The cosmos was ice-cold and utterly still. Not a single sound. In the distance, starlight swept past — adding to the deep, quiet serenity.

“Why hasn’t he appeared?” the Holy Prince said, showing a puzzled expression.

In a single instant they had all sunk into the void, vanishing from where they stood — ready to ambush. But a very long time passed without the slightest stir.

“This Emperor made a mistake. That was probably just a shooting star,” the Black Emperor said without the slightest blush or quickened heartbeat.

“You believe what it says? This is the dog that managed to lose itself,” Ye Fan said with a look that said he’d known all along it would come to this.

Clearly, the big black dog had been changing the subject — distracting them to avoid being mocked for its lack of conscience — and had deliberately manufactured this false alarm.

“All the better,” it said. “We have time to spare. Heaven is on our side. Let’s set down a killing formation and repay this person in kind!” The Black Emperor’s eyes lit up with excitement.

Ye Fan, Ji Zi, and the Holy Prince were reduced to doing the grunt work — the Black Emperor called them here and there, directing them to assist with setting up the formation, ordering three great-sage-level imperial descendants around like servants. This was truly one of a kind.

The three of them clicked their tongues. Just what had this dead dog collected during its time in the star void? Everything it pulled out was extraordinary — even the foundation stones for the formation platform were sacred objects.

“Did you become a pirate of the cosmos? How did you end up with so many precious materials?” the Holy Prince asked.

“Nonsense — is this Emperor that kind of person?” The big black dog wore an expression of upright rectitude.

“Yes,” Ji Zi said with a nod, as laconic as ever.

“Honest people shouldn’t do this to me. How can you undermine me like that? This Emperor has always held the Void Emperor in the highest esteem,” the big black dog said, deeply displeased.

“Held in the highest esteem — and yet you talked Duan De into grave-robbing in the Ji Family ancestral burial grounds, even counting yourself in for a share, and you also wanted to break into the Void Emperor’s mausoleum,” Ye Fan said, dragging up old history.

The big black dog immediately looked embarrassed — while Ji Zi turned a murderous gaze upon it.

The Black Emperor immediately cried out: “That’s all rumor and slander from the people of the martial world! This Emperor has always been a person of the utmost principle — I would never do such things. A person must have a conscience.”

“Your conscience was eaten by a dog.”

“Woof! Woof! Woof!” The big black dog gave chase with biting intent. “Ye boy — you keep undermining me because you think that now that you’re a great sage, this Emperor can’t do anything to you?”

Wherever it went, there would never be peace. There would always be chaos and uproar. In Ye Fan’s words, this dog was too exceptional — a swindler and a cheat who left no evil undone, with a special talent for betraying those closest to it. With it around, one would never know a moment’s quiet.

“Hmm — those several phoenix divine feathers I got from the Azure Luan Clan seem to have gone missing. And those divine armor pieces I obtained from the Black Tortoise Sea are gone too,” the Black Emperor muttered.

Ye Fan, Ji Zi, and the Holy Prince all wore expressions of immediate understanding. This creature had obviously swindled and cheated those out of those clans. They silently mourned on behalf of those peoples.

“This won’t do. Several items need substitutes, or the killing formation won’t be powerful enough,” the Black Emperor said.

Then it peered toward the star below — the ancestral ground of the Soaring Snake lineage. The big black dog’s eyes lit up. “Sitting on a mountain of treasure — why are we up here worrying? Let’s just go down and borrow some.”

“If you want to loot, just say so — why call it borrowing,” Ye Fan muttered, lips curled. Not that he found the suggestion objectionable.

“Scholars who take books don’t call it stealing — so is this Emperor looting formation materials? Of course not. It’s borrowing!” the big black dog declared with absolute righteousness, correcting the record.

The Holy Prince, though he sometimes found the Black Emperor entirely unprincipled, found its current attitude very much to his taste — he despised the elder Soaring Snake to his core and was extremely enthusiastic in agreement. They quickly descended toward the great star below.

These terrifying ancestors had come back again — all of them bearing imperial weapons. How were they supposed to fight back? How could anyone resist? The expert figures of the Soaring Snake lineage all went pale as corpses and fled for their lives in terror.

The sacred ground of the Soaring Snake lineage contained an incomplete Quasi-Emperor killing formation in the very spot where the Black Emperor had been trapped earlier. All other areas had no Quasi-Emperor formation markings. The group broke in without the slightest effort.

“We’ve hit the jackpot! The Soaring Snake lineage’s treasure vault is this rich — this is thrilling!” The big black dog grinned like a fool, nearly drooling.

Without ceremony, it swept through like a raging wind leaving nothing behind. Every place it passed was left spotlessly clean — not even a hair remained. Whether it had any use or not didn’t matter: take it first, think later.

“What is the highest realm of defeating an enemy? It isn’t subduing without fighting — it’s making the enemy defeat itself. And that is precisely what this Emperor is doing right now,” the big black dog said, looking thoroughly pleased with itself.

Not only did it clear out several vaults entirely — it also gathered up all of the elder Soaring Snake’s shed skins from multiple molting sessions and prepared to incorporate them all into the killing formation.

“Such magnificent skin quality — it really is something rare. Would any of you like a pair? How about everyone gets a pair of Soaring Snake leather war boots?” it asked with enthusiasm.

The character of this dog was truly without equal. The other three were also looting — yet none of them were this thorough. After clearing out the Soaring Snake’s palace, the Black Emperor still wasn’t satisfied and set its sights on the clan’s burial grounds.

“Ah, ah, ah — don’t cross that line,” Ye Fan said, waving a hand to stop it, reminding it: “Different skills for different masters. That’s Duan De’s territory. We don’t have time to dawdle — if that snake comes back early and the killing formation isn’t finished, we’ll be in trouble.”

“This Emperor is a person of wide learning. Little Duan’s techniques are something I could master with a glance. But time truly is short — it doesn’t allow me to shine in this domain today. I suppose we’ll leave it at this for now,” it said with great reluctance, turning away.

In the outer region, dim and cold, one divine material after another was forged into formation banners and driven into the void. Formation platform after formation platform took shape and sank into the darkness.

The aura of this place changed at once. A force capable of seizing the work of heaven and earth gathered — the Beginningless Killing Formation was rapidly taking shape. The killing intent within it was enough to rend the universe and the primordial void.

Now that the Black Emperor’s mastery had deepened, the divine might of the Beginningless Formation was at last able to reveal a corner of itself — even standing far away and merely looking at it was enough to make one’s heart tremble with dread!

That naturally wouldn’t do. The big black dog quickly laid out its Heaven-Deceiving Formation markings to cover everything, instantly concealing all killing intent. The truth was, if it truly mastered the killing formation completely, it wouldn’t need to resort to this.

At last, all preparations were complete — waiting only for the snake to return.

“The unparalleled great formation is complete!” the Black Emperor declared with total lack of shame, calling itself the undisputed master of formations in the world today, claiming that if it ranked itself second in formation mastery, no one would dare claim first.

On the star below, figures began shooting upward into the outer region — clearly attempting to send word ahead to the elder Soaring Snake. The group had made no attempt at concealment, and naturally had stirred up those below.

But with the Black Emperor — a master of formations — present, not a single one could slip through. The moment they entered this stretch of void, they were immediately exposed. The monkey then reached out with one great hand and plucked every single one of them back — not one managed to break through.

Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, two days had gone by.

The Black Emperor grew restless. The imperial original source was its rightful fortune — yet the elder Soaring Snake had cut in and stolen that Dao fruit away from it. The fury was beyond endurance.

The Holy Prince’s expression was also grave. If the elder Soaring Snake broke through to Quasi-Emperor level because of this, it would be nothing short of catastrophic news — the consequences too terrible to contemplate.

On the third day, the Black Emperor’s eyes snapped open. “He may be coming!” it said.

It had laid down a special formation capable of perceiving the subtlest fluctuations. An existence who had nearly reached Quasi-Emperor level — the moment it appeared in a region of stars, all of heaven and earth would tremble beneath it, generating a particular form of overwhelming pressure.

Ye Fan, Ji Zi, and the others all slipped into the shadows. The Heaven-Deceiving Formation markings concealed every trace of their aura — not the faintest tremor leaked out. They were utterly hidden.

In almost an instant, blazing light erupted. The great formation beyond the outer region was triggered. Formation platforms scattered across all eight directions responded to the summoning — converging on the center at the first moment.

Because they hadn’t known from which direction the elder Soaring Snake might return, many formation platforms had been prepared — far more than enough. Absolute sufficiency.

Moreover, the moment a single platform was triggered, all the rest would instantly tear through the void and descend together, flooding this entire area and unleashing an indiscriminate, devastating assault.

“ROOAARRR—!!!”

A colossal roar erupted, splitting the cosmos asunder — as though a primordial leviathan from the age of heaven’s opening had come to bring ruin upon the world. The earth turned over once, and countless stars might crumble to pieces.

This was a massive Soaring Snake, stretching tens of thousands of li in length. It had deployed a heaven-and-earth great form manifestation, sweeping through the boundless star void. It wanted to retreat out of the formation along the path it had come from.

Ye Fan, Ji Zi, and the Holy Prince all felt their hearts tighten at once. Even the Black Emperor went a little blank — and the Soaring Snake’s enormous body continued to expand, as though it would collapse the entire sky.

“A mere physical form manifestation. So what if it fills the entire universe — it’s still just a snake. Cut it into thirteen pieces! Press all the imperial weapons upon it to block it inside the formation!” the Black Emperor snapped back to its senses and roared.

Not one of these people was going to flinch. The monkey’s father, in those years past, had been the Great Sage Equal to Heaven — swallowing rivers of stars in a single breath, and he had been many times more powerful than this elder Soaring Snake.

The Holy Prince raised the black iron staff, its immortal radiance blazing and its magnificent light cascading in ten thousand streams, sweeping out in a vast arc. The terrifying aura of that strike caused many distant small stars to shatter and crumble.

He was the very embodiment of the Sage-Warrior sovereign — unconquerable and unstoppable!

Ji Zi’s father was the Void Emperor, who had crossed blades with the supreme existences in the seven great life-restricted zones. What Ji Zi had seen and heard had left him with far greater breadth of experience than most. One Soaring Snake — even if it were a true Quasi-Emperor, let alone one who hadn’t fully reached that level — would never frighten him.

He flipped the Void Mirror in his hand, and blinding light burst forth, condensing into a brilliant beam that shot directly ahead. The elder Soaring Snake’s expression changed as he dodged rapidly.

The Black Emperor went without saying — it had followed in the footsteps of Wushi. In its own words, it had accompanied a great emperor. Was it afraid of one snake? It stood upright, raised the killing sword, and walked sideways.

The only one among them who had never accompanied a great emperor was Ye Fan. But the battles he had experienced were too many to count. He had cut through the entire human ancient road — he would never falter.

With a resonant hum, above his head, the green copper cauldron blazed with light and released imperial might. Now that he was a great sage, he was at last able to drive this immortal vessel.

Four great powerhouses joining forces — each one bearing an imperial weapon — was a disaster for any opponent, all the more so when they had prepared so thoroughly in advance.

“Insolent brats!” The old snake erupted in fury.

It had already retracted its tens-of-thousands-of-li form manifestation and condensed into the figure of a demonic god, avoiding the onslaught and standing still in the void. Golden hair swirled around its head, and its eyes were cold as two wells of ice.

“You slaughtered my sworn brothers. You destroyed their ancestral ground. You slaughtered every living creature on an entire small star. That blood feud cannot be repaid even if you give your life,” the Holy Prince declared.

“Monkey-head — you ruined my great endeavor, and you still dare to come here. I struck out precisely to kill you. Come forward and accept your death!” the Soaring Snake said, its killing intent like a bone-deep chill.

Yet within his heart, towering waves had erupted. Four people acting together, all bearing imperial weapons — even half his body had gone cold with shock. He was deeply rattled — though not a trace of it showed on his face.

“Old snake — you ruined my Dao fruit and stole this Emperor’s imperial original source. This Emperor will not rest until one of us is dead!” the Black Emperor howled.

The Soaring Snake turned and looked at the Black Emperor. The longer it looked, the darker its expression became. In the end, it could not hold back a world-shaking roar — for it had seen what the big black dog was wearing: the golden underpants made from its own shed skin.

The old snake nearly spat out a mouthful of blood in rage. Its entire body trembled. Every strand of golden hair stood on end. Its eyes bulged wide. It bellowed: “I am going to kill you!”