Deep in the cosmos, at the place of the Jiang Clan’s last stand, a young man of jade-like grace and incomparable bearing stood upright with calm resolve, his robes rippling. He said: “Everything is ready. A remnant imprint of the Henyu Emperor has been woven into the thought-force of all living beings — and it is time for me to depart.”
“Yifei…” His grandfather seized his arm with both hands, his aged eyes blurred with tears, filled with regret and sorrow. He knew that the most extraordinarily gifted young man of the clan was about to go and fulfill the duty of an emperor’s descendant with his life — and would not return.
The young man was Jiang Yifei — the current head of the Jiang Family. Brilliantly talented and supremely gifted, he had in his youth easily overcome the divine body of his own clan, and his true combat power could look down on all peers throughout the Northern Dipper.
Yet he had never sought to stand out or make himself known, keeping a low profile. No one had ever truly understood how powerful he was — though anyone who did know could only describe him as unfathomable.
“Since the bloodline of my ancestor has awakened within me, I must use my life to fulfill its purpose — to bring the Henyu Emperor back, to quell the darkest upheaval in all of history.” Jiang Yifei carried an otherworldly bearing about him. His face still wore its warm smile. There was not a trace of sorrow — he was as transcendent and at ease as ever.
“Yifei!” Many of the clan’s elders spoke his name, their voices trembling. But all they could do was call that name — they could not stop him.
At this point, who among the emperor lineages could still fight? Down through the generations to the present day, only the Ji Family and the Jiang Family still carried the marks of their ancestors — and only through the fragments of life hidden within their bloodlines could a great emperor be briefly revived.
“This is the moment!” Jiang Yifei rose with absolute resolution and shot upward into the sky.
“I will wait for you, Yifei… I believe you will come back!” A young woman behind him cried out in a loud voice, her face already drenched in tears, her body trembling uncontrollably despite her best efforts.
She had no profound cultivation, no powerful physique — one might say she was nearly an ordinary person, hardly even a step upon the path of practice. Yet she had found her way to stand alongside the peerlessly gifted Jiang Yifei.
She could not stop him, nor would she. All she could do was stand here — gazing up at the stars, her arms wrapped around herself, tear-streaked face filled with prayer — hoping he might come home alive.
Jiang Yifei’s body shuddered. He did not look back. He paused for just a moment and said: “In these dark days, take care of yourself. Raise little Feng to adulthood.”
“I know… I know!” The young woman wept in anguish, watching that incomparable figure depart and vanish into the depths of the cosmos. She broke down completely and knelt upon the ground.
Behind her, a small boy appeared — barely three or four years of age. “Mother, don’t cry. Father will come back.”
He stretched out his tiny, delicate hands to wipe the young woman’s tears — yet crystalline teardrops appeared on his own face as well, sliding down his small, tender cheeks.
“Mother isn’t crying, good boy. Let us wait together for your father to come home.”
Behind them stood many elders — all silent, not one of them speaking. They had already foreseen the outcome.
“Be good, little Feng.” Jiang Caixuan appeared, lifting the small boy up and helping her sister-in-law to her feet.
High above, Jiang Yifei transformed into a ray of eternal light. Holding the Henyu Furnace, his entire being was ablaze. The furnace blazed crimson — saturated with the blood of every member of the clan.
And he himself was about to dissolve into the body of his ancestor — using his own soul, his bones, and his blood to awaken the latent power of that former emperor’s body, to regain command of the imperial law, allowing the fragments of the Henyu Emperor’s life and great Dao — dormant within the bloodline of the clan — to coalesce once more.
“Boom!”
In the sky, a white-robed figure appeared, holding the Divine Blaze Furnace — blazing with light across ten thousand zhang in an instant — arriving in close proximity. The two furnaces merged into one.
“Divine King!” Jiang Yifei saw him and bowed deeply.
Jiang Taixu raised him up, then took the Henyu Furnace into his own hands. His intention was unmistakable — he would dissolve himself into the laws, and offer himself as a blood sacrifice.
“Divine King, Mystic Ancestor — today only I can go. You must not. The Jiang Family’s lineage still needs you to guard it!” Jiang Yifei refused.
“You are still young. Go back — do not make little Feng wait any longer, do not let the woman waiting for you grow old in loneliness.” The white-robed Divine King spoke gently. He placed a palm on Jiang Yifei’s shoulder, tore open the void, and was about to send him into exile back to the Jiang Family.
“No — this age tolerates no mistakes whatsoever. My awakening is the grace of heaven — the bloodline of my ancestor has fully revived within me, even my appearance is the same. This is no coincidence. The emperor’s son of our clan fell in battle in the Dark Era. I am the most suited person for this. Please let me go!” Jiang Yifei was no longer the gentle and refined young man — in this moment he was utterly resolute, determined to proceed.
“Within me carries the only hope of the Henyu Emperor’s revival. Only I can do this. Though you have achieved wonders surpassing the natural order, you are not the most suited candidate.” Jiang Yifei called out loudly.
The white-robed Divine King, Jiang Taixu, said nothing. This was undeniably true — and there was no time to waste. In that instant he took Jiang Yifei along and flew toward the depths of the cosmos. The Henyu Furnace erupted in the most brilliant radiance it had ever produced.
Thought-force was a wondrous thing — a power that defied comprehension. Otherwise, the Immortal Heaven Emperor would never have cultivated a divine embryo from it, spending an entire lifetime in research, and the Amitabha Emperor would never have gathered the power of faith to pioneer an undying path.
Now, in this moment when all living beings teetered on the edge of despair, unable to help but yearn for the ancient great emperors, the true Void had genuinely returned — to wage one final battle, though afterward he would forever disappear into the river of time.
Naturally, the other great emperors too were being remembered, being called upon. When the Jiang Family’s thread of an emperor imprint was woven into that vast ocean of thought-force, the calls for Henyu reached their absolute peak.
“The Henyu Emperor returns…”
Everywhere across that boundless heaven and earth, the cry rang out. It was like the sound of a drowning person grabbing hold of a floating plank — desperate to seize it, screaming with their very lives.
“Rumble!”
Shennong awakened. Within the depths of his eyes blazed endless brilliance — a radiance that outshone even the sun, moon, and stars. The entire aura about his person became more powerful by a degree impossible to measure.
He had been commanding several emperor-grade weapons in battle. Those weapons obeyed him willingly and without reservation — yet in this moment, he broke free and stood alone to face the Supreme before him.
And the heavens shattered open. The Henyu Furnace came flying in — like a light of hope, illuminating the darkness, warming the frozen cosmos, cleaving through the constraints of eternity.
Nothing could stop it. The Divine King and Jiang Yifei appeared, jointly holding the emperor furnace forged of phoenix-blood crimson gold. Both were soaked in blood. Offering themselves as blood sacrifices, they flew toward the man across from them — ready to merge.
“I… have returned.” A desolate voice shook the universe. Shennong’s eyes blazed with even greater intensity, erupting with true emperor’s might — primal chaos energy detonating across hundreds of millions of li.
“The life of our ancestors continues in our blood — truly revive now!” The white-robed Divine King and Jiang Yifei cried out.
They charged forward. Nothing could stop them. They collided with that man at last. The Henyu Furnace erupted to the mightiest state it had ever known — ringing loud and resonant, finally meeting its former master, as though returned to the ancient of days, yearning for battle worthy of an emperor.
The other emperor-grade weapons resonated in sympathy — standing guard nearby, their radiance shooting into the heavens.
Immortal light burst forth. In the final instant, three silhouettes merged into one — yet at the very last moment, after the bloodline power had fused together, Jiang Yifei fell back out.
“Go back — do not let the one who waits for you spend a lifetime waiting in vain and grief. The Jiang Family has you. That is enough.” Those were the final words of the white-robed Divine King.
“Divine King!” Jiang Yifei wailed in grief. He had not anticipated that in the very last moment, the bloodline power would be transferred away — redirected by the Divine King, who had pushed him out.
What this meant — he understood more clearly than anyone. It meant the Divine King would have no more chances to reappear in the world. By letting Jiang Yifei go, he had cut off his own last hope of returning to the mortal world.
In that fleeting breath of life — only a single thread remained.
This was the last thread of survival amid heaven and earth’s extinction — the one ray of hope in all this darkness, the one chance at life. He had severed his own path and left it for Jiang Yifei.
The Henyu Furnace shook, shattering the vault of heaven, driving Jiang Yifei into it — and he vanished into the dark void, disappearing from that place without a trace.
“What difference does it make — one more Henyu, and does that truly defy heaven? All it has created is one more combatant with imperial law. When I taste the emperor’s blood and the imperial law, it will only be all the more satisfying. Blood that once again carries true emperor law fragments — a supreme replenishment to our immortal platforms!” The Forsaken Heaven Supreme said with cold grim finality, his eyes flashing with ice, his face written over with mercilessness.
“Good — one more body truly possessing imperial law, and one that is our sworn enemy. The five of us will divide it equally — more than sufficient to nourish our immortal platforms!” The Light-Dark Supreme, too, laughed with cruel relentlessness, utterly fearless.
With a tremendous boom, the divine furnace forged of phoenix-blood crimson gold came slamming straight down. Henyu was supremely aggressive — he opened with a suppressing kill-strike.
With a crash, the ancient golden Dao-tribulation staff in the right hand of the Light-Dark Supreme shook violently, sending a wave of numbness through his arm and bursting open his tiger-mouth with blood. This forced his entire body’s imperial law to surge outward in full force to resist.
“Henyu — I have long heard of your name. Alone you held against the entirety of the Taichu Ancient Mine, and it seems you once had dealings with the greatest schemer of antiquity. You guarded one age of peace in the mortal world. It seems you truly have some means.” The Light-Dark Supreme said in a cold voice.
“Is that person truly still alive? You brought phoenix-blood crimson gold — his most beloved supreme immortal material — to the Taichu Forbidden Zone to forge a weapon. Was that to force him out and prove whether he still lived?” The Forsaken Heaven Supreme also spoke.
“No need to ask further. He once left phoenix-blood crimson gold in the Taichu Forbidden Zone — if that person had not taken it, he is certainly not in the Northern Dipper Star Region. And besides — do you truly believe the person before you is Henyu?” The Lord of the Divine Ruins said in a cold voice.
“Slay the two of them, and all will become clear. There is no need for more words. Their blood and souls will become the divine essence nourishing our immortal platforms!” The Lord of Samsara was drenched in blood, engaged in his great battle with “Void” — and at this moment he spoke with cruel finality.
At this stage, they were not fighting for the imperial Dao — they were killing for long life, for survival, hunting emperor-level prey. Their methods would be savage.
Yet though their words were full of confidence, every one of them had paid a considerable price — for the emperor-grade weapons were attacking, and nearly every single one of them was drenched in blood, having sustained wounds.
Indeed — if they were careless even once, they might be forced to ascend to extreme sublimation just to resolve the situation. And so even amid this fierce and cataclysmic battle, the five Supremes dared not let their guard down for a single instant.
All things were approaching their end. All things were about to conclude.
Even now, more emperor-grade weapons had been destroyed — because the five Supremes each also had their own weapons. Thus the pressure distributed across each emperor-grade weapon was not as overwhelming as it might have been. Yet the battle remained a desperate one.
Deep in the starry sky, Ji Ziyue was gazing into the distance — still unaware that Ji Haoyue had been thrust into the depths of the void by Ji Zi, and had not perished.
On this very day, she had seen both her brother depart and Ye Fan leave — two wounds in a single day, her heart shattered. Both had gone to face death, with almost no hope of surviving.
Within a single day, she had lost the two most important people in her life. The grief was beyond endurance. The tears would not stop.
“In the eyes of a Supreme, I may be a speck of dust, I may be an ant. But I will make my voice heard — with my roar, with my actions — and I will fight back!”
In the Northern Dipper Star Region, Ye Fan had returned — shouting aloud.
The universe was in upheaval, the world was bleeding. Clan after clan was suffering devastation. Above all, the dying roar of the Great Completion Holy Body as he fell in battle had somehow traveled across the star systems and into his heart — a message that transcended galaxies.
In that single instant, he understood many things. He had entered the ancient forbidden zone to gather medicine with the tacit permission of the Great Completion Holy Body — for the Great Completion Holy Body could have let him leave, but would never have allowed the herbs to be taken.
A quiet, watchful presence, observing the footsteps of his growth without interfering — hoping that he might forge his own road, rather than walking the path of all previous Holy Bodies before him.
“Aahh…” Ye Fan cried out. The death and dissolution of the Great Completion Holy Body shook him to his core — branded like a seal into his heart, making his blood surge and race. In that moment his body had nearly been detonated by the power of his own blood.
“Even if it is as a moth flying into a flame — even if I am ground to dust and my bones shattered — I have no fear. I will prove I existed. I fought. I did not yield. The trajectory of my life — the roar of hundreds of millions of ants — will make even heaven and earth tremble!”
Ye Fan roared and came to the Sacred Cliff. He would climb to its bloodstained, absolute peak and take something from it — and then go into the cosmos and wage one final battle!