The two characters “Ruthless Great Emperor”—a title that had awed ten thousand ages—a figure unrivaled across past and present—yet to have been dismembered by someone. No one dared believe it.
What kind of terrifying existence could have done this? The Ruthless Great Emperor represented the absolute pinnacle, his combat power supreme across all of antiquity. Yet he had met such an end!
“There were only a small number of fragmented body parts, yet the killing machine within them could pierce through all of antiquity. I believe that apart from the Ruthless Great Emperor who once bathed the world in blood, no one else’s corpse could emit so fierce an aura,” Nangong Zheng spoke.
They had been stunned at the time. After careful analysis, they concluded it was the flesh and blood of an ancient great emperor—and quite possibly a fragment of the elusive “immortal.”
At that moment, everyone had been terrified to the extreme. Who had dismembered an immortal or an ancient great emperor? What being had done this?
They searched carefully and finally discovered a ghost-face imprint—neither crying nor laughing, sorrowful yet with a trace of sunlight within it—profoundly expressive, spanning the gulf of Desolate Antiquity and reaching straight into the depths of the human heart.
That was the symbol of the Ruthless Great Emperor from over twenty-some-odd-ten-thousand years ago!
“It’s merely an imprint—perhaps the Ruthless Great Emperor himself had struck and slain that being, leaving his mark there as a testament,” someone ventured.
Nangong Zheng shook his head. “We searched carefully and found that the imprints were not in just one place—it was abundantly clear that the Ruthless Great Emperor had lived there.”
The fragmented remains were scattered around the very spot where the Ruthless Great Emperor had sat in meditation. All the signs indicated that while he was in seclusion, his physical body had been torn apart.
“Are you truly… certain… that it is the Ruthless Great Emperor?” Someone’s voice nearly trembled.
Who in the world could have accomplished all of that—everyone’s scalps went numb at the thought. Could a great emperor have had an enemy? That was impossible!
“I am certain it is the Ruthless Great Emperor, for we also discovered traces of spirit herbs he had cultivated,” Nangong Zheng said.
“What?!” Many people cried out in shock.
Every great emperor had cultivated a stalk of an undying spirit herb—from the herb alone, their identity could be confirmed.
“You obtained the undying spirit herb?”
“Is it that legendary supreme immortal treasure ranked among the very finest?”
Everyone’s breathing grew rapid—nearly causing them to overlook the life and death of the Ruthless Great Emperor. All eyes locked onto Nangong Zheng.
Ancient great emperors had long since passed. The undying herbs they had cultivated still existed in the world—these were the most precious and rare divine objects there were, and not a single person did not covet them.
Especially those present who were lords of one region or another—many were already approaching two thousand years of age, with little lifespan remaining and on the verge of entering decline.
“After so many years have passed, the Ruthless Great Emperor is long gone—how could his undying herb still remain in that place? It would have long since flown away,” Nangong Zheng shook his head, shattering everyone’s hopes.
They had found only the pit where the undying spirit herb had once taken root—with faint wisps of its aura lingering—and nothing else remained.
“The Ruthless Great Emperor was actually dismembered…”
“Even his cultivated undying herb has been confirmed—it cannot be anyone but him!”
Not a single person was not shaken. Not a single person was not filled with dread. Every face was written with expressions of astonishment—this was as fantastical as a story from the heavens, beyond anyone’s belief.
“Awe-inspiring for ten thousand ages, and yet the Ruthless Great Emperor faded away in such obscurity—with no one to bear witness. The hands that ended him remain unknown. What a genuine tragedy…”
“You are certain that was the aura of the True Dragon Undying Herb?” Someone still half-disbelieved, seeking confirmation one more time.
“Yes,” Nangong Zheng nodded.
The Ruthless Great Emperor’s spirit herb—obtained by venturing deep into the seven great Life Forbidden Zones—was, like the Beginningless Emperor’s Undying Divine Phoenix Herb, among the most precious and rare of all.
A shock ran through Ye Fan’s heart. It had been the True Dragon Spirit Herb—and it had once belonged to the Ruthless Great Emperor. He was utterly dumbfounded.
For he had once laid eyes on that very spirit herb—and it was right here in the Northern Region!
He, Pang Bo, and Tu Fei had ventured deep into the icy wastes and seen it in the underground Myriad Dragon Nest. At that time the True Dragon Undying Herb had been in slumber—he had come within a hair’s breadth of seizing it.
“To have such a connection with the Ruthless Great Emperor—I nearly obtained his undying herb!” A swell of deep emotion moved through Ye Fan’s heart.
Then suddenly he recalled everything within the Myriad Dragon Nest—apart from many rare and extraordinary source stones, he had also seen an ancient coffin floating and sinking within it!
The Beginningless Emperor had visited, and there was an ancient five-colored sacrificial altar within the place—yet he had not chosen the Myriad Dragon Nest, having gone instead to the Purple Mountain, and had left everything there untouched.
Ye Fan shivered and chose not to continue that line of thought, quickly pulling himself back to the present.
“Everyone, perhaps we have all fallen into an error of assumption. The ancient great emperors had no opponents—especially the Ruthless one. How could he have been dismembered by another?” Nangong Zheng spoke again.
“What do you mean by this?” Many people were puzzled.
“Do not forget the Ruthless Emperor’s path—after attaining the Dao, in his later years he created the Indestructible Heavenly Art!” Nangong Zheng looked toward several of the sacred lords and said: “In truth, the riddle can be solved if a few of you would speak the truth.”
Everyone was startled, following his gaze to see that these several individuals all had extraordinarily impressive backgrounds—behind them stood the most powerful holy lands of the Eastern Desolation.
The Ji Family, the Jade Pool, the Jiang Clan, and the Yao Guang—four great holy lands each possessed Extreme Dao Holy Weapons. Even if all the other ancient lineages were destroyed, these four could protect themselves.
Three of the four were believed to have had members attain the Dao and become Emperors, and they were considered the most unfathomably deep of all inheritances. People did not know what the three ancient great emperors had left behind for each of them.
“I am not the only one who has ever come out of the Ancient Bronze Immortal Hall alive. Long before me, someone else managed it as well…” Nangong Zheng said slowly.
Suddenly, people recalled a legend—that in the endless ages of the past, one person had emerged from the bronze hall carrying an immortal corpse, and then died immediately upon coming out.
It was said that the immortal corpse had been divided equally among several great holy lands—and that it had served as the one real-world proof that immortals had existed in this world!
Yet the several great holy lands had strenuously denied it—all of them claiming they had never seen any immortal corpse, insisting everything was mere rumor.
“So many tens of thousands of years have passed—honorable sacred lords, can you not finally speak of it now?” Nangong Zheng said.
“You several holy land families received enormous benefit and have long since fully absorbed it. Saying so now changes nothing.”
“It is time to restore the truth.”
All the remarkable and extraordinary individuals present spoke up, demanding the truth be revealed.
It was a real-world instance of contact with an immortal—and though the several great holy lands had kept silence and denied it, everyone knew they had obtained the immortal corpse.
“That is a matter from seventy thousand years ago. Since all fellow cultivators wish to know, we may as well speak of it,” the Queen Mother of the West of the Jade Pool began.
“At first, we truly did regard it as an immortal corpse—but later we discovered that perhaps we were wrong…” the sacred lord of the Ji Family began.
At that time, a total of six great holy lands had divided the immortal corpse equally. Besides these four, there had also been the Wind Clan—the most ancient of the Eastern Desolation’s surviving lineages—and the Heavenly Xuan Holy Land, which had been destroyed six thousand years ago.
A peerless expert of the age had emerged alive from the bronze hall, carrying out a shattered, massively incomplete corpse that radiated a supreme killing machine!
That cultivator, seventy thousand years earlier, had been unrivaled in the Eastern Desolation with no equal. Some had said he had already become an existence comparable to the ancient sages. Yet after carrying the flesh corpse out, he had been reduced to a pool of blood and gore.
“Looking back on it now with careful reflection, that must have been the corpse of a great emperor…” Several sacred lords sighed lightly. It could be deduced that these families had gained enormous benefit from it. The skeletal remains of a great emperor could be used to forge Extreme Dao Holy Weapons—no wonder they had strenuously denied it at the time. A windfall of that magnitude from an immortal burial required slow, careful absorption.
They divided among themselves the fresh and intact physical remains—which must have been an invaluable and priceless treasure. No wonder they had so strenuously denied it at the time—a spoil of that magnitude needed to be slowly digested.
The Queen Mother of the West, the sacred lord of the Jiang Clan, and the others described in detail the appearance of the immortal corpse as recorded in their respective ancient texts. Comparing this to Nangong Zheng’s account, people were shocked to discover a fact—that the so-called immortal corpse was most likely the Ruthless Great Emperor himself!
“A great many critical pieces were missing—we divided only about one-third of the body…”
“Judging by the fracture marks on the body, I believe the Ruthless Great Emperor was truly terrifyingly powerful—he most likely sought to live a third life, or even a fourth!” Nangong Zheng’s words shattered the sky like a thunderclap.
The Ruthless Emperor had first created the Heaven-Devouring Demon Art, slaughtering all the kings of the age, treading upon the bones of countless heroes to become a great emperor—in truth, this was an action that violated the natural order.
Yet he had shone brilliantly across all of antiquity. In his later years he created the Indestructible Heavenly Art, shed the demon body, gave birth to a Divine Embryo, and severed all karmic ties.
Moreover, by this means he had lived through yet another entire life—his years stretching to awe-inspiring lengths!
He was the only person to have ever created two ancient scriptures—making him seem near-mythical and unreal.
“If the Ruthless Emperor lived four lives, he must have encountered great emperors of later ages!”
“And he may not have encountered just one later great emperor!”
Everyone was stunned into silence. Thinking it through carefully—this was far too staggering, beyond all reckoning.
Across all of time, never had two great emperors emerged in the same era. They could only admire one another across the gulf of time—evaluating each other’s worth through the long reaches of history.
“How many lives the Ruthless Emperor lived, we cannot say—but the final time he attempted to produce a Divine Embryo, something must certainly have gone wrong…” Nangong Zheng delivered his final judgment.
He and a number of living fossil-level figures had carefully examined the scene, concluding that the Ruthless Emperor had gone into strict closed-door seclusion there—and in the end had failed at the critical juncture. The supreme imperial body had exploded apart—though it remained unknown whether the Divine Embryo had ultimately emerged from the transformation.
“The Ruthless Emperor, in order to live one more life, severed himself…” Everyone was deeply unsettled.
“Among us here, there are others who have entered the Ancient Bronze Immortal Hall,” Nangong Zheng said.
“What?!”
“Who?!”
Everyone was greatly astonished, looking around at one another.
“Behind the Gate of Ten Thousand Mysteries within the Ancient Bronze Immortal Hall lies a mysterious realm—we did not reach its end, and do not know whether the Ruthless Emperor ever stood at its terminus.”
With these words, Nangong Zheng looked toward Ye Fan with a smile and said: “Young friend—you must have entered the Immortal Hall before, have you not?”
“What—it was him?” Everyone was astonished.
The Sacred Sons and Sacred Maidens, none of whom could enter the hall, had all been standing at the doorway—and every one of them was struck with shock and admiration.
Within the Celestial Palace, many of the remarkable and extraordinary individuals also fixed their gazes upon Ye Fan. Even the various sacred lords revealed expressions of astonishment.
“Young friend—your Myriad Beings Primal Qi Source Root—you must have obtained it from within the Ancient Bronze Immortal Hall, did you not?” Nangong Zheng asked.
“That is correct,” Ye Fan answered with calm composure.
With these words, the entire hall erupted into an uproar—a clamor of voices. No one had expected him to have obtained the great emperors’ exclusive sacred object from within the bronze hall.
“Young friend, you should know—you have formed an immense karmic bond with the Ruthless Emperor. The Myriad Beings Primal Qi Source Root was something he sought out.”