Xiao Song’s expression was utterly earnest — resolute and unwavering. As the great era faded, a desolate atmosphere had settled over everything.
Ye Fan looked at his disciple, let out a gentle sigh, and nodded. “Very well.”
It was a weighty matter, with far-reaching consequences. Among the next generation of the Heavenly Court, there was no shortage of brilliant talent — yet none of them could fight supreme experts as Xiao Song and Ye Tong could.
The glorious era was drawing to its close. Many people had grown old. The Heavenly Court could not afford to be without precautions — at the very least, Taichu Ancient Mine had never been resolved, and where it lay was still unknown.
Ye Tong and Yang Xi, hearing the news, came at once. Looking at Xiao Song, they could not help but feel a pang of sorrow. Formidable as they were, having come this far — they still could not find the door to long life.
“Master, seal me away too.” Yang Xi said.
Ye Fan did not nod right away. After a long silence, he said: “None of you need to rush. Go back and think it over carefully. We still have the sovereign medicines — they can let you live through another age.”
Ye Fan turned and walked through the Heavenly Court. Mostly unfamiliar faces met his eyes — thousands of years had passed, and new people had replaced old ones. An entire generation of celestial soldiers and divine generals had been renewed.
By now, the children of Li Heishui, Dongfang Ye, Li Tian, and others had long since become the pillars of the Heavenly Court, shaking entire regions with their power. But the old friends had visibly aged.
Among Pang Bo’s thick hair, threads of white had long since appeared. His body was still broad and powerful, his back still straight — but the bloom of youth was gone.
“Pang Tao, apply yourself — or I’ll have you in closed cultivation for ten years with no visitors!” Pang Bo was scolding his great-great-grandson. He had long since been surrounded by children and grandchildren on every side.
Nearby were several children — round-faced and full of spirit. Under their elder’s berating, they wore long-suffering expressions, secretly making faces at one another behind his back.
Ye Fan smiled. So many of their generation had grown old — yet seeing the young ones, he felt a measure of comfort, reminded of what he and the others had once been.
By now, of everyone save Ye Fan’s own lineage, the others had long since been surrounded by great families of children and grandchildren, their households filled with the noise and life of many generations.
The passing of the elders — the grief of it — was softened somewhat by that new, youthful energy.
“Xiao Wu, you stop right there!”
From somewhere in the distance, a little golden monkey — only a few years old — came darting over at extraordinary speed, baring his teeth and looking decidedly like he had just gotten into trouble.
Suddenly, a great golden hand tore through the void and reached out, snatching little Holy Ape Xiao Wu up — the Holy Ape Prince appeared and grabbed his own child in one smooth motion.
Ye Fan laughed despite himself. Of all the descendants, the lineage of the Monkey was the most trying to deal with.
The Fighting Holy Ape bloodline reproduced with great difficulty. Yet by now, the Monkey finally had one child — and the child’s gifts and power were staggering, nearly the foremost of the young generation.
As for the little holy ape’s mother — her origins were equally extraordinary. She was none other than the Six-Eared Macaque, who had contended with the Holy Ape Prince for years. When the Monkey brought her home five hundred years ago, jaws had dropped all across the Heavenly Court.
She was, without question, a supreme powerhouse of extraordinary magnitude — and her presence had greatly strengthened the Heavenly Court in ways that could not easily be measured.
Initially, Ye Fan, Pang Bo, and Hua Hua had named the little holy ape Sun Wukong — close in spirit to the Victorious Buddha’s Dharma name. But the child’s mother had violently opposed it, and had once chased Hua Hua for a hundred thousand li, beating him until he fled with his head in his arms.
“Monkey — that’s no way to raise a child.” Ye Fan said.
Little Xiao Wu looked pitiful, his large eyes brimming with tears. “I won’t do it again, Father — please stop.”
When Ye Fan learned that the little monkey had caused havoc in the main hall of the Heavenly Court — playing with a group of children from the next generation and nearly tearing the entire palace apart — he was left momentarily speechless.
Ye Fan walked on. He had already made up his mind: in the future, he would seal away those who were about to pass on — even if they refused, he would carry it out regardless.
As he left the Immortal Mountain, he happened to see Long Ma out for a stroll. Though Long Ma was actually older than Ye Fan, his blood and vitality were still reasonably vigorous — having consumed more than one stalk of sovereign medicine in those earlier years. Still, he too had begun his descent.
In the distance, the Black Emperor was ambling over in the company of the Silver-Blooded Dual Emperors — unhurried and at ease. It too had aged. The wild ferocity of its former days was gone, and even its once pitch-black fur, lustrous as silk, had begun fading toward gray and white.
Ye Fan knew: this creature had consumed the Immortal Phoenix medicine and had been washed by the Beginningless Great Emperor himself down to the marrow of its bones. Its foundation was deep. Its lifespan was not a concern — not yet.
“Terribly bored. Let’s go out for a look around.” The Black Emperor said.
Ye Fan nodded. He left the Heavenly Court together with the big black dog and Long Ma, stepping out into the sea of stars.
“Alas — this Emperor is truly not resigned to it. All these years waiting — nearly an entire lifetime — and still no innately sacred holy body with a Dao embryo has appeared in the world.”
Ye Fan smiled bitterly and said nothing.
The stars stretched on without end. They walked through one star system after another. A great golden road unfurled beneath their feet, allowing them to cross vast distances in moments.
Across the cosmos, every clan and tribe that caught sight of this retreated in awe. They knew: this was the Celestial Emperor setting out. Though he had not appeared in many years, legends of him had never ceased — shaking all ten directions.
“Long live the Celestial Emperor — may he be undying through all boundless kalpas!”
“The Celestial Emperor, ten thousand years!”
…
From every direction, voices cried out — genuinely, from the heart. Ye Fan had swept away several of the great forbidden zones, shaking the cosmos, resolving the source of the dark upheaval. Many great clans held him in deep reverence.
“Our generation has grown old.” The Black Emperor, for once, was truly serious — letting out a long sigh and gazing into the depths of the star sea.
“The wild and unbridled years cannot be called back — those days are gone and will never return.” Long Ma said as well.
“One day, I will grasp the law of long life. I hope that when that day comes, I will still have old friends at my side.” Ye Fan said.
The vast sky, the boundless heavens — falling away steadily beneath that golden road.
“Hmm?” Suddenly, Ye Fan’s expression shifted. He stopped. He looked toward a distant star system.
In all the world, only his divine sense could be so terrifying — capable of shattering the nine heavens with a single thought. He had perceived an anomaly deep within the farthest reaches of the star sea, and he opened the Source Heavenly Immortal Pupils to see.
The golden road unfurled, carrying Ye Fan along with the Black Emperor and Long Ma across the star river, arriving at a stretch of Desolate wasteland.
There, a vast gray mist hung — boundless and without end, heavy and dense as lead clouds — pressing upon the void of the cosmos until it cracked and fractured, blotting out the sun, moon, and stars.
“What is this thing?” Long Ma drew a sharp breath, for everywhere that gray mist enveloped a constellation of stars, it simply devoured them — drawing away their life essence and leaving behind only dust.
Ye Fan thought for a moment, and then recalled something terrifying he had witnessed long ago.
Once, when the Eternal Star Domain had been marching upon the Northern Dipper, their fleet had encountered a wisp of such mist along the way. It had destroyed vast numbers of warships and left even the Sages trembling in fear, not daring to approach. It had been called the Devil’s Mist.
Ancient records from the Eternal Star Domain mentioned it — describing it as extremly terrifying — but the accounts were vague. No one had been able to say with certainty what it truly was.
It was a legendary taboo entity — a destructive force of utter annihilation. Whether it possessed independent will, whether it was a life form — these had never been definitively determined.
“This thing is connected to the Undying Heavenly Emperor.” The Black Emperor said, its expression grave. Over all these years, it had searched through many rare texts concerning the Beginningless Great Emperor and the Undying Heavenly Emperor.
“Today — let me see what the Devil’s Mist truly is.” Ye Fan said, leading the two of them forward. As Celestial Emperor, nothing in the world could stop him — not even something left behind by the Undying Heavenly Emperor.
“What a dense killing aura. I understand now — this truly matches the records in the ancient tome that Duan De gave me, dug from a burial pit. This is an aberration of corpse aura — formed from the decay of an imperial corpse.” The Black Emperor said.
A Great Emperor, under ordinary circumstances, would remain imperishable through ten thousand kalpas even after death — and if truly unable to hold on, would dissolve into the Dao. It was almost unheard of for an imperial-level corpse to decay.
But extremes always produce exceptions. Unusual things would always occur.
Ye Fan broke through the gray mist and walked into its depths — and his expression changed. This gray mist was strange and deeply terrifying. Someone as powerful as he could withstand it — but anyone else could not remain for long. The deeper one went toward the core, the more overwhelming it became. It could absolutely reduce a quasi-emperor at the peak of the ninth heaven to a pool of pus and blood.
“The mist is terrifying!” Long Ma cried out in alarm.
As they approached the core region, Ye Fan emanated radiance. The gray mist in this zone was especially overwhelming — like a great imperial beast, capable of swallowing the blood of supreme experts, actually attempting to seize his own life essence.
“This is no small thing. Something like this, used against aged supreme experts, would be extremely effective — it would drain what little blood and vitality they had left.” Ye Fan said.
“So it is this thing.” The Black Emperor was momentarily stunned. It produced a green jade turtle.
This was something Ye Fan had taken from before the altar of the crumbling ancient palace within the Taichu Forbidden Zone all those years ago, and had given to the Black Emperor. After all this time, the Black Emperor had long since researched what it was.
Someone had used tremendous power to seal within it the bones of a quasi-emperor, nurturing the corpse aura within. It was a formidable artifact — though the people of that era had had no use for it. Various formation patterns had been laid inside the green jade turtle. The body had rotted and dissolved over countless ages, transformed into the most potent decay aura — and now it could finally be put to great use.
A thought stirred in Ye Fan’s heart. He took the green jade turtle and, with the power of a Celestial Emperor, carved runes upon it — a power capable of turning the rotten into the divine. Even a blade of grass or a tree, refined this way by him, could become a heavenly treasure.
Then, using the mouth of the green jade turtle as the focal point, he drew all of the gray mist within it. At first it came like a raging river, then like a surging ocean — and the heavens swiftly cleared, and starlight poured through.
“There is someone in the distance!” Long Ma said.
Ye Fan nodded. He had already noticed — and he had spotted something else extraordinary as well.
In the end, all the gray mist was collected. Ye Fan handed the green jade turtle back to the Black Emperor and explained to it the method for activating the carved runes. It had now become a forbidden weapon.
A stone island floated in the void. Atop it lay a deep pool.
The Divine Soul Pond.
Ye Fan had once crossed the bitter sea of the Numinous Jewel Lord, and seen it in the divine shore that had formed from the ruined Dao palace on the far side.
There were three wondrous flowers in the world: the Demon God Flower, the Divine Clarity Flower, and the Dao Union Flower.
And there were three wondrous substances in the world linked to long life: the Wheel of Reincarnation Sea, the Divine Soul Pond, and the Transcending Immortal Cascade.
The Divine Shore had shattered in that great battle of long ago. Ye Fan had never expected to see the Divine Soul Pond again — and here it was, appearing in this place, wreathed in the Devil’s Mist.
“I understand now. The Divine Soul Pond belongs to the Undying Heavenly Emperor. This is terrifying — his soul has undergone a complete and thorough rebirth and transformation.” The Black Emperor was shaken to its core.
Drawing together the fragmentary records from the rare ancient texts, it pieced together the incomplete secret: the Undying Heavenly Emperor’s primordial spirit had been reborn anew. The physical body — the shell — had had its essence drawn out and then cast aside, left to decay and transform into mist.
Above the stone island, an ancient palace drifted — the source of the life aura they had sensed earlier.
That ancient structure was deeply mysterious, suspended in the cosmos, severing all perception of its aura. Neither the Black Emperor nor Long Ma could probe within it.
“There is someone inside. Please don’t tell me the old ghost of the Undying Heavenly Emperor has returned — that he is within, shedding his old self and undergoing some great metamorphosis.”