Beneath the bright moonlit night, the Feathering Immortal Cliff was shrouded in a hazy crystalline glow. The great kings battled ferociously. Divine domains, primordial secret arts, and Dao traces all flew at once, the fighting escalating to a white-hot intensity.
After Qinggu Daoren descended, he first extended a hand and drew in a primordial spirit — that of Zhengde, who had fled. The observers were astonished, for within the primordial spirit there seemed to be yet another soul.
“Zhengde is formidable — it’s a pity he encountered Yin Tiande. Managing to preserve a primordial spirit was already impressive!” Yan Yixi said. A moment ago they had all witnessed a divine soul escape, narrowly avoiding calamity.
“Within the primordial spirit there is yet another soul. The Sanque Daoren of the ancient Longevity Monastery of the Underworld Ridge is indeed terrifying.” Yi Qingwu was astonished.
“Sanque Daoren is undeniably a genius of heaven — but surely not to this extreme?” Li Tian was unimpressed.
“You don’t understand Sanque Daoren. Few in the world know his secret. He is not yet complete right now, but several hundred years from now — that’s harder to say…” Yi Qingwu revealed a shocking secret.
What is “Sanque” — Three Missing? It refers to three souls that are missing. Since childhood he was chosen by the master of the ancient Longevity Monastery of the Underworld Ridge as a fitting vessel for their supreme secret scripture, with other peerless masters to assist in his cultivation.
His three divine souls are each parasitic within his father and two other peerless masters respectively, being nourished and refined through the Dao within them. One day they will return to their host — and at that point, he will become the Wuque Daoren, the “Daoist Without Lacking.”
“There is such a secret…” Ye Fan was astonished.
“Once he becomes the Wuque Daoren, he will automatically become the master of the Underworld Ridge — though that may be several hundred years away. No need to worry about it now. What he cultivates is the ancient Longevity Scripture — the most time-consuming of all paths.”
“So the other soul within that primordial spirit just now was Sanque Daoren’s, being nourished within his father?”
Qinggu Daoren made his move. He deployed the Longevity Art, and the entire jade-blue sea was set in motion. The boundless essence within the water surged up in an endless, inexhaustible tide.
The Light King pointed a finger. A ray of undying immortal light shot forth — the innate light energy he had been born with, a divine art inherent to his very being — capable of dissolving all manner of secret arts.
In the jade-blue sea, mist and haze billowed; hundreds of millions of wisps of vapor rose in all directions. The entire expanse of the ocean seemed to ignite. Qinggu Daoren pressed two fingers together and pointed — tens of thousands of surging waves of essence rose up, churning upward in reverse to meet the divine light.
“It’s not particularly intense — nowhere near as terrifying as the battle on the Human King’s side.” Li Tian said.
“They are merely probing each other. What follows will be a fight to the death.” Ye Fan said.
Indeed — in the next moment a stunning scene unfolded. The two exchanged a palm strike. The void collapsed and was annihilated. Had the Feathering Platform not been an immortal cliff, it would long since have been destroyed.
Their strikes were extraordinarily devastating. They punched through time and space, opening a passage that pierced through the killing formation formed by the eighteen ancient ships and bypassed the Longevity Monastery’s holy weapon. The two of them shattered the void and vanished — as though transcending into immortality. Fragments of time itself flashed briefly into existence.
They appeared above the jade-blue sea, having left the original battlefield behind. A world-shaking strike had blasted open a passage — and for an instant, shards of time shimmered and vanished.
“Terrifying power. Such individuals are too strong to measure. This is what a true Perfected King looks like — what came before was merely a warmup!”
The bright, pure moon hung high. The sea had grown calm, rippling with reflected light — a scene of profound tranquility.
The two “living dead” who had few peers in the current age stood facing each other. Though calm in appearance, a current of invisible killing intent surged between them. With a thunderous boom, both struck again.
Qinggu Daoren released his divine domain. The Longevity Scripture’s essence sublimated into the natural Dao. The jade-blue sea merged with the sky — the entire Eastern Sea seemed to become an extension of his domain.
The Light King let out a great shout. His entire body blazed with divine radiance. His luminous divine domain appeared — dazzling to the eyes, like an undying ring of divine light, enveloping him entirely.
This was an extraordinary clash for the ages. Both sides held nothing back, engaging in a domain-level confrontation. Each collision felt like arriving at the very beginning of all creation.
This was the clash of the Dao itself — the sublimation and battle of their innermost realizations. With every collision, inexplicable visions manifested.
With one great resonance of the Dao, tens of thousands of ancient stars flickered. Between the two it was as if an entire stellar domain were evolving — carrying the primordial force of creation itself.
With another strike, all that had existed was erased.
Life emerged in an instant. Vegetation grew lush and rich. A divine tree was born — as powerful as a dragon, its bark cracked like a tortoise shell, reaching through both the mortal and immortal realms. Undying across ten thousand ages, every leaf inscribed with Dao patterns, Dao light cascading down.
This was the Jianmu — the Heaven-Connecting Tree — conjured by the resonance of the two masters’ Dao traces, mysterious and dreadful.
A third strike was delivered, and everything vanished again.
This time, they returned to eternity — boundless darkness, infinite cold — as though arriving at the final end of an ancient universe, witnessing the last breath of all life.
Such was the terrifying clash of Perfected Kings. No words could truly capture the shock of it. Any cultivator of a lesser realm who entered would have no hope of survival — reduced to dust in an instant.
Each strike resonated with the Great Dao, manifesting into inconceivable visions — each carrying a moment of indestructible divine power, branding the secret of eternity.
“Light King — return the immortal scripture to our Longevity Monastery, and this matter ends here. Otherwise, do not blame this poor Daoist for showing no mercy.” Qinggu Daoren said without expression — an ancient Daoist who seemed not to belong to this era.
“Do you believe that once it falls into the hands of this king, it could ever be handed over?” The Light King was enveloped in divine radiance, like a god reborn from fire. Beneath his golden crown, black hair cascaded loose. His eyes contained infinite star domains, as if enacting the secret of the opening of heaven.
Hum!
Qinggu Daoren said no more. From atop his head surged a current of innate Dao essence, transforming into an auspicious cloud. The primordial holy weapon — the monastery — arrived in an instant.
In that moment, mighty force, vast Qi, and the sound of the heavenly Dao cascaded down like a waterfall. The entire ancient monastery condensed with undying divine radiance.
The Light King gave a light shout. Within his body rose a blaze of rosy light — as brilliant as ten thousand immortal blossoms blooming in unison, illuminating all of heaven and earth.
“You have borrowed a sacred weapon!” Qinggu Daoren’s gaze stiffened. His opponent had not manifested the form of this weapon, yet its absolute power was clearly peerless and immeasurable.
The ancient Longevity Monastery — weathered and grand — every tile and stone bearing the imprint of a sage. Now tens of thousands of divine power threads descended like a curtain suspended from the heavens, pouring downward.
On the other side, the Celestial Demon King, consumed by intense unwillingness, abandoned the half-page of immortal scripture. Blood stained the sky. He was nearly killed — and departed, leaving behind half of his celestial demon body.
Meanwhile, atop the Feathering Immortal Cliff, the Human King’s divine might dominated the age as he engaged the Gold Crow King in great battle. Both had fully committed, settling a two-thousand-year-old grudge.
The eighteen cold bronze ships pressed down — a killing formation born from the hands of a primordial sage, surpassing even holy weapons in power.
The Human King was an elderly man in silver robes, wearing a white jade divine crown. His hair was dense and fully white, his frame tall and imposing, advancing with the stride of a dragon and the step of a tiger.
Before him, the solar essence fire blazed in a surging mass. The Gold Crow King was powerfully built, like a middle-aged war god — his gaze sharp as a blade. He gripped the Black-Wing Gold-Flowing Halberd, making all ten directions tremble.
Old grudges, old enmity — the continuation of that battle two thousand years ago — all erupted now in this place, with no end but death. Between them, a half-page of the divine scripture hovered in the air.
Boom!
The Gold Crow King moved. He swung the Black-Wing Gold-Flowing Halberd as though toppling an entire ancient stellar domain — bringing down the force of countless hundreds of millions of jun, his radiance illuminating all of past, present, and future, carrying the aura of a divine being.
In the distance, Ye Fan’s expression changed. Only now, in this moment, did he truly understand how terrifying the Gold Crow King was — incomparably more powerful than the projection and manifestation he had used beyond the domain that one time.
This single strike was enough to kill tens of thousands of Lu Crows. This was an existence like a demon god — powerful enough to make one’s very soul tremble!
By his current realm, he stood absolutely no chance of withstanding it in direct combat — even with his Eight Restrictions, the gap in cultivation was far too great.
Moreover, figures of this caliber — which of them had not astonished both ancient and present times? How else would they have passed the threshold of the “Three Slashes of the Dao”? Every single one possessed immense willpower, immense fortune, and the power of Seven Restrictions.
The great battle reached white-hot intensity!
As time passed, whether in the jade-blue sea or atop the Feathering Immortal Cliff, both arenas had endured a great calamity. Perfected Kings were deciding matters of life and death.
“How long is this going to go on? The longer it drags out, the more likely it is that scattered cultivators from offshore will be disturbed — and that would only complicate things further.” Li Tian said.
This place bordered the vast sea. The killing intent of this world-shaking battle and the aura of Perfected Kings that pierced the heavens would most likely be sensed by the ocean races.
It should be noted that the Eastern Sea held endless legends — many ancient sages had set sail westward from here in times past, and the islands offshore today surely harbored kings. If one or two emerged, things would grow even more complicated.
“Yin Tiande has appeared again — he can’t wait any longer either, fearing something may go wrong!” Yan Yixi said.
On the battlefield, that thin and withered figure reappeared. He must have had a fearsome Dao artifact on him that concealed all his aura, rendering him imperceptible even to Perfected Kings.
At that very moment, Yin Tiande produced a clay jar and stood upon the Feathering Immortal Cliff. Ye Fan mistook it for the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Jar at first glance, but upon closer inspection realized it was not.
In the next instant he was struck dumb. On the clay jar was the character “Seal” — an ancient inscription from the pre-Qin era, originating from the other end of the star domain.
Yin Tiande opened the clay jar. Immediately a streak of dark light surged forth, piercing heaven and earth. A massive wild bull stamped its four hooves, as though it might crush heaven and earth under its weight, towering in midair.
Its entire body was so green it gleamed. Its hide was as smooth as green satin. Its two horns were like broad blades — powerful and primordial — as though capable of cleaving apart the heavens.
This was a massive green bull. It let out a bellow, and instantly a great wind arose, sand and stone flying — a terrifying sight.
In an instant, it transformed into a gigantic man who had grown a pair of horns — imposingly built and muscular, his body covered in a great deal of green ox hair. Of course, the bull-eyes and bull-nose were preserved as well — looking like an incompletely transformed great demon. Dark clouds coiled around him.
Ye Fan was immediately dumbstruck. This was unmistakably the spitting image of an Ox Demon King — wild and powerfully built. How could something like this end up here?
“I am the Ox God King!” A low and thunderous bellow rang out — like a muffled clap of thunder breaking across the sky, making the jade-blue sea roar and swell with a great upheaval.
Not only the several Perfected Kings — even Yin Tiande himself was stunned. He held the clay jar in one hand and a Dao tablet in the other, turning it back and forth, then looking again at the wild bull.
“The era after exiting Hangu Pass — how many years has it been…” The Ox God King muttered to himself.
In the distance, Ye Fan nearly leapt to his feet. This bastard was… that bull?!
His heart hammered violently. Everything was so incomprehensible. Two thousand five hundred years ago, Laozi departed westward through Hangu Pass — vast purple Qi surging thirty thousand li — and vanished from ancient China.
Could it be that the so-called “westward journey through Hangu Pass” had another explanation? Laozi riding his ox westward — from the looks of things now, he had ridden into the star domain!
Exiting Hangu Pass, traversing the Big Dipper, passing through the ancient Ziwei Star Domain — what a “westward journey” that must have been, truly astonishing beyond all reckoning.
Ye Fan stared at that bull. Could this truly be Laozi’s mount? How did it end up sealed inside a clay jar?