<h4>Chapter 428: One Year Later</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Henyee Trantions <strong>Editor: </strong>Henyee Trantions


    Meanwhile, inside the snow-covered Warg Valley.


    Winter hade to Siberia. The entire valley was caked by a meter thick mixture of snow and ice. However, the azure light surged through theyer of ice and reached the sky.


    A man was standing motionless inside the wash of light.


    The man had ck hair and was wearing a long flowy shirt. His eyes were devoid of any emotion and his body was translucent and incandescent at the same time, emanating a soft flow from within.


    As soon as the man appeared, even the ravaging wind stopped howling. Instead, a gust of powerful energy spiraled out away from him, forming a roaring cyclone that circled about him.


    “I wonder how long I have been cultivating in seclusion? How’s Sister An and my parents?”


    Chen Fan murmured to himself, as he looked down at his palm. His hand had turned into a piece of perfect azure jade. Through the translucent skin, he could see his bones, blood vessels and muscles silhouetted against a soft glow.


    Not only his palm had the otherworldly look, but also his shoulder, chest, head, belly and his four limbs.


    His entire body had turned into a sculpture made out of a piece of jade that didn’t have a single imperfection. The man stood still and gradually dimmed the light his body emitted. So powerful was his body that the world would sumb to the might of his physical strength without him using any otherworldly powers.


    Chen Fan clenched his fist and felt the flow of energy coursing through his veins. The sensation was exhrating, so much so that he felt he could punch a hole through the earth.


    Although reason told him that even if he perfected Azure Thearch Longevity Body, he couldn’t have punched a hole through the earth, he was much more confident than before in dealing with modern weapons such as the deadly bombs.


    “Thanks to the Fruit of Embryonic Essence, I have finally reached the Initial sess of Azure Thearch Longevity Body.”


    Chen Fan heaved a sigh.


    That day, as soon as he registered that he couldn’t stop the bombardment, he rushed under the Heavenly Array of Five Elements and withstood the two waves of rockets.


    Amidst the chaos, he transferred all the Heavenly Spring of Life into the yellow-skinned gourd, a Dimension Altering Dharma Treasure. When the “Father of All Bombs” finallynded, he cast another protection spell over the Fruit of Embryonic Essence while he burrowed deep into the ground using the Art of Concealment.


    Chen Fan was deep under the earth when the bomb struck. Even though ayer of thick earth, he could still feel the terrifying force of the bomb.


    “This is only a regr warhead, if the missile carried a nuclear warhead, I might as well be dead.”


    The perilous situation even made Chen Fan concerned for a while.


    Although the “Father of All Bombs” was the most powerful regr warhead missiles can carry, it’s TNT-equivalent tonnage was only one percent of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.


    That being said, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was only equivalent to thirteen thousand tons of TNT, Russia had experimented fifty million tonnage nuclear bombs over the frozen wasteke of Siberia. So powerful were these bombs that only a Connate Spirit cultivator could have survived its deadly fire.


    The danger outside made Chen Fan take his time and didn’te out of his cover as soon as he consumed the Fruit of Embryonic Essence and was fully recovered. Instead, he remained underground and kept cultivating.


    The event at the Warg Valley was a wake-up call for him. It reminded him that there were still weapons on earth that could threaten his life.


    Therefore, Chen Fan made the decision to focus on his cultivation for a while in seclusion.


    Surviving underground shouldn’t be much of an issue since he had already achieved Connate Body which allowed him to live without breathing or normal sustenance. The Spirit Pills and the Heavenly Spring of Life in the gourd were enough to keep him alive.


    Taking advantage of the Fruit of Embryonic Essence, he cultivated round the clock and finally reached the Initial sess of the Azure Thearch Longevity Body. Meanwhile, he also sessfully be one step closer to the Divine Sea Level by leveling up his Ethereal Enlightenment from mid-stage tote-stage. While cultivating, he had lost the tack of time and he eventually was driven out of seclusion by his concern for his family’s safety.


    “I am infinitely close to reaching the Divine Sea Level. All I need is just a small push to level up.”


    Chen Fan narrowed his eyes and fell into deep thoughts.


    Chen Fan could sense the powerful True Essence pulsing in his body with ever-increasing eagerness and willingness to bring Chen Fan into a higher state of existence. However, Chen Fan kept a restraining hold on his energy, building up more and more pressure within his system so that when the right moment finallyes for him to let go of the constraints, the long-suppressed energy would burst out and give him even more benefits during the leveling up process.


    Since he had already reached Initial sess in his Azure Thearch Longevity Body, nuclear weapons were the only weapon on earth that could still harm him. Even a nuclear weapon wouldn’t kill him without hitting him directly.


    “If any fool such as Galdan dares to challenge me again, I could shatter his soul with one single punch.”


    Chen Fan let out a smirk and punched at the air.


    “Kaboom!”


    His punch caused an explosion as Fist Qi wheezed through the air and smashed into a cliff face a few hundred meters away. The impact made the mountain shake and the Fist Qi had drilled a one-meter deep hole into the cliff. The shock wave from the impact also stirred up the snow packed at the peak of the mountain and caused a sizable avnche.


    So powerful was his punch that it could even shake a mountain.


    However, Chen Fan didn’t even use his True Essence and relied only on his physical strength while he released the punch.


    Once a cultivator had achieved Initial sess in the Azure Thearch Longevity Body, his power could be on par with his peers with phenomenal sess in normal Dao Bodies. Without using divine powers and dharma treasure, Chen Fan at his current state could even defeat a Connate Cultivator. By now, most regr weapons, including missiles, were ineffective while used against Chen Fan. He had be powerful enough to kill a Divine Sea level Immortal Cultivator much less the Immortal State cultivators on earth.


    “I think it’s time to make my enemies pay.”


    Chen Fan pulled his fist back and about-turned. He looked up in the sky, toward the direction where the Russian rockets hade from.


    There, at the end of the horizon, was the headquarters of the Russian’s North Division.


    “Kaboom!”


    When the small avnche erupted, a team of explorers were wading through knee-deep snow not far from the Warg Valley.


    One of them was a blonde girl wrapped inyers. The explosion caught her attention as she looked to the Warg Valley curiously.


    “Old Raul, what is going on there?”


    The blonde girl asked in Russian.


    Although she was wrapped inyers, her well-defined features could still be seen through the thin wind mask. Unlike most Caucasian woman, her face was soft and round, both were desirable features for women in east Asia.


    “Natasha, nothing to worry about. That’s just a normal avnche. Let’s hurry to find shelter, the storm ising.” A grizzled old man answered in a hoarse voice.


    He was the leader of the expedition team, and his name is Raul.


    “Ok. But I swear I saw a person flying in the sky... I swear I see it.” Natasha murmured to herself. Seeing no one was interested in the topic, she lowered her head and pressed forward.


    However, try as she might, she couldn’t erase the doubt and questions inside of her.


    The team soon found a natural cave suitable as a shelter for theing storm.


    The animal bones strewn on the ground suggested that the cave used to be a den of a grizzly bear, but fortunately, the bear was nowhere to be seen. The explorers started a fire and pitched their tents. Then they removed theiryers and huddled near the camp to cook their food.


    “Old Raul, you said there was an old vige full of werewolves somewhere around here. But we had passed the only hamlet and it’s a ghost town. Our snowmobile has broken down, what are we going to do now?”


    Someoneined.


    The rest of the explorers also shot Old Raul a questioning re.


    They came this far to visit the Snow Wolf Vige that was shrouded in mystery. However, they found nothing but an empty vige without a soul to be seen. The vige must have been abandoned for a long time since Snowdrift had already worked its way from the edge of the vige to the center.


    “I am not entirely sure either. I traded with them two years ago when I passed by their vige. I wager they have moved to avoid attention since then.” Old Raul furrowed his brows, deepening the lines on his face. “But don’t fret, there should be a supply depot a hundred kilometer west of here. We should be able to hitch a ride back.”


    The other teammates snorted and let the conversation at that.


    They were strangers to the frozen wastnd and had to rely on Old Raul’s knowledge to survive.


    “Natasha, the sausage is cooked, let me help you cut it up.”


    A handsome young man inched closer to Natasha and said obsequiously.


    Members of the expedition were wealthy thrill-seekers, and none of them were strangers to romantic and wild flings.


    Natasha not only had the look, but she also had brains. Graduated from the University of Moscow, she had already established herself as a renowned field archaeologist. Rumor had it that she was from a blue-blooded family that could trace its lineage to the dark ages of Europe.


    Naturally, she became the center of everyone’s attention, including Old Raul.


    Natasha furrowed her brows as her mind was still ying the scene when she heard the explosion.


    She swore that she saw a man in a wash of azure glow above the valley. She even remembered seeing his long ck hair flow against the wind.


    However, she was frustrated that none of her teammates believed her.


    Suddenly, a voice drifted into the cave.


    “Does anyone know what year is it?”