Warren Wan had served as branch master for centuries, and in all that time, he’d never had to fight. But his eye for strength hadn’t dulled—he could tell, after seeing a single sword cut down two mid Soul-Split cultivators, that he himself could never do the same.
"Who are you, really? Why do you want to kill me?"
"You don’t need to know."
The middle-aged man replied coolly, then swung his sword again.
His sword struck like thunder—unstoppable, overwhelming.
"Crack, crack, crack!"
Amid a string of explosive bangs, the defensive spirit artifacts on Warren Wan’s body shattered one after another. The precious seconds they bought him were enough—without hesitation, he retreated, smashed through the wall, and fled into the air.
He hadn’t fought in centuries, and somewhere along the way, he’d lost the courage to face anyone stronger than himself.
Seeing Warren Wan trying to escape, the middle-aged man’s lips curled in a mocking smile. He swung his sword once more.
"Splat!"
The next moment, Warren Wan’s body, still airborne, suddenly burst apart, scattering chunks of flesh and blood as they fell to the ground.
The Prime One Church disciples whose cultivation had been crippled stared blankly at the scene, eyes wide with terror as they fixed their gaze on the middle-aged man.
Then, the middle-aged man’s gaze shifted to Warren’s two concubines and Rowan Jiang.
"Thud! Thud!"
Under his gaze, the two beautiful concubines trembled and dropped to their knees. "Please spare us, sir! We were only forced by Warren Wan!"
Sheathing his sword, the middle-aged man turned and walked away without a word.
As for the middle-aged man’s identity—naturally, he was Ian Song.
Half a quarter-hour later, Ian arrived at the Prime One Church branch altar.
A figure flashed into view—a handsome young man appeared before Ian and smiled. "Master, I’ve already laid a grand formation around the entire branch altar!"
That young man was none other than Evan Huang.
When Ian decided to attack the Prime One Church branch altar, he’d already summoned Evan Huang to help.
"Let’s get started!"
Ian said coolly.
Immediately, Evan Huang formed several array seals and sent them into the void. A grand formation slowly rose, enveloping the entire Prime One Church branch altar.
This branch altar wasn’t particularly strong, but it still had over a dozen late Soul-Split experts stationed there.
Back in late Out-of-Body, Ian could already insta-kill late Soul-Split experts.
Now that he’d broken through to early Soul-Split, his strength had skyrocketed tenfold. He was already invincible among Soul-Split cultivators—so wiping out these late Soul-Split experts only took a few dozen breaths.
An hour later, Ian dismissed the grand formation and left the Prime One Church branch altar.
The reason it took so long was because he spent quite a bit of time looting every resource he could find inside.
After tallying up the haul, the resources looted from the Prime One Church branch altar were conservatively estimated at over ten thousand top-grade spirit crystals. As for the thousands of branch disciples, Ian crippled the cultivation of every last one.
When the grand formation enveloped the Prime One Church branch altar, it alarmed countless cultivators in Sky-Dragon City. After Ian dismissed the formation and left, some bold souls sneaked inside—and were stunned to find that every Soul-Split expert was dead, and the rest of the disciples had all had their cultivation crippled.
"Heavens, who could’ve done this? Someone actually wiped out the entire Prime One Church branch altar!"
As the news spread, more and more people flocked to the Prime One Church branch altar to see for themselves.
All the top-tier powers and officials were left utterly dumbfounded by the news. Then, the Dragon-God Province officials hurried to relay the message to Royal City.
But even passing the news to Royal City would take at least most of the day.
By that time, Ian and Evan Huang had already arrived at their next destination—Taiyin Prefecture.
Taiyin Prefecture was far vaster than Dragon-God Province. After some investigation, Ian learned that the branch altar master here was named Monty.
Unlike the previous branch altar master, Monty wasn’t late Soul-Split—he was early Fusion.
"Master, maybe we should pick a different target!"
Upon learning that Monty was a Fusion expert, Evan Huang couldn’t help but offer his advice.
Ian fell silent, lost in thought.
Wiping out an entire branch altar would be far more shocking than simply killing a Fusion-stage expert from the Prime One Church.
But he honestly didn’t know how far his strength was from a Fusion-stage expert, so he wasn’t sure he could actually kill Monty.
Suddenly inspired, he entered the Library Pavilion inside the Divine Temple.
“Which book contains methods for dealing with Fusion experts?” Ian shouted loudly.
Whoosh!!
A black book shot through the air and landed in Ian’s hands.
The book was titled Ten Thousand Poisons Heaven Manual.
He flipped it open and quickly began to read.
After half an hour, Ian had finished the entire book. As expected from the Ten Thousand Poisons Heaven Manual, it was packed with all sorts of vicious techniques—from sinister Dao-arts and methods for refining evil magic weapons to recipes for deadly poison pills.
Mastering Dao-arts takes far too much time, and Ian Song doesn’t know how to refine magic weapons.
So, Ian decided to focus on those sinister poison pills.
He flipped to the pill section and read carefully, eventually settling on a pill called 'Godbreaker Powder.' According to the manual, this pill is extremely potent—if even an Immortal inhales it, their immortal foundation will collapse.
If it can take down immortals, it should work against a Fusion-stage expert.
To refine 'Godbreaker Powder' requires 196 different spirit medicines. By coincidence, Ian had just looted the Prime One Church’s Dragon-God Province branch altar, and it happened to contain 195 of the required ingredients.
The only thing missing is a spirit herb called Yin-Yang Grass.
Yin-Yang Grass is notoriously hard to grow—it only thrives where extreme Yin and extreme Yang energies converge.
Leaving the Divine Temple, Ian and Evan split up to search for Yin-Yang Grass at all the major apothecaries in Taiyin Prefecture.
But after asking at every medicinal shop in the city, they still couldn’t find any Yin-Yang Grass.
After thinking for a moment, Ian disguised himself as an immortal-looking elderly cultivator and headed to a large restaurant in the state capital.
He made no effort to conceal his early Soul-Split aura, so the staff greeted him with enthusiasm and tried to lead him to a private room. Ian declined and walked straight into the main hall.
With his cultivation unhidden, he stood out like a firefly in the night, drawing glances from every cultivator in the hall and prompting them to lower their voices.
"Fellow Daoists, this old man is Daoist Jason Stone. Today, I have a request for everyone!" Ian announced loudly.
"Please, Senior, speak!"
"Senior, I’m Liu Yi. If you need anything, just say the word!"
For a moment, the cultivators in the hall all chimed in, eager to curry favor, their faces full of flattery and anticipation.
Ian raised his hand, and the noisy hall instantly quieted down.
"I’m searching for a spirit herb called Yin-Yang Grass. I’d like everyone to help spread the word. If you get any information or find the herb, there will be a hefty reward. Here’s a token of my sincerity!"
As he spoke, Ian flicked his wrist, sending eighty-three top-grade spirit crystals flying—one landing in front of each cultivator in the hall.
The highest cultivation among the diners was only early Golden Core.
So, for them, a single top-grade spirit crystal was a fortune.
Staring at the spirit crystals in their hands, the cultivators were thrilled, their eyes shining. This Senior Jason Stone was truly generous—just spreading the word earned them a crystal. If someone actually found Yin-Yang Grass, how much greater would the reward be?
So, all eighty-three diners forgot about their food and rushed out to help Ian spread the news.