At the base of a stone valley, a qilin beast lay alone upon a bluestone slab. Ancient medicinal herbs took root and grew along the cliff walls, orchids and lingzhi grew in accompaniment, purple qi permeated the air — a scene of serene harmony.

A cool breeze drifted past, stirring the Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool’s beautiful hair, her snow-white robes fluttering. The garment traced the graceful lines of her figure, and she looked as though a divine maiden of the highest heavens had descended to the mortal world.

Her beauty was beyond question — dazzling the entire world. The great immortal holy lands, the ancient divine dynasties of the Central State, the many royal clans of the ancient races — all had once sent proposals for her hand in marriage, but all had been gently refused.

Ye Fan smiled. Since he had been seen through, there was no need to keep up the pretense. The Jade Pool had never harbored any ill will toward him, so there was nothing to worry about.

“Do you have any payment for my silence?” The Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool smiled, her beauty rivaling all flowers and stunning all beneath the heavens — every divine blossom around them seemed to dim in comparison.

“What could I possibly have? Apart from silencing you by taking your life, I’d have no choice but to offer myself — there’s truly nothing else I can put forward.” Ye Fan said in a teasing tone.

The Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool glanced at him sidelong. A strand of lustrous dark hair lay against her luminously fair cheek, making her look ethereally pure yet lively. “Brother Ye returning is truly a miracle — congratulations are in order.”

“Merely a stroke of luck.”

“I would like to ask Brother Ye for a favor.” The Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool said.

“Oh? With the Western Emperor’s legacy behind you, what difficulty could you possibly face?” Ye Fan replied noncommittally.

“This matter is nothing to Brother Ye — it can be accomplished with ease. Yet for our Jade Pool, its implications are profound and far-reaching, which is why I sincerely ask for your assistance.” The Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool said.

The more she said this, the more bewildered Ye Fan felt. He could not help rubbing his chin. “What is this matter exactly?”

“I wish to borrow several strands of your holy blood.” The Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool, peerlessly beautiful, her skin suffused with a rosy sheen, looked at him with an earnest expression.

“I see now!” Ye Fan immediately understood what they intended to do. He could not help but fall into deep contemplation — this was no small matter. If it went wrong, it could tear the heavens apart.

“Brother Ye, this will cause you no harm at all. A few strands of holy blood means nothing to you, and I sincerely hope you will help.” The Holy Maiden spoke in a gentle and unhurried tone.

“My blood is not difficult to obtain — it is what you intend to use it for that troubles me.” Ye Fan looked forward, wishing to see directly into her true thoughts.

The Jade Pool had several strange stones, mysterious and unfathomable. Four of them had been sought out by previous generations of the Queen Mother of the West, and three more had been gifted to them by Zhang Lin, the fifth-generation Celestial Master of Origins. The previous Jade Pool Gathering had been set in motion because of these very stones.

The Celestial Prince had been hidden within one of these stones — seen through by Ye Fan at the time. Back then, it had been gestating within a pristine, jade-like egg, its divine markings pulsing with world-shaking power. In the end, the ancient races had come to the door and taken it away.

Another of the stones had nine apertures and eight orifices, and was even more extraordinary. The Jade Pool regarded it with the utmost reverence. From time immemorial, every sage of every generation had spoken the law and expounded the classics to it.

Back then, when the Monkey had come here seeking the Immortal Peach sacred medicine, the Jade Pool had asked him to exchange his Fighting God blood in return, using that blood to nourish the strange stone for over a month. Ye Fan remembered it vividly.

Now that the Holy Maiden was making this request, it was certainly for the sake of that stone. His Dao had not yet been completed back then, so his holy blood’s effect had been relatively limited — but now things were very different.

“Holy Maiden, I hope you will think this through carefully. It is difficult to say whether the divine embryo nurtured by heaven and earth living on will be a blessing or a calamity. This is truly a risky thing to do.” Ye Fan said with a furrowed brow.

The more alarming words he held back. Once the nine-aperture, eight-orifice divine embryo was born into the world, it might well bring a great catastrophe. Short of an ancient emperor, there would be very few who could subdue it.

“What you say is true, Brother Ye.” The Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool nodded and frankly admitted that she too had once harbored such worries — but had since come to peace with it. Sages in their final years had poured their entire life’s work into transforming this stone embryo, and it had long since communed with them.

How mighty a sage is! Generation after generation speaking the law, expounding the classics — they had long since caused the divine embryo to undergo a transformation and become part of the Jade Pool, making it incapable of malice.

Ye Fan fell silent and said nothing more. The Jade Pool’s decision was not something a few words from him could change. This was the crystallization of their life’s efforts. Even the ancient sages had deemed it without peril — what more could he say?

He understood that once this divine embryo emerged into the world, it would undoubtedly be incomparably powerful. After all, across so many ages, it had been continuously listening to sages and great masters expound the Dao — it had most likely already comprehended the entire Western Emperor Scripture.

“Has Brother Ye agreed?” The Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool asked.

“I would like to consider it.” Ye Fan replied.

“Brother Ye still has reservations.” The Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool said.

“I trust you still remember what the Black Emperor once said. Though it is a scoundrel, what it said was not false — having followed the Wushi Emperor, after all.” Ye Fan said.

At the Jade Pool Gathering, the Black Emperor had once spoken of this: over a hundred thousand years ago, a powerful holy land had done something similar, and the result was that when the holy spirit emerged into the world, that holy land was reduced to ash and smoke. Had it not been for the Wushi Emperor’s Dao reaching completion and forcibly suppressing and killing it, the catastrophic consequences would have been hard to imagine.

The Holy Maiden nodded. “There is no time left. The path to immortality is about to open — and with the strength of the human race as it stands, how many will be able to force their way through?”

She said no more, but Ye Fan could feel the urgent sense of pressure shared by all the great holy lands under heaven. Every immortal legacy was currently striving toward this end, each wishing to soar aloft and ascend to immortality.

Ye Fan returned to the inner chamber and sat with Liu Yiyi, talking at length about many things from the other shore of the star sea. It stirred a hundred emotions in her. Tears fell from time to time, and her longing for that homeland was boundless.

“Rest easy — there is a very real hope of being able to go back!” Ye Fan offered comfort, but said no more on that subject.

The next day, the Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool came again and asked how Ye Fan had considered the matter. He found it truly difficult to refuse. The Jade Pool had always been kind toward him, and had aided him in the past. Even if he thought it unwise, there was no way to decline. He nodded in agreement. “If real trouble does arise, aren’t there still the ancient races? Let them share in the ‘bounty’ as well.”

The Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool smiled — a smile that could topple cities, dimming even the sun in the sky. “If Brother Ye is willing to help, nothing could be better. We will not let you lose blood for nothing — whatever you need, feel free to name it.”

What was Ye Fan most interested in among the Jade Pool’s treasures? Naturally, it was the Forbidden Chapter of the Western Emperor Scripture — the final page of the scripture contained the most quintessential insights, secret arts, and legacies of the Western Emperor’s entire life.

Unfortunately, he knew this was impossible. No one would ever impart such a secret technique. The final secret arts of an ancient great emperor were rarely put into practice even by the emperor themselves, let alone being obtained by an outsider.

“I wish to understand how the Western Emperor forged the Immortal Tear Green-Gold Pagoda.” After careful deliberation, Ye Fan put forward this request.

“The forging of an emperor’s weapon…” The Holy Maiden’s eyes flashed with a strange gleam. “What is known to later generations is incomplete. But we will do our best to search the scripture pavilion for you.” She said, with a flash of unusual radiance in her eyes.

How supremely difficult it is to forge an emperor’s weapon — to a great emperor, it is one of the most momentous undertakings of a lifetime. When a great emperor passes on, the emperor’s weapon is like a continuation of their life, guarding and protecting their descendants in their stead.

In this present era, what is most precious? Naturally, it is the weapons of the ancient great emperors!

Deep in the heavenly vault, primordial chaos qi drifted. The Western Emperor’s Pagoda appeared and vanished — sinking, rising, as though it had been suppressed there since the opening of heaven and earth. Strands of immortal energy descended, guarding this entire pure land.

Ye Fan and the Holy Maiden walked forward together toward the most important site of the Jade Pool. Along the way, when he opened his Heavenly Eye and looked up at the Immortal Tear Green-Gold Pagoda, he spotted a small wooden cottage not far from the imperial pagoda.

A woman stood desolately at the edge of the clouds, gazing into the distance, her expression filled with an unspeakable sorrow.

Ye Fan’s expression stirred. He recognized her at a single glance — this was Yang Yi, the beloved companion of the fifth-generation Origin Celestial founding master Zhang Lin, the Jade Pool’s Holy Maiden of ten thousand years past.

He said nothing. Within his heart, he quietly sighed. Zhang Lin had suppressed the Northern Region in one battle and single-handedly destroyed the Valley of Spirits, but had buried himself in the morning glow — never able to return.

“When exactly will the path to immortality open?” Ye Fan suddenly asked.

The Holy Maiden paused and looked at him. “No one can say for certain, but it should not be too far off. Even the ancient races are growing restless — everyone is making preparations.”

“There is another matter I have long been curious about and have always wished to ask — though I have always felt it might be too presumptuous…” Ye Fan said.

“What is it?” The Holy Maiden said.

“I once heard that the Jade Pool was not originally located here — that it was moved from another place. I do not know if this is true, or the reason why.” Ye Fan had once gone to that place with the Black Emperor, where he had obtained the Dao Palace chapter of the Western Emperor Scripture — but he absolutely could not reveal this, or great trouble would follow.

The former site of the Jade Pool was utterly devoid of life, a stretch of dead silence — extremely strange. And moreover, every time he thought of that immortal pool, he felt a shiver run down his spine. At the bottom of the pool lay countless corpses — all young and beautiful, all disciples of the Jade Pool — lying there for reasons unknown.

According to the Black Emperor, the materials for the Western Emperor Pagoda had been discovered deep within the bottom of that very pool.

Upon hearing this, the Holy Maiden’s expression grew solemn. She shook her head. “That is an old matter — far too ancient. Very few within the Jade Pool know of it, and I myself do not.”

Ahead, mist and water vapor floated in a dreamlike haze. Immortal energy coiled about them, and every manner of aurora swirled and pulsed. They had arrived at the most sacred site of the Jade Pool — the Immortal Pool.

The sect took its name from this very pool. At the former site there had been one, and here too there was one — said to spring from the same root.

This stretch of land was like the immortal realm — extraordinarily dreamlike. Ordinary people were compelled to stop and could not approach.

Here, all manner of auspicious beasts half-appeared, sacred birds took flight, and strange divine creatures resembling the Three-Legged Golden Crow, the Fire Phoenix, and the Qilin appeared and disappeared in the vicinity.

An ancient tree spread its gnarled branches toward the high heavens, extraordinarily tall — like a coiling dragon. It was none other than the legendary Immortal Peach sacred tree, rooted at the bank of the Immortal Pool, drawing in its essence, its medicinal fragrance filling the air.

Moreover, this entire stretch of land was covered in dense orchids and lingzhi, growing in clusters and clumps like weeds, carpeting the ground entirely.

Such sacred land was hard to find anywhere under heaven — a wondrous place for nurturing the divine embryos of heaven and earth. Even a weed growing here would gain spiritual awareness, to say nothing of unusual plants.

The pupils of Ye Fan’s eyes flickered with light. He spotted the same ancient races members he had seen earlier. The leader was a Dao Severer, and in the company of important figures from the Jade Pool, they stood before the Immortal Peach sacred tree, sprinkling mysterious blood upon a strange stone.

“The aura of the Celestial Prince!” The divine light in Ye Fan’s pupils blazed intensely. He sensed the enemy’s aura from within that brilliant five-colored blood.

The Holy Maiden nodded. “They are indeed the Celestial Prince’s subordinates.”

“Did you also ask the Celestial Prince for his blood?” Ye Fan asked.

“No. He sent it on his own initiative. He once sought to exchange his Undying Celestial Emperor’s ancient scripture with us for the nine-aperture, eight-orifice strange stone.” The Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool said.

“What?” Ye Fan was astonished. The scripture left behind by the Undying Celestial Emperor was known as the Divine Spirit Ancient Scripture. He had overawed the entire primordial age, revered as supreme by ten thousand clans — held in absolute veneration above all.

Such a figure could look down upon all ages, standing alone as sovereign under heaven. The scripture he had composed was naturally of unfathomable profundity. He was regarded by ten thousand clans as an existence surpassing the divine!

“We could never agree to that. The path to immortality is about to open, and with an immortal scripture right before our eyes, it still could not outweigh this divine embryo.” The Holy Maiden of the Jade Pool said.

Ye Fan’s expression shifted. “The several strange stones of the Jade Pool — were they kept together in the past?”

“Though there has been contact, they were never sealed in the same place.” The Holy Maiden said.

Ye Fan fixed his gaze on the stone king beneath the ancient Immortal Peach tree, then looked again at the Celestial Prince’s brilliant five-colored blood, and fell into silent contemplation for a long moment.