Chapter 205: The Third Level
Chapter 205: The Third Level
The Withered Cliff.
This solitary peak near Xinghe Village had been Ye Chen’s favorite spot before its destruction. After the night his family was slaughtered and traitors seized control, he’d never returned—until now. Following his theft of the Wordless Heavenly Book, some unseen force drew him back.
From his old vantage point, the ruins of his former home felt alien.
There was no returning.
“Shall we go down?”
A Qing studied Ye Chen’s face.
“No.”
He glanced at the corpse nearby—a great fighter sent by Ye Quan to capture the “last remnant” of Xinghe Village. But the current Ye Chen wasn’t the desperate fugitive they’d once hunted. His mysterious encounter had reshaped his destiny.
Great fighters might terrify ordinary people, but to Ye Chen’s group? Manageable. Using his bloodline power, he’d crushed this spy, confirming their collective strength through the skirmish.
They surpassed great fighters yet fell short of Fighting Kings—somewhere in between.
“Move out.”
Ye Chen led A Qing and her brother A Mu away, leaving the spy’s body as both message and taunt for Ye Quan: _I live._
Half a day later.
A stone-faced Ye Quan surveyed the dead great fighter, surrounded by Xinghe Village elites.
“Scour these mountains!”
He’d come expecting easy prey, not ghosts from Xinghe Village’s past. This complication stoked his killing intent.
_Unpredictable enemies with strange powers? Better dead._
As his men fanned out, Ye Quan spread rumors of the trio’s whereabouts. Ambitious experts from the Divine Dynasty and powerful clans soon converged on the region.
None of this concerned Ye Chen’s group.
They settled in a small town near Xinghe Village—three unremarkable faces in the crowd. For those beyond ordinary existence, hiding required little effort.
“Substituting Life Insects? Seriously?”
A Mu and Ye Chen gaped at A Qing.
“They replace identities,” she explained. “Similar to your bloodline tricks, Brother Ye, but these insects warp memories. Though against fighting energy users…” She shrugged.
Earlier, she’d guided them to fresh corpses in a mass grave. The insects extracted the dead’s life stories, then grafted those identities onto the trio. To outsiders, they became those deceased individuals—except in altered memories where the originals never died.
Substituting Life Insects—identity thieves.
“Still incredible,” Ye Chen admitted. His bloodline allowed deception, but not memory distortion.
“Now we’ve got clean identities.” Ye Chen abandoned his original plan—this method worked better.
“Time to absorb the Wordless Heavenly Book.”
A Mu nodded.
No grandstanding. They’d grow stronger in silence, biding time for vengeance and the Great Dao.
Thus, Ye Chen and his two companions hid themselves in the small town near Xinghe Village. Powerful individuals came and went, yet none detected their presence. Ye Quan’s men from Xinghe Village searched the area over ten times, but ordinary searchers couldn’t see through A Qing’s Substituting Life Insect disguise.
Three years slipped by.
On this particular day,
Ye Chen emerged from prolonged Closed Door Meditation in his thatched cottage. His aura now drifted like morning mist, completely untraceable compared to three years ago.
A Mu froze when he saw Ye Chen standing in the courtyard, freshly returned from hunting. “You… broke through?”
“Mm.”
A faint smile touched Ye Chen’s lips. Though he appeared ephemeral as mountain mist, his voice carried scorching intensity. “Wordless Heavenly Book – Third Layer.”
They’d each reached the second layer within a year of obtaining the scripture, their power growing terrifyingly. Building upon this foundation, all three had developed their own ‘Dao’ – exactly as Zuo Meng had designed when creating this cultivation method, planting them as hidden chess pieces in the world.
“What does the third layer do?” A Qing stepped forward. She’d been first to master the second layer’s peak, yet the third had remained as unreachable as reflections in water.
Ye Chen approached a table bearing cold tea. Spilling the liquid across the wood, he tapped the puddle twice with his finger. Ripples formed a human silhouette.
“Ye Quan.”
He traced the traitor’s name beneath the watery figure – the man who’d betrayed Xinghe Village, the thorn in Ye Chen’s heart.
A Mu frowned in confusion until Ye Chen slashed his finger through the name.
Splash!
The tea-figure shuddered. An invisible blade seemed to slice through its neck. Brown liquid darkened crimson as…
In Xinghe Village,
Ye Quan abruptly stopped berating his subordinates. His hands flew to his throat, face purpling as he choked. “L-Lord?” attendants cried, rushing forward –
Too late.
The village master’s head toppled from his shoulders as if plucked by unseen hands, blood drenching shocked onlookers. The Mysterious Person’s work was done.