A sweeping expanse of snow mountains stood towering and majestic. Beneath the tallest main peak, the primordial dragon cave blazed with gorgeous auspicious light, and several ancient pine trees had taken root beside it — the place was both mysterious and tranquil.
Step by step, Ye Fan advanced toward the Celestial Scale Clan’s sacred ground. In his wake lay a ground covered in bones and freely flowing blood, the earth stained crimson.
Boyi was dead. As a great demon of the Dragon Transformation Secret Realm — a supreme expert of the present age — he had nonetheless been stripped of half his skull in a single blow. It was nearly the stuff of myth.
The vivid red blood was a harrowing sight. Demon corpses lay sprawled everywhere, almost all killed with a single strike. The surviving demon soldiers and demon generals shook with fear, and not one of them dared step forward.
Ye Fan arrived before the primordial dragon cave and was about to step inside when a clear, piercing cry rang across the snow mountains. From the distance came a great shout, and several figures streaked forward like bolts of lightning.
“Who dares run wild in our Changbai ancestral ground?!”
Two men surged from the depths of the snow mountains, bearing about them an air of savage wildness. Their eyes blazed with shooting light as they opened and closed. Their attire was peculiar — old-fashioned long robes and mandarin jackets, their hair braided into a long queue atop their heads.
Ye Fan paused. Was this not the dress of Qing Dynasty men? He had not imagined he would encounter such a sight in this day and age — it seemed very primitive. Nevertheless, the cultivation of these two was genuinely formidable, the likes of which were rarely seen in the present era, and they could be considered uncommonly powerful fighters.
“Who are you?”
“Guardians of the Changbai Mountain ancestral ground!” The two men declared that this place was the ancestral land of their clan — the very land from which their people had emerged to pass through the mountain pass and lord over the realm in former times. No one was permitted to come here and defile it. Their expressions were extremely agitated.
Ye Fan paused again. These two were truly of some age — they could be counted as elders of a former era, still preserving their ancient way of life.
The two wild men swept their eyes over the bones on the ground and seemed to receive a great shock. They shouted loudly, proclaiming that this was the birthplace of their clan.
“I am targeting the Celestial Scale Clan — I will not damage this place. Please step aside at once,” Ye Fan said.
“The God Clan shares a blood bond with our clan. You have come to our ancestral ground to kill — that makes us mortal enemies!” The two men surged forward in a killing assault.
Ye Fan let out a sigh, said nothing more, and flicked two fingers in succession. Two soft sounds — two sprays of blood bloomed, and both men’s foreheads shattered as they toppled into the snow, their lives extinguished and their Dao ended.
The surrounding demon soldiers and demon generals dared not even breathe. They all knew well the strength of these two men — they had cultivated bitterly on Changbai Mountain for two or three hundred years, and many great demons were no match for them. Yet they had still died.
At this moment, an old demon materialized from within the primordial dragon cave. He was gaunt and skeletal, leaning on a Heavenly Serpent walking staff, and let out a long sigh. “Fellow Daoist, please show mercy.”
This was an elderly Heavenly Serpent — of a frighteningly advanced age. Although his Dao attainment was not especially high, his seniority was extremely venerable, and the entire Celestial Scale Clan held him in deep reverence.
Seeing him step forward, everyone rushed up to surround him, calling out to him as Elder Ancestor and clustering protectively around him, fearing some accident might befall him.
“He took human form over five hundred years ago, yet has lost more than half his Dao attainment — something went wrong in his cultivation,” Ye Fan murmured to himself.
“We were wrong. I beg you, Fellow Daoist, to show mercy and spare the Celestial Scale Clan a path of survival.” The old Heavenly Serpent spoke, bowing deeply in a grand salute, pleading earnestly.
“I have no desire to cause excessive slaughter, and seeing you like this genuinely stirs compassion in my heart. Yet I am even less willing to have a group of enemies harboring designs against me. What would you have me do?” Ye Fan’s expression was cold.
“They will harbor no hostility — I can guarantee it. No one will dare harbor ill intentions,” the old Heavenly Serpent pledged.
“It is not that I distrust you — it is that I do not trust them. My divine sense can clearly perceive that some among them harbor murderous intent toward me, and it has climbed to the utmost extreme.” Ye Fan said this calmly.
He struck once more. The sounds of flesh tearing rang out without cease — every person whose murderous intent burned fiercely had their forehead explode, blood and brain matter splattering to the ground together as one corpse after another toppled backward.
“Go find the Heaven Demon — bring the Flood Dragon Ancestor to guard the cave!” someone screamed wildly, their eyes gone red, for important clan members had died, and the entrance to the primordial dragon cave was now a stretch of crimson, littered with corpses.
“No!” The old Heavenly Serpent cried out in alarm at those words.
“Elder Ancestor, surely if the Heaven Demon enters the Flood Dragon Ancestor’s body it can deal with him? So many of our people have died — we must avenge them!” a great demon raged in a wild frenzy.
Ye Fan halted at the cave entrance, striking no more, for a dozen or so great demons had all been killed, leaving only lesser demons trembling — every one who harbored hostility had been slain clean.
Awooo…
Suddenly, from the distance came a great roar — like a dragon cry shaking nine heavens. A flood dragon came charging forward, vaulting across peak after snow peak. It was enormous as a mountain range, and it whipped its great tail toward Ye Fan.
Guo Zhen’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. He clutched Xiao Song and rapidly fell back — it was truly a colossal silver flood dragon, closely resembling a true dragon, with eyes like a pair of lanterns.
The divine flood dragon swung its tail and split a snow mountain apart. Stones flew through the air, and the avalanche surged like a tidal wave — boundless white snow sweeping across the sky. It seemed as though this entire place was about to collapse.
A super-massive flood dragon of this kind was impossible for this era to have produced — yet here it was, alive and manifest before their eyes, with an overwhelming and majestic presence that made every demon in the vicinity tremble, craving to kneel in prostration.
Ye Fan drew in a sharp breath. What era was this? How could a flood dragon like this still exist? The physical body of this flood dragon had surely long since reached the Dao-Severing realm!
“Wait… something is not right.”
He noticed an irregularity. The flood dragon was powerful, but its physical body was ice-cold. Although formidable magical power surged within it, there was a marked dissonance.
“I see — it is nothing more than a corpse, being controlled by someone.” Ye Fan shook his head.
This was one of the Celestial Scale Clan’s Flood Dragon Ancestors — in its time, its Dao attainment had been heaven-defying. Regrettably, during the cultivation of a certain secret art it had suffered an accident, its Primordial Spirit withering and dying while the physical body was left behind.
It had nonetheless become the Celestial Scale Clan’s most prized treasure — a supreme master could enter and occupy the body, unleashing terrifyingly devastating combat power capable of tearing apart great cultivators of divine powers.
Now, the pride of their clan — the Heaven Demon physique — rode the flood dragon into battle against Ye Fan, calling out coldly, “You have come to our clan to shed blood — you will pay a price. Surrender your life!”
“Your Primordial Spirit is not strong, and your Dao attainment is insufficient. What good is an empty Dao-Severing cultivator’s dharma body? Against others, perhaps, but against me — it is truly of no use whatsoever.” Ye Fan said this with calm indifference.
Roar…
The colossal flood dragon swept down to blot out the sky and earth, diving toward Ye Fan with the force to shift mountains and fill seas — in the present era, it was absolutely peerless!
Every member of the Celestial Scale Clan watched with taut attention, fists clenched. They believed that even a great cultivator of divine powers could not withstand such a world-shaking blow — in the current age, nothing could compare to the physical body of a Dao-Severing King.
Aside from the flood dragon’s roar, no other sound existed between heaven and earth. A single colossal flood dragon had become the sole presence in the world.
Yet contrary to everyone’s expectations, the Dao-Severing flood dragon did not shatter Ye Fan — instead, it was struck by his fist and the flood dragon’s head exploded, blood flowing freely as it was sent crashing backward into the sky.
“A Dao-Severing flood dragon? It is nothing but a corpse. I have killed living Dao-Severing Kings before.”
Ye Fan murmured softly, standing tall as he gazed up at the silver flood dragon in the sky, his expression completely unmoved — not a trace of fear.
Everyone was dumbstruck. Many had heard his words, their entire bodies going cold with fright. What kind of person was this — one who had killed a living Dao-Severing cultivator?!
“Run, my child — flee now!” The old Heavenly Serpent stood at the mouth of the primordial dragon cave and bellowed.
“Elder Ancestor need not worry. Watch me take his life. Daring to run wild in our primordial cave — blood will be shed five feet high!” The silver flood dragon boomed — he had not caught Ye Fan’s murmured words.
It opened its mouth and spat out a bolt of violet lightning — this was a violet-gold precious mirror, a weapon refined by the Dao-Severing King in years past. The violet light it emitted could dissolve all things, and even a figure at the sect master level would suffer serious injury if swept by it.
Yet Ye Fan made no move to dodge. He shot upward through the air to meet it head-on, golden fists surging with tremendous energy that pierced straight through heaven and earth.
Crack!
Something terrifying occurred — the violet precious mirror shattered into dozens of pieces, falling like a meteor shower, smashed apart by a single fist.
“Heavens — how is this possible?! He destroyed a Dao-Severing King’s weapon with his bare fist!”
Many among the Celestial Scale Clan broke out in a cold sweat all over their bodies, countless among them trembling uncontrollably. Such a display of power — how could it be witnessed in the present age? Only in the legends of remote antiquity could such things appear!
“A Dao-Severing flood dragon king…” The words drifted down from the sky in Ye Fan’s soft murmur, and then he shook both hands and released a boundless torrent of golden light that struck toward what lay before him.
Boom… Boom…
A terrifying sound rang out. That colossal silver flood dragon was seized by a pair of golden hands as vast as mountains, and with a single forceful tear, it was ripped into more than a dozen sections. Blood and flood dragon bones rained down toward the ground below.
Beneath them, a stretch of snow mountains was smashed to ruin. The flood dragon’s remains fell upon them, shaking the very earth.
A white Heavenly Serpent shot out from the corpse of the flood dragon, faster than lightning, attempting to flee — this was the clan’s Heaven Demon physique.
Zip!
Ye Fan pointed a single finger, and the Heaven Demon plummeted to the ground, transforming into a young man. His face was deathly pale, his expression ferocious, jaw clenched tight.
“A Heaven Demon physique — not as if I have never seen one before. My friend with such a physique should be… close to severing the Dao, I would think.” Ye Fan murmured to himself, his thoughts drifting to the Northern Dipper Star Domain — he fell briefly into a daze.
“Just who are you?!” The Heaven Demon physique demanded, both eyes blood-red, as though he wished to devour someone, his expression ferocious and sinister.
“I have already said it several times — Ye Fan, Lord of the Heavenly Court.”
Ye Fan’s words were soft. Though it was not the first time those present had heard them, they still set every heart trembling.
“In truth, I have no desire to take lives. But your murderous intent toward me is so intense — there is nothing to be done. I can only snuff out a rare talent.”
“No—!” A great cry rang out from behind.
Ye Fan paid no heed. With a gentle point, the Heaven Demon physique let out a single cry — his brow was pierced through, and he toppled backward into the snow, not a trace of life remaining.
Ye Fan felt neither joy nor sorrow. He approached the primordial dragon cave once more, and those people retreated in terror, backing away continuously.
“We were the ones who were wrong — we should not have harbored greed and sought to kill you. Yet you have already slain thirty-nine of our people, nearly all of them great demons. If our clan is not destroyed, we will be gravely weakened for five hundred years, and will not dare emerge from the mountain — we will have no choice but to seal ourselves within Changbai Mountain. Can you find it in yourself to spare us?” The old Heavenly Serpent pleaded.
Ye Fan sighed inwardly. He truly could not bring himself to strike. If the other side had come charging at him recklessly with murderous fury, he would have shown no mercy — not a shred of pity. But now…
“The one who wishes to inhabit the Heavenly Serpent Ancestor’s body — step forward. Even making use of that shed serpent skin will be of no use.” He turned to look toward another ancient cave.
Boyi Ren, the clan head of the Celestial Scale Clan, stepped out, his face ashen. Although he was at the Dragon Transformation Secret Realm and was called a supreme expert of the present age, he was utterly beneath notice in the current circumstances.
“To be suppressed single-handedly by one person — we are convinced by our defeat. Do with us as you will — kill us or flay us.” Boyi Ren spoke, supporting the old Heavenly Serpent. The Celestial Scale Clan had two Dragon Transformation masters — Boyi was already dead, leaving only Boyi Ren to fight alone, and struggling further would be futile.
“I have no desire to kill too many people. Seal your mountain yourselves for five hundred years — during that time, none of you may venture outside.” Ye Fan said calmly.
“We are deeply grateful to you, Fellow Daoist, for not taking our lives.” The old Heavenly Serpent said in a trembling voice. The others also quietly let out a breath of relief, and many silently bowed in gratitude alongside the old serpent.