That same day, the forces of Kunlun, the Immortal Sword Sect, the Pure Yang sect, the Complete Perfection Dao, as well as the Vermilion Phoenix, the Myriad Demons Valley, and other powers all provided clues that set Ye Fan’s mind and spirit stirring.

“This is the divine stone — immeasurably heavy. Ancestral elders said it was a heavenly stone from the outer domain. Others say it is a foundation stone from the Heavenly Court.” The Pure Yang sect master commanded people to place a purple stone on the ground.

This stone was entirely purple in color, about as large as a millstone, resembling a dusty ancient piece of jade — dim and lacking luster, very heavy. Just now, two Grand Elder seniors had been sweating profusely trying to carry it.

Ye Fan circled it once. He felt it truly might be a foundation stone, and could not help asking where it had been obtained.

The Pure Yang sect master told the truth. On a night of driving rain in ancient times, a mountain torrent carved a ravine at the foot of Maoshan. Purple clouds surged upward. The old sect master of that era was jolted awake in the middle of the night and looked down toward the foot of the mountain, where he witnessed a celestial gatehouse collapsing. He rushed down into the rain, only to find that the celestial gatehouse and all else were illusions — not real. They should have been a replay of a scene from prehistoric times. In the ravine, he found only a single purple stone.

All who listened clicked their tongues in wonder. Everyone gathered around to observe this strange stone. Ye Fan placed his hand upon it — extremely smooth and warm. He focused his heart to sense it, and heard bursts of crackling lightning along with the sound of the Dao and swords resonating together.

He activated the Dao principles and drew forth a blurry picture: driving rain, battle cries shaking the sky, the roars of supreme powerful figures carrying over — then a celestial gatehouse collapsed and tumbled down from the heavens.

“It’s a pity — I cannot see it clearly. Whether it truly was a divine war is difficult to say.” Ye Fan shook his head.

The Snow Dust sect master had also commanded his people to transport the half ancient gatehouse. It arrived — several dozen zhang in height, like a small mountain, immensely grand and impressive. Its entire body was constructed of blue-green feathers, and though only half of it remained, its majestic aura was undiminished.

“This truly is a celestial gatehouse. Of such a scale, and after so many years, still not decayed — quite extraordinary indeed.” Someone marveled.

Ye Fan’s mind stirred. This shared something of the style of the Sacred Ruins in the Northern Dipper star domain. He had never been to that forbidden zone of life himself, but he had seen some descriptions in ancient records.

Before the Sacred Ruins, the Southern Celestial Gate stood tall — half collapsed there — leaving behind endless legend in the mortal world.

Could it truly be a structure left behind by the Heavenly Court? Ye Fan questioned the Snow Dust sect master in detail, asking about the origin of this palace gatehouse. He told the truth honestly — it had been excavated from the foot of Kunlun.

Ye Fan gently touched this ancient gatehouse, then circulated his entire cultivation to try to return to its origins — to recreate all the impressions and markings left behind in that former time.

Within this blue-green jade gatehouse, mysterious formation arrays existed — intricately complex. This was precisely the reason it had been preserved in the world — they protected it from decay.

Ye Fan’s heart stirred. The principles involved were beyond the ordinary and transcended the conventional understanding of sainthood — far beyond what ordinary people could imagine. He was truly beginning to believe this was a structure from the Heavenly Court.

He activated the principles. His body erupted with sheets of phoenix feathers, as one chain of order after another connected to the blue-green celestial palace, sensing the ancient events from ten thousand ages ago.

But they were simply too distant in time — utterly impossible to restore. Even someone as powerful as him found it futile, because he could dimly guess that most likely the trail went back over a million years.

“Hum!”

Just as Ye Fan was about to release his hand, the blue-green palace suddenly produced ripple after ripple. A flash of light appeared and a sound rang out — supremely authoritative and dignified — causing the entire small mountain to tremble.

“The Emperor has died. The gods across all domains will fall into chaos. The Heavenly Court collapses, destroyed in a single morning…”

This was not genuine speech — it was an incomparably faint divine thought, so powerful it caused people to tremble. Everyone except Ye Fan collapsed to their knees.

Every person’s soul shuddered. What manner of existence could this possibly have been? Existing from an endless age past — at the very least a million years ago — and yet its lingering reverberation within the blue-green palace still surpassed anyone’s ability to withstand.

“Ahh—!”

Some Daoist disciples, unable to resist, had their bodies crack and nearly shatter. The cauldron above Ye Fan’s head rang with a deep resonance, and a thread of mother energy seeped out, shielding them.

“Pff!”

One sect master had come too close and was engulfed by this overwhelming pressure, coughing up great mouthfuls of blood — unable to resist.

Ye Fan’s expression changed. The primordial mother energy rose and fell as thread after thread of auspicious energy burst forth, shielding everyone below — preventing any from dying or having their Dao extinguished because of this.

What manner of existence was this, crossing ten thousand ages, its sorrowful cry alone sufficient to wound those of this era? A power so terrifying it defied all calculation.

“Not an ancient emperor — at the very minimum a quasi-Emperor.” Ye Fan murmured to himself. He even suspected this might have been a Saint Emperor. In that mythological era, perhaps there were several great Emperors — it would not be strange.

He exerted himself to the utmost, wanting to restore the impressions and markings left behind in that former time — but ten thousand ages of history was sufficient to grind everything to dust. Only this sorrowful cry had survived; everything else was gone.

With the Dao severance behind him, he possessed penetrating abilities of heaven and earth — yet even he could not fabricate something from nothing, could not reverse the flow of these ten thousand ages.

When all was still again, everyone looked at one another. Their reverence for Ye Fan was complete. This was truly defiance of heaven itself — allowing the voice of the Ancient Heavenly Court to sound once more, glimpsing a corner of heavenly secrets and ancient mysteries.

“Hmm. The Heavenly Court of myth truly existed. It appeared upon ancient Earth. I wonder what traces it has left behind.” Ye Fan pondered, lost in thought for a while.

“Brother Dao, you have chosen ‘Heavenly Court’ as your organization’s name — you must think carefully. There have been brilliant prodigies of the ancient age who sought to do this very thing, and in the end, every one of them came to ruin.”

“Indeed. The two words ‘Heavenly Court’ crush all space and time past and present. This is not something the likes of us can bear. If one has not become an immortal yet dares to establish a Heavenly Court, in the end it will collapse and catastrophe will befall.”

People offered counsel — all with good intentions. Before now, they had not thought anything of it. But having just heard that sorrowful cry, they were genuinely shaken, thinking of all the legends and tales of antiquity.

Ye Fan nodded without saying much more. On this day, every sect sent many ancient objects — all related to the divine war, all connected by karmic ties to the Ancient Heavenly Court.

In the end, those who had come to offer congratulations all departed. The various sect masters left. The crowd dispersed. Upon the small mountain there remained a mountain-sized pile of artifacts and ancient records.

Over the following half month, Ye Fan buried himself in a sea of ancient texts. Eating and sleeping were cast aside as he sought every kind of clue and door.

His parents were gone. There was little on Earth that held any appeal for him. He had only the path of attaining the Dao and immortality.

He wanted to investigate the Heavenly Court of myth — but the time was too distant, burying everything in the dust of history. Now it could only be tracked through legends, anecdotes, and oracle bone texts.

Time flowed like water — always passing in ways one did not notice. In the blink of an eye, another three years passed. Ye Fan had returned to this side of the starry sky six years ago now.

In these years, aside from cultivation, the greater part of his time had been spent investigating the secrets of the divine war and of immortality. He had indeed come to know many ancient secrets.

By now, the might of the Heavenly Court grew greater with each passing day. It was difficult to find a single rival for Ye Fan anywhere in the world, and naturally, every side lent its assistance when he was collecting ancient texts and secret books.

Over these five years, he had spared no effort. He visited every sect, went to the Vatican, climbed Olympus, visited the sacred lands of Egypt, entered the Buddhist holy sites of India — every famous sacred place in the world had his footprints.

The Ancient Heavenly Court had not been excavated. Yet he unexpectedly obtained some ancient scriptures, which opened his eyes and yielded extraordinary gains.

Ye Fan mobilized every resource at his disposal. Beyond searching for the Ancient Heavenly Court, he was also seeking clues to the Immortality Ascension Chart — and then came a truly breakthrough discovery.

The eighth corner of the Chart of Immortality Opportunity was buried beneath the foundation of an ancient temple. Opening the shrine — aside from some sarira beads — there was also a bone fragment.

This was an ancient Buddhist temple that a young novice monk had discovered by accident. As powerful as the Buddhist sect was, when they learned of Ye Fan’s visit and his wish to examine the bone fragment, they did not dare refuse. They presented it to him directly.

This was a tremendous find!

Beyond searching for the Ancient Heavenly Court and traces of the divine war, Ye Fan had been tirelessly searching for the Immortality Ascension Chart — which would be of great use to him in the future.

After obtaining the eighth corner of the Immortality Chart, he temporarily suspended all other matters — including his investigation of the Heavenly Court — and set everything else aside. For a momentous resolve had formed in his heart.

“Rongchengshi was a quasi-Emperor. He entered the immortality grounds and ultimately obtained a Herb of Immortality — returning from the edge of death nine times over. I have severed the Dao. Though my power is still far from his, I have obtained the eight-cornered Immortality Chart, which is very nearly complete. Perhaps I can travel further than he did.”

The secrets of immortality were too alluring. No one would abandon them. Even great Emperors had striven for this their entire lives. How much more so for Ye Fan — this was his ultimate goal.

“I truly want to go in and try.” Ye Fan said to himself.

Only one corner remained to make the chart complete. It was not that he lacked patience — it was that he knew that final corner had been shattered in the ancient age, making it forever impossible to obtain. Otherwise, the ancient sages would not have all departed together.

“Hmm. One missing corner was enough to make them retreat. It seems the odds are slim. Very well — I will only treat this as scouting the path ahead. I’ll go in and have a look first, without any expectation of certain success.”

Ye Fan set out, taking only Little Song with him. Together they traveled west into the Kunlun Mountains, then bypassed the ancient formation arrays and arrived in a vast and boundless region.

Little Song immediately opened his eyes wide. Before them stretched ten thousand ages of dragon mountains — the ancestor of all mountains — vast and boundless, awe-inspiring and intimidating, like a living true dragon lying dormant here.

The true Kunlun mountain range was an endless expanse of great peaks, stretching without limit to the eye. Every summit was like a dragon bone, soaring into the clouds — towering and grand.

Ancient pines grew dense and lush. Waterfalls rushed in a mist. It was like a scroll painting spread out before them.

Ye Fan circled the outer reaches of this mountain range for nearly half a month, observing the terrain carefully, not daring to act rashly. He assembled the eight-cornered Immortality Chart and studied it over and over, finding a safe path.

Yet the section of the path leading to the very center of the immortality grounds was blank. When the chart was assembled, only the central area was missing — a source of deep regret.

More than twenty days later, a purple flash of light appeared in the distance. Little Song leapt out like a small purple spirit — his tiny body clutching a piece of clean white jade about one meter square. He fluttered his big eyes like black gemstones, and deliberately staggered with exaggerated steps, swaying from side to side, making his way to Ye Fan to claim his reward.

“Strange — this looks like a foundation stone from the Heavenly Court?” Ye Fan was surprised.

Little Song puffed out his small chest, then nodded, turned around, and bounded toward a cliff face, leading Ye Fan to a broken mountain. It was as though something had come crashing down and collapsed it.

Ye Fan searched around and found a small patch of ruins nearby. Some cultivators had once lived here, using these jade stones to build their cave dwelling — but it had been destroyed.

He ran his fingers over these jade stones, his heart stirring with a faint pulse. They truly were of the same origin as the Heavenly Court foundation stone, sharing similar formation arrays within them. Regrettably, there were only a dozen or so pieces in total.

“The Heavenly Court… Kunlun…”

After careful thought, Ye Fan’s heart suddenly leapt. “Could it be that the Ancient Heavenly Court and the ninety-nine dragon mountains share some connection?”

He could not help but feel a deep shock. A great many thoughts came rushing all at once, for both traced back to the primordial age — to times so ancient they were difficult to trace.

In that era, who could have driven ninety-nine towering dragon mountains from one ancient star to another? Perhaps only the Ancient Heavenly Court.

“If such a supremely powerful force truly existed — capable of driving the dragon mountains, willing to destroy many ancient life-bearing stars, nurturing the hope of immortality — then only they could have done it!”

In the end, the Emperor died. The gods across all domains fell into chaos. A great catastrophe occurred. The Heavenly Court was destroyed. What the various causes and ancient mysteries were — these could no longer be known today.

Ye Fan’s heart surged with wave after wave of emotion, long unable to settle. The divine war, the Heavenly Court — they might actually be connected to the ninety-nine dragon mountains. He fixed his gaze on the depths of Kunlun and said: “Let us go. Relying upon the eight-cornered chart, we will enter and have a look. Even if we gain nothing, I have enough to protect myself. Let us see what manner of thing this so-called immortality ground has nurtured — and what this so-called hope of immortality actually is.”

Little Song’s great dark eyes flickered with a nimble and spirited light. He leapt to Ye Fan’s side. Ye Fan traced out a terrain map and strode into the mountains with great steps, heading toward the deepest reaches of Kunlun.