"Remove his mask!"
Mu Chen Dong and Wu Fa stepped forward and pulled it off.
Ye Fan finally understood who the man was. He bore the unique criminal brand of the Divine Domain on his face, a mark given to subordinates of the Main Gods who had committed an offense. Some of these offenders were executed on the spot, while others were branded and then exiled to the mines or the battlefields. All of them inevitably met a tragic end.
Ye Fan couldn’t decipher the characters tattooed on the man’s face.
Just then, Wu Fa spoke up. "Isn’t that my father’s criminal mark?"
The man was instantly terrified. He had assumed the two men following Ye Fan were merely low-level martial artists from the Divine Domain. Who could have possibly expected one of them to be the son of the Evil Punishment Main God?
At that moment, Ye Fan said, "It seems you’re a fugitive who escaped from the Evil Punishment Main God. No wonder you dare to run rampant in this world!"
The man rounded on Ye Fan, shouting, "This is all your fault!"
He knew he was doomed, so all fear was gone. Even in death, he was determined to vent his rage.
Ye Fan replied coolly, "Be careless with what you eat, but not with what you say. What does any of this have to do with me?"
The man spat, "Back then, my father was a glorious disciple of the Ancestor of Tianyuan. After the Ancestor fell in battle, my father and his junior martial brother buried him at the border between the Divine Domain and the mortal realm!
"But my father stole the Yuanhong Sword, and my life plummeted from nobility into an abyss. I was captured by the Evil Punishment Main God and branded a criminal! Then I was exiled to the mines. I only managed to survive by faking my own death. This was back when the Divine Domain and the mortal realm were not yet sealed from each other.
"I came to the mortal realm to ask my father why he abandoned his family—his wife and his child—all for his own greed!
"I searched the mortal realm for a thousand years without finding a single clue about him. But eventually, my efforts paid off. It turned out that he had fought his junior martial brother in the tomb and was severely injured. He had been recuperating with the Taishan Official ever since.
"It wasn’t until I finally saw him that I understood. Everything he did was fueled by greed. He wanted to unveil the secrets of the Yuanhong Sword! He aspired to become the next Ancestor of Tianyuan!
"Unfortunately, he lost the sword. I tried desperately to find the Yuanhong Sword, but when the gates between the Divine Domain and the mortal realm were sealed, my very essence was heavily damaged! I was forced into a long slumber. By the time I awoke, everything had changed. The Yuanhong Sword I had been seeking was already in your hands! And you had already shattered the Void to leave this world!
"So, you stole everything that should have been mine!" he snarled at Ye Fan.
Ye Fan didn’t say anything for a moment, then asked, "Then why did you create the God Organization?"
"I founded the God Organization to wait for your return! My organization would destroy your forces, while I would be the one to kill you!"
"A pity you’ll never get the chance," Ye Fan said. "Your power is too weak. Even if it were ten times greater, you still wouldn’t be my match." His words were harsh, but he was merely stating a fact.
"Yes, it’s too late," the man said, his voice laced with resentment. "It seems even the heavens are on your side! Everything my father and I did was merely to set the stage for you! You’re the one who reaps all the rewards!"
"And you think just obtaining the Yuanhong Sword would let you become the next Ancestor of Tianyuan?" Ye Fan asked.
"Yes! Once I have the Yuanhong Sword, becoming the next Ancestor of Tianyuan is only a matter of time!" the man shouted.
"Unfortunately for you, that’s just wishful thinking," Ye Fan said.
"What do you mean?" he asked, unwilling to accept it.
"The Yuanhong Sword possesses a powerful demonic nature," Ye Fan explained. "Not even the Ancestor of Tianyuan could truly control it. What makes you think you’re capable? Here, this is the Yuanhong Sword!"
He tossed the blade to the man. The man snatched up the sword. "The Yuanhong Sword is mine! It’s mine! I will obtain the Yuanhong Power!" he cackled. "Tremble before me, boy!"
He immediately swung the sword down at Ye Fan, but the blade was stopped effortlessly between two of Ye Fan’s fingers. The man was so shocked he was rendered speechless. He never imagined Ye Fan possessed such formidable strength.
"Is this what you imagined?" Ye Fan asked. "That simply holding the Yuanhong Sword would make you the next Ancestor of Tianyuan?"
The man stammered in shock, "Why? Why is it just an ordinary sword in my hands? This isn’t the real Yuanhong Sword!"
Ye Fan sneered. "Oh, it’s the real Yuanhong Sword. It’s just that not everyone can activate its power. Clearly, you are not its master. Because you are unworthy!"
As the man reeled in disbelief, Ye Fan twisted the blade. The next moment, the man’s head tumbled to the floor. He likely never imagined that his life, consumed by rage and ambition, would end by the very weapon he sought: the Yuanhong Sword.
Ye Fan retracted the blade. Just then, the entire skyscraper began to tilt.
"Boss! The building is collapsing!" Mu Chen Dong warned. "We’ll be fine, but there are a lot of innocent people down below!"
"Collapse?" Ye Fan said. "Not on my watch. Look!"
He leaped from the building and deployed a dimensional space as he fell. When the space enveloped the tower, the entire skyscraper vanished.
"Crisis averted," Ye Fan announced.
Instantly, news outlets around the globe went into a frenzy. The God Organization’s headquarters had vanished in the blink of an eye. More importantly, the God Organization itself had been annihilated. They were an organization that could have dominated the globe had it not been for Ye Fan. Now, this global juggernaut had vanished overnight. It became an unsolved mystery, one that nobody dared to investigate, for they knew that whatever had destroyed them was an existence even more terrifying than the God Organization itself.
Meanwhile, the nations and factions once controlled by the organization breathed a collective sigh of relief. From this day forward, they were free.
A select few knew the truth. The downfall of the God Organization was inextricably linked to a certain family from the Holy Martial Land in the East: the Ye Family. For years, the Ye Family had remained silent, leading the world to believe they were on the verge of being erased from history. But now, at the final hour, it was the God Organization that had been annihilated instead. This outcome exceeded everyone’s expectations. It turned out the God Organization was nothing more than a stray dog, while the Ye Family was a sleeping lion. When the lion finally awoke, the mutt never stood a chance.
Ye Fan, however, couldn’t relax, as there was still one person left. He had plucked the memories from the masked man’s mind and learned that his father was not dead. The man had taken on the identity of the Hidden Shark Taoist and was still hiding somewhere in the world.
Only by killing this man could the world’s crisis be truly averted. Ye Fan dared not let such a person continue to exist. The Hidden Shark Taoist had once dared to kill his own junior martial brother, so Ye Fan had no doubt he would be willing to destroy the entire world. The only way to truly eliminate the threat was to kill him.
With this in mind, Ye Fan took Mu Chen Dong and Wu Fa and headed north, also planning to use the trip to visit an old friend.