Swish!

The figure flashed and vanished — a single flicker, then gone.

Did the Divine Spirit Thought truly exist? Duan De’s face had gone white. Inside the small iron cage in his sleeve, the spirit-rat’s nine pillars of light blazed from the crown of its head, dazzling and vivid.

“An ancient deity — radiant and glorious in life — yet the Divine Spirit Thought born after its death is the embodiment of its malevolent side. That is an undefeatable demon!”

At that moment, no one else was paying attention; no one else had seen it. The three half-step great powers of the Xiao Family were bearing down on their heels, and there was no room to be distracted.

“You little brat — I’m going to rip out your tendons, peel off your skin, and burn you alive!” Xiao Zhi’s voice was glacially cold. He thrust out a massive hand and unleashed a thousand-zhang purple-bronze eight-trigram furnace, sending it crashing down.

Purple flames surged skyward, collapsing an entire mountain on the spot, sending boulders tearing through the air in all directions. It carried tremendous force — and since flight was impossible here, dodging was extremely difficult.

Clang!

Dongfang Ye swung his wolf-fang cudgel into motion, batting chunk after chunk of ten-thousand-jin boulders flying in every direction. The barbarian’s divine strength was world-shaking — he could uproot mountains.

Bang, bang…

Jue Youqing was pristine and otherworldly in her white robes. In her hand, a branch of the Bodhi tree — like a small dragon bearing leaves, vigorous yet touched with life, trailing wisps of soft colorful mist. A single sweep sent slab after slab of stone settling gently to the ground.

Everyone’s color changed. This graceful woman’s depths were impossible to gauge. She did not strike back, only defending passively, yet many of the Xiao Family were wary of her.

None of them could fly, and except for Ye Fan with his Script of Motion, all the others were slower than usual, reduced to running along the ground.

“Rise!”

Ye Fan stood between two cliff faces nearly touching each other, let out a sudden roar, braced one hand against each, and lifted both cliff faces from the earth simultaneously.

He flung his right hand — a cliff face several hundred zhang high came crashing down on the three half-step great powers. Unable to fly, they had no choice but to deploy treasures to smash it apart.

Boom!

Dust surged skyward. The three half-step great powers laughed coldly, pushing their ancient treasures forward. The stone mountain posed no real threat to them — but it did slow their advance.

Hum!

The void shuddered. Ye Fan blazed with radiance, raising the other stone mountain aloft. His blood and qi surged like a tide, his entire life-force channeled into the mountain.

His divine strength was like a boundless ocean — inexhaustible, never running dry. Fully driving it into a not-particularly-large stone mountain, the scene was somewhat unnerving to behold. The entire mountain began to glow.

Crash!

Ye Fan hurled it with full force. This time he aimed it at the Xiao Family members on the other side — no half-step great powers stationed there, only Dragon-Transformation realm cultivators.

“A sun crossing the horizon!”

Spectators in the distance cried out in shock. The stone mountain blazed with light, brilliant and intense — truly like an enormous sun cutting across the sky, impossibly terrifying.

To conceal his nature, Ye Fan transformed his divine strength into an azure-gold color, even making his body flash with blue-green radiance. Divine strength world-shaking and ocean-vast poured into the stone mountain.

“Fall back, fast!”

The Xiao Family’s expressions all changed at once. Unable to fly, with a stone mountain pressing down carrying this terrifying surge of energy — there was no bearing it.

“This is inhuman — throwing mountains bare-handed!”

“Divine strength like an ocean — impossible to fight directly!”

They quickly realized the stone mountain was monstrously over-powered. Every inch of it was saturated with divine strength — infinite, boundless — drowning out the sky itself.

Boom!

The azure-gold stone mountain fell. Many treasures were shattered by the divine strength, their light pouring down like the Milky Way cascading from heaven.

“Not good!” The three half-step great powers felt a chill. Each summoned treasures and struck toward the stone mountain.

Pop!

The mountain broke apart, rocks scattering in every direction — yet the divine strength grew even more ferocious, pouring down like torrential rain from the sky, cutting like blades as it fell.

“Ahhh—”

At last, screams rose up. Disaster swallowed many whole; more than a dozen were ground to pulp and erased from the world, survivors shaking and trembling.

“Ye Fan, I’ll skin you alive!” Xiao Mingyuan’s elder brother screamed.

“For Mingyuan’s revenge — today I wield the blade myself!” Half-step great power Xiao Zhi snarled, his face iron-grey.

“You all miss him so dearly — I’ll find a way to reunite you with him, brothers and uncles alike!” Ye Fan called back.

At this moment, he was still forced to evade and retreat against the half-step great powers. But he kept shooting arrows without pause — the Myriad-Bane Bow blazing like a sun, its divine arrows impossible to stop.

Spray!

A bloom of blood burst open in the air. A skull exploded, and a headless body crumpled to the ground.

Spray!

“Ahhh—” Screams rang out without end. Another was pierced through the torso by a divine arrow; their trunk snapped apart, splitting into two.

Ye Fan’s expression was cold and distant, his hand merciless. The Xiao Family had brought trouble to his door again and again, seeking to end his life — and now he shot down their experts one after another without hesitation.

Boom!

Knowing he could not overcome three half-step great powers, Ye Fan still refused to relent. He triggered the Script of All, multiplying his combat strength tenfold, and fired arrow after arrow in rapid succession.

In an instant, he had unleashed eighteen divine arrows, each one stretching for several li, accompanied by flashes of lightning and peals of thunder — like eighteen comets striking the earth.

Boom, boom…

The scene was one of unimaginable devastation. The void split apart, black rifts spreading in every direction. The three half-step great powers instinctively swerved aside, unwilling to take the force head-on.

One after another, eighteen stone mountains collapsed from the eighteen arrows — annihilated, gone without trace. Boulders rained down in every direction, some crashing into the crowds, others striking up into the clouds.

“An ancient emperor’s cave dwelling has appeared!”

Many cried out in shock. After Ye Fan shot down eighteen stone mountains, a vast underground palace emerged from beneath the ground — like an ancient mausoleum, yet also like an immortal’s mansion.

“Due south, then west — a supremely auspicious omen!” In that same instant, the Old Blind Man had already cast one more divination, pointing out the path forward.

Ye Fan, Dongfang Ye, and the rest plunged into the underground palace. The three half-step great powers pursued them closely from behind, and a great clamor rose from everywhere else as the masses surged in after them, all eager for the immortal opportunity within.

This was very likely the immortal burial ground — inside, perhaps, ancient scriptures and maybe even an ultimate-realm sacred weapon. No one could resist.

“Ahhh—” Suddenly, a half-step great power from the Xiao Family let out a terrible scream full of terror.

Inside the underground palace, the light was dim. Ye Fan and the others turned to look — and saw a dark figure gripping that half-step great power by the throat with one hand, hoisting him high into the air.

The Xiao Family’s half-step great power thrashed wildly, struggling with everything he had, but he could not break free. The sight made Ye Fan and the others’ blood run cold: this was a half-step great power.

“The Divine Spirit Thought!” Duan De’s voice shook.

“Retreat — leave the underground palace — the lowest possible omen, a sign of extreme misfortune!” The Old Blind Man cast another urgent divination.

“Ahhh—” The Xiao Family’s half-step great power let out one final cry, then his limbs fell limp and lifeless, his divine thought scattered. He was dead.

The Divine Spirit Thought — indistinguishable from a human in appearance, yet devastatingly powerful. He had crushed a half-step great power to death with one hand. Everyone who saw it was overcome with bone-deep dread.

Unfortunately, the light underground was too dim, and he had his back to them — there was no way to see clearly.

“Who is this — killing a half-step great power in front of everyone, just like that? At minimum, this is a peak saint-lord level existence!” Others who did not understand gaped in shock.

“Very well… fine, fine, fine — go and summon my father, Xiao the Grand Preceptor!” Xiao Zhi was shaken with rage, and he turned and stormed off. The skilled fighters present were not just those few; others were elsewhere searching for ancient scriptures.

“Ahhh—”

Another Xiao Family half-step great power was a step too slow. The Divine Spirit Thought seized him by the throat as if picking up a chick — effortlessly — and with one cry, he was dead.

“Go — we need to leave this place immediately, or none of us get out alive!” Duan De’s face was ashen. Recalling every account he had ever heard of the Divine Spirit Thought, even his considerable flesh trembled all over.

Ye Fan, Dongfang Ye, the Old Blind Man, and Jue Youqing followed behind him, racing out of the underground palace and breaking back to the surface.

But many others, knowing nothing of this, believed the immortal mansion had opened and swarmed inside, all seeking their immortal opportunity.

“Ahhh—”

Screams erupted in an unbroken chorus. The underground palace had become a field of carnage — corpses piling up in heaps.

“There is a demon inside the ancient tomb — even half-step great powers are no match for it — go report this to the emperor-lord immediately!”

Now, at last, people began to realize something was deeply wrong. Every movement this being made looked entirely inhuman — no trace of human vitality — and a single gesture could kill a supreme elder.

The fat Duan De dripped with cold sweat. “To think — I, Duan De, emerged at age five and have roamed ancient tombs throughout the world for over twenty years… and this is the first time I’ve ever encountered a legendary Divine Spirit Thought. At last, I’ve found a worthy adversary.”

The group exchanged looks, half tense, half at a loss for words. This shameless fat man had just described grave-robbing as “roaming ancient tombs throughout the world” — and managed to look like a peerless expert lamenting their loneliness while doing it.

“Over a hundred people are dead — we need to move!” A terrified shout came from behind. Everyone scattered in a panic, running for their lives, not a single one willing to stay.

“That’s no underground palace — it’s a mass burial ground. I saw what was below: row after row of ancient graves, and things were crawling out!” Someone had glimpsed the scene below and let out a hoarse shout, spreading even greater unease.

In ordinary times, the sight of yin-figures or yin-horses would not have troubled them in the slightest. But this was an Immortal Burial Ground — whatever crawled out here was not something that could be provoked.

“Damn it — I think I saw a stretch of old grave mounds just now too.” Duan De’s expression was uneasy. A man who spent his life in underground ancient tombs, and even he was disturbed. “This cursed place is all wrong. An ancient emperor came here — but that doesn’t mean it’s the emperor’s own mansion.”

“Endless cliffs, a nine-fold absolute ground — did I not deduce that from the start? Everything that enters must be extinguished.” The Old Blind Man muttered.

Everyone found themselves thinking of the image Ye Fan had carved — an immortal figure lying on their side, sprawled across the ground as though dead. This place might truly live up to its name: a ground where immortals were buried.

Boom!

Without warning, a violent tremor erupted in the distance. Everyone was thrown into shock. The ground there moved like waves on the ocean — a vast expanse of rocky cliff rising and falling like cresting foam before shattering into dust.

“What just happened?!”

People were stunned. Three hundred and sixty-five stone mountains had collapsed simultaneously, rising and falling like surging tide after tide of terrible energy, hurling many people high into the air.

“My god — has a saint acted? This is too terrifying!”

Hum!

The void tore like a shredded painting, convulsing wildly — and then those three hundred and sixty-five stone mountains were gone from the world forever, dissolved into drifting dust.

Everyone’s faces had gone white. It was almost impossible to believe. Their chests tightened; they could barely breathe.

Above that ruined expanse, more than ten figures stood suspended in the air — the emperor-lords of the four great divine dynasties of the Central Region, several divine monks from the Western Desert, the demon-lord and war-lord of the Southern Range, and others. They could fly, and had not been bound!

Boom!

An ancient sacred mountain rose slowly from the ground, like the moon rising over the sea — majestic and resplendent, commanding one’s entire attention.

It was not towering high into the clouds, yet it was vast and imposing, giving the sensation of standing before the emperor of all mountains — grand and awe-inspiring.

“An ancient emperor’s cave dwelling — they’ve found the true entrance!” The Old Blind Man’s expression changed sharply.

Duan De was also startled. He observed carefully and said, “There are people beyond my reckoning. I thought I alone had truly mastered burial studies — yet it seems those great powers also have someone who understands.”

At the base of the sacred mountain, a pair of massive stone doors stood sealed. Two ancient characters were carved into them — yet not a single person could read them.

“That is primordial divine script!” someone cried out in alarm, and a number of senior figures furrowed their brows.

“I understand now why there is a Divine Spirit Thought — that demon. This place enshrines a deity from before the primordial era. This is a cave dwelling from a time so distant we cannot fathom it!” The Old Blind Man murmured to himself.

“The human race’s great emperors must have come here. They surely left something behind — some hidden mystery, or perhaps confirmation of something.” Duan De’s expression shifted and flowed, unreadable.

“Before the primordial era — were there truly immortal, deathless supreme divine beings?” Jue Youqing was shaken. Her hand held a branch of green Bodhi, and the golden lotus-blossom mark at her brow radiated immortal light.

“Before the ancient times — could there truly have been immortals? What is this place’s connection to the immortal realm?” The barbarian was filled with doubt and bewilderment.

“Divine Spirit Thought… pre-ancient deities… immortals…” Ye Fan murmured, and suddenly recalled the voice of divine thought he had heard before the desolate ancient tree — and within it, the four characters: “Deathless Heavenly Emperor.”

He lifted his gaze to the ancient mansion before him, his heart filled with trembling awe. The Deathless Heavenly Emperor had come to this place. The human race’s great emperors had come to this place. Could there truly be some great secret here?