Below the Blue Demon Abyss, within the grand ancient city, the Great Sage Huntuo’s face was expressionless. After a long silence, he tore open space and departed.
Gai Jiuyou made no move to stop him. Unless they were to open all-out war against the ancient clans, cutting down the incarnation of this Great Sage — who had long played the role of peacemaker — would set too many nerves on edge.
The Blue Demon Clan trembled with terror. Both Great Sages had retreated, unable to stop the Human Race’s supreme existence. Their clan master and two Patriarch Kings had been slain — what was left for them to resist with?
The vast Blue Demon Ancient City fell so silent that the sound of a falling needle could have been heard. Ye Fan and the Elder Sage of the Extraordinary Scholar’s Manor also entered. They had but one objective: destroy the ancient tree at the city’s center.
This was the Blue Demon Clan’s foundational pillar of existence. Through it, they devoured the Primordial Spirits of cultivators from other races, and it gathered the power of the earth — releasing a mysterious blue mist that sustained their cultivation.
The Elder Sage of the Extraordinary Scholar’s Manor struck. His right hand transformed into a great silver stele covered in radiant, surging inscription runes. Strong and fierce, he drove it into the heaven-reaching ancient tree.
Crash!
The great tree swayed. Its blue leaves rustled and stirred, light flowing and shimmering. Each individual leaf was crystalline and translucent, blue as a precious gem, radiating a boundless ocean of divine energy.
The tree was wholly unharmed — not damaged in the least. Its trunk was ancient and vigorous, its branches full and dense, with various blue beams of light shooting outward. The entire form was like something carved from blue jade, almost dreamlike.
Ye Fan was astonished. An Ancient Sage’s strike had not managed to shatter this great tree — this was extraordinary. He suspected even if the Elder Manor Master had struck the moon, it would have exploded.
“There is something remarkable here,” said the Elder Sage, striking once more. The inscription runes on his silver stele blazed brilliantly, and the force behind his blow increased — eight successive strikes later, the tree still bore no damage. The entire ancient city shook along with each impact, and the leaves spilled cascading light.
“This is more resilient than the average generational Saint-level weapon — truly unexpected. What origin does this tree have, to be so difficult to destroy?” said the Elder Manor Master of the Extraordinary Scholar’s Manor, openly surprised.
Ye Fan seized a Blue Demon Clan commander at the Dao-Severing level and searched his sea of consciousness. He was startled at once — he had learned the tree’s origin.
“This is equivalent to a Great Sage’s weapon!”
“What? No wonder it is imperishable — it bore up under my full power.” The Elder Manor Master’s eyes lit up with a gleam of desire. He began to regard this ancient tree in a wholly different light, and prepared to uproot and take it away.
“This is an evil tree!” Ye Fan warned.
Throughout the Blue Demon Clan’s history they had once produced a Great Sage — a fact known to all ancient clans of the primordial era. Supremely powerful, he had once reigned paramount during the age when the Ancient Emperor had passed away, revered by all ten directions.
This Great Sage had once ventured beyond the domain boundary and returned with this ancient tree — obtained from some unknown place. Its constitution was indestructible, its natural toughness extraordinary. Wielded as a weapon, it had proven unstoppable in every battle — and the blue light it released could sever the Primordial Spirits of enemies.
It was equivalent to a Great Sage-level spirit wood, nurtured by heaven and earth!
There were those who said that the Blue Demon Clan’s Great Sage had once wandered into a chaotic ground by mistake, from which he had dug up a blue sapling. After cultivation over countless ages, it had grown into the demonic weapon it was today.
Rumble!
Gai Jiuyou struck. A rough hand weathered by ages of time reached out and grasped the tree’s trunk, pulling the entire ancient tree straight out by its roots, the sound it made harmonizing with the resonance of the Heavenly Dao itself.
In that instant, blue light flew and swirled — like countless blue stars tumbling from beyond the sky, sweeping over the earth, as though they would cause the land itself to collapse. Had this terrifying energy fully detonated, it would have been enough to sink half of the Northern Domain — for this was equivalent to a Great Sage’s weapon launching a full assault.
But with Gai Jiuyou acting, he naturally allowed no such thing to happen. His palm flickered, and he drew all the blue light to himself, transforming that cataclysmic force into utter stillness.
“This is a variant heavenly wood that took root in the primal chaos — one could say it is a rare and precious divine material. It was found by someone and refined into an evil tree, specifically made to devour human Primordial Spirits.”
Gai Jiuyou confirmed it: this was indeed a rare and treasured spirit tree. Though it was no match for something like the ancient tea tree of enlightenment, it was sufficient material to forge a Great Sage’s weapon. And if cultivated with care, it could even be refined into a quasi-Emperor divine artifact — its value incalculable!
Swish!
He wiped a hand across it, and the ancient tree immediately let out thousands upon thousands of shrill, keening wails. Within its leaves, face after face appeared — most of them of the Human Race, with others of strange and demonic lineages, all rendered in blue light, snarling and howling.
He shook the tree with great force, and the entire ancient tree dimmed considerably. All the faces vanished — they were the impressions left by the Primordial Spirits of countless cultivators it had devoured throughout the endless ages.
Gai Jiuyou opened his mouth and let out a clear, reverberant cry, exhaling a ribbon-like beam of divine light that washed over the heaven-reaching ancient tree hundreds and thousands of times — purging all impurities, returning it to a state of pure blue translucency, flawless and without blemish.
He had erased every mark within the evil tree, restoring it to its original nature. Its blue light was no longer as fierce and blazing — but it had become clear and pure.
“This is a heavenly wood born within the primal chaos. The method of nourishing it through devouring Primordial Spirits is what rendered it evil. Were it cultivated instead with primordial essence, divine power, and other methods — it would have turned out an entirely different thing. In the end, it all comes down to how one uses it,” said Gai Jiuyou.
He had effectively re-refined the ancient tree from the beginning. At last, he opened his mouth — and the great crystalline blue tree shrank, disappearing into his mouth. Then a divine radiance burst across his entire body. As seen through the Heavenly Eye, within his flesh, a crystalline, wondrous tree took root and grew, its branches and stems extending into every inch of his blood and flesh.
“Senior, you are…” Ye Fan said in astonishment.
“My blood essence has withered. I and this tree will sustain one another — through it, I draw on the vital energy of heaven and earth to fill this body of flesh with life force,” said Gai Jiuyou.
“Congratulations, Senior — you have obtained a wondrous tree!” said the Elder Manor Master of the Extraordinary Scholar’s Manor.
For Gai Jiuyou in his current condition, this was indeed a precious gift. It could help ease the problem of his drying blood essence and support him through a further stretch of time — for this was a rare variant species that had once taken root within the primal chaos.
The three departed. The Blue Demon Clan did not dare breathe a single word. Even though the clan’s foremost sacred object — the Blue Demon Ancient Tree — had been taken away, not one of them dared utter a sound of protest.
“I imagine there will be someone waiting for us with an Ancient Emperor’s weapon now,” said Gai Jiuyou.
At this moment, the Northern Domain was as though it had weathered a raging storm — nowhere could truly settle into calm. Among cultivators, the world crackled with lightning and thunder, hearts and minds in upheaval.
Gai Jiuyou had struck with overwhelming force, annihilating the Ancient Sages of the primordial royal clans one after another — not a single Ancient Sage had escaped; all were swept away. What a thunderous shock it was!
The eyes of the entire world were fixed upon the Northern Domain. Even the most powerful wandering cultivators from across the seas had crossed the waters to learn of events firsthand. This was a matter of world-shaking magnitude, worthy of being recorded in the chronicles of cultivation history!
Very soon, the news from within the Blue Demon Abyss spread as well.
“Even the Blue Demon Heavenly King has been destroyed — he was a single step from becoming a Great Sage, and he died just like that, without so much as a ripple. Impossible to believe!”
“He annihilated Ancient Sages without pause — the supreme existence of the Human Race is incomparably powerful, unrivaled in all the world!”
“Powerful Saints were frightened out of their courage and fled into the cosmos, not daring to return — the supreme Gai’s divine might truly covers the heavens!”
Even the Golden King had fallen — fallen thoroughly — his incarnation killed until it was nothing but a rain of blood and chunks of flesh. When this news spread, every powerful figure throughout the world fell briefly silent.
Then: the ancient clans trembled, the Human Race surged with elation, the world fell into uproar, and every clan erupted in clamor.
“Five of the great royal clans still have Ancient Sages we have not destroyed — but going to any of those places now will yield nothing. Instead, we may encounter the most fearsome of enemies!” said the Elder Sage of the Extraordinary Scholar’s Manor.
“Then let us go to whichever one we please,” said Gai Jiuyou, his expression calm and untroubled.
The Crimson Twilight Plain was a great expanse of land in the Northern Domain — rarely seen for its abundance of life and vitality — covered entirely in Crimson Twilight Trees. Every tree was like the colors of a sunset, red as heavenly fire, the trunk and leaves alike suffused with crimson and twilight radiance.
Seen from afar, it looked as though the colors of an evening sky had gathered and settled here, never to fade.
This was the ancestral land of the Silver Clan — long on close terms with the Golden lineage — a great royal clan of renown throughout the primordial age. Outside of the imperial clan, their standing among the royal clans was supremely respected.
Now, the three — Gai Jiuyou, Ye Fan, and the Elder Manor Master — had arrived at this vast plain. Looking ahead, crimson twilight blazed with splendor as far as the eye could see, an endless expanse of fiery red.
When they arrived before the Silver Clan’s ancestral land, the entire clan immediately fell into chaos. Every last one of them was overcome with terror. Within this single day, Gai Jiuyou had annihilated the Ancient Sages of five clans — all under heaven knew of it, and the news had long since reached here. They had been on edge with dread all along, and never imagined that the three would truly come knocking at their door.
“They have arrived — the supreme existence of the Human Race has killed his way here.”
“What are we to do? The clan master has taken refuge beyond the domain — surely he will not make things difficult for us. Word is that even the Golden King has fallen, he who was completely beyond compare.”
Boom!
Abruptly, a vast expanse of golden light blazed across the heavens, illuminating all ten directions. The vault of sky was torn open, the extreme-Dao Ancient Emperor’s presence surged and surged, pressing down from above like a sky-covering flood.
The Golden Great Sage had come — appearing above the Crimson Twilight Plain, wielding the Golden Mace of his clan, his divine power overawing all eight directions!
“Gai Jiuyou — offer up your life!” A voice thundered from the sky — the roar of a Great Sage, shaking half the Northern Domain, audible in all four directions.
Not long before, he had been crushed in the Blue Demon Abyss, and the moment that news spread, all clans had been talking about it, dealing a severe blow to his prestige.
For he had first been defeated by the Battle Victorious Buddha and forced to ransom his life with sacred divine marrow — and now, within the shortest of intervals, he had been broken and his incarnation destroyed by the supreme existence of the Human Race in just a few moves. This inevitably drew censure.
“Golden King, wait.” From above the heavens, someone blocked him — urging him not to rashly bring down the Golden Mace — seeming deeply wary of the person below.
“Huntuo, do not obstruct me!” said the Golden King.
At the same time, another expanse of void shattered. Purple light blazed toward the sky. The ringing of bells rang out — a string of purple-gold bells transformed into a true dragon, lifting its head in a long roar.
The Great Sage Qianlun of the Ten Thousand Dragon’s Nest had arrived, also bearing an extreme-Dao Ancient Emperor’s weapon. The tension escalated further — for he too had his sights set on Gai Jiuyou, ready to strike at any moment.
“You have come here also to take this old man’s life?” said Gai Jiuyou, facing the Great Sage Qianlun, who bore the Ten Thousand Dragon Bell, his expression tranquil.
“Indeed. I am the one who invited the Great Sage Qianlun — precisely to take your old life!” said the Golden King. His heart was filled with fury, yet his wariness of Gai Jiuyou had reached an absolute extreme. Wielding the Golden Mace alone, he feared it might not be enough — so he had invited another Great Sage bearing the Ten Thousand Dragon Bell, an Ancient Emperor’s weapon, to join forces.
In the far reaches of the sky, the silhouettes of many ancient clan members could be seen — all of them mighty powerhouses. This day, figures had converged from all four directions. A pivotal battle was about to unfold, and no one could help but be shaken. Many of the bolder onlookers watched from afar.
“Senior!” Ye Fan called out, his heart filled with concern. Even if Gai Jiuyou was supremely gifted and possessed the bearing of one who could achieve the Dao — fighting bare-handed against two Ancient Emperor’s weapons was too unrealistic. He wanted to lend the elder the Green Copper Cauldron.
“There is no need!” Gai Jiuyou smiled slightly, as if already knowing what he intended to say.
“Brother Gai, shall we let the weapons fall silent here?” said the Great Sage Huntuo.
The Golden King shouted loudly, “Absolutely not! There must be a reckoning today — a final settlement! I do not believe this old wretch still has the vigor of his prime. His blood essence has long since run dry — he cannot withstand an extreme-Dao Ancient Emperor’s weapon!”
In that moment, he raised the Golden Mace — and instantly a hundred million strands of immortal light blazed outward, locking onto Gai Jiuyou.
At the same time, the Ten Thousand Dragon Bell rang — its divine sound deafening, shaking heaven and earth. A world-shaking, supreme great battle was about to begin.
Then, suddenly, the Golden King cried out in alarm. Even the Great Sage of the Ten Thousand Dragon’s Nest felt his hair stand on end — sensing the weapons in their hands shaking wildly, inexplicably attacking each other. It had all come far too suddenly!