The flesh becoming Emperor — though the word “near” was added before it, it was still enough to astound the world. One had to understand: Ye Fan’s mere survival had been an enormous feat, and he had already retreated quietly into obscurity. And now he had returned like this.

The two words “near-Emperor” carried a weight heavier than Mount Tai, pressing down until one suffocated. With Ye Fan possessing such a physical form — even without the laws of order — he could range freely throughout the universe, with few who could match him.

More than anything, it was the trajectory of this development that made people tremble. The master of the Spiritual Court — if he learned of this at this moment, he would certainly be unable to sit still!

Lightning blazed and thunder roared. In the universe, countless bolts of electricity wove together, dense and without number, transforming into dragon-serpent shapes that swept their tails across the sky, slashing toward Ye Fan’s physical form.

One scorching bolt after another tore through what had been a dark expanse of stars, illuminating eternity. Ye Fan was contending against heaven’s punishment.

This heavenly tribulation was clearly different from any that had come before. Outwardly, its scale did not appear particularly immense — yet the power within had increased by an incalculable number of times.

“Roar…”

Everyone truly heard the sound of dragon cries. Several great dragons emerged from within the sea of lightning, their entire bodies covered with dense blue-green dragon scales, their forms as massive as a mountain range, surging toward Ye Fan.

“Is this the great tribulation that descends for the flesh achieving the near-Emperor realm?”

People were thunderstruck. Even separated by an incomprehensible distance they all trembled, every hair standing on end. Those dragons — how real they seemed, even crying out with dragon roars, as if they bore the fluctuations of living creatures.

Truly, heaven was split above and the depths were sealed below. Everyone’s scalps went numb. This was far too vivid and concrete — the resemblance to reality was pushed to the absolute extreme.

The blue-green true dragons spiraled through the air, opening their great maws and extending dragon claws, sweeping toward Ye Fan to destroy him. To become Emperor was to defy the heavens — even with the word “near” added before it, so it was. Having approached this domain, the heavens sensed a threat and moved to suppress and destroy.

Ye Fan’s body shimmered with precious radiance. The blood within his body let out a sound like a crashing sea, surging through his flesh and blood. His dense black hair whipped in the wind, his eyes surpassing cold lightning as he gazed up at the sky above — taking all of this with utmost seriousness, his expression deeply grave.

This was an opportunity — possibly a chance for transformation. If he crossed this threshold, he could range freely throughout the universe. Even without the laws of order, without the corresponding near-Emperor great divine powers, this physical body alone would be enough to walk proudly through the world.

“Boom!”

A true dragon’s massive form pressed straight down, its colossal body shattering the star-filled sky, grinding countless meteorites to dust. Its body coiled and curled like a world-grinding millstone, striking chills of terror into onlookers’ hearts.

That level of power was without equal. People believed that no matter how many Great Sages were thrown in, they would all be ground to pulp by that dragon’s coils — there was a force fluctuation that brooked no resistance.

Yet Ye Fan withstood it — using the Holy Body’s flesh to take the brunt head-on, both fists shattering the void, the full force of the Heavenly Emperor Fist erupting before the eyes of all those present, letting the powerful figures gathered witness the terrifying extent of his power.

“Too fearsome. No wonder there is a rumor that even after losing his arts and Dao, he still struck down a disciple of the Eternal Heavenly Venerable as he was leaving the one true road.”

Ye Fan ranged across the vault of heaven, throwing one punch after another with full force, every punch drawing blood. He struck that blue-green dragon’s form — dragon scales cracking, blood spraying in all directions, utterly real. Was it truly formed from lightning? People were doubtful. That blue-green scale, that dragon’s blood — it was all so solid and real.

“Roar…”

The blue-green dragon, stung by pain, leapt upward. Ye Fan had broken off one of its claws, and it fled into the depths of the universe, crashing into one great star and shattering it into four pieces.

“This…” People were horrified. To directly destroy a celestial body — it roared without ceasing. Clearly this was a living creature.

“It cannot truly be alive — a true dragon with a near-Emperor’s body, descended from the immortal realm to this place.” A rare few doubted, and that very thought took shape in their minds.

“Roar…” The blue-green great dragon wheeled around once more — and the other several came bearing down upon Ye Fan at close range as well. Fierce fighting broke out in that space.

No one could say with certainty what realm the blue-green true dragons existed in. They seemed to have the form of near-Emperors, yet also seemed as if they had been born from a single near-Emperor strike of lightning. Without question they were of supreme and transcendent power, and no one present dared to oppose them.

Even Ye Fan’s expression was deeply grave — punch after punch drawing blood. Not just dragon blood, but his own as well — his fingers exposing white bone. Yet he seemed insensible to pain, paying no attention, eyes fixed solely upon the several blue-green true dragons as he swung the Heavenly Emperor Fist with ferocious force.

One, two… a total of eight appeared from the sea of lightning. Their massive forms each time they coiled through the air destroyed countless meteorites, possessing a divine power that could awe all living things.

“Roar!”

A final dragon cry — and an even more enormous dragon appeared. In one swallow it consumed several stars, and the radiance it spat out was like a river of stars — boundless and without end.

That stretch of star-filled sky erupted into great upheaval. Ye Fan naturally bore the brunt of it, contending fiercely in that place.

People were horrified. The Spiritual Court’s army in particular was quietly grateful they had retreated — for had they not, this heavenly tribulation would have destroyed every last one of them. No one could have withstood it.

Li Heishui let out a cold laugh. “Little Ye is too soft-hearted — he did not want to wipe out all these people. Otherwise, does he think they could have escaped? Back in those days, he borrowed the power of a heavenly tribulation to destroy many great enemies.”

“It is better to create less killing karma. Otherwise it would be a great obstacle to becoming Emperor — that is the endless crimson-dust blaze of karmic fire, and sooner or later it would come calling.” The Black Emperor said.

The great black dog — dark in face and dark in heart — had, on this rare occasion, shown a degree of mercy toward his despised enemies. Yet there was reason for it — he had followed the Great Emperors of antiquity and understood many secrets unknown to ordinary people.

“He’s holding firm — he’s finally gained the upper hand!” Dongfang Ye said, entirely setting down his worry. The wild man’s upper body was bare, radiating the most primal and feral beast energy — and for his enemies, that made him exceedingly dangerous.

The nine dragons wailed and cried. Ye Fan’s fists had exposed white bone — yet he seemed insensible to the pain, maintaining an unvarying rhythm, an eternal pulse, battering outward with full force.

He drove those nine blue-green true dragons to trembling and continuous wailing. One by one, their dragon claws were shattered or half their bodies severed — all sustaining grievous injuries, unable to come near.

He let out a long cry, the radiance all over him growing even more intense. The Holy Body’s true blood began to boil — a vivid red staining both fists. The wounds swiftly healed, covering over the exposed bone.

He adjusted himself to the most powerful state, charging forward in quick bursts, trampling upon the true dragons’ backs with his feet, swinging both fists with the mightiest force he could muster — striking down one after another, pressing every last one of them prostrate beneath him.

Ye Fan let out a great roar. He transformed into a furnace-cauldron, his human form concealing itself within that. The nine blue-green great dragons were suppressed beneath him.

“In truth it is a human form — unchanged. It is only the state he is in, and the aura he radiates, that makes people feel it is a cauldron-furnace. Unless one possesses a particularly exceptional heavenly eye, one cannot see the truth.” The Black Emperor said, the center of its brow splitting open to reveal a vertical eye, within which an eerie light pulsed.

The nine blue-green true dragons were suppressed by Ye Fan, wailing in that place, spitting immortal radiance from their maws in a continuous stream — blazing like flame, scorching and searing the furnace-cauldron.

For Ye Fan, this was in truth a form of tempering — he had drawn to himself the nine powerful and mysterious creatures that had manifested within the heavenly tribulation, using their power to forge his physical body.

Boom!

The sea of lightning above erupted, boundless energy converging upon the nine great dragons, making each of them several times larger than before — yet to no avail. They could not break free from the furnace-cauldron’s suppression.

When at last the nine true dragons were worn away into nothing, all transforming into light and Dao principles that poured into Ye Fan’s body as tempering fire — only then did the sea of lightning explode. From within it came flying one weapon after another.

“How strange — no ancient Great Emperor appeared this time. Most curious. It is different from how his past tribulations appeared. Is it perhaps because the flesh has achieved the near-Emperor realm?” Yan Yixi said in surprise.

“It is still not simple — those are several terrifying weapons, and they will be difficult to deal with!”

The weapons that came flying out were anything but ordinary. The first was a cauldron — a round three-legged, two-eared form — swirling with primordial chaos within its mouth, pressing down with an attack that was simultaneously offense and defense.

Next came a great bell, tolling with a distant resonance that made the entire cosmic star-river tremble lightly. After that came an ancient tower, carrying with it the power to suppress the thirty-three heavens.

Then a celestial sword came cleaving down, a great halberd descended… one weapon after another of supreme and devastating power!

Ye Fan resisted with bare hands, clashing against each one in turn. That place rang like a blacksmith’s forge — clanging and reverberating — he was drenched in blood, doing something that left all observers breathless: absorbing one weapon after another into his body.

This was gambling with his life. A single misstep and he would shatter himself apart — each weapon was extraordinarily dangerous, a manifestation of the foundational Dao principles of heaven and earth — yet he was using them to sculpt himself, treating them as Dao fire.

By the end, Ye Fan’s bones were crackling throughout his body, his entire form drenched in blood, his body shuddering — like a clanging melody, about to come apart at any moment.

He persisted, taking these weapons one by one into his body, drawing upon them to resonate, allowing these fragments of arts and Dao to burn and forge within his flesh and blood.

“Boom!”

Ye Fan’s body was nearly torn apart. White bone jutted through, vivid red blood along with golden plasma flowing down — a sight that inspired nothing but dread.

Yet his flesh and blood possessed an astonishing capacity for recovery. Even within the heavenly tribulation he was able to restore himself swiftly — for his physique had evolved to a level of extreme refinement. Over three hundred years, the purification and elevation of his body had never ceased. That blood-battle against the Supremes had left a profound and lasting mark — his flesh and blood had recorded all of what happened then, driving him to evolve and transform in a specific direction.

Ye Fan contended against weapon after weapon — though nine deaths separated him from one life, at one point even the bone of his brow shattering, his primordial spirit nearly cleaved in two — yet he endured through all of it.

In the end he drew all the weapons into his body, and then expelled them outward — and through this process his primordial spirit too underwent a thorough tempering. That small golden figure within him swung fists and feet, waging battle against the weapons.

“Cauldron, come!”

Ye Fan let out a great shout. The void was torn asunder, and the Myriad Qi Mother Cauldron appeared, hovering above his head — together with his physical body and his primordial spirit, enduring the tribulation. The weapons, in particular, became this cauldron’s most eagerly desired targets, colliding with it in thunderous clashes.

Though the cauldron sustained many cracks in this process, it ultimately did not shatter — swallowing all of the weapons within itself and smelting them into its own form.

“This is…”

People were astounded. This cauldron was truly remarkable. Though those weapons had been struck by Ye Fan nearly to the point of cracking, for it to swallow them up like this was still utterly extraordinary.

“Boom!”

The sea of lightning churned and crashed downward. Within it there were mountains and rivers, birds and beasts. Looking more closely, one could see a vivid and lifelike world — the great earth populated by mythological creatures from legend, among them the Roc, the White Tiger, the Flying Serpent, the Vermilion Bird, and others.

In moments, Ye Fan was submerged within it. The divine energy there was brilliant and overwhelming.

“Something is wrong — what place is that? Can it be simulating the immortal realm? It is different from past heavenly tribulations!” The Black Emperor’s expression turned grave.

This tribulation was strange!

“Those mountains and rivers and all living things within seem to concentrate an enormous power. Ye Fan, he — ah! His chest has been struck open directly!” Li Heishui cried out in alarm.

And this was only the beginning. Ye Fan had already encountered this manner of assault. Mountains, rivers, and all living things possessed spirits — the Roc, the Flying Serpent, the White Tiger, the Vermilion Bird, and the others — each seemed as real as truly existing divine beasts. Far too powerful.

Ye Fan’s physical body was already of supreme solidity, yet this was the effect it produced. This heavenly tribulation was absolutely fearsome — far beyond the reach of ordinary reasoning.

The one fortunate thing was that Ye Fan’s flesh and blood recovered with astounding speed. In the blink of an eye, the flesh and bone reconnected. A near-Emperor’s body was truly extraordinary.

The cauldron, the primordial spirit, and the physical form endured a great catastrophe — heaven collapsed and earth cracked, ghosts wept and gods howled. The strange creatures in that place were numerous beyond counting: some were primordial creatures from before the written record of history, some were great demons recorded in ancient texts, some were divine beings and dark spirits, some were the Vermilion Bird, the Heavenly Ghost, and others.

The Spiritual Court’s people were elated. This manner of catastrophe looked as though even Ye Fan could not withstand it — his physical body had been shattered several times, and the cauldron had been broken and reforged several times as well.

“Why is it so strange? It looks as though Ye Fan is having some difficulty — will he make it through?” Li Heishui murmured softly, a look of worry crossing his face.

This tribulation was different from those of the past. There was no manifestation of an ancient Great Emperor — yet it was just as dreadful beyond all bounds. A single misstep would cost him his life. Any other person sent in there would certainly die.

“Infuriating — Ye Fan cannot use his arts and Dao. Otherwise this situation would be far better than this.”

“For him it is not without its rare opportunity. Relying not on divine powers, but using only the physical body and the primordial spirit to contend against a heavenly tribulation — the more brutally it tempers, the greater the harvest.” The Black Emperor said.

Boom!

Amid a series of thunderous explosions in rapid succession, that place blazed with overwhelming intensity — nothing could be seen at all. Evidently the heavenly punishment had in a single instant multiplied several times over in power. Truly, heaven was being destroyed and creation obliterated!

In that region, many stars directly vanished, struck into cosmic dust, transformed into drifting ash.

Then, those mountains, rivers, and all living things — including the Roc, the divine beings and dark spirits, the Vermilion Bird, the Heavenly Ghost, and all the rest — disappeared, leaving behind a clarity in the universe.

It ended with extreme abruptness!