Above, the heavens stretched in a vast expanse of deep blue-green, profound and boundless. Ye Fan could discern nothing from it, unable to draw any conclusions.

Within the Bitter Sea, a single cyan lotus stood alone, brimming with vitality, as though it had given birth to a vivid world unto itself. Around it, wisps of primordial chaos swirled, mysterious and ethereal.

At this moment, Ye Fan grew calm, his mind emptied into a state of serene clarity as he observed carefully. The lotus had only just broken the surface of the water, bearing merely three jade-green leaves, carrying within it a natural quality of the Dao — as though interpreting the very beginning of heaven and earth: the Dao begets one, one begets two, two begets three, three begets the ten thousand things.

“There is a thing formed from chaos, born before heaven and earth — the progenitor of all things, the ancestor of the Celestial Emperor.” These lines from an ancient text surfaced in Ye Fan’s mind.

This cyan lotus had merged as one with the Wheel Sea, possessing a singular and wondrous quality — like a fathomless abyss of the Dao, tranquil and clear, as though it could endure without end.

Ye Fan had crossed the Bitter Sea, reached the far shore, and the Wheel Sea had undergone its initial evolution — profound and inscrutable, difficult to put into words.

The cauldron, barely an inch tall, floated and drifted beneath the vast heavens, above the cyan lotus, growing ever more imposing.

Ye Fan’s heart stirred. Now that he had become a cultivator of the Far Shore realm, his strength had risen considerably. He decided to attempt refining the cauldron outward.

Whoosh!

The cauldron appeared outside his body — still and silent, hovering before him. He could still feel the crushing pressure of a great mountain, yet this time he was able to channel it.

Boom!

The cauldron released no blaze of light. It simply flew toward a nearby boulder, a stone more than ten meters tall — and where it touched, dust and ash filled the air as the massive rock was extinguished without a sound.

With a single light tremor, the entire stone forest responded. Every surrounding boulder shattered into dust. The cauldron’s might was plain to see.

Yet Ye Fan’s body trembled as well. This cauldron had yet to develop any inscribed Dao patterns, and it was already like a bottomless pit — even his extraordinary physique had a full third of its strength drained away.

In other words, he could only wield the cauldron three times at present. It was overwhelmingly powerful, yet impossible to command as freely as his own arm. He felt both elated and troubled.

Ye Fan channeled the cauldron again, enlarging it to one meter in height — the very limit of his control. Any larger and he would be unable to bear it.

The cauldron hung in the sky, like a bottomless void capable of swallowing the heavens. Before him, a stone forest of boulders shaped like crouching oxen and towering bamboo shoots were drawn in and disappeared into its depths.

Ye Fan recalled the cauldron and peered inward. He found it packed full of stones. A single light tremor, and everything inside was instantly ground to dust. Slowly he inverted it — the ash drifted away, leaving the interior spotless and clean as new.

Though his divine power had been nearly drained, he was deeply satisfied. He was greatly fond of this cauldron — its power was formidable indeed. Without any ripple or emanation of light, the cauldron silently disappeared, returning to his Wheel Sea.

Now that the cauldron was refined and he had reached the Far Shore realm, his confidence had grown. After cultivating here for several months, he was eager to learn what was happening in the outside world.

“I wonder if the Ji Family’s people have already departed…” After restoring his divine power, Ye Fan turned and walked toward the outer reaches of the fire domain.

Outside the fire domain, the ground was cracked and dry, scorched earth stretching without end as far as the eye could see — a barren and desolate wasteland. More than half a year had already passed, and the Ji Family’s disciples had long since departed.

“All the better. They believe I was reduced to ash and dust. When the time comes, I’ll give them a pleasant surprise!”

Ye Fan returned to the fire domain, preparing to draw on the five-colored cloud-flames of the seventh layer to temper his cauldron and make it more refined.

The five-colored cloud-flames burned far hotter than purple qi. Even before he drew near — before he had even entered — waves of searing heat struck him. Ye Fan felt a chill in his heart. And this was still with the Bodhi Seed in his grasp. Without that seed, he likely could not have approached at all.

“Flames this powerful — can I even control them?” He had no certainty.

He carefully drew in a single thread of the five-colored mist — and instantly a sizzling sound rang out, burning away an entire mass of his divine power, leaving it utterly consumed.

Ye Fan drew in a sharp breath. These flames were too powerful. They could burn a great figure to death where they stood — the human-shaped ash on the ground was proof enough. How to safely draw them into his Wheel Sea to temper the cauldron, he had no good answer.

In the days that followed, he continued trying, seeking a steady approach rather than acting rashly.

Then, suddenly, he heard strange sounds — coming from the outer domain. Had his divine sense not been so keen, he would never have detected them.

“Has someone arrived?” Ye Fan concealed his presence and moved outward.

In the fourth layer of the fire domain, black underworld-fire flickered and danced. A middle-aged man sat cross-legged atop a boulder, motionless. Above his head floated an ancient pagoda, half the height of a person, drifting up and down.

The black-gleaming flames continuously gathered toward the pagoda’s body, drawing from it layer after layer of metallic resonance. The ancient pagoda was slowly changing shape.

“Why is he refining a weapon outside his body? He doesn’t seem particularly attached to this weapon — so why come to the fire domain for it?” Ye Fan was puzzled.

Then his expression shifted. That pagoda — he was not unfamiliar with it. He had seen it before.

A five-tiered ancient pagoda, silver-white from top to bottom, with a certain brightness, yet marked by the signs of great age — giving it an air of deep antiquity.

“The linen-robed middle-aged man!”

Ye Fan immediately recalled the group that had pursued him and Ji Ziyue — among them a middle-aged cultivator in linen robes, holding a five-tiered ancient pagoda, who had nearly killed him.

Now, this man wore black robes, sitting quietly cross-legged. But the silver pagoda above his head was continuously changing shape — he intended to melt it down and re-refine it.

“A five-tiered ancient pagoda is a formidable weapon. He actually wants to dissolve it…”

When a strand of dark-yellow qi burst from within the pagoda, Ye Fan became even more certain — this was absolutely the linen-robed man. Though he hadn’t seen the man’s face that day, the pagoda was unmistakable.

“He fears the Ji Family will trace it back to him and wants to erase the last piece of evidence!” Ye Fan desperately wanted to uncover this person’s origins. An enemy lurking in the shadows left him deeply uneasy.

“It seems he doesn’t particularly value this weapon. Perhaps it truly is as Ji Ziyue said — this person is a puppet being controlled by someone.”

Ye Fan observed carefully and indeed found this man somewhat wooden, sitting there like a block of timber.

“I must capture him and get to the bottom of all this!”

He considered briefly and sensed that this person was formidable — far above him in cultivation, at the very least a cultivator of the Dao Palace realm.

“It must be foolproof. If I can’t kill him and he exposes my presence, that would be a catastrophe of the highest order.”

Ye Fan silently returned to the sixth layer of the fire domain, brought forth his cauldron, had it drink deeply like a whale swallowing the sea, absorbing a vast quantity of purple fire — then quickly sat in meditation to rapidly restore his divine power.

A quarter of an hour later, he returned to the fourth layer’s underworld-fire region and waited in silence.

Two hours later, the man in black had fully dissolved the silver pagoda and was reshaping it, slowly transforming it into a silver bell. At the critical final moment, when the silver bell was nearly complete, Ye Fan finally made his move.

At this instant, the man in black was in a state of total concentration, his entire consciousness immersed in the silver bell, performing the final tempering.

The cauldron moved without a sound, pressing closer — then violently overturned. A vast torrent of purple flames poured down like a sky-covering deluge, blazing and surging.

At that temperature, even great figures could be burned to death — to say nothing of cultivators at other realms.

Yet the man was extraordinarily cautious. He had carved Dao patterns in the surrounding area. Radiant light surged up to block the purple fire. Even a renowned cultivator’s treasure could not endure purple fire — it would crack apart inch by inch. The Dao patterns here could not stop it either, but they bought this man a moment of time. Quick as a ghost, he slid sideways.

Hiss!

Ye Fan had anticipated this. The golden scripture had been waiting — once it was brought forth, it met him head-on.

Splat!

A flash of blood-red light — the man in black suffered a severe wound. His figure instantly stiffened. At the same moment, the purple flames descended. Fast as he was, he was still grazed. Half his body ignited at once, and his left half was reduced to ash where he stood.

Hum!

The sky trembled faintly. The cauldron expanded to one meter, like a force capable of swallowing the heavens, and drew the half-destroyed middle-aged man inside in an instant, sealing him within.

Only then did Ye Fan breathe a long sigh of relief. He withdrew the jade purification vial, quickly drank a mouthful of divine spring, and his divine power was instantly restored. He then peered into the cauldron.

The man in black, his body half-destroyed, trembled violently, struggling to sit up. He tilted his head back to look — and the moment he saw Ye Fan, shock flooded his face.

“It’s you… still alive!”

Ye Fan’s heart stirred. The man had cried out involuntarily — as though he were quite familiar with him, beyond merely having hunted him once. A smile spread across Ye Fan’s face.

“Who exactly are you? What are your origins?”

“I truly didn’t expect it — that you would have such a resilient life…” the man in black sighed. Then he suddenly raised his head. A stream of light shot from between his brows, attempting to break free of the cauldron — but it failed. He could not escape.

“As I suspected — a walking corpse, nothing more than a puppet under someone’s control.” Ye Fan extended his divine sense, preparing to bind him.

But the man in black was utterly decisive. That stream of light burst like a firework, shattering of its own accord, leaving only scattered sparks that ultimately dissipated within the cauldron.

Ye Fan’s expression changed, but there was no time to stop it. He searched the body carefully — nothing. The man in black’s remains were completely empty. Save for the silver bell utterly incinerated by the purple fire, nothing was left behind.

He cast the half-destroyed body into the underworld-fire, where it became ash in an instant. He muttered to himself: “Just who was it — seemingly someone familiar.”

Ye Fan tidied the traces at the scene and retreated into the fifth layer of golden flames to hide, waiting in silence, watching to see if anyone would appear.

Not until three days later did a tall, slender old man arrive — pausing before that heap of ash, muttering to himself: “To think he died here…”

“Who is this old fellow? I don’t recognize him.” Ye Fan kept his suspicions to himself.

Whoosh!

A flash of light — the old man burst out of the fire domain and quickly vanished into the distance.

Two days later, Ye Fan entered the seventh layer of the fire domain. Even with the Bodhi Seed to protect him, he felt wave after wave of searing pain. The temperature of the five-colored cloud-flames was beyond imagining.

The divine power cultivators refine through hardship could be ignited directly — utterly unable to withstand it. These five-colored flames seemed possessed of some demonic nature that could devour anything.

Though Ye Fan had successfully entered, he had no idea how to draw the flames into his body. The five-colored cloud-flames were too terrifying.

A few days later — the shouts of men and the howling of beasts, like a thousand troops and horses surging forward, the earth rumbling and trembling — countless great beasts bore down on the fire domain.

Among them, some of the powerful savage beasts could make their roars carry dozens of li. Ye Fan’s divine sense was exceptionally keen, and he was jolted into alertness at once.

He hurried to investigate — and his expression shifted.

“The Ji Family’s people have come!”

Just outside the fire domain, there were no fewer than a hundred savage beasts, each one magnificent and extraordinary, treading the air as they came — thunderous and imposing, shaking both earth and sky. Every rider was clad in black iron armor, radiating a chilling killing intent.

A great banner snapped in the wind, bearing the character for Ji upon it.

Ye Fan spotted Ji Hui. He spotted Ji Biyue. And several renowned cultivators. Besides these, there was a palanquin carriage, drawn by nine divine creatures resembling the mythical Suanni — suspended in the air before the fire domain.

The divine beasts roared and shook the heavens, each one enormous as an elephant, covered in gleaming scales and armor, exuding a powerful oppressive presence. The palanquin shimmered and glittered, radiating auspicious light — clearly someone of great importance had arrived.

“Surely they haven’t come for me — it shouldn’t be so. Half a year has already passed… what matter has brought them here?” Ye Fan was filled with doubt and unease.

From the carriage stepped an elderly man. Ji Hui hurried forward, exceedingly deferential, supporting him as he descended.

“Your grandfather’s—!”

Ye Fan dared not spy further. He turned and retreated directly into the depths of the fire domain.