Duan De froze for a moment. A breeze swept through, chilling his bare skin. The moment he grasped the full situation, he let out a howl — gut-wrenching and heart-tearing — a cry that tore from his throat. His vision went black, he stumbled, nearly planting his face into the ground, and then released a sound like the wailing of a wolf, shrieking without cease, scarcely able to believe this reality.

At this moment, aside from a single pair of underpants, not one thing remained on his person. Even the lightning-speed boots had been stripped by the barbarian and put on his own feet.

“Amoral Heavenly Venerable… your grandfather!” Duan De seethed with rage, spinning in place eight full times, then jumping nine times in succession, nearly coughing up blood on the spot.

He had completely snapped. Thirty years of painstaking effort, and in a single moment he had become a blank slate — his body covered in divine artifacts, all those sovereign-level divine weapons, every last one gone, his trousers not even spared.

Several li away within the primordial mountain range, Ye Fan stood on a peak watching the spectacle and could not help but burst out laughing.

The barbarian chuckled away to himself as well, muttering: “Serves you right — who told you to keep scheming after my club.”

“Sons of turtles! Isn’t this going too far — swiping the Dao master’s trousers, shoes, and socks — damn it, was there anything you didn’t want to help yourselves to?! I’m not done with you!” Duan De hopped and stomped, the veins at his temple throbbing, a string of curses pouring from his mouth.

“You took his socks too?” Ye Fan asked Dongfang Ye.

The barbarian scratched his head. “They were woven from heavenly silkworm silk — impervious to water and fire. I swapped them on along with the boots.”

Ye Fan: “……”

He reckoned that if Princess Yudie hadn’t been present, not even the underpants would have been left — for those, too, were woven from heavenly silkworm silk.

“Aaaaaah—!” Duan De kept screaming, like a chicken being slaughtered, like a duck being carved. He was genuinely on the verge of madness. Every treasure — gone, not one remaining. He wished he could slam his head into the ground.

“Smoke — there’s actually smoke!” The barbarian pointed ahead excitedly.

Indeed, Duan De’s nose, ears, and mouth were all puffing white vapor simultaneously — more precisely, it was innate life essence, or understood as a surge of furious energy. He was too enraged to contain himself, fuming from all seven orifices.

“He’s burning — he’s actually burning!” The barbarian stared intently ahead.

Duan De’s life essence surged and billowed with rage — divine power overflowing — until his entire person seemed to ignite, all his hair standing on end, the whole of him resembling a man-shaped torch.

“Thud!” “Thud!”…

He slammed his head against a stone wall, wracked with regret beyond bearing. At this point, he was even having thoughts of death — his collection of treasures, which surpassed the combined wealth of countless Sacred Sovereigns, had vanished just like that.

At this moment, he had but one single thought: to bite someone. All those divine objects, dug from ancient tombs — and now they had all been swept away in one fell swoop. It was more painful than killing him.

Duan De screamed pitifully without cease. He truly could not endure it. He leapt up, charged at a mountain, and began running laps around it — if he didn’t vent his fury, he feared he truly would go mad.

“One lap, two laps, three laps…” The barbarian was utterly shameless, counting Duan De’s laps for him, patient and attentive.

“Aaah, aaah, aaah — the Dao master will never forgive you wretches for this!” Duan De ran one hundred and twenty-seven laps around the mountain in one breath, then planted his head into the ground, kneeling there and banging it repeatedly.

Ye Fan sat atop the mountain peak, chin in hand, grinning endlessly to himself. This was the first time he’d ever seen the fat fellow suffer such a complete defeat. Every other time, it was Duan De scheming against others — yet today he was utterly beside himself with frantic rage.

Then Duan De began charging about wildly again, white vapor streaming continuously from his ears and nose. This time he ran several hundred laps without stopping.

“Three hundred and fifty-seven… three hundred and seventy-two…” The barbarian counted away patiently.

In the end, Duan De ran a full four hundred laps before dropping down on his backside, his expression beyond despondent — as though he’d swallowed something dead, his face ashen and listless.

“The Dao master has spent his whole life setting traps for geese, only to have a goose peck him in the eye…” He muttered away in bitter resentment.

“This rotten cave dwelling — nothing but an incomplete Undying Wondrous Tree, and nothing else whatsoever. What a damn fake cave. And yet it cost the Dao master so many treasures in the bargain. I am consumed with hatred!” Duan De came before the cave, slapped his palm out, and with a thunderous crash reduced the entire cliff face to rubble.

“Hitting me with a blackjack from behind, smashing a sucker punch to the face from the front… damn it all — aren’t those exactly the things the Dao master himself likes doing most?” Duan De gnashed his teeth. He hadn’t even caught a glimpse of anyone before blacking out. The humiliation was complete.

“My bowl — inside it lies an ancient scripture, engraved with the writing of a Great Emperor, making it the greatest divine object of all time. Just like that, it’s gone… The Dao master refuses to accept this. I will defy the heavens!” Duan De pounded the earth.

“Within the bowl lies another world, a separate heaven and earth…” He rambled on in a mystifying, muttering stream, letting slip many closely guarded secrets.

“The ancient scripture within is called the Crossing of Tribulation — it steals the creative power of heaven and earth and stands supreme throughout all ages past and present…” He spoke in terms increasingly mysterious and compelling.

“Is there truly an ancient scripture inside that bowl? Why does his voice keep getting lower and lower — I can barely hear him anymore.” Dongfang Ye’s interest was piqued, and he inched forward.

“Trouble — move now. That dead fatty is putting on a performance. He’s likely already detected someone watching from the shadows.” Ye Fan’s expression changed.

He grabbed Dongfang Ye and moved swiftly into the depths of the mountain range, trying to slip away without a sound. But Duan De came after them like a wisp of smoke.

“That dead fatty’s spiritual sense is frighteningly sharp!” The barbarian exclaimed.

“Run!” Ye Fan seized him and then activated the Movement Character Secret, transforming into a bolt of lightning in an instant and vanishing across the horizon with a flash.

Duan De had been gnashing his teeth one moment, then was left utterly thunderstruck the next — his opponent hadn’t even left him a glimpse of their silhouette before being flung across several mountain ridges, their trail disappearing without a trace.

In the end, Ye Fan and the others returned to the ancient cave, staring blankly at the broken bowl and the treasure-gathering basin, researching them at length without finding a way to open them. They were thoroughly at a loss.

Far across the mountains, Duan De sat cross-legged on a sacrificial altar, using his own blood as a medium, chanting words under his breath. Dark clouds gathered across the sky and pressed down — a terrifying sight.

Streaks of blood-threads flowed as the leaden clouds pressed down to ground level, activating a vast and ancient formation array that swept across all ten directions — like an Archaic Sovereign stirring back to life.

Lightning flashed and thunder rolled, blood-colored lightning interweaving in the pitch-black sky and earth, as though countless ancient battle-souls were awakening and returning, sending out billowing waves of terrifying fluctuations like an ocean unleashed.

“Thud!”

Far away, the ancient cave where Ye Fan and the others sheltered shuddered violently. The broken bowl, as though possessed of life, began inhaling and exhaling the vital energy of heaven and earth, draining the spiritual energy of the entire mountain range in almost an instant.

“Trouble — is this an ancient Saint’s weapon? Is it about to revive?!”

“It may even be a Great Emperor’s Sacred Weapon!”

They fell back rapidly. Within the broken bowl, something like a vast cosmos of stars seemed to exist — capable of swallowing the sun and moon — and then it transformed into a black void, consuming all things.

First it devoured the treasure-gathering basin. Then it shuddered violently, the pressure it emitted growing unbearable — like a supreme demon lord crossing the boundary between worlds.

“Boom!”

The broken bowl trembled, collapsing more than half of the entire mountain in an instant before soaring upward into the sky and flying rapidly toward the far horizon.

“It flew away!”

Ye Fan and the others shot upward. Outside, the sky was clear and blue, yet at the edge of the horizon dark clouds had already massed, blood-colored lightning dancing across them — as though a domain of demonic earth had been thrown open.

They flew toward it and saw Duan De, hair disheveled, standing atop a blood-sacrifice altar, chanting under his breath, dark clouds pressing down above his head.

The unusual phenomenon naturally drew others’ attention. Many people appeared and reached out toward the broken bowl — but Duan De let out a single great roar, and the bowl transformed into an abyss, swallowing more than a dozen people on the spot, leaving behind only a mist of blood.

“This fellow is truly terrifying!” Ye Fan and the others quietly withdrew and did not go forward to stir up trouble. With the broken bowl reclaimed by Duan De, any attempt to take it back was surely futile.

No one knew how much time passed before the dark clouds above the blood-sacrifice altar finally dispersed. Duan De’s face had gone pale. He put away the broken bowl and the treasure-gathering basin, and flew off with a pained grimace.

“Don’t let the Dao master find out who you are!” He was seething inside. Whoever had struck him with a blackjack and a sucker punch must have known him — otherwise they wouldn’t have let him live.

Within a fragrant, birdsong-filled stretch of pure and untainted land, spirit springs bubbled musically and the scent of fruit hung sweet in the air. Ye Fan and the others ate some spirit fruits, then said their farewells.

“Some supremely capable individuals have predicted that the ancient primordial beast kings of this world are about to join forces — they may drive hundreds of thousands of strange beasts to attack human cultivators. You should withdraw soon, wait out the storm, then come back.” Yudie offered the warning.

Ye Fan nodded. This information was important to him. The Immortal Palace world was about to be swept by a great tempest. The arrival of so many human cultivators had shattered the peace of this place, stirring the displeasure of the strange beast kings of foreign races.

Princess Yudie departed from the Immortal Palace world. The barbarian also went off to find a place to enter seclusion and refine the Heavenly Demon Lamp, fearing Duan De might use a secret technique to summon it back.

Ye Fan found a deserted wilderness and began testing the Undying Wondrous Tree’s power, his heart filled with anticipation. The tender branch was barely over half a foot long, bearing seven jade leaves that shimmered with flowing light, glistening and lustrous as jade.

He gripped the sacred tree, stood before a cliff face, and swept it lightly forward — then waited a long time without seeing any result. He swept it forcefully again — and still the mountain face remained utterly unmoved, not so much as a tremor.

“Isn’t this supposed to be an Undying Wondrous Tree that shatters all things with a single sweep?” He turned it over and back, examining it from every angle.

Ye Fan refused to give up and swept the tree again. A faint shimmer of auspicious radiance flowed, rays of gentle light descending upon the cliff face — yet still producing not the slightest effect.

Though nothing happened with each sweep, the tree nonetheless drained Ye Fan of his divine power with every attempt — like a bottomless pit that could never be filled.

“Consuming divine power without producing any effect?!” He nearly hurled the tree to the ground. If he had not been a Sacred Body, his divine power would have been difficult to exhaust — yet even with just those few sweeps, a lesser cultivator would already have been collapsed on the ground in exhaustion.

Ye Fan persisted stubbornly, channeling divine power without cease, sweeping the tree again and again.

His full power was depleted forty-nine times over. Then, at last, one crimson jade leaf on the Undying Wondrous Tree flickered with brilliant radiance and shot out a wash of crimson haze that fell upon the cliff face.

“Boom!”

The cliff face released a rumbling tremor and was uprooted from the earth, light as a fallen leaf, swept off into the distance where it tumbled away toward the horizon.

“An entire mountain — swept away!” Ye Fan was stunned.

Not long after, a startling piece of news arrived from ahead: more than ten powerful individuals had entered the depths of the primordial ancient world, and only a single half-step Great Adept had managed to escape — yet he had gone mad, continuously murmuring four words: “Undying Celestial Sovereign.”

Moreover, people had heard the sound of a battle cry shaking the heavens from deep within the Immortal Palace world, as though hundreds of thousands of soldiers were clashing in combat — the sky darkened, the earth reeled, and it seemed as though a Saint had joined the fray in the midst of it all, cutting off the path ahead so that no one could approach.

“Leave now — the ancient primordial beast kings are about to launch their attack! Hundreds of thousands of strange beasts are about to slaughter human cultivators!”

Many people had received this news and, with no time to spare for the secrets hidden deep within the Immortal Palace world, focused on evading the disaster close at hand. The strange beasts were on the verge of erupting.