The steppe stretched without end. Ye Fan visited several ancient teachings trying to find any trace of Tu Fei’s whereabouts — all without result. The wolf tribes, the snow-white sacred mountains — all had been visited and all bore his footprints.

Over a decade had passed. By all reckoning, even if Tu Fei had traveled on his own power, he should have long since returned to the Eastern Desolate — and yet there was still no news at all.

“Why? Could it be he never entered the Northern Plains at all, or has gone somewhere far more remote — into that place at the far north where celestial light is born?”

That was a world of ice and snow — no land, only glaciers, white as far as the eye could see. Legend had it that divine relics of the gods existed there, and once every hundred thousand years a single strand of celestial light was born and ascended from that place.

One hundred thousand years ago, a great sovereign of the Wang Family at the stage of great completion had once obtained one such strand — transforming it into the foundation of their clan. Yet limited by his natural gifts, he had only managed to place one foot into the realm of a Sage.

Should he go to search, or not? Ye Fan had a feeling that Tu Fei might be trapped in that world of ice and snow. Otherwise he should have appeared long ago.

“Nothing pressing going on anyway — let’s go have a look. Who knows, we might even encounter that celestial light that ascends only once every hundred thousand years.” Li Tian egged them on.

Since coming into this world, he had spent his days eager to wander east and west, as though he wished to traverse the entire world and understand every corner of it — the better to pass down the Dao lineage of Human Desire.

“My sense is that many people in the Southern Range are laying schemes against you, making multiple preparations. If we do nothing by convention, it will leave them baffled — and at the right moment we can come striking back.” Yan Yixi said. He, too, was in favor of going to the Far North.

The Human Desire Dao had once produced Sages who crossed the stellar void — and so they had made deep study of spatial secret arts and all manner of teleportation formations. The two of them had found a good number of array inscriptions within several handwritten notebooks, all capable of teleporting over distances of millions of li.

However, they could only comprehend the most elementary first volume — enough to set up a teleportation platform covering tens of millions of li. To travel across entire regions in one leap was far beyond their current ability.

“No matter — we have plenty of Origin Stones, plenty of Profound Jade. We can engrave many divine formations and make the crossing in several hundred consecutive jumps. We will surely reach that place.”

Tens of thousands of iron cavalry had leveled the Wang Family, and though they had only symbolically taken a portion of the treasures, even that portion was unimaginable in its richness — including the materials needed to engrave ancient teleportation grand formations.

Whoosh!

A flash of blue light — and they vanished from the spot, beginning the arduous crossing journey, leaping again and again through space. Each crossing let them experience the truth of the infinite void and the vastness of heaven and earth.

At last they set foot upon a world of endless white — glaciers everywhere, bone-piercingly cold. The breath from their mouths turned to ice crystals in an instant.

Life was nearly impossible to encounter here. This was a frozen wasteland of suffering. Beyond the gleaming snow and ice, there was nothing else to be seen.

“What is that?” Not long after stepping onto the ice plain, they spotted a massive block of ice with something sealed inside.

Ye Fan exhaled sharply and dispersed the white snow. The glacier was laid bare before them — the interior of the solid ice clear and transparent. Inside was a colossal finger, several zhang in length, severed and dripping with blood-red stains.

“What species is this?”

All of them revealed expressions of astonishment. By all calculations this was something from at least hundreds of thousands of years ago — and yet the creature it came from had been enormous.

“The Ancient Giants!” Ye Fan recalled records from certain ancient texts: a species that lived upon this ice plain — individuals towering a hundred zhang in height.

Boom — boom —

From the distance came enormous sounds. Glaciers cracked — great fissures opened, extending all the way to where they stood.

“A giant humanoid ape — towering into the clouds!” Li Tian cried out in alarm.

At the far edge of the horizon, a massive figure moved — a hundred zhang in height, carrying on its back a whale hauled up from the frozen sea, carrying it as casually as one might carry a small river fish.

Its entire body was covered in snow-white fur — every individual strand several zhang in length, dense and thick, covering the body entirely.

“Were the Ancient Giants not long extinct? How are there still survivors?” Ye Fan was stunned.

This species was exceptionally rare. They were a unique race that innately understood the methods of cultivation — absorbing the essence of the sun and moon — with advantages over humans by virtue of sheer size alone. With bodies that large, the divine power they gathered each day was simply unimaginable.

Ancient texts recorded that the former great chief of the Ancient Giants had once battled several human Sages in open combat — sweeping all before him, overturning heaven and earth.

“This one is merely average — the divine power within its body is limited. Nothing to fear. The only question is how many more are here.”

The ice plain was not nearly as vast as the Five Great Regions. The group pressed steadily toward the very center, and along the way saw several enormous ice palaces — towering as high as mountains, grander and more imposing. These were clearly ancient relics built by the Giants, engraved with immortal divine inscriptions that kept them standing firm to this day.

This species was nearly extinct. Traveling through more than half of the region, they had only encountered two of the Giants at all.

At last they drew close to the Heart of the Far North. This was a terrifying domain — utterly impassable. Various colorful mists billowed and swirled, lights of every shade mingling in dazzling brilliance.

At the central region, it was as though a demonic well had opened — of unfathomable depth and boundless scale — with countless chaotic lights circling around it in rotation.

“What place is this? A great whirlpool hundreds of li in diameter — seemingly reaching down through the earth without end.”

Ice shards flew in every direction — in five colors and more — carrying a mysterious power. In the air they burst into blinding streaks of light, mist and vapor rising in spirals.

Was this truly the birthplace of the Far North’s celestial light?

The group halted. They sensed enormous danger. The whirlpool of chaotic light ahead was terrifyingly powerful — sufficient to grind even a great lord of the Sage Principal Realm into nothing.

“The birthplace of the Far North’s celestial light is really unbelievable. How is anyone supposed to enter? Even a great sovereign at the peak of completion couldn’t reach the deepest point!” Li Tian was unwilling to give up.

“There is someone inside!” Yan Yixi said.

Where the ice-snow whirlpool and the chaotic lights merged into a demonic well capable of swallowing everything, dozens of li ahead, there was an enormous living creature.

“It is an elderly snow ape.”

“No — it is an aged Giant. Its lifespan must be astonishing — its back is nearly bent to the ground.”

This ancient Giant was struggling with tremendous effort, trying to approach the central birthplace of the celestial light — yet with great difficulty it barely made progress. Its body bore wound after terrible wound.

Without question this ancient Giant was extraordinarily powerful. Otherwise it could not have taken even a single step into the whirlpool — radiating a terrifying surge of divine power like a great furnace.

The group of Ye Fan and the others did not risk going further. They opened their divine eyes and observed carefully — gazing toward the deepest point.

At the very center — there was an old woman!

All three were greatly astonished, involuntarily stepping back several paces and staring at each other in horror.

At the central region, the various lights blazed even more intensely. True Yin Essence of the great cold — on the level of rivers and seas — gushed and surged outward. An ordinary person entering that place would be reduced to fine powder in an instant.

“It is her!”

Ye Fan recognized her in an instant. This was the old woman from six thousand years ago — a figure from the same era as the Old Madman.

Above her head floated a pyramid-shaped object cast in blue-gold, with the sun, moon, and stars circling within it — trailing wisps of pale blue mist that coiled around her.

“She disappeared for so many years — and she came here!”

Ye Fan still remembered clearly: this blue-gold pagoda had been unearthed from an ancient source ore mine in the Northern Region — at the time causing a great stir, drawing many powerful figures to the scene. In the end it was taken away by this mysterious old woman.

The Blue-Gold Pagoda, buried underground since the Primordial Era and undecayed to this very day — it was undeniably a sacred vessel passed down through the ages.

The old woman sat cross-legged above the demonic well, facing the various surging chaotic lights — motionless. She appeared to have entered nirvana right where she sat, or perhaps to be waiting for something.

“Utterly unfathomable. She is most likely an ancient Sage — at the very least she has already placed half a foot through the threshold.” Li Tian said, his heart filling with reverence.

To see her sitting cross-legged here, guarding the demonic well, one could easily imagine with just a moment’s thought what she was waiting for: the single strand of celestial light that rose to the heavens only once every hundred thousand years.

With a Sage of this caliber here, no one else would have the slightest hope.

“There appear to be a large number of corpses in that enormous ice pit, amid all the chaotic light.” Yan Yixi said.

“Let me have a look.” Ye Fan’s eyes lit up with a sudden brilliant glow — shooting out two streaks of divine lightning several hundred li in length.

This was the Heavenly Eye Ability. At present it was only in its earliest stages of completion, and he could only sustain it for the briefest of instants — but even that was sufficient.

Within the ice pit, colors dazzled and light poured like mist — bone-piercingly cold, incomparably vast. Inside, there were hundreds upon thousands of corpses, most already frozen and cracked, rotating with the whirlpool.

Every manner of clothing was represented — most belonged to ancient people, dead for an untold number of ten-thousands of years.

“Ah!”

Ye Fan’s eyes went wide with a sudden shock. Within one particular piece of extraordinary divine ice, a young man was sealed inside — a fleeting glimpse suggested it might be Tu Fei.

By the time he tried to focus his attention on it, that block of divine ice had sunk into the depths of the pit, never to surface again. And the power of the Heavenly Eye Ability had already faded.

“Could it truly be Tu Fei? How did he end up sealed in divine ice, sinking into this place? Is he alive or dead?” Ye Fan stood in a daze.

“I must go in.” No matter what, he had to find out.

“Little Ye, don’t take the risk. Only a Sage can set foot in there. Even with a physique like yours, you cannot charge in recklessly.” Li Tian urged.

Ye Fan’s mind was made up. He had come on this journey primarily to find Tu Fei, and now he had caught a fleeting glimpse of him — how could he give up?

Boom!

Ye Fan plunged in as though charging into a terrifying black hole. Destructive forces came crashing down from all directions — even his flesh, unrivaled as it was, felt acute pain.

But he did not stop. Step by step he pressed forward, leaving behind a series of imprints in the void as he passed through various clouds of light and mist, closing in on the death zone.

“An absolute freak — is the Holy Physique even more terrifying than a great sovereign at peak completion? He’s surpassed that ancient Giant — he’s already forced his way in seventy or eighty li.”

After advancing a hundred li, even Ye Fan could bear it no longer. His body was etched with wound after wound — even a peerless physical shell could not withstand the grinding force that could wear away the world itself.

“None may pass beyond this point — Sages included!”

A stone stele floated ahead, rotating with the whirlpool. Several ancient characters were carved upon it with vivid clarity — striking fear into the heart. Ye Fan sensed it: just ahead, an even more terrifying presence permeated the air — as though it would shatter the entire vault of heaven.

At this point, even bringing out the Purple-Gold Hammer would not be enough to block the way. He could make no further progress. He greatly suspected that if he took one more step inward, he would be pressed into pulp.

“Elder Brother Ye, please stop! The path you have already walked has long surpassed any great sovereign at full completion. Do not take any more risks.” Yan Yixi transmitted his voice from behind.

Ye Fan furrowed his brow and stared at what lay ahead. He truly had no way to pass. At the very minimum, a cultivator who had placed one foot into the realm of a Sage possessed the ability to venture there.

“Senior — do you still remember me? We have met twice before.” Ye Fan called out in a great shout.

Yet the old woman in the depths of the whirlpool gave not the slightest reaction — as though she had entered a nirvana of dozens of years and could not be reached. This gave Ye Fan a jolt: before a Sage entered the transformation of the Dao, the scene was said to look exactly like this. What if she truly was about to fall here?

“In this age, the ancestral kings of the ten thousand ancient races are all about to emerge into the world. The Old Madman has fallen in battle beyond the boundary, his blood staining the sky. Only you, Senior, can turn the tide for the human race.” Ye Fan called out again in a great shout.

Yet the old woman remained utterly without reaction — like a stone that had completely extinguished all signs of life.