Peach blossoms covered the mountainside in a sea of pink and rosy haze. Ancient trees twisted like sleeping dragons, their trunks gnarled and powerful. To all appearances, it truly was a peach garden from beyond the world of men.

An aged figure walked through it alone — making his solitary way along the path, pausing now and then to gaze at distant evening clouds, to look closely at the blossoms just ahead. His white hair hung loose, and his face was carved deep with the lines of years.

This was Ye Fan. He had come to a world that did not belong to cultivators — everything he saw were ordinary mortals, and few knew that this place concealed a secret unknown to the wider world.

This was Xue Yueqing’s most beloved place. He had once met a girl here — and shared a warm and precious memory, the most deeply engraved memory of a great Demon Emperor’s entire life.

The long years had passed, and the peach garden remained as it had always been, the spring wind brushing gently against his face.

A stone stele stood within the grove of peach trees, three ancient characters carved into it in demonic script: Heavenly Peach Garden.

Ye Fan walked in silence. Tens and hundreds of millions of years had passed, and this place had changed little from what was recorded in the ancient texts he had obtained in secret.

The Demon Emperor of an era, Xue Yueqing — born of a weak and insignificant people, blazing a path upward while singing the praises of the immortal road, ultimately achieving Emperor-hood, becoming one of the most formidable figures the cosmos had ever known.

And yet he had lived through so many joys and sorrows, so many helpless moments. In his most powerful hour, at the very end, he had never even seen the woman most precious to him — not even one last time.

That woman had dissolved into the Dao — leaving no bones, no body. Only a bundle of withered flowers remained, which became his most treasured possession. He carried them to his very death, and they were buried with him in his tomb.

“The Demon Emperor once obtained a Heavenly Peach Immortal Tree. Could he have discovered it here?”

Ye Fan wandered the garden for more than ten days, capturing traces that ordinary people could not perceive. And here, he saw the footprints of the Queen Mother of the West — she had also come to offer her respects in memory.

“Fifty years — and it feels as though five thousand years have passed…”

Ye Fan murmured softly. His white hair danced in the wind as he strolled through the peach garden, making no use of his divine power, not deploying any technique or art.

This road — he was still walking it. He had not given up. Within his eyes, a fire burned still — the blazing light of a spirit that would not yield.

The roads of those who had come before, the paths of those who had found their Dao — he had studied many of them by now. Those people had all been great Emperors and Sovereigns.

Through all these years, he had been tracing their life journeys — yet in the end, those paths were not his to walk. Even so, he had captured something of the spirit and feeling of those ancient figures, and it had touched upon his own flickering insight.

And then, in the blink of an eye, another twenty years had passed. Time slipped through people’s fingers no matter how tightly they tried to hold it.

Seventy years of elapsed time. In the mortal world, nearly an entire generation had lived and died — life continued to change and flow — yet news of Ye Fan had become impossible to hear.

Yes — from the fiftieth year onward, there had been no word of him at all. People assumed his condition had worsened further.

Some even speculated that he had burned through his own years at a rate of a hundred years to one — squandering his own lifespan, now truly stepping toward twilight, driven to the very edge by the ancient Supreme Beings, caught in a worsening spiral.

Over these many decades, wind and cloud had swept through heaven and earth — many things had occurred. In particular, over the past several years, certain forbidden zones of life had shown signs of stirring.

The Underworld — the entire vast expanse of that spectral earth — had been swallowed by a black mist, impossible to see clearly. Even a gaze as powerful as a Quasi-Emperor’s could not pierce through. Something terrible had changed within.

A powerful fluctuation was emanating from there — like the sound of breathing, as though some immense being was inhaling and exhaling the essence of heaven and earth, on the verge of awakening and emerging.

Throughout this stretch of time, a young man had remained seated in meditation in the starry sky, his eyes closed, facing the black earth of the spectral land. His hair had gone entirely white — he had genuinely aged seven thousand years.

Yet he had not left for even a single moment, remaining alone to face the spectral earth head-on — standing guard over this place.

Some people had seen him, and not one of them was anything less than shaken and filled with admiration. One person, alone, to face the Underworld — to stand watch here — what kind of extraordinary courage did that take? Who among ordinary people would dare?

As for the Perfect Tyrant Body’s Ancestral Star — these recent days had been far from quiet. People heard terrifying low roars coming from that direction — incredibly deep, enough to shake the Great Dao of the cosmos.

Every soul on that star trembled. And someone witnessed it with their own eyes: something was moving within the ancestral cave of the Tyrant Blood of Heaven lineage. At last, it emerged.

It was a fierce beast — every inch of its body covered in black scales, dark radiance cold and chilling, wreathed in flowing mist and fog, like a terrifying demon god come to obliterate the world.

It moved like a predator — a wolf, a tiger, a leopard — radiating an aura of savagery. Its power, naturally, was far greater and more terrible than any of those creatures. Its scales and armor made it look ferocious. Most striking of all was its back, where dozens to hundreds of enormous spines jutted upward like spears, stabbing toward the sky — terrifying and menacing, dark radiance seeping from each one. Add to that a mouthful of snow-white fangs, breathing in and exhaling star rivers — it was like a disaster beast from the age when heaven and earth were first created.

This was a world-slaying fierce beast, raised on the blood of ten thousand living creatures. Its origin on this ancestral star was staggering — for it had once followed a Perfect Tyrant Body into battle across the heavens, and every road it had walked was soaked with blood and bones.

Whenever it appeared, war had come. It was the terrible guardian beast of the Tyrant Blood of Heaven lineage.

The emergence of a great hegemon’s mount shook the entire star into upheaval. Everyone leapt to their feet — this was too significant. Did this mean the Tyrant Blood of Heaven intended to return to the world of men and seize control of the cosmos’s rise and fall?

“The master will not emerge — but he is very displeased. He commands all of you to mobilize and find the whereabouts of the Holy Body Ye Fan.”

The terrifying beast stood against the heavens, breathing in and exhaling star rivers, wreathed in cloud and mist, gazing down upon the entire great star with a ruler’s eye. Those words it spoke sent shudders through every heart — many felt waves of discomfort wash over them, and numerous people fell to their knees.

“We obey the divine mandate of the Tyrant Blood of Heaven!”

Someone cried out immediately, vowing to do everything in their power to locate Ye Fan. Others echoed the pledge in rapid succession. The Perfect Tyrant Body was the sacred ancestor of their people — no one dared defy him.

And from the depths of their hearts, they revered him completely, accepting the command without a single condition.

The world-slaying beast nodded. Its eyes were crimson. The black scales gleamed with dark radiance, a cold aura radiating from every inch of it. It turned and disappeared into the cosmic starfield — it had mobilized as well.

All these years had passed, and Ye Fan had remained utterly without news. Though hope had grown ever more distant, that very silence made the people of the Tyrant Blood of Heaven lineage uneasy.

They had not forgotten: years ago, a Perfect Tyrant Body that had nearly ascended to Emperor-hood had been killed outright by the Holy Body’s ancient forefather — and that chapter had ended in shadow and defeat.

They harbored a deep and abiding wariness toward the Holy Body lineage — that was their most feared and most respected great enemy.

Though throughout these ten thousand years, on the ancient starry path, they had held the advantage — claiming victory more often than not — that proved nothing. The struggle between these two sides stretched back to the age of myth. Measured against the full record of battles from ancient times to the present, those few victories were too small to matter.

The Northern Dipper — a place that inspired longing and inspired fear in equal measure.

It was the legendary star of burial for Emperors, its earth keeping too many secrets. Its ancient brilliance had been extraordinary — bearing the footprints of many Great Emperors and ancient Sovereigns. Even now, seven great forbidden zones of life remained within it, unmatched and unrivaled — one could call it the most powerful land in all the world.

Within the Primordial Ancient Mine, a faint melodic sound rose — like a clear spring gurgling up from deep earth, flowing into desert sands, nourishing all things, carrying a sense of joy and beauty to all who heard it.

Every people of the Northern Reaches was shocked. After several centuries of silence, that flute sound had returned. It had been heard before, during the age when Ye Fan was first making his name known to the world.

“The heavens — crimson clouds fill the sky! A figure who defies the heavens is entering the world — the Ripple Immortal Lady treads across the sky!”

On this day, many people of the Northern Reaches were stunned. Powerful cultivators witnessed an unimaginable sight: from within the Primordial Forbidden Zone, rosy mist rose into the sky — ten thousand beams of auspicious light — and a supremely beautiful woman passed through the heavens, playing her flute as she walked, entering the starfield above.

Many were turned to stone. What was happening? This was not a dark age — why were powerful figures emerging into the world?

“You know, there have been persistent rumors throughout the cosmos lately — someone is on the verge of becoming an Emperor. That has drawn the attention of the great forbidden zones.”

“I’ve heard the same — but not every forbidden zone would necessarily intervene. In the past, similar things have happened, and I think most forbidden zones would simply watch with cold eyes.”

“These things — who can say for certain.”

The Northern Reaches erupted with alarm. Panic spread through the Eastern Desolation. What people feared most was the coming of a dark and chaotic upheaval.

“From the look of things, these figures may not necessarily be moving to stop the one who is about to become an Emperor. They are probably trying to understand the situation — to see what kind of attitude this generation’s Dao-seeker holds toward them. The one who emerged just now should not yet be a true Supreme Being, but cannot be far from it.”

“BOOM!”

Within the Eastern Desolation, a forbidden ground detonated into a plume of demonic cloud that shot straight out beyond the domain. A terrifying column of smoke and vapor rose into the sky.

“That is Immortal Mound — someone has emerged from there too!”

It was said that Immortal Mound was a burial ground for immortals — the most ancient burial ground of all, called Immortal Mound, though some said it was a forbidden zone transplanted from the age of myth to its current location.

Not long afterward, the Sea of Reincarnation trembled. A beam of blood-red light pierced sun and moon, becoming a rainbow that vanished beyond the domain, shaking all the world.

One after another, the great forbidden zones showed signs of movement. This filled the hearts of all who witnessed it with unease and dread. Was someone truly about to attain the Dao in this age? It had drawn the attention of every great forbidden zone.

The stakes could not be higher. Every figure within a forbidden zone of life believed this age was extraordinary — was a Dao-seeker about to appear? Were they measuring whether such a person posed a conflict with their own interests? Could it truly be Ye Fan?

And yet, judging from seventy years of rumor, his condition seemed terrible — he had not survived even a single tribulation.

The Enlightenment Tea Tree rustled and shook, its leaves flickering with light. Within the Undying Mountain, a powerful living being emerged — stepping outward, heaven and earth trembling in response — and soared into the sky.

“What is happening? No matter how you look at it, it seems as though someone is truly about to attain the Dao. Can they be so certain?”

On this day, the cosmos was thrown into tremendous commotion. Nothing in any direction could remain still. Forbidden zones of life showed abnormal signs, sending tremors through every heart.

At last, an important piece of news emerged, and people finally understood. Someone had discovered a person with a Chaos Body — and that person had already reached the Quasi-Emperor realm. This had drawn the attention of the forbidden zones.

Someone used a Heaven-Reflecting Divine Crystal to record a scene in the cosmos — a true reproduction of what they had witnessed — and it was brought back by descendants of a forbidden zone traveling in the outside world, setting off an enormous earthquake.

Heaven-Reflecting Crystal Stones can preserve true historical moments. Someone rubbed and copied that record and distributed it, allowing even ordinary people to see what had been captured.

In a darkness-swathed expanse of sky, a white-robed figure sat in meditation, their back to all observers. From the crown of their head, chaotic energy churned and rose against the heavens — terrifying beyond measure — surrounding stars going dark as all the vital energy of the region was absorbed and swallowed, transformed at last into Chaos Immortal Essence.

Had the Chaos Body truly emerged into the world? Was it they who sought to become Emperor? The forbidden zones were taking notice. Truly, this was a terrifying and extraordinary age.

Contrary to people’s expectations, among those who had come from the forbidden zones, some were pursuing the Chaos Body — while others, astonishingly, were searching for Ye Fan.

This result shocked the world once more.

This cosmos was about to fall into chaos — people sensed the quiet that comes before a violent storm. Someone was going to become an Emperor.