Xiaosong was filled with doubt and confusion. Though it was true that his master was invincible under the heavens, handing his unconscious master over to the Black Emperor felt — no matter how he looked at it — like feeding a meat bun to a dog, or a sheep walking into a tiger’s den.

“You don’t know a good person when you see one. I dare say that when it comes to resolving his troubles, no one in this world is better suited than I am.” The Great Black Dog put on airs — yet it was still laughing, its mouth split so wide it nearly reached its ears, like some enormous wolf.

Xiaosong stared at it, and the more he looked, the more he felt the Great Black Dog’s grin was thoroughly devious.

“What — you still don’t trust me? Rest assured, when this Emperor handles things, you can relax!” The Great Black Dog thumped its chest.

Xiaosong was somewhat at a loss for words. Everyone in the Heavenly Court knew that this dog was the most unreliable creature alive. Its legendary acts of mischief were still circulating to this day — even after three hundred thousand years.

They made their way to the Heavenly Palace. Looking upon Ye Fan lying on the chaos stone bed, eyes tightly shut, hair raven-black, his entire body gleaming like seven-colored divine glass flowing with immortal light.

The Celestial Emperor’s aura was fully withdrawn — not a trace of divine power leaked out. He was motionless, as though cast entirely from jade.

“He has truly become a supreme Celestial Emperor — standing as an equal to the Beginningless Great Emperor.” The Great Black Dog fixed its gaze on Ye Fan and stared for a long, long time — then, remarkably, began to drool.

“You… what are you trying to do?!” Xiaosong watched it warily.

“Do you know who he is?” the Black Emperor asked.

“My master.”

“Who else is he?”

“The Celestial Emperor.”

“Exactly — and flowing through his body is the blood of a Celestial Emperor.” The Black Emperor wiped its mouth, its eyes brimming with a crafty gleam.

Xiaosong felt a wave of headache coming on. This wretched dog — its true nature was showing itself again.

“There’s nothing more to be said about it — since we’ve come upon this opportunity, we ought to do right by ourselves.” The Great Black Dog tried to tempt Xiaosong.

“You… what exactly do you intend to do?” Xiaosong glared at it.

“What else would we do? Come, come, come — let’s start with three great bowls of Celestial Emperor blood, drink our fill, and then we can slowly think of a way to wake him up.” The Great Black Dog said this with utter shamelessness.

Xiaosong was completely struck dumb. “Black Emperor, Elder Ancestor — can we not do such a thing to our own? Could you be a little more dependable?”

“All right then — let us seriously think of a way to help him.” The Great Black Dog finally reined itself in.

Xiaosong began thinking as well, going back once more to go through the scriptures Ye Fan had left behind, hoping to find some clues and portents within. Half a day later, when he returned, he found the Black Emperor pressing its paws to its cheeks, baring its teeth and grimacing strangely.

“What happened?” he asked a nearby attendant.

“The Black Emperor Patriarch, he…” the attendant didn’t dare say.

Xiaosong immediately understood. The Great Black Dog was truly a creature that could only make one laugh and cry at the same time — it had gone ahead and bitten Ye Fan a few times anyway, trying to draw out some Celestial Emperor blood, and had nearly shattered every tooth in its own mouth in the process.

“You should count yourself lucky that Master’s great Dao is fully withdrawn — otherwise…” Xiaosong shook his head.

“Nonsense — do you really think this Emperor is stupid? That’s precisely why I dared to bite.” The Great Black Dog was completely unapologetic. Then it genuinely began to deliberate and study the problem, and after a long while it finally said: “He should be attempting some kind of legendary great Dao. Relying solely on external force will most likely be unable to awaken him.”

Xiaosong nodded. He too believed that his master was treading the path of longevity, and that it was connected to his transformation and survival into a seventh lifetime. If they could understand the path his master was walking in this lifetime, they should be able to find a way to help.

“I will go to Master’s closed-door cultivation site and absorb the atmosphere there — perhaps I can divine what kind of path he intends to walk in this lifetime.” Xiaosong turned to leave.

“No need to investigate. I know what path he is walking. It should be the Eternal Dream of Ten Thousand Ages.” The Black Emperor, having followed the Beginningless Great Emperor, was ultimately someone of broad experience and extensive knowledge.

“What technique is this?” Xiaosong asked.

The Black Emperor spoke with unusual gravity. “This is a supreme great technique — sinking into slumber and dreaming across ten thousand ages. Within the dream, one will experience hundreds or even tens of thousands of lifetimes, tempering the heart and the Dao through the long river of time, transcending the mortal world from above.”

It elaborated on this technique — but it was only a theoretical path, and an extremely dangerous one. Just imagine: who would dare to spend an entire lifetime within a dream? Such a thing was too terrifying — and no emperor-level expert had ever been willing to try it.

“An entire lifetime spent within a dream?” Xiaosong was astounded.

“That’s right — the entire lifetime!” The Black Emperor nodded, then thought for a moment and added: “Unless he is truly heaven-defying enough to return from the illusory to the real — to reverse course against the heavens and come back.”

“Is it not the Ruthless Great Emperor who has also been practicing a technique like this?” Xiaosong’s heart stirred.

“She has walked a similar kind of path, but it is not the same.” The Black Emperor shook its head. Some paths intersected, but that did not make them equal or comparable — they were different things entirely.

After this, the Heavenly Court settled once more into quiet. The Celestial Emperor slumbered on. Xiaosong sealed himself within a source and kept watch within the Central Heavenly Palace.

The Great Black Dog emerged into the world, lording over the Heavenly Court for several decades, gazing down upon the cosmos and directing affairs with sweeping authority — leaving behind what would be remembered as the “Black Emperor Era,” a brief reign of supreme authority.

During this time, it sought out the descendants of the Silver-Blooded Twin Emperors — now an important faction within the Heavenly Court — and asked whether they had found the legendary individual yet.

Upon receiving a negative answer, it fell into a brief moment of dejection, and at last said: “Under normal circumstances, one should appear in the cultivation world every hundred thousand years or so. Yet it has now been three hundred thousand years — this makes no sense. Keep searching. There are still a hundred thousand years left.”

In the end, the Great Black Dog once again sank into slumber — for the sole purpose of not dying of old age as the years wore on.

Ye Fan had pacified the forbidden zones, suppressed upheaval, and had relocated the Primordial Ancient Mine, the Undying Mountain, the Canopy Above, and the Divine Ruins — bringing all of them to the Heavenly Court and making them part of its grounds. Naturally, there was no shortage of immortal source liquid, primordial life stones, and the like.

Time flew swiftly — and in the blink of an eye, twenty thousand years had passed. Ye Fan revived, sitting up in the depths of the night, startling the entire Heavenly Court.

Xiaosong was jolted awake. Since he had been keeping watch by Ye Fan’s side, he burst out from the immortal source and called out in a trembling voice: “Master!”

Twenty thousand years had passed. Ye Fan had dreamed across ten thousand ages and had not grown old in the slightest — his vitality was brimming, full and robust. Yet his gaze was deeply dazed. He directly tore open the void and vanished from the Heavenly Court without a word.

Xiaosong was alarmed and hurried after him, only to discover that Ye Fan had descended upon an ancient star and transformed himself into an ordinary person. His power and all such things seemed to have vanished entirely — and several years later, he had actually become a fisherman by the sea.

“What has happened to him?” Xiaosong was baffled, and in the end summoned the Black Emperor once more.

“This young man has truly defied the heavens. In the Eternal Dream of Ten Thousand Ages, not only did he return from the illusory to the real — he went from the ancient past forward into the present, elevating the true meaning of it to a higher plane. He is now genuinely living out human lifetimes, walking a path through ten thousand mortal ages.”

They followed along earnestly behind him. Xiaosong’s lifespan was more than sufficient — it suited him fine. The Black Emperor could not endure it as easily — it had not broken out from its source, so Xiaosong carried it along.

In this lifetime, Ye Fan lived to the age of sixty-three. His hair turned white. In the end, while out fishing at sea, he was swallowed by the ocean and died — exactly like an ordinary person, his breath gone.

Yet once this brief lifetime came to an end, that body buried in the sea quickly grew young again — ultimately restoring itself completely. He shed the identity of the fisherman, tore open the cosmos, and threw himself down upon another ancient star.

In this lifetime, he became a soldier and spent his entire life killing on the battlefield. In the end, at past fifty years of age, he died in battle — run through the chest.

“Absolutely deranged!” the Black Emperor sighed.

Under normal circumstances, even an immortal artifact would not necessarily be able to wound the Celestial Emperor’s body. Yet he had interwoven dream and reality so tightly — all for the sake of walking ten thousand mortal ages — that it had become this genuinely real.

When the old soldier was buried on the battlefield and laid beneath the yellow earth, Ye Fan once again restored himself and opened yet another lifetime. This time he became a teacher — poor and struggling all his life, ending in quiet, unrealized gloom.

“Could you not make it all quite this real?” The Black Emperor sighed, its head throbbing.

In the end, even Xiaosong could no longer bear to keep following along. He sealed himself with immortal source, leaving only a mark upon Ye Fan’s body so that he could locate him at a critical moment.

And so Ye Fan experienced one lifetime after another — passing through more than ten, and then into the hundreds. He lived more than twenty thousand years amid the mortal world in this way. His identity changed ceaselessly: he endured the full ten-thousand-foot expanse of mortal life. He had been a beggar. He had been a king. He had known poverty and wretchedness. He had known wealth and splendor. He had ridden amid the clash of iron and gold, and had campaigned across the land.

One day, the descendants of the Silver-Blooded Twin Emperors jolted the Black Emperor awake and reported: “Patriarch — we have found that kind of person.”

“What?!” The Black Emperor trembled with shock, shattering its immortal source, and burst out in an instant.

The Gouchen Ancient Star. The Qingyun Prefecture.

Yunchuan was a place of beautiful mountains and clear waters — not particularly famous within Qingyun Prefecture, for those who dwelled there were entirely ordinary people, and no cultivators appeared among them.

Chenxi — a young woman of eighteen or nineteen, her name as lovely as herself: clear as a morning stream, evoking a feeling of freshness and vibrant, lively grace.

She was beautiful and intelligent. Though she was no cultivator, she was born with a certain ethereal, otherworldly quality that set her apart from others, as though she had been blessed with the spiritual essence of heaven and earth.

“Patriarch — shall we take her away?” the descendants of the Silver-Blooded Twin Emperors asked.

The Black Emperor was trembling from excitement — yet it shook its head with absolute firmness and decisiveness. “No. Let things take their natural course. We must not alter the trajectory of her life in this way.”

This was actually an innate Dao Embryo — like a pearl concealed in dust, hidden away in this little place, utterly unnoticed by anyone.

“But this is a divine bloodline, Patriarch — are you truly unwilling to bring her back to the Heavenly Court?”

The Black Emperor shook its head resolutely. “Though I am acting against the natural order, I have no wish to see her harmed or wronged. Things must unfold naturally.”

They left people behind to watch over her from a distance. Then the Great Black Dog charged back to the Heavenly Court at full speed. It had been unwilling to lay a hand on that young woman — radiant as morning dew caught in a ray of sunlight — yet it had no such reservations toward Ye Fan.

“Celestial Emperor — I am coming for you!” The Black Emperor bared its teeth. Then it found Xiaosong and said: “Don’t you think there is a flaw in this ten-thousand-ages wandering of young Ye’s?”

Xiaosong was taken aback. “What flaw?”

“He is deliberately avoiding something. In over four hundred lifetimes, he has never once taken a wife or had children. This is his subconscious interfering — placing a deliberate restriction on his own path. To be this deliberate is already to have fallen to a lower level.” The Great Black Dog spoke with solemn gravity.

Xiaosong was stunned. He felt that this unreliable dog was about to stir up trouble again.

“I am stating a fact. To be too deliberate — that contradicts the principle of tempering the heart and the Dao through the mortal world. We should help him!” The Black Emperor was nearly feverish with urgency.

“I would not dare make this decision on Master’s behalf!” Xiaosong, though normally modest and guileless, knew better than to act on something like this. This dog was being unreliable again.

“I am telling the truth!” The Great Black Dog grew agitated, pulling him down to sit and earnestly explaining the profound meaning of the Eternal Dream of Ten Thousand Ages, along with the flaws and pitfalls that had to be guarded against.

Three full days and nights, the Black Emperor spat wildly, its throat parched to the point of nearly catching fire, leaving Xiaosong’s head spinning.

In the end, Xiaosong spoke: “Since Master’s own subconscious has already placed a restriction on himself, whatever you try to do to compensate will be useless — you simply cannot change it.”

“I cannot change it — but there is someone who can. All I need from you is your promise not to interfere.” The Black Emperor wanted only that one assurance. Then it added with solemn gravity: “Ye Fan has truly not had it easy to reach this point. You don’t want a single flaw to keep this lifetime’s great Dao from reaching its fullest completion, do you?”

After ten days and ten nights of the Black Emperor’s relentless, foam-flecked persuasion — during which Xiaosong’s head ached to the point of splitting — Xiaosong at last gave a nod. The moment he agreed, he felt he had been tricked by this dog, and that most of what it had said was probably nonsense.

Yet after studying the technique of the Eternal Dream of Ten Thousand Ages himself, he did feel that it was best for one’s mortal tempering to encompass everything. Silently apologizing to his master in his heart, he went straight into closed-door cultivation for the next hundred years.

The only thing in this world capable of influencing the Celestial Emperor’s subconscious was a single object: the Ten Thousand Things Progenitor Cauldron — already long since an immortal artifact, and one that had lived alongside Ye Fan for such an incomprehensible span of years that their fates had fused together. Seized upon while he slumbered, it could reverse the very turning of heaven and earth.

When it arrived at the Central Heavenly Palace and stood before that ancient, unadorned great cauldron, the Black Emperor stated its intentions seriously. Unsurprisingly, it was refused outright.

But it was patient. It sat down and presented its case earnestly: “What we who cultivate now seek is no longer simply the question of a single person becoming an immortal — it is the great cause of exploring why the immortal road has been severed since time immemorial. No one has attained true longevity in a very long time. Human strength reaches its limits eventually. Though the Celestial Emperor defies the heavens, even he may not necessarily reach the end of the immortal path. Why not exhaust every resource and means available, and leave behind a hope — one where those most capable of participating are brought together? Do you dare say that an innate Sacred Physique Dao Embryo has not earned that right? If Ye Fan should be so unfortunate as to fall in the future, who will carry on the path he has explored — his great Dao and his will? This child will be a flame to inherit his legacy, to carry forward the aspirations of we who cultivate — for she will be no weaker than the Celestial Emperor, and can continue exploring the root cause of why this path was severed. What do I seek? What do we who cultivate seek? Not immortality for a single person — but the truth and origin of what has existed since the most ancient of times. I do not seek for one to become an immortal — but for the meaning of all our striving across the ages!”

The Black Emperor was rarely this serious. It upbraided the Ten Thousand Things Progenitor Cauldron, its words ringing and resolute.

The immortal cauldron fell silent. But another immortal artifact spoke: “Well said — ‘what do I seek, what do we who cultivate seek.’ I agree!”

The Ancient Tower issued a divine sound, rumbling and resounding. In its ordinary days, it did not deign to respond even to the Celestial Emperor — it simply stayed silent. Now it spoke for the first time like this.

The Ten Thousand Things Progenitor Cauldron gave a sound — a sigh. “Though I know you are spinning a tale, and that nothing you do is reliable — in this one instance, I too wish to be unreliable. If the Celestial Emperor fails in his campaign to the immortal domain, it would be good to leave behind at least one seed of hope.”

Once the two immortal artifacts had made their decision, they acted immediately. The Ten Thousand Things Progenitor Cauldron in particular moved at once, going to influence Ye Fan’s subconscious — to redirect the deliberately evasive trajectory of his path.

The Gouchen Star. The Qingyun Prefecture.

Ye Fan had arrived. Though the Celestial Emperor’s power was fully suppressed — living through a mortal tribulation, having become a perfectly ordinary person with no knowledge of his past — that extraordinary quality of his remained impossible to conceal.

The Black Emperor, the Ten Thousand Things Progenitor Cauldron, and the Ancient Tower did not attempt to influence the young woman Chenxi in any way. They only obscured that one thread of constant resistance within Ye Fan’s subconscious, making it impossible for him to avoid what was destined to happen.

Yunchuan was not a very large place. Two individuals of remarkable presence could not fail to encounter each other. Things unfolded of their own accord — and a few years later, they came together.

Chenxi was bright and ethereal, like an immortal flower just beginning to bloom. Yet though she was an innate Dao Embryo, she had never cultivated. As the decades passed, she gradually grew old.

Through this process, Ye Fan slowly grew old alongside her — after all, he was living through a tribulation, and this was a very real lifetime.

In their old age, they had a child. The infant boy they brought into the world nearly drained the spiritual energy of the entire ancient star and the surrounding star region completely dry — the moment he was born, he shook the mortal realm.

Fortunately, the Ancient Tower and the Ten Thousand Things Progenitor Cauldron had prepared in advance, and the Black Emperor had also made its own arrangements — providing vast quantities of divine source and other pure essences, while concealing Yunchuan and sealing the infant, so that not a breath of it leaked out.

In those decades, Chenxi was deeply content and happy. She was intelligent and bright-spirited, with a man she cherished walking beside her as they slowly grew old together, their white hair facing each other in old age. For her, that was more than enough.

Neither of them knew the truth. And if nothing were said, Chenxi would have lived out the rest of her life with a peaceful heart — until her life drew to its end — just like many people who are originally happy and blessed in this world.

Yet in the end, the Black Emperor found itself troubled. It no longer knew whether what it had done was right or wrong — whether it had been fair to the young woman.

At that point, it was the immortal cauldron that came to set the Black Emperor’s mind at ease: “She has had a fulfilled and happy life. To end like this — peacefully and quietly — is just like those fortunate people in the mortal world.”

“But this Emperor still feels that I have wronged her. If one day the little boy asks me who his mother was — what answer could I give?” This was the first time the Black Emperor had ever felt such guilt.

It had not one trace of guilt toward Ye Fan — it simply disregarded him entirely. In its view, every manner of setback and blow was something the Celestial Emperor could endure.

In the end, when the Black Emperor saw those two helping each other into old age — a whole lifetime together without a single quarrel — it finally mustered its courage, found the right moment, and told Chenxi the truth.

“The Celestial Emperor?” At first, with her youth long gone and old age already upon her, Chenxi did not believe it. But the Black Emperor revealed various divine abilities and laid out part of the chain of cause and effect — and she believed.

“I wish to bring you into the Heavenly Court, to guide you onto the path of cultivation, so you may endure in this world.” The Black Emperor said this, having made such a decision.

Yet Chenxi’s response was beyond its expectations. What had once been an ethereal and wise young woman — though old age had come — still shone with the light of wisdom.

“To have walked through an entire lifetime hand in hand with the Celestial Emperor — I am already more than satisfied. This has been a genuinely happy life from the very start. For it to conclude and end like this — isn’t that perfectly good? You didn’t need to come and find me, to tell me these things.”

The Black Emperor was stunned. This woman had answered in this way — and it stood there dazed, its sense of guilt deepening by the moment. It insisted on inviting her into the Heavenly Court, determined to extend her life.

Chenxi smiled. She gathered her white hair and said: “The one I love is the person who spent this lifetime by my side, growing old together with me — not that true Celestial Emperor who reigns supreme over all the heavens. If I returned to the Heavenly Court, he would have his own vast sky to soar in — and I? I would still only love the people and things from here. The most important thing in a lifetime is not to possess something forever. We were moved by each other. We grew old side by side. I am satisfied. All of this has been more than enough.”

She smiled — but refused firmly.

“Mother!”

From a distance, a small child came running — lively and energetic, rosy-cheeked and lovely. Behind him followed a white-haired old man, watching him with a kind and gentle gaze, walking over together.

The Great Black Dog turned away. For some reason it felt a shadow of gloom settle over it. Had it done wrong this time? If not for its interference, none of this would have existed. Though Chenxi had lived a happy and fulfilled life — the Black Emperor still felt, deep in its heart, that it owed her a debt.

If it had not stuck its nose in, none of this trouble would have found it. Yet how could it have been content to simply leave it alone?

In the light of the setting sun, that family of three — two of them white-haired, together holding the hand of a tiny little figure as they walked away together — was the very image of peace, warmth, and perfect contentment.

“Ah — why does my heart still feel a little sour?” The Great Black Dog gave itself a hard slap, stumbled backward, and nearly fell to the ground.

“If this happiness could go on forever, perhaps I would not feel this way. But before long, they must part — one will grow old and die with the passage of time, while the other will become the Celestial Emperor of the nine heavens. It is that outcome I cannot bear.” The Black Emperor sighed.

“In truth, you can change all of this,” said the Ten Thousand Things Progenitor Cauldron.

A year later, a new grave mound appeared in Yunchuan. Within it, Chenxi had been laid to rest.

White-haired Ye Fan wept. He remained there in a stupor, sitting alone in that spot, unmoving. The little boy had been taken away by a “great sage” to seek immortality and cultivate.

The innate Sacred Physique Dao Embryo was naturally brought back to the Heavenly Court and sealed within the source. The Black Emperor began its preparations — intending to gather all manner of divine objects before laying a proper cultivation foundation for him.

Several years later, white-haired Ye Fan died of old age and was buried. Yet before long, he did not open a new lifetime — instead, he truly awakened and returned directly to the Heavenly Court.

His black hair cascaded like a waterfall. His gaze was sharp as cold lightning. He fixed his eyes on the Ten Thousand Things Progenitor Cauldron — for in all this world, only this cauldron had been able to exert any partial influence over him while he was in a state of unawareness. They were, after all, of one essence.

The Ten Thousand Things Progenitor Cauldron trembled — nearly shattering.

In the end, Ye Fan turned away and came to stand before the Black Emperor. He said not a single word — just stared at it for a very long time.

This was one of the rare occasions that the Black Emperor felt genuine guilt in its heart. It lowered its head and said nothing — not one word of rebuttal.

Ye Fan departed, made his way back to Yunchuan, and sat before that woman’s grave. For a long, long time he did not speak. Those decades of life together surfaced in his heart — and he shuddered.

In the end, he cracked open the grave mound and retrieved from within it a great mass of divine source, inside which Chenxi was sealed. Her lifespan had naturally not yet reached its end — she had perhaps twenty years remaining.

“The Black Emperor is forever a scoundrel.” Ye Fan murmured softly.

He understood that the scoundrel felt guilt in its heart — that it did not know what to do — and had dumped all the aftermath, in one go, squarely in his lap. It had sealed Chenxi within the source and left him to make the decision himself.

The mortal lifetime he had experienced — though brief — was etched bone-deep in his heart. Otherwise, he could not have awakened from it. The Celestial Emperor was not without feeling.

Ye Fan held the divine source, a soft light in his gaze as he looked upon this woman — then gave a quiet sigh, returned to the Heavenly Court, placed her within the Central Heavenly Palace, and thereafter fell into slumber once more.

“Master — what is wrong with him?” Xiaosong awoke and asked.

“The Eternal Dream of Ten Thousand Ages can be considered complete. He is treading the path of longevity within his heart, seeking and moving forward within this Dao-realm.” The Black Emperor said — though no one knew how many tens of thousands of years would pass before it ended.

“And she…” Xiaosong caught sight of Chenxi within the source, greeted her with deep respect, and bowed.

“Send her into the sealed ground. Leave the matter for the Celestial Emperor to resolve himself in the future.” The Black Emperor, slippery as ever, bundled every troublesome thing and hurled it back onto Ye Fan’s shoulders.

Out in the cosmos, nine great dragons traversed the void, pulling an enormous ancient bronze coffin — drifting along slowly, passing from one region into another.

Quite a few people witnessed it. Once word spread, the universe was shaken — and from every direction came rushing forth an untold number of outstanding figures. Yet in the end, none could catch up.

Whenever anyone drew near, it would vanish from the void — only to reappear in some other region.

The Heavenly Court dispatched a great number of personnel, for they knew that Ye Fan’s very journey on the path of cultivation had begun because of these Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin. Yet even the Heavenly Court gained nothing from the search.

“If the Celestial Emperor weren’t in deep slumber, he would surely be able to catch it.”

That same year, in one region of space, someone witnessed five-colored immortal light surging toward the sky — and found that in that place there were actually five origin source eyes of creation, all pouring their energy into a stone egg, as ten thousand beams of rosy light streamed outward.

The world was astounded. People rushed toward it, only for that place to plunge into darkness — a flash, and then it was gone, vanished without a trace.

In the domain of source arts, the Celestial Emperor had long since surpassed even the Source Celestial Master. Yet in years past, when he had searched all the great rivers and mountains of the land, he had never once obtained a true origin source eye of creation — and now five had appeared together, leaving everyone stunned.

“Damn it. It seems the origin source eyes of creation were all sought out by the Undying Celestial Emperor across the endless ages — one given to the Celestial Emperor’s son, and five left for that stone egg.” The Black Emperor was furious.

But then it broke into a cold laugh and said: “No matter. Let us see who is stronger and who is weaker. The Beginningless Scripture — sealed away for ten thousand ages — should now emerge into the world.”