Time flies — the wheel of history rolls ever onward.

In the four-hundred-thousandth year of the Celestial Emperor’s reign, Ye Fan survived into his eighth lifetime. He severed away the last of the sacred physique’s origin source, transforming himself into an ordinary physique — stirring up a sky-shaking wave of turmoil.

He severed the chaos bloodline. He severed the sacred bloodline. All the way down to an ordinary physique. No one understood it — but a small number of people were filled with awe, sensing that the Celestial Emperor had returned to simplicity and perhaps perceived the secret behind the source of all power in heaven and earth.

According to ancient accounts, an ordinary physique is the true foundation. People did not understand — because they could not reach that level. Now that the Celestial Emperor had done so, he had naturally surpassed all supremacy.

Across these four hundred thousand years, the Celestial Emperor had opened an era of governance that ordinary people could not begin to comprehend.

In Ye Fan’s eighth lifetime, a new emperor appeared in the world. Deep within a dragon vein on the Yuhua Ancient Star, a stone figure attained the Dao and manifested into the world.

Many people were astounded, for this figure was identical in appearance to the Yuhua Great Emperor divine statue enshrined on that star — and its power and terror surpassed all imagination, exceeding those who had previously attained emperorship.

“The Yuhua Great Emperor!”

It was ultimately confirmed: this was indeed the Yuhua Great Emperor of former times. Drawing reference from the supreme technique of the Sacred Spirit lineage, he followed a reverse path — gradually transforming his physical body into a stone embryo, thus entering a state of complete silence.

After undergoing seventy or eighty thousand years of nourishment from the essence of heaven and earth, he preserved a single indestructible luminescence of consciousness. In the end, he transformed into a Sacred Spirit of complete perfection and then once again attained emperorship.

This left everyone staggered and speechless.

Sadly, the reborn Yuhua Great Emperor had barely ruled for a few years before he encountered a tremendous crisis. For in the ancient forbidden zone, something stirring had occurred: the Ruthless Great Emperor gave a long cry that soared to the heavens, her eyes brimming with tears — bleak and sorrowful. It had been the Yuhua Divine Dynasty that had caused the death of her elder brother in those ancient times.

On this day, Xiao Nannan stirred awake and clutched the hem of Ye Fan’s robe tightly, a little frightened.

From the depths of the ancient forbidden zone — within that chaotic dragon’s nest — ancient coffin after ancient coffin rose up, one after another, each exploding open. Therein lay bodies as exquisite and lustrous as jade — every one of them catching fire, burning into ashes of tribulation, sending up one after another a surge of immortal light that merged into the Ruthless Great Emperor’s body.

In that moment, not to mention everyone else — even Ye Fan’s heart seized in alarm. He could clearly see that those surges of immortal light also carried the power of the primordial spirit. Merged together now — how terrifyingly powerful would they become?

In the end, every body within every coffin had been reduced to drifting ash. Primordial souls and luminescent spirit — all fused as one — poured into a single body. And at the heart of that ancient northern forbidden zone, it was as though an immortal had descended.

With that place as its center, it expanded outward to encompass the entire cosmos.

In the end, even the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Jar was summoned away — and then shattered. The boundless essential energy, along with those primordial souls, poured into her body.

How great the female emperor’s power had become was beyond imagining.

“Brother…” Xiao Nannan clutched the hem of Ye Fan’s robe tightly — nervous, frightened.

The female emperor took a step forward and arrived directly at the Yuhua Ancient Star. The Yuhua Great Emperor’s heart trembled with fear. Yet in the end, the Ruthless Great Emperor left without making a move.

After that day, the Yuhua Great Emperor kept an extremely low profile. He never once stepped beyond the bounds of that ancient star for the rest of his life.

The female emperor came to the Heavenly Court. Naturally, the world had long since been shaken to its foundations — for this was her first time moving and traveling through the world after an untold length of ages. How could people not tremble?

Ye Fan personally went out to receive her — yet she stood only before the South Heavenly Gate, unwilling to enter.

Xiao Nannan gave a startled cry — and instantly transformed into a beam of light, disappearing into the female emperor’s brow. The entire cosmos quaked because of it, as though unable to bear the weight of such Pressure Aura.

Fortunately, Ye Fan made his move and stabilized all four directions. And the female emperor quickly settled into calm. In this moment, the confusion in her eyes was gone — replaced by a depth like the starry sky.

At last, with a sigh, tears streamed from her eyes — bleak and moving enough to make anyone’s heart ache alongside her. She said: “You are not…”

Ye Fan said nothing — he did not know how to respond.

The female emperor turned away, walking off step by step.

Ye Fan opened his mouth, and at last called out: “Great Emperor — since our mortal bonds have been severed, perhaps we should launch our campaign into the immortal domain.”

In the end, the Ruthless Great Emperor departed. But just as she was on the verge of disappearing, the immortal platform shone with light, and Xiao Nannan descended — looking completely baffled.

Ye Fan stepped forward, placed Xiao Nannan on his shoulder, and carried her back into the Heavenly Court.

Time flows gently onward. All things in the world arise and pass away — nothing can stop them.

Across this long span of over forty-something tens of thousands of years, great prodigies like the Huang Xu Dao, the Primordial, the White-Haired Sword God, and many more — one after another, in succession — emerged into the world. They no longer wished to remain sealed away, for they saw no hope. The Celestial Emperor endured without end. They resolved to emerge — yet sadly, some like the Primordial attained emperorship, while others returned to dust and earth, fading away in the mortal world.

Zhang Bairen entered the Heavenly Court and recounted to Ye Fan the age of ancient chaos — a different cosmos entirely, where the sentient beings, the vegetation, and even the cultivation system were all utterly unlike this present era.

He demonstrated his own Dao to Ye Fan, which made a deep impression. In that age, the five great secret realms were not cultivated at all — there was a completely different system.

“Above the chaotic ancient age was the immortal ancient age — yet in the end both were the same, both destroyed, replaced by a new era.” Zhang Bairen said.

Ye Fan nodded, recalling the ancient stele he had seen in the underworld and the ancient corpses of different eras that had been laid to rest there.

“The immortal ancient age was the true time when immortals descended into the world — yet something went wrong in the end, and everything was shattered, causing the chaotic ancient age to produce no one who could become an immortal ever again.”

Zhang Bairen sighed, saying that perhaps only one Huang Tian Great Emperor had become an immortal — and the Ancient Tower was precisely that person’s weapon.

“The Immortal Bell and the Bronze Immortal Palace are both relics left behind from the immortal ancient age.”

Ye Fan trembled upon hearing this. It was exactly as he had theorized: something had gone wrong within the immortal domain — not that the cultivators of this realm were too weak to become immortals.

In the four-hundred-and-forty-eight-thousandth year of the Celestial Emperor’s reign, Ye Fan faced a challenge. A Celestial Emperor emerged into the world — not the Undying Celestial Emperor, but another terrifying Sacred Spirit.

He had been born from Immortal Tear Green Gold gaining spiritual consciousness and becoming a supreme Sacred Spirit Sovereign. Having spent one full lifetime and then cultivated through a second, he proclaimed himself Celestial Emperor and came to the Heavenly Court to challenge Ye Fan.

“It’s you!”

The moment Ye Fan laid eyes on him, he sensed a familiar aura — and then it suddenly surfaced in his memory, and he couldn’t help but sigh softly.

“You remember.” The newcomer’s body blazed with green mist surging to the heavens, immortal light billowing outward — truly supremely peerless, his aura terrifying enough to make people’s skin crawl.

Since ancient times, no emperor-level expert had ever been born from a divine gold gaining spiritual consciousness. In the history of the Sacred Spirit lineage, this was without question the most terrifying supreme existence that had ever existed.

“I remember.” Ye Fan nodded.

Long ago, he had entered the Undying Mountain alongside Pang Bo, Li Heishui, the Great Black Dog, and Xiao Nannan. Before the mouth of a certain cave, they had seen golden swallows, small golden carriages, one-foot-long golden oxen and other living beings formed from pure gold — and had also glimpsed a glimmer of immortal tear green light flashing within the cave.

Later, when Ye Fan leveled the Undying Mountain, he released an elderly emperor whose lifespan was nearly spent. That person had taken away the Dark Tortoise immortal medicine and also moved away the cliff face containing the ancient cave.

After several tens of thousands of years, the Immortal Tear Green Gold embryo had reached complete perfection — and ultimately transformed into a supreme sovereign of the emperor’s path.

“You leveled the Undying Mountain — a battle between us was destined.” This supreme Sacred Spirit, whose entire body flowed with green immortal light, surged forward to do battle with the Celestial Emperor.

“Boom!”

Ye Fan stood in place without moving a single half-step, simply extending his right fist in a forward blow to meet the attack head on. A blow that could ordinarily shatter a sea of stars — yet with the Celestial Emperor standing there, all was perfectly calm. Their fists collided. The green gold sovereign was pushed back.

This result was astonishing. Through all these years, at last someone had appeared who could withstand the Celestial Emperor’s fist directly. Yet those who truly understood would not think of it that way — for this was a Celestial Emperor formed from divine gold that had gained spiritual consciousness. That material was capable of forging emperor-level artifacts. Let alone a being who had attained the Dao and become sovereign from such material — its hardness and indestructibility were absolute.

With the second blow, Ye Fan still did not move. But that green gold fist deformed — twisted out of all recognition.

The ultimate outcome: in less than ten moves, the Celestial Emperor formed from Immortal Tear Green Gold was utterly defeated. Ye Fan released him to depart — yet this emperor never appeared again in all of this lifetime, until at last he passed into stillness and reverted once more to divine gold.

Before the Heavenly Court, three majestic divine halls vanished. Divine source cracked open, and two figures walked out. The Nine Secluded eventually dissipated after all — he had not been fully resurrected.

Ji Zi and the White-Robed Divine King reappeared. Upon their reunion, there was endless feeling — for they should have been separated by life and death, yet in this lifetime they met again.

A few thousand years later, they were sealed away once more. Their strength had become too great — they could not take another step forward, lest they be unable to seal themselves away again. They would wait for the coming campaign on the immortal road.

Boom!

On this day, from the depths of the distant cosmos came a thunderous sound. Someone saw a stone egg crack open, with endless immortal light surging outward.

Ye Fan’s gaze opened and closed — he paid it no mind.

But the Black Emperor, upon receiving the report, burst directly out from its immortal source. In its great claw appeared nine pieces of ancient jade — the divine objects left behind by the Beginningless Great Emperor. After the passage of long ages, they had at last all been gathered together.

The Black Emperor constructed a sacrificial altar, activating the secret technique. The nine jade pieces blazed with light and tore open the great cosmos.

Boom!

With a vast, booming sound, the heavenly Dao was torn apart. Within the void, a colossal stone scripture appeared, cleaving through the cosmos and descending into the Heavenly Court. And alongside it came a stalk of undying Phoenix Medicine.

On this very day, the Innate Sacred Physique Dao Embryo also emerged into the world and began his journey of cultivation. The little boy was five or six years old, but precocious beyond his years — a natural endowment that was the most extraordinary in all of ancient and modern times.

Ye Yishui — the name the Celestial Emperor had given him during his mortal lifetime. For the place where he was born was called Yunchuan, and within his mother’s name there was also the character for “stream.”

From that day forward, a new legend was rising. His brilliance would illuminate ten thousand ages.

Though Ye Yishui was young, he was supremely quick-witted — whatever he studied he grasped with extraordinary speed. Even in childhood, he broke through one record after another set by the ancients.

By his side was a tiny purple squirrel with large, jet-black eyes bright with spiritual intelligence. It was adorable — having been sealed away, now emerged into the world — and it did not sit on Ye Fan’s shoulder, but leaped about on the Beginningless Scripture reading along with the others, or else curled up for a sound sleep.

Ye Fan came and said to Ye Yishui: “The fact that you are alive today is because Xiaosong gave his life to protect you. The only way you can repay him is to return him to the emperor’s seat in the future.”

“I know, Father.” The little boy nodded. His lashes were long. Though he looked like a porcelain doll, his expression was resolute.

The creature within the stone egg emerged — a five-colored Divine Phoenix, which then transformed into a young man. His endowment was utterly peerless. Within mere decades, he roamed the cosmos freely, smashing through one age-group record after another.

Toward this, Ye Fan said nothing — and even knowing his origins as the offspring of the Celestial Emperor, he did not pay him excessive attention and never once gave Ye Yishui any instruction regarding him.

The Black Emperor, however, felt differently. “Your father regards him as a roadside weed — but you cannot. He may be your greatest rival of this lifetime. In truth, I believe that is precisely your father’s intention — to leave you a whetstone. You must grasp the opportunity.”

This formed an intense rivalry. Ye Yishui also emerged into the world and broke through every record set by those before him, advancing by leaps and bounds.

These two individuals appeared in the cosmos — and before them, every other genius dimmed to nothing, like dust struggling to follow in their wake.

The battle between the two prodigies erupted. It began the moment they became kings and continued all the way up through their Great Saint stages — fighting with lives thrown away, neither holding back, bathed in blood, staking everything.

In the end, they fought all the way to the quasi-emperor realm. The time it took was startlingly brief — in a little over two hundred years, they had become quasi-emperors. This was a record that shook all of history.

This was a peak confrontation. They fought on for hundreds of years, slaughtering all the way to attaining the Dao by unconventional means — and then, in the very midst of their duel, simultaneously shattered ten thousand Daos and at the same moment became Emperor and Sovereign.

This opened a miracle never before seen in all of history.

Throughout this period, the Black Emperor watched with clenched nerves, terrified of any mishap. Ye Yishui’s achievements moved it to hot tears of excitement — the image of a young Beginningless Great Emperor reborn.

Only one small squirrel smiled its guileless smile, blissfully unaware. It had forgotten so much — its primordial spirit had been all but destroyed — and this pained Ye Fan’s heart. He no longer sealed it away, but kept it by his side and walked the cosmos with it.

Yet after all these tens of thousands of years, the Celestial Emperor had still not found the Dao Harmony Flower.

In the cold cosmos, Ye Fan’s body blazed with light as he shielded Xiaosong, treading the path of the heavens. In this lifetime, his understanding of longevity had deepened immeasurably — and on the road toward longevity, he walked further and further.