The Primordial Ancient Mines had endured through the ages for an unknown number of years.

Throughout history, heroes and geniuses had shone like lanterns one after another, illuminating the sky of time — yet none had ever sealed away or destroyed the Primordial Mines, which said everything that needed to be said.

It endured here, outlasting generation after generation of geniuses who grew old and turned to dust, becoming part of the past. The only constant was the ancient mine itself.

Among the mines, living entities were something almost no one had witnessed since time immemorial.

Across the crimson earth where fluid, pure moonlight flowed, a child carved of pink jade came skipping and bounding along — extraordinarily beautiful and lovely. Soft black hair drifted in the breeze, pristine white wings beating steadily, like a little sprite dancing beneath the night moon.

The seven were stunned, and slowly began to step back.

Elsewhere, such a sight would surely have drawn cries of delight. A child so rosy-cheeked and adorable would melt the heart of anyone who laid eyes on it. But here, no one could feel that way — all faced it as though confronting a great enemy, readying themselves for battle.

The small boy walked forward, gazing at the group with curiosity, tilting his head and watching them with not a single sign of danger.

“Perhaps we can kill it in one strike — reduce it to ash before it can act.” Yao Guang Sage Son, whose smile was ordinarily warm and radiant, now let slip a current of killing intent.

“Can you guarantee you can eliminate it in one strike? If not, you may end up rousing something much larger.” Old Blade Handle said in a low voice.

Yao Guang Sage Son did not reply. He was silently sensing something, when suddenly his whole body erupted in sacred light. “Wait — something is wrong!”

“It’s false — this is false!” Li Desheng cried out in terrified whisper. His Yin-Nether Eye flickered with dim light, his face sheet-white as he kept backing away.

“What do you see?” Yao Xi asked.

“This is not its true form — this is shaped from nether-energy. I see an enormous creature; it is nothing like a young child.” Li Desheng’s voice trembled.

“Attack!” Old Blade Handle roared, and the tobacco pipe in his hand swept forward in an overturned arc.

The seemingly ordinary tobacco pipe swelled enormously — like a great funnel pressing downward. Fire blazed within it, smoke and ash billowing out.

“Rooaarrgh…”

A piercing shriek rang out, grating and unpleasant to hear. The rosy-cheeked child suddenly bloated and exploded in size, its tiny clothes bursting off entirely. In an instant it stood five meters tall, its skin a mottled blue-green like a lizard’s, rough and bumpy. The pristine white wings on its back transformed into a pair of bone-white appendages bristling with sharp spines. On its head, grey hair flew in wild disorder — over two meters long — while its eyes, once soft, became fierce and blood-red.

Gone was any trace of the adorable child. This colossal creature radiated savage malevolence, its entire body covered in unsettling fur — clearly a creature of evil just by its appearance.

Clang!

Its right arm swept upward in a block. The enormous tobacco pipe, a full ten zhang in length, struck with tremendous power — yet the creature sent it flying with a single blow, sparks scattering in all directions.

Overwhelming, heaven-shaking strength!

It let out a low thunderous roar and lunged forward — with not a trace of clumsiness. On the contrary, it was blindingly fast, bringing with it a violent gale.

Everyone moved to engage. On the very verge of leaving the Primordial Forbidden Zone, they had run into this evil creature — they had no choice but to fight to the death. Retreat meant all their efforts would be washed away like water.

Yao Xi — her form like a bright moon, luminous and pure — let a gentle tremor pass through her delicate hand. A sheet of pale radiance bloomed outward, forming a curtain of light across their path, blocking the demon-like colossal creature and cutting off its advance.

Boom!

The creature of unknown origin was too overwhelmingly powerful. A massive blue-green hand the size of a winnowing basket smashed straight through the curtain of light, breaking through with no difficulty at all.

Everyone’s expression changed. How formidable was Yao Xi? As the Yao Guang Saintess, she had cultivated extraordinary secret techniques; though not yet twenty years of age, she was already a cultivator of the Third Secret Realm, with few peers among her generation.

Yet she could not block even a single blow from this unknown creature. The curtain of light in the sky shattered like crystal, scattering in all directions — fragment after glittering fragment, enough to dazzle the eyes.

The claws atop the blue-green hand were several feet long, curved like great hooks, razor-sharp and menacing, flashing with cold light as they raked forward.

Chen Huaiyuan summoned his Green Lotus Lamp. A pale blue halo swirled around it as the sacred lamp ignited, its flame-wick shooting out streak after streak of sword energy — silvery rays slashing forward.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The razor-sharp sword energy struck the blue-green hand and sent sparks flying in all directions, as though striking Grand Radiance silver essence itself — it simply could not cut through.

Crack!

The sharp blue-green claws swept in. The Green Lotus Lamp had barely flashed a few times before it was seized and crushed to fragments in that massive hand, reduced to powder — and simultaneously the unknown creature shot forward like a ghost.

Splat!

Blood rained outward. It had all happened so fast — no one had been able to stop it. In a single motion the creature had torn Chen Huaiyuan’s chest cavity open. Red and green, his five organs and six viscera spilled out.

Crunch!

Savage as a wild beast, it seized the corpse and shoved it into its maw, biting off the upper half of the body in one go. Blood flowed freely from the corners of its mouth; the sound of bones being crunched carried through the air — snap, snap, snap.

All of this had transpired in the blink of an eye, so swift that people could only change color in shock — there had been no power to stop the tragedy.

This was unquestionably a demon — terrifying in strength, devastating in method, and utterly ruthless in nature. Life meant nothing to it; it treated Chen Huaiyuan the way one might treat a chicken or duck ready for slaughter.

Now, no one held anything back. Whatever grievances existed between them, all had no choice but to act in concert — otherwise they might all die in this place.

Hmmm!

The inch-tall Lihuo Divine Furnace in Ye Fan’s palm swelled against the wind, looking less like cast bronze and more like a hammer of five-colored crystal, extraordinarily beautiful and translucent.

The divine furnace expanded in an instant to over thirty meters in height and slammed into the unknown creature — as heavy and immovable as a mountain.

The blue-green creature spread its snow-white bone wings and shot upward, evading the direct impact of the furnace. Then it swung its winnowing-basket-sized hand and brought it crashing down.

Claaang!

A flash of blue light — its blow landed on the bronze furnace with an ear-splitting sound like a tidal wave, nearly deafening everyone present.

The thirty-meter-tall bronze furnace was sent flying like a punctured ball. Its five-colored translucence rapidly dimmed, and a massive dent was hammered into its enormous body.

It was entirely misshapen now — like a chicken egg with a bite taken out of it, as though a chunk had been torn away.

Ye Fan’s expression shifted. When he had struck it with the Battle Saint technique, he had left only a palm print on the furnace’s body — yet now it had been beaten into a dent.

With force like that, almost anything would be shattered. The only reason this had survived was the special nature of the Lihuo Divine Furnace — near-imperishable. Had it been any other object, it would have been reduced to powder just now.

The unknown creature, over five meters tall, spread its bone wings and dove downward, stirring up a violent gale as it plunged to attack Ye Fan — like a green mountain crashing down.

Ye Fan felt his blood and vital energy roiling, the blood within his body as though set aflame, burning like a raging inferno.

The great creature looming in the sky was crushing in its pressure, radiating heat like an ocean.

Ye Fan moved through nine steps across empty space — uncanny and unpredictable, shifting through nine different postures, disrupting the transitions of space and time. He barely managed to escape what would have been a killing blow.

Had he not evaded, there would have been no blocking it. This unknown creature was too powerful — not just overpowering for a cultivator of the Dao Palace Secret Realm like himself, even someone of the Third Secret Realm — the Four Extremities — could not have withstood it.

BOOM!

Yao Guang Sage Son made his move. Ten thousand streams of sacred light blazed outward as though they could shatter mountains and rivers. He was indistinguishable from a blazing sun — impossible to look at directly.

“Rooaarrgh…”

The unknown creature let out a great roar and staggered back several steps. This astonished everyone.

“The All-Forbidden Sacred Light Technique — perhaps it can restrain him!” Old Blade Handle bellowed.

Indeed, the unknown creature showed signs of wariness and did not immediately charge forward again.

Yao Guang Sage Son blazed intensely, like a god of radiance. Sacred light burned in raging waves, illuminating the heavens in all directions. He strode through the void and drove forward with his attack.

BOOM!

His bearing was gentle in ordinary times, but when he fought, he was terrifyingly devastating — like a divine furnace in combustion. His fists erupted in ten thousand feet of golden light, engulfing the strange creature beneath.

The demon-like terrifying creature roared low in its throat. Though it feared the sacred light, its fear was not absolute — its massive blue-green hand struck out, bone wings flashing, as it forcefully retaliated.

Light blazed blindingly. Yao Guang Sage Son, sacred light bathing his body, met that blue-green hand with his own golden hand — three thunderous exchanges in rapid succession.

Divine radiance blotted out the sky; stars and moon alike were dimmed. With Yao Guang Sage Son at the center, all heaven and earth became an eternal brilliance.

“So overwhelmingly powerful… It is always said that Yao Guang Sage Son possesses heaven-gifted talent and can contend with Divine Kings — seeing it today, the terror of it is real indeed.” Old Blade Handle looked on in awe.

Ye Fan too was greatly startled. Yao Guang Sage Son had clearly entered the Third Secret Realm — the Four Extremities — yet even so, was he truly this formidable? He was holding his own against that monster on even terms.

An Eastern Desolation Divine Physique, when its most powerful phenomenon was manifested, could contend with cultivators an entire great secret realm above it — this was the most fearsome thing about such a physique, earning its reputation as undefeatable at the same level. No matter how peerless a genius one might be, they would be left in the shadow. Hence the name: Divine King.

And here, Yao Guang Sage Son had clearly manifested a divine power surpassing the Third Secret Realm — like a god of the sun, resplendent throughout, sacred light illuminating all ten directions. He truly merited comparison to a Divine King.

Boom! Boom!…

He and the creature clashed in fierce combat, holding his own evenly against it, forcing the demon to roar repeatedly. The creature’s enormous body shuddered again and again, on the verge of crashing down out of midair at any moment.

Yao Guang Sage Son grew ever more fierce as the battle continued. With every motion of his hands and feet, ten thousand streams of sacred light blazed. Behind his head, a dazzling disc of light appeared, gleaming with radiance — more vivid and distinct than the halo of any deity.

“He is truly a second coming of the Crazed Elder — in the future, he may well press a Divine King down with a mortal body alone. Heaven-gifted talent indeed!” Old Blade Handle murmured softly.

Yao Xi — her peerless face carrying a faint smile — said: “Everyone, let us join together and end this creature sooner.”

The Yaochi Saintess surveyed the battlefield, her eyes shimmering with extraordinary light. “Yes — let us end this battle swiftly and depart.”

The performance of Yao Guang Sage Son had been too awe-inspiring for anyone to remain calm, each of them stirred in their own way.

Several of them moved together. The unknown creature spread its bone wings to blot out the sky, its body swelling tremendously — multiplying in size several times over, shooting up to thirty meters in height, sweeping wild winds across the heavens.

At that same instant, the sky began to distort. Everyone felt as though they had been restrained, frozen in place in midair.

“Heaven above — this is the True Demon Domain!” Old Blade Handle cried out in shock, struggling to move, his motions slowed to a crawl.

“The Primordial True Demon Domain!” the Yaochi Saintess exclaimed in equal alarm, her own movements also impeded.

Even Yao Guang Sage Son — godlike as he was — was affected. Every step he took required a surge of sacred light into the sky, consuming enormous reserves of divine power, without which his movements too would have slowed.

As for Li Desheng — he was completely immobilized. Though he was a cultivator of the Dao Palace Secret Realm, he could not move so much as a fraction.

High in midair, this blue-green creature thirty meters tall was utterly ferocious in appearance. Slowly it reached out its great hand and grasped toward the group.

The Primordial True Demon Domain was extraordinarily terrifying — it even constrained the creature’s own movements, slowing it considerably, yet it was still far freer than any of them.

But if things continued like this, the group was surely in mortal peril — they would be torn apart one by one.

“This is ridiculous — why has it fixed on me?” Ye Fan bellowed in outrage as the unknown creature, closest to him, reached toward him first, intending to crush him to pieces.

Yet he was the calmest of anyone on the scene — because the True Demon Domain had not affected him. His Wheel Sea and Dao Palace had shuddered and released a mysterious, unusual force that dissolved the True Demon Domain’s hold on him.

Ye Fan understood in an instant. The True Demon Domain was the equivalent of the phenomenon-manifestation of human cultivators — and his Sacred Physique was uniquely special, innately capable of countering phenomena.

In the past, even when the Ji Family’s Divine Physique manifested its phenomenon, it had been unable to do anything to him. In a certain sense, that had been the strongest phenomenon a human cultivator of the same level could produce.

Though the True Demon Domain was fearsome, it still fell within the category of phenomena — and thus it did not immobilize him.

Ye Fan shot forward like a bolt of lightning, instantly astonishing everyone. It seemed utterly impossible — yet here he was, unaffected within the True Demon Domain.

He directly summoned the Lihuo Divine Furnace to his side and swiftly offered it up in sacrifice. The bronze furnace expanded with a roar to one hundred meters in height.

BANG!

The furnace lid was thrown open. The fire furnace swelled by more than double again, with raging Lihuo flames surging outward and blazing toward the unknown creature all at once.

Those nearby stood with their mouths agape in stunned disbelief.

The True Demon Domain was renowned throughout the ages — it was in a different class from ordinary phenomena. Otherwise none of them would have been bound and slowed in the way they had been.

Yet Ye Fan, whose cultivation was clearly shallower than theirs, could not only move freely but could channel his divine power and offer the strange furnace up in sacrifice.

Towering flames blotted out the sky, burning in raging surges, submerging the creature entirely.

At this moment, the True Demon Domain was acting upon the space around them — constraining even the creature’s own movement. Unable to evade in time, it was engulfed in the great blaze.

Fury!

Its roar shook the clouds. It swept its giant claws toward the furnace — but its speed was somewhat sluggish. Ye Fan’s divine sense shifted, and the enormous furnace repositioned itself with a single adjustment.

Firelight surged and swelled, encircling the unknown creature, burning and crackling all around it — yet unable to incinerate its body, only enough to make it feel pain.

“Daoren, if you have any technique at your disposal, use it now! The True Demon Domain is supremely difficult to predict and extraordinarily terrifying — yet once it is unleashed, even the one who cast it cannot freely withdraw it. There must be a period of recalibration.” Old Blade Handle offered the reminder.

Ye Fan focused his mind. He had to destroy this creature now — if he allowed it to recover, there would be no surviving this.

Hmm!

The Lihuo Divine Furnace shuddered violently. The mouth of the furnace gaped like a black abyss, giving rise to a force that seemed capable of swallowing the heavens.

He drove the divine furnace forward — yet he could not draw the powerful blue-green creature inside. In the end, he caused the divine furnace to flip over, inverting it like an upturned cup, pressing it down from above.

If it cannot be drawn in — force it in from the outside!

The ferociously powerful unknown creature roared again and again — but its movements were too slow. It could not evade in time, and in an instant it was covered by the furnace pressing down upon it.

Truly, the snare of its own making — the True Demon Domain had constrained the creature itself.

The furnace body rotated, its mouth now facing upward.

CLANG!

The furnace lid came flying in and sealed the opening — a perfect, airtight fit — imprisoning the demon within.

In that same instant, the True Demon Domain was sealed off. Everyone regained their freedom of movement.

The group was stunned. What kind of furnace was this? Beaten until it was dented and warped — yet it could still block off the True Demon Domain?

“Daoren, you truly leave us without words — even the True Demon Domain could not bind you. It is absolutely beyond comprehension!” Li Desheng exclaimed in admiration.

“To have achieved all of this without relying on any treasure — that would truly be astonishing.” Old Blade Handle also marveled.

Clang! Clang!…

Inside the furnace, the unknown creature unleashed heaven-shaking force, striking the furnace walls until they deformed — bulging out here, jutting out there, covered all over in palm prints, as though it might shatter at any moment.

Yao Guang Sage Son descended from the sky, divine light blazing into the heavens. Like an immortal sovereign he stood atop the furnace lid, holding it in place. The Sacred Light Technique was deployed, and he began refining the creature within.

Desperate howls. Terrifying shrieks. All of it filtered through the furnace walls.

The Lihuo Divine Furnace twisted and warped in every direction, completely deformed. Everyone watched with their hearts in their mouths, expecting it to burst apart at any moment.

Yet as time slowly passed, the furnace continued to deform — but never broke.

The group stared in a slight daze. This battered furnace was truly incredibly tough.