Starlight swayed and rippled. To Ye Fan, this was a massive star he was not entirely unfamiliar with — full of vitality, with towering steel skyscrapers rising in clusters, and all manner of spacecraft streaking across the sky like auroras.

He had returned to the Eternal Star Domain, coming once again to this place unlike any other. He did not know in which direction the Divine Organization lay, and could only start from here — for it was here that he had first encountered them in the past.

The Eternal — where the legend of the Immortal Armor was said to dwell, where the recipe for the Nine-Cycle Immortal Elixir was hidden, where a supremely thriving civilization of science and technology had flourished. They had walked a path entirely unlike any other.

In the past, Ye Fan had obtained the recipe for the evolution fluid from this place — and it was precisely because of that the overall strength of the Heavenly Court’s members had surged dramatically, all of them ascending several levels in a single step.

Towering skyscrapers soared into the clouds. Technological weaponry was everywhere — should any foreign enemy dare to invade, ten thousand streams of rune-fire would be unleashed in unison, raining down upon them.

Within the steel city, the buildings were as dense as a jungle. And yet it did not lack true vegetation either — all of it was of exotic and unusual species, lush and flourishing, giving this place an atmosphere teeming with vitality.

Cyan trees reached ten thousand zhang in height, their canopies spread open like great parasols spanning the heavens. Quite a few divine grasses had taken root within the void itself, diffusing life essence to purify the world. Divine vines shot upward toward the sky, coiling like dragons in mid-dance — dreamlike and fantastical.

“What…that person has come again?!”

When Ye Fan summoned the ten supreme clans, this star was immediately thrown into turmoil, sending shockwaves crashing in every direction. The person from before had returned — how could that not fill their hearts with dread?

One had to understand — in the past, Ye Fan had broken in, and then broken out. He had not come as a guest and had never spent any pleasant time here.

It was precisely because of Ye Fan and the Southern Demon that the Eternal had launched its invasion of the Northern Dipper, suffering catastrophic casualties. The expedition army had been virtually wiped out to the last.

On this star, every great faction held the name “Ye Fan” in the utmost dread. They had long since heard of his achievements over the years and had been living in constant anxiety — and now he had truly returned.

“There was once a Guxin’ao who could rival the Green Emperor, and we of the Eternal made an enemy of him. And now there’s yet another Holy Body… this is truly a catastrophe!”

The Eternal’s star-space churned in agitation. All ten great royal clans bristled with alarm. Had Ye Fan come to exact revenge? In any direct confrontation, there would not be the slightest hope — this was a Quasi-Emperor. Who could stand against him?

The Floating Life Hall — a palace floating in the heavenly vault — enjoyed enormous renown across the Eternal. It was said to be a relic left behind by an ancient emperor.

As the ages had passed, its Dao patterns had eroded and decayed, yet it had never been reduced to ash. It remained a floating divine ground within the Eternal’s star-space, where notable figures from every faction often gathered to drink and make merry.

At this moment, an oppressive air filled the great hall, for a lone man had entered — standing with his hands clasped behind his back — and caused every voice to fall silent.

“Please, carry on, everyone. I am only here to discuss a matter with the ten great royal clans.”

A Quasi-Emperor, no matter how amiable, no matter how brilliantly he smiled, instilled in everyone a sense of dread. An invisible pressure seemed to weigh down on them all, suffocating.

Ye Fan hosted a banquet here for the ten great royal clans. These people had no way to advance or retreat — they had never expected to be caught up in something like this. They very much wanted to leave, yet feared offending the Holy Body.

Before long, representatives of the ten great royal clans arrived — every one of them taut with nerves. Among them were two Great Sages who had ended their seclusion, rising from their slumber to pay respects to a Quasi-Emperor of this generation.

The Eternal had not seen an atmosphere this suffocating in many, many years. Every great faction trembled in fear. If this was a reckoning, who could withstand it? Even fleeing would be impossible.

“We pay our respects to Senior Ye.”

Some performed the full formal bow of deep salute. Clearly white-haired, far older in years than Ye Fan, they nonetheless could only offer their reverence respectfully — not daring to treat him as a peer.

Ye Fan swept his gaze across the crowd and was unexpectedly met with the sight of Fan Xian. She was just as she had been in the past — devastatingly beautiful, her allure overturning all around her — yet at this moment her lovely face wore an expression of considerable unease.

Beside her stood an elder — the old ancestor of the Fan Clan, a powerful and formidable sage. At this moment his complexion had gone white as snow, and within his heart was miserable desolation.

Their clan was not among the currently most powerful of the ten great royal clans, yet they had been forcibly brought here by the other powerful clans — clearly intended as a shield to absorb the blow. If Ye Fan truly meant to settle accounts, they would be the first he would come for.

“Please, all of you, relax. I did not come today to settle any scores.” Ye Fan smiled. His teeth gleamed, his hair floated gently, his bearing radiant and brilliant.

Every person felt a chill run down their spine. He was a Quasi-Emperor — and the more warmly and amiably he treated them, the greater the dread and alarm welling up in their hearts.

Fan Xian, however, was momentarily stunned. Gazing at that transcendent, lofty bearing and that proud, upright figure, a hundred mingled emotions rose within her. In the past, her clan had schemed against Ye Fan in every way — and yet they had achieved nothing at all, fetching water in a bamboo basket.

In the end, even she herself had inadvertently become entangled in it all, gaining nothing — yet having stirred up such a heaven-defying, peerless adversary.

Looking back on all those past events, her heart was hollow and desolate, filled with wistful regret. It had been completely unworth it.

If only, in those early days, they had treated the Holy Body differently — it would never have come to this. There might even have been a beautiful tale told of it. That was, after all, a Quasi-Emperor of a generation without equal.

Fan Xian’s heart was bitter and sore, her face written over with loss and resignation.

As for the old ancestor of the Fan Clan, he regretted it so deeply he wanted to let out a howl. Step one had been wrong, and every step that followed had been wrong as well. If not for their excessive greed and desire to exploit the Holy Body, how could it have come to this?

Back then, had they been sincere enough, the Holy Body might well have become the Fan Clan’s son-in-law. Looking back now — the other party was a peerless Quasi-Emperor, sovereign and invincible throughout the stars.

Without question, the Fan Clan was the most crestfallen — and the most anxious — of all. They had offended Ye Fan most deeply in the past, and now the entire Eternal Star Domain was prostrate at the other’s feet.

Some were crestfallen. Others were overjoyed. From outside the great hall, another group of people arrived. At their head was an ethereally beautiful immortal maiden — graceful and peerless, like the Goddess of the Luo River reborn — treading upon clouds of radiant color as she came forward.

It was Qi Meng. Her clan too was not among the currently most powerful of the ten great royal clans, yet they had also been brought here at the invitation of the other clans — who hoped that through them, relations with Ye Fan might be improved.

In the past, the relationship between the Qi Family and Ye Fan had not been ordinary. The others hoped that they could come forward to mediate.

“Brother Ye.” The Qi Family members came forward with smiles all around, one after another, and Ye Fan warmly greeted them in return. In the past, the elder sage of the Qi Family had once blocked a Fan Clan attack on his behalf.

“Please, everyone, be seated. I have come back today not to settle any scores. I only wish to ask you about one matter,” Ye Fan said.

Those with no stake in the matter had long since tactfully withdrawn. The ten great royal clans stood at the forefront — it was no longer an offense to the Holy Body to step back now, and lingering here even a moment longer was nothing short of torment.

Ye Fan inquired about the Divine Organization. He had heard roughly which star domain they occupied, but it would be impossible to locate their headquarters in any short span of time.

The ten great royal clans exchanged glances. None of them had expected that he had come here for the sake of the “Divine” — and a collective sigh of relief went through them. Many had already found the backs of their robes soaked through with sweat.

The Divine Organization did indeed have important figures who moved about in this place from time to time. Their traces could occasionally be glimpsed — and the various clans had no desire to provoke them. It was rumored that these people were searching for a secret formula left behind by the Revered Emperor, a formula of extraordinary value that might have been lost somewhere within the Eternal Star Domain.

Ye Fan was quite intrigued upon hearing this and pressed for more details about what kind of formula it was.

“In the past, the Revered Emperor extended the peak imperial lifespan of the Longevity Celestial Sovereign by two thousand years. Beyond his methods being incomparably brilliant, there was also a long-life ancient formula he possessed.”

Ye Fan was at a loss for words. So there had been hidden circumstances even in that — it seemed everything the Revered Emperor had left behind was of great interest to the Divine Organization.

When he departed, quite a few members of the ten great royal clans were nearly spent — utterly drained. Having faced a Quasi-Emperor standing high above them, the pressure had been immense.

At the moment of parting, from the tips of Ye Fan’s fingers dropped a dozen or so sparkling beads of blood, which fell into a jade vessel. He presented this to the Qi clan — filling that lineage with joy and gratitude beyond measure.

“Will Brother Ye return again?” Qi Meng blinked her bright, limpid eyes and asked.

“Those with fate will meet again.” Ye Fan waved his hand, speaking with unrestrained ease, and stepped forward — the sun, moon, and mountains and rivers all seemed to turn at once — and he vanished from this place.

The Fan Clan’s anxiety dissipated in that instant, yet it gave way to an even fuller sense of regret and a lingering inability to let go. Just like that, through a twist of fate, they had not been able to become one of his people.

Fan Xian stared up at the vault of the sky in a daze, a hundred tangled feelings within her, the taste of it impossible to name. She knew — this might be the last time they would ever see Ye Fan. He would not come back again. He and they already belonged to two entirely different worlds, and even the old grievances and scores between them were no longer worth his while to settle.

“Rest easy — in the universe to come, his name will be on everyone’s lips. Many will speak of him. And perhaps one day he may still return to take a look,” said the old sage of the Qi Family, not at all graciously using the moment to needle the sage of the Fan Clan.

For a moment, silence fell over everything here.

“I need to speak with the highest figure in your organization — a Quasi-Emperor who can speak with authority!” Ye Fan was direct. After tracking down a member of the Divine Organization, he went straight to the point without any roundabout approach.

“You are…the Holy Body, Ye Fan?!” That person recognized him — for when they had been in the Eternal Star Domain back then, the Divine Organization had even considered recruiting Ye Fan into their ranks.

“I am!” Ye Fan answered plainly and simply.

“Please wait a moment!” The other party was equally no-nonsense and wasted no time, immediately making use of the divine platform, crossing the star-sea in an instant to go and summon an important figure.

The Ye Fan of today was someone that everyone had to treat with the utmost gravity. Even colossal entities like the Divine Organization, the Dao Palace, and the Phoenix Nest had to weigh carefully just how terrifying a Holy Body who had fully grown into his power truly was.

The white-haired Quasi-Emperor came. The divine being of the past — one sword whose cold light illuminated the entire cosmos, one cauldron that shattered the road to immortality, leaving the Longevity Celestial Sovereign wounded.

This was a terrifying Quasi-Emperor who had stepped into this realm many years before — one of the foremost figures of this present age. The Divine Organization treated Ye Fan with great importance.

The void cracked open. The white-haired Sword God and Ye Fan traversed the cosmos together, arriving upon a very small star — its mountains and rivers splendid, its scenery pleasant and beautiful.

An immortal mountain hung suspended in mid-air, white mist swirling all about it. Palaces, halls, and pavilions were spread across it, with little bridges over flowing waters — an atmosphere of transcendent serenity, utterly apart from the world.

Ye Fan had the confidence to come here. At the sixth level of the Quasi-Emperor realm, capable of triggering the Forbidden God Domain at will, and having brought the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Jar along — aside from the great Forbidden Zones, where in all the world could he not venture?

This place was not the Divine Organization’s true stronghold — only a secluded site for conversation. Where the Divine Organization’s headquarters truly lay, no one had ever been able to determine or locate.

“Young one, even if you hadn’t come to find us, we would have paid a visit to the Heavenly Court.” On the mountain peak, an elder sat cross-legged beneath an ancient pine tree, and invited him to sit upon a rush cushion.

This elder had white hair yet a child’s complexion, of immensely great age, his eyes bright with wisdom — as though he could see through all things in the world. He was unfathomably deep, and Ye Fan could not help but sigh inwardly. This organization was truly exceptional. This person had truly all but descended as a god from the heavens.

He had certainly attained a level of mastery that rivaled the workings of creation itself. This was a figure who could contend on equal terms with the firewood-chopping elder and the Undying Celestial Empress — someone on the verge of achieving the Dao, with hope of making that final half-step.

“The Divine — truly living up to your name. I wonder what brings a senior such as yourself to wish to visit my Heavenly Court?”

“We are looking for someone,” the elder said.

“Oh? Who could it be, that even the Divine would wish to meet them?” Ye Fan was astonished.

“Over all these many years, we have wandered the entire cosmos, tread countless star-seas, and even journeyed to the Revered Emperor’s homeland — your place of birth, Earth — all in search of one particular person. We have at last found a clue. It turns out they are within the Heavenly Court established in this age. Could this be the will of Heaven? Still living within the Heavenly Court — even though two Heavenly Courts are separated by ten thousand ages, this in itself is enough to foretell certain things.” The elder sighed with profound feeling.

Ye Fan was immediately struck with shock upon hearing this.