Southern Canglan City.
At No. 18, Dingzi Street in the southern district, a three-year-old boy was cultivating inside a secluded residence. This boy was none other than Yang Xiu.
His perception was razor sharp. Suddenly, he felt an intense sense of danger. Without the slightest hesitation, Yang Xiu rushed out of the courtyard.
At almost the same moment, a large group of martial artists appeared.
They immediately spotted Yang Xiu trying to escape and gave chase without pause.
"Damn it, what's going on?"
"This place should only be known to me and Hong Xiang. I can't believe Hong Xiang actually betrayed me!"
Yang Xiu ground his teeth in fury.
Hong Xiang had acted utterly loyal, full of admiration and respect, to the point that Yang Xiu had truly trusted him.
Now it seemed he should never have trusted anyone so easily.
He didn't notice that the pursuers behind him were deliberately blocking off every other escape route.
Unknowingly, he was driven straight out of Canglan City and forced to the edge of a cliff.
Beneath the cliff, raging astral winds howled. It was clearly dangerous.
But Yang Xiu did not flinch.
With his strength, he could survive within the astral winds.
He leapt down without hesitation.
As soon as he disappeared, the pursuers all stopped at the cliff's edge.
Hu Po stepped out from among them, glanced down into the abyss, and said, "At last, His Highness's mission is complete. Withdraw the troops."
With a wave of her hand, the soldiers immediately began their march back.
Meanwhile, below the cliff, Yang Xiu fell into a cave.
The cave was ordinary, untouched for who knew how many years.
His body was covered in cuts from the astral winds, but the wounds weren't too serious.
In the sword techniques Lin Xinglan had passed to him, there was one focused on the power of wind. Using that sword art, he had managed to neutralize the deadliest force of the astral winds.
"What's this?"
Yang Xiu froze.
Inside the cave, he spotted an ancient bronze cauldron.
His heart leapt in excitement.
The cauldron radiated the aura of a divine treasure—one of the highest grade.
In an instant, Yang Xiu realized that fate had brought him his chance.
He had encountered many such opportunities before.
Aside from Lin Xinglan, he had gained countless other fortunes.
But one of this level—this was the first.
Yang Xiu didn't hesitate.
Fortunes like this must be seized immediately. If delayed, things could change.
He began refining the ancient bronze cauldron right away.
Three days later, Yang Xiu succeeded.
"The Heaven-Devouring Divine Cauldron!"
He had already learned its name and details, and his eyes blazed with ecstasy.
"Hahaha!"
With no one around, he couldn't hold back his laughter.
"Yang Cheng, you sent people to kill me. Yet you never imagined it would backfire, giving me such a heaven-defying treasure instead, did you? Now I almost feel grateful to you!"
All the resentment and frustration he had carried for years seemed to vanish in that moment.
For the first time, he felt he had won against Yang Cheng.
Those pursuers had undoubtedly been sent by Yang Cheng.
But Yang Cheng would never have guessed that his attempt at assassination would hand Yang Xiu such a colossal fortune.
Yang Xiu even imagined the day he could reveal the truth to Yang Cheng.
He was eager to see—when Yang Cheng learned this, would he vomit blood from rage?
Afterward, Yang Xiu hurried toward a nearby small town.
That very day, six people in the town died under strange circumstances.
And Yang Xiu's cultivation surged forward.
This made him even more exhilarated.
The Heaven-Devouring Divine Cauldron was far too heaven-defying.
These past years, with Lin Xinglan's guidance, his cultivation had already progressed rapidly.
But compared to the speed he now had with the cauldron, it was nothing.
For the first time, a thought began to stir within him—Lin Xinglan might no longer be so important.
With the Heaven-Devouring Divine Cauldron in his hands, even without Lin Xinglan, Yang Xiu was confident that one day he could become a Martial True God, maybe even surpass Lin Xinglan at her peak.
At first, Yang Xiu still felt some resistance and discomfort about killing people and absorbing their essence.
But once he experienced the pleasure hidden within, he couldn't stop himself anymore.
On the second day, Yang Xiu killed 13 people.
On the third day, 17.
Yang Xiu was growing more and more frenzied.
At the same time, Yang Cheng sensed the Sub-Fate Parent Talisman in his hand pulsing.
This was the first time he could clearly perceive the form of "fate."
Fate itself was formless, yet right now he distinctly felt strands of invisible clear energy flowing into his sea of consciousness.
Normally, fate only brought him intangible benefits, like improving his luck.
But now, deep inside his sea of consciousness, a hidden space rippled.
It was the Square Inch Mysterious Realm.
Threads of invisible fate were being drawn inside, slowly transforming into faint white mist.
Yang Cheng's mind stirred, and his spirit entered the Square Inch Mysterious Realm.
There, he felt just how extraordinary this mist was.
It obeyed his control.
It could block spiritual power, distort perception, even conceal all traces of heavenly secrets.
This discovery delighted Yang Cheng.
He hadn't expected that fate combined with the Square Inch Mysterious Realm would produce something so mysterious.
And the mist wasn't limited to just the inner realm.
When Yang Cheng's spirit returned to his body, he opened his palm, and faint strands of white mist curled upward.
"The amount is still too little. Once it builds up more, its true power will show," Yang Cheng thought. Then he smirked inwardly. "Sixth Brother, you'd better keep working hard."
When Yang Xiu first got the Heaven-Devouring Divine Cauldron, the increase in fate had been slow.
But as time went on, it grew faster and faster.
Clearly, Yang Xiu was sinking deeper into the ecstasy brought by the cauldron, unable to pull himself free.
For Yang Cheng, this was nothing but good news.
Yang Xiu was basically working for him.
Yang Xiu gained something, yes, but Yang Cheng's harvest was far greater.
Seven days slipped by.
Unnoticed, Yang Xiu's cultivation had risen from Second Layer Martial Grandmaster to Seventh Layer Martial Grandmaster.
The speed of this rise was monstrous.
"Xiu'er, stop this at once!"
At that moment, a sharp, furious voice rang out.
Lin Xinglan had awoken after many days of slumber.
She never expected that the first thing she'd see was her disciple Yang Xiu behaving like a demon, draining the life essence of others for his own use.
Yang Xiu froze briefly, then said, "Master, why should I stop?"
"This is the way of demons!" Lin Xinglan snapped.
She had always held to a line in cultivation and would never practice such demonic arts.
"What is righteous, and what is evil?"
Yang Xiu's eyes gleamed as he said, "Master, you once told me even among the mighty of the Divine Realm, there are both righteous and evil ones. Yet those who walk the so-called evil path still have countless gods who follow them. Doesn't that prove that righteousness or evil doesn't matter? What matters most is strength!"
Hearing this, Lin Xinglan's heart turned cold.
But she also knew she couldn't scold her disciple now, or it would only make him more defiant.
So she said instead, "Yang Xiu, draining all beings for your own gain, this kind of cultivation defies the order of heaven. Yes, your strength grows, but in time Heaven's Mandate will abandon you. Perhaps every step your strength rises, a step of fate will slip away. In the end, you'll gain nothing."
"But Master, Yang Cheng is not a so-called Heaven's Mandate son either. Yet in both strength and status, he is far ahead of me," Yang Xiu argued. "Doesn't this prove that fate doesn't matter at all? Strength is what truly matters."