The sixteen-foot Bodhi swayed once — all its leaves turning and rustling with a crackling sound, like pages of an ancient scripture unfolding one by one. In an instant it seemed as though three thousand years had swept past, attaining the Dao and fruit of this lifetime.
The chanting of the Buddha’s sutras and the incantations of the Celestial Venerables seemed to travel across a thousand and a hundred lifetimes, resounding beneath the Bodhi tree — as though narrating the origin of the cosmos and the process by which heaven and earth were born.
Beneath the tree there was only a single figure, quietly seated cross-legged, like bedrock — utterly motionless throughout, not rising for the Buddha, not standing for the Celestial Venerables.
At his fingertips was what appeared to be his own scripture. An ancient scroll, mottled and worn — page after page turning — entered the bones of his forehead and was reflected upon the crystalline immortal platform, casting his own Dao.
Ye Fan sat cross-legged beneath the Bodhi tree in enlightenment, drawing upon the Dao-traces of ten directions across heaven and earth, comprehending ten thousand techniques from ancient times to the present, tempering the true meaning of his Emperor’s Fist, refining an eternal form.
Everyone else was astounded, for at this moment all manner of extraordinary phenomena appeared.
In the distance, the Divine Demon Ridge trembled and rang out with blazing light. Ancient runes manifested upon each mountain peak one after another, and then bore down upon this location with suppressing force.
Ye Fan sought enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree, communing with the scriptural meanings of the divine beings and demons across all the heavens — tasting the Daos of the myriad powerful beings of the mythological age and smelting them into a single furnace, causing his fist technique to undergo nirvana and transcend above all scriptures.
In this moment, ten thousand living beings manifested — different races, different Daos, different techniques — each displaying a different radiance!
All had been venerated as divine beings and demons in the mythological age. Though they differed in strength and weakness and even had conflicting principles, for Ye Fan they were all precious references and sources of inspiration.
In this moment, tens of thousands of Dao-traces intertwined from every direction. Over ten thousand ancient runes manifested — each overbearingly mighty, each with divine power covering all the world — genuinely descending upon the mortal realm.
The divine beings screamed. The demons roared. Three thousand ancient runes, three thousand great Daos, occupied the most prominent positions, circulating in the vault of heaven. Each one carried the mighty aura of suppressing past, present, and future!
The supreme Dao lineages. The supreme inheritances. The scriptural meanings flowed — it was as though one divine being and demon after another had been resurrected, their true forms arriving in person.
Ye Fan sat quietly, unmoving as a mountain beneath the Bodhi tree. Only the immortal platform shone with crystalline light, reaching out to touch those ancient runes, tempering his fist’s meaning.
“Roar…”
From the crown of Ye Fan’s head a stream of golden blood and vital energy surged out, condensing into a figure behind him — identical to him in every way — and began once more to manifest the Heavenly Fist!
This was an existence more terrifying than any divine being or demon — as though a Heavenly Emperor himself stood there. Every gesture he made brought lightning and thunder, cracking the vault of heaven apart, as though ten directions were being utterly annihilated.
His hair floated in wild disarray, his gaze sharp and piercing. Every motion was the extremity of the Dao, possessing divine power that covered all ages. This form would shatter eternity and endure forever in the world.
As Ye Fan manifested ten thousand techniques and forged his Dao-fruit, within this same stretch of Divine Demon Ridge, another being was roaring — breaking through the heavenly mysteries, comprehending the supreme great Dao of their own body.
This was an underground sea of blood. The Heaven-Devouring Beast’s enormous body floated and sank within it — for thirty years it had consumed demonic blood in great draughts, swallowed divine bones, and smelted the flesh and blood of ancient ancestors into its own body.
For it, these were the great medicines of the mortal world — the indestructible blood-essence and bone-marrow of ten thousand ages — causing its power to surge enormously!
Of course, it had paid a heavy price for this. For anyone to consume the flesh and blood of divine beings and demons was a tribulation — one liable to cause a person to dissolve into the Dao at any moment.
The Heaven-Devouring Beast had nearly reached nirvana in this place. Its original body had been shattered beyond recognition, barely avoiding death. It took over a decade to recover, through constant tempering, until it had forged the supreme beast body.
Over all these years, the Heaven-Devouring Beast had consumed an unknown quantity of divine and demonic blood, transforming itself utterly — becoming a new individual of terrifying power. It harbored a confidence: it would stand invincible among its generation!
“When my flower blooms, all other flowers wither. When the day comes that I emerge from seclusion — whatever Sacred Physique of the human race, whatever supreme being of the divine clan — all shall be suppressed, all washed in blood!”
This was its confidence. Floating in the divine and demonic blood plasma, undergoing the final transformation — the time would not be long. It was about to emerge and stir the winds of change beneath heaven.
Elsewhere in the Divine Demon Ridge, in an ancient tract of land where cadaverous energy swirled, almost no one had set foot for thirty years. The blood-mist was terrifyingly dense, and within it a demonic monk sat cross-legged.
This was the Corpse-Fiend. With an inconceivable ability, he had entered a mound of divine and demonic bones that even Great Sages found difficult to approach — refining the remains of supreme beings from the mythological age, extracting their cadaverous malevolence, tempering his own body.
He was a disciple seated beneath Amitabha Buddha. After thirty-plus ten-thousand-year spans, his corpse had awakened from the darkness. The Buddhist-protective-doctrine divine skill — the Diamond Indestructible Body — had transformed into a demonic form, walking utterly to the other extreme.
In former days, relying solely on his Diamond Indestructible Body, he had been able to endure Ye Fan’s attacks. The robustness of his physique was a wonder that shook antiquity and illuminated the present, rarely matched under heaven.
Now, dark light flickered across his entire body — black yet gleaming — his physique clearly far more powerful than before. He had reversed the Diamond Indestructible Body, forging instead a Demon Sovereign’s Physique!
Had he not awakened in this great age, he would certainly have stood invincible under heaven — very likely becoming the most dazzling figure in all the universe, destined to be recorded in the annals of history.
He was originally a dead man, with the Cycle Seal formed within his body. In this lifetime he had revived with the power to contest the ancient path, capable of competing with any person for supremacy.
The Corpse-Fiend of today was one of the most terrifying existences — earth-shattering in might. He comprehended Buddhist Dharma and understood demonic scripture, merging the two into one. Among his generation, he was nearly undefeated!
At his place of seclusion, Buddhist scripture and demonic incantation rang out simultaneously — deafening — his entire body coiled in two kinds of scripture, supremely powerful and supreme in magnitude!
In another stretch of land, thousands of miles away yet still within the range of the Divine Demon Ridge, Sang Gu was roaring. His body surged to over ten thousand feet tall, reaching from earth to sky — demonic markings rising across his entire form, boundless in their dread.
This place was said to have been the most brutal battlefield of the mythological age, where divine beings and demons from all the heavens had fallen — countless powerful figures buried here. And Sang Gu was the descendant of those divine beings and demons. For him, there was no more fitting ground for cultivation in all the world.
In this place he was favored by the great Dao, focused in his cultivation, receiving inheritances directly from one mountain peak after another, manifesting many ancient techniques that had been lost to the world.
Now, rune after rune appeared — each one a divine being or demon — transforming into seal-impressions and smelting into his body.
Anyone else would certainly have been suppressed to death. But he was the descendant of divine beings and demons; ancestral blood ran through his veins, earning their recognition. He received the supreme great Dao mysteries directly.
Perhaps no one had gained more than him. The Divine Demon Burial Ground seemed to have appeared for his sake. The inheritances of the divine beings and demons from the mythological age appeared in succession, looking upon him with favor.
“My Dao, my technique — swallowing the cosmos, sweeping through the primordial wilderness. The divine and demonic are destined to rule the world, looking down upon the ten thousand races!” Sang Gu roared, shattering the clouds, alone revered in the world.
Thirty years — truly too much had happened. All the heroes had risen!
A hundred thousand miles away, in a great wasteland with an ancient forest of wolf-trees, a great waterfall cascaded down from a cliff ten thousand feet high, splashing into a vast white mist. Before the cliff-face, the Great Lord of the Golden Serpent spat divine radiance and roared with all his might.
Behind him lay one shed skin after another — all shed from his true body!
The Divine Transformation of the Soaring Serpent required drawing upon vast quantities of blood and divine souls, using countless living beings to achieve the self — undergoing a complete metamorphosis, giving birth to a Serpent God!
Ordinary serpents shed their skin, but the Golden Serpent clan shed their divine essence — one could call it a transformation of soul-force — causing the original spirit to grow mighty and then reverse-nourish the physical body, both advancing by leaps and bounds together!
In theory, they had nine opportunities in a lifetime to be completely reborn, bringing flesh and original spirit to their utmost peak — invincible under heaven.
But to actually accomplish the transformation was far from simple. Successfully completing it even once was considered blessed by heaven’s fortune, for most would fail — even dying miserably in the process of the divine transformation.
Precisely because of this, this divine art appeared terrifying. It was called one of the most powerful supreme divine manuals in the universe, and all who knew of it spoke of it with a change of expression.
Over thirty years, the Great Lord of the Golden Serpent had attempted the leap nine times. Though five attempts failed, four successes were already sufficient to look down upon all of his generation — a true invincible path!
By the third divine transformation, he had already reached the ninth layer of Saint-King — the pinnacle. Regrettably, even after the fourth successful rebirth, he still could not break through that barrier and halted before the Great Sage realm.
But this was already terrifying enough — looking down upon all under heaven. Who among his generation could withstand his edge?
“I am not as great as my elder brother — I only succeeded twice. But even so, among our clansmen I stand high above the rest,” the Fourth Lord of the Golden Serpent said, his eyes cold and piercing, frostily declaring: “Elder brother’s divine arts cover all the ages. Emerging from seclusion this time, he will certainly be able to slay the Sacred Physique of the human race — invincible under heaven! I will devour his flesh bite by bite, using his skull to offer sacrifices to second brother and third brother.”
Young supreme beings, dominant in their domains — all possessed the same commonality. For thirty years nearly all had been refining soul and bone, tempering their physiques, strengthening themselves. For those who harbored ambitions toward the Emperor’s path, this would be incomparably cruel: one terrifyingly powerful great enemy after another had emerged.
On the distant shore, the Great Sages schemed once more to attack the Divine Domain. The ancient coffin had already been carried out, leaving them no leisure to tend to the Divine Demon Ridge’s forbidden land. But this place might become even more blood-soaked than the Divine Domain — a violent storm was about to arrive.
The Gold-Devouring Beast, the Bronze Ant King, the Celestial Maiden of the Divine Clan, Emperor Tian, the Great Demon God, the Nine-Eyed Jade Toad, the Ancient Golden Roc… one after another they rose. The clash of supreme beings was at hand.
At this very moment, deep within the Divine Demon Ridge, beneath the Bodhi tree — Ye Fan remained as tranquil as ever, his body like bedrock, utterly motionless.
One divine being and demon after another manifested, transforming into their most fundamental ancient runes. Three thousand great runes stretched across the sky, branded into the void — ten thousand scriptures resonating in unison!
Three thousand was but a symbolic number — a mere approximation. The great Dao ancient runes truly condensed numbered in the tens of thousands. These were the immutable true meanings from ancient times to the present, containing nearly all the Daos.
“All things can become void — even the world will perish. Can the Dao endure long? Only by strengthening oneself can one transcend.” Ye Fan’s true body whispered softly.
Heaven and earth shook violently. Each mountain peak condensed into a rune, suppressing heaven and earth — as though forging immortality, refining the eternal!
Ye Fan was not the descendant of any divine being or demon. He had received no specific technique or inheritance — only drawn upon boundless Daos, tasting the broad directions of various Daos, using them to transcend and cause his own fist technique to undergo nirvana.
Tens of thousands of techniques and boundless Daos — in this moment they all became flames, burning in the form of ancient runes. Ye Fan drew them in, tempering his fist’s meaning!
Through this he transcended — causing his fist technique to be born from fire, reborn through nirvana, achieving the ultimate sublimation of a butterfly breaking free from its cocoon, attaining the beauty of that singular instant.
The blood and vital energy that had surged from the crown of Ye Fan’s head took form once more — beneath the Bodhi tree it extended its limbs, unleashing the most powerful great technique, honing an invincible blade to protect the Dao of his own body.
Ten thousand mountains and valleys resounded in unison. Even the golden source-heaven vein-patterns and portions of the ancient void scripture’s formation diagrams could not conceal it — the radiance of the divine was surging throughout the area.
Even from a great distance one could clearly see streams of divine beings and demons howling across heaven and earth, boundless ancient runes stretching across the sky, ten thousand scriptures resonating in unison — rolling and thunderous — collectively enshrining a golden figure wielding its fists!
In this moment, the Heaven-Devouring Beast emerged from the sea of blood. It stood upon a mountain peak, gazing toward this place with cold eyes, its killing intent flooding the sky.
At the same moment, the Corpse-Fiend opened his eyes — gazing into the distance. His pupils were soul-shaking. This was a demonic Buddha, cadaverous energy rolling off him in waves. He stepped forward — officially emerging from seclusion.
“The Sacred Physique of the human race… is it time for him to appear?!” the Fourth Lord of the Golden Serpent growled, glancing at his own eldest brother, and then together they marched toward the Divine Demon Ridge.
“I require a whetstone. The Divine Demon Burial Ground is my land of inheritance. To contest the Dao-fruit with me — the outcome is already sealed!” Sang Gu’s body returned to normal human height. Like a demon sovereign he advanced step by step.
Ye Fan was in the midst of enlightenment. Many great enemies were closing in. A blood-battle of enormous consequence was about to erupt.
The weeping of gods. The roaring of demons. Unrest throughout heaven and earth — heralding the arrival of the most dreadful storm!