One male, one female — two Dao acolytes, each appearing no older than eleven or twelve. Lips red, teeth white, beautiful and radiating spiritual vitality, young in form yet carrying an air of the aged.

Everyone was stunned, their hearts crawling with unease, rooted to the spot. Were the things these two clever and fair-featured children said truly real? All of this was too terrifying.

Following the Feathering Great Emperor? Beyond all comprehension. If it were true, the mysteries that would unfold were endless.

“Grave-robber, tell me — are these two malevolent ghosts?” The large black dog was deeply uncomfortable. It lowered its spiritual transmission to the barest whisper, reaching out a great paw to prod Duan De.

“They’re alive, I’d say — but there’s a strange energy on them that makes my hair stand up on its own.” Duan De couldn’t help but shudder.

He dug out Death Spirit Grass, Underworld Soil of King Yama, Nine Depths Fetal Relics, and more — then added Yellow Spring water on top of it, performing like a shaman possessed, mouth murmuring incantations, hands and feet gesturing wildly. Someone who didn’t know better would have thought he was having a seizure.

But none of it worked. In the end, Duan De sat down on the ground with a thud, muttering to himself in despair: “I’ve dug graves my entire life — today I fear I’ve finally met my ancestors.”

The people of the various sacred grounds and great divine dynasties were not particularly convinced. Whether the Feathering Great Emperor had ever truly existed at all was still a matter of debate. He was at minimum a figure from nearly three hundred thousand years ago — how could his Dao acolytes still be present?

“Don’t dismiss it. Those two Dao acolytes carry the power of ages upon them. I cannot say whether they have lived for close to three hundred thousand years — but I can say with certainty that the number of years their physical bodies have existed is at minimum in the tens of thousands.” A wizened, dry old man of the Wind Clan stepped forward, his expression deeply troubled, staring fixedly at the pair.

When this old man spoke, the Wind Clan’s Sacred Lords and even Feng Huang were at his side — clearly he was of considerable standing, and he drew the gaze of many.

“What? He’s not dead yet?” Many cried out in shock.

“It’s him!”

Quite a few were stunned. Every Sacred Lord present wore an expression of astonishment. The leaders of some great sects had only glimpsed him once in their youth. Word was that he had passed into stillness two thousand years ago.

The Wind Clan’s elder-generation Sacred Lord!

This was a figure of the same generation as Jiang Taixu — though he had never shaken the world like the Divine King Jiang of old, who had once been proclaimed the greatest offensive force in the Eastern Wastelands over five thousand years. But surviving into the present era for four thousand years and more was a kind of power in itself. That he still lived was already a minor miracle.

The Wind Clan’s Supreme Elder Sacred Lord was still alive, unfathomably deep. Everyone’s expression changed. A person of such age would not speak empty words. Could it be that the two Dao acolytes truly were…

No one dared follow that thought to its conclusion. People trembled, looking at the two red-lipped, white-toothed children, then back at the stone carvings filling the ancestral shrine — and felt only growing dread.

Why was the Feathering Great Emperor’s image so indistinct? Here within his own ancestral shrine, a golden statue ought to have been erected — yet his form was blurred, as if seen through fog. By contrast, the two Dao acolytes were vividly rendered, as if stepping forth from the stone walls, alive and lifelike.

“I don’t believe it!” No matter the time or place, the boldly daring are never absent. People’s convictions differed.

Several shook their heads and sneered coldly. One sect leader said, “I suspect some great power is trying to frighten us all away and seize this place for themselves — deliberately staging two young children to fool us.”

“Heh, heh, heh…”

Within the ancestral shrine, the two Dao acolytes drew together, looking down on everyone from above. The male acolyte was laughing — a laugh that made one’s blood run cold, voice coarse and aged: “What brazen arrogance. You dare come here and still act so recklessly. Who do you think you are, trying to frighten everyone away and claim this place alone?”

He extended one soft, delicate little hand — which in an instant expanded enormously, faster than anyone could react. He pointed a single finger forward, flashing with radiant light, yet cold and sinister.

“Ah—” A scream rang out.

“Splat!” A spray of blood blossomed, followed by a deathly silence.

Everyone was stunned, their very bones going cold with dread. The sight before them was beyond terrifying. The Dao acolyte who appeared no older than eleven or twelve had pressed a single extended finger down, and with it crushed a sect leader to death.

“Could you do that?” Ye Fan asked Qi Luo.

“These two Dao acolytes are ancient sages. They are not opponents any of us can face.” Qi Luo said in a low, grave voice.

“What — these two children are ancient sages? Then… there’s no doubt. They must have followed the Feathering Great Emperor — otherwise how could they be so powerful!” Pang Bo and Dongfang Ye looked at each other, their blood running cold.

What was the Feathering Divine Dynasty scheming? Two acolytes from the side of that clan’s founding ancestor, over two hundred thousand years ago, were still alive. That mysterious Great Emperor might truly not be dead.

What had happened back then? Had they really chosen to retreat on their own, willingly giving up their rule? Many felt a creeping unease. The Central Province’s First Ancestral Vein was no ordinary place — surely it wasn’t as they had just speculated: that they were plotting to seize the First Dragon.

Duan De said in a trembling voice, “They want to harness the dragon energy and ancestral veins of the entire Central Province. The legendary ascension of an entire religious order might truly be real.”

Feathering into immortality — this was the ultimate goal of that divine dynasty. To achieve it, they had once traveled to distant star domains. Their power had reached its absolute peak, and all those years ago they must have made enormous preparations.

Ye Fan and the others felt their hair stand on end. Just moments ago in the thirty-fourth temple small world, they had seen those countless malevolent ghosts — and that black mountain connected directly to the root of the Central Province’s former First Ancestral Vein.

Anyone who thought carefully could work out some of it. It was deeply sinister — how vast must their operation have been to transform the First Ancestral Vein into a ghost vein?

Now, the dragon energy had all converted to ghost energy, surging skyward — ghost wails and divine howls filling the air — utterly unlike its former self.

Over two hundred thousand years ago, the Central Province’s First Ancestral Vein had shone with brilliant rosy clouds, rainbows arching across the sun and moon, glowing light soaring aloft — like the residence of immortals.

“What is your intent?” someone asked.

“You have intruded upon the Great Emperor’s place of slumber, and you ask us our intent?” the two child-like ancient sages replied coldly.

By this point, others among the high-level cultivators had also sensed it — even as the two Dao acolytes suppressed their aura, those present still felt as though they stood before primordial beasts. These were unquestionably ancient sages.

The ancient clans had also sent many people here. Every face had gone pale. All who had come to this place were supreme experts, no few of them half-sages. Facing ancient sages, they trembled with fear.

Everyone fell silent. This was hardly an ownerless ruin — there were still two living sages here, standing guard.

Many felt outright terror. Ransacking a sage’s own lair — that was simply asking for death.

“You have forced your way here. We will not hold it against you — after all, this place has been sealed for many years. But you must offer an apology to the Great Emperor.” The two Dao acolytes said.

Many held their tongues, hearts in turmoil, deeply unsure. Would these two ancient sages truly let them go? Those without an Emperor’s weapon in hand were filled with anxiety.

The two Dao acolytes gestured: the Feathering Great Emperor lay in slumber in the small world ahead. They were to go and make their apology.

The scene fell completely silent at once. Not a single person took a step. No one could read their intentions, and hearts trembled with enormous shock.

The Feathering Great Emperor — he dwelled in the final tier of the sacred temple small worlds? Was this truth or a lie? No one dared move.

The two Dao acolytes pointed — a straight ancient road led directly to the highest sacred temple, its stone doors sealed tight. Everyone’s scalp crawled. If the Feathering Great Emperor truly slumbered within, the actions of these assembled people were laughably foolish — the five great domains would face a world-overturning catastrophe.

A long silence fell, not a word spoken. Then, after much time, someone shifted their feet — and truly walked forward, intending to see the truth for themselves.

“Flutter, flutter—”

As a group passed through the depths of that temple complex, many demons with wicked wings came flying out from where they had been hanging beneath the eaves.

“Yin Spirit descendants!” Duan De cried out at once, as though something had suddenly struck him.

Many others were also stunned. When they had first entered the first tier of the sacred temple, they had suffered heavy losses — many of these same figures hanging under the eaves had appeared, devouring the flesh and blood of numerous experts until nothing but a skin remained. And now they appeared again.

“They are… Yin Spirits!” Duan De shouted. He finally understood the identity of the Dao acolytes — he had encountered the legendary living ancestors.

The sound of demonic wings beating rose continuously. The ghostly figures blanketed the sky — yet they made no move to attack anyone. Each one was hideous and deathly cold.

“The Yin Spirits have not dissipated — they still endure. Heaven above…” Duan De was thoroughly shaken. He said it plainly: forget about the Underworld Soil of King Yama, the Yellow Spring water, or the Nine Depths Fetal Relics — even dragging out the entire Palace of the Underworld King might not be enough to suppress what stood before them.

These two Dao acolytes were indeed not spectral spirits. In their time, they had surely been interred in a place of ultimate, profound mystery. Their primordial spirits had died, but their physical bodies had never perished. Over tens of thousands of years of nourishment, the bodies had revived — giving birth to new spiritual consciousness.

Death brought to its ultimate extreme — and then rebirth.

This was a transformation defying the heavens, escaping the reckoning of the skies. Living beings of this kind were terrifying beyond comprehension. They could learn anything with astonishing speed, growing step by step — and given enough time, would become invincible beneath the heavens, able to contend with the mightiest existences.

“Wait — didn’t you once say that even those reborn in this way, having entered a new human fetus, would have severed their past life? That they are an entirely new life — and should have no memory of their previous life, only their current one?” Ye Fan said.

“Something must have happened in between. They obtained their past selves through some other means. They have absolutely undergone a true rebirth — a miracle of life at death’s ultimate extreme!” Duan De’s complexion was ashen. For the first time, the fat man was without bearings, utterly at a loss. Having spent his life dealing with tombs and burials, he knew well that some things were like forbidden taboos — and the two Dao acolytes before him were exactly such a thing.

Yin Spirits!

Behind them, virtually everyone erupted. Scalps crawled. This was seizing fortune directly from heaven and earth — a kind of transformation beyond all reckoning.

Throughout all of history, every person is given one life. Who, after death, has ever opened an entirely different life?

Cold had reached their very gall bladders. Everyone thought of much. In those days, far too many events had clearly taken place at the Central Province’s First Ancestral Vein. Only by being interred in such a place could the two Dao acolytes have undergone a metamorphosis so close to the miraculous.

The male Dao acolyte gave a cold laugh. “Rest easy — we will not trouble you. Please enter the highest ancestral temple.”

“You are… Yin Spirits. How do you still remember your previous lives?”

“Naturally, it was the Great Emperor who awakened us, and granted us the memories of our past lives.” The female Dao acolyte said.

“What — he is truly still in this world?!”

“Please, all of you, enter.” The male Dao acolyte said without expression. The female acolyte waved a sleeve, and from far away the stone doors boomed open, revealing the final tier of the temple small world.

“BOOM—”

Boundless auspicious mist came rushing out in great torrents — all manner of sacred lights swirled within. Everything inside was holy and radiant: a thousand auspicious colors, ten thousand divine rainbows, piercing the sun, the moon, and the stars.

The dragon energy essence of the Central Province’s First Ancestral Vein had gathered here entirely. Tens of thousands of strands of immortal light rose and steamed, scattering across heaven and earth — brilliant rosy hues, tides of radiant color surging in great floods.

Ancient temples were nestled among mountain ranges, serene and sacred. Some resonated with the Dao, wreathed in countless chains of Order, clearly visible to the eye — there, the insights of ancient sages had been inscribed. Some temples breathed out divine light that illuminated the sky — red flame and violet energy dancing together. There was no need to think twice: those held world-shaking divine materials.

Other ancient halls emanated sounds like Buddhist chants — as though someone within was reciting words from a supreme Dao scripture. Countless ancient characters, densely packed, were branded into the void, breathing in and out waves of boundless divine radiance.

People went frantic. Those were surely world-shaking ancient scriptures.

Most astonishing of all: a stone fetus floated and submerged at the only opening of the Central Province’s First Ancestral Vein — rising and falling with the auspicious mist, pulsing with the rainbow light. The ancestral vein poured forth auspicious energy, and the stone fetus absorbed the essence of all ten directions.

“That… what is that?”

Everyone stood frozen.

“The Feathering Great Emperor!” The two Dao acolytes said without expression.