Though the stonework of the Sun Temple was plain and unadorned, the blazing flames here cast the entire place in a brilliant, sacred glow, exuding the essence of an immortal’s sacred ground.

Jin Yu’s fury made his hair stand on end. The Daoist robe woven from golden divine feathers billowed and snapped with violent energy, and his face was filled with murderous intent. The entire contingent that had descended upon the Northern Dipper had been annihilated—this was a bolt from the blue!

Blood rushed to his crown. His entire body blazed with light, his form trembling. He pointed a finger at Ye Fan and bellowed in a fierce, cutting voice: “You vile creature—how cruel you are! This old one vows to take your life!”

“Those who kill shall by kill be met in kind.” Ye Fan regarded him with a calm, untroubled gaze. His words carried not the slightest ripple.

“For the sake of a single disciple, you slaughtered every last expert in the crow’s nest, soaking the land in blood. How cold is your heart?” Great Sage Jin Yu roared.

Ye Fan’s brows drew together sharply. He said: “If your clan had not gone after my disciple, had not crippled his body, I would never have made my move. Your clan swore to take his life—when the young could not prevail, the old took over. From the highest to the lowest, from the oldest to the youngest, an entire clan bent on taking a child’s life, leaving him with no place to stand in all the heavens and earth, forcing him to flee through the sky drenched in blood, dragging along his broken body. Did you ever show the slightest mercy?”

“Your hands are drenched in the blood of my Golden Crow clan. Heaven’s justice cannot abide this—if you are not killed, the wrath of gods and men alike shall know no rest!” Jin Yu’s head of golden hair flew wildly, his face contorted, his expression frightful.

Ye Fan’s gaze was deep and his composure was extraordinary. He said: “If there were any heavenly justice, your clan should not exist in this world at all. Is your life a life, and the lives of others not? Your faces are vicious, your entire clan brutal! Let alone the Golden Crows who descended upon the Northern Dipper—if your Fire Mulberry Star insists on making enemies of my lineage, bringing your entire clan into battle against us, I would not hesitate to slaughter your entire clan without a second thought!”

“You… how arrogant!” Jin Yu was so furious that both his eyes had turned blood red and terrifying. When had the Golden Crow clan ever suffered such an offense? To be mocked and berated like this—it made him feel as though his liver, gallbladder, and lungs had all split apart with rage.

Ye Fan’s expression remained cold. He said: “I have never gone out of my way to impose upon others. I return one foot of respect for every foot given to me. But if someone seeks to lord over my head, I will cleave them down with a single blade. My word is my bond—if the Golden Crow clan insists on continuing this provocation, there will one day be a battle on the Fire Mulberry Star. When that reckoning of life and death comes, I will make the journey myself.”

“Remember your own words—one day, someone will flay you alive by slow cuts!” Jin Yu said in a cold, hollow tone.

“Our lineage does not make a habit of bullying others, but we fear no challenge either. If someone forces our hand, we will paint the heavens red with blood and kill them all!” Ye Fan’s killing intent surged as he pressed forward with great strides.

Facing an enemy, he would not speak of mercy—that would be hypocrisy. Divine lords of lofty virtue, who love to stand at the moral high ground and issue proclamations over all the land—they could look the other way if they pleased.

In this direct confrontation, the might of both men climbed at tremendous speed, reaching a critical threshold. Neither dared to underestimate the other, and each used this stretch of time to adjust, reaching their peak condition.

By now they had already left the stone palace and burst out of the Sun Star itself, flying into the space beyond the domain—for within the star, neither could fully unleash their power.

Jin Yu made his move. At the tips of his fingers appeared ten streaks of divine light that pierced through the star river—this was the Golden Crow lineage’s world-shaking divine art: Ten Cleavings to Rend Heaven and Earth.

Ye Fan let out a soft, clear cry. His hair flew freely, and from his mouth he exhaled a Daoist diagram—the Taiji, the expression of his Wheel-Sea Daoist principles, now given form through his divine inscription technique.

Pop!

The two forces collided with only a faint sound, yet the resulting wave of force was catastrophic. The ten streaks of divine light from the elder Golden Crow shattered and vanished, and the surrounding meteorites crumbled to ash.

In the end, the entire star region began to tremble, roaring with a thunderous sound like the collapse of mountains and the upheaval of seas—a sight that shook all who witnessed it.

When it all faded, Jin Yu’s ten fingers had been shattered, dripping with blood. He stood in the distance without a word, his body trembling, his face ashen.

Ye Fan’s Daoist diagram had also shattered—yet he himself stood unharmed, his robes untouched by blood, his hair drifting freely, his eyes bright and clear.

Jin Yu’s heart was shaken to its core. The human Holy Physique had given him a terrible premonition—this was still only the Sage King realm, yet it could already match him in battle. At this rate of growth… he truly did not dare to imagine it. In the future, this being would undoubtedly become the most terrifying enemy the Golden Crow lineage had ever known.

The one thing that gave him any peace of mind was that their Emperor would eventually emerge from seclusion. When that day came, the Emperor would surely be able to sweep through all nine heavens and ten earths.

Jin Yu spread his wings and revealed his true form. An enormous Golden Crow appeared behind him, as though carved from a mountain of gold—radiant and brilliant, its pressure crushing and overwhelming.

The Golden Crow let out a long shriek, shattering the surrounding meteorites and causing the nearby smaller stars to explode. It howled across heaven and earth, making the sun and moon tremble, and pounced in for the kill in an instant.

Ye Fan was unafraid. He stood in place, spread both arms wide, and performed his own technique. His palm and fingers traced mysterious paths, and a precious mirror appeared above his head—brilliant and dazzling.

With a resonant hum, the mirror’s radiance swelled to its peak, erupting with blinding rays that shot toward the Golden Crow, sending golden divine feathers scattering in all directions as blood flowed freely.

Clang!

Then, as Ye Fan’s hands moved in their traces, an immortal sword appeared—its blade a dragon’s head, its hilt a dragon’s tail—releasing the most brilliant red light in all the world. With destructive, overwhelming force, it descended in a single cleaving stroke.

Pfft. The Golden Crow’s head was cleaved off. Its body was rent into four pieces, drenched in blood, cut to pieces beneath the vault of heaven.

This was Ye Fan’s technique and Dao—he had tempered and absorbed the Battle Character Formula, made it his own, and now executed in succession the Void Mirror and the Supreme Emperor Sword, severing space across a hundred thousand li, his spirit swallowing the heavenly river.

On the other side, Great Sage Jin Yu’s body reeled. His true form suffered the backlash of his severed divine form, and he spat blood in great mouthfuls, his figure staggering and retreating an unknowable distance before finally steadying himself.

“Nothing short of a middle or late-stage Great Sage can suppress you now.” Jin Yu’s expression was icy cold. His Daoist robe was soaked through with blood, and a flash of cruelty crossed his eyes.

He suddenly let out a long, resonant howl. Light erupted from his forehead, and a fist-sized Golden Crow flew out, illuminating the darkness of the cosmos. It gripped a most unusual weapon and came slashing toward Ye Fan.

A thread of Imperial might was spreading—bearing an incomparable and terrifying resonance, as though the entire cosmos were collapsing inward with a rumbling roar, destroying all things.

For the first time, Ye Fan’s expression changed. This was indeed a thread of Imperial might—its terror was absolute. Any ordinary Sage King or early-stage Great Sage who faced it would undoubtedly be reduced to dust without question—there was simply no way to resist.

The fist-sized Golden Crow was Jin Yu’s primal spirit. It wielded a precious fan mounted with over ten golden feathers—feathers so brilliant they were suffocating, from which the divine might radiated.

In an instant Ye Fan knew what they were: quasi-Imperial divine feathers, their power pressing upon heaven and earth, refined and forged into a weapon. Extraordinary beyond measure—if even a Great Sage tried to forcibly withstand them, death would be certain.

Jin Yu’s eyes were cold and piercing, a trace of cruelty playing at his lips. It was as though he could already see Ye Fan rent into four pieces. This type of weapon could only be driven to its full power when he poured all his strength into it through his primal spirit—its might was absolutely unparalleled.

Yet his smile quickly froze.

With a light clang, Ye Fan reached behind his back and drew a dark-red slaughtering sword. He brought it down in a single cleaving stroke—the boundless sword energy fell like a galaxy cascading from on high, engulfing the cosmos.

Crack!

The ten-odd golden divine feathers snapped in that instant, then erupted in a violent explosion. The fist-sized Golden Crow primal spirit was filled with terror—there was simply no way to escape this calamity.

Caught between the explosive wave of the golden feathers and the sword energy, it had not even the time to scream before it was reduced directly to ash—its spirit extinguished within the cold void of the cosmos.

Behind it, Jin Yu’s true body instantly lost its master. It stood there like a wooden post, then toppled with a thunderous crash.

Then came a blaze of golden light as he revealed his true form—an enormous Golden Crow stretched out across the cosmos, his physical body intact, but his primal spirit slain, leaving only an empty shell.

Ye Fan reached out a great hand and seized the enormous Golden Crow, then performed a Daoist technique to shrink it down. He carried it as casually as one might carry a wild duck as he flew back toward the Sun Star.

Little Que’er had been deeply uneasy, but the moment she finally saw Ye Fan, all her joy burst forth and every trace of tension vanished.

“Is that a Golden Crow Great Sage?” Her mouth hung open in a wide circle, filled with astonishment.

Long Ma, the Golden Lion, and the Black Bear Sage all showed expressions of unusual interest. In their eyes, this was undoubtedly a supreme tonic—the rarest of delicacies in all the world.

Ye Fan nodded, and offered Little Que’er a warm, gentle smile to set her at ease. He led everyone back into the stone palace and stepped into the formation array—immediately, blazing flames erupted and chaotic energy swirled through the air.

On the other side of the formation, Ye Fan once again laid eyes on the cocoon of light. It was Duan De, still sleeping, yet to awaken, with the Heaven-Devouring Seal concealed within the shadows.

This place held an Imperial-grade incomplete formation array, with the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Seal as its guardian—even a Great Sage could not break through it.

“Ye Tong!” Little Que’er called out in delighted surprise.

Ye Fan’s heart settled with relief. His eldest disciple had indeed taken shelter here. His condition, however, was not good—he appeared to be in a daze. And there was one other person present: Little Tingting.

How the two of them had managed to pass through the remnant formation was a mystery, but they had drawn close to Duan De’s cocoon—and it was precisely because of this that Great Sage Jin Yu had been stopped in his tracks.

Ye Tong sat cross-legged there, wrapped in solar essence, motionless as one who had passed on in seated meditation—it did not look right. A short distance away, Jiang Ting sat with solemn grace, her body suffused with faint threads of Supreme Yin energy. The two sat facing one another, separated by about ten feet.

One could see threads of vitality flowing from Jiang Ting, drifting toward Ye Tong, replenishing his life energy.

Beyond that, most strikingly of all, the two were each cultivating independently. Their Supreme Yin and Supreme Yang energy released naturally, and in the ten feet of space between them, the energies blended together into a sea of chaos that formed a Daoist diagram.

“Supreme Yin and Supreme Yang—which is weaker, which is stronger? When Yin and Yang sustain each other, they reign supreme beneath the heavens.” Ye Fan murmured to himself.

These two each possessed a constitution of a kind that appeared only once in ten thousand ages. Either one of them, stepping out alone, would shake the world—a sight not seen in a thousand or a hundred lifetimes. Given cultivation to a sufficient depth, each would inevitably stand among the strongest in the cosmos.

The Supreme Yang Ancient Emperor and the Supreme Yin Ancient Emperor—these two figures were proof enough of that!

“Two constitutions merging, giving birth to chaos—how terrifying would a true Chaos Constitution be?” Ye Fan’s mind drifted for a moment.

Then his heart stilled, and calm descended. There had long been legends in the age of myths of the flawless Chaos Constitution, yet he had never seen one to this day.

“Ye Tong’s injuries are very serious.” Little Que’er said in a low voice—then in the very next moment, her own body swayed, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

Ye Fan sensed a certain aura: the power of the Buddhist sect, scattered throughout every fiber of Little Que’er’s body. In ordinary times she had suppressed it, keeping it from causing trouble. But today, upon seeing him, Little Que’er’s spirit had relaxed, and it erupted all at once—she could no longer hold it back.

“Such powerful and pure Buddhist power. Most people, once struck and then subjected to Buddhist conversion, must either submit or perish.” The Golden Lion was startled. His ancestors had once been converted by Amitabha, and he understood this force better than anyone.

“Divine Son… am I going to die?” Little Que’er’s eyes grew unfocused as she toppled backward.

“With me here, nothing will happen to you.” Ye Fan caught her, extended a finger, and pressed it forward. A thread of golden light entered her body, beginning to cleanse and dissolve the Buddhist power.

“Brother…” At that moment, Jiang Ting awakened. She saw Ye Fan and the others and felt as though she were in a dream.

The Daoist diagram of chaos between them trembled. Ye Tong was also jolted awake. In a trembling voice, he called out: “Master… is it truly you?”