The nine sacred mountains of the Ancient Forbidden Land had long since crumbled, yet the place remained densely wooded, with a massive abyss at its center plunging deep into the earth below.

Over the past two thousand years, the world had been shaken by constant upheavals. Several of the great forbidden zones had been leveled or had simply vanished, leaving only this last one standing.

For all those years, no one had dared set foot here. The place was regarded with profound reverence and awe.

Many had come to know that during the most desperate moments of the dark upheaval years ago, the Female Emperor sleeping within the Ancient Forbidden Land had awakened. With overwhelming force, she had crushed and quelled it entirely — a deed of immense virtue.

Ye Fan walked with steady steps. As he entered, his expression grew distant and dreamy — this was not his first visit here, and his current achievements were inseparable from this place.

Had it not been for the divine medicines here, how could he have dissolved the Bitter Sea? How could he have repaired the wounds inflicted upon his Dao?

When he had come here in the past, he had carried a resolve to die, surviving through nine deaths and a single life. This place stripped away a being’s years of life, making it nearly impossible for any living creature to tread upon.

Now, returning once more, the Life Essence throughout Ye Fan’s body flowed naturally on its own, not a single strand leaking away. Someone of his level was at last unaffected by this place.

“Ye Fan requests an audience with the Great Emperor!”

The words were not spoken loudly, yet they rang clearly down into the depths of the abyss and simultaneously shook the Eastern Wastelands.

Everyone was in an uproar. Ye Fan had come — and he had entered the most mysterious Ancient Forbidden Land. Many were stunned beyond all measure.

Were the two great giants finally going to meet? People naturally did not assume he had come to pacify the forbidden zone, for the Female Emperor was the only forbidden zone master who had ever guarded humanity and suppressed the dark upheaval.

Though this was a place of death, if one did not provoke it, there would naturally be no danger. People feared her, but deep within their hearts, they also held boundless reverence.

“This… truly fills one with anticipation!”

The thought of the Holy Body Ye Fan meeting with the Female Emperor stirred tremendous excitement across the world. People wished desperately they could witness it in person. Alas, that could only remain a wish — impossible to put into action.

Years had passed, and the vegetation here remained lush as ever. Yet the center of the forbidden zone had grown more desolate — the abyss had been blasted open in that earlier battle, its surface riddled with cracks that had never been repaired.

Ye Fan arrived and stopped advancing. He transmitted his voice once more, requesting an audience.

Without a sound, a Wasteland Slave appeared — clad in ancient garments. He was Xia Feng, the Ancient Saint, who had sought an audience with the Green Emperor many times in his day before falling into this place. Now, as if emptied of all expression, he gestured to Ye Fan, inviting him into the abyss.

“Big brother!”

Outside the Ancient Forbidden Land, Xiao Nannan watched with worry. She felt something strange about this place, her heart thumping wildly, afraid something might happen to Ye Fan.

“Don’t worry,” Xiao Song said to comfort her, his manner calm and still. He took Xiao Nannan’s hand and they waited quietly outside the forbidden zone.

Ye Fan took a step and descended into the abyss. Immediately he felt a terrifying presence wash over him — the Life Essence within his body nearly spilled outward.

He could not help but sigh inwardly. The center of this land was truly uncanny, capable of affecting even someone of the Great Emperor level. Mysterious and frightening beyond description.

That he had finally entered this place — his heart was complicated. In former days, he would not have dared even dream of it. Ye Fan was deeply curious about this place. He very much wished to understand how the Female Emperor had spent all these years down beneath the earth.

Below the abyss, there had once been vast ruins. Now all had become rubble. What age had left these behind? It was impossible to say with certainty.

A massive stone gate appeared ahead — still and deep, as though it connected to a vast and magnificent immortal realm, with a Female Emperor seemingly waiting alone upon the road to immortality.

This was a strange feeling that arose within Ye Fan. The place was unnervingly tranquil, and that presence was even more astonishing — it could very nearly strip away a Great Emperor’s Life Essence.

He glanced curiously at Xia Feng. This aged saint’s condition was peculiar — like a puppet, yet seemingly with a trace of consciousness remaining. It was precisely that peculiar presence which allowed him to endure through the ages.

The stone gate opened with a rumbling groan, and immortal mist surged out at once, revealing a strange world. Ye Fan’s eyelids twitched — at a glance, he thought he had arrived before the Heavenly Gate at the far end of the road to immortality!

A hazy immortal realm lay ahead, seemingly within reach. Yet once you truly stepped inside, it felt impossibly distant — this was an illusion wrought by tremendous divine power.

This place was cut off from the world. The laws of the immortal path circulated here. Pristine immortal energy drifted in coils. The immortal realm appeared and disappeared in glimpses. A divine medicine had been casually planted by the roadside — it was the Nine Wonders herb.

By now, it had merged back into one, standing over a meter tall — partly like a tree, partly like grass, crystalline radiance flowing through its entire form. It had grown nine different kinds of leaves and, though it bore no fruit, it had burst into bloom.

Ye Fan stopped and stood in silence, overcome with emotion, staring at the divine medicine by the roadside, his thoughts drifting. His present achievements were inseparable from this medicine.

The petals’ fragrance wafted to his nose. Flowing light shimmered and dazzled. The entire plant was mystical and wondrous — the reunified mother plant was countless times more brilliant than before, suffused with the profound meaning of the Great Dao.

Ye Fan came to a sudden understanding. This divine medicine had split into nine roots, then rejoined into one — this was no arbitrary act. The Female Emperor was using it to deduce some principle of the Great Dao!

Moving forward, his heart gave a violent lurch. He saw a massive Dragon’s Nest, brimming with churning Chaos energy, with several coffins drifting within it.

The Chaos Dragon’s Nest!

Years had passed. Ye Fan had assumed they had left the Northern Dipper long ago. He had never imagined the Female Emperor had moved them here. This only further confirmed it — she was truly someone of iron resolve.

For over two hundred thousand years, she had always been here. She had never died.

Standing here now, Ye Fan felt the Female Emperor’s supreme greatness from the depths of his heart. Was she trying to rival the Desolate Heavenly Domain itself? She fell not one whit short.

She had been reborn again and again, burying each past version of herself within coffins in the Chaos Dragon’s Nest. What manner of heaven-defying act was this?

The place that the ancient ten-thousand clans had regarded as a supreme sacred ground on par with Violet Mountain — that is, the Ancient Emperor’s Mountain — the Chaos Dragon’s Nest, was now merely her burial ground through the ages.

A golden true dragon darted away. Upon catching sight of Ye Fan, as though startled, it bolted in a blur back into the Dragon’s Nest.

Ye Fan was speechless. That was indeed the true dragon Undying Medicine he had nearly captured years ago.

All the way along, there was only stillness. Xia Feng moved like a ghost, not uttering a single word from beginning to end.

A moment later, they reached the deepest point. An archaic bronze hall appeared, standing tall within the immortal realm, accompanied by a clear spring and decorated with strange grasses and divine blossoms. The ancient hall looked grand and imposing.

Seeing the bronze immortal hall once more, waves stirred in Ye Fan’s heart. Thinking back to that time — he had not known Ji Ziyue long when they broke into this hall together, yet it felt as vivid as yesterday. His heart ached at the thought.

At that time, he was still a minor cultivator who did not know the height of the heavens or the depth of the earth. That he had survived to walk out was a miracle. Yet the one who had entered with him could never be seen again.

There was some bitterness, and some pain. He stood for a moment before collecting his grief and following the Ancient Saint Xia Feng into the bronze hall.

They passed through several halls in succession and arrived at a vast and boundless chamber. Unlike before, there was no sense of danger at every step — an aura of peace suffused the air, and the passage was smooth.

Upon entering this place, Ye Fan was struck by a violent shock. He saw over a dozen Wasteland Slaves, and among them he recognized one — and nearly froze in place.

“Ziling!”

Ye Fan cried out involuntarily. He was looking at someone he could never have imagined finding here.

Long ago, they had set sail from the other shore of the starry sky. Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin had carried them to this shore. There had been over a dozen of them crossing the stars together. More than two thousand years had passed, and nearly all those who had survived had since been found — all but one, who had never been seen again.

Back then, driven into the Ancient Forbidden Zone to gather medicines, Zhou Yi, Wang Ziwen, Lin Jia, Liu Yiyi, and Zhang Ziling had all fled — and all had rushed into the immortal palace left behind by the Ancient Heavenly Court, each stepping into different formation arrays and entering different starry skies.

The others had all been found. Only Zhang Ziling remained nowhere to be found.

Ye Fan could never have imagined that he would reunite with him here — and in circumstances such as these.

Zhang Ziling heard the call, so sincere and heartfelt, and turned his body. A flicker of light passed through his eyes. He hesitated for a long while, then nodded woodenly.

“How could this be?” No matter how Ye Fan tried, he could not wrap his mind around the fact that Zhang Ziling had fallen into the Ancient Forbidden Land and become a Wasteland Slave. So many years had passed, and he remained young — time had left no mark on him whatsoever.

Ye Fan sighed inwardly. Ziling’s condition was peculiar — one could not say he had died, for a small spark of consciousness remained. He believed that with his own abilities, this could be reversed. What he feared was that once Ziling returned to the living, time would instantly reduce him to dust.

He turned and looked toward the center of the hall. At last, he beheld the Female Emperor — seated there in meditation, beautiful beyond what felt real. Transcendent and serene, she seemed right before him, yet as though she dwelled within an immortal realm.

So this was the iron-willed Great Emperor!

Truly peerless in all the ages. She looked so beautiful, her bearing flawlessly exquisite. Yet once she grew fierce, this heaven and earth would be destroyed — no one throughout the ages had ever stood against her.

Had it been two thousand years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine that one day Ye Fan would stand face to face with this legendary Female Emperor at such close range.

A woman of whom no one knew whether she still walked this world — one steeped in legend, whose talent was foremost since ancient times — she was right here, living and breathing, seated before him.

“I pay my respects to the Great Emperor!”

Ye Fan spoke, and at the same moment his heart lurched violently. Around the Female Emperor, mist and haze lingered. Behind her stood two women, seemingly like Dao attendants.

One was the Holy Maiden of Tianxuan — he had seen her before. The other set his thoughts surging in turbulent waves: it was Li Xiaoman. She was actually still in this world, and she had become a Wasteland Slave.

Ye Fan opened his mouth, a wave of bitterness washing through him. It was he who had personally cast Li Xiaoman down into the abyss all those years ago.

The Female Emperor opened her eyes — a touch of blankness in them, then after a moment, a clarity. She said nothing. She raised one hand, and a meditation cushion materialized, woven entirely from Dao energy.

Ye Fan sat down. He was very close to her. He calmed his mind. To sit face to face with an iron-willed Great Emperor in this manner — if word got out, it would shake ten thousand ages.

“I have come to seek the Great Emperor’s guidance.”

“What is the path to immortal longevity?”

“My friends are growing old. I cannot bear to stand by and watch them wither and pass away.”

“I know the Great Emperor’s talent is foremost throughout all ages — I came expressly to ask you to teach me.”

……

Ye Fan said a great deal, yet the Female Emperor did not respond with a single word. Her expression remained calm and tranquil, like a celestial maiden carved from warm white jade.

A long time passed. The bronze immortal hall fell into silence. At such close range, Ye Fan could truly feel the depth of her power — unfathomable.

“That is right — the blood-soaked character for ‘Immortal’ carved deep within the bronze hall was left behind by the iron-willed Great Emperor after her transformation went awry. Her physical body may have been shattered, but her primordial spirit did not perish.”

In this moment, Ye Fan thought of many things. In those days, when the iron-willed Great Emperor’s transformation met with disaster, her physical form had dissolved and blasted through the bronze hall — that hole must have been made by her own hand.

Suddenly, the Female Emperor pointed at the Wasteland Slaves.

Ye Fan was taken aback. Then understanding struck him at once. Was this how she meant for his friends to live long? They would rather die than agree to that.

“Is there truly no path of immortality? No method of endless life?” Ye Fan’s heart grew bleak.

If there were, why would the iron-willed Great Emperor have reduced these people to Wasteland Slaves? Only in that strange state could they persist through the ages alongside the world.

Ye Fan sighed deeply. In this world, there was truly no one who could be imperishable. Even the iron-willed Great Emperor herself had once nearly perished during her own rebirth.

“How does one escape death? How does one live forever? Is the road to immortality that all ages have trodden a deception?” Ye Fan asked. He was not asking for himself — he simply could not bear to watch his friends pass away one after another.

“The road that generation after generation has walked in pursuit of immortality — that is the road to immortality.” The Female Emperor finally spoke. Her voice was like celestial music.

Yet in Ye Fan’s ears, it struck like a thunderclap. His body jolted, and then grew ice-cold all through.