Ye Fan burst out laughing, but his expression was utterly cold — without even a trace of warmth, as though the world itself had frozen solid. He spoke in a measured, indifferent tone: “Do I have a black heart? If you had not come to kill me, none of this would have been necessary. You intended to commit slaughter, yet you blame it on me. Don’t you find that laughable?”
The two supreme experts glared at him with fury, their chests tight with resentment. The entire cosmos knew and was discussing Ye Fan’s injuries — yet now it turned out it had all been a fabrication. And who could have seen through it?
The great tribulation had been witnessed by all. Ye Fan had fought the ten thousand Daos, suffering inconceivable damage — and in the end, utterly spent, he had gone on to face his own imperial tribulation. That he would end up with his body destroyed and his Dao ruined was not surprising. Anyone who had witnessed that tribulation would have thought it inevitable. He had simply been too arrogant.
Yet who could have imagined that he had been calculating all along?
The greatest tribulations in existence had failed to cripple him — and he had turned them to his own use, quietly waiting for the greatest of enemies to come to him. It was genuinely terrifying.
The two supreme experts clenched their fists. They deeply resented the feeling of being made fools of — of having walked straight into a trap. They wanted nothing more than to strike him dead on the spot.
Yet they knew: the Sacred Body Ye Fan of today was not who he had once been. He was now truly without peer beneath the heavens. Even had they come in their prime, they could not have defeated him.
“Master, be careful — they carry a forbidden weapon.” Xiao Song warned. He had found himself mired as though in quicksand just now — this was no ordinary artifact.
A forbidden weapon was one of immense power, surpassing all conventional weapons — but it could only be activated a limited number of times before its lifespan was exhausted.
A forbidden weapon forged by a Great Emperor was naturally extraordinary. They had come here to kill Ye Fan, and had naturally brought with them a weapon of supreme destruction.
Now, this stretch of the mountain peak had fallen silent and was cut off from the outside world — the work of this forbidden weapon, which had imprisoned them here and turned this place into a land where neither law nor Dao held sway.
“It doesn’t matter.” Ye Fan said calmly, his gaze fixed on the two supreme experts.
The one whose fist had been shattered — blood still dripping from his severed wrist as the hand regenerated — collected himself. His eyes turned glacial as he stared at Ye Fan. “You’re only feigning composure. The truth is, you’ve suffered grievous wounds — you cannot survive. Do you think you can frighten us away with a single strike? After pouring everything into that one blow, can you strike again?”
The other supreme expert narrowed his eyes as well, killing intent fully revealed. “Try us and find out.”
“Then come and see for yourselves.” Ye Fan gave a cold scoff, looking utterly unconcerned.
“Kill!”
One of them made his move. The forbidden weapon flared with light and descended, seeking to envelop Ye Fan, to lock away all law and Dao within this space — to temporarily suppress Ye Fan’s cultivation.
“Boom!”
But what followed drained the color from their faces. Ye Fan extended a single hand, reached up into the air, and snatched the descending forbidden weapon — then crushed it to dust with a resounding crack, shattering the binding that had held this place sealed.
At the same instant, Ye Fan moved — at a speed that was shocking, incomprehensible. The supreme expert stumbled backward, but there was simply no comparison between them. Ye Fan reversed the river of time itself and was upon him in an instant — they clashed with shattering force, and in that single exchange, Ye Fan tore off one of the man’s arms and blasted half his body into pieces.
A cry of rage rang out from above. The man was stunned. The Dao markings on Ye Fan’s body — the wounds from the backlash of the ten thousand Daos — should not have been feigned. How could he still be this terrifying?
He burned his divine fire to the limit and fled with all speed.
At the same moment, the second man attacked, igniting his divine fire in an instant, surging to the absolute peak of his existence — for if he did not, he would surely die. There was no other way to face this opponent.
Xiao Song moved to help. Ye Fan waved him back and kept him at his side.
The terrifying aura erupting from Ye Fan’s body shook the mortal realm. These were the techniques of a flawless Great Emperor. Though blood stained his body, that dominance — that radiance — was without equal, as though it could crush the very heavens and earth.
“A true Great Emperor — a might surpassing even the Golden Crow!”
Across the cosmos, every supreme existence sensed this aura and trembled. Who was this? It did not take long for the answer to dawn on them: this was the Sacred Body, Ye Fan.
“How can this be? Was he not critically wounded and dying? Now he has become a flawless Great Emperor — this is unbelievable!”
In that moment, countless people throughout the world were struck speechless, their minds blank. Ye Fan had been on the verge of death — and now it had come to this. It was profoundly strange.
“He was waiting for supreme experts to come to him — what incredible resolve!”
Someone exclaimed, finally understanding.
“I refuse to believe it. He must have been injured. When he fell from the ten thousand Daos, the blood holes and Dao wounds on his body — were those false? And the most obvious point: his seal was never seen merging with the Heavenly Heart.”
“You’re mistaken. His Dao is different. His true body standing atop the ten thousand Daos naturally requires no such thing. He must have become Emperor. The aura he radiates now confirms it beyond all doubt!”
The cosmos shook violently. Some supreme existences began making their way toward the Heavenly Court, determined to see for themselves.
“Sacred Body Ye Fan, you—!”
One of the supreme experts lost half his body — Ye Fan had cleaved it away with a single palm strike — and his weapon was reduced to scrap metal. Golden light flowed through Ye Fan’s fingers, shattering all resistance.
In that moment, the supreme expert felt true fear. These techniques surpassed even what he had been capable of in his prime. Was a figure truly rivaling an Emperor Lord about to emerge in this age?
The fierce battle raged. Even the two supreme experts burning their lives to the peak of ascension were no match for Ye Fan. Though blood stained his body, he remained composed and unhurried throughout.
“Aah—!”
One of them was enveloped by Ye Fan’s palm, then seized — during an exchange that was neither very short nor very long, Ye Fan captured him alive with his bare hands.
“How?” The supreme expert was dumbstruck. Even an ancient emperor had fallen this ingloriously.
He had once been peerless beneath the heavens. He had once looked down upon all of creation. He had once shaken all of antiquity. Yet now he was utterly routed — even coming at his most powerful, he was destined to bleed.
“Has a true… Celestial Emperor truly risen?” he muttered, dazed, unable to accept it. He struggled with all his might.
In response, Ye Fan tightened his grip. A radiant, crystalline light blazed in his palm — crushing the man into blood and gore. His body burst apart. There was no escape — and then Ye Fan seized even his primordial spirit, imprisoning it. He would use the memories of both men to find Taichu Ancient Mine and the Above Heavens, and destroy them.
“The Sacred Body has become Emperor!”
It crashed through the world like a tsunami, shaking the very foundations of existence. In this moment, people truly grasped the enormity of what had happened.
He had not merely become Emperor under the suppression of a current Great Emperor’s Heavenly Heart Seal and the ten thousand Daos. On top of that, he carried another identity — that of the Sacred Body, a bloodline that by its very nature was said to be incapable of attaining the Dao. And now he had shattered every one of those barriers in a single stroke.
Ye Fan’s body crackled as every bone rang out like a sonorous chime. His blood and vitality blazed like a roaring fire. The wounds across his body rapidly vanished — the fist holes that had gone clean through him sealed themselves shut, and even the backlash markings from the ten thousand Daos that had been branded onto his flesh were erased.
The one dissonant note was a thin thread of blood still seeping from the corner of his mouth, giving him a faint pallor — evidence that some Dao damage truly remained.
Xiao Song stepped forward and offered him a stalk of a sovereign medicine, worry visible on his face, afraid something might go wrong with his master.
“I’m fine.” Ye Fan smiled faintly, then looked toward the distance. His expression turned cold and grave. “Fellow Daoist — have you come to help me?”
The Golden Crow Great Emperor emerged from the shadows. He was silent for a long moment, then spoke: “Fellow Daoist, you are breathtaking. You have broken the curse of the Sacred Body lineage — that it cannot attain the Dao — an unprecedented feat throughout all of antiquity. You are now, in the truest sense, peerless beneath the heavens. You may rightly be called Celestial Emperor.”
The Demon Emperor sighed. Ye Fan’s power humbled him. He sensed that this was a figure of the same caliber as the Desolate Celestial Emperor — and whoever was fated to share an era with such a person, to contend for the Dao, was destined for sorrow.
Ye Fan smiled. “Fellow Daoist, cultivate your heart and nurture your nature. In this lifetime, you will still stand as a Great Emperor — your name will surely endure in history.”
What more could the Golden Crow Great Emperor say? He had come and not struck. Perhaps that was something to be grateful for — or perhaps something to grieve. Under the overwhelming pressure of this man, he could only set aside every ambition and cooperate.
As Ye Fan had once told his disciples: as long as one’s own power is sufficient to overwhelm the heavens and earth, even a Demon Emperor must behave — compelled to strive, to burn bright, and to assist with all his strength.
At that moment, the Monkey, the Human Demon, Ye Tong, and the others all returned.
There was no need for many words. Ye Fan had but a single sentence: it was time to sweep the forbidden zones. And with that, he tore open the fabric of the cosmos and vanished into the depths of the star sea.
When some powerful figures arrived and looked toward the Heavenly Court from afar, all of them sighed. The Sacred Body had become Emperor. This would be his age of glory — a Celestial Emperor had risen.
“Ye, the Celestial Emperor!”
“He surpasses the Golden Crow Great Emperor in might, slays ancient supreme experts, sweeps through the forbidden zones as though entering an empty land — a Celestial Emperor has finally been born!”
People knew: whether they acknowledged it or not, Ye Fan had truly attained that heaven-defying power.
The great battle erupted. Though the Above Heavens had hidden itself well in advance, Ye Fan deduced its location through sheer calculation, found the Heavengrave Island, and began his slaughter.
There were two supreme experts there — figures of extraordinary glory in their time — but all that glory had long been buried beneath the ages. Now Ye Fan had come, and the crushing advance began.
Even the Monkey was left gaping. Ye Fan’s current power was staggering. He swept straight through the island, and not even the two ascended ancient emperors could stop him — both were blown apart in the fierce battle, one after another.
“What a place — the Above Heavens.”
Ye Fan stood with his hands clasped behind his back on that magnificent yet strange island. It was shaped like a great coffin, connected to nine great dragon veins, as though it were about to take flight toward the immortal realm.
It bore an almost perfect resemblance to the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin. The Ancient Bronze Coffin that had once carried him through the sea of stars — he did not know where it was now. This place stirred old memories.
“The ancient emperors who resided here were not this island’s true masters. They simply chanced upon it and chose to make it their dwelling. This is an immortal island from the era of primordial chaos — predating even the age of myth, beyond all reckoning.” Dao Yi spoke.
The Above Heavens was destroyed. The star sea trembled. The trembling reached every corner of the cosmos. Ye Fan had swept away yet another life’s forbidden zone.
“Ye, the Celestial Emperor!”
“What a formidable Sacred Body — truly worthy of being called Celestial Emperor now. A figure rivaling the Emperor Lords has appeared in this age, rising in the height of the golden era!”
Every clan and tribe across the cosmos shuddered.
The clamor rose like a tidal wave. When the news spread to every corner of existence, cries of astonishment rang out from countless inhabited worlds. The two characters of “Celestial Emperor” seemed to carry within them some strange and irresistible power.