A single roar shattered mountains and rivers!
Countless peaks and valleys crumbled to dust, destroyed as easily as paper — how could anyone fight against this? Ye Fan crossed into the fray like a demon lord, roaring several powerful cultivators to bloody ruin, a scene both gory and harrowing.
His hair flew wildly, golden battle energy surging to the heavens. He stood beneath the vast sky, invincible in all directions.
A demon god!
These thoughts screamed through their minds. Their legs trembled, their faces turned snow-white, and a sense of utter helplessness washed over them. Their bodies shook uncontrollably — they had never known such terror before.
“Pff!”
Blood blossomed through the air. Bone fragments streaked with crimson flew in every direction as Ye Fan’s black hair cascaded like a waterfall, his eyes crackling with cold lightning. His golden fist reduced yet another person to a mist of blood, completely obliterated!
His sheer dominance crushed the spirits of all who witnessed it. A single punch was all it took to shatter a cultivator who had entered the Trial Grounds into pieces — body and soul annihilated together.
The slaughter continued. Ye Fan plunged into the crowd like a savage dragon in human form storming into a pack of wolves. Every movement, every gesture, claimed a life. A rain of blood fell; shattered bones flew like arrows. It was as though the gates of hell had swung open.
“Aaah…!”
They shook with terror, screaming in panic, fleeing in every direction. Now every one of them could see the truth — this was a divine demon. To stand against him meant only death.
“Where do you think you’re going!” Ye Fan called out lightly. Having chosen to act, he would see it through to the end. He would spare no mercy — this was the brutal law of the Trial Grounds.
“Please spare me! I was wrong — I never should have joined the siege against you, fellow Daoist!” A scholarly-looking man was caught, his face deathly pale as he begged for his life, nearly falling to his knees.
Ye Fan’s expression was cold and merciless. His golden finger touched the man’s forehead, and a bloom of blood burst from it. The terror froze on his face as he toppled stiff into a pool of crimson.
“Boom!”
The Heavenly Demon Umbrella descended, blotting out the sky. Thousands upon thousands of threads cascaded downward — those were divine chains of Order, woven together beneath the vast heavens like beams forged from divine iron, brilliantly radiant, pressing down to suppress Ye Fan.
This was a supremely powerful sacred weapon. It tore through the ancient blue sky, surging like a roiling sea of stars falling to earth, poised to destroy everything in its path.
“He’s been suppressed — everyone strike him down now!” The middle-aged Daoist nun cried out, her expression viciously sharp.
The Heavenly Demon Umbrella was black as ink, its chains of Order numbering in the tens of thousands, piercing through every inch of space — as though Ye Fan had been bound where he stood.
This weapon belonged to the blue-robed man, who lurked in the distance. After offering it up, he ceaselessly chanted ancient incantations, driving the artifact toward full activation.
Many cultivators stirred, spurring their various magical weapons forward to cut him down, knowing full well that a peaceful resolution was impossible — even those who begged had been killed.
“Activate the forbidden weapon and slay him!” The head in the middle-aged Daoist nun’s hand shouted out — it was that Red Willow woman. Her body had been destroyed, and her hatred for Ye Fan had reached its absolute extreme.
“Everyone, we have no way out! The only path is to butcher him — otherwise, we all die!” The middle-aged Daoist nun’s expression turned ferocious. She opened her mouth and spat out a blood-red tiny bell, spraying several mouthfuls of her life essence onto it before offering it forth.
Clang!
A death knell rang out, shaking heaven and earth, obliterating the sky. It rapidly expanded — the blood-colored body of the bell reduced all things to ash. This was a death knell worthy of its name.
It fell together with the Heavenly Demon Umbrella, trapping Ye Fan between them, seeking to refine him into a pool of bloody pus. A crimson haze spread as ghostly wails filled the air.
“It’s really working — kill him! Everyone hold firm — this is the moment to cut down this fiend!” At the sight of this, others roared savagely, their morale surging.
Ye Fan’s brow furrowed. This Heavenly Demon Umbrella was something special — beyond being a terrifying sacred weapon, it contained within it a sliver of the soul of a supremely powerful being.
That was the head of a Heavenly Demon, materializing in the void, towering higher than mountains. It was this entity that posed a genuine threat to him, locking down an entire expanse of heaven and earth.
“Kill him — we must kill him!” Even Red Willow, reduced to nothing but a severed head, shrieked out her commands, channeling the last of her divine power to offer up the Heaven-Overturning Seal — even as cracks spread across its surface — transforming it into a great mountain pressing down toward Ye Fan in the field.
The magical weapons blazed brilliantly, each one streaking through heaven and earth. Auspicious mist swirled in the air; the pressure of their battle energy severed the nine layers of sky.
Blue Maple’s lips curled into a cold, dark smile. Joining forces with several others, he silently offered up forbidden weapons that shot rapidly into the center of the field, decisively detonating the sacred artifact in an explosion.
“Boom!”
It was a massacre. Every manner of light blotted out the sun, all surging upward at once, riddling this place with gaping wounds, leaving it a desolate ruin.
“Is he… dead?” someone asked, his voice trembling.
In the distance, demonic power rolled like floods. A massive black umbrella soared ten thousand zhang high — Ye Fan had seized it with his bare hands and crossed hundreds of li through the open sky.
The forbidden weapons’ destructive light had still failed to strike him, destroying only a stretch of ancient land.
“What kind of person is this, who can seize a fully-awakened sacred weapon with his bare hands?!” Several people recoiled with horror, their scalps tingling.
“He doesn’t seem to have broken free of the binding — he’s still within the Heavenly Demon Umbrella’s domain!”
Blue Maple’s face darkened. “A Heavenly Demon phantom was sealed within by an ancestral saint of a former age, forming a Heavenly Demon domain. It has temporarily bound him — everyone strike now and annihilate his body and soul!”
“Kill!”
Everyone surged forward again. The middle-aged Daoist nun sprayed several mouthfuls of life essence in quick succession, driving the blood-colored death knell as it rang and shook the mountains and rivers, descending with its sacred might.
The others followed suit, driving their various secret treasures without regard for the cost. Brilliant light flooded the area, swallowing everything.
Hum!
Behind Ye Fan, five precious swords materialized — a divine secret technique acquired from the Eternal Star Domain. Five-colored divine light surged skyward, spinning into motion, slashing toward the Heavenly Demon Umbrella.
It was as though a hundred thousand divine swords rang out in unison, filling the air with resonant tones. Though the Heavenly Demon Umbrella was an extraordinarily sinister sacred weapon, it was split open by the assault, cracks forming across it again and again.
“Boom!”
The Heavenly Demon’s head surged upward, its mouth opening in a deafening roar. It tried to swallow Ye Fan whole.
Yet in a burst of blinding radiance, Ye Fan turned the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist on it, shattering it in the midst of heaven and earth. Black demon blood trickled down before dissipating into a cloud of mist.
“What?! He’s slain even the Heavenly Demon phantom!” The blue-robed man’s expression shifted abruptly. He spun on his heel and fled.
Clang!
Ye Fan drove his fist into the blood-colored great bell. Cracks spread across its surface. He swung the divine fist again — nine strikes in all — and amid the sacred weapon’s anguished wail, both the bell and the Heaven-Overturning Seal shattered together.
Fragments of the blood-colored bell and shards of the Heaven-Overturning Seal flew in all directions. Agonized screams rang out one after another as those who were struck had their bones broken and tendons snapped.
Ye Fan descended like a god to the mortal world, unstoppable in every direction. He attacked in succession, shattering several weapons amid the heavens and earth, cleaving mountains and sundering seas, his divine power without limit.
By now, the battle had become completely one-sided, leaving no suspense at all. The middle-aged Daoist nun and the others fled in desperate panic, like stray dogs on the run.
Some abandoned their mounts entirely, each fleeing on their own. Long Ma charged from behind, becoming a blazing cloud of fire, cutting a path of slaughter — the undisputed sovereign among beasts.
“Fellow Daoist, perhaps we could sit down and talk — let’s stop fighting for now!” someone pleaded, frightened nearly out of his wits, for they had realized that Ye Fan’s speed was simply extraordinary — he had already cut off their escape route.
“Split up and run!” the middle-aged Daoist nun said through gritted teeth.
“Aaah…!”
Amid a piercing shriek of anguish, blood splattered in every direction. A man who had just broken away from the group was reduced to a pulp by Ye Fan on the spot, dying where he stood.
“Only if we stay together can we make him the least bit wary. We cannot separate — we retreat from this Trial Grounds together.”
Their self-confidence had completely collapsed. They no longer had any desire to tread the ancient path of supreme trials — as long as they could survive, nothing else mattered.
Ye Fan slowed his pace, unhurried and composed, killing them off one by one from behind. By now, fewer than five or six remained alive.
A full twenty-three powerful cultivators, united together — without even resorting to forbidden weapons, they would have been sufficient to kill an ancient saint. Yet Ye Fan alone had driven them to such a miserable end.
“Pff!”
The blue-robed man’s eyes gleamed with dark venom. He produced a half-foot-tall puppet figurine, spat out several dozen mouthfuls of his life essence, and sprinkled every drop onto the puppet — an unsettling, sinister sight.
Blue Maple appeared to have shed half his life force, becoming extremely weak — clearly he had paid a terrible price. Dipping his finger in blood, he inscribed the two characters of Ye Fan’s name across the puppet’s brow, then took up a palm-length tiny sword and drove it savagely toward the puppet’s forehead.
In that instant, every hair on Ye Fan’s body stood on end. His forehead bone ached sharply — as though a supreme lethal weapon was about to pierce into his skull, right at the threshold.
This was far too sudden!
Ye Fan’s mind and spirit convulsed. In that split second, every human treasure-vault he had excavated through ten years of battle — guided by a kind of instinct — opened all at once.
Stars dwelling within his blood, divine beings crystallized within his bones, the Dao born in a single thought — all of these and more surged to the surface at once!
His forehead bone began to glow, accompanied by a resonant Dao chant that split open the void, obliterating that inexplicable threat completely.
“Pff!”
The blue-robed man spat a great mouthful of blood. The puppet in his hands crumbled to ash, and the palm-length tiny sword shattered. He was gravely injured at his core.
The middle-aged Daoist nun, clutching Red Willow’s severed head, and Blue Maple together with their remaining companions — a total of five people — fled like stray dogs, their hair disheveled and their bodies soaked in blood.
“I’ll fight you to the death!” Having no more room to flee, the middle-aged Daoist nun’s face turned an iron gray. She drove her whisk — which transformed into a great cascade of a heavenly river — and lashed it forward.
Ye Fan’s expression was impassive, his battle power pressed to its absolute extreme. He sliced out a palm, shattering the river of stars. Half the middle-aged Daoist nun’s body was blasted to pieces by the impact. She screamed sharply and fled again.
“Aaah — take me with you!” Red Willow screeched in terror. Reduced to nothing but a severed head, her life essence exhausted, she was cast onto the ground by the middle-aged Daoist nun. With only her head remaining, she tried to escape on her own — but her speed was too slow.
“Bang!”
Ye Fan stepped forward and kicked out. The head shattered into four pieces. A primordial spirit rushed out in terror and cried out: “Don’t kill me — spare my life and I’ll do whatever you ask!”
Pfft!
Ye Fan brought his foot down. That primordial spirit was instantly reduced to ash, ground into dust beneath his sole. Dead and gone, completely.
The remaining four ahead nearly lost their minds with fright. Their courage had broken entirely. Never before had they felt such despair. Once they had roamed their domain with arrogance — and now they were being hunted like dogs, with nowhere to flee under heaven or earth.
“We had eyes but failed to recognize a Great Emperor. You are magnanimous — please do not hold this against us. Spare our lives!” One among them completely broke down, begging over and over.
“Stop — if you give us a way out, everything is negotiable!” Blue Maple was also close to breaking down, his face deathly pale as he cried out.
“Weren’t you the one who told me to kneel down, call myself a ‘kill-saint,’ sever my own cultivation, and beg your forgiveness?” Ye Fan’s voice was cold. His fingers pressed together like a sword as he bore down on them.
“Aaah…!” Blue Maple let out a wretched scream. His physical body cracked apart inch by inch, dissolving into shattered bones and a mist of blood that spread until it reached his skull. His primordial spirit shot upward out of the crown of his head — his body had become a heap of mush.
Whoosh!
From Ye Fan’s fingertip, a streak of sword light shot out, pinning that primordial spirit’s little figure to the void. Dead beyond all doubt.
Ye Fan stood there like an immortal divine furnace, radiating boundless golden divine radiance, an entity standing amid heaven and earth more terrifying than any god.
The middle-aged Daoist nun and the remaining two convulsed with fear. In this moment, all dignity, all talk of the supreme trial, had become nothing.
Ye Fan’s fingers pressed together like a sword, his divine might vast and surging, ready to end the three lives. Suddenly, five figures descended, blocking his path — Jun Wei Mountain Lord had arrived.
“Fellow Daoist, please stay your hand — might you show mercy and spare their lives?” he said with earnest sincerity.
“No,” Ye Fan said, shaking his head — a refusal both swift and absolute.
“Do you think yourself so powerful that you dare refuse even Jun Wei Mountain Lord?!” someone beside him said coldly.
Ye Fan gave him a single cold glance, paid no further attention, and pressed his fingers together like a sword, pointing from afar toward the middle-aged Daoist nun and her companions.