The vast majority of clansmen, from birth to death, never left the Boundary Desert. They only knew through ancient texts passed down through generations that beyond the Boundary Desert lay a vaster, infinite heaven and earth, teeming with countless powerhouses, experts as dense as clouds, and even the existence of true Supreme Ones who ruled boundless domains.
For these clansmen, the Boundary Desert was more like a sealed land of exile.
Influenced by the rules of the Supreme One, the people of the seventy-two villages of the Boundary Desert could not easily leave.
Among them, Ye Chen became one of them, personally recommended by the old chieftain to represent Yellow Village in the competition.
The old chieftain felt that Ye Chen's talent was extraordinary; he shouldn't be confined to Yellow Village, nor should the Boundary Desert be his place to linger. He should travel the outside world and witness broader horizons.
In fact, given Ye Chen's glorious battle records, Yellow Village naturally hoped he would achieve outstanding results in this Boundary Desert Young Generation Grand Competition.
Half a month later, led by a senior elder, Ye Chen and several other outstanding young clansmen headed deep into the Boundary Desert to participate in the Seventy-Two Villages Young Generation Grand Competition.
This elder had cultivated his physical body to the peak of the Heavenly King realm, a Half-Step Great Power. He led the group of young clansmen swiftly towards the depths.
The journey took a full seven days to traverse hundreds of millions of li, finally reaching the deepest part of the Boundary Desert.
The deepest part of the Boundary Desert, though still endless wilderness, now contained patches of oases, relatively rare in the desert, shining like emeralds dotted across the sands.
From afar, one could see a massive Divine City standing atop an oasis, suspended in the air. Even during the day, a brilliant stream of starlight could be seen descending from beyond the heavens, engulfing this Divine City.
The young Yellow Village participants in the competition gasped in awe, never imagining such a magnificent and majestic Divine City existed within the Boundary Desert.
"This is the Imperial Divine City, the imperial city of an ancient Great Emperor from the past. It also contains imperial ruins and is, in fact, the true origin of our seventy-two villages in the Boundary Desert," the Yellow Village Great Elder explained, primarily for Ye Chen's benefit.
According to the Yellow Village Great Elder's explanation, Ye Chen learned that the current seventy-two villages in the Boundary Desert were actually the evolved descendants of the seventy-two divisions of an ancient Great Emperor from long ago.
Due to a secret incident in the past, involving the rules of that ancient Great Emperor, for many tens of thousands of years, the seventy-two divisions and their descendants had been forced to remain within the Boundary Desert, with only a small number permitted to leave.
Within the Imperial Divine City, the population was sparse, only about ten thousand people.
Their physiques were naturally burly, even taller and larger than the Yellow Village clansmen, and each one was powerful, their overall strength far surpassing that of Yellow Village, with a formidable heritage.
It was said they were all descendants of that ancient Great Emperor and, like the seventy-two village clansmen, were pure physical body cultivators, not practicing any dao techniques, with incredibly potent blood energy.
Outside the city lay endless giant primordial beast skeletons, slain over the years by the Great Emperor's descendants, showcasing their formidable combat prowess.
Led by the Great Elder, Ye Chen and the others entered the Imperial Divine City. An Imperial Clan powerhouse came out to greet them—a middle-aged, robust man who received them with hearty enthusiasm.
However, this middle-aged man was also immensely powerful, not inferior to the Yellow Village Great Elder, both being physical body Half-Step Great Powers, and being in his prime, he was quite astonishing.
Subsequently, the young clansmen from the seventy-two villages were led to this place by their respective village elders.
Ye Chen saw that the clansmen of the seventy-two villages were mostly dressed in primitive attire, their physiques extraordinarily imposing, like wild men, yet their blood energy was exceptionally powerful.
They were a group of top-tier physical cultivation experts, including physical body Great Powers like the old chieftain.
When they saw Ye Chen among the Yellow Village arrivals, who appeared relatively short in stature, the other villagers from different stockades did not look down on him. On the contrary, they showed solemn expressions, for they all knew that Yellow Village had produced a mighty warrior, powerful enough to have slain numerous Heavenly King realm primordial beasts.
The Boundary Desert Young Generation Grand Competition soon began.
Undoubtedly, the young representatives from each of the seventy-two villages were all powerful; anyone who could come here had achieved the Heavenly King realm in physical body cultivation, possessing peerless brute strength.
Ye Chen also participated in the competition, directly displaying astonishing physical combat power, quickly defeating his opponents.
Thus, he advanced continuously, sweeping through all matches with a force that crushed like rotten wood.
Almost every match did not exceed ten exchanges; in fact, this was with him holding back.
Originally, the various parties already regarded Ye Chen with considerable attention. Witnessing him pass through successive rounds of competition and enter the semi-finals firsthand only increased their astonishment and forced them to take him seriously. They considered him a Seed-level Figure with genuine strength, one of the top four strongest among the current generation of Boundary Desert's youth.
"This person is very strong. He has a chance to compete for the top three, even second place. However, his hope of winning the championship is probably slim," some of the older generation from the seventy-two villages gave Ye Chen high praise but still considered his chances of claiming the championship very faint, because in this generation, that monstrous talent existed.
In the finals, a rare free-for-all battle took place.
The four Seed-level Figures who entered the semi-finals, including Ye Chen, were all physical body Heavenly Kings, peerless in physique, kings among their peers.
Ye Chen engaged in a peak showdown with the other three physical body Heavenly Kings. The battle was intense; the space of the Boundary Desert was stable, yet it was still torn open, revealing cracks that showcased their astonishing combat power.
Boom—
Suddenly, the void collapsed. A burly figure was sent flying, spitting blood.
On the finals battle stage, a slender figure appeared, seeming quite ordinary, yet his blood energy was incredibly astonishing, like a demon god standing eternal. With a single punch, he had sent one of the Seed-level Heavenly Kings who had entered the semi-finals flying.
"So strong!"
"As expected of the Martial God!"
The people of the seventy-two villages exclaimed in unison.
That youth, who appeared slender compared to the burly, tall clansmen of the other seventy-two villages, had a shocking origin.
He was called the Martial God, a special title. He was a descendant of the ancient Great Emperor, not an Imperial Son, but a direct descendant who had inherited sufficiently powerful Supreme bloodline, even bathed in imperial blood. His bloodline concentration was no less than the third generation, making him virtually unmatched among peers.
He was also the most outstanding descendant of the Great Emperor within the Imperial Divine City in this generation, with a powerful bloodline, regarded as the most likely victor in the Boundary Desert Young Generation Grand Competition, surpassing the other two physical body Heavenly Kings by several levels.
The Martial God was peerless. Though he appeared lean, his aura was imposing. He strode forward, exerting immense pressure on others.
Boom—
At this moment, Ye Chen also sent his opponent flying, similarly displaying astonishing combat power. He too appeared relatively slender but was more upright and heroic, with black hair flowing loosely. He stood facing the Martial God, their gazes meeting.