Shi Zhongxuan was dead. Cut down just like that in the great wilderness. A powerful Sacred Spirit had not lasted long before the Holy Body of the Human Race — forcefully executed!

This outcome, this scene, made everyone’s hearts pound with alarm. This battle had been like a thunderstorm — fierce, swift, ending far too quickly.

Even Huntuo the Great Sage could only open his mouth before letting out a sigh. “Alas!”

This kind of battle record — who among those present could claim they could achieve it? It was soul-crushing, and every powerful warrior fell silent.

Only long after the main figures had departed did this place erupt into discussion and noise.

A difficult question now lay before the world: how many people in the future would be capable of opposing Ye Fan? This was no longer merely a Northern Dipper concern — it had become a problem giving headaches to every clan from beyond the outer domain as well.

“It seems the legends are true — he truly fought his way to unrivaled status on the Human Race’s Ancient Road. In the future, there will certainly be a place for him in the highest divine halls of the entire universe.”

“The strongest figures of the Human Race have never fallen out of the top fifteen across the ten thousand domains. Looking at this, in the future he will certainly be among the strongest of that group!”

People debated endlessly. Some were elated; others deeply troubled. Blocking Ye Fan’s footsteps no longer seemed to be a matter for one or two clans alone.

Yet who could do it now? Unless a true quasi-emperor descended, there was simply no way to rein him in.

The Moon Spirit Princess ultimately had not moved to stop Ye Fan. Even with the Nine Li Map on her person, she had not acted. She let out a quiet sigh.

Back in the ancient days, at the fairy pool of the Qinling Mountains, there had already been one confrontation between them. If she became his enemy again today, it would only become harder to resolve in the future — and the potential that Ye Fan had now displayed was enough to make even undying inheritances wary.

Anyone who wanted to deal with Ye Fan faced the same reality: unless they could kill him with a single strike, letting him walk away would guarantee future annihilation of their entire clan.

“I wonder if the old grievance can ever be resolved in the future,” she murmured quietly to herself.

The great assembly continued. Above the Dark City, the ancient continent became lively once more. Though this battle had been startling, it was ultimately just an interlude. The discussion of various protocols for when the immortal path opened still had to proceed.

“Congratulations — it seems your gains on the Human Race’s Ancient Road were immense. Your cultivation has advanced by leaps and bounds, enough to put the powerful warriors of the ten thousand domains on edge.”

Mist and clouds drifted by. In a pavilion, Huo Lin’er sipped Enlightenment Tea and spoke to Ye Fan, a captivating smile on her face.

“I imagine you also traveled the Ancient Road and returned to your clan’s ancestral land,” Ye Fan said with a smile. “You must have entered a vast starry expanse, and your gains naturally wouldn’t have been small either.”

“It seems I too have reason to make a journey into the stars,” Jiang Yifei said. He let out a quiet sigh, as though feeling a touch of emotion.

“Brother Jiang’s cultivation is profoundly unfathomable — enough to look down upon all heroes. Long ago you effortlessly defeated your clan’s divine body, and there have always been rumors that you are the true son of the Great Emperor Hengyu. I wonder if that is true or not.” Ji Ziyue showed two small dimples, her large eyes bright and sparkling as she posed the question.

Everyone’s gaze converged on him, watching with earnest curiosity. Many people were curious about this — and there were rumors in the outside world that Jiang Yifei bore an almost identical resemblance to the portrait left behind by the Great Emperor Hengyu!

Jiang Yifei was elegant and handsome. Hearing this, he shook his head and let out a quiet sigh. “The several emperor-sons of my clan emerged one by one during several of the most terrifying dark upheavals — and nearly all of them died in battle.”

Everyone fell into respectful silence. They thought of those legends — Jiang Family’s emperor-sons had bled out every last drop they had for the Human Race, quelling the dark upheavals and bringing peace to humanity.

Those darkest years of the ancient era were too painful to look back upon — the most sorrowful period of all time, with mountains and rivers shattered and sun and moon dark, and far too many heroes lost.

Some people had once shone brilliantly enough to illuminate the universe, yet passed away too early, dying in battle across those upheavals one after another.

Ji Ziyue blinked her large eyes. She had caught a thread of something in his words. Jiang Yifei had said his clan’s emperor-sons had nearly all died in battle — which clearly meant one or two had survived.

“One person left alone,” Jiang Yifei said calmly. “Yet he was already a man condemned to die. He said he had a debt of cause and effect to seek out — and then he vanished from the world.”

Long Ma and the others cursed those who had instigated the dark upheavals, calling them brutal — harmful to others and ultimately to themselves.

Not far away, An Pu poured himself a cup of fine wine and drank it in one tilt. It had been a very long time since he had last enjoyed such a thing. A trace of savored feeling crossed his pallid face. He glanced over toward them and said: “If that could be called a dark upheaval — then this era shall be called the dark annihilation.”

With those words, every cultivator nearby felt a chill. By now, those who had come into contact with him all had their suspicions about his identity, and had more or less guessed at his origins.

“Natural selection — even the supreme beings have no choice!” An Pu drank three more cups in quick succession, then stood, turned, and walked away without the slightest hesitation.

These cryptic words left everyone with a cold feeling in their hearts, worried about the future all the more — especially those who knew his identity, whose hearts sank at once.

Ye Fan’s expression turned grave. He let out a quiet sigh. This was an age of grand splendor — waited upon since time immemorial. Every supreme being across the ten thousand domains would come, every great Forbidden Zone of Life would break its seal. All the accumulated weight of all creation since the ancient past would bloom in brilliant radiance in this one era. What kind of ending would it all come to? Perhaps it would be extremely brutal — beyond everything anyone could imagine.

Not long after, an envoy came from the Central Heavenly Tower, requesting that Ye Fan go over and join them in discussing the various matters surrounding the opening of the immortal path.

Everyone was astonished. Even the gathered Great Sages held him in such regard that they could not pass over him — he simply had to participate. This could be said to be an extraordinary honor.

Feng Huang was struck with surprise: these elder figures were initiating contact with a member of the younger generation for the very first time.

Thinking about it, though, he truly did have sufficient standing. Setting aside his combat power entirely, the Heavenly Court alone — as an organization willing to launch a campaign to destroy Mount Sumeru — was astoundingly formidable, ranking easily among the absolute top-tier powers of this era. And Ye Fan was its sect master.

Not long after, Huo Lin’er, Jiang Yifei, the Moon Spirit Princess, Feng Huang, and other heirs of the undying great sects were also invited and entered the Central Heavenly Tower.

Representatives of every clan spoke in turn, each attempting to establish protocols favorable to their own clan. But reaching consensus was far too difficult — the arguments went on endlessly, and in the process even Great Sages fell out with one another, went outside to fight, and came to grief.

As for confrontations among Saints — there were far more of those, and bloodshed occurred repeatedly throughout this day near the ancient continent, a scene of utter chaos.

This great assembly continued for a full half-month — far beyond what anyone had anticipated. In the end, it broke up in discord. Apart from a limited few points of consensus, everything else had been rejected.

By any measure, the assembly had been far from successful. It had not achieved the effects it was supposed to. Each clan was dissatisfied, and they agreed to set another date for further discussions.

Without question, those inheritances with ever-growing power had also grown ever more forceful, and would not yield ground.

At the same time, through this great assembly, the Northern Dipper’s heroes had also sensed something ominous: those from beyond the outer domain were only a vanguard, merely scouts. The sect masters of every domain had not yet set out themselves.

“The Golden Crow Clan’s Great Emperor is certainly not the only quasi-emperor — there will assuredly be several more!” This was the consensus.

As for half-step quasi-emperors, as well as each clan’s ancestral weapons — those would inevitably all come to light as well. The future would certainly be extremely brutal.

On the final day of the assembly’s closing, the Void Mirror glowed on its own. It descended outside the Undying Mountain, radiating ten-thousand-zhang immortal radiance, rising and sinking for a moment — then vanished with a flash, piercing deep into the Southern Region.

The great assembly had dispersed. It was over at last — and it had not met anyone’s hopes.

Ji Ziyue had been forcibly taken away by the Ji Family’s Great Sage, who feared for her safety now that people from the Undying Mountain had emerged.

Ye Fan made arrangements with her to visit the Ji Family in a little while — and then headed north, intending to check in on the Jade Pool to see about that Nine-Aperture Divine Stone, which had always weighed on his mind.

Traveling this northern road, he naturally passed through Purple Mountain. Standing before this ancient imperial mountain, his heart was filled with boundless feeling. So many mysteries lay buried within it, and the final fate of the Great Emperor Wushi still couldn’t be clearly said by anyone.

Had he charged into the immortal domain — or had he truly, completely, passed into stillness?

Here, he thought of many people. He quietly lit some incense sticks and offered them in sacrifice to the fifth-generation Source Heavenly Master, Zhang Lin.

He still remembered it clearly: the morning after the battle was won and the Divine Spirit Valley was pacified, Master Zhang Lin had faded away in brilliant sunrise light, bidding farewell to the Holy Maiden Yang Yi, wearing a smile, wearing the grace unique to a true hero — and thus departed from the world with ease, dissolving into a rain of light, leaving behind a stretch of brilliance and sorrow.

That was one of the most unforgettable memories of Ye Fan’s life. Even now, thinking of it, his heart ached. Master Zhang Lin and the Divine King Jiang Taixu were the two people he held in the highest reverence.

Master Zhang Lin was truly a man of heroes — his bearing peerless, enough to make the world lose its luster. Though his fate had been full of hardship, that brilliant radiance was enough to scatter every shadow of darkness.

Ye Fan stood there for a long time, then moved on to a stretch of abandoned stone encampment on the other side of Purple Mountain. Several grave markers stood here. Old Zhang had ultimately been buried in the homeland where he had once lived. Ye Fan offered his respects in quiet mourning, and only after a long time did he rise and set off.

“The Primordial Scripture within Purple Mountain — when will it next emerge into the world?”

And there was the Primordial Bell — always seeming to remain in a state of half-revival, resisting and dissolving every pressure from the outside world, shrouded in unsolved mysteries, as though a Great Emperor were manipulating it.

“The immortal path is about to open — everything will be made clear in time!”

Ye Fan continued north and entered the Divine City — the place that had truly been the stage for his rise. Stone gambling wars, charging through the four extremes, the White-Robed Divine King who had given his life to create an opening for him… scenes played before his eyes as vividly as though they had just happened.

The Divine City was magnificent. Its walls were like mountain ridges stretching in every direction — vast and imposing, like an ancient city dwelling of the Heavenly Emperor descended into the human world.

Ye Fan entered the city and wandered around the stone workshops in various areas, discovering a phenomenon that left him speechless. His portrait actually appeared quite a number of times — and every source stone gambler lit incense and bowed to the portrait before cutting a stone, praying for good fortune.

“Since when did I become a holy man — to have a day where people bow before my image like this…” Ye Fan was utterly speechless, truly not knowing what to say.

Of course, the ones bowing before his portrait were mostly ordinary folk, and among them the majority were gamblers — which left him shaking his head one more time.

Whatever the case, his reputation in the Divine City was simply too great. He had been honored as the sixth-generation Source Heavenly Master. For many source stone gamblers, he was virtually a god — and so they worshipped him constantly.

“Eh, who is that person over there — he looks just like the one in the portrait? Heavens, could it be the Ancestral Master has manifested his divine form?!”

“Have my eyes gone blurry? No, that’s a flesh-and-blood person — good Lord, I’d better cut a stone right away! Good fortune has come — the Source God himself is walking right past me!”

“Oh my god, I’m seeing it too — it’s not just you that has good fortune. This… is this real?!”

Some ordinary people spotted Ye Fan, staring open-mouthed — and then, as though a cauldron had boiled over, they surged forward and surrounded him, instantly erupting into a cacophony of noise.

“The Source God has manifested! He’s truly here!”

“Ancestral Master — bestow upon us some source stones! We bow before you every day, three sticks of incense, never one missing!”

The crowd burst into shouts, immediately triggering a sensation.

Ye Fan’s head throbbed. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.

He had long been puzzled about why his Ten Thousand Things Mother-Qi Cauldron had accumulated a special kind of faith energy over these years. Now he understood where it had been coming from — and he couldn’t help but stroke his chin in thought.

Ye Fan headed directly toward a magnificent stone workshop. He had come this way today for no other reason than to visit the stone king of the old days — to finally get to the bottom of things.