Ye Fan and the others turned back to look — only to see the ancient nest enveloped in a vast expanse of murk, chaos churning and surging, swallowing it completely. All of it was gone, as if it had never existed.

“From this day forth, the Ruthless One is no more from this world…”

They understood: the ancient celestial emperor had vanished from the world forever. That dazzling brilliance, those turbulent years — a life had finally come to its close.

No one had known him. No one had understood him. Not a whisper of what had stirred in his heart was known to the world.

When all of it was gone, only a ghost face — neither weeping nor smiling — lingered in memory: sorrow and laughter coexisting, these traces alone revealing the faintest hint of what lay within.

Ye Fan and the others retreated in silence, unable to say what they felt — putting distance between themselves and the resting place of the ancient celestial emperor.

Far from the ancient nest, they began to speak again. The youth of the immemorial royal lineage invited them to meet his father-king, treating the group as honored guests.

The others shook their heads emphatically — wild horses couldn’t drag them there. Unless the Ape had grown to his full power, or Ye Fan had cultivated to the realm of Sacred Physique fully realized, they were absolutely no match. A single glance from an immemorial sovereign would probably be enough to destroy them.

The Great Black Dog mulled things over for a long while, then picked up the ancient sovereign’s command token and tried to get on friendly terms with the youth of the immemorial royal lineage — attempting to borrow a chunk of divine source from him.

“I don’t want much — just one or two pieces would be enough.”

The Ape immediately shot it a sideways glance, feeling that this dog was truly shameless, and flat-out refused to translate.

“Ape, what’s the meaning of this? Hurry up and relay my words. I know you’re not short on divine source. Back when little Ye Fan cut you out of that source block, you were sharper-eyed than any of us — you snatched the slaughtering weapon, and grabbed those two massive chunks of divine source that could seal a person inside, and didn’t leave so much as a hair’s breadth for the rest of us!”

The Great Black Dog brought up what had happened in the sacred city, furious all over again, berating the Ape.

In the end, the Ape relayed the request — and the youth of the immemorial royal lineage appeared troubled. Divine source was extremely precious to his kind as well, and they had no great surplus in reserve.

The Great Black Dog refused to give up, unwilling to leave a treasury empty-handed, and urged Ye Fan to use his source arts to locate a few chunks.

Ye Fan had already been searching diligently — but the several large chunks of divine source he found all contained immemorial sovereigns sealed within, and he could find nothing that was unclaimed.

They had moved quite far when they stopped inside one ancient cave. Ye Fan’s heart stirred: a stabbing pain shot through his eyes, and the cave before him erupted into a blaze of divine brilliance — light flooding out from everywhere.

“Wretched dog, stop playing games with the child.” Ye Fan called the Great Black Dog over and sent a secret transmission to it, preparing to begin extracting divine source.

“Pop!”

He lightly tapped a finger, striking a large boulder. The stone’s outer layer fractured, blinding radiance burst forth, the entire cave shone with light — a sacred, tranquil brilliance — and a chunk of divine source the size of a human head tumbled out.

The Great Black Dog lunged immediately, clutching it tightly to its chest. Hastily wiping away a mouthful of saliva, it cried out: “Is there more?”

“There’s more — we may have actually discovered a divine trove!” Ye Fan’s heart quickened, and his excitement was palpable. He felt that this would be the greatest haul since his source arts had come into their own.

For within the deeper reaches of the ancient cave, the light grew even more dazzling. The stone bore a number of sealed divine source chunks — likely two or three pieces in total, comparable in size to the great chunks that had contained the immemorial sovereigns!

“Let me do it…” The Great Black Dog brought its own claws to bear, chiseling away at the stone, opening new passages. Before long, rainbow light streamed through, and the ancient cave blazed with brilliance.

Another chunk the size of a human head was extracted — so brilliant it rendered the Great Black Dog nearly transparent, life essence surging around it like the tides.

“What great fortune, what extraordinary opportunity!” The Black Emperor grinned its wide grin without stop, the corners of its mouth nearly twitching.

It bent down and dug rapidly. Before long, yet another chunk the size of a face-basin was unearthed — golden divine light blazing like raging flames.

“Stop — don’t dig any further!” Ye Fan was startled. He activated his divine eyes, and looking through the stone wall, he glimpsed a person.

Yet he called out a step too late — the Great Black Dog had already ripped open the stone wall with a single claw, exposing a large chunk of divine source, well over two cubic meters in size, standing quietly in the depths of the ancient cave.

“Ailunani!” The youth of the immemorial royal lineage cried out in alarm.

Ye Fan and the others felt a chill wash over them and hastily fell back. An overwhelming, eerie energy struck them — every hair on end.

Within the divine source chunk was an emaciated elder, sitting cross-legged. There was not the slightest trace of life emanating from him — yet the sight of him was deeply unnerving.

His upper body was bare, his frame gaunt and skeletal, his lower half wrapped in a beast-hide. He looked utterly primitive — yet the sight of him inspired an instinctive sense of dread.

This elder, who resembled something out of the primitive age, had his eyes tightly shut, his eye sockets sunken deep. The gray hair on his head was matted and wild as weeds, and in his hands he cradled a bone club.

What was most astonishing of all was that his entire body was bound with iron chains — the bindings nearly cutting into the flesh and blood. Crimson iron links gleamed with brilliant light — plainly no ordinary material. Engraved upon them were densely packed markings.

Those were undeniably powerful runes, binding him with a sealing inscription — rendering him completely immobile.

“Who… is this?” Ye Fan’s heart lurched.

This was clearly a prisoner — extraordinarily powerful and fearsome, without any trace of life, like a wooden pillar — yet the mere sight of him was enough to shake the soul.

“Ailunani…” The youth of the immemorial royal lineage was frantic, and spoke a great torrent of words.

“He says this is a great fiend of the primordial age — one who killed without blinking and regarded all life as worthless — sealed and imprisoned here,” the Ape explained.

Ye Fan was astonished. He studied the wizened elder wrapped in beast-hide and found it deeply strange. No matter how he looked, this appeared to be a member of the human race — not an immemorial sovereign.

“Damn it — this sovereign also thinks this is a person, not a member of the immemorial royal lineages. What is going on here?” The Great Black Dog was equally shocked.

“Is this truly a great fiend of the primordial age?” Ye Fan had the Ape ask.

“Oumayedou…” The youth grew highly agitated, backing away continuously, gesturing urgently for them to move away as well.

“He says this is a saint of the immemorial human race — extremely dangerous, a killer of boundless life,” the Ape said with a strange expression.

“What — a saint of the immemorial human race?!” Ye Fan almost cried out in shock.

“This old fellow dressed in beast-hide — a member of the human race who survived from the immemorial age?” The Great Black Dog’s eyes went perfectly fixed, nearly popping from its head.

The youth of the immemorial royal lineage nodded gravely — this person was extremely dangerous, they needed to leave immediately, lest something ill-fated befall them.

“Damn it — more blessed by fortune than even an ancient great emperor! To have lived for this long!” The Great Black Dog cried out in astonishment, struck momentarily dumb.

Ye Fan too was seized with a storm of shock within his heart. This was the longest-lived member of the human race he had ever laid eyes on.

On the subject of using divine source to sustain life, he had once pressed both the Black Emperor and the Ape at length for answers — for ever since he had seen the immemorial royal lineage capable of sealing themselves, he had always harbored a question: why had the human race’s powerful cultivators of the remote ancient age not done the same?

The Ape had given him one answer: it was a matter of time and fate.

The Great Black Dog’s answer had been far more thorough. Sealing oneself within divine source — becoming one of the living dead — had absolutely no effect on ancient great emperors. They were simply too powerful. Nothing in existence could seal their vital emanations.

As for the human race’s powerful cultivators below the level of great emperor, they had simply never had any chance of obtaining divine source from the immemorial age. Just as the Ape had said: time and fate.

In the primordial wasteland era, ordinary pure source had still been able to form. Divine source had come to an end in the immemorial age. To seal oneself within source, already-formed source blocks were useless — what was required was divine source liquid at the very moment of its formation.

Divine source liquid was the essential quintessence of heaven and earth. It had gradually been exhausted during the immemorial age, and after the final batch had formed, it was never produced again.

In the immemorial age, catastrophic upheavals had occurred. The flourishing races of that era began their decline — and they had been fortunate: the last supply of heaven and earth’s essential quintessence was available for them to make use of.

By entering absolute places where divine source liquid could still form, one could seal oneself and sink into dormancy — waiting for the chance to rise again.

Of course, there had never been enough divine source liquid to go around. Only a small number of royal lineages, along with the subordinates they trusted most, could have access to such an opportunity.

Why else, across this vast earth and endless wilderness, would only a handful of places — the Primordial Forbidden Zone, the Purple Mountain, the Ten Thousand Dragons’ Nest, and a few others — contain surviving beings from the ancient age?

Only the strongest of the great royal lineages managed, with great difficulty, to obtain divine source liquid. All the rest were swallowed by the passage of the immemorial age, becoming dust.

Divine source had been plentiful in the immemorial era — but divine source liquid in the process of forming had been exceedingly rare, obtainable only by the most powerful royal lineages.

Now, with the primordial essence of heaven and earth dried up, the miraculous phenomena of the immemorial age could never recur. Once divine source had formed, it could never revert to liquid again.

“Back in those days, how many races were there in the immemorial age — flourishing to the absolute peak — and yet out of tens of millions, or even a hundred million individuals, if even one person managed to obtain divine source liquid, that was already remarkable,” the Ape lamented.

“The human race endured the great calamity of the immemorial age and survived. Later generations no longer needed to seal themselves.” Ye Fan thought it through and spoke.

The powerful cultivators of the human race from the remote ancient age had simply had no more opportunity to obtain divine source liquid from the immemorial era.

As for the human great emperors — even if they could defy the heavens and conjure divine source liquid from nothing, it would have been useless to them. Once they had proven their path and achieved the realm of emperor, nothing in existence could contain them any longer.

For they were simply too powerful — transcending all things beneath the heavens. Nothing except the immortality divine medicine could extend their lifespan by a single additional age. No external object could aid them further.

Ye Fan’s brief contemplation passed, and he quickly returned his mind to the present. Here before them stood a saint of the immemorial human race — a piece of news that shook the heavens. If he could be rescued, it would surely shake all of the Eastern Desolation and astonish the world.

Within the divine source block, this elder was truly too primitive-looking. His skin was a deep bronze, dry and shrunken. The beast-hide around his waist bore a mottled pattern — and upon close examination, it was astonishing. That was undeniably the hide of a powerful great beast, and a formidably strong one at that!

The white bone club in his hands was warm, smooth, and lustrous — pristine as jade. It was clearly no ordinary object, and the terrifying force of a full-power strike from it defied all estimation.

Yet after careful consideration, Ye Fan set his mind at ease. The weapons of an immemorial human saint — how could they possibly be ordinary? They were absolutely world-shaking divine objects!

Unfortunately, the elder was bound by crimson iron chains, suppressed by the innate rune patterns engraved upon them — no different from death.

“This person must not be freed…” The Ape suddenly spoke, brow furrowed, as these words came out.

“Why not?” Ye Fan asked.

“According to what the youth says, his cultivation went wrong. His mind is disordered, and he brought down boundless slaughter upon the world…”

This was a saint of the immemorial human race — and a terrifying figure who had reached the absolute pinnacle of power. His combat strength was formidable enough to strike dread into the heart!

In the immemorial age, the human race possessed two supreme divine techniques. Once mastered, they were earth-shaking — capable of dominating all under heaven.

This immemorial saint had cultivated the True Art of the Sun, reaching its ultimate limit — and had then also cultivated the True Art of the Moon, seeking to merge the two supreme techniques into one.

Yet this had caused a great catastrophe. The sacred power of the Moon and the sacred power of the Sun collided and proved utterly incompatible, and great devastation was born.

By day he was a god; by night he was a demon. His mind shattered. He slaughtered numerous powerful cultivators of the human race in a bloody frenzy, and cut down many of the most supreme figures of other races as well.

It could be said that this saint of the immemorial human race had brought down a monstrous slaughter-calamity, and all the races had united to strike him down.

In the end, only when the youth’s grandfather and his father-king had both taken action together were they able to suppress this saint of the human race and seal him here forever.

“Why not simply kill him?” Ye Fan’s heart stirred.

The youth seemed somewhat reluctant, and his expression was a touch unnatural. The Ape understood immediately, and said: “Each race’s mysterious techniques can be referenced and drawn upon by the others.”

“I see.” Ye Fan nodded — and at the same time, deep excitement welled within him.

This saint of the immemorial human race actually carried within his body two of the most supreme divine techniques.

In the immemorial age, the human race had possessed only two ancient scriptures in total — and he had somehow managed to learn both, uniting them in a single person. Yet it was precisely for this reason that catastrophe had befallen him!