The shattered petals of the azure lotus withered and fell, their luster faded and gone. The Heavenly Emperor let out a long, fierce howl — a sound that shook the cosmos — and using his supreme divine power, moved endless star fragments into that place, burying the site.
The world fell dimmed for five hundred years after that. That the Azure Emperor had actually reappeared in this age to attempt the path to immortality had truly shaken the mortal realm, leaving behind an endless legend.
The paragons of the age were left with lingering sighs — especially those whose names were recorded on the Prodigies Chart, who remained speechless for a long while. In the end, many of them disappeared from this world once more, while others chose not to seal themselves again, instead living out their remaining years in peace, passing with serene and tranquil hearts.
In the broad sense, virtually no one went to the Heavenly Court — for those who had once competed for supremacy alongside the Heavenly Emperor in the same age, once counted as figures on the same level, were unwilling to seek his shelter and protection in this lifetime.
Maple leaves turned red one year and then another. Deep autumn came and went. The years flowed on without cease. Ye Fan contemplated the reincarnation seals, unraveled the mysteries of the Transcendence Waterfall, studied the secrets of the Chaos Physique, and researched every method of eternal life he could find.
More than ten thousand years passed, and this lifetime too came at last to its end. The grand age fell quiet. Though many extraordinarily powerful quasi-emperors had appeared, in the end all were buried within the river of time.
This age had been so magnificent — and yet still not a single person attained the Dao!
The Heavenly Emperor had sealed Kou Xiaoxiao and the others. He stood alone at the absolute pinnacle, looking back across these one hundred-plus thousand years — throughout all of it, he had never once been able to see a rival. And once again, there was silence across all the world.
In the end, as this age drew its final curtain, Ye Fan honored his word. He found Duan De — who was busily digging a hole with his head down — and sat down beside him without a sound.
“A ghost!” Fat Duan sensed something, and the instant he turned his head, he cried out: “Heavenly Emperor, you are truly deranged!”
Ye Fan had only been teasing him that time before, joking about it. But now, as the grand age withered and the world grew desolate, it felt truly bleak — to have actually come and found him to see him off.
The Heavenly Emperor extended a finger and pressed it forward, leaving Duan De with the imprint of memories from the previous life. Then he gave him a kick, sending him tumbling into the grave pit, and turned to walk away.
“This poor Daoist will be back — and next lifetime, I’ll dig up your emperor’s tomb!” From deep within the belly of the mountain, Duan De’s indignant shouting rang out, growing gradually fainter.
The autumn wind stirred. Fallen leaves drifted and scattered. Yet another golden age had passed.
In the Heavenly Emperor’s Era year one hundred thirty-eight thousand, Ye Fan’s fourth lifetime came to an end. In this lifetime he had lived for fifty-six thousand years — a span of life that caused the entire world to tremble and cry out in astonishment.
Everyone understood — the Heavenly Emperor had walked incomparably far upon the path of eternal life. People could no longer even see the back of his figure.
Though they had steeled themselves in advance, people were still shaken — the Heavenly Emperor had once again defied the heavens, living through a fifth lifetime. This time, he elevated his methods and Dao to a glorious pinnacle, tempering a hundred scriptures in his furnace, melting ten thousand Daos into a single crucible — and in so doing transformed into a Chaos Physique!
Everyone was stunned. What kind of extraordinary feat was this?
Could it actually be done like this!
He had not originally possessed this constitution or bloodline, and yet he had undergone such a transformation, becoming a Chaos Physique that was extraordinarily rare throughout all of ancient and modern history — how supremely magnificent and extraordinary could one person be.
In the fifth lifetime, from Ye Fan’s own perspective, it was an age of the most radiant brilliance. He was still a living legend.
“Not letting the Ruthless Great Emperor have all the glory to himself,” someone sighed quietly.
In those earlier times, the Ruthless One had also walked this very path — shedding an aging mortal body and bringing forth a divine embryo, becoming a Chaos Physique. In truth, when Yao Guang had fought the world in those days, signs of this very same transformation had already begun to show.
In this world, certain paths intersect. There is no question of who stands higher and who stands lower — occasionally they simply meet at the same crossing.
In this lifetime, Ye Fan began a long-term seclusion within the Undying Mountain, founding forbidden immortal techniques. Using the Desolate Tower and the All-Things Mother Qi Cauldron — two immortal artifacts — to suppress himself, he stilled himself completely and did not move, as though the flow of time around him had slowed.
He would not affect others in their attainment of the Dao — for using methods unprecedented since ancient times, the Heavenly Emperor had sealed his own Dao, locking it close by his side.
Five ten-thousands of years later — in the Heavenly Emperor’s Era year one hundred eighty-eight thousand — an especially remarkable age finally arrived!
The long ages had passed, and countless prodigies had withered and died. In nearly two hundred thousand years there had been only one Heavenly Emperor, and throughout that immensely ancient span of time, no other person had attained the Dao. The Heavenly Emperor’s age of brilliance, the age of dimness for all other living beings — they existed in contradiction beside one another.
At last, this age changed.
This was a breathtaking grand age. Countless stars shone simultaneously. Every manner of bloodline emerged. Emperor stars appeared one after another, each one outshining the last. At long last, the signs that a new emperor was about to emerge were plain to see.
Perhaps it was a great eruption following a long period of suppression — this age seemed to burst forth like a fountain, with prodigies after prodigies rising up, dazzling and brilliant, making it impossible for anyone to keep their eyes open.
On this particular day, Ye Fan was awakened from his seclusion. He felt the Grand Dao roaring and the ten thousand Daos singing in harmony — someone was undergoing the Emperor’s Tribulation. The vibrations were so powerful that even his sealed Dao became unstable, nearly surging upward to begin suppressing the process.
He immediately stabilized the cauldrons and drew in his own Dao, preventing any interference with the one who came after him, allowing that person to smoothly attain the throne of emperor.
Boom!
The entire world trembled. Countless people cried out in shock and discussed it animatedly, overcome with excitement and anticipation. A new emperor had appeared!
Half a month later, Ye Fan rose from his seclusion. When he walked out from the Undying Mountain and understood who had become the new emperor, even he was briefly taken aback.
Di Que — of all people, it was Di Que who had become the new emperor!
The long ages had swept away too much. Many people had long since forgotten this person’s name, no longer knowing that there had once existed in history such a being — one who in those earlier days had been on equal footing with the Battle-Sovereign Saint Emperor, matched against him without clear winner or loser.
In the final period of the Primordial Age, Di Que had been the greatest adversary on the Battle-Sovereign Saint Emperor’s path to attaining the Dao. The Saint Ape had fought him in a battle of nine deaths and one survival, sustaining a Dao-wound that would never fully heal throughout the remainder of that lifetime, before finally emerging victorious — and only barely.
In that era, Di Que had been astonishingly brilliant — not a fraction weaker than the Saint Emperor. He had lived through a second lifetime and shaken all of ancient and modern history, and had been widely believed to be destined to surpass the monkey’s father and become emperor.
Although the final outcome had been that Di Que lost by half a move, and the supreme being of the Saint Ape lineage became emperor — none of that could obscure Di Que’s breathtaking brilliance. Di Que remained an incomparably magnificent being.
“He didn’t die?” Ye Fan murmured to himself. He still remembered that Di Que’s nephew and younger generation, Kun Zhou the Great Sage, had once said that his little uncle had passed away in a state of depression and despair.
The Heavenly Emperor walked through the world, and at last came to understand the truth.
At the end of the Primordial Age, Di Que — whose cultivation had reached a standstill, leaving him like a walking dead man — had been dragged along by Kun Zhou to fight an enemy. Forced into a confrontation with the Battle-Sovereign Holy Buddha, he fought only defensively, not attacking at all, and afterward had gone far away to distant regions, burying himself there. No one had ever imagined that at the place where he went to seek death, divine source liquid was abundant, and it submerged him entirely — sending him into a deep slumber.
In this age, he had been startled awake and revived. He then pressed down upon every last rival and became the new emperor.
Ye Fan sighed. Ning Fei, Chuan Ying, Gai Jiuyou, Di Que — they were all such extraordinary beings, each of them lacking only one opportunity. Yet only Di Que had repaired the regret of a lifetime.
This age of heroes competing for supremacy had at last broken the pattern of the Heavenly Emperor standing supreme and alone, with no one able to become an emperor. In a certain sense, it was the beginning of a new era!
The only regret was that Di Que was not a prodigy of the present age — he was a figure from the ancient past.
Ye Fan also came to learn that the person who had fought Di Que in the most powerful confrontation was also an ancient figure — the Sovereign Son of the Radiance Clan.
When Ye Fan in those earlier days had set foot on the path to heaven, he had once encountered the Refinement Spirit Cauldron, and learned that the Sovereign Son of this clan had disappeared. He had never imagined that this person would reappear in this age to contend with Di Que.
The new emperor had arrived, yet the Heavenly Emperor never once showed himself.
Di Que reigned for only eight thousand years — for he had already lived through two lifetimes, consuming a tremendous portion of his life energy. Before his death, he said plainly that he was no match for the Heavenly Emperor, and that in a true confrontation, he would be far from an opponent.
Rumor had it that he had once entered the Heavenly Court and paid a visit to the Heavenly Emperor, exchanging a few brief exchanges of technique.
But legends are ultimately legends. Until Di Que passed away, the Heavenly Emperor still never appeared. Many people began to suspect he had dissolved into the Dao.
And so another ten-thousand-plus years passed. When Di Que’s Dao traces had completely dissipated, signs of someone else becoming emperor appeared again. People could not help but marvel — when the Heavenly Emperor had long reigned, no new emperor had appeared. But now the situation had dramatically reversed.
This age of heroes competing for supremacy had a hundred boats racing the current. Countless bones lined the path to the throne of emperor. The final victor was one who shook people’s minds and souls — for it turned out to be a God-Slaying Insect!
The God-Slaying Insect, when first born, was no bigger than a thumb — its entire body golden in color, shaped rather like a small dragon, capable of gnawing through all things with no material capable of withstanding it. According to ancient accounts, a truly pure-blooded ancestral insect could devour even divine beings without difficulty.
The God-Slaying Emperor rose up from an insect’s nest. Step by step he evolved, transforming into an ancestral insect, battling across the Ancient Roads of the Starry Sky, slaughtering all who competed with him, before making the ultimate leap and ascending to the throne of emperor.
He was a bloodthirsty great emperor, iron-hearted and without mercy, inspiring awe wherever he went. Every clan and race across the cosmos fell into silence in his wake, for people feared him to the very depths of their bones.
For this race was simply too terrifying — by nature, utterly without mercy!
The God-Slaying Emperor was truly fearsome beyond measure. In the era of his reign, every race and clan across the cosmos lived in constant trepidation. Yet he was ultimately a great emperor, and he did not slaughter the innocent without cause.
Eight thousand years passed in this manner. He was at the height of his power, his one lifetime having just reached its midpoint — the most glorious moment of his life. And then he made a decision that shook the entire world: he would take up residence in the Heavenly Court.
This was already the Heavenly Emperor’s Era year two hundred fifteen thousand. The Heavenly Emperor had been absent for sixty or seventy thousand years. Two generations of great emperors had reigned without catching so much as a glimpse of him, and everyone had concluded he had surely passed away in peaceful meditation, bringing the curtain down on a legendary life.
The God-Slaying lineage relocated their entire clan — an endless sea of insects, like a golden ocean sweeping across the cosmos, surging to the gates of the Southern Heavenly Gate.
“Since the Heavenly Emperor has dissolved into the Dao, this Heavenly Court stands empty. I am now the great emperor of this age — and it is right that I should preside over the rise and fall of the mortal world. The Heavenly Court shall become my palace for commanding the realm under heaven and patrolling in all four directions. From this day forward, it shall be known as the God-Emperor’s Manor!”
Rolling thunder rumbled through the cosmos. The supreme emperor’s voice resonated across every clan and race, shaking all who heard it. The God-Slaying Emperor was about to take up residence in the Heavenly Court — but would the celestial soldiers and generals accept this?
People could not help but sigh once more. There was no divine dynasty that endured forever — no scepter of power that lasted for eternity. In the end, everything must come to an end. To think how magnificent the Heavenly Emperor had been — defying the heavens to live through five lifetimes, unrivaled above and below the sky — and yet even his heritage would ultimately fall and crumble.
“The Heavenly Emperor’s dwelling is not to be violated!”
After two hundred thousand years, the Heavenly Court’s indomitable spirit was still intact. Every last person roared in defiance — refusing to submit, even when facing a great emperor!
“I have no desire to kill. I merely wish to dwell in the place that a true emperor ought to inhabit. All of you — stand aside.” The God-Slaying Emperor appeared, gazing down upon the mortal realm with supreme contempt. His entire body radiated golden light, his vital energy surging like a tide, causing even people’s souls to tremble.
Behind him, an endless swarm of golden God-Slaying insects blotted out the sky, nearly submerging the entire star domain in gold.
He pressed forward with overwhelming force. The celestial soldiers and generals were either sent flying horizontally or collapsed to the ground — there was absolutely no possibility of resisting a reigning great emperor. His hands clasped behind his back, his dominance unmatched in all the world, he was about to step across the threshold of the Southern Heavenly Gate.
But at precisely that moment, a single finger of chaos suddenly appeared — vast and boundless, pressing down to cover this entire star domain completely. It fell with a rumbling, thunderous sound, like a sky-supporting pillar toppling over.
The God-Slaying Emperor’s face changed color. He let out a long, fierce howl that shook the cosmos, and used every last ounce of his power to resist.
What followed shook every realm across ten thousand heavens. That finger of chaos descended, and sent the God-Slaying Emperor flying backward, coughing out great mouthfuls of blood. He was hurled away, smashing through who knew how many star systems, and crashed down in the wild borderlands at the edge of the cosmos.
“The Heavenly Emperor!” The God-Slaying Emperor was stunned.
A single finger that covered the heavens!
In that instant, the entire cosmos erupted in an uproar. Every powerful cultivator who perceived what had happened felt their minds and spirits rock and reel, shaken into disbelief.
The Heavenly Emperor still lived. After two generations of new emperors had reigned, though he had not appeared, he had always been there — high above, looking down upon the mortal world. However powerful the new emperor might be, none could stand beside him.
From that day forward, the God-Slaying Emperor withdrew to the wild borderlands at the edge of the cosmos and never again set foot in any region of importance throughout the remainder of his life, until he finally passed away in peaceful meditation.
The Heavenly Emperor’s eyes and heart had long since been without rivals. He paid no attention to any of it.
In the Heavenly Emperor’s Era year two hundred sixteen thousand, Ye Fan reappeared in the mortal world, having completed a heaven-defying transformation.
For a full one hundred years, that star domain was suffused with chaotic energy, ten thousand Daos interwoven and resounding. He made a single leap — shedding the Chaos Physique, returning to the root and source.
This time, he had lived through his sixth lifetime.
Fourteen thousand years later — in the Heavenly Emperor’s Era year two hundred thirty thousand — another magnificent grand age arrived. Something astonishing occurred: a primordial innate Chaos Physique manifested in the mortal world.
In this very year, Ye Fan awakened. He undid the seal upon the little girl-infant Ye Xian, preparing to release her into the mortal world.
The cosmos trembled across every race and clan. One within the Heavenly Court, one in the outside world — two Chaos Physiques had actually appeared in the same age!