Great black mountains stood side by side, drifting with an aura of primal antiquity — majestic and towering, pressing down with a force that seemed to crush the very sky, keeping every heart wound tight.
One black peak among them was fractured, conspicuously standing out — as though some enormous creature had burst through the mountain from within, forcing the rock face apart and creating this sight.
“Are you certain that Wushi the Great Emperor once sealed a creature within the belly of that mountain?” Li Heishui’s face showed skepticism. If true, how immense must that creature have been.
“Why would this Emperor deceive you?”
“Could an existence as strong as Wushi the Great Emperor, who looked down upon all of eternity, truly have had an enemy he could not destroy — one requiring him to seal it away here…?” Ye Fan’s heart drummed uneasily.
“Looking across past, present, and future, there has never been an enemy that Wushi the Great Emperor could not eliminate. Whether you are an ancient being from the remote past or a peerless sacred spirit — even if a god descended, it would make no difference. All such things could only be stepping stones on his path forward. How I miss those times!” The Great Black Dog spewed saliva in every direction as it spoke.
“Even if a god descended — why not say a celestial immortal descending from heaven next? What exactly do you miss about it?” Li Heishui squinted at it sideways.
The Great Black Dog gave a dry cough. “This Emperor means — if one were to travel beside Wushi the Great Emperor, how exhilarating that would be, free to roam all under heaven without anyone daring to stand in one’s way! If you were a dragon, you’d have to coil for me. If you were a phoenix, you’d have to lie down for me…”
“Doggie, don’t brag.” Xiao Nannan delivered one sentence that left the Great Black Dog utterly unable to continue.
“Do you know what creature was suppressed?” Ye Fan asked.
“I don’t know. But the battle at the time was extremely brutal — a great war fought outside the heavens, lasting a full hour.”
According to what the Great Black Dog described, in ordinary circumstances when Wushi the Great Emperor crossed hands with an opponent, a raise of the hand was enough to suppress them. No matter how powerful the enemy, they were almost always resolved within a few exchanges — battles lasting several hours had been extraordinarily rare throughout his entire life.
“But that was Wushi the Great Emperor — one of the most powerful beings in all of history. And yet he fought for a full hour in the void above the heavens…” Ye Fan’s heart was shaken.
Even the Mad Old Man beside them had light flowing within his hollow eyes — clearly moved to rapt attention.
“Wushi the Great Emperor had originally intended to kill it. Later he decided there might be a use for it in the future, so he sealed it here instead. As for precisely what kind of existence it is, no outsider could ever know.”
“Good lord — that has to be either an ancient king from the remote past, or a peerless sacred spirit. Definitely a great emperor-class existence — there’s no need to even wonder!” Li Heishui sighed with feeling. “There’s truly no comparing one person to another. A man born in this world should aspire to be like Wushi — with nothing under heaven and earth to bind you, and anyone daring to block your path needing only a sweep to be cleared away!”
The group pressed forward. This section of the path had no array markings and was relatively straightforward. They came before the fractured black mountain and felt a strange aura.
As though an enormous living being had just departed not long ago — its body heat and breath still seemed to linger, making them shudder involuntarily.
“Damn it all — could this mean… that it’s still alive after over a hundred thousand years?! Still somewhere within this black Sacred Cliff…” Even the Great Black Dog was unsettled.
“Something dwelling here long has left marks that cannot be erased.” The Mad Old Man opened his mouth to speak. He took a single step and was already atop the fractured mountain, looking down.
“He… is unaffected. He can still fly and traverse the earth freely. The terrifying restrictions of this forbidden land have no effect on him, while we cannot even leave the ground.” Li Heishui was filled with envy beyond measure.
Ye Fan and the others honestly climbed their way up, block by block of black rubble bearing the marks of uncountable ages, with an occasional spiritual herb growing in the cracks between stones — all of extraordinary age.
“I can sense the aura of that supreme existence — something is wrong.” The Great Black Dog grew increasingly uneasy.
Standing atop the fractured mountain, they peered into the hollow cavity of the mountain’s interior. It was like a bottomless abyss — pitch black, with no end visible to the eye.
“There’s a treasure down there…” Li Heishui said, pointing below. In the deepest, darkest depths, a point of divine light was flickering.
The Mad Old Man reached out a great hand, drawing up the gleam from the depths of the abyss across boundless void and tossing it to the ground, where it landed with a resounding clang.
“That’s the aura — that’s exactly it!” The Great Black Dog cried out, its entire body going soft as it retreated rapidly.
Ye Fan and the others also felt as though a peerless sword edge had been pressed against their throats — the razor keenness stabbing to the bone, making their entire bodies tremble as they involuntarily stepped back.
It was a silver scale, roughly the size of a palm, crystalline and gleaming, with silver sacred flames leaping and dancing across it, emanating ripples that set the heart pounding.
“A supreme existence, capable of contending with a great emperor — this is one of its scales!”
The Great Black Dog, though shaking all over, still managed to let its mouth water. It lurched forward and slammed a great paw down on it, shouting, “This Emperor claims this!”
Without question, this was a sacred material for refining weapons — rarely found in the world. A single scale was worth upward of a million jin of source stones. Like the golden divine horn sealed within the divine source Ye Fan had given to the Wind Clan’s holy lord, its value was simply beyond reckoning.
The Mad Old Man’s brow furrowed. He actually took the initiative to speak — murmuring to himself: “What an extraordinarily powerful creature!”
Ye Fan suddenly fixed his gaze on a particular stone, tapped it, and with a pop split it open — moonlight-like, gentle radiance spilled out.
It was a piece of source resembling a star, roughly the size of a fist, extraordinarily translucent, hovering in the air without sinking.
“A divine source!” Li Heishui exclaimed.
This piece of source was like the one cut from within the blood sacrifice altar that had been sealed with the ancient young woman — resembling concentrated starlight, entirely different from ordinary divine source.
“There is source within the black mountain body — does that not mean the Deathless Mountain holds no shortage of divine source?” Even Ye Fan himself was astonished.
“Of course — and the quantity isn’t small at all!” The Great Black Dog said excitedly, tucking away the scale as it spoke.
“Once we grow powerful enough, we can go to the Deathless Mountain to mine divine source and harvest deathless divine medicines — that place is full of treasure everywhere.”
Heh heh…
The eerie, malicious cold laughter rang out again. The humanoid creature in the mountain ridges ahead flashed into view once more, then vanished.
The Mad Old Man launched a beam of divine light, yet it had not struck the target — passing into nothingness, becoming part of the eternal laws.
“What on earth is that thing?”
“It’s a creature of flesh and blood, covered all over in long black fur. Judging by the sound of its cold laughter, it seems to come from something like a demon out of hell — making one’s entire body go cold.”
They left the fractured mountain. The Great Black Dog started suffering again — bolts of lightning ten thousand zhang long continued to descend without cease. Every hundred or so zhang, the Great Black Dog would let out a howl like an evil wolf.
Going on like this was simply not sustainable. Even with the divine spring water Ye Fan had brought back from the primordial forbidden land, there was no way to keep a great dog that was constantly being struck by lightning in any condition to continue.
“If this keeps up, this Emperor is going to die!” The Great Black Dog refused to go any further, no matter what. Its bones had been broken goodness knows how many times — only thanks to the Mad Old Man reconnecting them each time had it survived.
“No wonder the Red Dragon Daoren was trapped in the depths of the Sacred Cliff for fifteen hundred years, nearly having his form and spirit both destroyed…” Ye Fan murmured. And this was still the outer perimeter — they hadn’t even gone truly deep yet.
The Red Dragon Daoren — who was this figure? Half a generation above all the various holy lords in cultivation, already over three thousand years of age. The mere fact of him standing forward was enough to make even the greatest holy lords step aside.
“You claim to understand the array markings of this place — why are you still being struck so catastrophically?” Li Heishui said with the ease of someone with nothing at stake.
“Damn it all — you try. These are array markings laid down by an ancient great emperor. Even if one knows how they evolve, comprehending them is another matter entirely. Whoever walks in front is going to get struck by lightning.”
With each great black mountain they crested, the power of the array markings increased tenfold. By the Great Black Dog’s current capacity, it could just barely hold out — but if they entered the next region, a single strike would reduce it to flying ash.
“Show your known array markings to the senior,” Ye Fan suggested.
The Great Black Dog had long harbored this thought and readily agreed, spreading out a damaged ancient scroll on the ground for the Mad Old Man to examine.
“Only a single corner — less than a tenth of the whole,” Li Heishui said, rolling his eyes.
“Do you think this is cabbage? This is a killing array of an ancient great emperor — it does not exist in the mortal world. Being able to imprint even a tenth of it would be remarkable. And once you comprehend it, you can roam freely across heaven and earth,” the Great Black Dog said proudly.
“The array markings are incomplete — just one corner. How are we supposed to get in? This is of limited reference value,” Ye Fan said.
“There you’re wrong. This one corner happens to correspond exactly to the direction we are entering from. Once it is comprehended, we can go in with absolutely no calamity befalling us,” the Great Black Dog said with absolute certainty.
The Mad Old Man’s hollow eyes filled with light — as though reawakening. He sat cross-legged on the ground, staring at the ancient scroll, motionless.
No one from Ye Fan’s group disturbed him. They waited quietly to one side, the Great Black Dog muttering: “Don’t let the small size of this piece fool you — if the various holy lords were to try, they would fail to understand it even across ten lifetimes of reincarnation. Only a saint can comprehend the mysteries within.”
One day… two days… The Mad Old Man sat for a full nine days without moving a muscle, his twin eyes flashing with divine radiance, nearly piercing through the void itself.
During this time, the black mountain range periodically rang with howls and roars, black strange winds whirling past, sweeping by the group’s vicinity several times.
“Just one corner of the array markings left behind by an ancient great emperor, and even a saint needs to contemplate for so long…” Li Heishui clicked his tongue.
“Comprehension is the key. Many people could spend a hundred lifetimes and gain nothing. But for one of great karmic fortune, a few months may be enough,” the Great Black Dog said.
“So you’re saying we may have to wait several months — even years?”
“Even for the saint of the present age, this is still a killing array left behind by a great emperor. At minimum we must wait some time.” The Great Black Dog nodded.
Wushi the Great Emperor’s work plumbed the very principle of creation — the array markings he left behind were profoundly mysterious and unfathomable, and there were few in the world capable of making sense of them. They required careful contemplation, bit by bit.
Then the Mad Old Man suddenly heaved a long sigh, rose to his full height, and stared into the sky in a daze.
“Uncle, have you comprehended it?” Xiao Nannan tilted her childlike face upward to ask.
“Though I cannot fully fathom it, I can come and go now.” The Mad Old Man continued to sink in thought as he stepped forward.
“Thank heaven we have a saint with us — otherwise we would be utterly unable to move an inch through this stretch…” Li Heishui said with relief.
Rumble rumble…
From ahead came a sound like a great ocean wave. The black wild wind uprooted many ancient trees a thousand years old, sweeping them skyward.
“This strange black wind again — why does it keep appearing not far from us?”
“It’s here again!”
The black strange wind sent chills down every spine, carrying boulders weighing countless tons and sending them spinning — like mountains collapsing and earth splitting — churning in a great vortex not far off.
Ye Fan opened his divine eyes and peered carefully — and immediately gave a full-body shudder. Within the black vortex of wind was a pair of ice-cold and malicious eyes, staring fixedly at them.
Rip!
The Mad Old Man had clearly detected it long since. His twin eyes shot two beams of divine radiance forward to slash outward, sending cracks spreading through the void, immediately shattering apart this expanse of nothingness.
The strange black wind vanished. Those eyes swiftly went dark, sinking into nothingness — gone without a trace.
In the sky, a wisp of black fur drifted down. Beyond that, there was nothing.
“This…”
The group drew in sharp breaths. No wonder the Black Emperor had said: coming to the Sacred Cliff, you might die without ever knowing how. Strange calamities happen here.
Even the divine radiance launched by a saint had failed to destroy that existence — only cutting away one strand of black beast fur. Its very form had not been glimpsed. And this was not even the deepest part — heaven only knew what terrifying creatures lay further within. Everything was so uncanny and incomprehensible.
Boom!
When Ye Fan and the others stepped into a particular valley, they were immediately struck by a terrifying, scorching heat — as though they had leaped into a furnace, nearly reducing them to ash.
Ye Fan quickly produced the Bodhi Seed and held it in his palm, helping everyone except the Mad Old Man to resist the dreadful scorching heat.
Ahead, a tall black peak blocked the way — equal in height to the other mountains yet far broader than them, like a black wall as tall as the heavens, seemingly without end, stretching across the path.
This black mountain had many ancient caves, blasting fire outward. The searing heat spilled from those very caves — unbearable even from a great distance.
“The Solar True Flame of this place truly is as Wushi the Great Emperor described — it will never be extinguished. It will only grow stronger and stronger. Indeed it is so,” the Great Black Dog murmured to itself.
“What — Solar True Flame? That is one of the most terrifying flames in the world — and it has actually been born here!” Li Heishui cried out.
“Those ancient caves contain significant amounts of Solar True Flame. The purity by now may already be extremely high,” the Great Black Dog said, staring fixedly.
Croak…
Suddenly, a sharp and ear-piercing cry rang out. From the ancient caves in the black mountain face, streaks of firelight rushed forth — one by one, black divine crows flew out, carrying surging true flame.
“This is bad — a catastrophe. Over a hundred thousand years have passed, and the Solar True Flame has given birth to fire divine crows — and the numbers seem to be quite substantial. We need to leave immediately,” the Great Black Dog’s face changed color.
Caw caw caw…
Before the mountain face, from cave after cave, one black divine crow after another burst out — flashing with dark radiance, carrying flames that blotted out the sky as they came.
“So many divine crows — heaven above…” Even the Great Black Dog was shaken.
Li Heishui could only stare with wide eyes and no solution in sight. The fire divine crows covered the sky and blanketed the earth like a great dark cloud, bearing down on them with boundless flame.
The entire mountain face was seething — endless fire divine crows poured out, all diving toward them. The heat was terrifying enough to smelt stones to ash.
“Damn it all — there must be over a million of them!”
A million black fire divine crows, blanketing the heavens — this was a force of annihilating power beyond human resistance. There were simply too many.
These divine crows had all achieved spiritual awareness. They were nothing like ordinary birds — born of the Solar True Flame, they were fearsome beyond measure, with devastating destructive power.
Boom!
The Mad Old Man stood unmoved. His body erupted with a terrifying aura, his dense black hair flying, like an immortal demon-god who could not be destroyed.
Within ten zhang of him in every direction, all laws were rendered ineffective. Neither the Solar True Flame nor the fire divine crows could enter that range — anything that forced its way through would be reduced to dust.
Ye Fan’s heart lurched violently. With over a million fire divine crows, even the Bodhi Seed might not hold — the Solar True Flame was too concentrated, enough to reduce them all to ash. Without a saint traveling with them, death would have been certain.
Caw caw caw… A million fire divine crows cried in unison, the sound reverberating through the heavens, chilling the bone.
On the black mountain face, from the central ancient cave, fire surged. A pair of golden eyes flickered within, fixing on all those present.
This was an extremely terrifying aura — like an ancient dragon looking down upon a flock of sheep. Supremely powerful and dreadful. Even the Great Black Dog couldn’t help but tremble.
The golden eyes revealed infinite killing intent, and this incomparably terrifying existence seemed about to dive down to strike at the Mad Old Man and the others.
“Heaven above — what manner of creature has been born here? It even dares to attack a saint?!” Everyone’s hearts were hammering.
Yet in the end, that existence restrained its impulse and closed its golden eyes, allowing them to pass alongside.
“Could it actually be the three-legged Golden Crow of ancient myth?! That would be an existence that defies heaven itself!” The Great Black Dog considered this possibility, muttering: “The Great Emperor once said this was possible…”
“There is indeed a golden divine bird with three feet — Nannan saw it.” Xiao Nannan spoke innocently and openly.
Slash!
The existence in the ancient cave heard these words and immediately opened its golden eyes again — limitless killing intent poured forth, and it fixed a cold, icy gaze on the entire group!
Boom!
A million fire divine crows went into a frenzy, flooding everything in sight. That terrifying existence — like a divine god — gazed down from within the ancient cave at Xiao Nannan!