Chapter 152: Be born into a better family in your next life!

"How is this possible? Why are you two completely unharmed?" Elder Han looked at the two of them in sheer disbelief. The painstaking efforts of most of his life had just become wedding garments for someone else; how could he possibly stay calm? He wished he could instantly slice Lin An and the other into a thousand pieces, yet even that would scarcely quench his burning hatred.

"To tell you the truth, the moment Ye Fan and I stepped into the Lingxu Grotto-Heaven, we already had our eyes on you!"

"You were scheming to take the divine fruit that Ye Fan and I consumed, while Ye Fan and I were scheming to take your lifelong collection. It's just that we happened to be a cut above you, pulling off a wolf's prize with empty hands—you could say we succeeded!"

Lin An's words plunged Elder Han into an even deeper abyss of despair. Even if he currently had the capability to capture Lin An and Ye Fan, all those precious divine herbs had taken him nearly the latter half of his life to finally gather.

Yet now, every single one of them had been swallowed by these two little brats right in front of him! His time was already running out, and he could practically be said to have reached the edge of death, waiting solely for the peerless elixir he was refining to prolong his life.

And yet, he was now being told that everything he had worked for had turned into nothingness?

"Then you and that fairy seed..."

"Naturally, it was all an act. Otherwise, how could you have so brazenly abducted both of us?"

"So that's how it was... So that's how it was..."

When he had first easily captured Ye Fan and Lin An, doubts had indeed crossed his mind.

Yet very soon, Elder Han's expression twisted into something ferocious. "So what if it was? When all is said and done, the two of you are merely good-for-nothings who cannot cultivate. Whenever I please, I can easily take your lives."

"If I cannot live, neither of you will even think of surviving!"

"That probably won't go the way you wish. After all, both Ye Fan and I are rather fond of living, so we'd better send you on your way first!"

Hearing Lin An's words, Elder Han almost laughed out loud, thinking he must have misheard. Did these two really think they could kill him?

Just as his voice fell, Lin An's figure vanished from inside the cauldron in a flash, reappearing right in front of Elder Han the next instant.

The speed was so astonishing that even Elder Han himself had never anticipated it.

Before he could even react, a wave of terrifying energy came rushing straight toward his face.

Elder Han was too late to evade and could only instinctively raise his hands to block Lin An's onslaught.

Bang!

Accompanied by a deafening roar, Elder Han's arm was shattered to pieces in an instant. At the same time, Lin An's momentum remained unchecked as a fist punched straight through Elder Han's chest. Exotic flames surged out immediately, raging across Elder Han's mutilated remains.

At this stage, it was practically certain that Elder Han had no way of surviving.

However, Elder Han was, after all, a powerful cultivator. Although he looked withered and aged, on the verge of breathing his last at any moment, a vast reservoir of power remained hidden within his body. Even with his physical form pierced through, he did not die instantly. His body flickered with a faint fluorescent glow as he tried to forcibly heal his own wounds.

Simultaneously, his bitter sea flashed with green light, blooming with dazzling brilliance as a divine spring bubbled forth, supplying him with immense vitality. At the same time, several green wooden swords burst outward, flying directly toward Ye Fan and Lin An.

A chill ran through Ye Fan's heart. Indeed, the boundary between different realms was like a chasm of heaven, utterly impossible to bridge!

If not for Lin An's repeated assurances that he possessed the absolute power to kill Elder Han, he would never have taken such a risk.

Now it appeared that Lin An truly possessed such capability.

It was just that this Elder Han was somewhat like an undying cockroach; even in this state, he still hadn't died on the spot.

Agile as a leopard, Ye Fan sprang up, diving behind the bronze cauldron to shield himself from Elder Han's assault, leaving everything entirely in Lin An's hands. There was no need for him to risk his own skin at a time like this, especially since he lacked any offensive means of his own.

Elder Han had suffered catastrophic injuries, and his survival hung by a thread. When the green wooden swords first burst forth, they had been brilliant with piercing sword qi and radiating green light, but their radiance quickly dimmed. The green wooden swords began to wobble unsteadily, on the verge of plummeting.

Clang, clang, clang!

From thin air, clusters of terrifying flames materialized all over Lin An's body. Their brilliant divine splendor was as dazzling as the blazing sun, seemingly set ablaze. In a flash, they intercepted the green wooden swords, slicing past them with a series of metallic clangs and melting them all down completely.

Following that, he transformed into a streak of divine rainbow, like a bright moon cutting across the dark firmament, bursting forth with a terrifying energy wave as he charged straight toward Elder Han's abdomen.

Amidst the dazzling radiance, blood splattered. With a soft *puff*, Elder Han's bitter sea instantly shattered, and his physical body was blasted flying on the spot, slamming heavily into the stone wall of the chamber. He left behind a bloody humanoid imprint before slowly sliding down to the base of the wall.

Afterward, the terrifying flames lingered upon Elder Han's body, continuing to incinerate his flesh. Within a mere few breaths, he was burned down to absolute nothingness by the dreadful fire.

Ye Fan secretly wiped away cold sweat. Without Lin An, had he chosen to leave the Lingxu Grotto-Heaven alone and been captured by Elder Han, he would have had zero chance of escape; the disparity in power between them was simply too vast.

Even on the brink of death, Elder Han could not accept this reality! He had not laid eyes on the supreme elixir; instead, what awaited him was the reaper's scythe. This was simply beyond his belief, plunging straight from heaven into hell. The agonizing sensation drove him mad.

"Ugh... Ah... Gurgle..." The slashed throat of Elder Han was dripping with blood, while crimson fluid overflowed from the corners of his mouth. Utterly unable to form words, his eyes bulged wide, fixed rigidly upon Ye Fan.

"Wh... Why..." In the end, Elder Han managed to laboriously spit out some indistinct words. It seemed he could not swallow that final breath, unwilling to die in such a cowardly manner.

"There's no particular why. If you want to blame someone, blame the fact that you insisted on targeting the two of us, thereby digging your own path to death."

Struggling, Elder Han rasped, "You... I... I hate this..."

*Puff!*

He coughed up a large mouthful of blood, his eyes filled with unwillingness and despair. A monstrous grievance churned within his heart; everything had originally been so perfect, yet the ultimate outcome was this cruel, making it impossible for him to accept even in death.

Without continuing to look at the spot where Elder Han had perished, Ye Fan swung open all the nearby medicine cabinets. Immediately, waves of fragrant aroma rushed into his nostrils, and he gathered up all dozen or so rare spiritual herbs that were by no means inferior to the Phoenix Divine Grass.

"Old fellow, I can tell you're extremely diligent. Toiling away like an old ox for your entire life just to collect so many rare spiritual herbs—something ordinary people wouldn't even dare to dream of—is truly admirable. Here, I can only say: thank you, I'll graciously accept them!"

"Rest assured, I won't let your painstaking efforts go to waste. I will make good use of these rare heavenly treasures, striving to break through into the Life Spring Realm within the next two years."

"Do find a good family to be reborn into in your next life..." Ye Fan uttered the exact same words Elder Han had spoken earlier. One could imagine that while the circumstances were entirely identical, the outcomes were vastly different.

Had Elder Han known this in the netherworld, he would surely have vomited another three liters of blood and scrambled back up in fury.

Ye Fan strode over to a corner of the stone chamber, picked up his Bodhi seed from the stone table, and tucked it into his bosom.

This mystical Bodhi seed could aid one in seeking enlightenment, and its value was immeasurable. If word of it ever got out, probably every single powerhouse in the Eastern Wasteland would come to seize it. Moreover, it could be foreseen that the more powerful a figure was, the more they would value this mysterious seed, because the further one progressed in cultivation, the harder it became. Every single flash of insight and realization was an unimaginably grand opportunity.

Though Ye Fan's realm was still low and he could not yet fully comprehend such feelings, he knew how difficult "enlightenment" was in the later stages of cultivation. By that time, no heavenly treasures or divine herbs would be of any use; peak powerhouses truly needed "enlightenment" to break through.