The ancient and broken bronze cauldron within Ye Fan’s body was glowing. Green radiance set his entire body aglow with a crystalline luminescence—a rare sight indeed. The ancient cauldron had revived of its own accord.

“Seize the stone stele!” His heart jolted violently. He knew with certainty this was connected to the great stele carved with the characters “celestial soldiers,” and surmised at once that it was an ancient relic left behind by the Heavenly Court.

“Charge!” Cries of battle shook the heavens. The Twelve Saints swept forward like a tide of steel, slaughtering in all directions. This was a pack of “demons”—devastating and unstoppable.

“We’re under attack—stop them!” Before the Gu Family’s mountain gate, figure after figure leaped into the air to block the invaders, all manner of magical treasures flying through the air.

This was a powerful clan, possessed of formidably deep and awe-inspiring foundations—a great lineage that had endured and endured through the ages.

Yet those guarding the mountain gate were simply no match. One after another, figures rose into the air only to fall in swaths, cut down like grain at harvest. A mist of blood filled the air, thick with the smell of iron.

They collapsed in nearly an instant. The Golden Lion charged through, opened its maw, and inhaled—devouring heaven and earth—drawing dozens and hundreds of people into its mouth, reducing them to nourishment in a blaze of golden light.

“Who dares intrude upon the Gu Family’s sacred ground?!” With that great shout, a saint was roused. Defensive formations activated, and all across the mountainous region, patterns of light rose up like networks, their brilliance shooting toward the sky—temporarily halting the advance of the Twelve Saints.

The clan had a glorious past, having once looked down upon the entire ancient star and ruled boundless territories. Though slightly weakened now, no Grand Saints had emerged from them for more than ten generations.

Even so, the formation arrays left by their forebears were not to be underestimated. At the mountain gate alone stood a Saint King array—chaos qi swirled within it, ten thousand streams of sword light crisscrossed, and the path forward was completely sealed.

Ye Fan and his companions came to a halt, making no attempt to force their way through, for their primary objective was the stone stele—not a wholesale slaughter.

Peak after elegant peak stood in rows. White mist drifted, making everything ahead look like an immortal’s cave abode. Waterfalls cascaded like bolts of white silk, majestic and otherworldly.

The mountains rose gracefully, filled with spiritual mist and the fragrant scent of medicinal herbs. Ancient structures clung to every peak. And in the deepest reaches of the Gu Family estate floated an entire suspended city—lofty and imposing, wreathed in long ribbons of cloud.

The Gu Family occupied a vast swath of territory. Within its broad expanse, rare flowers bloomed in abundance, spirit grasses blanketed the ground, exotic creatures roamed freely—it was an exceptional and seldom-seen tract of holy land.

Vast patterns of formation runes emerged, weaving into strand after strand of laws that guarded the beautiful mountains and ancient building complexes, making it impossible for any intruder to cross that threshold by so much as half a step.

Before the mountain gate stood an enormous divine stele—ancient, scarred by time, weathered by the ages. It was a uniquely special relic.

Long ago, many great powers had gone to war over it, but time had worn away people’s expectations. No one had ever been able to obtain anything from it, and today it served only as an antique curiosity.

The divine stele stood a full hundred zhang tall, weighty and commanding in presence. Regrettably, in the end it could only serve as decoration—it had no other use.

Ye Fan had come specifically for it. He made his move personally—waves of holy might rolling off his entire body—charging straight toward the ancient stele. He plunged directly into the Saint King formation array and thrust out one enormous hand to pull the stele free from its foundation.

“How dare you!”

Many within the mountain gate cried out. Though the stele was of limited use, it was a matter of the Gu Family’s honor—if it were simply pulled away, would that not be an announcement to the world of their powerlessness?

A Gu Saint moved to intercept—coming personally!

Dozens and hundreds of flying swords launched simultaneously, every one blazing like a shooting star, blinding in their brilliance. Ten thousand streams of sword qi slashed in sweeping arcs, combined with various attacks from within the formation array. The area became a dazzling spectacle, as though every sun and moon and star in the heavens had been shaken loose at once.

Ye Fan let out a great roar—holding nothing back. Behind him, the dark blood divine ring and the golden curse melded together, coalescing into a ring of light that bloomed outward, and the whole of him became like an immortal king stepping out through a divine gate, looking down upon all under heaven, disdainful of all under the sky.

That one great roar caused the Gu Family’s mountain gate to collapse outright. Even the surrounding formation arrays dimmed in concert, crackling and crumbling without cease.

And directly ahead, several hundred flying swords were blocked by the divine light that radiated from Ye Fan, as though they had sunk into a quagmire—all of them frozen in place. Then in the next instant they shattered piece by piece, bursting apart with a tremendous boom, reduced to powder. A shower of metal fragments rained to the ground; sacred artifacts turned to dust.

Such was Ye Fan’s might. The Gu Saint’s face went pale with shock—what kind of combat power was this? He was staggered by the impact, blood gushing from all seven orifices, his body convulsing violently.

“Retreat!” That was the only thought in his mind now. He had never charged out in the first place—had only attacked from a distance—and now he fled with everything he had.

Ye Fan’s offensive power was too overwhelming. He activated the supreme secret art of Buddhism, unleashing the震法Om Celestial Sound, from which a ripple rushed out of his mouth and became an indestructible wave of the Dao.

Puff!

A flash of blood. The powerful Gu Saint’s physical body shattered—even at this distance he could not escape this calamity. Only one deeply dimmed primordial spirit screamed as it fled.

Within the mountain gate, many disciples turned white as sheets. This was a Saint patriarch—and he had nearly been roared to death. What was the meaning of this? It was the stuff of fairy tales—it was like something out of myth!

Behind him, the Golden Lion, the Black Bear Saint, the Scorpion, and the others felt their mouths go dry. A chill rose along their spines. They sensed an unbridgeable gap between themselves and Ye Fan—one that could not be crossed!

Ye Fan did not pursue. He raised a hand and pulled with force. The stone stele rumbled and shook—every one of the beautiful mountain peaks around them trembled—and the hundred-zhang-tall great stele tore free from the earth.

Every alarm bell in the Gu Family rang out. Magical treasures of all kinds flew through the air, attacking from without. No shortage of sacred artifacts were among them, and formation arrays at Grand Saint level even opened up, sweeping divine radiance outward.

Ye Fan remained completely unhurried. Gripping the great stele, he walked out through the mountain gate, glanced back once, and then departed.

“Let’s just crush the Gu Family outright—kill them all clean. There is not a single decent person in that dark clan.” The pack of fierce beasts howled and clamored, eager to plunder this great clan.

“Leave it. With a Grand Saint-level formation array in place, you cannot get in—you would only bring casualties upon yourselves for nothing.” Ye Fan shook his head. He had already achieved his objective. The green bronze cauldron was glowing, and he was eager to study it thoroughly at once.

The group departed at an unhurried pace, just like that—leaving the Gu Family first gripped by alarm, then grinding their teeth in impotent fury. These people were insufferably arrogant!

The Gu Family’s old Saint King came out of closed-door cultivation—one step away from becoming a Grand Saint, a longtime nemesis of Lin Han, whose attainments were as extraordinary as heaven and earth. Yet regrettably, he was one step too late.

When they reached an uninhabited place, Ye Fan held the stone stele and examined it carefully. The green cauldron within his body had already ceased its trembling, settling back into calm, and no longer emitted any light.

But the stone stele was shaking—and as it did, it shrank from its hundred zhang height, growing smaller and smaller, until at last it was no longer than a palm, falling into his hand. It looked remarkably like a stone command token.

On its face were carved two characters—”celestial soldiers”—moving like coiling dragons and serpents, roaring like gods and demons. This was primordial divine script, an extremely ancient form of writing, one that Ye Fan had long since mastered.

For after journeying deep into the stellar domain, he had found that this script was the common ancient writing shared among all clans—and the mightier and more ancient the clan, the more thoroughly they had mastered and preserved it.

“What kind of stele is this—how did it shrink so small?” Long Ma and the others crowded around, staring without cease.

None of them could make any sense of it. They knew only that it was incredibly hard. Long Ma, the Golden Lion, and the others each stepped forward in turn to try, yet none could damage it by so much as a hair.

“No wonder it has endured intact through the ages—not even the passage of time could wear it away. In terms of material hardness alone, it surpasses all sacred artifacts.”

It was an ancient relic. Its tier could not be determined. One could only describe it as a secret weapon. Perhaps it possessed some special potency, but regrettably no one throughout history had ever been able to make use of it.

Ye Fan produced the green bronze cauldron. The stone stele, now no longer than a palm, shook without stopping—clearly it was no dead object.

“What in the world is this thing? Could it have an extraordinary origin? How does it compare to the ancestral sacred artifacts of the Sacred Spirit that appeared at the tenth checkpoint of the human tribe’s path?” The Nine-tailed Crocodile Dragon muttered.

“Clang!”

Ye Fan placed the stone stele inside the green bronze cauldron—and it suddenly blazed with brilliant light, ringing out without cease, releasing a surge of killing intent that shook the very heavens.

The ancient stele erupted in world-shaking aura, like ten thousand cavalry galloping forward. It shook people’s eardrums with actual pain, left their bones weak and their sinews soft, and drew irresistible trembling from their bodies.

A rolling tide of killing intent like a great ocean’s surge submerged this uninhabited region. Ye Fan seemed to see figures appear on all sides—countless as mountains and seas—each one like a battle-hardened, undying god or demon!

“ROAR!”

Roar after roar rang out—so vivid, so real. Long Ma, the Scorpion, the Golden Lion, the Black Bear, and all the others felt their hearts clench. Their bodies shuddered, as though they had been transported to the most terrifying age of myth, thrust into the midst of the most horrific life-and-death battlefield.

Dim and shadowy, yet vivid as life—this was an army of god-like warriors, their battle-will blazing, as though their roars could shatter the heavens themselves and shake loose the nine layers of the sky.

This was an army of ten thousand celestial soldiers!

They were like undying heroic spirits, transmitting through the stone stele their undying will—to grind all enemies to dust. In that single instant, they stirred every living being within several hundred thousand li, sending every creature—saints included—into shivers of dread.

“What in the world is this thing?!” The Twelve Saints were so startled they all stumbled backward. A cold force poured into their bodies, as though they stood before a host of gods and demons from primordial antiquity.

The ancient cauldron showed no change. Only the stone stele shook, and upon its surface dense clusters of tiny characters surfaced—like tadpoles swimming, profound and complex.

Ye Fan read them carefully, deciphering the pre-primordial characters inscribed there, and soon his furrowed brow relaxed. This was truly a priceless supreme treasure!

This was a divine command token of the Ancient Heavenly Court—capable of mobilizing a division of troops: ten thousand celestial soldiers. Moreover, it was a formidable magic weapon: ten thousand celestial soldiers acting in unison could be enough to suppress an entire domain!

At last the command token ceased its shaking and settled back into quiet, returning to its unassuming, plain appearance. Ye Fan removed it from the green bronze cauldron, murmuring to himself: “Just as I suspected—like the green cauldron, this too belongs to the Ancient Heavenly Court. No wonder the two resonated with each other when they came into contact.”

His heart was turbulent with emotion. This was a secret weapon of overwhelming power—capable of guarding an entire stellar domain. It was a genuine ancient battle stele in the truest sense of the word!

He turned it over and found two additional characters on the reverse side: “Ten Thousand!”

Taken together: ten thousand celestial soldiers. Possessing it meant commanding a division of the Ancient Heavenly Court’s forces—capable of sweeping through an entire domain and suppressing an entire region. Absolute, undeniable power.

Ye Fan closed his eyes and absorbed what he had just learned. The one flaw it carried was this: it was not a magical treasure one person could wield alone—it was a “great weapon,” a rarity in the world, requiring ten thousand celestial soldiers to activate in unison!

Cultivation level, Dao attainment, and realm of cultivation were not the primary conditions for wielding it. What it truly required was burning battle-will, courage that pressed ever onward, unyielding determination, and the unity of ten thousand hearts beating as one.

This was a divine command token of the Ancient Heavenly Court, carrying a meaning beyond the ordinary. Those conditions seemed to be a form of restraint—but in truth they were a form of exhortation: ten thousand celestial soldiers uniting their hearts and will to become an invincible army!

“This is a priceless treasure—but does it truly require ten thousand people to activate?” Long Ma, the Nine-tailed Crocodile Dragon, and the others were drooling. They had felt the terrifying momentum of ten thousand heroic spirits roaring as gods and demons, and knew this was a supreme ancestral weapon beyond all imagining.

“Within the stele are several types of battle formations. Their power is extraordinary—but the minimum requirement is ten people to deploy them, representing ten thousand celestial soldiers. If all of you unite with one heart, you may perhaps be able to activate the war stele—though how much of its power you could draw out remains to be seen.” Ye Fan said.

The Twelve Saints immediately erupted in excited shouts. Their expressions were filled with agitation. This stele was a magic weapon left behind by the Ancient Heavenly Court—perhaps even something refined through the rites of an Emperor Lord. Separated by ten thousand ages of time, they might yet hold it in their own hands!