The mountain peak was high. Ye Fan gazed into the distance and saw the ancient forbidden lands far away, wreathed in mist and haze. Above the abyss there, it seemed as though a figure stood — and as though a pair of eyes were gazing in this direction.

Ye Fan’s heart lurched. Was that Barren?

“That sister over there is so beautiful,” Xiao Nannan said, blinking her wide eyes and staring curiously toward the ancient forbidden lands.

Ye Fan’s heart gave another jolt. He himself couldn’t see through the mist, yet the little one could — truly astonishing. Quickly, he let it go. Back at the Undying Mountain, it had been the same way — Xiao Nannan had been able to see through emperor-level markings and point out a path to survival for everyone.

“Why has that sister bound herself with iron chains?” The little girl showed a puzzled expression, tilting her head and gazing into the distance, her large dark eyes glittering with reflected light.

Ye Fan felt a mild headache. Those were surely several chains of immortal gold — forged from Dragon-Pattern Black Gold, Phoenix Blood Red Gold, Immortal Tear Green Gold, and the like. It was beyond any ordinary person’s comprehension, and profoundly startling.

“Let’s go. Stop looking.” Ye Fan took the little girl’s hand and turned, shooting swiftly into the distant sky. Since they had been able to catch sight of Barren, it stood to reason that Barren could see them far more clearly in return — and that made him uneasy. He had no desire to linger.

The Divine Light Platform flashed and tore through the void, and moments later they reappeared in the outer region, arriving at a place where stars shone in brilliant multitude.

There was a small world here, named Heavenly Village.

Outside the village, golden waves of wheat rose and fell — it was a year of abundance. Within the village, the sounds of chickens and dogs could be heard, a picture of tranquil, reclusive life.

Without looking closely, one would truly believe they had arrived at some mountain hamlet — for this place was cut off from the world, possessing only harmony and contentment.

“The Divine Son has returned!” Little Sparrow called out cheerfully, shattering the quiet of the village.

The peaceful Heavenly Village immediately livened up. A group of people appeared — young and old alike — and all pressed forward. The time of Ye Fan’s absence had not been long, yet it had set everyone in motion.

“Who is this little one? She looks just like a porcelain doll.” Most of the people in Heavenly Village didn’t recognize Xiao Nannan, and everyone began chattering at once.

“Master, this must be my younger sister Nannan, the one I’ve never met before?” Hua Hua came sauntering over with a grin. It hadn’t been very long since they had last seen each other, so catching sight of Ye Fan now didn’t cause any great stirring of emotion.

Ye Fan knocked him on the head. “If we’re speaking by seniority,” he said, “she would have to call you grand-nephew.”

Xiao Nannan glanced at the gleaming bald head before her and said a little shyly: “Grand-nephew…”

A roar of laughter erupted. Hua Hua yelped in protest.

“Is this Nannan?” The Sage-Slayer Qi Luo — one eye brilliant and gleaming, the other a hollow darkness — showed an expression of shock and studied her with close attention.

Everyone naturally had already guessed, yet they couldn’t help but be astonished. Ye Fan had left precisely to find the little girl, and against all expectations, he had truly succeeded.

But many people were puzzled by one thing: so many years had passed, yet Xiao Nannan still hadn’t grown up. She appeared exactly as she had been described — leaving everyone thoroughly baffled.

“I’m Nannan,” the little one said in a soft, gentle voice.

“Where is Nannan? Where is Nannan?” someone shouted from a distance, and Li Heishui came running over. He had come to Heavenly Village sometime earlier and still hadn’t left.

The Twin Silver-Blood Sovereigns followed behind him, and together they arrived before the group.

“You are… Brother Heishui.” There was a flicker of uncertainty in Xiao Nannan’s wide eyes, yet instinctively, she called out Li Heishui’s name — a memory surfacing from the depths of her subconscious.

“Wonderful! Our little princess has finally returned safely!” Li Heishui cried out, overcome with excitement.

The entire village was stirred. Whether in closed cultivation or playing chess over tea, everyone came out and gathered at the village entrance, surrounding the area until it was packed tight.

“Good heavens, where did this little angel come from? I would be so happy if I had a daughter like this,” Kai De exclaimed, loudly declaring that he had just seen an angel.

“There are angels on the ancient road — I’ve encountered some of those races,” Ye Fan said with a laugh.

“Ye, have you ever met God? I keep forgetting to ask you — if you ever run into him on the ancient road, ask him what I ever did to offend him. I hate him!” Kai De said with great indignation.

“That’s a difficult request. You’ll have to go question him yourself someday.”

Heavenly Village overflowed with joy and celebration. Xiao Nannan’s arrival also drew the curious children of the village, who gathered around her, chattering and chirping like a flock of happy little sparrows.

Ye Fan let out a long breath. The little one would never be lonely here. With so many children to keep her company, she would certainly be very happy from now on.

Before long, a lavish evening feast began. Everyone sat around a bonfire, passing cups and exchanging toasts, eating and drinking out in the open air. Each of them was bold and generous in spirit.

Naturally, talk turned to the matter of the immortal path. Qi Luo declared that he had already issued orders: no one was to go and participate. Going would be nothing more than throwing one’s life away.

That was simply the truth. Even a few great sages had already perished there — what did they have to compete with? They would only die in vain.

Two days later, Ye Fan invited old friends such as Ji Ziyue and Dongfang Ye to come, and their arrival at Heavenly Village naturally brought another round of lively celebration.

“Little one, do you still recognize me?” Ji Ziyue picked up Xiao Nannan and asked with a playful smile.

This was naturally too much to ask of the little girl. Not wanting to lie, yet feeling a little embarrassed, she finally shook her head obediently and said she had been ill and had forgotten many people and things.

The Ji Family had not yet made any major moves. Upon witnessing the immortal domain rift, they had treated it as a grave crisis, and internally were embroiled in debate over how to respond.

“If nothing unexpected occurs, my family may withdraw from the Northern Dipper,” Ji Ziyue said. Some would remain behind to stand guard here, but the family’s foundation and its future would be entrusted to a distant domain.

Everyone present fell silent upon hearing this. The Ji Family had truly made such a choice.

“An ancestral forefather broke out of a divine source and issued this command in person,” she said, without naming who this forefather was — yet it was clear the person’s identity was staggeringly significant. Otherwise, the entire clan, from top to bottom, would never have obeyed without question.

In the days that followed, Ye Fan, Ji Ziyue, Dongfang Ye, Li Heishui, and the others made dozens of attempts together to investigate that mysterious rift — yet every time they came away without result.

Later, someone theorized that this was merely an initial crack. The barrier between the immortal domain and this world was far too solid and still could not be passed through. A terrible set of laws there was capable of tearing anything apart.

To be more precise, the rift had not yet broken through into the immortal domain. It was merely a wound in the void — a manifestation of the great gate of the immortal path being in a state of hairline fractures prior to its opening.

Yet many people still refused to give up. One after another they charged forward, deploying all manner of forbidden weapons in the hope of a miracle.

Regrettably, in the end, ancestral weapons from several clans were launched into the rift and vanished, driving people to despair.

“This is most likely not the immortal path at all — this is simply a void rift connecting to a different domain and era,” some people eventually began to waver and voice such doubts.

In the blink of an eye, several months had passed. This great rift had swallowed far too many lives, throwing the entire Northern Dipper region into turbulent upheaval.

And on this one particular day, a torrential surge appeared beyond the outer region — suppressing the vast heavens, immeasurably boundless, as though a great emperor had emerged into the world, sweeping downward.

The hearts of all the great sages gave a start, each of them sensing something. Together they looked toward the heavens beyond.

“A Quasi-Emperor has descended upon the world — such a person has appeared!”

That was the judgment the people reached. Towering waves surged in every heart.

Everyone’s scalps went numb. The legendary Quasi-Emperor had at last begun to descend. They had come for the immortal path. A great war that would shake ten thousand ages was about to begin.

People believed that in this lifetime, there would be not merely one Quasi-Emperor. Multiple emperors would emerge at once, appearing in the same generation to wage war together. Though each bore the word “quasi,” each also bore the word “emperor” — and their presence would shake the universe.

“Hmph!”

A single cold snort rang out, resonating across the mortal world, shaking the Eastern Wilderness. It came from one of the Immortal Mausoleums within the seven great forbidden zones, and in that instant, the sun, moon, and stars nearly lost their color.

In that very moment, the vast and overpowering might from beyond the heavens vanished immediately, reverting to calm — as though nothing had happened at all.

Everyone felt even greater trepidation. The more powerful a cultivator, the more intensely they felt the ice-cold dread. The entire heaven and earth fell silent, remaining without sound for a very long time.

On that same day, beneath the ancient peach tree of the Jade Pool, auspicious light danced and radiant colors burst in all directions. The nine-aperture divine stone was trembling softly. Hairline fractures had appeared across its surface, and it was absorbing the vital energy of heaven and earth ever more rapidly.

Every single day in this world, something unusual would occur. The powerful figures descending from beyond the outer region were growing ever more numerous, and ever more unfathomably deep — by now it was impossible to know what manner of existences had arrived.

Ye Fan sighed softly. “A Quasi-Emperor has come. This immortal path is no falsehood — there will certainly be a great decisive battle that shatters the heavens and sunders the earth.”

In the past, he had always been waiting and hoping. Now that this moment had arrived before his eyes, his heart felt heavy instead. Who could say they were truly prepared?

In the days that followed, change came almost daily. That great rift, dozens of zhang in length, had now extended to over a hundred zhang. The area had become a blood-soaked land of slaughter.

Sacred bones were heaped across the ground — no one knew how many people had died. The powerful ones scrambled to seize the immortal light that flew out, as immortal fortune descended upon the world at intervals.

Of course, many had also rushed forward with no regard for their own lives — for their lifespan had run out, and they had to make one final gamble.

Never had any place been as brutal as this mountain ridge outside the ancient forbidden lands. Every day, countless aged cultivators threw themselves forward like moths into a flame and died!

Such was the allure of immortality — irresistible, unstoppable, all of it for the sake of that single word: immortal!

Far too many people had come from every domain across the ten thousand heavens. In every domain, there were those whose lives had reached their end. Break through and become an immortal — or fail, and become nothing more than a pile of bones along the way.

What no one had anticipated was that this period would last a full eight years. Blood and bones continued to fly and scatter without end. So long a span of time caused many people to doubt whether the rift was truly genuine.

The immortal light was no falsehood — it had allowed many people to break through their bottlenecks and undergo astonishing transformations.

Over those eight years, the immortal domain rift had extended to two hundred zhang in length. Though the pace had slowed, the trend had never stopped — it was the final rehearsal being conducted before the immortal gate’s full opening.

Throughout those eight years, Ye Fan had devoted himself without pause to comprehending the Dao and cultivating. He traversed mountains and great rivers, perceiving the ten thousand laws, refining his secret arts. The scriptures for yet another secret realm within the human body had taken initial shape.

“Our family’s little ancestral forefather has returned,” Ji Ziyue said, bringing news that left Ye Fan momentarily stunned. Why such a peculiar way of putting it?

“It’s Ji Zi, the little ancestral forefather,” Ji Ziyue said with a smile.

“What?!” Ye Fan was overjoyed.

Ji Zi had returned. When they met again, he was already a great sage as well — his cultivation speed was staggering. And he had grown even more silent than before, few words and quiet.

Almost on the very same day, news came that the Holy Prince had also returned, appearing in the land of the Eastern Wilderness.

“Brother Ji, let us go together to welcome the Holy Prince,” Ye Fan said with a smile.

“Agreed,” Ji Zi replied — a single word only, yet within his eyes there blazed a remarkable light.

In those years past, the three of them had joined forces to do battle against the Eight Divine Generals and slay the Heavenly Prince. The momentum of that battle had been magnificent, swallowing ten thousand li — as though it had happened only yesterday.

And now, perhaps the three of them would need to stand together once more.