In the burial ground, the bones lay like an ocean. Above them, the vast and imposing palace hall stood alone, radiating majesty and dignity. A lump of flesh and the Wushi Bell were locked in a standoff, on the verge of being drawn into another world.
The Chaos Green Lotus appeared without warning, beyond everyone’s anticipation, blazing with a cascade of runes — like trails of immortal silk, brilliant and crystalline. As these runes descended, even the eerie energy that pervaded this place faded.
Setting aside Ye Fan and the Mountain Phoenix, every other person retreated. They could not endure the majesty before them. Trembling and shaking, they fell to their knees on the ground.
Even the Mountain Phoenix could not bear it. In the end, its whole body shuddering, it stepped back one pace after another — for the Chaos Divine Lotus radiated a pressure of the absolute Dao and had awakened of its own accord.
The small lotus in Ye Fan’s hand stirred with a response, swaying and scattering a brilliant rain of light — then broke free of his grip and flew outward, merging with the great Chaos Green Lotus, fusing together into one.
It became an imprint, branded upon the body of the mother stalk — vivid and jade-green.
All of it happened far too suddenly. People could not even react in time. With the Green Lotus no longer shielding him, Ye Fan immediately felt a suffocating weight — like mountains and oceans pressing down upon his skull — as though a Great Emperor were standing there looking down at him from on high.
With a resonant hum, the All-Matter Mother Qi Cauldron flew out from the center of his brows and hovered above his head. Within the cauldron’s mouth, there stretched a vast and boundless expanse — chaos surged and churned within, and then ten thousand cascades of mother qi poured downward like waterfalls.
That suffocating oppression vanished at once. Ye Fan’s forehead blazed with light as he channeled his divine power, enlarging the cauldron above him. It extended its presence outward, forming a wide field of protection that drew in the Mountain Phoenix and all the other great demonic creatures, sheltering them beneath.
“What is that?” The others were bewildered — having been sealed for over two thousand years, much of what had happened in the outside world was unknown to them.
“The Green Emperor’s weapon!” Ye Fan said.
“What — it is him — I know of this!” Those among them who were not entirely without knowledge were shaken. They were not so very distant from ten thousand years ago. Some of them had even had masters who had gone to pay respects to the Demon Emperor in the final years of the Demon Emperor’s reign.
This naturally shook them. A true Great Emperor of the demon clans — in those days how supremely dominant he had been. He had shattered the curse that said no one could attain the Dao after the ancient wilderness ended. He had stood as sovereign over the nine levels of heaven, writing a legend in reverse, shaking the ancient, the present, and the future alike.
“We pay our respects to the Green Emperor!”
No small number among the group were great demons, and they held deep and genuine admiration for the Green Emperor. In the void above, they knelt and bowed in solemn ceremony.
When they calmed themselves, they were also stunned by the mystery of Ye Fan’s cauldron — that it could block the suppressive presence emanating from an ancient Great Emperor’s weapon was simply beyond ordinary reasoning, surpassing all common sense.
Ye Fan understood clearly: the reason it could do so was twofold. First, the cauldron itself was extraordinary. Second, it was because the law-runes of the Immortal Bell had been sketched out and traced, and now resided within the cauldron — naturally filling it with boundless divine might.
The immense Chaos Green Lotus shrank to the height of a single person, then flashed and disappeared inside the palace hall. It swept toward the lump of flesh and flared out ten thousand zhang of jade-green light.
Seeing this, Ye Fan was startled. He took everyone and retreated at maximum speed, withdrawing far from this battlefield — to a place beyond the range of that vast and imposing palace hall.
Clearly, this was not enough. In the next instant, Ye Fan tore open the void, moved across worlds in a single bound, shattered through this great expanse, and came out into the boundless stellar domain — escaping “the Mausoleum of One World” entirely.
Yinghou appeared to the eye to be nothing more than a planet. Yet in truth, an entire world was sealed within it. At this moment, vast fluctuations erupted from within. Ye Fan stood in the space above, looking down, and a troubled expression crossed his face. He glanced once at the water-blue star not far in the distance.
In that same instant, he reached out and plucked a star from the stellar void, refining it, placing it where Yinghou had been. Then with a great sweep of his wide sleeve, he gathered up Yinghou itself and carried it away.
The Mountain Phoenix, the Hundred-Limbed Celestial Worm, and the others were so frightened their very souls nearly left their bodies. This star was, at this moment, effectively an immense graveyard that swallowed gods — carrying it on one’s person was tantamount to seeking death. An imperial-level cultivator was within it, after all.
Ye Fan said nothing. With the All-Matter Mother Qi Cauldron at the crown of his head, in a single bound he crossed several hundred star systems and headed for the distant, barren frontier of the universe.
The star-light flowed in reverse as he moved. He succeeded. During that process, though terrifying fluctuations spread outward, Yinghou did not disintegrate. At last, he cast this star into a region of desolation — a dead domain.
The interval of time had not been long, yet the Mountain Phoenix and everyone around him had been soaked through with sweat, as though drenched by rain. Every person was utterly exhausted.
Death itself was not the thing to fear. What was frightening was the agony of being alive in such moments. In that brief span of time, they had been dancing at the edge of a blade — at any instant they might have been run through, blood-soaked, pain searing through bone.
From within Yinghou, a blinding beam of light erupted skyward, piercing through the barrier-wall of the world. Through it, one could see a Chaos Green Lotus sweeping against the lump of flesh, driving it toward another world.
And then — the sound of a great bell resonated across the universe through the ages. A long and mournful reverberation rang out through the vast reaches of the star-filled void. In that moment, certain peerless and unmatched cultivators across the world were startled. Something stirred in their hearts.
The Wushi Bell had awakened. From its mouth, light blazed — chaos surging and billowing. It sought to swallow the lump of flesh into itself, dragging it along on the same journey.
And in that same moment, the lump of flesh also revived. From within it burst forth a brilliant, magnificent light — five hues of radiance illuminating the cosmos, ten beams of light cutting across the star-void. It was an incomparably terrifying, incomparably powerful presence. This was a matchless and peerless presence, without equal.
Ye Fan and the others retreated once more, defending with the All-Matter Mother Qi Cauldron, watching tensely from across the star river. This was truly a contest and a battle that came along only once across ten thousand ages.
“That Chaos Green Lotus is more than a simple imperial weapon. No wonder it was indestructible even amid the dark upheaval of those years. Just now, when the small lotus merged with it, a living quality seemed to arise — as though the Green Emperor had been reborn.”
Ye Fan’s eyes blazed with intensity as he stared fixedly. Certain things had exceeded ordinary reasoning. The Green Emperor had passed ten thousand years ago, and that itself had always seemed somewhat strange. Now, looking at this scene, the doubts only deepened.
The Green Emperor’s true body blazed with jade-green light, reaching to the heavens and brilliant beyond description. With a single spreading of its jade-green leaves, it carved open ten thousand ages of azure sky, shattering the vast heavens entirely — nothing could stand against it.
One character after another jumped forth. These were small qilins, small vermilion birds — this script-style was extraordinarily strange, every creature a divine beast taking shape. And every single character carried within it a world-dominating, supremely overbearing power.
This was the demon clan’s script — the Green Emperor’s Great Dao. Now transformed into laws, it surged forth, pressing down upon that lump of flesh in suppression.
“Clang!”
Like a heavenly blade drawn from its sheath, from within the lump of flesh five beams of immortal light flew free. Each of them rang with a metallic cry — clear, sharp, and resonant. Looking closely, these were five tail-feathers: uncanny and beautiful, magnificent and brilliant and dazzling.
They possessed a force without equal. They ground away sheet after sheet of the characters manifested from the Chaos Green Lotus, obliterating them entirely. Their might was enough to shake the world.
Even having personally participated in the dark upheaval, even having entered battle with his own hands — Ye Fan still felt his heart clench in anxiety. The lump of flesh had displayed only a fraction of its energy, and yet it had already withstood an imperial weapon.
And yet that Chaos Green Lotus was truly unlike any other. Different from every imperial weapon he had known. With a mighty surge of power, in the manner of the opening of heaven and the creation of earth, it swung forward — heavy, sweeping, devastating. It broke through the tail-feathers and struck the lump of flesh directly.
“What is that?!” Even the Mountain Phoenix, for all that it was a Quasi-Emperor, cried out in astonishment.
Upon the Chaos Green Lotus, for just a moment, a cosmos appeared. Within it, a lotus seed was evolving — opening up a true and genuine cosmos, capable of standing against any powerful living being in all this universe.
“Is that the origin of the Green Emperor — truly, a lotus seed from before the opening of heaven, from within primordial chaos?!”
“Utterly heaven-defying!”
The group of great demonic creatures was shaken. The Green Emperor’s weapon revealed its full might — more like a Great Emperor than a weapon. It swept down upon the lump of flesh and made it shudder violently.
“Ten thousand ages: a single lotus, sovereign of all — a lotus seed in primordial chaos before heaven opened. Could the legends truly be real?” The Mountain Phoenix’s face had gone completely pale. It spoke these words in a murmur to itself.
Ye Fan looked at the state the Mountain Phoenix was in, and something stirred within his heart. By the accounts of the other demonic creatures, the Mountain Phoenix had originally been an ordinary old rooster, and had stumbled into an immortal’s cave dwelling — and there ultimately attained the Dao, becoming a Quasi-Emperor of one age. This was extraordinarily remarkable. Perhaps it had come to understand secrets that others did not know.
“Is there something you have thought of?”
“Yes.” The Mountain Phoenix nodded. “The cave dwelling I entered was indeed left behind from the mythological era of the distant ancient past. The greatest gain I had there was consuming the remnants of a Nine-Cycle Immortal Pill.”
The moment this was mentioned, everyone was dumbstruck. What was that? It could grant a Great Emperor an additional lifetime — and that was under circumstances where every other divine essence and ancient medicine had already been consumed and had lost all effect.
“In that place, I read several rolls of tattered scriptures. Among them was a journal that recorded certain discussions of divine medicines. According to what was written there, every Undying Medicine is a miracle, containing within it the greatest secrets of heaven and earth.”
“What are you trying to say?” The Dragon Sparrow was somewhat impatient by nature, and asked quickly.
“The author of the journal wrote assessments of certain immortal medicines, and also mentioned a particular immortal lotus — one the author had spent half a lifetime pursuing, yet never obtained.”
“You cannot mean… that the Green Emperor is that lotus, and together with the Undying Phoenix Medicine and the True Dragon Divine Medicine, these are all Undying Medicines?!” Ye Fan responded quickly, asking precisely this.
“Yes. According to what was written there, in the mythological era there was an Undying Lotus among the immortal medicines — yet it underwent nirvana, just as the Qilin Divine Medicine had done, transforming once more into a seed and vanishing. The author of that cave dwelling spent half a lifetime in pursuit and never found it, and felt deep regret.”
The Green Emperor was an Undying Immortal Medicine?
This left everyone wide-eyed and speechless. If it were true, this would be news that shattered the universe — overturning a form of understanding that the world had always held. The common knowledge that Undying Medicines could not cultivate to human form would be broken.
“How could he cultivate to human form?!” People could not bring themselves to believe it.
That Undying Medicines could not take on human form, could not break free from the restraints of order — this had been the unvarying consensus since ancient times. And now it had been overturned. One of them had achieved the Dao.
Ye Fan thought of many things. That lotus from the mythological era had undergone nirvana. The lotus seed had fallen into an immortal pool, taking root upon green-patinated bronze. Perhaps this had been one of the causes that ultimately allowed the Green Emperor to transcend impossibility and succeed.
But once having broken free, the Green Emperor had also lost the ability of long life. There is always a price for every gain.
“Boom!”
The Chaos Green Lotus met the lump of flesh head-on. The two collided violently — jade-azure against five-colored tail-feathers.
“Dong!”
Suddenly, the bell rang out once more!
Upon the Wushi Bell, a shadowy form appeared. In an instant, a vast and mournful heroic spirit swept across the barren frontier of the universe.
A person stood with their back to all living beings, seated in meditation. There was an indescribable bearing about this figure — nothing in the world could obstruct or block that presence. The figure was tall and upright, the hair dense and full of life. In stillness and silence, this person carried within them a quality of loneliness.
“Is this… Wushi the Great Emperor?” The thirteen great demonic creatures trembled. Their very voices shook.
The Chaos Green Lotus also stirred and shuddered, propping open the stellar body of Yinghou, gathering the essential qi of the eight horizons and the limitless expanse, erupting in resplendent brilliance — sweeping over the lump of flesh.
The five-colored tail-feathers rang out clear and sharp, transforming into immortal swords that hacked downward. Nearby stellar domains silently and soundlessly collapsed — swift and catastrophic annihilation.
Had Ye Fan not been defending with the cauldron, all those beside him save the Mountain Phoenix would not have survived — they would have become mists of blood.
“Dong!”
Another bell toll. The shadowy form upon the Chaos Bell became a fraction clearer. For the first time, the great bell surged into motion — no longer remaining still. The bell’s mouth opened wide and swallowed the lump of flesh inside, and all around it, chaos mist and haze wound and coiled, mysterious and indistinct.
“Boom!”
An indescribable presence surged upward. The immortal domain seemed to be torn open. That great bell, trailing the lump of flesh with it, entered another world. From beginning to end, that tall and upright shadow upon the Wushi Bell never once turned around — it departed with its back still facing all living beings.