The Great Black Dog’s copper-bell-like eyes opened wide, round as can be. It paced back and forth, murmuring incessantly — clearly shaken to the extreme.

“How can this be? Why was it sealed here? Back then… damn it all — this doesn’t make any sense!”

Its eyes went deep and intent, staring fixedly at the Divine Investiture Scroll without blinking, as though it couldn’t blink — who knew what thoughts were running through its mind. Involuntarily it gave a full-body shudder.

Then the Great Black Dog lay flat on the ground, fell silent, and sank into contemplation — as though plunging into memories from a very distant past.

“The Divine Investiture Scroll…” Ye Fan murmured to himself.

His expression showed no agitation, yet he had come nearly to the point of petrification. These three words were absolutely not unfamiliar to someone like him who had come from the other end of the starry sky.

He appeared calm, but within his heart a tide of waves surged to the sky. How could a creation of the pre-Qin cultivators appear here one after another?

The Divine Investiture Scroll had a great and weighty origin. How had it come to be in Wushi the Great Emperor’s possession? What had he used it for?

“No, the timeline doesn’t match…” His expression shifted with a start.

Though ancient China had a long and deep history, and the pre-Qin cultivators were mysterious beyond measure — Wushi the Great Emperor was a figure from over a hundred thousand years ago. If he had used the Divine Investiture Scroll to suppress things here back then, it could not possibly have appeared in a later age on the other end of the starry sky.

“What is the Divine Investiture Scroll?” Li Heishui didn’t understand, and asked with suspicion.

“It is a sacred treasure — refined personally by Wushi the Great Emperor. Its power is beyond imagination!” the Great Black Dog said through gritted teeth.

“Something doesn’t quite add up…” Ye Fan felt that this ancient scroll was not quite the same as the divine scroll on the other end of the starry sky.

“Dead dog, just keep on boasting,” Li Heishui said, unconvinced. The ancient scroll on the pitch-black mountain body, golden and gleaming — no matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem like something that had existed for over a hundred thousand years.

Ye Fan’s heart stirred, and he asked: “What exactly does this scroll do?”

“Its uses are immense. It is the sacred object of sealing. Once it is pressed into place, it is equivalent to one of Wushi the Great Emperor’s hands being pressed down upon the great black mountain — even if a divine god came, there would be nothing they could do!” the Great Black Dog said with great excitement.

“What? It has that much power? Dead dog, you’re not talking nonsense, are you?” Li Heishui’s heart hammered violently.

Ye Fan also felt dizzy. A golden ancient scroll sealed in this place was the equivalent of one of Wushi the Great Emperor’s palms pressing down here — this was truly astonishing beyond words.

“That is simply the fact of it!” the Great Black Dog said, eyes wide.

“How was it refined? Were there any special considerations?” Ye Fan asked patiently.

“Wushi the Great Emperor plumbed the very principle of creation. He wished to refine a sacred treasure to seal immortals — at first he wanted to call it the Seal Immortal Scroll. But immortals were not seen in the world; what existed were ancient creatures resembling divine gods. So he changed the name to the Divine Investiture Scroll.”

“That’s actually possible…” Ye Fan was wide-eyed with disbelief. Wushi the Great Emperor was truly overwhelming — even immortals he wished to seal.

“You have not lived in such an age, so you simply cannot comprehend how weighty those two characters ‘Wushi’ truly are — they could crush down the entirety of the ages!” the Great Black Dog said with a sigh.

“Now that is a treasure! If it is truly equivalent to one of Wushi the Great Emperor’s hands pressing on this place, it falls little short of a supreme weapon — it is a consummate sacred object!” Li Heishui, looking very much like the Black Emperor of old, had his eyes glowing green, almost drooling.

“The name of it is truly… as though it was conceived by the same mind as the pre-Qin cultivators, yet the function is entirely different,” Ye Fan murmured to himself.

“What?!” The Great Black Dog gave a start and was alarmed. “Boy, have you heard of another Divine Investiture Scroll?”

“You… what do you mean?” Ye Fan was equally startled, and snapped his gaze toward it.

“It is said that when Wushi the Great Emperor was refining the Divine Investiture Scroll…” This time the Black Emperor finally dropped the phrase “according to ancient records” — this time it used “it is said.”

Wushi the Great Emperor had once spoken of seeing an ancient scroll, also called the Divine Investiture Scroll, but far too lackluster and weak. He had intended to refine a true sacred object worthy of the name.

When Ye Fan heard these secret tidings, his eyes immediately went straight. What exactly were these ancient great emperors all about? How could they know of the legendary sacred objects from the other end of the starry sky?

“Wait a moment…” Ye Fan froze in place.

Could it be that Wushi the Great Emperor had visited ancient China? Or perhaps had traveled to other star domains, and there encountered the true Divine Investiture Scroll — and thus conceived the desire to refine his own Seal Immortal Scroll?

“This is terrifying enough to overwhelm a person. Could the ancient star paths have been opened by this very kind of existence?”

The more Ye Fan thought about it, the more he felt the ancient great emperors were unfathomable beyond measure. They were truly exceptional, beyond any prediction — no wonder they were so frequently struck by lightning.

He thought of many things: in ancient times, a sage-emperor had performed the ritual sacrifice to heaven on Mount Tai, where five-colored altars had been constructed. Could those people have come into the star domains?

The pre-Qin cultivators — many with names and surnames recorded in history — and to this day, he still did not know where those people had gone. In this world, there was only the faintest shadow of them.

“So high…” Xiao Nannan tilted her head back, gazing at this great black mountain that soared up into the clouds and mist.

Without noticing, they had already drawn close. They walked around the enormous mountain body, feeling an aura they could not quite name or describe.

“There is something inside this mountain!” Li Heishui said.

“Did you even need to say that? Wushi the Great Emperor went so far as to use the Divine Investiture Scroll — there must certainly be a supreme being sealed within,” the Great Black Dog said, baring its teeth, clearly thinking of something.

The black mountain body bore many dark crimson bloodstains — no one knew how many years had passed, and still they had not faded. Patches of coagulated blood.

Ye Fan’s head immediately swam. This was a great mountain soaring into the clouds — just how much blood had the great perfect Holy Body shed, to have soaked the entire mountain?

“Doesn’t Little Ye’s blood run crimson tinged with golden light? The great perfect Holy Body should have golden blood,” Li Heishui said with suspicion.

“What do you know? The great perfect Holy Body had already returned to the purest state — his golden blood had transformed back into the most fundamental crimson. Drink a single mouthful and you could live a hundred more years,” the Great Black Dog said, nearly drooling.

“Little Ye, you absolutely must live well. In time, cultivate a stalk of the Deathless Divine Medicine for yourself, then use your sacred blood to help us transcend,” Li Heishui said.

“Agreed!” The Great Black Dog nodded its great head vigorously.

Ye Fan took out the ancient scroll obtained in the Northern Domain’s Li Prefecture and examined it carefully. “The Nine Secrets are at the mountain summit — true to its name, the sheer sacred cliff face.”

They began to climb. The array markings here were even more terrifying — everyone followed close behind the Mad Old Man, not daring to misplace a single step.

Just now, Li Heishui had tested with a weapon, and without a sound it was silently destroyed — reduced to flying ash. The terrifying sight left him fearful, dreading even the slightest deviation.

“Miss a single step, and your form and spirit will both be destroyed. You must be extremely careful. Save for the one corner of the Dao diagram left behind by Wushi the Great Emperor, these killing arrays have no way to bypass them!” The Great Black Dog gave a grave and earnest warning, its expression extremely solemn — for this truly concerned every single person’s life and death.

Not to mention themselves — even if the various holy lords came, a single wrong step would mean no return, erased from the world forever.

Even with an existence comparable to an ancient sage leading the way, progress was slow. The Mad Old Man was also deliberating — every step had to be precise to the last fraction, not a thread’s deviation allowed.

“What if we accidentally take a wrong step?” Xiao Nannan asked in all innocence.

“Little ancestress, please — do not say such things.” The Great Black Dog was consumed with anxiety, genuinely fearing trouble might arise. “On this mountain, if you take a single wrong step, the killing power you will be subjected to is equivalent to being struck by one palm from an ancient great emperor!”

Li Heishui’s legs grew even weaker — he could almost feel his calf muscles cramping. He murmured to himself: “We are walking a wire strung between hell and heaven. No one speak another word.”

Boom!

Nearby, a horrifying black void appeared — the swallowing power within it chilling to the bone.

“Did someone take a wrong step?”

“No — a leaf was blown up onto this sacred mountain and brushed against a trace of the array’s power.”

“This… is too terrifying. Even a single fallen leaf can trigger such a black void — if any of us had made an error, we truly would have turned to ash on the spot!”

A full two hours passed before they reached the mountain’s midpoint. By then a fog had begun to rise — bands of black mist swirling, making everything look impossibly dim and bleak. At the summit the mist was even denser, impossible to see through.

“Heaven above, don’t let anything go wrong…” Everyone felt a sense of ill omen welling up within them.

“Nannan can see several people up ahead — men and women…” Xiao Nannan suddenly spoke, raising her small hand to point ahead.

And indeed, the Mad Old Man had already stopped, confronting several figures within the dense mist — without raising a hand, unmoving, his expression solemn.

Ye Fan opened his divine eyes, yet could only vaguely make out that several people wore ancient garments, as though they had walked here from a primordial age.

All of them were extremely old — their physical forms bearing no vitality whatsoever, suffused with the energy of death. Yet standing there, they exerted a pressuring force so great it was suffocating.

The Mad Old Man confronting them in this manner — this was certainly no small matter. Could they be several saints? A sense of ill omen deepened. Everyone’s hearts hammered in fear, anxiety boundless.

The mountain wind blew past. Those ancient figures in the thick mist were like fossils — not moving at all — only their ancient garments snapping and fluttering in the wind.

“Damn it all — it’s impossible for saints to appear in the world anymore. Where did these several divine beings come from?!” The Great Black Dog was badly frightened, and even began to stutter.

The Mad Old Man deliberated for a long while, then started forward again, moving past the figures and upward along the mountain, transmitting a voice to them as he went: “Do not look back at them. Do not sense their aura. Only follow my steps forward!”

No one dared even breathe, treading in the Mad Old Man’s footsteps one step at a time, not daring to look back even once.

Yet their spines turned cold — clearly they could feel that those several figures in the thick mist had turned their ice-cold gazes upon them. The ancient garments made those several silhouettes appear profoundly mysterious and unfathomable.

After they had gone a great distance, the tense atmosphere finally eased somewhat. Li Heishui asked quietly: “Senior, who are they?”

“Ancient dead people.” The Mad Old Man had only these five words.

“Those who died long ago — supreme powerhouses? And yet we clearly felt their cold gazes on us.” Everyone found it strange and inexplicable.

“Nannan feels like they were alive — their cold gazes all fell on us,” the little girl said with some timidity, speaking softly.

“Yes, I had that feeling too,” Li Heishui agreed, puzzled. Unable to help himself, he looked back once.

In that instant, he felt as though he had fallen into an icy abyss. His body nearly ceased to move. His face turned white as chalk, draining of every trace of color. He could not utter a single word — like an ant being looked down upon by an ancient dragon.

“Don’t look back — don’t watch them. They are people who died long ago!” The Mad Old Man let out a light shout, sweeping out a great sleeve to turn his body back around.

“Heaven above — that is too terrifying. Little Ye, Nannan — none of you look back, not one of you. I just looked back once. I couldn’t see anything clearly, but that gaze alone nearly shattered my very mind and spirit!” Li Heishui murmured, on the verge of collapse.

None of them quite believed those were dead people, yet the Mad Old Man had said as much — and everyone chose not to look back, no matter what happened behind them. They pressed forward.

The mist grew thicker and thicker. The great stone coffin atop the mountain peak — not even the faintest outline was visible. Even their spiritual sense could not penetrate the bizarre great fog.

“Damn it all — there’s another person further above. This one may actually be alive!” The Great Black Dog’s entire coat of black fur was standing on end.

Far above, a figure stood like a carved idol, motionless and towering. Yet its eyes were deeply unsettling — capable of piercing through the dense mist.

They were azure eyes — no whites, no pupils — like two azure ghost-lights glowing in the thick mist, looking down at the group below.

“Do not look at him. Regard him as one of the dead!” The Mad Old Man gave another grave and earnest warning.

At the same time, he altered his route and climbed upward. Suddenly golden light blazed beside them, filtering through the thick mist.

Because of the detour, they had come around to the other side of the mountain face. There they saw many dark crimson bloodstains — and now at close range they could clearly see the Divine Investiture Scroll.

“Let us simply give that person above a wider berth. Even if it is an ancient corpse, it looks to be far from ordinary — push our luck and we could easily find ourselves in a great confrontation,” Ye Fan said.

The Mad Old Man said nothing more, but continued to think carefully. Step by step he altered the route, moving toward the side where the Divine Investiture Scroll was, circling up the mountain.

Golden light blazed fiercely — the mist unable to swallow it. The stone face here bore the marks of countless ages, and the ancient Divine Investiture Scroll was affixed to it, extraordinarily firm.

Even after over a hundred thousand years, not a trace of loosening showed. And the ages had left not a single mark upon it.

“A blood pool…” Li Heishui was startled. In this region, there was a blood pool that had not dried.

“This is the blood of the great perfect Holy Body — a priceless sacred treasure!” The Great Black Dog shouted in alarm, almost launching itself toward it — yet mindful of the prohibition against random steps, it barely managed to restrain its impulse.

“A pity — its vital essence is long since dissipated,” Ye Fan said, shaking his head, yet still unable to conceal his shock. Over a hundred thousand years had passed, and the blood of the great perfect Holy Body had still not dried. What truly heaven-defying power had that been?

“There are the remnants of a spiritual medicine’s roots,” Li Heishui said in surprise.

In the blood pool, a spiritual medicine had once grown — yet it had been plucked by someone. Without even thinking, it was clear that a medicine nurtured by the blood of the Holy Body would have medicinal potency to shake the world.

“There are characters — the Red Dragon was trapped here…” the Great Black Dog read, then began to curse. “So it was that Daoren after all. He used this medicine to save his own life.”

Ye Fan’s heart lurched. The Red Dragon Daoren had been trapped within the Sacred Cliff — and it was in this very spot, having reached the upper half of the mountain and beyond. No wonder he was sealed for fifteen hundred years — given everything they had witnessed, surviving to get out at all was already a miracle.

By now they were drawing ever closer to the Divine Investiture Scroll, now clearly visible. It appeared to be cast of gold, emanating strange rippling waves.

“A supreme sacred object refined by the Great Emperor’s own hands — and I have seen it again,” the Great Black Dog said, with a trace of melancholy. It sighed: “A pity — no matter how great a hero the ages may produce, none can stand against the passage of time!”

“There are stone carvings beside the ancient scroll…” Xiao Nannan raised her small hand and pointed ahead.

“Damn it all — who is so disgraceful?! How did someone carve a bald figure beside the Divine Investiture Scroll?!” The Great Black Dog was furious.

“Shakyamuni!” Ye Fan’s heart gave a sudden shock. The stone carving was almost identical to the image of the Buddha seen in temples and monasteries.

“This is the mark left by this person.” The Mad Old Man suddenly spoke.

“What was this fat bald one doing leaving a mark in front of the Divine Investiture Scroll? Although — this old bald one truly was powerful, to be able to enter and leave this place!” The Great Black Dog was infuriated and at the same time genuinely shaken.

“There is another stone carving,” Xiao Nannan said, pointing to the other side of the Divine Investiture Scroll.

It was an elderly man riding a green ox, with what seemed to be purple energy drifting westward — a carving of remarkable vividness and spirit.

“Who is this old man riding an ox, also leaving random carvings here?!” The Great Black Dog demanded with indignation.