What? He had seen the monkey’s father? Ye Fan’s heart leaped violently. The Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend’s origins were too alarming — beyond all imagining.

And who was the Old Sage Emperor of Battle? This was a race famed throughout the world for their martial prowess — once one among them became an emperor, they could see through all of past and future and look down upon ten thousand worlds with none to match them.

This was a Great Sage, whose power surpassed all imagination. Born in the primordial era, having witnessed the Sage Emperor of Battle in action — its origins were surely extraordinary beyond measure.

Yet the young madman was utterly cold. He paid no mind whatsoever. Even as this supreme Great Sage’s identity was so august, he showed not the slightest concern.

Now, he wore the appearance of a young man — his black hair dense and thick, like a demon lord made manifest, his edge fully bared, his sharpness breathtaking.

Though he was caught in a death trap, he had not placed life or death in his heart at all. All that remained in him was boiling battle-intent and frenzied killing intent. Whether heaven itself or a Great Sage — everything would have to prostrate beneath his feet. Even if a god came, he would kill it.

Such was the old madman’s state in this moment — nothing could stop him; he pressed forward without the slightest retreat.

The Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend stepped out, and the world pulsed with him. Above the heavens, beneath the earth — he, alone, was supreme. That was his bearing, the expression of his invincible form.

Everyone understood: the true life-and-death battle had begun. This Great Sage — the image of a thousand-armed Buddha — was far too powerful. This was the old madman’s true mortal enemy.

With every movement of its hands and feet, it seemed on the verge of shattering heaven and earth, as though the entire great world could not contain it and all things were on the brink of destruction.

Its entire body was cast like black gold, its demonic physique awe-inspiring and terrifying. Ye Fan strongly suspected that even the Buddha had once studied this race’s supreme technique before creating the Thousand-Armed Buddha form.

“Thud!”

The young madman struck — simply and directly. A single punch carrying an emperor’s aura, vast and mighty, crashing upward, sending surging waves sweeping outward, extinguishing all things in ten directions.

Dark light flashed. The Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend struck back, making no move to evade — equally forceful, equally dominant. A thousand arms stirred together like an entire mountain pressing down.

The old madman clashing against the ancient Great Sage — heaven split, earth cracked. The onlookers saw only auspicious vapors descending from above, golden lotuses rising from the earth, and all manner of strange phenomena appearing one after another.

At this level of combat, even the Grand Dao itself was stirred, giving rise to all manner of extraordinary visions. The duel between the two was extraordinarily intense.

Colliding with the force of a shattering cosmos, the Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend’s dark light blotted out the sun, while the old madman drove his sacred power to its limits, exchanging blows against over a thousand great black hands, his entire person moving faster than lightning.

“Bang!”

Suddenly, the Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend produced over a thousand divine weapons — each capable of splitting open the heavens — and swung them all forward in one sweeping attack.

Countless chasms of void appeared from nowhere, infinite darkness connecting to dimensional spaces, merging with the thousand weapons and closing in together, pressing down to suppress and seal the old madman.

This was the weight of overwhelming momentum — borrowing the power of ten thousand dimensional spaces to permanently seal an ancient saint and extinguish his spirit.

“Swish!”

A black Yin Divine Symbol appeared. This was not one of the young madman’s weapons — he had condensed it from his Supreme Yin sacred power. It locked the void in place and slashed toward the thousand great black hands.

There was no question this was a battle of dragons and tigers — a clash capable of destroying the Ziwei Earth itself. Had those ancient formations not been there to protect the area, the great wilderness would surely have been shattered long ago.

“Boom!”

Another tremendous sound rang out. The old madman swept the Yin Divine Symbol across in a blaze of blinding light, unleashing his Supreme Yin sacred power to its fullest extent — soft as water, suffused with yin — and shattered many of the Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend’s weapons.

In that same instant, the ancient Great Sage let out a long howl. Over a thousand streaks of dark light flew outward, carving wound after wound across the young madman’s chest, nearly exposing the white bone beneath.

In the distance, the onlookers cried out in alarm, their hearts leaping into their throats. This saint’s victory or defeat would determine the lives or deaths of hundreds of millions of humans. Every single person felt their spirit and soul on the verge of tearing.

A brilliant streak of white light flashed past, scattering all the power of the laws and preventing the wounds from worsening. Clearly, the young madman cultivated more than one ancient scripture.

Now, the killing intent in his eyes grew even denser. He pressed forward in great strides, his Supreme Yin sacred power vanishing, replaced by threads of law-chains — like divine links — woven together and surging outward in all directions.

“Clatter, clatter, clatter!”

Chains of the Heavenly Dao, each one like a dragon, radiated outward from the old madman at their center, threading in all directions, piercing toward the ancient race’s Great Sage, like the dancing strands of a god’s hair.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

Sparks flew in every direction. Over a hundred of the Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend’s thousand weapons were severed, and tens of thousands of ancient sage-order threads intertwined between the two — each one sufficient to destroy the foundation of an entire great sect.

A fight to the death, with the outcome hanging in the balance at any instant — both were sweeping away all obstacles before them, staking their supreme sacred lives in the struggle. Should either fall, it would be an incalculable loss to their respective race.

“Pft!”

The young madman was wild beyond all measure, his killing intent like a vast ocean. He charged through the web of divine laws, pressing in close, meeting a nine-colored divine sword head-on and allowing it to pierce through his body.

Yet in doing so, he had closed the distance. He drove one punch forward with steady, powerful force, and with that single blow he shattered half of the Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend’s body into a pulp of flesh.

“You…”

The ancient race’s Great Sage had not anticipated such reckless ferocity. A thousand hands moved as one, each holding a weapon, slashing downward — and the nine-colored divine sword still lodged in the madman’s body twisted, trying to tear his form apart and reduce it to nothing.

“Clang!”

The young madman’s body was harder than diamond. He shuddered with deliberate force, snapping the sword in two. The nine colors scattered and faded into ordinariness.

In the blink of an eye, three thousand exchanges had passed. Both had pushed to their uttermost limits — equivalent to three thousand Grand Dao laws deployed in full. The energy of primordial chaos surged and roiled, terrifying beyond description.

“The Four Tribulations of Annihilation — return to eternity!”

At that moment, the Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend roared, unleashing a divine law-order power without peer, pressing down upon heaven and earth and collapsing them flat.

Four ancient star domains flickered, dropping ten thousand beams of starlight, descending from beyond the heavens to form a desolate, withered small cosmos that wrapped the old madman inside.

The great tribulation had arrived. The cosmos fell to desolation, returning to eternity — a divine law-order that could not be resisted, that nothing could stop.

Even the young madman suffered a heavy blow from this. His body was wrapped in this small desolate cosmos, and in an instant half his life essence was drained away. Even his dense black hair turned considerably white.

He let out a great roar, as though his demonic nature had fully erupted — every strand of his hair standing on end, killing intent limitless — and raised his fist to strike the heavens, forcibly reclaiming the lost life essence.

“Rumble, rumble, rumble!”

The small desolate cosmos became unstable, nearly shattering. The stolen life essence surged and roiled, condensed into a stream of pure radiance that reversed and flowed back.

“Useless. You cannot escape the palm of my hand.” The Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend said coldly. A thousand hands moved in unison, and a thousand streams of dark light poured into the desolate small cosmos.

It was refining this small desolate cosmos, intent on reducing the old madman to primordial life essence, devouring him entirely and making him a part of the star domain.

“The Four Tribulations of Annihilation!”

Those four words carried a weight of a hundred million jun, pressing down so heavily upon the hearts of those watching from afar that they felt on the verge of destruction. If the human race’s saint could not hold out, it would be a catastrophe — the bones of over a hundred million would cover the earth.

“Boom!”

Suddenly, the old madman raised his fist. The motion was slow — and yet it was terrifying enough to split one’s primordial spirit, as though ten thousand worlds were about to be beaten into collapse.

“What is this?!” The Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend was greatly alarmed. The small desolate cosmos it had manifested began to crack, wholly unable to contain the frenzied youth within.

The old madman spoke no words. Every movement was another blow crumbling the small cosmos — a force beyond all comprehension.

“This is the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist!” The Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend was completely taken aback, shaken to its core. It had recognized this technique — long spoken of in legend, yet virtually impossible for any living being to actually cultivate to completion.

“Boom!”

Each time the old madman raised his fist, a heaven-splitting, earth-shattering power was born. The small desolate cosmos finally began to crack apart, pried open by his two bare fists alone.

“Snap, crackle!”

Countless great cracks appeared. The cosmos was on the verge of disintegrating, letting out terrible sounds as it began to collapse.

“It truly is the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist!” The Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend was shaken and aghast. No matter how it tried, it had never imagined this human could be so terrifying — that even this fist technique could be cultivated to completion.

“Bang!”

The old madman’s dense black hair flew wildly. Each punch was heavier than the last, battering the small desolate cosmos into fracture after fracture, until at last a great collapse began.

“Boom!”

Everything ceased to exist. Every last starlight was extinguished. In one breath, all returned to nothingness, beaten into absolute oblivion.

This was absolute power — breaking through every last obstruction.

The old madman stepped out and went straight for the Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend. One fist came down, smashing apart over a thousand arms and sending the ancient Great Sage coughing up great mouthfuls of blood.

“Thousand-Armed Soul-Shattering Art!”

Even as a Great Sage, its methods were heaven-defying. Though pressed down by such tremendous force, it did not falter before death. It revealed a world-shaking supreme technique.

A thousand hands emerged from within the chaos, unleashing an attack power that defied the heavens — shooting out countless streams of dark light, driving them toward the old madman.

“Pft!”

The old madman’s body was pierced through in multiple places, blood flowing freely. This was the blood of an ancient saint — a single drop sufficient to end a sect master’s life — and now it flowed in such quantity.

Some of the wounds were horrifying — penetrating through the body, visible from front to back, with white bone exposed.

Yet the old madman did not make a single sound. The Six Paths Reincarnation Fist pressed ever forward, undaunted by any enemy, vast and powerful, driving straight at his foe.

“Bang!”

That punch landed on the Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend’s left shoulder, shattering over three hundred arms outright, black blood surging.

“Bang!”

The second punch was equally steady and all-conquering, obliterating the Great Sage’s entire left half, all five hundred arms on that side reduced to a pulp of blood.

“Ahh…!” The ancient Great Sage roared in fury. Since it had appeared in the world, it had almost never been wounded this severely.

“Kill!”

Its body — cast like black gold — shot out ten thousand divine rays of light. It opened its mouth and inhaled the heavens and earth, refining their essence, attempting to swallow the old madman whole.

“Bang!”

To this, the youth — whose expression was utterly cold — raised his indomitable fist in answer, destroying everything in its path.

Blood flew. The young madman shattered the Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend’s jawbone into dust, leaving it to fall away in ruin, blood surging.

“The Six Paths Reincarnation Fist — truly cultivated to completion. It is as terrifying as they said, taken to the absolute extreme!” Cold dread rose in the Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend’s heart as it retreated swiftly.

But how could it compare to the old madman’s Script of Movement? In a single stride, the youth was upon it — both fists sweeping in great, powerful arcs as though capable of knocking the sun, moon, and stars themselves from the sky.

“Bang! Bang…”

He struck again and again in succession. Powerful as it was — a Great Sage that had once witnessed the Sage Emperor of Battle — even it could not endure, suffering blow after devastating blow.

Once the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist was unleashed, mountains crumbled and seas surged, sun and moon lost their light, stars shifted and turned — it was terrifying to the absolute extreme. The Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend was nearly beaten to pieces. Even its forehead bone had cracked and shattered, its primordial spirit on the verge of being shaken loose.

Far behind, every onlooker was stunned. None had imagined the old madman would be this powerful. Their spirits soared and their blood boiled.

In his heart, Ye Fan entered a state of clarity and sank into the realm of the Dao, using the Script of Combat to simulate the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist, sensing the intent of that absolute, supreme fist technique. He lost himself in it, forgetting both self and surroundings.

The young madman was overwhelmingly dominant — fighting to the point of frenzy. With the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist unleashed, he was invincible under heaven.

“Bang!”

The ancient Great Sage was sent flying. This time every bone in its body was shattered. The young madman gave chase, intending to finish it off.

At that very moment, two existences from within the purple-bronze ancient ship — each like a living god — stepped out side by side. Their feet fell, and heaven and earth trembled together. The entire world seemed to shudder at the very breath of their presence.

“This is…” The onlookers were horrified.

There had been three Great Sages within the ancient ship, hailing from three different ancient lands. Now, at last, they had all appeared — standing like two pillars of eternal light.

Every person despaired. One Great Sage alone had already been so terrifying — had already left the old madman wounded — and now two more had appeared. Was there still any hope for victory?

This was almost certainly a death trap. It should be borne in mind that there were still many ancient kings who had not yet emerged.

The moment the two Great Sages appeared, they struck directly — aiming for the young madman’s vital points, unwilling to give him even a moment to catch his breath.

Ye Fan’s heart clenched. The young madman was certainly powerful, and the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist was invincible under heaven — but he had simply too many opponents. He might be worn down and killed here.

Ye Fan took out the black gourd and called out: “Treasure, turn — gourd, become a Dao-sword!”

Ye Fan did not wish to see the old madman’s blood stain the desert, to see him die here. He wanted to use the mysterious and dreadful black gourd to lend him aid.