Those two had been gone for some time, and this stretch of the battlefield remained utterly silent. With those two extraordinary figures gone, all radiance seemed to have left the world—what breathtaking, magnificent spirit!

I live, I laugh, I am free. I rage, I scorn, I stand alone. When I came into this world, I had no choice in the matter. In death, let it be my will, not heaven’s—let me fall in the most blazing of glory.

They had gone to a life forbidden zone—laughing, unconcerned with what lay ahead, faces brilliant, unbridled, free—to slay supreme beings.

Everyone was thunderstruck. No one could speak.

How could such people exist? To charge into a life forbidden zone—as though strolling through a courtyard—singing and laughing, carrying a hard bow and an iron halberd, and just walking off to war like that.

There were no grand processions. There was no earth-shaking fanfare. Just this simplicity. At the end of a road of destiny, in a blaze of light, they had ignited a radiance that would illuminate the entirety of cultivation history.

Boom!

From some unknown direction came a ferocious wave of energy—like great tides crashing against a shore, like boulders piercing the sky—shaking the entire cosmos.

Shards of spacetime came flying.

In a daze, people seemed to see the lame horse transforming into a dragon. Every wound and ailment fell away. The horse turned entirely snow-white—not a single blemish remained—becoming a celestial steed without equal in the world. Atop the horse, a young man in silver robes held a gleaming war halberd aloft, pointing toward the nine heavens—radiant with spirit, domineering without rival.

Atop the Phoenix Nest, the Undying Empress stood there, her body swaying as if it might fall. Tears streaked her face, silently flowing.

That blurred image, though it appeared for only a single instant—she saw it clearly. It was the First Divine General of the old days: matchless in bearing, peerless under heaven—one man with a war halberd crossing and shattering nine layers of sky!

But she knew that after today, she would never see that person again. That young man of the white horse and silver robes—a peerless genius of the age—had stepped onto the ultimate peak of his own extreme path. But he would never return. From this day on, he would be gone from the mortal world.

“Ha ha…” In a daze, people heard the young man’s bright laughter one last time—and then he entered the realm of the dead, to hunt an ancient supreme being.

His stone club swept across the heavens. His domineering spirit encompassed all. In a single flash of brilliance, he illuminated eternity!

……

No one knew how much time had passed. The people in this place were still enveloped in silence.

“Ahh…!”

A shriek pierced the air—sharp and harrowing. Behind Ye Fan, the void ruptured. A spiritually awakened combat corpse that had half-emerged was, without him even turning around, met with a spinning back kick—he shattered it with one strike, sending its great path laws and weapon fragments flying in every direction.

This was a Quasi-Emperor combat corpse that had launched a sneak attack. He had dealt with it.

“If you want to kill me, come at me openly. These methods are useless—come all at once, it still won’t be enough!” Ye Fan laughed coldly. He shattered the silence and stepped forward, one step at a time—not especially fast, but carrying a powerful pressure. The vault of heaven trembled repeatedly.

Boom. Boom.

In the end, each step Ye Fan took caused a vast swath of the starfield to collapse. The great army of yin soldiers ahead sustained unimaginable losses—even with Quasi-Emperor remains leading the formation, it was not enough!

Ye Fan held nothing back. His blood boiled through his entire body. The beam of light from within his skull shot a hundred thousand li into the sky. From head to toe he was radiating light—like a celestial god walking out of an ancient age—emanating a terrifying aura beyond imagination.

This was the dominion of one who could not be defeated. A single person’s force of power blanketed the entire vault of heaven. For the yin soldiers, this blazing, overwhelming force was lethal—they began to ignite.

“Proceed to reincarnation!” The Lord of the Yanluo Palace bellowed.

A cloud of murky gray yin energy swept forward. The Six Paths Reincarnation Gate blazed to life all at once, flying toward Ye Fan—seeking to swallow him and send him into the realm of the dead to perish.

The Yanluo Lord had grown anxious. That young man from the Ancient Heavenly Court was too terrifying. He wanted to pull back and send word—lest the slumbering Nethervoid Emperor actually come to harm.

But how could he be allowed to have his way.

Before Ye Fan himself had even moved, a cyan lotus had already flown past—shattering the void across ten thousand ages, grinding the entire Six Paths Reincarnation Gate to dust. The gray mist scattered and dissipated.

The Woodcutter Elder had made his move. He held the weapon of the Cyan Emperor—he would naturally not stand by and watch the Yanluo Lord wash this place in blood. Containing and killing him was the task that had to be completed.

“Kill! The age of the Ancient Heavenly Court passed long ago. Guard our god. Fight for him. Cut them all down!”

“For the glory of the old days—restore the dignity of our Ancient Heavenly Court. Wash away the shame! Strike down the remnants of the Immortal Heavenly Emperor!”

……

The battlefield rang with battle cries from all sides. The war spread far and wide. Starfields in every direction boiled. Powerful cultivators were as numerous as a forest, charging and clashing in every direction. Laws fell like rain, cascading without end.

Even a great sage in the midst of combat like this would be quickly overwhelmed. The myths of the powerful could easily be shattered in this kind of vast war—because here, all were strong. Not one was weak. They had come from every major supreme race.

Only Quasi-Emperors could stand apart from the rest. Ye Tong’s body blazed with solar divine light as she dueled the commander of the Phoenix Nest’s guards—a female Quasi-Emperor of terrifying cultivation.

Little Song and the One-Hearted Arrogant also fought together, cutting down all manner of powerful beings from the Underworld. The origins of those ancient corpses were astoundingly illustrious—time and again, someone cried out in recognition of a transcendent clan patriarch from some long-past era.

Yang Xi, Mountain Phoenix, and the others were also charging through the sea of combatants, fighting viciously against the great clans’ champions.

The cosmos was truly vast. The Heavenly Emperor’s General-Summoning Drum and the imperial lord’s war horn had resonated so broadly that they had stirred countless tribes—among them no few Quasi-Emperors who had traversed great distances to arrive.

How many years had it been since a battle of this scale had occurred? Since the dark and tumultuous period, there had never been anything this savage.

Human lives cheaper than grass. Swaths of powerful cultivators fell. Blood soaked the heavens and the earth. This was an apocalyptic scene—everyone had gone mad.

The Undying Empress wiped her tears dry. Her expression turned to ice. She beat the drum without ceasing. That deep, resonant drumbeat was like an ancient beast of the immortal realm roaring—shaking its way into the souls of all who heard it.

This drum sound affected the will of those who heard it, driving them to frenzy. The descendants of the Eight Divisions and all other followers became frenzied—nearly wild—charging forward without fear of death. The blood of many was burning.

“Will the Empress not retreat? Even though I have promised not to kill you personally, there are others here who have not. Continue down this stubborn path, and you will live to regret it!” The Old God shouted.

“Ha ha… In this life, all things are hollow. If I cannot reach the absolute peak, then let the entire world be buried with me!”

The Undying Empress had gone mad. Her face bore tears, but also ferocity. Her exquisite features were written with contradictions. That young man of the white horse could not possibly come back alive. The anguish within her was boundless—and if it had to be this way, she would sooner see the cosmos shattered.

“With the Empress’s level of power, that is not something she can achieve.” The Old God said without a hint of courtesy.

“Cannot achieve? I will make every last one of you understand—this world will tremble. It will shatter!” The Undying Empress cried out.

Boom!

The response that came back was the blaring of the war horn. The Old God climbed atop the Phoenix Nest and engaged her in fierce combat. The Heavenly Emperor’s General-Summoning Drum and the imperial lord’s horn collided—strand after strand of immortal light erupted. The sound was earthshaking. It split the cosmos apart.

The two clashed in violent combat. Immortal sounds rose in all directions. Divine winds swept in great billows. It was as though two ancient emperors had returned, dueling in this age.

The Heavenly Emperor’s secret weapon against the imperial lord’s dharma vessel—it was truly diamond cutting diamond, as though ancient emperors were at war. Such figures throughout all of history—how many could be spoken of in the same breath?

“Heh—the General-Summoning Drum the Heavenly Emperor forged with such painstaking effort is nothing special, is it? A specifically blood-sacrificed instrument, and it still can’t suppress the imperial lord’s war horn.”

“I’ve heard the imperial lord’s war horn is made from an actual dragon horn. Doesn’t look like much—can’t even break through the Heavenly Emperor’s drum. How pitiful!”

While the Undying Empress and the Old God dueled, the followers on both sides were also trading blows with one another—not just in action, but in words too, trying to unsettle their opponents’ resolve and destabilize their focus.

Boom!

Ye Fan moved. No one could stop him now. The Old God was occupied with the Empress. The Woodcutter Elder was locked in a blood battle with the Yanluo Lord. He was now the only supreme-level powerhouse with a free hand—and he swept the field, entering as if into an empty plain.

“Come here, boy—your vital spirit is strong. Take over for me—let this old man rest a moment!”

The old man with yellow teeth bellowed. His back bore a terrifying palm imprint, and his body was battered to pieces—done by a combat corpse’s sneak attack. He had nearly been swept into the Yanluo Lord’s Reincarnation Gate.

He had been wounded for some time. Battling the Nethervoid God had been genuinely taxing.

“Understood. I’ve got it.” Ye Fan charged forward and relieved the old man.

The result: the moment that old man stepped off the battlefield, he was full of energy again—like he’d been injected with newfound vitality—and with one leap he bounded toward the Phoenix Nest, his eyes gleaming with a sly and greedy light. “Here I come!”

That shameless display left Ye Fan speechless. It was painfully clear that this man had his eye on the treasures stored within the Phoenix Nest. The fervor in him right now suggested he could fight ten more battles back to back without rest.

The Nethervoid God was truly formidable. Even stripped of his former glory, Ye Fan still felt an immense oppressive force—like facing a primordial beast from the age of creation.

In truth, the Nethervoid God really was a primordial beast. His racial bloodline power was overwhelming. Though he had taken human form, the massive shadow behind him was still mountain-like—ready at any moment to solidify into its true form and pounce.

“A talent of the later age at the Sixth Heavenly Layer—let me see how remarkable you truly are!” The Nethervoid God roared, surging forward like a dark cloud. His blood energy was oceanic, his body like a demon. A cyan lamp ignited, setting the cosmos ablaze as laws spread with the dancing of its flame.

He did not underestimate Ye Fan. He knew that though his own realm was higher, his physical condition was poor—he could not give full expression to his strength.

Boom!

The cyan lamp blazed. A small figure sat cross-legged at the lamp’s wick, opening its mouth and swallowing all the laws and immortal light Ye Fan had launched—converting them into its own life essence. The wick’s flame raged hotter, then erupted outward.

This fire was peculiar. Around it swirled vast curtains of yin mist in all directions—overwhelming. It could corrode a person’s life essence and primal spirit, and dissolve the physical body. According to legend, this was the annihilating power of the age of creation itself.

Ye Fan struck out with a palm—one that should have shattered the sky—but it was dissolved by this utterly soft and yin force. His heart jumped.

“Kill!”

This would not be a battle that ended quickly. It would be a grueling fight.

And the facts proved it. The Nethervoid God grew fiercer as the battle continued. Within him, a medicinal force was dissolving—clearly the residual effects of the Nine Revolutions Immortal Elixir working to improve his condition.

“You were praised by the Ancient Heavenly Court’s First Divine General. You are strong. But do not give me an opening—because snuffing out geniuses, overshadowing everything with one hand—that is my style.” The Nethervoid God’s body was dotted with bloodstains. He spoke in a cold, deathly tone.

“I will give you no opening. Your era is over. Everything that was will become the past. This age belongs to yet another generation!” Ye Fan said calmly.

After more than a thousand bouts of life-or-death combat, flowers of blood had bloomed across Ye Fan’s body. In that moment, he had observed and comprehended every last combat technique of his opponent—and the divine prohibition was triggered.

Boom!

The Celestial Emperor’s Fist—peerless under heaven. Blazing golden light cascaded down. Ye Fan was like a great emperor moving through the world. One punch shattered the cyan lamp before him, and simultaneously the Nethervoid God’s body exploded—blood spattering across the cosmos.

Everyone went cold. Ye Fan was too powerful. Three divine generals killed in a row—all supreme masters who had once followed the Immortal Heavenly Emperor, all of those who had survived into this age—nearly all of them had died at his hands.

No matter how great a powerhouse, before the passage of years, they were nothing. In the end, only flowers of blood.

Rumble!

Suddenly, from deep within the starfield, a terrifying aura spread—shaking the mortal world.

“That’s… the direction of the Underworld!” Ye Fan’s head snapped up.

The energy fluctuations there were severe. Shards of spacetime erupted outward, scattering toward the eight extremes and four wilds. In the blur, there appeared a young man. He howled through the heavens—drawing his curved sky-bow, about to shoot down a supreme being!