteen shining orbs to slay a law realm cultivator, escaping back to the Ice Dragon Lake cave to begin advancing to the law realms in this hidden place and gain greater strength.

Ye Cang’s protagonist-like story is about to begin.

Meanwhile, in the battlefield between the Thunder Demon Kingdom and the Qian Yuan Dynasty, an inescapable shadow looms, with a presence continuously controlling advanced cultivators, turning them into puppets and spreading like a virus.

Yun Ye does not intend to directly use great magical power to obliterate both sides; he merely sends a clone. Although the universe is growing, due to the necessity for the Heavenly Dry Universe to maintain its uniqueness, the power will flow back to his main universe.

In other words, the scale of the clone’s universe will always stay at the fragment stage, with power being limited. Yun Ye does not want to waste too much energy.

It is not that he cannot, but that he does not want to.

Yun Ye remains somewhat wary, on guard against organizations similar to Divine Fate.

These organizations have existed for too long, and there is a possibility they could cause the death of his clone, leading to the permanent loss of cosmic fragments. Preserving strength is the optimal solution for him. Given his efficiency in controlling people, dismantling the Thunder Demon Kingdom and the Qian Yuan Dynasty will not take too much time.

And this amount of time is clearly insignificant in the secret realm where time is measured in years.