Chen Fan gritted his teeth as he recalled the past.

“I, Chen Fan, have always been vengeful. When I was very young, the Wang family of the Eight Ancient Martial Clans bullied my parents in every way. Although the Wang family was not responsible for my parents' deaths in the end, I remember clearly all the shame and hatred my parents felt back then.”

"Several other families among the eight ancient clans were also very disrespectful to my parents, looked down on them, and thought that my father was the most useless person in the entire Chen family throughout the generations."

"They all deserve to die! Those who offended and humiliated my parents back then, I will make sure you all die! The head of the Wang family must die, the head of the Qin family must die, and the head of the Chu family must die..."

"But I, Chen Fan, am not a reckless person. Although I am only twenty years old, my cunning and composure have been honed during these ten years of guarding the tomb, through the pain of every day and night. I will follow my own path, step by step, to make the entire ancient martial arts clans submit to my command."

"By then, when the entire martial arts world is in turmoil, how could I, Chen Fan, not have a place there?"

On the other side, Wang Ye, who was meditating and cultivating on Xishe Mountain, opened his eyes again after a night of recovery.

At this moment, Wang Ye's aura became even more powerful than before. Feeling the strong power within his body, a smile appeared on his lips.

As expected, the punishment from Heaven, though incredibly painful, makes me stronger. I am now at the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage, and it won't be long before I can undergo another tribulation and advance towards the Golden Core stage.

The thought that he would soon become a Golden Core Realm expert, a being akin to a true immortal, filled Wang Ye with excitement.

There shouldn't be any peerless experts at the Golden Core stage in this world right now. Once I reach the Golden Core stage, wouldn't I be able to defeat everyone on Earth?

Haha, now that I've wiped out all the chosen ones, I've become the strongest in the world again. My days ahead will be nothing but bliss!

Interesting, really interesting!

Wang Ye stretched and walked out of the room. Just as he was in a very good mood, the image of the Heavenly Fire Divine Hammer appeared in his mind.

The hammer was floating in his mind, which surprised Wang Ye.

After I killed Ye Chen, the hammer seemed to have indeed disappeared.

Later, Ye Chen's soul tried to escape, but he imprisoned it with a magic circle and burned it to ashes with flames. Then, there was no trace of the hammer.

Then there was the battle against the Heavenly Tribulation, to the point that Wang Ye hadn't even thought about the hammer yet, but unexpectedly, the hammer had now silently appeared in his mind.

This is truly something to celebrate.

With this thought in mind, Wang Ye immediately focused his attention on the hammer. Almost instantly, the hammer released a powerful energy that burned Wang Ye's mental world with extreme pain, causing him to faint on the spot.

The next moment, Wang Ye stepped into the mental world in his mind, and in front of him was a sea of ​​fire.

And floating in the very center of the sea of ​​fire was a Heavenly Fire Hammer.

Wang Ye strode towards the hammer, and just as his hand was about to grasp it, an aged voice echoed from within the sea of ​​fire:

"Wang Ye, you're really bold! You actually dared to forcibly imprison me in your soul. Weren't you afraid that I would burn your soul to ashes?"

"You young man, you're really courting death! You actually forcibly integrated the enemy's natal magic weapon into your own soul! You're practically asking for it!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Ye was slightly surprised. The truth was that I had forcibly integrated the Heavenly Fire Hammer into my soul.

Well, no wonder this guy was in my mental world. It turns out I brought him here on my own initiative.

At the time, I was just using my mental power and a magic array to imprison it. I never expected that I would forcibly take it away. It was really a bit of a twist of fate.

If I had known that forcibly bringing this guy into my mental world would harm me, I definitely wouldn't have done it. But now that it's already happened, there's no point in regretting it.

So Wang Ye looked at the Heavenly Fire Divine Hammer and smiled faintly, saying:

"So you really do know how to talk, and you actually have your own ideas. That's great, I like it. Although I wasn't sure if you would hurt me at the time, since I was able to kill Ye Chen, and you didn't go all out to protect him, it means that your fate with him has ended, while your fate with me has just begun."

The spirit within the Heavenly Fire Hammer was utterly speechless upon hearing this.

Wang Ye, isn't this guy a bit too narcissistic?

It's not that I didn't protect my master properly; it's that my master was truly hopeless. Even though I used all my strength, you still managed to find an opening where I wasn't defending, which led to my master's death. How can you blame me, a mere weapon, for this? How ridiculous!

And you're really narcissistic.

Luckily, I'm a relatively kind spirit. Otherwise, I could really tamper with your soul, and even if I couldn't kill you, I would make you suffer a hundred times more.

Thinking of this, the spirit of the Heavenly Fire Hammer deliberately feigned anger, directly transforming into its own form and standing in front of Wang Ye, glaring at him and saying:

"Believe it or not, I'll burn you to ashes right now. Once I burn you to ashes, your soul will suffer a great trauma. Whether you can maintain a normal consciousness and live a normal life after that is unknown. So you'd better treat me with respect and regard me as a senior, or you'll be sorry."

Wang Ye couldn't help but burst into laughter when he saw the tall, muscular, bearded middle-aged man who appeared in front of him, as strong as an ox.

The spirit of the Heavenly Fire Hammer is actually a middle-aged man?!

That's interesting, really interesting!

"Oh? You want to kill me? That's no fun at all. If you kill me, you'll never find a master more suitable for you in this world."

"Because apart from me, there are no more cultivators with stronger talent in this world. Do you think you, as the spirit of the artifact, can survive inside the hammer? We have a symbiotic relationship, no, it's more like you're parasitizing me."

"Without me, this hammer of yours will rust in a few decades, and will most likely be picked up by an old man in the countryside to smash charcoal or hammer nails... and you will wither away!"

The spirit of the Heavenly Fire Hammer was instantly enraged, its entire body blazing with fire. This despicable prince had actually exploited my weakness! What a cunning master indeed…