Chapter 163: Stepping into the Void, A Cyan-Robed Figure Fluttering in the Wind

That person wore the hemp clothing unique to the human race. Although it had been refined and forged, Nan Luo recognized it at a single glance. The golden light radiating from his body was virtually indistinguishable from that of Donghuang Taiyi, sharing even the same overbearing aura.

Yet it was merely a resemblance. For some inexplicable reason, upon seeing him, Nan Luo felt as though he were gazing upon the combined embodiment of Di Jun and Taiyi. Though this impression flashed through his mind for only an instant, it left a lingering sense of strangeness in his heart.

Taiyi came tearing through the void, his momentum as overwhelming as tumbling mountains and overturning seas. That peerless arrogance—the sense that he alone stood above all—caused people millions of miles away to hastily scatter and flee.

Suddenly, a streak of golden light burst forth from the mountains. Wrapped within the brilliance was a figure that rose directly to meet Taiyi head-on. Treading upon the void, he advanced against Taiyi without the slightest evasion or retreat.

Taiyi felt a flicker of surprise; he had not expected anyone to dare block his path alone. Yet, though slightly taken aback, he did not hold the challenger in any real regard. Since none of the four Ancestral Witches had managed to stop him, certainly a mere human could not. In his eyes, the identity of the newcomer was instantly laid bare. Unbidden, the image of Nan Luo surfaced in his mind, along with the monstrous, heaven-clearing murderous intent Nan Luo had once displayed when he shattered the void with a single sword strike.

The thought vanished in a flash. With a cold, angry snort, Taiyi threw a punch. Golden light enveloped his fist, unleashed without any superfluous stance. The void was annihilated. The moment his fist moved, it was already right before that person. The expanse of tens of thousands of miles was reduced to a mere single step beneath the Eastern Emperor's feet.

Without a word, the man in hemp clothes also raised his hand and punched outward, blazing with brilliant golden light.

"Boom..."

The void shuddered. Where their fists collided, space shattered into infinitesimal fragments.

Although Donghuang Taiyi did not currently possess the Chaos Clock, he was universally acknowledged as the supreme being of heaven and earth. At the clash of their fists, the man in hemp clothes paused for a fraction of a second before being sent spinning upward into the nine heavens. Taiyi, however, did not pause for a single breath; he stepped forward in pursuit and struck out with another punch.

From afar, a flash of golden light was all it took to catch up to the hemp-clad figure.

"Boom..."

In the nick of time, the man in hemp traded blows with Taiyi once again. The void was obliterated, and the two streaks of golden light touched only to separate instantly, sending the hemp-clad man tumbling helplessly up toward the highest heavens once more.

From the moment he spoke atop Buzhou Mountain to the interception along his path, Taiyi's brilliant, heavenly might and overwhelming dominance were utterly irresistible. Sweeping across the land with an all-consuming momentum toward the far West, the living beings of the Primordial World fled in terror.

From afar, countless creatures watched Donghuang Taiyi roar past with eyes filled with awe and dread.

When they saw someone actually dare to step forward and block his way, they were profoundly astonished. And when they witnessed him exchange two consecutive blows with Donghuang Taiyi and yet remain alive, their hearts were shaken to the core. In their minds, this audacious and reckless mortal should have been reduced to ashes by Taiyi's fist. Yet they saw that although the hemp-clad man was sent tumbling through the air, he did not appear to have suffered fatal injuries.

An angry snort from Donghuang Taiyi echoed through the void, and an endless, crushing pressure diffused outward. In an instant, countless living beings prostrated themselves upon the ground, the image of the Eastern Emperor's supreme divine might deeply branded into their souls.

At that very moment, four distinct auras of slaughter surged upward from four directions around Donghuang Taiyi. The void flickered, and four figures materialized, each dressed in eccentric attire with compelling presences, faintly sealing off this entire realm of heaven and earth.

Donghuang Taiyi, who had intended to deliver a fatal blow to the hemp-clad man, came to a halt. Yet even as he stopped, another did not. The man who had been sent spinning toward the nine heavens suddenly checked his momentum. Golden light erupted from his body, and he called out to the Eastern Emperor above: "Donghuang, receive a punch from me as well!"

As the words rose, the fist struck out. The momentum of the punch bore a striking similarity to the awe-inspiring dominance Taiyi had just displayed. As the words fell, the boundless void was pierced clean through. Tumbling down from the nine heavens, trailing blinding golden light, a gigantic fist shattered space itself and drove straight toward Donghuang Taiyi's face.

"Seeking death!"

Endless fury erupted in Donghuang Taiyi's eyes as terrifying waves of spiritual pressure surged. The very instant those two words were uttered, his murderous intent seemed to freeze the void solid. With a single punch, space solidified, containing boundless laws of heaven and earth. Clearly, the Eastern Emperor had been truly enraged; ever since he had stepped into the world, no one had ever dared to confront him so directly.

His punch dragged forth the solemn, resonant tolling of a bell, and the surrounding void seemed to disintegrate and shatter under the force of the blow.

Beneath the Eastern Emperor's boundless pressure, the momentum of the man in hemp clothes was noticeably weaker. Yet he continued his descent without the slightest hesitation, doubt, or evasion.

Nan Luo narrowed his eyes slightly, capturing the expression on the hemp-clad man's face with crystal clarity.

A streak of golden light plunged from the nine heavens, descending straight into that abyss-like domain of spiritual pressure. There was no earth-shattering explosion; instead, that entire patch of void disintegrated inch by inch, instantly swallowing the hemp-clad man whole.

Nan Luo's hand twitched slightly, but he stopped himself.

A dim streak of golden light burst forth from that annihilated space. The person within the light had a trail of blood at the corner of his mouth and disheveled hair, yet his eyes held no trace of defeat—instead, they shone with intense excitement.

Transforming into a streak of golden light to flee, the hemp-clad man nevertheless shouted aloud, "The Eastern Emperor of the Heavenly Court truly lives up to his reputation..."

This entire exchange had taken place in the span of a single breath. The Eastern Emperor was furious; when had anyone ever managed to escape unscathed after provoking him? Before he could move to pursue, however, the four Ancestral Witches had already made their move. Instantly, malevolent auras churned and heaven and earth trembled.

Witnessing this, Nan Luo understood immediately: the hemp-clad man had intercepted Donghuang Taiyi precisely to buy time for the four Ancestral Witches to catch up. Yet, even though he had already achieved his objective, he had still insisted on trading blows with the Eastern Emperor at the very end. This showed him to be a man whose pride surpassed the heavens.

The human race—when had it produced such a brilliant, exceptionally talented, and striking figure?

Yet, watching the man escape back into the mountains, Nan Luo had no intention of seeking him out to make his acquaintance. In his eyes, that man was exceptionally brilliant, but in the eyes of others, wasn't Nan Luo himself the exact same way?

Several thousand miles away, in a secluded mountain, five figures surrounded a single man. The man in the center was none other than the one who had just exchanged three punches with the Eastern Emperor.

Someone spoke up: "Haotian, the Ancestral Witches of the Wu clan have already caught up. Why on earth did you insist on striking that final blow? Decades ago, before you had attained the Dao and when the Heavenly Court was first established, the Eastern Emperor suppressed all living beings of heaven and earth, yet you stubbornly resisted him and suffered severe injuries as a result. Just now, you could have slipped away safely, yet you chose to strike anyway. Why must you act on mere impulse?"

Haotian wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and let out a hearty, booming laugh. "Some people, when faced with those stronger than themselves, choose to hide their brilliance and submit. But others choose to challenge and surpass them..."

High above in the nine heavens, primordial energy was in chaos and the void was shattered. The four Ancestral Witches were locked in fierce battle with Donghuang Taiyi. It was evident that even without the Chaos Clock in his possession, Taiyi still held the upper hand. However, defeating or slaying them in a short span of time would be an immensely difficult task.

Haotian, looking up at the sky, suddenly turned his head toward another direction. There, a figure in green robes was treading leisurely upon the void, his wide sleeves fluttering in the wind, as though transcendent and detached from the mortal world. In the blink of an eye, he had already drifted extremely far away.

"Let's go and meet Nan Luo of our human race," Haotian said with a smile, looking at the green-robed figure treading the void into the distance. With that, he transformed into a streak of golden light and gave chase.

At this moment, the Ancestral Witches of the Wu clan were locked in battle with the Eastern Emperor in the nine heavens, while in the far West, other Ancestral Witches and several mysterious, powerful beings were jointly sealing the Chaos Clock... Yet Nan Luo had turned and left, moving with incredible speed as a single step shifted heaven and earth.

He never once looked back. The sea of blood, the faint outline of the Promise Mountain, and the multicolored radiance illuminating the sky all seemed to fade into illusion, dissolving behind him.

In just a few steps, Nan Luo was thousands of miles away, and the heaven-shaking pressure and battle tremors had grown much fainter. With a flick of his stride and a blurring of his form, he materialized upon a sheer precipice. Yet he did not continue on; instead, he turned around and gazed into the distance.

A streak of golden light pierced the void, shooting directly toward the cliff where Nan Luo stood. Close behind that golden light, five colored radiances of various hues followed in hot pursuit.

In the blink of an eye, the golden light arrived and descended right before Nan Luo. Even while it was still far off in the sky, he had already recognized this person as the one who had intercepted Taiyi in the nine heavens, though he wondered why he was being pursued.

The figure within the golden light revealed himself—a handsome man with a square face that radiated a warm and approachable air. The moment he landed, he smiled and said, "I have long heard of the great name of Nan Luo of the human race. To finally lay eyes upon you in person today is truly a great fortune."

Nan Luo offered a faint smile and remained silent. For him at this moment, such fame and titles had drifted away like smoke and clouds, silently dissipating. Even upon meeting the most outstanding figure of the human race, he felt no particular stirring within.

The man did not mind Nan Luo's silent smile. In his eyes, Nan Luo at this moment felt as ethereal as white clouds drifting across the sky. That smile and that quietly standing posture gave one a sense of unreality.

"My name is Haotian. You may not have heard of me, but I learned of your name long ago from Fuxi. He told me the reasons why you entered the Heavenly Court as a stellar sovereign..."

Listening to his words, Nan Luo thought to himself inwardly: "So he is Haotian, the brother of Yaoji." A gentle smile crossed his face, light and untroubled by the world. Though he spoke no words, his expression clearly conveyed his thoughts.

"You pursued the river of blood all the way here; why are you walking away now?" Haotian asked with a smile, looking at Nan Luo. "If I am not mistaken, there should be several old acquaintances of yours over there."

Hearing this, Nan Luo could not help turning his gaze toward the nine heavens where the fierce battle still raged. "When friends are in peril, one must naturally do their utmost to help," he replied. "Now that the peril has passed, it is naturally time to leave."

He looked into the distance with a casual, indifferent detachment. Yet Haotian seemed to sense some ineffable feeling beneath that surface—a feeling he could not quite put into words. He only knew that despite the detached and transcendent air Nan Luo projected, the depths of his heart were probably far less carefree than his outward appearance suggested.

After a brief silence, Nan Luo made as if to leave again, showing not the slightest inclination to ask why Haotian, a fellow human, had also become embroiled in this conflict. Nor did he show any desire to understand what other schemes lay behind this battle, or how many hidden figures had yet to reveal themselves.

Seeing that he showed no curiosity, Haotian spoke up instead: "In my early years, I heard Fuxi say that the greater a person's capability, the greater the responsibility they must bear! I pondered this for a long time and found his words to be true. What do you think?"