At the heart of Ye Fan’s being lay an invincible fist intent. This was not to say that his divine art was the greatest throughout all of antiquity, nor that it surpassed the Six Paths of Reincarnation Fist. Rather, it meant that he had fully and completely comprehended the art — no longer confined to the original fist intent — and had formally stepped onto his own path, transcending what had come before.
Take the Celestial Emperor’s son, for instance. Even though he possessed what was considered the world’s foremost Divine Soul Scripture, he ultimately could not achieve invincibility, and was defeated and destroyed in the end. One could only say that he walked on the path of those who came before — unable to transcend.
The Ancient Great Emperors, every single one, had pioneered their own Dao. In their time, their arts may not necessarily have been the greatest throughout all of antiquity — but they were the most suited to themselves. And thus, they swept through all of the nine heavens and ten earths, solitary and unrivaled throughout their lives.
There is no foremost immortal scripture — only an invincible person. Find the path that suits you, press forward with courage, and pioneer the Dao most fitting for yourself. That is true invincibility.
In this moment, Ye Fan employed no complex or elaborate variations. There were only a pair of fists. Every strike saw sun and moon in motion around him, ten thousand ancient rivers of stars flowing at his sides — and no matter how brilliantly the golden immortal light blazed, it could not illuminate inward.
The two engaged in a fierce battle. Several times the golden immortal light came pouring down — and each time, Ye Fan’s strikes shattered it, sending it cascading back in reverse.
Cracks appeared across the surface of the crystal vase. Amid its brilliant, shimmering light, shattering sounds rang out, and finally — with a loud boom — it exploded, shards scattering in all directions.
This was a dissolution of the Dao — the manifestation of a forbidden secret art being dismantled. There was no true immortal vase. Every element of it was an evolution of divine art.
The two competed for supremacy with intense ferocity. The Golden Princess was extraordinarily powerful — looking as though she possessed a beauty that could topple kingdoms, yet not in the least bit weak. A single battle of hers was enough to awe and subdue all rivals.
Sheets of golden light swept out, submerging the entire site where Yao Guang had once stood — as though a divine sea had descended upon the world, a swath of golden radiance blazing brilliantly.
“It truly is Ye Fan — divine radiance bursting from the crown of his head, piercing the heavens. Every single pore on his body breathes in and expels sacred light. Who else could it be but him!”
“This… has truly been confirmed!”
A crowd of people watched with tense focus. Guessing was one thing — personally witnessing it with their own eyes was another. After so many days during which the whole world had been debating, the answer had finally been revealed today.
It was Ye Fan who had killed the Celestial Emperor’s son!
Everything was completely fitting and logical. Only he could possess such combat power. Otherwise, if yet another such formidable expert had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, it would have been rather hard to accept.
Even the Ancient Clans could only sigh in lament — the Human Race Sacred Body was too powerful. A formidable Ancient Emperor’s son had ultimately been caught up and killed in a single battle, dying without the least bit of dignity.
Ye Fan’s return was like a sweeping storm rolling across this highland, setting off a great commotion that sent the onlookers into a frenzy of agitation.
“Master… does he plan to leave again?” In the distant sky, Ye Tong wondered, feeling a touch of melancholy.
On the battlefield, the two continued their great fight — a wondrous spectacle to behold.
The Golden Princess radiated golden light across her entire body, like a female war deity incarnate. Her skin was as white as snow, golden threads dancing in the air. She spread open a brilliant sacred domain, as though she were a divine being.
And Ye Fan — a pair of golden fists, unmatched and invincible. Every punch drove into the domain. At his flanks, ten thousand ancient rivers of stars glittered and swirled — one galaxy after another coiling and winding, one ancient star after another slowly turning, encircling him at the center. He stood as though at the very heart of the cosmos.
The Golden Princess surpassed the Celestial Emperor’s son!
This was the consensus of all who watched. Having fought to this stage, what was being compared was no longer divine technique alone, but spirit and will as well. Though she was a woman, she possessed an invincible heart.
Speaking of true combat power, how much weaker could any Ancient Emperor’s child be than another? But the confidence and bearing each displayed — that was something entirely their own.
The Celestial Emperor’s son’s natural gifts could be considered supreme — his bloodline was very nearly the most powerful in all of antiquity, and his constitution the foremost in the world. But from childhood, he had been sheltered and protected, raised in a greenhouse.
His strength was absolutely terrifying — yet he lacked a fighting spirit. In the midst of great battle, he was filled with hesitation, without that quality of pressing forward undaunted, of throwing oneself into mortal peril and then surviving it.
And so he had been defeated. At his very core, he was like a delicate and tender flower, growing in fertile soil, never having undergone the tempering of wind and rain.
The Golden Princess was utterly different. She was supremely confident — even self-assured to the point of arrogance. As the battle reached its most intense white-hot state, both of her golden pupils burned with blazing fire.
A woman driven to a battlefield frenzy — and yet possessed of such domineering power. Many of the watching onlookers felt a chill in their hearts. Even if they all attacked together in a group, they estimated they would be slapped flat into the mud.
“Clang!”
The Golden Princess actually traded bare-fist blows with Ye Fan. The sound was deafening. Both possessed golden fists and fingers — like divine gold striking divine gold, interweaving into one blazing, scorching lattice of patterns that tore open the heavens.
“That is… the Golden Divine Wheel!”
With the cry of an Ancient Clan member, a divine ring flew out from the Golden Princess’s left eye. It radiated intense golden light, as though burning, and came sweeping toward Ye Fan to ensnare him.
This was a secret art — pioneered by an Ancient Emperor — invoked through the eyes. It was said to be capable of locking down all enemies in the world without exception. For those of the same rank who were bound by it, escape would be nearly impossible for an entire lifetime.
Ye Fan threw a punch. At his brow center, light flickered brilliantly. The golden figure seated within his forehead bones let out a long cry, rose from the immortal platform, and activated the Military Scripture.
He had never obtained a Great Emperor’s secret art — for no complete ancient scripture had ever come into his hands. Yet he had obtained several of the Nine Secrets, allowing him to contend against any inheritor.
He treated the divine wheel as a weapon to be seized and controlled, attempting to reverse it and send it crashing back toward the Golden Princess’s brow center in a counter-strike.
But this was not a true weapon, after all — it could not be fully controlled. The divine ring rang with a resounding clang and burned ever more fiercely.
“Clang!”
Sword qi pierced the heavens three thousand zhang high. From the Golden Princess’s right eye flew a golden sword just an inch in length. Its radiance blazed through the sky, slashing straight downward — its momentum utterly awe-inspiring.
When this sword appeared, sun and moon lost their light and mountains and rivers their color. Primordial chaos qi drifted and swirled as it split open the heavens. Its attack power was of unmatched, world-cutting sharpness.
An inch-long golden sword, working in concert with the divine ring — the two combined into one: attack and defense integrated.
“Clang!”
Ye Fan simultaneously activated the Military Scripture and the War-Conquering Sacred Technique, engaging the woman in fierce battle. With a thunderous great boom, through his evolution, nine True Dragons pulled a great bronze coffin into manifestation — carrying with it a great presence capable of suppressing all of the six directions and eight desolations!
“This is… the nine black dragons and the ancient bronze coffin that once appeared in the ancient forbidden grounds. Ye Fan once departed with them, traversing the star sea.”
Someone cried out in shock. Seeing him now evolve this secret technique, all present showed expressions of surprise, watching with tense and focused attention.
“Rumble!”
The nine True Dragons soared upward. This was the embodiment of Ye Fan’s great offensive technique — fierce and supremely powerful. Nine dragons simultaneously swept their tails and charged forward.
They tore open heaven and earth, shattering both the divine wheel and the Dao Sword. The Golden Heavenly Maiden’s hair streamed in all directions. Golden pupils flashed like lightning as she caught the attack bare-handed.
“A coffin for you!” Ye Fan shouted. The ancient bronze coffin opened wide, intending to draw the Imperial Clan’s Heavenly Maiden inside.
All of this was evolved from a secret art, yet it was no different from the real thing. Truly being drawn and sealed inside would absolutely grind one into a mass of pulped remains — a fate worse than death.
“Clang!”
The Golden Clan’s Princess let out a sharp cry. Her golden fist struck the ancient coffin, and the sound of splitting stone rang out — many of the onlookers cried out in pain, clutching their ears.
“BOOM!”
Ye Fan’s blood qi overflowed across his entire body. At this moment, there was no concealment — the Sacred Body’s bearing was fully displayed. A supreme physique, golden sacred radiance spreading and permeating, a single vibration cracking the heavens!
He drove his fists upward in a strike, hammering toward the Golden Princess’s immortal platform — intent on drawing out her primordial divine soul and capturing it. The invincible fist intent cared for nothing but forward — advance and live, retreat and die.
Yet the Golden Princess fought with wild abandon. Her entire body became covered in a layer of golden feathered garments — she did not retreat in the slightest, meeting his Six Paths fist intent head-on in a direct collision.
“Clang!”
A hundred, a thousand times the exchange — the two engaged in a life-or-death struggle, fighting with fierce intensity. The Golden Princess’s palms had split open at the web between thumb and forefinger, blood trailing in streaks — she ultimately could not match the ferocity of Ye Fan’s fist intent.
Yet even so, she did not give ground. Her pupils blazed with cold lightning — her bearing peerless and unmatched. With a clear, ringing cry, every mountain and river across the great wilderness shattered, rocks piercing through the clouds!
She deployed her various divine techniques in concert with close-quarters combat, transforming into a mass of golden light — the battle growing even more intense, pressing toward white-hot.
The Golden Clan’s Heavenly Maiden was not only supremely confident — she also carried a deep resentment. The last time, the Golden King’s great defeat had been a humiliation for their Imperial Clan. Surrendering priceless divine marrow as ransom had been the price — and she, the Ancient Emperor’s most favored daughter, reborn in this world, could not accept such a reality. When had the Golden Clan ever been forced to endure such indignity?
This resentment could only be discharged by sweeping away the Sacred Emperor’s son, or suppressing the Human Race Sacred Body.
“The Golden Clan’s Princess truly is… strong enough to make one’s hair stand on end!”
The onlookers were at a loss for words. Ye Fan’s name resounded throughout the world — and yet this Ancient Emperor’s daughter dared to engage him in direct physical combat, clashing body to body against the Sacred Body. It sent chills up every spine watching.
“Die!”
The Golden Princess let out a sharp cry. Her golden pupils grew even more bewitching. She spread open the Golden Divine Wheel and merged it with her domain, covering Ye Fan within.
Ye Fan was fearless. A golden Taiji circle appeared, intertwining with her domain. The two domains merged into one, and within it they stood, fighting to the death.
By the time two-thousand-five-hundred exchanges had passed, the onlookers could only stare dumbfounded. Amid all the many secret techniques both sides had unleashed, when the battle blood boiled to its very peak, the two became entangled — locked together physically.
The Golden Princess twisted Ye Fan’s arm. Dao traces surfaced, immortal light spread — she was intent on snapping it clean off.
And Ye Fan did the same — gripping her wrist to prevent her from succeeding, one large golden hand reaching out, his entire person very nearly pressed down upon her body.
They radiated blazing light. Golden blood qi submerged this entire place, as Ye Fan pressed down upon her and the two plummeted from the heavens toward the earth.
“Rumble!”
A ten-thousand-zhang-tall mountain was shattered on the spot by the two of them crashing into it. Dust and smoke billowed upward, condensing into vast sheets of leaden cloud blanketing the high sky.
Fortunately, they had moved far from the great mound, fighting deep into the great wilderness — otherwise, who could know what calamity would have resulted from crashing down like this.
“BOOM!”
They fought in close quarters, shattering sixty-one consecutive mountain peaks. Any mountain that came into contact with the golden light radiating from them would collapse and crumble — great lakes evaporated dry, everything reduced to dust.
“Ahh…!”
The Golden Heavenly Maiden screamed. To have fought to this point was, for her, a profound humiliation. When had she ever been this close to a man — their bodies nearly flush against each other — and yet even so, still been unable to suppress her opponent?
In the Primordial Age, she had been of heavenly genius, the most powerful among her generation. Even the strongest of her contemporaries had lasted no more than nine exchanges against her before being defeated. Breathtaking in her splendor, she had been hailed as the peerless divine maiden of the age.
And yet now, it had come to this — pressed down upon by a man, fighting from the heavens all the way into the earth. It was truly improper and mortifying. That strong, powerful physique transmitted wave after wave of scorching heat — something she found deeply, utterly unbearable.
“Thud!”
In close-quarters combat, entanglement and physical contact were unavoidable. There were even several times when their legs became intertwined, bodies pressed flush — their positions suggestive and indecorous.
Yet combat was, after all, combat. Every moment was fraught with danger. Even in that entangled state, traces of the great Dao would manifest, dragon roars and phoenix cries would ring out.
Were it an ordinary person, a single trace of Dao like this appearing would reduce them to powder — body destroyed, Dao extinguished.
The Golden Princess’s hair fell in cascades like gleaming golden aurora. Her skin was white as snow and smooth as silk — breathtakingly beautiful. Throughout this close-quarters melee, she was filled with mortification, her body trembling with anger. Having already fallen into a disadvantageous position, she was naturally even more overwhelmed.
Ye Fan struck without the slightest mercy. From the heavens down to the earth, then from the earth back up into the clouds — seeing that her composure had been disrupted, his strikes grew even more fierce.
“Thud!”
He brought his palm crashing down. Even though the golden heavenly maiden wore a golden silk divine garment, it could not withstand the force — it dissolved into a shower of light, the upper half scattering apart, revealing a vast expanse of snow-white skin.
“Ahh…!”
A peerless bearing — a flush of crimson spread across her snow-white, smooth, flawless face. She trembled with rage, growing even more passive in the exchange.
Ye Fan paid not the slightest attention, pressing down upon her and fighting from among the clouds all the way back down to the earth.