The Black Emperor broke into a full sprint, charging straight for the Northern Region—nearly frantic, its expression overcome with agitation. Large teardrops fell from its eyes. Never before had anyone seen it wear an expression born of such genuine feeling.

Ye Fan, the Sacred Emperor’s Son, Ji Zi, and the others exchanged glances—but did not immediately follow. They gave it sufficient time to compose itself. Their own hearts were deeply shaken as well, and they stared at the Sacred Cliff in speechless astonishment.

The towering mountains were majestic and vast, jet black in their entirety—one after another, tall and imposing, each the king among mountains and the sovereign among peaks. Merely gazing upon them stirred awe in the heart.

This was the stretch of black mountain peaks that the Great Completion Holy Body had carved out from the Undying Mountain—cutting them away with his own power in the midst of a dark upheaval, through the great battles of his lifetime, in the era when he had dominated all under heaven. They formed a unique and distinct terrain.

Upon the Sacred Cliff, portions of the blood left by the Great Completion Holy Body had not yet dried—now they glowed, a vast and hazy scarlet cascade, vivid and staggering to behold.

Why had the Divine Sealing Tablet shifted? Could it be that someone was still controlling it—that the divine consciousness imprint left by the Wushi Great Emperor was still alive? This was a puzzle that no amount of thought could unravel.

From within the Sacred Cliff, dull, reverberating roars rang out—like a great primordial beast on the verge of breaking free from its bonds—instilling dread in those who heard it. The Undying Daoist was howling in despair.

Why would it be like this? If the Wushi Great Emperor’s Divine Sealing Tablet had truly shifted—would that not mean he was still alive? In that case, the Undying Daoist should have been rejoicing. Why did he display such a reaction?

The Black Emperor had once said: the Wushi Great Emperor had not immediately killed the Undying Daoist upon sealing him. He had kept him alive because there was a use for him. Could it be that the moment to make use of him had arrived?

“Let us go. We had best not enter. The Undying Daoist is no simple being—we must not let him turn the situation to his advantage,” Ye Fan said.

The Great Completion Holy Body in his late years had suffered the decline of his qi and blood—precisely because of the Undying Daoist’s hand. He was a supremely terrifying individual—an ancient great supreme sovereign.

There were even legends suggesting that this Undying Daoist might have had some connection to the Undying Celestial Emperor!

The Northern Region had grown even more desolate. With the immortal path on the verge of opening, the great crack in the immortal path had appeared in the southern part of the Eastern Desolation—every clan was stirring—and that place was destined to become the site of the ultimate battle. As for the already barren Northern Region, it had grown all the more silent and dead. Stretching for tens of hundreds of thousands of li in every direction, not a trace of human life could be found—a truly barren wasteland.

“Awoooh…”

Across this cold and silent earth, the sound of weeping carried through the air. At the end of the horizon, a purple mountain soared into the clouds—towering in a manner entirely unlike its surroundings, driving into the sky above. It was magnificent and awe-inspiring. The Black Emperor was here, weeping. It had not sensed the Wushi Great Emperor’s aura—and the Wushi Bell had not stirred at all, still dead and still—not a single ripple of movement.

Ye Fan and the others arrived. To enter the Purple Mountain now would no longer be a matter of near-certain death—but disturbing what lay within would surely remain extraordinarily difficult. The Wushi Bell hung here, and without a master, no one had been able to move it. Not a single person had ever succeeded in removing it.

All these years had passed, and the great bell remained as it had always been. That far more mysterious scripture also had not moved an inch—not a single person had been able to open the imperial burial ground here.

The ancient tribes, whether the ancient imperial clans or the great royal clans, all bordered this place on every side—yet to this day, no one had been able to touch a single blade of grass or a single tree within. They were powerless.

“The Great Emperor has not appeared. He has not returned…” The big black dog was crestfallen and forlorn. No matter how roguish it might be in ordinary times, in this moment it was sorrowful—true feeling laid bare, its loyalty to Wushi absolute.

“Let us enter and look. Let us bring out that stalk of the Undying Phoenix Medicine. If we leave it, when the supreme sovereigns of the forbidden zones emerge, this place will surely be swept flat,” the Sacred Emperor’s Son suggested.

The big black dog said in a solemn voice: “It will not leave. It stays here of its own will—it will never depart in its lifetime. It wishes to remain alongside the final traces of the Wushi Great Emperor’s Dao platform—never to leave, never to be parted.”

And the Black Emperor believed as well: even if the most terrible dark upheaval erupted, the Wushi Bell would be capable of guarding everything here. No one could break through by force.

Eight thousand years ago, had the Wushi Great Emperor truly sat in meditation and passed from this world—or had he truly ascended to immortality? To this day, it could not be said with certainty.

Only the Black Emperor held firm: the Wushi Great Emperor was the greatest of all time. Nothing in this world could block his steps—not even the immortal domain. He was sure to have forced his way in with power and might—not to have faded quietly away in meditation.

In truth, the Wushi Great Emperor was indeed of magnificent and peerless bearing—supreme and sovereign above all. When one spoke of other Great Emperors, one could perhaps find moments in their histories when they had fought bloody battles, when they had faced great enemies, when their lives had been threatened.

But for Wushi alone—whoever had stood against him, no one had ever feared for him. Hearing of his past, seeing his experiences—everything was a thorough sweeping away, an overwhelming conquest. A path of unbroken dominance from beginning to end.

No matter who he encountered, the Wushi Great Emperor always vanquished them in a single engagement—without a shred of suspense. He suppressed all things absolutely.

In the end, the very name Wushi had become synonymous with invincibility. Unique and supreme in all above and below heaven—he swept across the nine heavens and ten earths. In the era of his life, no one dared challenge him. Even the supreme sovereigns within the Life Forbidden Zones had all fallen silent, dutifully remaining in their sealed grounds.

This was Wushi—a supreme Human Emperor who looked down upon all of antiquity and the present, who had ascended the absolute peak, whose spirit devoured the six cardinal directions and the eight wastes, who looked down upon all of eternity in solitary supremacy.

“The Great Emperor must be alive—he fought his way into the immortal domain. And I believe that in this era, he will ultimately appear again—will return from the immortal domain to look upon this world once more, because this world needs him!” The Black Emperor’s tears rolled down as it roared in a great voice.

And yet Ye Fan was silent. He had once entered the Purple Mountain with Duan De and Old Blind, climbed that magnificent Dao platform, and gathered the medicine sovereign—he had truly come to know that place.

At the very center of that Dao platform, there had once been a peerless man standing with his back to them. But when they drew near, all they found was a pile of ash.

That result, though sorrowful, was the truest and most accurate answer—dissolving into the Dao, returning to tribulation ash. Perhaps this was the final curtain.

“Are we not taking the scripture out?” Ye Fan asked.

“It cannot be moved. Cannot be opened. Beyond needing to assemble all the imperial jades, one also needs a person of his same bloodline to pour their blood upon it before it can open,” the Black Emperor said, shaking its head, revealing the truth. Within those great bronze bell-like eyes was a kind of dim sorrow. It proclaimed with its mouth that the Wushi Great Emperor was alive—but within its heart lurked another kind of dread, a vague and creeping sense that the truth might be otherwise. Most likely, this was a tragedy.

The Divine Sealing Tablet continued to shift, emitting boundless radiance. At last, it seemed to stir a response from the Purple Mountain. Suddenly, with a great resonant boom, the Wushi Bell rang out of its own accord—its peal reverberating through the entire Northern Region!

This was so sudden it shook the ancient tribes on all sides until they trembled. Within the great Life Forbidden Zones, the supreme sovereigns too felt a violent jolt in their hearts. Everyone was in disbelief.

The Black Emperor, which had just been howling in grief, instantly widened its eyes—and in one leap, it charged forward. “Into the mountain!”

At this moment—to say nothing of it—the entire Eastern Desolation was thrown into chaos. The patriarchs of great factions, the mightiest existences across their respective domains, and the supreme beings within the Life Forbidden Zones all felt their blood surge and their hearts grow restless.

This was too strange. The Wushi Great Emperor had been gone for eight thousand years. His dissolution into the Dao had been accepted by several of the Life Forbidden Zones—recognized as genuine, not fabricated. And yet here, now, bell waves were emanating outward, resounding throughout all under heaven, shaking the Eastern Desolation itself—this was unmistakably an imperial level fluctuation.

“How is this possible—is he still alive?!”

“Eight thousand years have passed and he would appear again? He became an immortal? How could he still manifest in the mortal world? This must be someone striking the bell deliberately—creating this false impression!”

The world was shaken. In every direction, gazes of absolute disbelief were cast outward. It surpassed all expectation—beyond the bounds of what anyone had dared imagine.

Ye Fan seized the Black Emperor with one hand. “To enter like this would be certain death—wait a moment!”

The Wushi Bell was ringing. Though the bell waves were gentle, carrying no cutting or killing force, that was only in the outer region. Inside the Purple Mountain, even the gentlest resonance was surely not something an ordinary person could bear.

“Good—wait a moment!” The big black dog held its impulse in check.

The sound of the bell rolled on, and with each wave it resonated with the Divine Sealing Tablet at the Sacred Cliff, both shining together—on this day, that mountain peak, which had once seen both the glory and the sorrow of the Great Completion Holy Body, blazed with immortal light!

And the Undying Daoist’s howl of despair shook the Central Region—stirring shock in every direction.

No one knew how much time passed. The bell waves ceased. All four directions fell into silence. The Black Emperor was the first to dart forward, finding a hidden path into the Purple Mountain—reopening a sealed ancient road that had long been blocked.

By now it had the ability to do so—for it knew every inch of this place, and after its formation arts had reached the realm of consummate mastery, it could navigate all the way through.

Deep within the Purple Mountain, a great Dao platform blazed with light. One great Dao symbol after another shone and flashed, branded into the void—like one round sun after another.

And upon that Dao platform sat a snow-white skull, encircled by those Dao runes, with a pendant hung upon it, resonating in communion with these laws and principles.

This was the skull that Ye Fan had brought back from the starfield and delivered here—and now, a faint, feeble trace of a spiritual imprint emanated from it. The hearts of all who felt it were seized with a tremor. What manner of sentiment was this—transmitted so truly, so directly, into the heart?

Pursued with genuine heart—a female sage’s solitary path, taken by herself alone, seeking only to find traces of Wushi. She searched without ceasing, entering the very roads he had walked, spending an entire lifetime in that search.

She must have been a peerless prodigy of her generation—also haloed in mystery, also the focus of ten thousand eyes, also one who looked down upon all under heaven. And yet she chose to cast everything aside and set off alone—facing the cold and the darkness of the cosmos, searching, gazing upward.

All for the sake of finding that person she had once known—following in the wake of his imperial path, searching without end.

The long years were a solitary path walked by the female sage alone—and in the end, her beauty had dissolved into a skeleton. She had grown old and passed from the world in a corner of the desolate cosmos. Thus she had lived out her entire life in solitude—and no one ever knew what lay in her heart at the very last.

This was cause for sorrow.

The Black Emperor could not hold back its howl.

The one consolation was that in the end, her skull had been brought here by Ye Fan and laid to rest upon the Wushi Dao platform.

“Di Lisi!” Suddenly, a clear male voice rang out—shaking the entire Purple Mountain, nearly causing the Dao platform to collapse. The Dao symbols blazed even more brilliantly.

“Great Emperor!” The Black Emperor cried out, overcome with emotion to the point of tears. It could say with certainty that this was the Wushi Great Emperor’s voice.

“Di Lisi…” It was that same voice again—but far softer now, carrying a certain magnetic quality. The voice of this man made one’s mind involuntarily conjure the image of a peerless great hero.

“Great Emperor… Great Emperor, where are you?” The Black Emperor cried out frantically.

Upon the Dao platform, a towering figure appeared, enveloped in swirling chaotic energy—of magnificent and peerless bearing, with ink-black hair cascading like a waterfall. It was impossible to see clearly.

He walked to the edge of the snow-white skull and took it gently in his hands. In a soft voice, he called: “Di Lisi.”

This, it seemed, was the female sage’s name. The figure of the Wushi Great Emperor had appeared. He was calling out—his voice tinged with grief and sorrow—caressing that crystalline skull with his hand.

One who had fought his entire life, advancing without pause, sweeping across the nine heavens and ten earths, shattering ten-thousand-year-old myths, standing at the absolute pinnacle of the human Dao, revered by all the world—even this fierce and dominant Great Emperor possessed such a tender and soft side. This grief was entirely unlike his overwhelming power—an entirely different dimension of him.

This scene was both astonishing and deeply moving.

At the end of the immortal path, who stands at the summit? One glimpse of Wushi—and the Dao dissolves to nothing.

The Divine Sealing Tablet at the Sacred Cliff had shifted. The Wushi Bell had rung. This Great Emperor had appeared because of it—a sight that shook hearts with awe and left them grasping for answers.