The Ancient Forbidden Land — one of the seven great life-restricting zones since the dawn of time. The living are halted at its threshold. Those who enter fall into eternal slumber.

At that moment, those gathered at the border of the forbidden zone were first turned to stone — then the air erupted in a cacophony of noise. A person had simply vanished from this world, departing into the beyond, entering an ancient star domain!

Certain immortal lineages possessed archived records of this: the five-colored altar was capable of carrying a person across the star-sea, traversing distances of incomprehensible enormity.

None knew how many ages had passed since the last such crossing. Long had it been since anyone of this kind existed — no one capable of constructing such an altar, and no one able to activate it. And yet now, a single person had leapt into the sky and gone.

“Little Ye…” Amidst the clamor, there were also sounds of weeping and reluctance — the grief of separation, impossible to relinquish.

Ye Fan had disappeared just like that — carried away upon an ancient bronze coffin. The multitude of cultivators outside the forbidden zone were nearly struck senseless by the shock. This was an earth-shattering outcome.

After Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin vanished, the five-colored altar did not sink. It remained suspended in place, radiant and glowing, runes blazing brightly, imprinted upon the void.

Above, the enormous Eight Trigram diagram had not dissolved. Instead, it began to tremble violently — metallic luster flowing across it as though it had been cast from divine gold.

At that moment, within the dark passage of the Ancient Star-Road behind the Eight Trigram’s Taiji gate, Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin had come to a stop — suspended in the void, invisible to those outside.

At this moment, Ye Fan was drenched in sweat. His hands moved ceaselessly. The runes composing the Eight Trigram Taiji gate shifted and changed with every motion of his hands.

Using the method the Black Sovereign had imprinted upon him, he was altering the spatial coordinates — seeking to correct the heading and set out on the return path, entering the ancient star of Ying Huo.

Ye Fan did not know the coordinates of Ying Huo’s ancient star. But within the imprint the Black Sovereign had left him, he found a method: to change completely — to reverse the original direction.

“The next stop may be the star domain where the ancient star of Ziwei lies, or perhaps another ancient cradle of life. So long as I reverse the heading with this forbidden technique, I take it as setting out for home — heading toward Ying Huo.”

Ye Fan had no time to waste. He swiftly altered the eight trigram symbols at the back of the star-gate, causing them to blaze, instantly locking the ancient coffin in place. Then, with another round of movements, he succeeded in reversing the direction!

BOOM!

A tremendous sound. The Taiji gate within the Eight Trigram burst open — Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin was about to reverse course.

“That is…”

Outside the forbidden zone, everyone gaped in utter disbelief at an impossible sight before them — the nine Dragon Corpses and the great sarcophagus had reappeared out of thin air!

“What has happened? Did the crossing fail?”

“Why has that ancient road disappeared? Why have the dragon corpses and coffin reappeared?”

No one understood. They assumed the crossing had failed and that the dragons and coffin had been driven back to this world.

Yet before the cries of surprise even faded, the bronze coffin and dragon corpses began moving in reverse — disappearing back into the other side of the star-gate, coffin first and dragons behind, in reverse motion, entering a different Ancient Star-Road.

“Success! This sovereign is truly a genius — the prediction proved true! My judgment was correct!” The Great Black Dog howled in triumph.

“You wretched dog, you’re truly unreliable. Trust a sow to climb a tree, that’d be more believable. For something this important, you dared use Little Ye as your test subject — you deserve to be skinned alive!” Pang Bo wanted to throttle it.

This time, the bronze coffin traveled in reverse, disappearing into a different ancient road — about to vanish from sight entirely.

Suddenly, a sound like a phoenix’s cry rang out from the distance. A woman sped forward, arriving at the border of the Ancient Forbidden Land. From the crown of her head burst a beam of golden light stretching over ten thousand zhang — it shot directly into the life-restricting zone like a true dragon soaring in majesty.

“Li Xiaoman!” Pang Bo cried out in shock.

Li Xiaoman’s body shuddered. After that beam of golden light burst from her crown, her body swayed, as though it had consumed a tremendous amount of energy.

The blazing golden light — like a divine spirit, like an ancient primordial beast — danced across heaven and earth, plunging straight into the great abyss above, charging directly toward the nine Dragon Corpses and the ancient coffin.

“What?! What power is this, capable of flight within the forbidden zone?!”

“No — she has deployed a supreme forbidden weapon. Terrifying — unheard of, never before seen — capable of briefly enabling the use of divine power within a restricted zone!”

The onlookers discovered this with shock. Ten thousand zhang of divine golden light — like a colossal golden primordial leviathan — swept across a hundred li in an instant, charging toward the altar and the Eight Trigram Taiji gate with devastating force.

“Li Xiaoman, what are you doing?!” Pang Bo roared.

If the five-colored altar were destroyed, Ye Fan, still in the midst of his crossing, would be shattered into pieces within the void. The bronze coffin and Dragon Corpses would most likely tumble out unharmed.

Everyone was horrified. That someone would dare do this — risk entering the forbidden zone — to cut away the foundation, to sever Ye Fan’s crossing of the star domains.

BOOM!

Yet the ten-thousand-zhang golden divine light did not succeed. Above the Ancient Abyss, several ancient figures acted simultaneously — raising their fists skyward, striking together in a joint assault.

This was an overwhelming surge of power. Five peerless masters struck in unison — five radiances blazed against the heavens, accompanied by the divine resonance of the Heavenly Dao descending, immense and magnificent, shattering the godlike light into fragments.

A piercing, anguished cry rang out. The divine light was extinguished — utterly erased, not a single thread escaping.

Outside the life-restricting zone, Li Xiaoman convulsed violently, then her body transformed into a black void, vanishing from the spot entirely.

“What?! I sensed a thread of divine power just now — it bore the aura of immortality!”

“That was an ancient forbidden curse — a technique for a domain-transcending deity to descend and offer aid!”

“Correct. That woman’s own cultivation is not strong — that power was not hers. Another divine force was at work!”

…

“Li Xiaoman — I will end you in Ye Fan’s name!” Pang Bo bellowed.

None of this had anything to do with Ye Fan — for he knew nothing of what had just transpired. The reversal of the Ancient Star-Road had succeeded. He had entered the eternal darkness.

He had truly left this world. Seated upon the bronze coffin, alone, he gazed forward — longing to see the light of Ying Huo.

The universe is boundless. The star domains are endless. Yet most of the vast expanse holds no stars — only a deathly silence and darkness, a boundless emptiness without a single sound.

A terrifying cold stillness — an iciness that could shatter bone — an immeasurable, all-encompassing darkness. This was everything. This was the universe. Nothing else.

Forget humans — even a star was as insignificant as a speck of dust within this boundless, ancient cosmos. All things here were negligible beyond measure.

Even if Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin could destroy stars and obliterate vast domains, in this colossal dark void it was too infinitesimal — less than even a mote of dust.

Ye Fan traveled on alone, unable to feel the passage of time — as though forever frozen in that single instant.

“Am I traversing the star domains? Why does it feel as though everything has been suspended in eternal stillness?”

He felt as though he had not departed at all, as though he remained upon the ancient star — except that he had entered a dark enclosure, with no path out.

“What has happened? Did the crossing fail? The five-colored altar was missing that critical central jade pillar — could that be the cause of the problem?”

Ye Fan considered carefully. He had to understand his current state. Otherwise, he might very well exhaust himself to death, stranded in the motionless universe.

The bronze coffin was moving forward. In the void, he caught sight of a great chunk of meteorite — perhaps several thousand zhang tall — drifting away into the distance. This put him slightly at ease.

“Still something is wrong. Traversing the star domains should not be this slow. It should be a matter of lightning-fast movement. What has happened to me?”

An infinite weight of doubt grew in Ye Fan’s heart. Something was definitely wrong with this crossing — it was vastly different from when he had been passively adrift in the star domains those years ago.

Suddenly, he felt his speed surge to extraordinary heights — as though traveling in sync with light itself — and then he entered what seemed to be a tunnel.

In this moment, Ye Fan found that time had become disordered. At times it passed very slowly, at times very swiftly — a single instant and a distant eternity, as though he were living through an entire century.

“This is terrifying. Journeying through the star-sea, one encounters all manner of such perils — no wonder even saints of remote antiquity found it formidable.”

In the end, Ye Fan felt as though he had endured a thousand years. He was nearly turning to stone himself. Faced with the boundless darkness and silence, he was close to madness.

In this vast universe, there was nothing — only himself, seated upon the bronze coffin, drifting in solitary companionship with nine Dragon Corpses. Nothing else existed.

Ye Fan sat in contemplation upon the sarcophagus, using cultivation to pass through this lonely time — perceiving the Heavenly Dao, the cosmos, the void, illuminating his own heart — and at last he gradually grew still.

He did not know how much time had elapsed. He opened his eyes. Before him, a faint light filtered through — it was… a star domain!

THUD!

A violent impact. The nine Dragon Corpses and the bronze coffin seemed to burst out of a black void, emerging into the manifest realm — breaking free in an instant.

It happened with such abruptness. All around him there was now starlight. Though it was still dark and cold, it was no longer the same as before — no longer so unvaried and monotonous.

The nine Dragon Corpses and the bronze coffin came nearly to a halt, stopping here. No longer surging forward at speed, they now drifted aimlessly and slowly through the cosmos.

“Having escaped one quagmire and leapt out of a dark enclosure — where is this now?” Ye Fan stood upon the bronze coffin, stabilizing himself with divine power, gazing out in all directions.

Suddenly, his expression froze. In the instant he turned his head, he saw seven particular stars — the stars of the Northern Dipper!

He had spent ten years in that world, meditating and cultivating each day. The divine power emanating from various stars had left different impressions upon him. And so, though the positions and appearances of the seven stars were greatly altered from what he knew, he still recognized them.

“How can this be? Have I not set out on the return path? Why am I near the Northern Dipper domain, and yet have not traveled far? Is it truly because of the damaged five-colored altar?”

So close to the Northern Dipper’s star domain — Ye Fan thought that if he relied on flight alone, he could quite possibly fly back within his lifetime.

However, if he wished to fly to the ancient star Ying Huo or to Earth, there was no hope at all. The distance was too immense — and he had no way to determine the coordinates.

He had come into the vast outer cosmos, entered the boundless universe, left behind the cradles of life — and all he could see was a vast desolation. This was the stark reality before him.

“I fought with everything I had — and still I failed. I was unable to set out on the return path after all, and instead have cast myself into a barren ancient cosmos devoid of life.”

In this dark celestial expanse, he was less than a mote of dust. He was not a saint of remote antiquity, still less a great emperor of the ancient past. He could not cross the star domains.

“Do I truly need to spend a lifetime flying back along the original path, retracing my way to that world?”

Ye Fan would not accept it. He turned these thoughts over in silence — then seated himself cross-legged upon the ancient coffin and began to cultivate within the cosmos, alone in the outer reaches, entering a sealed seclusion of quiet contemplation.

Without aim or direction, the nine Dragon Corpses pulled the ancient coffin through the darkness for more than two months. Then one day, Ye Fan suddenly opened his eyes — he had sensed something.

Abruptly, he was greatly startled. At the far end of the cold void, something else drifted in the darkness — moving toward him, not terribly far away now.

“What is that?”

He activated his Heaven-Gazing Divine Eye and strained to look. When at last he saw clearly, his heart was filled with astonishment.

A purple-gold warship — drifting for who knew how many uncountable ages — dim and lightless, bearing the marks of time, incomparably decrepit, deathly still.

“An ancient warship in the cold darkness of the cosmos!”

Ye Fan’s heart shook. In this desolate universe, devoid of life-sustaining worlds, he had encountered such a vessel. It was truly a heart-stopping sight.

“It has drifted for at least tens of thousands of years — perhaps far longer…” Ye Fan sensed a profound antiquity and weight of time.

The purple-gold warship was marked with gashes and great holes torn open by ancient weapons — testament to what must have been an earth-shaking battle from eons past.

Time is the most merciless force of all. It had been covered with the cosmic dust of ages; long since stripped of any luster. Tens upon hundreds of thousands of years had passed, and it was plain and worn.

Suddenly, Ye Fan was greatly startled. A subtle impression stirred within him. His expression changed as he said: “What — a pulse of life. Can there actually be a living presence aboard that warship?!”