"What danger is Du Fan facing?
Where is he?"
Ye Yunfei immediately asked upon hearing Sect Leader Liu.
"A while ago, I sent Du Fan's appearance and soul aura to the Longevity Palace. Their people at a branch stronghold in the Southern Ridge discovered his trail and investigated, finding that Du Fan seems to have encountered danger. The Longevity Palace has already organized forces to rescue him, but it doesn't seem to be going smoothly," Sect Leader Liu said.
He knew the relationship between Du Fan and Ye Yunfei, so upon learning Du Fan was in trouble, he immediately came to inform Ye Yunfei.
"The overall strength of the Southern Ridge is similar to that of the Eastern Barrens. With the Longevity Palace's power, they should be able to sweep through everything in the Southern Ridge. Is the crisis Du Fan encountered so severe that even the Longevity Palace's forces cannot resolve it?"
Ye Yunfei couldn't help but frown upon hearing Sect Leader Liu's words.
The Primordial Continent was divided into five regions. The strongest was undoubtedly the Central Divine Land in the central zone. Apart from that, there were the Eastern Barrens, Southern Ridge, Southern Plains, and Northern Wilderness, all roughly equal in strength.
"I must go to the Southern Ridge," Ye Yunfei declared.
"Do you want to take some forces with you?" Sect Leader Liu asked.
"No need," Ye Yunfei shook his head.
With Ye Yunfei's current strength, any forces from the Ziwei Sect would be of no help.
"This is a communication jade slip from the Longevity Palace. It contains detailed information about all their branch strongholds in the Southern Ridge. Once you arrive there, you can quickly contact them using this slip," Sect Leader Liu said, handing a jade slip to Ye Yunfei.
"Good," Ye Yunfei took the jade slip, then soared into the air, striding boldly in the direction of the Southern Ridge.
After leaving the headquarters, Ye Yunfei did not use his green flying ship for travel. Instead, he activated his movement technique, striding forth, constantly traversing space as he moved across the continent's sky at an astonishing speed.
Ye Yunfei was now at the Star-Gazing Realm, the highest realm on this continent, and was in perfect harmony with its energy and laws. He could even utilize them, for the Primordial Continent was merely an advanced world, and its existing laws of time and space were not too profound for Ye Yunfei.
With each step Ye Yunfei took, time and space shifted rapidly beneath his feet, transforming into talismanic runes that carried his body forward, constantly traversing. The speed was so astonishing that it was not only invisible to the naked eye but also difficult to capture even with Soul Power.
In less than half a day, Ye Yunfei reached the Southern Ridge!
To travel from the Eastern Barrens to the Southern Ridge in half a day—such a terrifying speed was likely something only Ye Yunfei could achieve in the entire Primordial Continent!
Soon after, Ye Yunfei descended into a city and found a branch stronghold of the Longevity Palace.
The Longevity Palace was now the only superpower in the Central Divine Land. It had been expanding rapidly during this period and had established a number of branch strongholds in the Eastern Barrens, Southern Ridge, Western Plains, and Northern Desolation.
"We pay our respects to Young Master Ye!"
The members of the Longevity Palace immediately bowed respectfully upon seeing Ye Yunfei.
The Longevity Palace Master had decreed that all members of the Longevity Palace were to treat Ye Yunfei as if they were seeing him in person—they must greet him with the utmost respect and obey all his commands!
"What is Du Fan's current situation?" Ye Yunfei asked directly.
"He entered a nameless mountainous region in the Southern Ridge and hasn't come out for several days. Our Longevity Palace forces entered that mountainous region to search for him and discovered he seems to have encountered danger, trapped in a strange and perilous space. Our forces entered that space and have already lost quite a few people, but we still haven't managed to rescue him," an ordinary elder of the Longevity Palace, in charge of this branch stronghold, reported to Ye Yunfei.
This ordinary elder had strength at the early Shattered Star Realm.
The Longevity Palace had recently established a batch of new branch strongholds in the Southern Ridge, intending to develop and expand there in the future, and had dispatched an ordinary elder to oversee the overall situation.
"Take me to see it right now," Ye Yunfei said.
A place dangerous for ordinary members of the Longevity Palace might be trivial to Ye Yunfei, so without any hesitation, he intended to charge straight in to save him.
"Yes," the elder nodded, immediately leading Ye Yunfei away from the branch stronghold, heading towards the mountainous region where Du Fan was trapped.
"No need for a ship. You guide the way, I'll carry you," Ye Yunfei waved his sleeve, enveloping the elder, and strode forth.
With each step Ye Yunfei took, he Shrank Earth into an Inch, covering almost a thousand miles per step, moving with unimaginable speed.
The elder felt his body speeding forward like a fleeting shadow, the wind whistling past his ears, rushing by so fast it sounded like he was traversing a tunnel of light. The speed was simply unbelievable.
"Young Master Ye's movement speed is too terrifying! Even the highest-grade flying ships of our Longevity Palace are far, far inferior!"
The elder was both awed and filled with admiration.
In less than half an hour, they arrived before a mountainous region.
Looking into the distance, five or six gigantic mountain ranges crisscrossed, coiling across the earth. Ranges of peaks stretched one after another, endless and boundless.
"Young Master Ye, that mountainous region ahead is the place," the elder pointed towards the mountain range and said to Ye Yunfei.
"Hmm. To think such a region with such thick earth energy exists in the Southern Ridge."
Ye Yunfei observed the mountainous region ahead and activated his Earth Observation Art to communicate with the earth energy. He immediately discovered that beneath this mountainous region, there was an astonishingly rich concentration of earth energy, and intangible earth-based laws had even been birthed!
Logically, in such an earth energy-rich underground world, numerous high-level Earth Dragons should have been born. Yet, not a single Earth Dragon existed beneath this area.
"This seems to be a strange and ill-omened region.
Even I cannot see through this land."
After observing for a moment, Ye Yunfei couldn't help but frown.
"We pay our respects to Elder Ruan!"
Shortly after Ye Yunfei and the elder arrived, over a dozen members of the Longevity Palace rushed out from the mountainous region ahead to pay their respects.
"This is Young Master Ye. Hurry up and pay your respects," Elder Ruan said, pointing at Ye Yunfei.
"We pay our respects to Young Master Ye!"
Only then did those Longevity Palace members recognize Ye Yunfei. They were all greatly shocked and hurriedly bowed.
"No need for formalities. Let's go inside and take a look."
Ye Yunfei nodded and strode towards the mountainous region ahead.
Elder Ruan quickly led the Longevity Palace members to follow.
Along the way, they encountered many more Longevity Palace forces. In order to help Du Fan, the Longevity Palace had dispatched a large number of members here.
Moments later, Ye Yunfei had advanced deep into this mountainous region. He saw baleful energy soaring to the heavens everywhere, with gloomy clouds of sorrow and wails of ghosts and deities filling the air. The entire area was plunged into twilight.
Moreover, the surrounding atmosphere began to turn icy and sinister, chilling one to the bone as if falling into an ice cellar.
*Caw…*
Suddenly, a bizarre creature with a human head but the body of a bird appeared. Flapping its black wings, it charged forward at extreme speed. Wherever it passed, it stirred gusts of Yin Wind, shattering all the rocks, plants, and trees along its path into nothingness.
"Master, this is an Evil Spirit. It's not real.
Some Evil Spirits are formed from accumulated malice after a trace of a deceased powerful being's Soul Power imprint gathers sufficient evil thoughts and evolves.
Others are born from the intertwining of various Yin-dark energies and laws in certain special terrains," The Flying Sky Yin Monkey Holy Son suddenly spoke.
"Scram!"
Ye Yunfei flicked his sleeve, striking towards the Evil Spirit.
*Rumble…*
All the energy and laws in the entire Heaven and Earth rapidly converged towards Ye Yunfei's sleeve, for him to use.
*Boom!*
That Evil Spirit was shattered by Ye Yunfei's sleeve strike, exploding into a mist of Yin-dark energy and laws before dissipating completely into nothingness.