Ye Fan looked at Zhuang Zhou, realizing he had once again misjudged him. Back when he was a Supreme, Ye Fan had thought Zhuang Zhou was not much stronger than him. Now, looking again, he could still tell that Zhuang Zhou was superior.

He asked Zhuang Zhou, "How strong are you?"

"The Reincarnation Realm," Zhuang Zhou replied.

Ye Fan was shocked. It really was the Reincarnation Realm, just as he had deduced—on the same level as powerful beings like the Cain Ancestor and the European Pope. But he had an intuition that Zhuang Zhou was slightly more powerful than those two.

He then asked, "What level of combat power does the Reincarnation Realm represent here?"

"It represents the pinnacle of combat power," Zhuang Zhou explained. "Several of my martial brothers and I are in this realm. Long ago, there were many others at the Reincarnation Realm, but they were all killed."

Only then did Ye Fan begin to understand the true cruelty of the war between the Spirit Clan and the Human Clan. He asked Zhuang Zhou, "Where are your successors selected from?"

But as soon as he asked, he knew it was a silly question.

Zhuang Zhou responded, "They are selected from the secular world, of course. Any warrior who reaches the Supreme Level is eligible to come here and join the war of the Spirit Suppressing People. Unfortunately, the members of the younger generation who meet our standards are becoming rarer and rarer," he lamented.

Ye Fan knew this was true. For years, Supreme Realm Martial Artists had become exceedingly rare. Not just in the Divine Land but across the entire world, the path of Martial Arts was in decline, though the signs were so subtle that most were unaware. He now understood this was likely why Zhuang Zhou had stopped him from moving against the Mo Sect. After all, whether they were righteous or demonic, they were all part of humanity’s strength. Zhuang Zhou clearly did not want the major powers of the Divine Land to get bogged down in internal conflict.

"There are many Supreme experts in the world, and some are even in the Reincarnation Realm, like the European Pope and the Cain Ancestor. Why don’t they come and join the great war?" Ye Fan asked. "If they joined, the forces of the Spirit Suppressing People would surely be bolstered."

"That’s utter nonsense!" Zhuang Zhou said. "We have invited them, but they all refused. They would rather lord over their own domains than participate in the war of the Spirit Suppressing People, where their lives could be forfeit at any moment!

"Their perspective is too narrow. If the defensive line of the Spirit Suppressing People is breached, they won’t be able to escape the ensuing catastrophe either!"

These were Zhuang Zhou’s heartfelt thoughts.

Ye Fan nodded. Those people really are shortsighted.

Then, he voiced a ruthless idea. "In that case, why not just wipe them all out?"

Zhuang Zhou replied quickly, "If we Spirit Suppressing People were to engage in such self-destructive infighting, our defensive line would have been breached long ago!"

Zhuang Zhou sounded quite helpless. From his tone, Ye Fan could tell they had probably considered this idea before, but it was completely unrealistic. Perhaps this is just fate.

Ye Fan still had many questions, and he intended to get them answered. He believed his arrival here was no coincidence. The two continued their conversation.

At this moment, Zhuang Zhou said, "The world of the Spirit Suppressing People is this cruel. Welcome to our family!"

"Don’t joke, Senior. I’m just passing through," Ye Fan immediately replied.

What a joke. He had no desire to become one of the Spirit Suppressing People and die alone here. After all, everyone is selfish to some extent. To ask him to abandon all personal desires and stand guard over the Spirit Domain... he simply couldn’t make that choice.

At that moment, Zhuang Zhou said, "Young brother, this matter may not be up to you!"

This displeased Ye Fan. "Are you planning to force me, Senior?" he asked.

Is Zhuang Zhou really going to force me to stay here and stand guard? If it comes to that, then we’ll fight. I’m not afraid of anyone.

But Zhuang Zhou said, "No, it’s not like that. You’ve misunderstood, young brother. In truth, your destiny was decided the moment you were born."

"Oh?" Ye Fan looked at Zhuang Zhou with curiosity.

Zhuang Zhou explained, "It is because you possess the domineering Divine Bloodline and wield the Yuanhong Sword—the very sword that once belonged to that great figure! These conditions leave you no choice. If you try to avoid this, the one who dies will be you!"

"Why?" Ye Fan was speechless. He desperately wanted an answer.

Zhuang Zhou said, "Because if you choose not to fight, the Divine Race will never tolerate the continued growth of someone who could threaten their ambitions. Both the Yuanhong Sword and the Divine Bloodline are things they fear above all else. Possessing just one of them would leave you no choice in the matter, let alone having both. You are, so to speak, a natural-born God Slayer!"

"What the hell!" Ye Fan was speechless again. So, according to Zhuang Zhou, I have to fight whether I want to or not?

He scoffed, "Then here, you take Yuanhong! You can be the God Slayer, and I’ll go chase some girls!"

Saying this, Ye Fan tossed the Yuanhong Sword to Zhuang Zhou. The Divine Race was a terrifyingly powerful adversary. He was not arrogant enough to dare touch a tiger’s whiskers.

Zhuang Zhou gave a wry smile and handed the Yuanhong Sword back to Ye Fan. "Don’t lose heart. Your advantages are far greater than that great figure’s were."

"Oh?" Ye Fan asked curiously.

Zhuang Zhou continued, "That great figure from ancient times did not possess a Divine Bloodline. With nothing but the Yuanhong Sword, he struck fear into the hearts of the Divine Race! Therefore, compared to him, you are superior, at least in terms of raw talent. So long as you have the resolve, you might just become even stronger than he was!"

Ye Fan brushed that aside and asked the one question that mattered to him. "Forget all that for a second. Just tell me one thing: how long did he have to cultivate?"

"Not long. He just trained bitterly for a few hundred years," Zhuang Zhou replied calmly.

Ye Fan nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. A few hundred years? He had only been out of the womb for a little over twenty years, and he was expected to endure centuries of harsh cultivation just to match that man?

Ye Fan was instantly speechless. What advantage was there to speak of?

Then, he asked Zhuang Zhou, "Do I have any other choice?"

"None. Unless you kill yourself. And even then, the Divine Race is ruthless. They would never spare your family, your children, or your grandchildren’s bloodline."

Zhuang Zhou’s words left Ye Fan with no path of retreat.

"Forget it," he said to Zhuang Zhou. "There’s no point trying to explain. I can join the war, but not right now. How many more years can you all hold out?"

"A hundred years at most," Zhuang Zhou stated immediately.

"Seriously? A hundred years? Isn’t that a long time from now?"

To the unflappable Ye Fan, this did not seem urgent at all. But Zhuang Zhou said, "A century, for a Martial Cultivator, is but a fleeting moment."

Ye Fan understood. Now that he had cultivated to the Supreme Saint Realm, living for several hundred years would be a simple matter. He said, "I need to achieve my next breakthrough first. After that, I will resolve the internal conflicts and then eliminate the external threats."

"The internal conflicts... you’re referring to them?" Zhuang Zhou seemed to understand.

When Ye Fan nodded, Zhuang Zhou said, "Very well. I can provide you with some assistance."

He continued, "However, if you wish to break through, the fastest method is to participate in the Spirit Suppressing War. Combat is the ultimate shortcut to advancement."

Ye Fan wholeheartedly agreed. Rather than secluding himself in a cave for decades, why not throw himself into the great war? After every life-or-death battle, breakthroughs came much faster.