Chapter 561: Chapter 560: The Burial Ground of the Dragon

"How strange. He clearly couldn’t have gone far, so why has he vanished?"

Duan Tianya and Ximen Hengcheng had been searching for Ye Fan for a long time without any luck.

"What should we do now?" Ximen Hengcheng asked.

"Don’t worry. As long as he’s within the secret realm, that kid will show up eventually. Besides, this is Dragon Valley, and he’s already at death’s door," Duan Tianya said confidently. "In such a harsh environment, there’s no way he can survive!"

He was confident in his own strength. Although he hadn’t managed to kill Ye Fan completely, he knew he had wounded the boy severely. It would be a miracle for Ye Fan to survive, but Duan Tianya knew such things were rare. Even if miracles did exist, none would happen under his watch.

He said to Ximen Hengcheng, "Brother Ximen, we should get going. The Divine Dragon Essence Blood has probably appeared by now. I’d like to see who dares to be the first to touch that hot potato!"

"Good, I’m interested to know as well. I hope it’s Mu Chen Dong, hahaha!"

The two of them burst into wild laughter.

"Excellent!" Ximen Hengcheng nodded readily and proceeded with Duan Tianya toward the deepest part of Dragon Valley.

「」

Meanwhile, in the cold and darkness, an extremely weakened Ye Fan abruptly regained consciousness. Only after waking up did he realize he was in a frigid, underground river. If not for the chilling shock, he definitely wouldn’t have awoken so quickly. He tried to move his body slightly, only to find the pain unbearable.

"Ugh!" Ye Fan let out a painful groan.

At that moment, he didn’t even have the strength to take out his Elixir Pills.

"Can’t I even move a little?" Ye Fan muttered, unwilling to accept it.

He shifted slightly, then with great difficulty, managed to pick up an Elixir Pill and put it in his mouth. The pill dissolved, and its medicinal power quickly spread throughout his body. He could feel his injured body beginning to recover.

By the time the current slowed, he had been washed onto the bank of the dark river. Aided by the recovery effects of his Ancestor Realm Bloodline, he could finally move again. With great difficulty, he pushed himself up from the sand. The surroundings were pitch black. He was deep beneath a mountain range, having been swept here by accident.

Ye Fan got to his feet and began walking deeper into the darkness. "I need to find an opening to get out!" he said weakly.

Duan Tianya and Ximen Hengcheng were now on his kill list. He would absolutely not spare those two detestable men.

At that moment, for reasons he couldn’t explain, a powerful sense of belonging washed over him. It felt as if this was the very place he was destined to reach.

"Could this really be the burial ground of the Divine Dragon?" Ye Fan wondered aloud.

Back then, the Divine Dragon, as the King of Divine Beasts, was unrivaled in the Divine Domain. Yet, it suddenly perished. As for why it fell, likely no one knew. Some said the Divine Dragon was merely sleeping, while others claimed it had truly died. If it hadn’t, the Spiritual Beasts of the Divine Domain would not be in their current state of chaos. But in either case, one fact remained: the Divine Dragon had not been seen since.

This secret realm was discovered by the Ximen Family. A Divine Dragon Illusion once appeared within it, which is why it was also named the Divine Dragon Secret Realm. However, all of this remained mere speculation.

Ye Fan arrived in a vast, empty space. In the vacant darkness, the blood in his veins instantly began to boil.

"Not good!"

Ye Fan was exasperated. Even his own blood was acting up. There’s clearly something strange about this place.

Then, his body involuntarily began to rise into the air.

"Damn it! What’s happening?"

His body shot rapidly into the darkness. No matter what technique he tried, nothing worked. At that moment, Ye Fan was truly on the verge of despair. He finally stopped when he reached a point of light beyond the darkness. The moment his blood calmed, Ye Fan plummeted from the sky.

"Damn it!"

Ye Fan slammed hard onto the ground, utterly infuriated. If this blood wasn’t his own, he would have loved to let it all out. But what good would that do? He would still be the one getting hurt. He was truly at a loss for how to control it.

However, in the next moment, he fell silent. A colossal Dragon Bone was coiled in a winding spiral all around him. He couldn’t tell how long it was, but as the King of Divine Beasts, the Divine Dragon’s body had been terrifyingly huge. Even a single shard of bone would be large enough to crush a group of people. The Divine Dragon’s body must have been at least a thousand feet long.

So the Divine Dragon truly had perished. The legendary beast had fallen back in the Ancient Times. The once King of Divine Beasts was now nothing more than a pile of white bones.

Ye Fan was left to wonder. What kind of monster could have brought down the Divine Dragon? It’s completely unbelievable!

A Divine Dragon was not born as such. It began as a serpent, which evolved into a flood dragon, and then into a true dragon. Only after experiencing countless rebirths did it finally transform into the ultimate Divine Dragon. The Divine Dragon’s process of transformation was comparable to that of a Martial Cultivator—no, it was several times more difficult. For such a mighty King of Divine Beasts to have died... it was truly a loss for the entire world.

The Divine Dragon was a symbol of auspiciousness, revered by gods and mortals alike.

Ye Fan could now confirm the truth behind the legends of its disappearance: the Divine Dragon was truly dead and would never return.

He began to circle the massive skeleton, inspecting it closely. He discovered a frightening sight—the Divine Dragon’s skull was pierced through. The hole was as wide as a bucket and pierced clean through its head.

Ye Fan gasped.

For the King of Divine Beasts, a creature revered even by the gods, to die so tragically... Just who could have possessed the power to slay a Divine Dragon?

Ye Fan examined the hole again and noticed the area around the opening was pitch-black. Thinking it might be from poison, he cautiously leaned closer to smell it. He didn’t dare touch it. Whatever killed the Divine Dragon was far beyond his ability to handle. If it was poison, a single touch would undoubtedly be fatal.

But he detected no smell.

Am I overthinking this? Ye Fan began to doubt his judgment.

So, he reached out and touched it.

In an instant, he felt an intense wave of Curse Power. This power seemed to contain the essence of every Curse Source imaginable, and it flooded into his mind. He was paralyzed in an instant. If his Ancestor Realm Bloodline hadn’t immediately surrounded and resisted the onslaught, the Curse Power would have killed him on the spot.

Ye Fan’s face turned deathly pale, and cold sweat beaded on his skin. The experience had been utterly terrifying. He gasped for breath, feeling on the verge of collapse.

"So it was a curse!" Ye Fan cried out.

This Curse Technique seemed capable of attacking one’s very essence, killing without a trace. From this, he could deduce that the physical wound wasn’t what truly killed the Divine Dragon. The wound itself was terrifying, but the Divine Dragon could have survived it; it was the King of Divine Beasts, after all. This Curse Technique, however, was no laughing matter. It could bypass any of the Divine Dragon’s defenses, ensuring its untimely death. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Terrifying, truly terrifying