Five supreme beings fought with everything they had, burning their essence blood in full. An aura of world-creation and cosmos-genesis emerged as they launched themselves in a desperate assault. There was no retreat today.

The exchange was ferocious. In this place, emperor-path laws intertwined. With a thunderous blast, one of the emperor-path magical artifacts was shattered by Ye Fan. Fragments of divine gold scattered like fireworks, bursting outward in every direction.

One bloodflower after another bloomed. Shards of imperial artifact sliced through several combatants’ bodies, causing all of them to feel a sinking in their hearts. Ye Fan was too powerful — truly beyond resistance.

“Do not hesitate, any of you. There is only one path forward — a fight to the death. Slay the Celestial Emperor and draw his essence blood. That is the supreme treasure of the mortal world. To consume the Celestial Emperor’s great medicine may extend half a lifetime of imperial longevity.”

The creature shrouded in chaotic light spoke. He had already sacrificed the transcendent immortal treasure — the pitch-black, crystalline dark artifact in the shape of a treasure wheel — and it now rotated slowly, the scene of the underworld manifesting within it, suppressing downward toward Ye Fan, projecting tens of thousands of Great Dao symbols.

This stretch of the star field became like a quagmire, impeding the Celestial Emperor’s steps. Various Dao symbols flickered within it, their power matchless, capable of wounding even a great emperor’s body.

“Pop!”

Suddenly, a soft series of sounds rang out. Ye Fan had stopped moving. His bearing was dignified and solemn as he began forming seals in rapid succession, and then began to vibrate his fingers in a震指 technique. A terrifying aura appeared in heaven and earth. One after another, flowers of the Great Dao bloomed — formed from the essence of the Celestial Emperor Scripture, crystalline and shimmering, drifting through the sky in countless numbers, surging toward the transcendent immortal treasure.

“Kill!”

Simultaneously, Ye Fan struck with fierce intensity. From the tip of his finger shot a blazing beam of brilliant light that transformed into an especially dazzling immortal flower, tearing apart the cosmos — its power without limit.

This was the Celestial Emperor Finger. A single strike of this kind obliterated all things, none could withstand it.

“Pfft!”

The immortal flower smashed through one sovereign’s weapon and then blossomed in the void. Between its crystalline petals, brilliant rays of light shot skyward, all of them crashing into that figure’s body — blood spraying outward in an explosion. Every part of him, from his limbs to his chest and abdomen to the center of his forehead, was pierced through, leaving several fingertip-sized holes. Then he exploded apart, dying under the Celestial Emperor Finger.

Great Dao flowers filled the sky, blooming one after another, their aura overwhelming, causing all the heavens and ten thousand realms to tremble. Then every last one of them struck the transcendent immortal treasure.

“Clang!”

The pitch-black crystalline dark artifact shuddered under blow after blow in rapid succession. Though it resisted fiercely, it was ultimately sent flying.

The might of the Celestial Emperor was thus made clear. Every remaining combatant felt chills down to their bones. Each had been unrivaled in their own era. Yet now, with a true emperor’s assembly, the gap between them was laid bare in an instant.

“Boom!”

The creature shrouded in chaotic light charged forward. Holding the dark treasure wheel, it clashed head-on against Ye Fan — meeting the Emperor Fist directly, erupting in light that shot to the heavens.

Ye Fan stood unmoving as a mountain. The creature staggered backward, coughing blood from its mouth. This was the only supreme being who had clashed directly with Ye Fan and survived.

“A fine dark treasure.”

Upon hearing this evaluation from Ye Fan, the creature spat another mouthful of blood, its rage beyond control. To be spoken of in this manner was utterly dismissive — a contempt and disregard that only acknowledged the transcendent immortal treasure, not the creature itself.

Boom!

Golden light blazed. Weapons filled the sky. Everywhere were treasures — a golden pagoda, divine swords, Dao bells, a golden cauldron — every manner of precious artifact whirling through the air, all of them surging toward Ye Fan.

The Golden Ancient Emperor had moved. This was precisely his world-renowned forbidden secret art — the Golden Divine Treasury. When employed by the very creator of this technique, it was beyond comparison with any later practitioner, expressing the full depth of its meaning and might.

Ye Fan did not waver in the face of any of this. Only the cauldron above his head flew out, with ten thousand spirits manifesting, all of them piercing through its walls and surging into the nine heavens, suppressing the endless golden weapons in a fierce confrontation.

Then the cauldron became like a wisp of cloud, dreamlike and ethereal, charging straight to the front — crashing directly into the Golden Ancient Emperor!

The Golden Ancient Emperor was shocked. Unable to dodge, he was enveloped by the cauldron and locked completely within it, with no choice but to endure. With a clang, both his arms were as if snapped. He staggered backward.

And Ye Fan, like a specter, arrived at close range. He struck his own cauldron with full force, sending it crashing forward. With a pfft, blood erupted. The Golden Ancient Emperor was crushed into a pulp of blood by the cauldron, his primordial spirit shattered.

Only a cauldron. Only a palm. That was all it took to shatter ten thousand techniques — simple and direct, brutal and terrifying. No matter how the Golden Ancient Emperor shifted and changed, he was destroyed by that one cauldron and that one palm.

“Trying to flee — who can leave?” Ye Fan strode forward. He appeared to move slowly, yet each step covered half the breadth of the sky. Heaven and earth wailed. Ten thousand paths submitted. He caught up to Source Deity.

He swung his right leg in a sweeping arc. No matter how fiercely Source Deity resisted, it was not enough. Moments later, with a pfft, the Celestial Emperor’s foot came down into the star field. Source Deity was torn into four pieces, dying a violent death.

The scenes of combat here were carried on fragments of flowing light to those who had been following in Ye Fan’s wake — those sages who had seen everything were left in stunned silence, shaking the cosmos.

What manner of might was this? The Celestial Emperor’s divine power dominated the world. Slaying supreme beings was accomplished this easily — standing at the absolute pinnacle of the human path, solitary and unmatched, the peak of peaks.

Ye Fan turned. Only two remained.

No matter how he thought about it, they had never imagined it would come to this. Now there was no time for regret — escape was impossible, for they had been locked down by the Celestial Emperor. There was only one option: fight.

Yet powerful as they were, they could only tremble before Ye Fan. The gap was simply too vast.

“I understand it now. He forcibly elevated his vital energy to reproduce his peak battle strength. After this fight, he will certainly die — it will exhaust his final essence blood. We just need to hold on!” The creature howled.

“Kill!”

The last ancient emperor from the Primordial Ancient Mine invoked the laws of the Great Dao and launched the final strike of his life — powerful to the extreme, breathtaking in the human realm.

It was a sword strike — resplendent and dazzling, with a rain of light filling the heavens. Every star in every sky ignited. Even the transcendent immortal treasure quaked, causing even the creature to cry out and stagger backward.

This individual, using an avatar along with the divine spirit within his weapon as catalysts, ignited his force of Dao transformation, seeking to destroy Ye Fan by this means — the most terrifying technique of all.

When a supreme ruler of the emperor’s path unleashes the force of Dao transformation, even the strongest must retreat; it is exceedingly difficult to dissolve.

Yet Ye Fan was composed in a way that defied all expectation. He spread wide his great hand. Mystical patterns were without end. His golden palm and fingers fell like a cloud hanging from the sky, covered in traces of the Dao — and in a single instant, that weapon, that avatar, and this ancient emperor’s true body were all seized within his grip. The entire vast stellar sea was contained within his palm. Terrifying beyond anything in all history!

With a pfft, countless stars went dark — including this ancient emperor, his weapon, and his avatar. They were reduced to flying ash, utterly annihilated.

The creature had been right. Ye Fan, in his final years, could only forcibly draw up his essence blood to restore a brief moment of peak battle strength, enabling him to so easily slay his opponents. This victory had come at a brutal cost.

Even so, perhaps only the Supreme Venerable and a handful of others in all history could have accomplished this!

What followed held no further suspense. Ye Fan captured the creature alive, studied it thoroughly, then destroyed it with a single palm — reducing it to a mist of blood that could never reconstitute itself.

The transcendent dark treasure attempted to flee. He seized it in an instant. As for the Numinous Treasure Celestial Venerable’s killing formation map — that had long since been collected into his cauldron, with no chance of escape.

Blood mist hung thick in the air. All seven ancient supreme rulers had been slain. The mortal world was sent into shock!

“Celestial Emperor!”

The sages spread news of this across every land. In that moment, the powerful figures of every race throughout the cosmos cried out the two characters of “Celestial Emperor” in unison. Though only two characters, they expressed everything.

The Celestial Emperor was unmatched — supreme throughout the nine heavens and ten lands!

For the people of the world, this was the stuff of legend. The Celestial Emperor had already grown old, yet in a single day he had slain seven ancient supreme rulers — something seen only once in all of history!

“If we speak of magnificent achievements in battle, none can compare!” People were left trembling in shock and awe.

In this moment, every corner of the cosmos was ablaze with fervor.

Ye Fan sat quietly cross-legged alone. No one drew near, none dared to disturb. He refined the blood mist left behind by the supreme beings — but the effect was limited. His realm was too high. The Celestial Emperor’s blood surpassed all things, and that depleted emperor-path blood could not truly nourish him in any meaningful way. He had lived too long; vitality was running thin.

Still, it was better than nothing. Ye Fan recuperated here, exactly as his enemies had predicted — he had drawn up all the essence blood within his body, and after this battle it was nearly spent.

But things had not turned out as his enemies had anticipated, with death following immediately after the battle. His situation was simply very unfavorable — he had reached the final years of his life.

“A third lifetime…” Ye Fan closed his eyes. He was using his full will to invoke his life force, hoping to take that step within his remaining time.

The path to longevity was exceedingly arduous. This was the most critical step he had deduced. If he failed, it would prove he had been wrong from the very beginning. If he succeeded, the future held possibility!

In this moment, Ye Fan was deeply exhausted. After all, he had just passed through a great battle, and his vital energy was spent.

Yet he also let out a long breath. The final life restricted zone had been leveled. The disaster born in the underworld had been eliminated. The world would be free from turmoil for a long time to come.

But it was precisely in this most exhausted and relieved of moments that Ye Fan suddenly felt his hairs stand on end. He shifted laterally with all his might, crossing several star regions in an instant at extreme speed.

Yet even so, a vast spray of blood erupted from his body. A Five-Colored Heavenly Saber sliced through, very nearly splitting Ye Fan completely in two — only barely missing. His left shoulder and a portion of his body were cleaved open and fell away. The blood of the Celestial Emperor gushed forth.

In all these tens of thousands of years — even in his old age during the great battle against seven supreme beings — he had not shed a single drop of blood. Yet now he had nearly been split apart. Though it happened during the exhausted aftermath of a great battle, and in his twilight years, it was still more than enough to speak to the terror of whoever had arrived.

What had descended was a hand — smooth and warm as jade — dropping down from the nine heavens, gripping a Five-Colored Heavenly Saber. It was that hand which had launched this fatal strike.

The Celestial Emperor had an enemy. This was unmistakably a supreme being of the age, and through that saber, the identity of its owner hovered on the tip of every tongue.

Boom!

In that same instant, a waterfall descended from the void. A rain of light danced through the air. Divine rays spread across the sky. It was as though a host of immortals had descended to the mortal world, or as though many had undergone metamorphosis and ascended — breathtakingly magnificent.

Ye Fan had suffered grievous harm to his vitality and had then been ambushed by this blade. The consequences were extremely dire — his essence blood was damaged. Even with his supreme techniques, he could not deny that he was no longer at his peak.

He had already reconstituted his body, and in that first instant he recognized the waterfall — it was identical to the legendary Cascading Immortal Waterfall.

The Lake of Reincarnation, the Pool of Divine Souls, the Cascading Immortal Waterfall — three extraordinary substances left behind by ancient supreme beings who had undergone metamorphosis in pursuit of immortality and undying existence.

Of these three, the Cascading Immortal Waterfall was the most mysterious. According to legend, it was a substance left behind jointly by every supreme being who had ever charged toward the immortal realm, converging into an immortal cascade that could reach the gateway of the immortal realm.

Upon the Cascading Immortal Waterfall, four figures appeared in succession, rushing forward to strike at Ye Fan without mercy.

At the same time, from the nine heavens above came a great thundering sound. The jade-warm hand gripping the Five-Colored Heavenly Saber trembled violently — as though trying to cross through the Cascading Immortal Waterfall and come charging through from another realm.

Yet it was too powerful. Bound to that far side, it could not break free. The four figures charged forward, attacking Ye Fan fiercely and violently, buying more time.

“Undying Celestial Sovereign — you are trapped between the immortal realm and the mortal world!” Ye Fan spoke coldly.

He knew he had encountered serious trouble. Through that strike just now, he understood how terrifying his adversary was. Even if he were uninjured and at his peak, there would still be a life-or-death battle ahead!

Yet the adversary seemed unable to cross over — just as in the days of the dark turmoil, when the Wushi Great Emperor had been blocked behind that door, wishing to join the battle but unable to cross between realms.

The more powerful a being, the greater the restrictions placed upon them.

Shhhk!

That pale, luminous hand swung the Heavenly Saber, slashing directly at Ye Fan. The Celestial Sovereign struck against the Celestial Emperor — a battle between two pinnacles thus commenced, waged across the boundary between realms.