Ye Fan faced the greatest crisis of his life. This was a great calamity: nine Great Emperors in their youth had simultaneously appeared — a spectacle without precedent in all of ancient or modern history!
Anyone would grimace and feel their courage fail. Even the urge to simply die must have been there — how could a person survive this? It was incomprehensible. An absolute death trap.
“Can it truly be… that the Great Dao cannot be severed against its current? Is there no path of survival left to me?”
Ye Fan’s heart sank. Even if he became a half-Saint, it was doubtful he could hold on. Nine young Great Emperors appearing simultaneously — what a concept, simply unimaginable!
Most outrageous of all, even someone as heaven-defying as Wushi had come. This was truly bullying without the slightest consideration — nine human-race Great Emperors charging in together. Unless he ascended to immortality, there was no way through.
“Spit!”
The moment of engagement, he was immediately marked — his body cracked and fractured. From all four sides, all nine struck simultaneously. Even a god could not have withstood it. Ye Fan roared. There was no retreat now — if he could not break through, body and Dao would be destroyed forever, never to exist again.
Yet the enemy was truly too overwhelming. Any one of them was a mortal adversary whose outcome was uncertain, let alone nine charging out together!
He let out a clear, ringing cry, all his hair standing upright, waging war against the ancient Emperors of antiquity within ten thousand zhang of thunder. The tidal golden blood energy surged — yet it was still not enough.
Ye Fan exchanged a palm strike with the Western Empress and took a direct blow from the Hengyu Furnace to the shoulder. Bones shattered on the spot; his shoulder caved inward. The Fuxi Great Emperor then moved as a true body to attack, and the other Emperors struck as well.
“Spit!”
Blood sprayed. Ye Fan’s physical body was destroyed — not even a human race Sacred Physique was enough, facing nine young Great Emperors, it could not hold.
Fresh blood dyed the void of the cosmos red. For a moment, even the lightning seemed to stand still. No sound was emitted — a strange and eerie calm, yet the thunder remained, had not vanished.
Within the void were fragments of shattered flesh, radiating sacred brilliance, along with many bone shards, and a great deal of golden blood — all of it shimmering with a ghostly light.
Ye Fan had never felt such despair as now. Not that he himself was inadequate — the enemy was simply too overwhelming. Nine charging out together — even the indestructible body of the human race Sacred Physique could not hold out.
Boundless sacred light radiated outward. The flesh and blood recongealed. A golden little figure the height of a fist stood at the center, letting out an enraged cry — the surrounding void instantly shattered. Bone shards and golden blood flowed backward and converged, reconnecting to the body, joints snapping and cracking as they rejoined.
“I am unwilling. I chose this path — how can it be ruined halfway. Yet… it is so difficult. No one can help me. Everything will have to depend on myself alone!”
Ye Fan was bathed in divine radiance. He activated the “Self” character secret, reviving within the light of blood, his true body reassembled. His dense black hair flew in every direction. His expression was ablaze — full of unyielding defiance. He could not hold back a cry toward the heavens. No one could save him. Severing the Dao — one relies on oneself.
Moreover, there was no retreat left to him now. The heavenly tribulation had already begun. Even abandoning the desire to sever the Great Dao against its current was no longer an option — it was far too late.
Before him, no hope was visible. Behind him, no one came to his aid. He had no choice — only fight to the very end. Break through, and the sea would be wide, the sky boundless. Fail to break through, and a ten-thousand-zhang abyss, a cliff edge of hell, awaited.
“Boom!”
A supremely powerful figure closed in. Wushi Great Emperor struck — and opened with a single palm. It was said that he was unrivaled with a single hand — one hand alone could suppress and kill an ancient divine spirit.
Waves of vast Dao energy surged outward. The young Wushi Great Emperor — true face unseen — yet that sensation of transcendence and supreme bearing could be felt. His form was towering and imposing. He brought his palm down; the void cracked apart. Even most of the heavenly tribulation was dispersed by that strike. His momentum was like a rainbow; his palm power surged like the sea — vast and boundless.
Ye Fan’s gaze blazed with intensity. Every person in this arena was an ancestor deserving of reverence — yet now they all had to be slain. He unfolded the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist and charged forward to kill. To have the opportunity to face such a figure was an extraordinary stroke of fate — no one among peers throughout all of ancient and modern history could contend against a young Great Emperor!
“Boom!”
Yet Ye Fan was nearly in despair. Three more Great Emperors had also struck. In this arena, there was no such thing as single combat. The one-on-one battle with Wushi he had hoped for simply could not take place.
“Spit!”
Before he had even gotten close, three young Great Emperors shook half his body to pieces with their strikes, sending him flying, blood cutting across the sea of thunder, producing waves of electric chiming.
This was a difficult and brutal battle. No fortune, no chance — only strength.
The Fuxi Dragon Stele pressed down upon him, striking Ye Fan until nearly half his torso was about to be severed — a pitiful and harrowing sight, his trunk reduced to a mass of blood. And simultaneously, the Wushi Great Emperor came from behind — the void collapsed, a palm-strike slicing through his back and erupting from his chest, leaving him utterly torn apart.
“Ahhh…”
Ye Fan cried out. His true body was shattered and destroyed once more. With great effort he reassembled in the distance, consuming an enormous amount of golden blood energy — yet the road of life ahead had grown even narrower.
The young Great Emperors had no mercy — for they were manifestations of the Great Dao, Dao impressions left within the world by the mightiest figures of ancient times. They were not the original people.
Ye Fan’s path was to sever the Great Dao against its current and rise above the Dao created by every supreme figure of old — and so he had to endure their punishment. All he could do was face life and death head-on.
“Clang!”
A Primordial Chaos Bell resounded and swung toward him, its reverberations spreading outward — how many li, none could say. Dao ripples could propagate even through vacuum, pulverizing the heavens. A terrifying sight.
Wushi Great Emperor again!
The great bell was like a mountain falling from the sky — intent on trapping Ye Fan within it. The bell’s sound never ceased, seeking to reduce him to a mass of blood.
“Hum!”
The Fuxi Great Emperor also struck — equally fierce and relentless, as difficult to contend with as Wushi. Dragon Stele in hand he swept down, turning all the heavens into a black hole.
Ye Fan met the assault, yet he was at the end of his strength. The power all through his body was nearly drained. The Sacred Physique of the human race had dharma power without end and without limit — yet against these figures it had to be spent in full, for these were young Emperor bodies!
“Spit!”
At last, he was shattered once more by four Great Emperors — flesh and blood splattered, a harrowing sight, crystalline bone shards gleaming with a strange and eerie light.
Ye Fan felt a sense of powerlessness arise. These were the true young Great Emperors — each supremely transcendent throughout the ages, all possessed of matchless divine bearing. They were truly difficult to deal with.
“I desire a battle — but the prerequisite is a duel against one Great Emperor, not this group beating!”
He was genuinely enraged. After reassembling his true body, he spat out another mouthful of blood. He had seen people bully others, but never like this.
Nine young Great Emperors charging at him at once — the stuff of fairy tales. Who could believe it if he told them? And yet he truly had to face a whole group. He could only look to the heavens in speechless frustration.
He had figured it out now. Even if he had nine lives, it would not be enough. Continuing this way, he would be killed over and over, again and again, until his life potential was entirely consumed.
Not even the “Self” character secret would save him — for each time he used it to condense sacred blood and reassemble his true body, the cost was immense. His fundamental essence was being depleted!
Ye Fan went into a frenzy. Having been devastated again and again, the least he could do was kill one or two of these young Great Emperors — he owed it to himself. He stepped on the “Walk” character secret, evading the others, and locked his sights on Wushi.
This human-shaped lightning had dealt him severe blows several times, and a moment ago had nearly split him straight down the middle. He was thoroughly incensed.
“Six Paths Reincarnation Fist!”
Ye Fan shouted. His spirit energy ascended to its ultimate peak. Blood energy surged through his body and flooded the void of the cosmos. The golden fist drove forward with six ancient worlds revolving before it, suppressing all things.
The fist intent was invincible!
This was the supreme elevation of Ye Fan’s spirit, energy, and soul. He wished to face Wushi Great Emperor alone — to see whether the innate Sacred Physique Spirit Embryo was stronger, or whether the true human race Sacred Physique surpassed it.
Wushi — those two characters in themselves represented invincibility. To do battle against his young Dao body was worth dying in defeat without regret. Ye Fan charged forward without hesitation. His golden blood energy surged to the heavens, and he unleashed the most powerful strike within his power!
Yet reality was cruel. Things never went as he wished. Three unidentified young Great Emperors came surging forward together, extending their fingers in joint attack — their divine might resounding through the ancient and the present.
Ye Fan gave a long sigh. Retreat was impossible. He had no choice but to withstand with brute force the attacks of four Great Emperors at once — including Wushi — for he had been encircled from all sides.
Once again he fell to defeat and resentment. His physical body was taken apart and scattered through the void. With a long cry of unwillingness, he arduously recovered, face ashen.
“This will not do. If this continues, there is not even a sliver of hope for survival. I must be able to draw power from the lightning — replenishing what is lost — otherwise I cannot hold on much longer.” Ye Fan said to himself.
Now he could only burn every bridge, make his stand at the water’s edge, with not even half a step of retreat remaining. He would no longer choose his targets — he would lock onto whoever was within striking range and kill them first.
“Sacred Battle Art!”
Ye Fan unleashed the Sacred Battle Art. His hands moved, manifesting the world-shaking spectacle of Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin — a boundless aura blanketing the heavens — and drove it directly toward the nearest figure.
“Boom!”
Yet this unknown Great Emperor was equally fierce. His hands moved; the stars of the cosmos emerged, manifesting an ancient star domain, swallowing the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin whole.
“Sacred Battle Art!”
Ye Fan cried out in shock. This Great Emperor — who appeared otherwise unremarkable — also knew the Nine Secrets. He had used the same technique to break the stunning attack.
He spread his two hands and slowly moved them, the golden blood within his body surging into motion like a great river in flood. And in this very moment, his battle-spirit rose to a surging peak — he broke through the innate restrictions of the Eight Forbidden Zones in an instant. Power flooded outward like a dam bursting, and he unleashed a strike that was supremely tyrannical above all heaven and earth.
Yet a similarly terrifying and chilling aura erupted outward. Another unknown young Great Emperor blazed with light all over his body — radiant and resplendent without measure, as though an immortal king had descended, surveying all beneath him with sovereign contempt. The light released from his eyes was burning.
“Boom!”
Floodwaters surged; rivers ran in torrent; every manner of divine power and law erupted in a single instant. This person had simultaneously activated the Forbidden Zones — surpassing the domain of Eight Forbidden Zones.
Forbidden Zone against Forbidden Zone — the most violent collision erupted. Like a comet striking the earth — devastating. Between them, light blazed to blindness, drowning out everything.
Ye Fan’s body — already shattered and broken — went flying, while on the other side, the Great Emperor who had activated the Forbidden Zones was unscathed, for the other young Great Emperors were also striking.
Ye Fan fell into silence. These were all people long departed into the past. Every one of them had been the unparalleled genius of their era — unique, without equal, the single unrivaled figure. The first person beneath the starry sky in those ancient years, unable even to suffer a single defeat.
He possessed the Nine Secrets; some of these Great Emperors had obtained them as well. He could activate the Forbidden Zones; and these people had that same heavenly endowment. He held no advantage.
Wushi, Fuxi Great Emperor… which one of them was an ordinary figure? None were — all supremely transcendent throughout the ages, supreme throughout ancient and modern times. To defeat them — how could there be any hope? None at all.
Severing the Dao was far too difficult. Throughout ancient and modern history, too many heroes and brilliant figures had died in the attempt — even figures who, among their peers, could be spoken of alongside the ancient Emperors.
And the path Ye Fan had chosen was far more treacherous and difficult still. His choice had determined all of this. Naturally he would have to face the most terrifying punishment from heaven and earth — with the young Great Emperors themselves as the instrument of suppression!
“Cauldron — come!”
Ye Fan called out softly, summoning the Primordial Mother Energy Cauldron to hover above his head. Having battled to this point, destroying nine young Great Emperors was far too difficult — nearly impossible to achieve.
Yet he refused to accept defeat. He refused to sit and wait for death. He still desired to sever the Great Dao against its current!
“To sever the Great Dao — I must display my own Dao, which is different from any before. I must create my own law that rises above all Daos, supreme and singular. Now the only hope of success is to abandon all else, to exalt my own law and mine alone — to destroy the nine Emperors and be the sole survivor!”
His eyes blazed like torches, pouring out brilliant light. He stared at the nine mysterious great stars linked in a single line high above in the heavens — then stared again at the nine young Great Emperors!