"I admit defeat. Truly worthy of being a descendant of the Wasteland Desert Great Emperor. Your physical body is indeed peerless. I am no match for you."
The Nangong Divine Son of the Flying Divine Domain sighed in amazement. As the son of an Emperor, he had inherited supreme bloodlines from birth and was placed with great hopes by his father, the Nangong Divine Lord. Yet, facing Martial God, a descendant of a Great Emperor, he was defeated in just thirty short rounds.
It could only mean he was far from his opponent's equal.
The sheer strength of his physical body, its formidable defense, and its overwhelming combat power left this Divine Son, who carried the high hopes of Emperor Nangong Divine Lord, feeling utterly powerless.
The Wasteland Desert Great Emperor was the true name of the Boundary Desert Great Emperor.
That was an ancient Great Emperor from the primordial era who dominated vast territories. It was rumored he was a great existence capable of tearing apart Emperor Weapons with his bare hands. Only the ancient Great Emperor currently ruling the Ten Divine Domains could rival his brilliance.
Martial God said, "Nangong Divine Son, I am a descendant of the Wasteland Desert Great Emperor. I cultivate Emperor Arts, bathe in Emperor Blood, and have cultivated the world's strongest physical body, finding few worthy opponents. Even facing an Imperial Son, I could fight at my peak, and an Imperial Son's physical body might not necessarily compare to mine. That you could fight me to this extent means you are already considered very strong!"
This was Martial God's evaluation of the Nangong Divine Son.
It was high praise.
After all, both were individuals who had defeated the two peak Heaven's Prides of the Boundary Desert.
If he weren't essentially equivalent to an Emperor's grandson in all aspects, with a physical body rivaling an Imperial Son's, he might not have defeated the Nangong Divine Son so easily.
The Nangong Divine Son looked at Ye Chen and asked, "And this gentleman is?"
Ye Chen smiled slightly. "I am Ye Chen."
The Nangong Divine Son looked at him deeply. "Martial God Fellow Daoist is already so powerful. I wonder just how strong Ye Fellow Daoist must be."
Ye Chen chuckled. "My strength is rather ordinary."
The Nangong Divine Son shook his head; he didn't believe it. As a Divine Son, his innate divine senses were powerful enough to sense, to some degree, the strength or weakness of others.
If Martial God was a fierce tiger, then Ye Chen, to him, was a tyrannosaurus rex—unfathomably deep.
Moreover, he could see that even Martial God and the other two Boundary Desert Heaven's Prides looked at Ye Chen with a hint of reverence in their gazes. Such a look would not appear unless his strength had reached a certain level.
Clearly, this confirmed his inference.
However, since he couldn't even defeat Martial God, how could he possibly spar with Ye Chen?
He abandoned that thought.
"By the way, since you are all descendants of the Wasteland Desert Great Emperor, you must be very interested in the Heaven's Pride Assembly about to be held in the Imperial City!" the Nangong Divine Son suddenly said.
That was a Heaven's Pride Assembly held by the Suppressing Prison Imperial Domain every thirty years, always attracting immense attention. At that time, numerous super Heaven's Prides from the Ten Divine Domains under the Suppressing Prison Imperial Domain's jurisdiction, including various Divine Sons, would participate.
Naturally, the current Imperial Son would also appear—the offspring of the Suppressing Prison Great Emperor.
The Suppressing Prison Great Emperor was the supreme ruler governing the Ten Divine Domains, the foremost figure of the Endless Imperial Domain.
Of course, more importantly, the Suppressing Prison Great Emperor was the very ancient Great Emperor who had defeated the Wasteland Desert Great Emperor back then.
Hearing this, Martial God and the other two Boundary Desert Heaven's Prides naturally agreed happily. Ye Chen also agreed because he had promised the seniors of the Boundary Desert that he would definitely break the ancient Emperor's pact and completely lift the Boundary Desert's seal.
Soon, under the Nangong Divine Son's guidance and using the teleportation grand formation of the Flying Divine Domain's Divine City, they quickly arrived at the central city encircled by the Ten Divine Domains—the Suppressing Prison Imperial City.
It was located at the center of the Ten Divine Domains, occupying ten ancestral veins. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth and the rules of the myriad Daos were exceptionally dense and incredibly prosperous.
The Imperial City was magnificent and extraordinarily majestic.
Within the Imperial City, due to the thirty-year Heaven's Pride Assembly, it was exceptionally lively. Under the Imperial Domain's rule, countless super Heaven's Prides from holy lands, great clans, and divine dynasties had arrived.
Everywhere one looked, there were talented sons and daughters of heaven with extraordinary aptitudes.
"So lively, much more so than the Flying Divine Domain," one of the Boundary Desert Heaven's Prides remarked.
The four of them had previously built a considerable reputation in the Flying Divine Domain and had ventured into its Divine City, but compared to the Imperial City, the Flying Divine Domain's Divine City fell far short.
"Naturally. This time, the Imperial City has gathered countless Heaven's Prides from the Ten Divine Domains. Any Heaven's Pride capable of coming to the Imperial City is a figure who can be crowned a Marquis or King among their peers," the Nangong Divine Son explained. "And what's more crucial is that this Heaven's Pride Assembly is different from previous years."
"How so?" Ye Chen, Martial God, and the others asked, puzzled.
The Nangong Divine Son explained that, according to rumors, this Heaven's Pride Assembly was personally organized by the Imperial Son. His aim was to hope to find heaven-defying, supremely talented Heaven's Prides who could, in the future, advance to higher realms with him and go to the core of the Origin Land to contend for the Great Dao.
The Suppressing Prison Imperial Domain, though extremely vast with its Ten Divine Domains, each exceptionally large, was not even the tip of the iceberg compared to the Origin Land.
The Origin Land was truly immense, vast beyond measure. It was said that even an ancient Great Emperor could not traverse the entire Origin Land in a lifetime.
The location of the Suppressing Prison Imperial Domain was in the southernmost borderlands of the Origin Land, also called the Southern Wasteland.
Of course, the Southern Wasteland was also immeasurably huge. The Suppressing Prison Imperial Domain was merely one among thousands upon thousands of Imperial Domains in the Southern Wasteland.
As the son of an Emperor, the Nangong Divine Son clearly knew many secrets, which he explained to the four of them gradually, treating them as friends even though they were descendants of the Wasteland Desert Great Emperor's lineage.
Only then did Ye Chen and the others realize how insignificant the Suppressing Prison Imperial Domain was and how vast the Origin Land truly was, leaving them all astonished.
The Nangong Divine Son said, "Although the Suppressing Prison Imperial Domain can only be considered one of the myriad Imperial Domains in the Southern Wasteland, it can now be counted among the strongest Imperial Domains in the Southern Wasteland. That's because a century ago, the Great Emperor broke through and became a Giant among the Supremes!"
The Southern Wasteland, though merely one of the borderland regions in the Origin Land, was still boundlessly vast, encompassing the endless territories of thousands of Imperial Domains, including the Suppressing Prison Imperial Domain. How immense, how limitless it was.
Yet, Giants were few and far between, belonging to the most powerful existences in the Southern Wasteland. Other Supreme Emperors all served under various Giants, ruled by them.
The Suppressing Prison Great Emperor, since endless eons ago, had already been an ancient Emperor, his cultivation profound and unfathomable, dominating his era with few rivals.
A century ago, he made a startling breakthrough, making the ultimate leap to become a Giant among the Supremes in one go, ranking among the most top-tier supreme Giants even within the Southern Wasteland.
Naturally, after becoming a supreme Giant, the Suppressing Prison Great Emperor also gained the qualification to learn about various pieces of information concerning the entire Origin Land and learned of a startling piece of news.
It was rumored that in the last hundred thousand years or so, the Origin Land had suddenly entered a scene of a flourishing golden age of prosperity, unprecedented in history. This included borderland regions like the Southern Wasteland as well.
The myriad Daos of heaven and earth became more intimate, far surpassing all previous eras, making cultivation easier and leading many Heaven's Prides to make great breakthroughs.
The Suppressing Prison Great Emperor's smooth breakthrough to become a supreme Giant was also largely thanks to this sudden golden age of prosperity.