Dong!

The long, resonant tolling of a bell echoed outward, cleansing the mind and spirit, making the pores of the body open wide, bringing with it a sense of profound awakening — as though one had been roused from a trance by the pouring of sweet liquid over the crown of one’s head.

This was the Great Thunder Monastery. In the end, Ye Fan had come here after all. He walked in, and elder monks came to welcome him, with luohans serving as guides — he was treated with great respect.

Shakyamuni had already departed and was no longer on the Ascending Immortal Star, but formidable figures remained here to hold the ground — none dared force their way in. Even clans such as the Qiongqi, the Taowu, and the Zhurong were unwilling to provoke them.

“Old friend Ye — it has been a long time!”

When he entered the main hall, a white-robed monk approached and offered his greeting with a bright smile — young in appearance, transcendent and otherworldly, dignified in bearing. It was Jin Chengzi.

It had to be said — this person was remarkably powerful. Over these years, his cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds, and he had long since ascended to the quasi-emperor realm.

Beside him stood a woman of outstanding bearing — also someone Ye Fan recognized, a person from his past. They had once fought side by side in the Northern Dipper. She was the Western Bodhisattva, Jue Youqing.

So many years had passed, and meeting these two again, Ye Fan maintained a gentle smile. Though he was surprised, his heart was no longer stirred by great waves of emotion.

“My teacher is searching for the method of immortal ascension, seeking the immortal path — hoping to shatter the shackles on the path of undying, and at last behold long life,” Jin Chengzi said.

Ye Fan nodded. As his strength had grown, he had come more and more to feel a kind of helplessness — every powerful cultivator who walked to the end of the path would face the ultimate juncture of life and death.

Everyone wanted to break through it — yet who had truly become immortal?

They conversed, touching on various legends and matters of the past.

Jin Chengzi said: “I saw the Holy Emperor Ape engaged in combat with another divine ape.”

Ye Fan’s heart immediately moved, his eyes shining with keen light. Those two had finally met — and this filled him with some unease, a worry for the monkey.

“I went forward to mediate, and ended up getting drawn into the fight myself — nearly suffering a loss for no reason,” Jin Chengzi said with a rueful smile.

The Holy Emperor Ape and the Six-Eared Macaque had crossed paths, and the two were in the midst of sparring and competing, unwilling to allow others to interfere — they were determined to see who was stronger and settle the question of superiority between them.

In terms of bloodline, the Holy Emperor Ape held an advantage. But at the quasi-emperor realm, that was no longer the ultimate deciding factor — for who at this level could be considered ordinary?

Furthermore, the Six-Eared Macaque had grown up steeped in the divine liquid of the celestial worthy’s life spring, his bone and flesh constitution exceptional — he had been forged into something nearly undying. Over these many years, he had wandered the cosmos, and with his six ears in motion, listening to all eight directions, he had gathered many secret methods and scriptures — he had grown enormously powerful.

“Looking at those two, I don’t think they’re fighting to the death — otherwise, blood would have already splattered across the stars and there would be a clear result,” Jin Chengzi said.

Ye Fan gave him a strange look. Two monkeys and a monk — fortunately, things hadn’t descended into a tragic end. Everything still seemed manageable.

Half a day later, Ye Fan departed, walking further upon this star. He had not come seeking battle — he had come to trace and explore. Having learned a great deal, he came once more to the sealed land.

The blood-hued earth. Wind-dried corpses. Vast expanses of land — making this place open and desolate, strange and eerie.

This time, his brow’s light was shining. The All secret art was in motion, his Immortal Eyes opened wide, determined to see through every illusion. A great battle might erupt here in the future, and he wished to survey the battlefield clearly.

Strange forces continued to influence him — but they could no longer disturb his mind.

Suddenly, Ye Fan felt something on his person give a shudder — warm and faintly burning. He took it out and found it was the half-broken Void Mirror that had reacted.

The sealed land of the mythological age was making the ancient mirror burn with heat — this gave Ye Fan a moment of surprise. He held it in his hand and stepped forward, sensing carefully, searching.

He walked over a hundred li before stopping. The Void Mirror began to emit light. The dim bloodstains upon its surface turned vivid crimson, as though they were about to drip off.

This kind of power gave even Ye Fan a sense of immense pressure. It was awe-inspiring. The vitality of an ancient supreme being’s blood was far too potent.

This place was still a land of utter desolation, without a single blade of grass. It was a stone forest, and at its deepest point the air was dry. A stone cave was there, small and opening downward into the earth — giving an impression of depth that defied measure.

Suddenly, Ye Fan felt an immense sense of danger. He could not help but retreat — and then a strange sound reached him. A small tree, less than half a meter tall, appeared.

“This is—”

He was greatly taken aback. That was a cluster of flames, leaping and dancing — terrifying beyond measure, as though it could burn down all the heavens and ten thousand realms. Its heat was blazing, its principles interwoven and intertwined.

This was not fire in any ordinary sense. It was not simply a great blazing mass. Rather, it was formed of spirit-inscriptions, woven together from divine chains — one symbol after another, pulsing and dancing.

This was the cluster of immortal fire from the Northern Dipper’s Fire Domain. He had not expected it to appear here.

Ye Fan was not seeing it for the first time — he had noticed it before, had once had the opportunity to observe it at close proximity, and now he was seeing it again.

Had it been brought into the starfield by Gai Jiuyou? Or did it believe this place would become the ground of immortal ascension, and had chosen on its own to come here? Ye Fan did not know.

The Void Mirror had drunk the blood of no fewer than several supreme beings, and had still nearly transcended to become an immortal mirror — it may have been on the verge of evolving into one. But in the end it had been shattered, which was truly a pity.

Now the immortal fire appeared. The long-silent broken mirror stirred once more — it broke free from Ye Fan’s hand and began to shine brilliantly, flashing without cease, falling toward that flame.

Ye Fan was startled, then stepped back.

The heat was not the key concern — it was the spirit-inscriptions that were the true nature of the immortal fire, the source of its terrifying power. The broken Void Mirror fell into it, and the inscribed flames danced, engulfing it entirely.

The broken mirror trembled and rang with a clear tone — then the shattered sections began to melt, and they began to reassemble themselves!

Ye Fan was astonished. The Void Mirror was using the immortal fire to reforge itself — bathing in these mysterious flames to reshape its mirror-body.

As time passed, many of the cracks on its surface vanished, and it became smooth once more. But it was still only half a mirror — the other half was missing, and who knew where those fragments might be scattered.

Suddenly, an image flashed past within the mirror. Ye Fan went rigid, motionless as carved wood or stone — in that instant, he had seen Ji Zi, or perhaps the Void Emperor. His face flashed past in a single instant.

Though blurred, though translucent, a mere shadow — it was unmistakably the person of those days.

He sighed quietly and settled into a cross-legged position to wait for the Void Mirror’s restoration to complete, unwilling to disturb it.

This process continued for eight or nine full days. During that time, a rain of light actually flew in from beyond — fragments of the Void Mirror, falling into the flames and rejoining with the broken mirror, patching up a small portion.

But it was still short by half. In the end, it remained a broken mirror — only far better than before, its cracks gone.

“Could this place truly be destined to become the ground of immortal ascension? Is the immortal fire waiting here ahead of time?”

A long while later, the Void Mirror flew back. The immortal fire withdrew, disappearing into the stone cave that led downward into the earth. Ye Fan did not pursue it, and had no desire to go down.

He had a vague sense that this passage may lead directly into the sealed land — and probing it too early would bring no benefit, and might instead invite great calamity.

“In the end, I have not yet reached the supreme level — otherwise, where could I not go?” he sighed.

Ye Fan left this star and made his way toward the depths of the star domain, seeking out the Holy Emperor Ape and the Six-Eared Macaque. He had no wish for any accident to befall them.

In the end, he found the Holy Emperor Ape and they exchanged a few words. From what was said, the monkey had developed a considerable admiration for the Six-Eared Macaque — the two had actually forged a kind of rapport from their contest.

Though they were not yet friends, the two would likely no longer face each other in a fight to the death.

“He consumed a complete Nine-Revolution Immortal Pill. His bones and sinews have transformed to a monstrous degree — what a heaven-defying fortune. He is truly formidable,” the monkey said, revealing this secret.

Ye Fan was left speechless. He had been hearing of this immortal pill frequently of late — others had only gotten their hands on its residue, yet the Six-Eared Macaque had consumed a complete one. That was truly beyond heaven-defying.

One had to remember — that was a supreme Dao-treasure pill refined by an ancient Great Emperor, intended to allow that emperor to live through another lifetime!

Ye Fan departed. He reflected and searched, moved by the promptings of his own heart. He knew full well that the road ahead was difficult to foresee, and that the enemies he must now set his sights on were the ancient supreme beings sleeping within the life’s forbidden zones.

At this moment he was powerful — capable of sweeping aside the great experts of this world. But against the ancient supreme beings from ages past, still sleeping in slumber, he was far from sufficient.

Dong!

The resonant tolling of bells filled the air without end, and temples and shrines were everywhere — this was the Amitabha Ancient Star. Ye Fan followed the promptings of his own heart and traversed the cosmos in a state of wandering contemplation, descending here.

He visited the central ancient temple of the Buddhist tradition — a temple that appeared to have been cast from gold, its brilliance cascading down, supremely sacred and pure.

Ye Fan paid his respects and ascended to its gates. Even here at the Buddhist tradition’s ancestral ground, which was filled with formidable figures, he had to be treated with great importance. A significant figure came out to receive him.

A familiar face came forward to meet him — large and powerfully built. This was a monk of the dhuta type, one with whom Ye Fan had traveled the same road several centuries ago, a former rival of his.

“Are you… Bitter Dhuta?”

“To think that you still remember me.” The middle-aged dhuta before him let out a quiet sigh. He was by now a great sage — but compared to Ye Fan’s quasi-emperor realm, there was still a great distance between them.

In those days, on the ancient road for the various clans, Bitter Dhuta, the Feathered Immortal, Ouye Mo, Mu Guanghan, and several others had all been formidable, walking the same road as Ye Fan, all of them seed-candidates.

To have become a great sage was itself sufficient to rule over one domain — for the cosmos was vast and talent was abundant everywhere, and it was impossible for every genius to have a hope of challenging the quasi-emperor realm.

“And the others?” Ye Fan asked about the other gifted individuals he had encountered on the ancient road.

“Like me — capable of commanding one domain, but not if you look across the whole of the cosmos,” said Bitter Dhuta. This was the fate of all of them — the trajectory of their lives had already been written, and this was how it ended on the path to emperorship.

Hmm—!

As Ye Fan walked deeper into the temple with Bitter Dhuta, his heart gave a sudden start. He sensed another familiar presence — coming from the rear mountain.

There were several small temples there, not at all grand — a return to the simple and unadorned.

“A former acquaintance of yours is cultivating there,” Bitter Dhuta said.

Ye Fan went to the rear mountain. Within the ancient monastery, he found an elder monk — or more accurately, an elder monkey — with blazing golden eyes and golden fur, unmoving as a mountain, seated upon a meditation cushion.

It was the Victorious Fighting Buddha. Many years had passed since they last met, and now here he was.

“My respects to the Elder!” Ye Fan performed a full salute. He had once been protected by him and had always carried that gratitude in his heart.

“Child, there is no need for that!” The monkey’s uncle — long since a quasi-emperor — reached out and pulled Ye Fan to his feet with one hand.

Beside him was another meditation cushion, upon which sat another old man who seemed to hold a position just as honored as the Victorious Fighting Buddha — the two sat as equals.

This man was of great age, very elderly, but full of spirit — his eyes shone like torches. He too was a powerful quasi-emperor.

“This is Dao-brother Gu Tianshu,” the Victorious Fighting Buddha said by way of introduction.

Ye Fan was momentarily stunned upon hearing this name — it was not at all unfamiliar. This was one of the supreme figures of the Purple Mountain — one who had willingly served as the guardian of the Beginningless Great Emperor’s mausoleum.

The elder monkey and Gu Tianshu had fought in the Purple Mountain once and, in the manner of those who become friends through combat, had eventually become companions — and had later come to the Amitabha Ancient Star Domain together to cultivate, living in a semi-reclusive state.

Seeing these two, Ye Fan had too many things he wanted to ask — especially Gu Tianshu, who had once been in close proximity to the Beginningless Great Emperor and would know as much as the Black Emperor did, or more.

“Whether the Beginningless Great Emperor lives or has died — even I do not know,” Gu Tianshu said at the very outset, cutting off many of the questions Ye Fan had been about to raise.

But what followed from him gave Ye Fan enormous pause — he spoke at length about the Beginningless Great Emperor’s deeds, all of it secret matters, even touching upon how Wushi had created his laws and methods. It was a radiant chapter of a life.

Ye Fan lingered for several days before departing, having gained enormously. He ascended the heavenly path once more and entered the starfield — this was a journey of cultivation and contemplation.

This time he had not traveled far — he had barely crossed a single star system when he stopped. For he knew: it was time to pass through his tribulation again!

A million lightning bolts descended. The tribulation of the quasi-emperor’s seventh tier struck down, drowning out the entire star domain and shaking the ten directions.

“Crossing a tribulation again?” On an ancient star, a powerful presence stirred, and a great hand reached out — and with a thunderous crash it came slapping down, causing this entire star domain to collapse!

Whose star that was — whose hand that was — was plainly obvious. It was the Tyrannical Body Ancestral Star!