A stone stele — not formed from laws, but a genuine ancient object standing on the immortality road, the like of which had never been seen before in all of history. And moreover, it had been erected by the Desolate Heaven Emperor. The implications were immense.

That was a Primordial Ancient age — impossible to verify, impossible to comprehend. Yet people knew that the powerful beings of that era were extraordinarily terrifying. How else to explain the existence of an immortal artifact like the Desolate Tower enduring to the present day?

“Did the Desolate Heaven Emperor ascend to immortality?”

This was a question that left everyone uncertain and unsettled. That person had once walked to this very place — yet the Desolate Tower still remained in the mortal realm. Had they truly succeeded?

Swoosh!

A streak of blood-light erupted. Ye Fan’s left ribs were torn open, and even a bone was ripped out — it was a massive white tiger’s claw. The White Tiger Daoist had struck at him with ruthless precision.

In this place, their assaults on one another never ceased, and had grown even more ferocious — for once past this stele, immortality might truly await, and with quotas of only two or three people, how could they not be willing to fight to the death?

In fact, it was not only Ye Fan who had sustained injuries; every person was already soaked in blood. In such fierce and brutal slaughter, every one of them was a battered, battered wreck, bathing in imperial blood, raging wildly onward.

In the recent exchange of attacks, the White Tiger Daoist had manifested his true body. His massive tail had been snapped off a section and was now in Ye Fan’s grasp, being wielded as a whip.

Boom!

A violent collision. The Phoenix Wing Gilt Trident and the Beast God clashed; immortal light cascaded in ten thousand rays, and blood rain flew in all directions.

The supreme being from the Immortal Mausoleum was locked in battle with the Ten Thousand Dragon Emperor; the terrifying energy saturated the heavens in every direction, spreading everywhere. Every last person was bleeding freely; their weapons had all sustained damage.

Suddenly, in a single instant, nearly all five of the ancient supreme emperors moved simultaneously, charging straight at Ye Fan with murderous coordination, their actions perfectly aligned — intent on obliterating him!

“The time has come. Let us deal with him first, then we’ll contest the quotas among ourselves!”

They held deep wariness toward Ye Fan, for he was the supreme being of the present age — his vital energy was like a vast ocean, surpassing theirs, capable of sustained combat. They, on the other hand, could not sustain it; their time was limited. They feared that in the end, they would merely be doing the Holy Physique Ye Fan a favour, handing him a ready-made victory.

Boom!

Ye Fan extended both hands in a guiding gesture, and a blazing immortal light erupted, blocking directly in front of him. The energy it carried was something that had shaken both past and present, leaving all five supreme beings aghast.

The Immortal Ascending Cauldron!

It had flown back to him, and under Ye Fan’s guidance it sheltered him — green mists flooding the heavens, immortal Dao laws dancing and swirling, nearly shattering the myriad heavens.

“You’ve benefited greatly from that!”

Several of the ancient venerables deduced what had occurred. Within the cauldron, the divine deity, through the haze of forgotten ages, had taken on the form of a Divine Infant — and now, though it had returned to its original state, it still remembered him.

In the past, no one had known that the divine spirit of the Immortal Ascending Cauldron had spent time in Ye Fan’s possession. It was only after the cauldron was reforged that the truth came to light.

“Do you think that with a single cauldron you can hold off the five of us? Laughable — not even the Emperor Venerable reborn could manage that!”

With a thunderous hum, five kinds of supreme Great Dao laws surged forward in a mighty flood, sweeping toward Ye Fan and submerging him. The Immortal Ascending Cauldron trembled and scattered ten thousand rays of brilliance downward, and Ye Fan struck back without holding anything in reserve.

Pff!

Blood rain flew. He had sustained grievous injuries. Even with the Immortal Ascending Cauldron in hand, five Emperor Dao masters acting together was more than he could withstand, and he was catastrophically wounded.

Think of it — who in the present age could withstand five emperors in single combat? That was not realistic. Unless one transformed into an immortal, to do otherwise was certainly to die.

The one fortunate thing was that the Immortal Ascending Cauldron drifted above his head, and could help reduce the force of the incoming attacks in his defense — without it, Ye Fan’s situation would have been far more dire, and survival would have been a slim hope.

Ye Fan’s eyes shifted and flickered. Conditions were deteriorating rapidly. He had entered before the immortal pass, the chaos aperture, and the samsara gate fully closed — already bracing himself for this. Immortal ascension would surely be a matter of nine deaths and one survival, requiring him to wager his very life.

But those several people’s alliance was certainly not stable. If an opportunity arose, they would surely move to eliminate their rivals.

Without hesitation, he merged himself with the Immortal Ascending Cauldron as one. The green mists erupted in a blazing surge and he drove toward the front of the immortality road. Where no road existed, he carved one — a golden great road forced open by sheer power, piercing through the terrifying barrier.

Boom!

He charged past the stone stele. Ahead, a blinding brilliance suddenly assailed the eyes — a vast, immense world right before him. Had he become an immortal? Had he entered the immortal domain?

The others had no intention of letting him be the first to ascend. They kept pace and charged in alongside him, then looked in all four directions.

Ancient trees towered to the heavens here. A great river flowed in a surging flood. It was truly a vast and immense world, and divine birds wheeled through the air while immortal beasts roared, their pounding feet making the great earth rumble.

“Have we become immortals?” The White Tiger Daoist cried out, manifesting his great true form, unable to hold back a long howl at the heavens. He trampled a mountain into rubble — his terrifying body pressing heaven and earth down — a truly stunning sight.

Everyone came to a halt. They no longer fought. Had they just become immortals like that? It was far too sudden. They had charged into a strange and wondrous world.

“Something is wrong. The condition of our bodies has not improved. The energy here is far more concentrated than before — many times over — yet this is not the immortal realm.” The Beast God said.

The others closed their eyes as well, sensing carefully with their hearts. After a moment, they opened their eyes again in disappointment, revealing expressions of profound sorrow.

“This is still not the immortal domain. It is law-manifested — only, it is so supremely real that it has nearly deceived us all.”

It was a harsh reality. They had charged their way in, yet the hoped-for outcome had not materialised. This was not the immortal realm. It was despairing.

For a time, no one fought. They forgot the bloodshed, every person silently deducing.

“Calculated it. This place is… the threshold of the immortal realm. We have arrived!”

At nearly the same moment, every person opened their eyes. Divine light blazed from their gaze — Ye Fan was no exception. Right ahead of them was a heavenly gate. Step through it, and one would be immortal.

They rushed together toward the depths of this world. At last, a heavenly gate came into view.

All of them attempted to force it open in turn, and all of them failed. No one could move it. It stood like an imperishable monument at the end of the world — simply unable to be opened.

“Use the Immortal Ascending Cauldron!” Several supreme beings bore down on Ye Fan, demanding he act.

Ye Fan met them with cold indifference — but he did genuinely move to act. He wanted to see whether it could be opened. The heavenly gate shuddered with a rumbling sound under his assault, yet ultimately remained intact. He had failed.

“Characters have appeared!”

“To open this gate, supreme beings of the Emperor Dao must be offered as sacrifice. This is the only path to the immortal domain.”

It was Emperor’s script — deeply arcane, yet beyond the ability of none of those present to decipher. This left the group exchanging glances, cold light flashing in every pair of eyes. Without this, they would already need to slaughter half their number to free up enough quotas. Now it seemed that a bloodbath was truly unavoidable.

Ye Fan saw several pairs of eyes fixing on him — intent on offering him as the sacrifice. He laughed coldly. “Fellow Daoists — I have not yet truly established my Dao. Are you not afraid that I would be useless? Moreover, do you truly trust that what is carved on this heavenly gate is the truth? How do you know this is not the greatest deception since ancient times?”

“Even if it is a deception, we accept it. Having come this far, is there any road of retreat left to us?” The Beast God spoke, cold light blazing in his eyes.

They had no road of retreat. They had already reached the pinnacle of sublimation. After this battle, most of them would never again have the strength to set foot on the immortality road. This was their final, ultimate gambit in this lifetime.

Perhaps the road ahead held traps — perhaps it was even false — but they had no choice. As long as there was a single thread of hope, they would press forward.

“Kill!”

The great battle erupted. Ye Fan was the target the group wished to eliminate — though every person harboured private motives, knowing he was a different kind of Dao ascendant and fearing he would be useless as a sacrifice, so they quietly searched for other targets in the meantime.

This sort of battle — mutually wary, mutually guarded — made it an extraordinarily agonising fight. In the end, as expected, someone made a covert strike against their supposed ally, and a chaotic melee broke out. The supreme being from the Immortal Mausoleum also became an attack target. The White Tiger Daoist fared no better — he nearly bled out on the spot.

The chaos battle erupted. Heaven collapsed and earth cracked. This law-manifested world nearly crumbled entirely. Had it not been near the immortal realm, with those supreme divine runes shimmering to protect it, both the battleground and the immortality road would have been destroyed and vanished.

Outside, the divine punishment rolled on and on. The great cosmos trembled; all manner of light beams flew in every direction. By this point, every clan and race knew who was ascending to Great Emperor. All could see a colossal Golden Crow, gradually fusing a strand of its imprint into the Grand Dao of heaven and earth.

No one could stop it. Its Dao fruit had already taken shape, imprinted forever in heaven and earth. Once this tribulation passed, it would assuredly become a supreme Great Emperor.

The great tribulation continued. Within the endless sea of lightning, a Golden Crow cast all over as though forged from yellow gold ranged across the cosmos — striking upward at the nine-layered heavens, probing downward into the nine dark abysses.

It was creating a divine myth of Dao ascension!

“Hahaha!” On the Firesang Star, every important figure of the Golden Crow clan roared with laughter. Some had tears streaming down their faces — this outcome had shaken them all, moved them to weeping.

This was a divine miracle!

They had thought the old Golden Crow long dead. Who could have imagined he was on the verge of becoming a Great Emperor?

The clansmen had all believed the old one was in closed-door cultivation. Only they knew the truth: the ancestor had disappeared many years ago, with no word at all — most likely dead. Yet now he had returned in overwhelming force.

“Now that the old one has become a Great Emperor, let us see how that human Holy Physique can still swagger about!”

“Indeed — our clan’s ancestor has become a Great Emperor, to preside over and move freely through the mortal realm. No one can stop him. His vital energy is vigorous — nothing like those aged supreme beings!”

Many of the Golden Crow clan were simultaneously exhilarated and gnashing their teeth. They harboured deep hatred for Ye Fan — he had slain far too many of their powerful members in the past, yet they had been powerless to retaliate.

“The glory of our Golden Crow clan will illuminate ten thousand ages from this day forth. No one can stand against it!”

Throughout the cosmos, every powerful being fell silent. A Golden Crow Great Emperor was about to emerge. The entire configuration of the cosmos was going to undergo a violent and drastic change.

“I see now — why a Great Emperor suddenly appeared with no sound or trace, having reached this level in utter silence. It was him. In the first lifetime, he stood supreme over the world, waging bloody battles all the way to the quasi-emperor’s ninth heaven, wading through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. His accumulation was more than enough long ago. This second lifetime naturally belonged to him. Hah…” Some people were resigned.

Those who felt most resigned were naturally Yin Tiande, Huo Qizi, the Divine Venerable, the Shencan Daoist, and others. They too had cherished hopes — and the time they would have needed was not even that long. Alas, it was all too late. The Golden Crow clan’s Great Emperor had arisen, severing their road ahead.

Clang…

The sound of a bell rang out, slow and resonant. The Golden Crow Great Emperor was tempering weapons within the tribulation lightning, conducting a sacred forging of his own weapon — a great golden bell, the same colour as his body, forged from the yellow gold of the Dao tribulation. It was an extraordinarily fitting match.

“What power — to forge his own weapon at the moment of becoming Emperor. He even had such supreme immortal material prepared beforehand!” The people marvelled, knowing that the Golden Crow clan’s Great Emperor had enormous ambitions — or perhaps, one might say, enormous ambitions.

Within the endless lightning light, a great bell took shape. Its golden radiance was brilliant, illuminating the thirty-three heavens. The resonant bell waves rippled through ten thousand ages; in every corner of the cosmos, bells rang out in answer.

The bell’s completion came alongside him crossing the tribulation. Once they endured through it, they would together be unmatched beneath the heavens.

Yet the old Golden Crow also carried a kind of anxiety. He had become a Great Emperor, and Great Completion was nearly upon him — yet he had sensed the changes in the immortality road as well, and knew that if the immortal pass, the chaos aperture, the samsara gate, and the rest were to completely close, those in the outside world would never again have any opportunity.

“Becoming a Great Emperor is not my final destination. I must also become an immortal — to be the first in all of ten thousand ages!”

The Golden Crow clan’s Great Emperor steeled himself with fierce resolve. With a long, high-pitched cry that shook the entire cosmos, he spread his wings, seized his golden great bell, and — bearing the endless tribulation lightning upon himself — charged toward that immortal pass that was on the verge of closing.