In the cosmos, primordial chaos misted over everything. A tall and powerful silhouette stood within the haze—its true features hidden, only a pair of eyes visible: peerless in sharpness, overwhelming in authority.
After the heavenly tribulation ceased, the entire world went still. Not a single sound stirred across the stellar domain.
“BOOM!”
A peerless, domineering fist struck outward—the stone figure moved first.
“I am going to kill you!” The Holy Spirit Wugu howled. Streams of Dao light surged from its stone body; sacred blood roared and churned within; its eyes blazed like two stars.
In this heavenly tribulation, it alone had survived. This had been an unprecedented catastrophe and a colossal loss—those had been its loyal and devoted subordinates.
It charged forward in rage, vowing to pound Ye Fan to a paste of blood with a single fist. This was the fire of a Holy Spirit’s fury—enough to make the universe lose its color, starlight dim, and blood energy permeate the vault of the sky.
BOOM!
Ye Fan’s fist force was without peer in all creation, shaking the boundless stellar domain. Like a river of stars cascading downward—deafening, boundless, and without end. He stood within the primordial chaos mist: meeting strength with strength, crashing head-on against a Holy Spirit sheltered by heaven’s own grace.
Nearby, cluster after cluster of asteroid fields exploded apart, becoming blossoms of resplendent fireworks.
This was an immeasurable fist force—with a single blow, heaven and earth split; the universe gave a light tremor; divine might was irresistible.
In body, he was only a mortal of flesh and blood—not a massive celestial body. Yet in this moment, Ye Fan’s every movement caused this stretch of starry sky to shake, as though some heaven-swallowing deity were venting its fury.
Crack!
Ye Fan’s golden fist met the Holy Spirit’s stone fist, producing a clear and distinct sound of shattering—followed by a horrifying spray of divine blood.
The stone figure Wugu was driven back, its face a mask of shock. Its right hand had broken off at the wrist; the entire fist had shattered, dripping with blood.
This was only because of Wugu’s decisiveness in cutting off its own arm to save itself from a worse fate. Otherwise it would not even have kept the forearm intact—a single strike would have shattered it to the elbow. The Holy Spirit’s blood streamed freely, and in that flow was grief and deep unwillingness.
“No—my Holy Spirit clan is invincible. We have always moved against the current, fighting immortals themselves. A lesser-realm cultivator cannot wound me!”
“It is the old Daoist at the dry well—it was his sutras that wounded my fundamental origin. Otherwise you would have been cut down long ago. Below Sacred Saint King, no member of the human race is my match!”
Its eyes were hollow with menace as it howled in fury.
Ye Fan stood within the primordial chaos mist, his eyes blazing like torches. Like a war god, he said: “Holy Spirit or not—I do not accept your claim of having no rival of the same realm.”
He had crossed his tribulation successfully—passing through two consecutive heavenly tiers, entering the fifth tier of the Saint realm, the fifth level of the Wheel-Sea Secret Realm. His power had advanced by a considerable measure. Within his body, the wheel-sea had transformed completely into the Taichi Immortal Chart.
In only a single year, he had broken through again—and not just one but two consecutive tribulations. If this were to be known, it would surely strike terror into all who heard it. He continued his resolute march through the Saint realm, pressing forward along his invincible path.
“Do not mock my clan. Since ancient times to the present day, the Holy Spirits have been invincible within the same realm—that glory was forged with real and genuine victories!” The stone figure Wugu thundered.
Ye Fan spoke calmly. “All I know is this: it is precisely because of the Holy Spirit’s power that the Great Emperors of antiquity were made all the more brilliant—their light illuminating ten thousand ages. Today I, a member of the human race, take your head—and will use it to prove something.”
This was like a steel spike driven into Wugu’s heart. Since ancient times to the present, in its confrontations with the several Great Emperors of the human race, the Holy Spirit lineage had tasted bitter defeat—a sorrow beyond all words.
It roared: “All of that was only because those forebears had not yet reached full perfection—they were born prematurely into the world. Otherwise, even the Great Emperors of antiquity would have been slain and wiped out, every last one of them!”
“Is that so? Then defeat me. Let us see who is truly weak and who is strong. I give you one hour to repair your injuries—and to clear away that old Daoist’s influence over you.”
Ye Fan said this calmly. Yet hearing it, Wugu’s body trembled as though struck by thunder—and then it erupted in a howl of rage.
It understood, in its core: this human was not arrogant, was not hostile. He was composed, speaking from a place of settled tranquility. And what that meant—Ye Fan intended to use Wugu as a whetstone. He would cut down a Holy Spirit to illuminate his Dao-heart, to strengthen his conviction of invincibility.
This human carried the ambition of a Great Emperor. He wanted to use Wugu as a sharpening stone—slaying gods and demons to prove his Dao-mind, to forge an ever stronger conviction in his invincibility.
“You——what do you take me for?!” Wugu’s howl split the starry sky; its blood boiled to surging point. To it, this was a humiliation—being treated as a stepping stone.
The Holy Spirit lineage was invincible across all creation. They thought supremely highly of themselves. Who dared look down upon them? Yet in this one person’s eyes—they were so worthless.
“I do not look down upon you. If I did, why would I need to take your head as a trial?” Ye Fan said with quiet composure.
“Ahhhh——!” Wugu was on the edge of madness, attacking Ye Fan in a frenzy.
Ye Fan did not engage at first. He sat cross-legged in the primordial chaos mist, retreating steadily while maintaining a fixed distance between them, silently contemplating the law and Dao within himself.
“I’ll fight you to the death!” Wugu bellowed. Unable to endure the contempt any longer, it threw caution aside and poured all its power into a headlong attack.
Every Holy Spirit carried within it an invincible heart. Nurtured by heaven and earth, granted divine might beyond compare—each was a supreme master who could not endure being belittled.
“Since you are so eager to die, I will grant your wish.” Ye Fan snapped open his eyes with sudden force. The primordial chaos energy scattered as he revealed his true form—black hair cascading loose, radiant treasure light flowing across his physique. In a single step he came charging forward.
BOOM!
This was an assault full of raw aggression. Ye Fan had almost no defense—wide open, all attack, fist force ripping apart the sky. From the first exchange, Wugu was sent flying.
Wugu was proud. Toppled in close quarters combat, it wanted to rise from where it had been knocked down and exchange a pure trial of physical power with Ye Fan—yet reality was merciless.
“Splat!”
After dozens of exchanges, Wugu’s entire right arm was shattered by Ye Fan, divine blood speckling the air, its sacred brilliance draining away. It was stricken with a deep and hollow grief.
“Why?” The Holy Spirit’s pride—the glory of invincibility—shattered to pieces in that moment. It knew: even if its body were whole, in a same-realm contest, it might still lose.
Ye Fan’s wheel-sea overflowed with immortal light; ripple after ripple of waves manifested—and then he charged forward, the Taichi Chart expanding to envelop his entire body, while his own physical form became the dragon-shape curve of the Dao.
He was enacting the Wheel-Sea Scripture—verifying his own Dao, using a stone spirit Holy Spirit as the blade’s edge against which to test himself, forging and confirming what he had found.
This was a great battle—fierce and intense—yet one with no real suspense about its outcome. At the last, amid the stone figure’s howl of unresigned fury, Ye Fan drove his fist through its body and used the dragon-shape curve to sever its head.
Stone fragments scattered. This was a material harder than any divine implement—shaped over hundreds of thousands of years by the nurturing forces of heaven and earth; a priceless treasure for the forging of sacred implements.
And that crystalline, luminous blood—that too was a treasure, generated by heaven and earth, preserving within it the primordial principles of the Dao. Ye Fan gathered all of it, intending to send it to Long Ma so it might use it to comprehend the Dao.
The starry sky fell quiet. One great battle had reached its end. Every member of the pursuing army had been turned to tribulation ash; even Wugu had been killed.
Ye Fan summoned his formation altar, opened a domain gate, stepped through it, and arrived in another stretch of starry sky—arriving just in time to witness Long Ma and the Nine-Tailed Crocodile Dragon cocooned in their chrysalises, in communion with the Dao.
It had to be said: what they had gained in this battle was immense. Bathed in sacred blood, and having consumed prey of such extraordinarily high caliber in such staggering quantities—on a normal day, even dreaming of such a thing would have been too much to hope for.
From the Demon Emperor’s cave they had obtained an ancient formula: only a single technique, and not a complete ancient scripture, yet it was incomparably heaven-defying—a path of evolution that could allow demonic powerhouses to grow without limit.
The Holy Spirit blood Ye Fan was delivering now was, for them, a nourishment beyond imagination—greatly accelerating the refinement of their blood.
Though both savage beasts had vomited until their bile ran thin, now, sealed within their cocoons, they still frantically absorbed the Holy Spirit blood—not wasting a single drop. This was one of the wellsprings of their transformation.
“So many powerhouses who fell in battle were swallowed by you two—many of them at the Saint level. And now you have drunk Holy Spirit blood on top of all that. If you fail to achieve something worthy of the Dao, you would truly be letting all of this go to waste.”
Ye Fan settled them in a tranquil corner of the starry sky, far from the battlefield, so that they could pass through their tribulation in safety. Interference at a time like this was especially fatal—the two savage beasts needed to refine their dragon blood and carry out a deeper-level attainment of the Dao.
After leaving them, he searched everywhere but could discover no trace of the Cyan Phoenix Daoist or that peak-realm invincible Holy Spirit—they had fought their way to parts unknown.
Ye Fan returned to the Tenth City of the Human Race and looked down at the ancient star below. The fighting there had grown even fiercer. Many powerful human race reinforcements had arrived, drawn in from other stellar domains.
The foreign-race army was fierce. Paying no heed to casualties, they used lives to fill the Divine Ghost Burial Ground at Great Moon Slope. Not to speak of the fallen human race—even the blood of this invading force alone was a substantial offering.
Great Moon Slope was trembling. The whole ancient star rocked gently. Ancient beasts throughout the land had their hair standing on end; even the powerhouses locked in battle found the hair on their bodies rising.
At the ancient well, immortal fire blazed and leaped. A terrifying silhouette was seated there, drawing stream after stream of sacred blood—pouring it all into the ancient well to unravel the seal.
In that moment, demons and gods howled; a great wind raged and sand flew. Even the outer domain was affected.
These were the signs of heaven and earth—something world-shattering was about to occur. Mountains, rivers, and all things trembled and shook; the entire ancient star seemed on the verge of shattering.
“Stop them—do not allow it to open the ancient well. If it does, this entire stellar domain cannot be preserved.” The Reception Envoy of the Tenth City of the Human Race cried out.
Countless powerhouses charged forward—many of them at the peak of Sacred Saint King, pressing toward the deepest part of the demonic earth within Great Moon Slope. Yet still none could draw close. The stone figure that had stood unmoving beside the well finally moved—its divine might overwhelming all creation.
“Lunduo!” The Tyrant Dragon Queen Tuolan led a host of ancient beasts surging forward, unable to contain a furious roar.
Lunduo had been her late husband’s close friend. She would never have imagined that he had sent someone to steal their child—and then, when she invited him here, he had stood before her, forthright and upstanding, as though ready to act on her behalf—all while being the mastermind behind it all.
“Splat,” “splat”——!
Lunduo struck without mercy. Whether ancient beast or human race powerhouse, none could draw within half a step of the ancient well—all were killed on the spot, blood pooling freely on the ground.
Both Tuolan and the Reception Envoy sustained grievous wounds; neither could overcome Lunduo. From further away, the stone figure Mopu was laughing coldly as well, leading his core forces to rush in and guard the demonic well.
“BOOM,” “BOOM”——!
Impact after impact thundered out. From beneath the ancient well, something seemed to be clawing its way out—crashing against the well walls repeatedly, causing Great Moon Slope to convulse violently, sending the sun, moon, rivers, and mountains shuddering!
Not only did the stone figures Lunduo and Mopu change color—even that supreme fire Holy Spirit seated at the well’s mouth trembled. Within the flame mist, its expression shifted between dark and light.
“After such endless ages—there are still living things within the ancient well?” Ye Fan too wore an expression of disbelief.
It was plainly clear now that things had passed beyond the Holy Spirit lineage’s will. Even if they withdrew at this moment, this ancient well was fated to break open—for something within had awakened and was forcing its own way out, at a speed far exceeding and far more violent than the Holy Spirits’ unraveling of the seal!