Crystal-pure, brilliant light poured down like clear water. Wherever it fell, the skeletal creatures let out miserable screams: the ghostly fire within their skulls was extinguished, curling away as wisps of smoke, while their bone bodies shattered inch by inch into white powder.

What was this? Its aura was gentle and sacred — capable of purifying this entire world.

Ye Fan was astonished. Beside him, the ghosts without physical bodies melted like snow in sunlight, dissolving into wisps of smoke and vanishing.

From deep within the forbidden zone, the roaring grew ever more terrifying. One streak of dark light after another shot out, like a black sun rising — casting out strand after strand of demonic radiance.

“So powerful!”

Ye Fan fell back, retreating several thousand miles in an instant. He had felt a surge of dangerous energy bearing down like the sky itself, and if he did not retreat, he would be like a lone boat on a raging sea, liable to be capsized at any moment.

Crack crack crack! The sound rang out without cease. This entire world was becoming unstable. Even having retreated several thousand miles away, the mountains of bones were collapsing one by one, and the white bones on the ground were crumbling to dust, becoming snow-white bone powder.

“Saint-level power!” Ye Fan’s expression changed. He had not expected to encounter a Great Saint-class creature at the very first battle on the trial grounds. One could only imagine how frightful the road ahead would be.

The bones on the ground stretched endlessly, like a vast expanse of white snow, without an end in sight, spreading all the way to where the heavens and earth converged.

And it was precisely at that convergence point that, from within the sea of bones, a black sun slowly rose. It was boundlessly massive, pressing up to fill the entire sky. Hundreds of millions of strands of dark light interweaved into black orderly divine chains, piercing through the void.

A Great Saint-level black sun!

Ye Fan opened his Heavenly Eye, carefully examining it, wanting to see through to its origins. This black sun was comparable in size to a great black mountain — standing in opposition to the brilliant immortal light falling from the sky.

The two were incompatible at their very core, innately antagonistic. Radiance scattered in all directions as laws intertwined, continuously destroying one another — one brimming with life force, the other innately containing the power of destruction.

Hum!

More immortal light cascaded down, tearing apart the lead-gray clouds and flooding this dark world with brilliance, so that it was no longer so dim and oppressive.

Violent explosions rang out. Countless mountains of bone shattered open, bone fragments flying everywhere, while the skeletal creatures wailed and struggled, fleeing in all directions.

“You scatter your so-called survey seeds across my death kingdom and conduct your experiments — yet you endlessly slaughter my subjects. You will all die!”

An authoritative voice issued from within the black sun. Its divine principles influenced the lead-gray clouds, causing them to boil and churn, transforming into death energy that engulfed the immortal light, sealing the sky once more.

Hum!

A bone knife as brilliant as moonlight surged up from within the black sun, soaring out into the heavens, striking toward the mysterious sacred light beyond.

Boom!

The lead-gray clouds split apart. A tide of great Dao divine marks came pressing down — the invader’s laws were immensely powerful, filled with sacred purifying energy, clashing again and again with that bone knife.

Great Saint-level!

Ye Fan was certain — both sides were powerful figures at the Great Saint level. Their power reached to the heavens. He felt fortunate to have retreated far enough; otherwise, he would have been reduced to ashes.

“This is a dangerous world. No wonder so many forebears who came here never returned. From the most ancient times to now, only three or five have survived, while the rest — Holy Bodies and all — have shed their blood beyond the domain.”

His expression was grave. And this was only the very beginning. The first waypoint alone had already produced beings of this terrifying saint-level magnitude. What horrors must the later trial grounds hold?

Within the black sun, a powerful living entity was contained. Through the gaps, strands of dark light extended outward like tentacles, clashing again and again with the immortal light from above.

Death energy surged and boiled. The black sun fragmented, and from within it burst a mysterious ancient beast — or more precisely, a skeletal creature that had grown flesh, which made it entirely unlike the others.

Upon its back rose row upon row of bone spines shooting upward, snow-white and razor-sharp — a single tremor could split open the universe, and each one was several hundred zhang in length.

This was a domain-born heavenly beast unlike any Ye Fan had ever seen: enormous and powerful, with the body of a tiger or leopard, the scaled armor of a crocodile, the antlers of a divine deer, the iron talons of a hawk or falcon, and a scorpion’s tail curling backward toward the sky.

Apart from the snow-white crystal bone spines on its back — sharp enough to crack the heavens — the rest of its body was like purple jade, glittering and brilliant, projecting an overwhelming divine might as sacred light wreathed its frame.

“Life born from death!”

Ye Fan’s face changed. He sensed an immense death energy. With even the slightest movement of this domain-born heavenly beast, terrifying death aura would surge from within it, shaking the six directions and eight coordinates to the point of collapse.

The enormous beast stood several thousand zhang tall. Opening its jaws and roaring, it blasted the dark clouds apart — and beyond the vault of sky, the view revealed itself: beyond sun, moon, and stars, there was a war chariot, like a divine king descending to inspect the world.

Boom!

Enormous bolts of lightning infused with primal chaos energy came crashing down, striking toward the heavenly beast. Thousands upon thousands of strands of saint-level Dao markings sought to purify this world and fill it with life.

The immortal light that had appeared not long ago had scattered down precisely from this ancient war chariot — showers of radiance spreading across the death kingdom.

“Who is within that war chariot?” Ye Fan was astonished.

He had set foot on the greatest trial in history and finally encountered some living creatures — but each one was more extraordinary than the last. This was a saint-level clash, and he did not dare draw near.

Roar!

The heavenly beast howled, engaging in a great battle beyond the heavens with whatever entity inhabited the war chariot, causing the entire death world to tremble. The lead-gray clouds were torn apart, and all manner of light poured down.

“You are merely borrowing the power of the war chariot. You have trespassed upon my kingdom again and again. This time, I will not let you escape.”

“I have no intention of offending the master of the death kingdom. The seeds I scattered were to survey a mineral I require. If you permit me, I will collect what I need and immediately depart, never to return.” The divine sense fluctuations that came from within the war chariot conveyed this message.

Ye Fan was inwardly astounded. He gazed at the enormous metal war chariot several thousand zhang in length, sensing its overwhelming power. Just how precious was whatever a Great Saint sought to gather?

“The divine materials of my death kingdom — do not dream of stealing them. Forget it!” The divine sense fluctuations emitted by the heavenly beast were as vast and boundless as a shaken star domain.

“These minerals are of no use to you. I can trade with you — I will offer you boundless corpses and death energy to help you achieve a future breakthrough,” came the fluctuation from within the metal war vessel.

Ye Fan found this peculiar. Mining for minerals? He thought of the Eternal Kingdom — its people conducting interstellar travel to refine the supreme evolution liquid, with extracting the divine fluid as the highest goal of many people’s entire lives.

Yet this metal war chariot looked very different from a flying saucer. Was it also a product born from the fusion of technology and great Dao markings?

“No!”

The heavenly beast refused. The dozens of great white bone spines on its back all shot skyward at once, transforming into bone divine spears that pierced the cosmos, thrusting toward the enormous metal war vessel. At the same time it leaped forward, its deer antlers blazing with five-colored divine light, turning the heavens above into a black hole.

The great battle erupted. The two Great Saint-level existences launched into the extraterrestrial domain, plunging into the boundless universe to wage a life-or-death duel.

Ye Fan flashed his body, transforming into a streak of extreme light and diving into the deepest part of the sea of white bones — discovering one great tomb after another, all constructed from blocks of bone.

There were no fewer than dozens of them, and within each of these great white bone tombs lay a set of peculiar skeletal remains — cold and sinister, permeated with death energy.

These were the remains left behind by the successive masters of the death kingdom upon entering parinirvana, most of them shattered bones that had long since lost their luster, for the essence had been absorbed by later inheritors.

Deep within the sea of bones, the death energy was far stronger than anywhere else. This was the place where the successive masters of death had meditated and entered seclusion — known as the forbidden zone — the other skeletal creatures did not dare approach, and only those who had broken through to the Sacred Realm dared go in to challenge.

“Nothing of value here.” Ye Fan murmured to himself. This was a world of death — it was impossible for medicinal kings to grow here, or for immortal fluid to form. There was nothing but bones and ghost-forms.

He raised his head and glanced at the sky. The two Great Saint-level existences had carried their battle into the outer domain. The lead-gray clouds had sealed over this world again, and darkness reigned in every direction.

“This ancient star does not seem very large. Perhaps I can search for these so-called rare precious minerals!”

Before doing so, he used the secret technique entrusted to him by the elder patriarch of the Wondrous Scholar’s Estate, reciting an incantation and sensing the fluctuations of an ancient secret formation. Far from the forbidden zone, he discovered an array gate underground — within which a small independent world had formed, containing a small five-colored sacrificial altar. Not even a Great Saint could detect or enter it; only one who knew the formation patterns could gain access.

Ye Fan relaxed. The ancient formation was still intact. Had the altar been destroyed, he would have needed to repair it himself — and that kind of ordeal would have been exceedingly troublesome.

Although the elder sage of the Wondrous Scholar’s Estate had said that there would certainly be broken links on the path ahead that he would need to reconnect himself, he had no desire to encounter that kind of miserable situation so soon after starting, just half a year in.

Ye Fan recalled the area where the sheets of immortal light had fallen earlier, and swiftly appeared in that region — for those were survey seeds, and the rare precious mineral was most likely in the vicinity.

“Curious — there’s a strange fluctuation here!”

And indeed, after he arrived in the area, the ground where the immortal light had scattered began emitting faint, barely perceptible fluctuations. Only a physical body comparable to a sage’s, as his was, could acutely sense the stirrings underground beneath his feet.

Bang!

Golden light radiated from every inch of Ye Fan’s body. He became a golden war god, his powerful physical frame plowing through everything in its path as he bored into the earth, descending thousands of miles to reach the core.

Beyond the presence of magma, there was a cold and eerie aura — as though he had arrived at the very wellspring of death. His body was on the verge of cracking apart, every hair on end.

“What is that?”

The magma gurgled and surged, the temperature scalding. An ordinary person arriving here would certainly have been incinerated to ash. Yet Ye Fan remained unharmed.

In the middle of the magma-filled ground, a millstone-sized stone had long since cracked open. Within it, a black liquid was stored — like ink jade dissolved into fluid, dark light flowing within it, glinting with luminescent specks.

“This… it radiates a terrifyingly intense death aura!”

In that place, every wisp that leaked out was lethal in concentration. Ye Fan was certain that any ordinary cultivator who inhaled so much as a single breath would be reduced to white bone, their life force utterly devoured.

“Is this the mineral that ancient sage was searching for? What is it used for — can it be refined into a supreme treasure, or extracted into a precious fluid?” Ye Fan murmured.

He did not dare draw too close. This thing devoured people’s life force. The entire ancient star having been transformed into a desolate land of death was most likely connected to it.

Though the stone was only millstone-sized, Ye Fan felt as though he were facing a vast and boundless ocean of death. The black liquid contained within it threatened to make one’s mind collapse utterly.

“It is certainly something extraordinary. I’ll set aside my questions for now — collect it, and study it carefully later.”

Ye Fan produced a precious vase — a king-level weapon — but the moment he placed the millstone-sized stone inside it, the jade vase let out a sharp crack and split open with many fractures.

“What kind of liquid is this — capable of destroying a king-level divine weapon?!” He was thoroughly stunned.

With an expression of absolute disbelief, he then produced a small blood-red gourd — a half-saint-level weapon seized as spoils of war from an ancient clan powerhouse.

Crack!

The same sound rang out again. The blood-red small gourd shattered too, unable to contain the millstone-sized stone. The black liquid within gleamed with a beautiful radiance that was at once breathtaking and terrifying.

“This is utterly preposterous — what kind of mineral weighs as much as ten thousand mountains, or does it inherently destroy precious vessels?”

Ye Fan grew increasingly convinced that this mysterious black liquid was something extraordinary. He did not dare touch it with his hands. Instead, he summoned the All-Things Mother Qi Cauldron, and used it to draw the stone inside.

This time it went smoothly — no obstruction arose, and the cauldron remained perfectly intact.

“This place cannot be lingered in. Taking this mineral away — who knows what consequences that will bring…”

After breaking through to the surface, Ye Fan entered the ancient secret formation at once, then ascended the five-colored sacrificial altar and vanished.

A quarter of an hour later, the great battle in the outer domain spilled back down to the surface. The enormous metal war chariot and the heavenly beast, thousands of zhang tall, flickered in and out of sight within the lead-gray clouds, clashing again and again.

Immortal light continued to fall at intervals as the master of the war chariot kept on surveying for the rare precious mineral.

But the master of the death kingdom let out a cry first: “Something is wrong — it’s gone. The concentration of death energy has dropped sharply. Someone has stolen the divine object!”

The master of the metal war vessel was also stunned: “How? The mineral has truly vanished — it is no longer on this ancient star. Death Kingdom Master, where have you hidden it?”

“Nonsense! Everything here is mine. The natural divine treasure of this ancient star has vanished — it must be your doing. Hand it over! Return my precious divine object!”

“Who has stolen the mineral? Adding up everything on this entire ancient star, none of it is worth as much as that one piece. How has it disappeared? I have spent over a thousand years tracking it to this location — I must find it!”

Both Great Saint-level existences had gone red-eyed. They fought each other with desperate ferocity while simultaneously unleashing their powerful divine senses to sweep the eight wastes in search of any suspicious trace.