The two words “Azure Emperor” trembled and resonated, shaking the several great mountains of the Divine Clan’s ancestral land. Ten thousand trees shuddered. A hundred flowers flew through the air. The sky filled with crystalline brilliance.
Outside the formation, the Black Emperor, Pang Bo, Dongfang Ye, Li Heishui, and the others were all momentarily stunned. They had naturally heard that ancient and feeble voice, and every one of them fixed their gaze upon the azure lotus in Ye Fan’s hand.
It was not tall — barely over half a meter in length. Only three leaves. Its stem and roots were translucent. The leaves were tender and vivid green, brimming with vigorous life, suffusing the air with chaotic energy.
They had long heard of this lotus’s extraordinary nature. When Ye Fan had fought to the death with the Supreme Being and survived, beyond the contributions of Xiao Nannan, this lotus had played a critically important role.
Originally a lotus grown within Ye Fan’s sea of suffering, it possessed all manner of wondrous properties — capable of reviving the withered sea of suffering of a fully accomplished Sacred Physique. Yet within the sea of suffering of other Sacred Physiques, no similar lotus had ever been found.
Ye Fan had speculated about its origins before — his suspicions had long pointed toward the Azure Emperor. Yet now, to hear it confirmed directly from another’s lips, his heart still shook with a profound tremor.
“Transformed and reborn?” Within the formation, the light in Ye Fan’s eyes blazed. He stared at the azure lotus in his hand and thought of many things from the past.
The Azure Emperor had once left behind a heart — one from which the killing energy had been purged, leaving only vigorous life essence as a gift for those who came after. In those early days, Ye Fan had once received the Azure Emperor’s refined blood essence through the green copper block.
Later, as his cultivation gradually deepened, an azure lotus had been born within his sea of suffering — small, yet far from ordinary, enveloped in swirling chaotic mist.
At the time, he had assumed it was a unique phenomenon of the sea of suffering peculiar to the Sacred Physique. It was only later, as his cultivation grew ever stronger and his understanding of things expanded, that he came to realize there were many peculiarities about it.
“It can’t actually be the true Azure Emperor, can it?” Ye Fan murmured to himself. He genuinely found it hard to believe — otherwise it would truly be an act of extreme irreverence, using a great Emperor as a weapon.
“Same vein, same origin, same lotus body!” From the ancient cave within the Divine Clan’s broken mountain, that aged voice was filled with shock. The man’s face was covered in dense wrinkles from head to toe. Atop his head, only a few dozen strands of hair had not yet fallen — ancient and withered beyond recognition.
“Old Ancestor — you have awakened!” In front of the broken mountain outside the ancient cave, those guarding the entrance were shaken. This Old Ancestor had not stirred a single time in thousands of years. Many of the clan’s younger members had assumed he had passed away in meditation. Yet today he had not only opened his eyes, but had also spoken words of truth.
For the Divine Clan, this was a living chronicle of ancient history — he had lived so many years, and knew of so many things.
The gaze within the divine cave dimmed, yet those eyes did not close. Peering through the void, they fixed upon the azure lotus within the formation.
The brief stirring within Ye Fan’s heart quickly settled back to calm. This result was something he had once imagined — hearing it now confirmed from another’s mouth was simply another verification of what had already been foreseen.
He continued to break the formation. The azure lotus, barely over half a meter tall, emitted no terrifying Dao principles, no heaven-shaking surges of divine power — yet it could block every last streak of sword light.
It was neither intimidated by softness nor afraid of hardness. It would neither destroy others nor permit others to destroy it — dissolving away every streak of sword brilliance.
The crowd drew sharp breaths. This truly defied heaven — a genuine supreme divine treasure in the truest sense. With it in hand, one could dispel all manner of attacking divine radiance, undefeatable from the very beginning.
“What the heck — how did he manage to grow a small-scale Azure Emperor inside himself? Why doesn’t this Emperor have such good fortune?” The Black Emperor fumed with indignation.
“This is absolutely extraordinary. A treasure this rare is incredibly hard to come by. I wonder if the Azure Emperor still has spiritual awareness — if he ever comes to settle accounts, we won’t be able to take it.” The wild man’s eyes glowed with admiration as he sighed.
Pang Bo’s brow opened at the Demon Lord’s eye, which gazed upon the azure lotus and produced a particular resonance. The Demon Emperor’s Heart Scripture within his body activated on its own. He sighed softly: “Is it truly the Azure Emperor?”
BOOM!
Ye Fan pressed forward with great strides. Sword brilliance, oceans of divine power, chains of divine order — none could halt his advance. He broke through the formation continuously, filling the powerful Divine Clan members with alarm.
How many years had it been? No one had ever managed to force their way through. Today, the Sacred Physique Ye Fan had done it — charging straight in, fighting his way alone deep into the innermost sacred ancestral land of the Divine Clan.
This level of power, this level of combat strength — it left people horrified. There was no stopping it.
Clearly the azure lotus had played an enormous role. The supreme ancestral artifact left behind by the Divine Lord, whose radiant beams the lotus had neutralized — otherwise Ye Fan could never have passed through so easily, and would have had to pay with blood.
BOOM!
Suddenly, a vast ocean of divine power materialized out of thin air, bearing a divine sword — dazzling and resplendent — and pouring down ten thousand streams of chaotic torrents. The sight was terrifying beyond words.
The sweeping aura was like a star river collapsing, intimidating even those outside the formation — they went pale. This power was too fearsome. Inside, Ye Fan’s body was shuddering.
“Will my father-in-law be all right?” Ji Cheng Dao’s brow furrowed. He knew Ye Fan was powerful, but Ye Fan had after all lost all his Dao power.
“Don’t worry. After the Sacred Physique becomes a Quasi-Emperor physique, there are few chains of divine order in this world that can injure him. And with that azure lotus in hand, even against an Emperor artifact, he can mostly hold his own.” Dongfang Ye said reassuringly.
Yet this time, the stalemate stretched to seven full days. Ye Fan did not move rashly — he felt that a single misstep would cause this place to collapse, the formation igniting, and even the entire ancient star might be swept up in it.
He had come to save someone, not to destroy. Moreover, Li Heishui and the others were outside — if something truly went wrong, everyone would be in mortal danger.
It was a tense standoff. The divine sword within the ocean of divine power had sensed the presence of the azure lotus. The ten thousand streams of chaotic torrents it poured down surged toward the lotus.
Yet the Azure Emperor Lotus was supremely fearsome — it absorbed every single drop cleanly, continuously for seven days, unable to overload it.
“Chaos Azure Lotus — your reputation is well deserved. Were you born from a seed of immortal origin that existed within the chaos before heaven and earth opened, or are you the revitalized life-force of the green copper cauldron taking form once more?”
From within the divine sword came a voice — clearly a deity from the Divine Clan’s ancestral artifact speaking aloud!
“BOOM!”
At last, the ocean of divine power vanished. The chains of divine order retreated. The divine sword rose high into the heavens and disappeared from sight.
The entire great formation opened of its own accord, no longer blocking Ye Fan’s path. Because the divine artifact had sensed that this group of people would not commence a massacre — indeed, it had come to understand the full cause and effect of the matter, and chose to no longer make things difficult.
The formation markings disappeared. Ye Fan arrived before the several great mountains.
The Divine Clan members all changed their expressions. The formation had not been able to stop Ye Fan’s advance — in all under heaven today, there were truly very few who could restrain him. He had come directly to the innermost ancestral sacred ground of the Divine Clan.
Behind, Pang Bo, Dongfang Ye, Li Tian, and the others pressed forward as well, striding in with great steps.
Ji Cheng Dao clenched his fists. If only his father could also be found here, the whole family would be reunited. He despised the Divine Lord — despised the Council of Supreme Elders. He felt someone ought to kick them where it hurt.
Today, this outcome was entirely the result of his uncle-by-marriage’s overwhelming dominance. Had he not been a Quasi-Emperor, the Divine Lord would certainly have ignored them and continued to pose with that insufferable air of “I am first under heaven” — and there would have been no possibility of entering the Divine Clan’s innermost sanctum.
“You truly are powerful — more so than anyone anticipated.” An elder stepped forward, his expression indifferent, not the slightest trace of emotion on his face.
“Where is my mother?” Ji Cheng Dao could not wait and spoke up immediately. How many years had it been? Separated in childhood, that beloved face full of tender affection — at last he was about to see her again.
“She is in secluded cultivation in the Divine Clan’s ancestral land. But for you to see her won’t be quite that easy — several of our people wish to seek instruction.”
“No problem.” Ye Fan nodded in agreement.
Hearing him speak, the Divine Clan members’ expressions became somewhat disagreeable. One of them said: “The Old Ancestor wishes to see you personally — shortly he will debate the Dao with you. And we wish to exchange guidance with your companions — a same-realm battle.”
“Happy to oblige!” The Black Emperor was the first to step forward. Formation banners were planted throughout the void in an instant, snapping and flapping.
“No problem!” The light between Pang Bo’s brows flickered. The Demon Emperor’s Nine Slashes were on the verge of fusing into a single whole — his entire being capable of cleaving through all creation.
Li Tian and his fellow disciple Yan Yixi were even more direct. In an instant they brought out the Divine Maiden Emperor’s Furnace, causing a group of Divine Clan members to roll their eyes — how was it that each one of these people was more abnormal than the last?
“And me!” The wild man stepped forward as well. His left hand was jet-black as ink, his right hand blazing bright as the sun — the Supreme Yin and Supreme Yang divine palms unleashed together. He had inherited the full legacy of the old Human Demon.
“Could you lend me that azure lotus, Little Ye Fan? I’m also going to need to exchange a few moves with them.” Li Heishui was in something of a bind — among this group, he was the weakest.
“That won’t be necessary — there are more than enough already.” The Divine Clan members hastily called a halt. How could all of these people be so outrageously fierce?
After two rounds of confrontation, the Divine Clan decisively ended the match. These people were playing dirty — that black dog had set up a formation with the aura of an ancient great Emperor radiating from within. How were they supposed to fight against that?
Setting the black dog aside, the result was that Pang Bo performed the Demon Emperor’s Nine Slashes beyond his usual level — his entire body blazing with light, summoning a vast and intricate array of great Emperor inscriptions that suppressed the entire area.
This was clearly caused by resonating with the azure lotus in Ye Fan’s hand — which immediately turned the faces of the Divine Clan members white.
The third round: when Li Tian and his fellow disciple came up and immediately moved to bring out the Quasi-Emperor divine furnace, the Divine Clan member who had come up to fight immediately turned green and halted the confrontation on the spot.
What kind of people were these? A crowd of freaks gathered all in one place — the Divine Clan members grumbled inwardly with resentment.
Yet through those two rounds of confrontation, Pang Bo and the others were also deeply shaken. The Divine Clan was truly worthy of their name — every one of them was like a deity, supremely powerful, filled with experts, and among them were those with world-shaking capabilities.
Even if the full main force of the Heavenly Court came, any other great power coming here would simply be there to get thrashed.
Worthy indeed of being the group that had branched off from the most powerful clan of the human race in ancient times and established their own separate clan. The crowd sighed inwardly — though these words were not ones they dared speak aloud here. The Divine Clan was proud and arrogant, and the thing they detested most was having their origins exposed.
An ancient path wound its way through the several great mountains and led straight before the broken mountain. From the severed opening — like the mouth of an active volcano — auspicious mist surged outward, flowing with brilliant cascading light, magnificent and resplendent.
There was also an ancient cave atop the broken mountain. Ye Fan and his group followed the small path up and reached the cave entrance. There, they met an old man.
He was extraordinarily ancient. Wrinkles had piled up so thickly they had nearly buried his eyes. Atop his head grew only fifty strands of hair — yellow and lacking in luster, yet stubbornly growing, refusing to fall.
As for his lower body — that was even more astonishing. It had completely turned to stone. Not flesh and blood at all — it resembled… a Sacred Spirit Physique!
Within the divine cave, chaotic energy pervaded the air. The old man smiled — his face a mass of folds that was somewhat alarming to behold. His mouth had long since lost every last tooth, and when he spoke, it was with a frail and weary voice.
“You find my appearance strange, I’m sure. There’s nothing to be done about it — to live a few more years, this useless old man has been imitating a longevity technique used by the ancient supreme beings.”
He was very direct — right from the start he addressed the question in the hearts of Ye Fan and his group, leaving them all inwardly shaken. This old man had lived for an extraordinarily long time — very possibly a terrifyingly long time — and he even knew the longevity methods of the ancient supreme beings.
“Among all the people in this world who have ever knelt before the Azure Emperor in audience, I may be the only one still living.”
With his second sentence, he toppled everyone a step backwards. It was not that they hadn’t imagined his years to be great — but this great? Truly staggering and world-shaking to hear.