The porcelain doll was innocent and carefree, not the least bit intimidated by the fact that Ye Fan was a powerful being on par with a Great Sage. Her manner was endearingly naive, pure and natural.
Ye Fan noticed the longevity locket hanging around her snow-white neck, and his heart immediately understood — he knew whose descendant she was, and he couldn’t help but feel a wave of quiet sentiment.
The locket had been polished from violet gold, and though its radiance and extraordinary nature had been deliberately concealed so it no longer stood out, that aura of serenity was still perceptible.
This locket was no ordinary object. It had been forged from the leftover material used by a Buddha to cast a demon-subduing pestle, then crafted by the many Bodhisattvas of the Western Desert into a life-protecting lock. It had since drifted out into the world: once worn by the Central Emperor Xiang Yufei, it had then fallen into Duan De’s hands.
In the end, Ye Fan, Princess Yudie, and Dongfang Ye had launched an ambush in the Immortal Realm world, laid that shameless Daoist flat, and stripped him clean. The longevity locket had ended up in Yudie’s possession.
“Is the Princess well?” Ye Fan asked.
“My mother is doing very well. She has mentioned Uncle many times and told me to learn from you and work hard in my cultivation.” The porcelain doll said this with great happiness.
Central Region had four great imperial dynasties, and beneath them another nine royal dynasties, as well as the Hundred Schools of Thought. Princess Yudie was the heir to Anping Nation, one of the nine royal dynasties, and had by now become its queen.
Ye Fan had once saved Yudie, and in gratitude she had gifted him an ancient scripture that illuminated the mysteries of nature’s great Dao. Suspected to have been written by a great human emperor in his twilight years, it had become a priceless treasure to Li Ruoyu of Zhuo Peak, and Ye Fan himself had also drawn profound inspiration from it.
Yudie was one of Central Region’s most celebrated beauties, ranked third by those with a fondness for such rankings. Across this vast land she had no shortage of admirers, and among her generation she was enormously beloved.
The breathtaking young woman of those earlier years had become a mother now, and Ye Fan could only sigh — how swiftly time flows!
“My mother said that if she ever got to see Uncle, she would make sure to ask for proper guidance, and would invite him home as a guest.” The porcelain doll’s large eyes shone brightly as she spoke in her childish little voice.
Ye Fan laughed and ruffled her hair. This child was truly adorable.
In truth, this little girl was not in the least bit shy with strangers. She peppered Ye Fan with many questions, including asking about matters on the ancient starry road.
The crowd nearby grew envious, and in the end all the young cultivators present gathered around, making quite a lively scene. Filled with curiosity about the legendary Sacred Body, they addressed him as Senior one after another.
At a distance, a group of cultivators who had been in the Dao for nearly two hundred years stood in silence. These men had lived through Ye Fan’s era and witnessed his rise firsthand. Looking back now, it all felt like a dream — everything had changed so utterly.
They were all geniuses in their own right, renowned across their respective territories. Yet compared to the Ye Fan of today, they were utterly eclipsed. Slaying the Heaven Emperor’s son, stepping onto humanity’s ancient road, crossing blades with a Great Sage, speaking in fury of leveling Mount Sumeru — which of these was not a world-shaking event that stunned the heavens above and the earth below?
“Time truly changes so much!” Some of them quietly sighed.
There were even some powerful figures who were not particularly old in years, yet after witnessing a century of upheaval, had grown so weary that they now harbored thoughts of withdrawal — no longer willing to struggle through this age of chaos.
Ye Fan spoke briefly with the group of young cultivators about some of what he had experienced on the road, then made his way deeper into the Hall of Extraordinary Men. He wanted to find the old Hall Master and ask about certain matters.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. The old Hall Master had also vanished for several decades, or perhaps even a century. He was long gone from this place. A wasted trip.
“Uncle, let me treat you to some wine.” The porcelain doll came running over and pulled him toward a small tavern. The mountains within the estate were beautiful, and along the roadside, peach blossoms were in full bloom, their fragrance drifting sweetly on the air.
The little one was eager to learn and asked many questions about cultivation, then, working up her nerve, asked Ye Fan to teach her the art of breaking ten thousand techniques with a single weapon — visibly nervous about it.
Ye Fan smiled and said, “Very well. I shall pass you one volume of the Dao scripture.”
Other scriptures he could not simply pass on at will — after all, they belonged to Jade Lake, the Jiang Family, and others, and casually transmitting them would cause serious problems. With the Dao scripture, there was no such concern.
The porcelain doll immediately let out a cheer and pumped her little fist with great force. Evidently this was precisely the scripture she had been angling to learn all along.
Ye Fan pressed a finger to her brow, then left her there alone to contemplate it. He stood up and walked away into the distance.
“Uncle, the Immortal Realm world is so lively! For all these years, foreign saints from beyond the region have been coming and going without stop, all of them exploring. Aren’t you going in? A few friends and I are planning to go.” The little girl called out after him.
“You all go ahead. I’ll be there shortly.” Ye Fan called back. He understood that the porcelain doll wanted to go in but was afraid something might happen, and was very much hoping he would be there to protect her.
Coming to Central Region’s Immortal Realm was Ye Fan’s primary purpose in making this trip, so he had no reason to refuse. When it came to looking after a dear friend’s descendant, there was no question of declining.
He found a different tavern and caught sight of some familiar faces — people he supposed were fellow cultivators from his own generation. After speaking with them for a while, that proved to be exactly the case. Once the conversation opened up and they began asking, he didn’t mind recounting to them his experiences over all these years.
“Brother Ye is now renowned throughout the world, his name alone enough to make the foreign saints beyond our realm dare not make a move. Yet we have accomplished nothing, our cultivation shallow — truly we have squandered our years.”
“What is the use of saying such things? Brother Ye still remembers us, so let’s just drink deeply and to our hearts’ content.”
Once the initial constraint melted away, everyone loosened up. From their accounts, Ye Fan also came to understand many things — the storms and upheavals of the Northern Dipper Star Region over all these years settled into his heart.
Many years had passed, yet the primal wilderness within the Immortal Realm world remained unchanged: savage beasts roamed freely, strange birds appeared and disappeared, and deep within, powerful saints had already been born.
Over these many years, this world had long been opened to the outside. First, the ancient clans had made their move — for they had heard that the Undying Heaven Emperor was buried within, along with a divine remnant thought of his.
Then came the foreign saints from beyond the realm, who, discerning that this place might be connected to the ancient road to immortality from ages past, had all rushed over one by one to investigate.
For dozens of years, they had come and gone, titans crossing one another’s paths, and had uncovered no small number of secrets. Yet the deepest reaches remained beyond anyone’s reach — a forbidden zone that none could enter.
“Will Elder Ye Fan be coming?”
This was a group of young cultivators, six or seven of them, constantly looking back over their shoulders.
“Don’t worry, Uncle Ye Fan is coming.” The porcelain doll vouched for him with confidence, for she had heard his voice transmission reaching her through the shadows.
And indeed, Ye Fan had entered. He had agreed to guard over them for three days, after which he would depart.
Apes cried, tigers roared, an azure dragon swept across the sky, and a great roc spread its wings. Over these years, the living creatures here had grown far more powerful. The shifting laws of heaven and earth had made this place even more suited to cultivation — surpassing anything the outside world could offer.
On the very first day, the young cultivators ran into danger. They were chased by a centipede over a thousand zhang long, its venom spraying like clouds of mist. The creature hunted them across several thousand li, and they came dangerously close to disaster.
Ye Fan did not intervene. He watched calmly as they fled for their lives, refusing to show himself unless the moment was truly critical.
At last, these bright and spirited young faces came to understand the weight of what they had entered. They no longer dared charge recklessly forward, restricting themselves instead to training in the outer zones, with no more grand ambitions.
In the blink of an eye, three days passed. Ye Fan appeared and said, “If you are willing, I will take you all on a walk through the deepest part. But it cannot count as real training — it would only be to broaden your horizons.”
“Yes!” The group cheered.
Ye Fan made his way toward where the Undying Heaven Emperor’s ancient coffin had once rested. He had already heard word that the divine remnant was gone — some said it had been worn away over the long years, others said it had fled.
As for the Undying Heaven Emperor’s human skin, it had been retrieved from the human clan through extensive negotiations conducted by several great ancient imperial families and was now enshrined in the highest temple.
This place was empty now. The ten-thousand-zhang jade platform was surrounded by swirling chaos mist that fell like a waterfall, but the ancient coffin of the Heaven Emperor, the human skin, the divine remnant — none of it could be found anymore.
“Better this way. Otherwise, with that divine remnant stirring up trouble, it would only have led to great calamity.” Ye Fan murmured to himself.
If it truly was merely a wicked remnant, that would be one thing. But if in the end it managed to call upon a previous life — causing the true Undying Heaven Emperor to awaken — then nothing beneath the heavens or across the earth would be able to stand against him.
“The Undying Heaven Emperor is far too terrifying. Even life and death have become shrouded in mystery around him.” Ye Fan sighed softly.
In ages past, the Undying Heaven Emperor had fallen and been buried within the Purple Mountain — known by all the ten thousand clans. And yet that was not truly how it happened, for after how many tens of thousands of years, another coffin bearing his name had appeared here.
How could a single man be buried twice? First interred in the Purple Mountain, then laid out in a coffin here — there was a gap of time between the two, and during that interval, the Undying Heaven Emperor had most likely not been dead at all.
Every sign pointed to the same conclusion: he had been buried in the Purple Mountain and then revived. His body had undergone a cycle of death and rebirth, and he had returned to the world before arriving at this place, where he had opened the road to immortality in an attempt to break through into the Immortal Domain.
Ye Fan left this place behind and pressed on deeper into the Immortal Realm world. The space here was vast — measured in spans of ten thousand li, its territory boundless.
“Kill—!”
War cries shook the heavens. Deep within this sacred domain, a massive battlefield appeared — not a blade of grass upon it, demonic clouds roiling, killing aura flooding to the skies.
It was this place, and no one knew how many had been stopped here. Nearly every saint had failed to pass, blocked by a supremely powerful murderous intent.
Black mist churned. A killing intent that shook ten thousand ages. In ancient times, this place must have been torn apart in a catastrophe of heaven-shattering violence. What remained were the markings left by a great emperor’s war formations, and on the scorched earth, not the faintest trace of life.
Indistinct silhouettes could be seen fighting in the mist and haze — echoes left over from an era before antiquity, persisting through endless years without fading.
It was hard to imagine how truly terrible that ancient battle had been. A thousand armies had been reduced to cinders. The unquenched resentment and murderous aura had been branded into this shattered landscape.
“Undying Heaven Emperor!”
Someone roared in fury. The voice shook heaven and earth. Even though countless ages had passed, it still left the ears ringing dully — one could imagine how staggering that cry must have been when it first rang out, enough to make mountains tremble.
Ye Fan stood frozen. The porcelain doll and the others all went pale, every one of them shuddering. They were young, but they had heard of the emperors of antiquity, and hearing that thunderous roar, their very souls trembled.
“He truly opened a path toward immortality here?” Ye Fan murmured to himself, growing ever more certain.
He told the children to stay put and not wander, then turned himself into a phantom shadow and began to pace around the perimeter of this vast battlefield, measuring it carefully, studying every detail.
It must have been a catastrophe of incomprehensible scale. Even the formation markings left by a great emperor had been shattered — was this the result of someone forcing their way onto the immortal road, or had two emperors of antiquity come to blows?
Even Ye Fan could not be certain. This battlefield was too terrifying. The governing laws and resentment that remained had largely dissipated over the ages, and yet even this remnant was capable of producing such a spectacle.
And it was precisely because of this that so many saints were stopped here: nine in ten could not pass. In mere moments, Ye Fan had already spotted no fewer than eighteen saints lingering nearby.
Among them were members of the ancient clans and sages from beyond the realm — each one enormously powerful, all of them conducting their own investigations.
“What are a few milk-smelling little things doing in here — aren’t they afraid of dying without a proper burial?” A foreign sage came striding over. Catching sight of the porcelain doll and the others, his gaze turned sinister, flickering with a strange light.
The newcomer released a powerful surge of energy as he approached, pressing down on the porcelain doll and the others so forcefully that their bones nearly cracked — they were almost on the verge of collapsing to their knees.
“Do you have a problem?” Ye Fan appeared without a sound, fixing him with a cold, detached stare.
“You — you are the human Sacred Body?!” The foreign powerhouse’s voice shook. He stumbled backward several steps, hurriedly performed a deep bow, and then, without another word, turned and left at once.
The saints nearby all learned that Ye Fan had arrived, and a ripple of unease passed through them. They each gave a nod in his direction, but kept a respectful distance, retreating quickly and ceding the surrounding ground to him.
Ye Fan did not linger. Golden light burst from his body, raising up a sacred golden domain. With the young people at his side, he stepped directly into the battlefield — and passed straight through.
That sight left many of the saints slack-jawed in disbelief.
“Brother Daoist is indeed no ordinary person. Your bearing today is peerless in all the world.”
The moment Ye Fan emerged on the other side, he saw a familiar face. The Great Sage Huntuo — that ever-peacemaking presence — greeted him with a smile, warm and genial as always.
Looking further, Ye Fan saw that several figures stood on this side of the battlefield. Not a single one was weak — they were all Great Sages. And they were staring ahead at what lay before them, their expressions grave and solemn.
“What is that — could those be immortals who have met with catastrophe?” One of them spoke, his voice trembling. He was clearly a recent arrival as well, not yet aware of what this place truly was.