Ye Fan was unwilling. He could not accept this reality.

How could he forget those years — the brothers who had charged into the jaws of death together, who had poured out blood and sweat side by side, who had stood shoulder to shoulder through the Beidou, who had walked the path to heaven, who had created the Heavenly Court with their lives on the line? Now one by one they had left him behind, separated from him by ten thousand years.

How could he let it go? Xiao Zi had not yet grown up — she was so adorable, so small and fragile. Yet she had withered away far too soon.

And Ziyue — he had let her down far too much. In her final moments he had seen only a corner of her garment and a few drops of blood, buried in the rubble.

Lives that should not have ended, vivid and cherished faces — all of them had faded away and disappeared!

The light in Ye Fan’s eyes was like two sharp swords. His will to fight blazed like a fire, burning to bring down the sky, to shatter the earth into fragments, to go out upon the immortal path and demand answers from the heavens!

“I will shatter immortality, reverse past and future, transform into the cosmos itself, and overturn everything!”

Though he had grown old, and could feel his blood-spirit’s inadequacy, he still held this conviction. He had already stood at this height — one more step forward, one more tier above, and he would hold mastery over all.

Ye Fan swept away all turbulence, suppressed his grief and sorrow, and made himself calm and resolute, burning with fighting spirit.

“Who will battle me?”

He walked through the starfields, striding up into the heavens, seeking a worthy foe — intending to blaze brilliantly in the pinnacle of his ascent and pursue eternal life.

This lifetime was silent. No predecessors could be seen. No path home could be found. Not a single soul responded to his challenge. Every one of those heaven-defying geniuses of their generation had withered away. Everyone had died.

Ye Fan walked forward in lonely solitude, passing through the ancient stars — Beidou, Ziwei, Amitabha, Feathered Transformation, Heavenly Pathway, Fire Mulberry, and more. All were shattered. Everything had become the dust of history.

Even the Earth was no longer there — it had been reduced to ashes and ruin.

Ye Fan ascended the heavenly path and came before the Emperor’s Pass. He stepped inside — even this place was ruined. Every hall and palace had been ground down to traces. The Wood-Chopping Elder and the Dao Palace had both been extinguished, lost to the skies of history.

In a world this vast and empty, not a single worthy adversary could be found!

The once brilliant prosperity of those days — now, at last, it had become bleak and withered. All its glory had receded, becoming the dust of history.

The great factions of the past were no more — all had been reduced to scorched earth. This left one helpless, and yet one could not but let out a long sigh.

“Can I not even find an opponent?”

Just as he had foreseen, the Divine Organization was gone as well. The passing of ten thousand years had changed too much!

For those who enjoyed listening to tales of legend and myth, perhaps it did not seem so long. But placed in reality, it was truly far too vast a span of time.

The Underworld and the Divine Organization, which had existed since time immemorial, had both been destroyed — what kind of violently turbulent years these must have been, to shake and stun the mind.

“Who will battle me?”

Ye Fan roared. In a cosmos grown bleak and sparse, with only a handful of living star systems left to sustain life, he could not find even one adversary.

The flourishing of one era had concluded — and it had ended in this kind of desolation.

He thought back to those years, and what a golden age it had been. Stars had shone in brilliant multitude. A host of heroes had contended for supremacy. The sons of emperors and the sons of ancient sovereigns had shined together in glorious radiance. Ancient supreme beings had held sway over the forbidden zones.

What a great era that had been — even imagining it was enough to make one tremble with awe. And for powerful beings, it made the excitement run even higher — to have had the fortune to be born in the most brilliant age since antiquity, that was the most ideal of times. In such an era one could have fought the most glorious battles of one’s entire life.

One name after another came to mind: Yao Guang, Taichu, Zhang Bairen, the Sovereign Emperor, Dao Yi, Huo Qizi, the Sacred Prince…

And yet all of them were gone — not a single one remained to be found!

Ye Fan felt that he had grown so powerful he had reached the absolute pinnacle. Yet he could find no opponent. He could not even measure how terrifying his combat capability now was.

If there were no more adversaries, he might simply grow older and older. The Holy Body could live for more than ten thousand years — and now its lifespan was nearly spent. Even though he had consumed certain divine medicines and sacred fruits in the past, they would not extend things much further, for they had already been offset by the Dao-wounds and the erosion of the years he had spent in the ancient forbidden zones. What had truly been converted into lifespan was not very much.

“I am growing old — and there is not a single opponent left.”

This was not a glory without peer. It was a loneliness without boundary. He had at last come to understand this torment, and to feel what an ancient great emperor’s heart must have been like.

From being an enemy to the whole world, to being undefeated beneath heaven and earth, to a world fallen completely silent — what a cruel thing this was.

Every person of the same generation was dead. Only he remained, enduring limitless solitude. In the vastness of all under heaven, he could not even find an enemy.

“He was alone against all living beings — what was he thinking in those days?”

“She of her own will transformed and was born again as Xiao Nannan — what led her to make that kind of decision at that time?”

Ye Fan spoke softly to himself, gazing in silence at the sky above.

“I am only myself. No matter what others may do — in this lifetime I will be undefeated. Since there are no more opponents in the mortal world, I will battle myself. I will break through the immortal path and question the heavens.”

After his great grief, after a hundred years of lonely wandering, Ye Fan had now freed himself from sorrow. Like a treasured sword unsheathed, he blazed with the most brilliant light he had ever produced. His presence surged straight through nine tiers of heaven.

He had transformed into an undefeatable war god — looking down upon the sun, moon, mountains, and rivers. With a single thought the eight wastelands stirred. All the stars and myriad things of this cosmos were within his grasp!

“There are no enemies — so I myself am my own enemy. I will do battle with myself!”

Ye Fan’s conviction was so powerful that the cosmos’s stellar rivers trembled in response. If he let out a single roar, the entire starfield would collapse open. It was a scene of terrifying extremity.

His presence, his battle-power, his will — and the invincible conviction he held — all had reached the absolute pinnacle of everything he had achieved since entering the world.

“I stand at the absolute peak of this life. I will do battle with myself and forge a path that belongs only to me!”

These resounding words shook the star-reaches. A Ye Fan marching toward the most glorious and supreme apex of his life appeared — shattering every last obstacle in his path.

On the road before him, nothing could stop him. Wherever his gaze fell, that place crumbled apart, becoming a brilliant radiance — and then a Chaos explosion erupted, giving rise to a scene of the heavens being opened and the earth being split apart.

Boom!

In this moment, from within his immortal platform flew a blazing bolt of lightning that sliced through this cosmos, shattered this world, illuminated eternity — so brilliant it was impossible to open one’s eyes against it.

Ye Fan shut his eyes, letting the immortal radiance blaze on, illuminating through the cosmos. He remained still for a long, long time, experiencing that remarkably unique sensation.

Much later, he opened his eyes.

The blazing light gradually faded. Before him lay a golden divine sea, surging with waves, vast and boundless, as the sun, moon, and stars fell ceaselessly into its depths.

The cosmos was immense. The stellar rivers were brilliant. Nothing was shattered. Nothing was destroyed. Everything was as it had been yesterday.

Ye Fan sat cross-legged there, unmoving, gazing in silence at this starfield — and after a very long time, he said quietly: “I have seen a corner of the future.”

What he had experienced was not an illusion. It was the future.

Looking back now, his heart still ached, his spirit was still wounded. That had been a span of cruel, indelible years. Ye Fan let out a long cry and rose to his full height. He had to take hold of the future — he could not allow that sorrow to truly come to pass.

Within Ye Fan’s heart, a fire was burning. He would stop all of this!

The most important people in his life were here beside him, right before him. He would never wait until they were lost before he suffered for it. All of it — just as though he had truly lived it — he had. His will was iron-hard. He would protect everyone. He would not wait for it to truly happen.

At the same time, Ye Fan now understood why this event had occurred. In his hand, a piece of divine wood was scorching hot, already burned to ash. This was the “Before” Character Secret that he had obtained from the Beidou’s Ancient Chaos lineage — and he had now cultivated it to fruition.

For all the long time since he had acquired it, he had allowed everyone in the Heavenly Court to study and comprehend it — and not one of them had been able to fathom it. It required a heavenly affinity, and even he himself had never been able to find the way in. To him, it had been nothing more than a piece of wood.

And yet now, unexpectedly, he had cultivated it to completion. A passage of profound meaning had been branded into his mind.

This was a supreme secret art — the highest and most profound chapter for cultivating the Primordial Spirit. Once mastered and brought to perfection, one could, on occasion, sense the future.

Moreover, he had discovered that his Transversal Character Secret had advanced dramatically. It seemed that during his process of seeking enlightenment in the Dao he had interfered with the flow of time itself — and the two supreme secret arts combining together had created that terrifying experience he had just endured.

“And then there is this sea…” Ye Fan gazed at the golden sea of bitterness for a long, long time without speaking.

No one could say how much time had passed before the light in his eyes grew resolute. What he had lived through — that span of years — would be the most precious wealth of his entire life.

“A span of years, a span of life — my Dao was forged through it. It is a priceless and supreme treasure!” Ye Fan grew ever more resolute. The light in his eyes was enough to shake the heavens.

That was the future. Though it was not the only possible future — and it might be completely altered — that desolation of ten thousand years, those hundred-odd years of lonely searching, that despair and grief, and the understanding and comprehension of life that had come from it all, were indelible.

He had lived through a span of years, and gained perception of a span of the future. It was a life of ten thousand years. It surpassed the value of acquiring several ancient scriptures. Perhaps this was the greatest treasure he had ever obtained on his path of cultivation!

“Undefeated in this age!”

Ye Fan’s conviction was firm. He had become immeasurably resolute. His gaze was like two golden bolts of lightning. He stepped forward.

His hair was snow-white — yet his face bore no wrinkles. He was still young, still had time. Everything could still be turned around. Ye Fan refined and evolved his Dao and his law.

That experience had been too vital. It had brought him grief, brought him suffering, brought him desolation. Even now, looking back, there were waves of sorrow. And that was precisely why it had left him with a profound and incisive understanding — his insights were boundless.

The heavenly tribulation struck down, flooding this place with a sea of lightning.

Ye Fan felt not the slightest trace of fear. After having endured that great calamity of ten thousand years, what more was there to fear in life? He was still alive. His loved ones and friends were still alive. That was enough.

He surged upward against the tide, launching one punch straight up — a single strike piercing through three tiers of the tribulation sea, blasting open a void!

Ye Fan crossed the tribulation. And it was not one tribulation alone — three layers of quasi-emperor tribulation descended simultaneously. Though his time spent cultivating was not extraordinarily long, his accumulation ran immeasurably deep, as though he had truly lived and weathered ten thousand years of change.

From the third tier of the quasi-emperor, he broke through all the way to the sixth tier, towering above all in this age. Lightning poured down endlessly. A vast immortal domain came pressing down to surround and trap him.

“It is nothing. Everyone is still alive. What does it matter if three tribulations converge at once? I will cross through them all!”

Ye Fan’s conviction was stronger than it had ever been before. Having lived through that genuine vision of the future, the impact on him had been too immense. His will was iron. He did not regard the triple tribulation as a difficulty.

In truth, a triple quasi-emperor tribulation was extraordinarily rare — it had barely ever been seen throughout all of antiquity. To have reached this level — how could one undergo consecutive tribulations like this?

Under normal circumstances, the quasi-emperor tribulations truly did require advancement one tier at a time, with each tier becoming more arduous than the last. Each tier could keep a cultivator trapped for many years — and some remained trapped until death.

Yet Ye Fan was this forceful and relentless. These three tiers of tribulation could not hold him back. He surged against the tide and broke through every last sea of lightning, shattering the vast immortal domain.

The cauldron danced with him. What he wanted was more than this — the future could not be allowed to unfold again. He needed to grow powerful!