A fist-sized bronze furnace — small enough to seem insignificant, shaped like a divine maiden lying in repose — rested in Ye Fan’s palm, sending out streams of divine radiance.
He had done nothing more than casually channel it, and yet the Celestial Fiend Grandmother ahead of him was already unable to bear it — letting out a piercing wail as spiderweb-like cracks appeared across her entire body.
“Ah—!”
The Celestial Fiend Grandmother screamed in agony. The blood of the Celestial Fiend poured out through those cracks like beams of aurora light — stunning and brilliant. Her bones were shattering; her physical body was collapsing.
“What kind of weapon is that?” This was the shock and terror in every person’s heart.
She was a Celestial Fiend Physique — a terrifyingly rare constitution seen only once in tens of thousands of years among the demon clan, her physical body as powerful as an ancient divine weapon and precious artifact.
And yet, she was being penetrated and suppressed by the aura emitted by a single weapon, left utterly incapable of fighting back. Just how astonishing was that?
Boom!
In that instant, an all-encompassing Sage’s aura surged outward in a torrent, stilling the dark waters of the Northern Sea for a thousand meters around, boiling away the towering waves, dispersing the clouds at the horizon.
Small and exquisite as the fist-sized bronze furnace was, it was like a divine being who had existed since the dawn of creation awakening for the first time, sweeping across and overawing the boundless sea.
“This is… a supreme sacred divine weapon!”
Many people cried out. Beneath this magnificent aura that seemed capable of piercing through all the heavens, they all trembled. Any who stood nearby could not help but fall prostrate, with many losing control of themselves and bowing down in worship.
“Ah—!” The Celestial Fiend Grandmother screamed. Her limbs were disintegrating — first both arms were severed, and then her torso split apart.
Powerful as she was, she could not resist. Even a Celestial Fiend Physique could not withstand the might of an imperial-grade weapon. For after all, she had yet to complete her cultivation, and could not resolve the crisis as the White-Robed Divine King had done at the time of his resurrection.
The Celestial Fiend Grandmother let out a howl, inhaling the essence of the sun and moon. From the distance, several ancient bronze chariots came flying over and placed themselves before her — and were all reduced to powder.
“Ah—!”
Several screams rang out. These were her four great disciples — each of whom had reached patriarch-level cultivation. She had summoned them through a secret technique to die in her place.
Four great masters — their form and spirit completely obliterated, without the slightest suspense, without even a chance to struggle. Such was the might of a sacred weapon.
In the distance, all who witnessed this were stricken with horror. Every person who could still move turned and fled for their lives, more frightened than if they had seen the King of Hell himself. How could anyone contend with a weapon like this? Before it, even an ant was an overstatement.
“Sacred Physique — stop!” The Celestial Fiend Grandmother bellowed through divine sense, terror reaching the very depths of her heart.
She could live to four or five thousand years of age, and at present had only passed the halfway point of her lifespan. Once she completed her cultivation in the future, she would be unrivaled under heaven.
Even now, she could already exterminate ancient fossils. For many years she had been at the third level of the Immortal Stage, with only a handful of ancestral-generation figures capable of contending with her.
If nothing went wrong, in an era without Sages, she would one day reign over all under heaven — a radiant and boundless future lay before her. She did not wish to die like this.
“Old demon woman — if you were to actually survive, the justice of heaven would be violated. Still, using the Divine Maiden Furnace to annihilate you is frankly something of a desecration of the furnace — in its ancient years, all it gathered within itself was the most beautiful and transcendent women in the world. And you are so unbearably hideous…” Even at a moment like this, Li Tian did not forget to deliver a thorough verbal assault.
Ye Fan channeled the Divine Maiden Furnace. One never truly knows how terrifying a sacred weapon is until one holds it. It simply defies all human resistance.
At the very least — he felt now that if he himself were struck by it, even his peerless physical body would be reduced to ash, without even a glimmer of hope to survive.
Yet a supreme sacred weapon also consumed an enormous amount of energy. Powerful as he was, he could at this moment only channel out a portion of its might, and was unable to bring its full power to bear.
“No wonder every sacred weapon is a sect’s founding treasure — not merely because of its unresistable power, but because one requires the combined strength of an entire sect to channel it!”
Yet at this close a distance, even though Ye Fan could only draw upon a sliver of its Sage’s might, it was more than sufficient to annihilate the Celestial Fiend Grandmother.
He gave a gentle tremor. The fist-sized Divine Maiden Furnace in his palm glowed with crystalline purity, sending out a stream of rosy radiance that fell upon the Celestial Fiend Grandmother’s body, shattering the forty-three secret weapons she bore, and sinking into her flesh.
She let out one final scream: “The Celestial Fiend Undying Body!”
And then her entire body disintegrated. Her primordial spirit attempted to escape through the Celestial Fiend’s Great Undying Method — but was struck by another stream of rosy radiance.
Spit!
A generation’s Celestial Fiend, never having reached great completion, brought her life to its end. Beneath the sacred weapon, all became tribulation ash — she was from that moment erased from the world.
“Supreme Yin Divine Son — don’t you dare move. And you, little woman Yi Qingwu — where do you think you’re going?!” Li Tian called out, urging Ye Fan to make his move quickly.
But in the instant of the assault on the Celestial Fiend Grandmother, both of them had already fled with the Divine Moon Carriage at tremendous speed.
Nearly everyone on the scene had run. With a weapon like this present, who would dare to resist?
Ye Fan dealt with the Celestial Fiend Grandmother and gained an entirely new understanding of sacred weapons. With one weapon in hand, one could walk freely under heaven — almost no one could stand in the way.
The Golden Crow clan was retreating. Their speed was fast, but not faster than Ye Fan — and they were the targets he prioritized. That aged golden crow was terrifyingly powerful, its speed rivaling lightning.
“Ah—!”
In the end, the moment the sacred weapon rose, it ultimately let out only a single scream. The Divine Maiden Furnace enlarged itself and descended from the heavens like a divine hammer, and the golden crow was reduced to tribulation ash.
“What a pity — that little woman Yi Qingwu is too slippery. She was the first to escape. And that damned old demon had to come show off, barging in and ruining everything.” Li Tian was left with regret and curses in equal measure.
Every last person in this stretch of sea had fled — leaving only one island risen from the water, with one cave dwelling revealed.
“A tender branch of the Fusang Sacred Tree — it truly comes from the Undying Sacred Tree!” Yan Yixi cried out in astonishment. Walking to the cave dwelling, he took down that golden branch — and immediately tossed it back, his fingers nearly catching fire.
Ye Fan caught it in his hands. He activated the Solar Ancient Scripture’s technique, and immediately felt a warmth wash through his entire body — he nearly cried out in pleasure.
In the cosmos, he had refined away a patch of Supreme Yin dark mist, and had long been in a state of excess Yin and deficiency Yang. Now, nourished by the Solar Holy Power, there was nothing more fitting.
“If I can find the true Fusang Sacred Tree, and absorb boundless Solar Holy Power from it, perhaps I can make another great breakthrough!”
This cave dwelling was small. Though radiant light burst outward from within it, there were no truly rare divine treasures — only a few Sage Lord-tier weapons, and one fragmentary corner of a sea domain map.
“This is a corner of a fragmentary map pointing toward the Roiling Valley Fusang Sacred Tree!”
The Roiling Valley had vanished from the Eastern Sea — none had expected that someone had used boundless heavenly power to move it to the Northern Sea, leaving behind an ancient map.
Half a day later, Ye Fan and the others heard that in another stretch of sea, others had obtained a different fragment of the map pointing toward the Roiling Valley’s location. Evidently, the full sea map had been divided apart.
Two days later, news that the Divine Maiden Furnace had appeared spread throughout the Northern Sea, becoming known to nearly all.
“Even the Celestial Fiend Grandmother has been killed — what a terrifying weapon!”
Li Tian and Yan Yixi had underestimated the furnace’s fame. The news prompted many powerful figures from the mainland to rush over.
Of course, it was not because the weapon’s renown was brilliant and had dazzled the ages — quite the contrary: it was thoroughly infamous, having left an indelible mark of notoriety in the ancient records.
In the distant past, a disciple cast out from the Way of Human Desire had used it to sweep up every beautiful woman in the world into his net — the finest beauties of all the land were robbed of all joy, and the heroic men of the world rose in united condemnation.
It could be said that the Divine Maiden Furnace had been infamous for tens of thousands of years — the mere mention of it made people gnash their teeth — even though it was forged by a Great Emperor.
“That accursed lecherous cult has emerged into the world again! Seize its disciples and castrate them without mercy!”
Walking through that stretch of sea, when Li Tian heard such words he instinctively pressed his legs together — and then cursed: “What the hell!”
Yan Yixi was a figure of transcendent refinement, always elegant and distinguished, with young women gathered around him wherever he went. Now he had become a tiger that cleared the streets. Not to mention young women — even old grandmothers, even a female mosquito, would flee the moment they saw him. Witnessing this scene, even a man of his gentle and refined temperament could not help but exclaim: “Your grandfather’s Divine Maiden Furnace!”
Over the next half month, they broke open another cave dwelling, obtaining the second fragment of the sea domain map. And the Solar Holy Power contained within that golden divine branch had also been fully absorbed by him.
“I must find the Fusang Sacred Tree!” Ye Fan felt that if he could obtain the Solar Holy Power stored within the undying sacred tree, the Solar True Scripture he cultivated would certainly be able to break through to a new level.
“There are thirty-six cave heavens in total. We have only obtained two of the map fragments — far from enough.” Li Tian said.
He had no particular ambition regarding the Fusang Ancient Sacred Tree — his goal was to enter the Roiling Valley, for that was a sacred land. It was said that the Solar Ancient Emperor had entered nirvana there.
“An ancient emperor’s entire divine treasury — finally about to appear in the world. This must not be missed.” These were the words in every cultivator’s heart.
In the two months that followed, the Northern Sea was swept by one great battle after another — and it was unclear what aura influenced it all, but all thirty-six cave heavens emerged one by one.
The various major powers each obtained fragments of the map. A small number managed to obtain two or three corners thanks to favorable circumstances, but only by assembling all pieces together could the location of the Roiling Valley be determined.
In the end, all the cultivators throughout the vast Northern Sea consulted with one another, setting aside their grievances to temporarily cooperate in locating the Roiling Valley — with the Golden Crow clan the most urgently motivated of all.
Yet throughout this process, one point remained deeply discordant: the Divine Maiden Furnace’s infamy was too far-reaching. Many cultivators could not suppress the urge to make a move against them.
Yet even the Golden Crow clan endured it and held back — and so naturally, no one else was willing to stir up trouble at this juncture.
“The Golden Crow clan produced a great sage in antiquity — they certainly left behind a generation-spanning sacred weapon. Be on guard.” Yan Yixi said.
“The situation is not promising. The Guanghan Palace, the Hall of the Human King, the Longevity Temple, the Supreme Yin Sect — which of them has not brought a sacred weapon? They must all have brought their founding treasures along.” Li Tian also furrowed his brow.
They were about to enter the Roiling Valley and seek the divine treasury left behind by the Solar Ancient Emperor. These great orders would certainly have brought their sect-founding supreme treasures with them.
But they had no choice. To find the Roiling Valley, cooperation was essential — all the fragments together were the only way to assemble the full map.
“With the Divine Maiden Furnace, we should be able to protect ourselves. Let us cooperate.” In the end, they made this decision.
On this day, the Northern Sea was calm, the water dark and chilling to the soul, with ancient beasts occasionally surfacing — revealing mountainous portions of their bodies — a sight to inspire dread.
In the sky, thirty-six map fragments united into one, becoming a full sea domain divine map, pointing toward a mysterious location: the Roiling Valley.
“What an intricate ancient map — it must be matched against the positions of the heavens and stars, and only through careful deduction can its location be inferred.”
Every person present was the master of an immortal inheritance, their knowledge and perception innately superior to ordinary folk. With keen acuity, they immediately perceived the subtleties within.
“The Guanghan Palace’s sacred weapon is held by Yi Qingwu, and the Golden Crow clan’s is carried by Lu Ya — what do they mean by this?” Yan Yixi said.
“Hmph — whatever sacred weapon she has, Yi Qingwu will not escape her fate this time.” Li Tian opened the Divine Maiden Furnace. Within it was a small altar, upon which he carved Yi Qingwu’s name in earnest.
“Junior disciple, you—” Yan Yixi’s face changed.
“Senior brother, you are too dull. The Divine Maiden Furnace has already been brought out — why not put its true power to use?” Li Tian gave a sinister chuckle, then turned to Ye Fan and said, “Brother Ye, let us work together — Yi Qingwu won’t escape. She’ll be subdued by us.”
The great figures spent several days studying the divine map. At last, the mystery was worked out and the destination inferred.
Each day at sunrise, one proceeded ten thousand li forward through the Northern Sea. Each time the Twenty-Eight Star Mansions of the Four Symbols appeared, one veered and pressed onward another ten thousand li.
Moving in this manner, stopping and starting over half a month, they arrived at a mysterious stretch of sea. An ancient island sat in the dark ocean, vibrant with life, covered in ancient medicines, filling the air with a fragrance of herbs.
What left everyone most awestruck and filled with longing was a single ancient tree growing at the island’s center — golden in color, as though cast from yellow gold, its golden leaves flourishing and abundant, flowing with Solar Holy Power.