The Heavenly Emperor was reborn. His vital energy surged like a vast ocean as he rose from the towering crimson haze, standing firm across the Nine Heavens, gazing down upon the boundless earth, looking upon the mortal realm with supreme disdain.

This shook the entire world. Every living being erupted in uproar, and then into profound astonishment. It was too earth-shattering — no one had ever imagined the Heavenly Emperor would live yet another lifetime. It was truly a miracle.

People had believed he would pass away in peaceful meditation, that he could not escape this calamity, that birth, aging, sickness, and death were forces none could resist. Yet he had defied the heavens and accomplished this extraordinary feat.

He was young and unfathomable, brimming with vitality, yet simultaneously possessing incomparable majesty. He stepped out from that water-blue star, moving forward step by step into the depths of the cosmos, shaking every soul who witnessed it.

The powerful cultivators of every race across the cosmos stood dumbstruck. What kind of legend was this? Who from ancient times could compare? Three lifetimes as Heavenly Emperor — each one at the absolute pinnacle — and never once had he severed his own cultivation.

“The Heavenly Emperor!”

In that moment, a storm swept across the cosmos. Countless sages and saints called out those two words, drawing even more voices to join them, for what had occurred was simply too astonishing.

Across every realm of the cosmos, the Heavenly Emperor stood alone and supreme, without equal or rival. Even fighting the Heavenly Sovereign while on the verge of death had not brought him down. He had lived to his third lifetime — who could possibly take him away now?

The four extremities of heaven and earth seemed to erupt in upheaval. Divine sounds resonated across every land. Many people were overcome with excitement — especially the endless ranks of the Heavenly Court, who had gone completely wild, crying out without cease.

Millions upon millions of soldiers roared. One hundred thousand divine generals bellowed. The Nine Heavens and Ten Earths trembled as the cosmos erupted into a sea of storms. In that moment, the entire universe was thrown into massive upheaval.

Ye Fan had returned against all odds — truly a peerless and matchless figure in all the world!

He was astonishingly young, his long black hair cascading freely, like a deity given form — eternal and imperishable. His entire being radiated an undying brilliance.

“If I ever march into the Immortal Realm one day, I will cut down the Heavenly Sovereign along the way!” These were the Heavenly Emperor’s quiet words — and also his oath.

Though the cosmos was boundless, Ye Fan crossed countless galaxies in just a few strides and returned to the Heavenly Court. Little Song was so moved that hot tears streamed from his eyes — his master was finally safe and unharmed.

At this moment, countless armies waited outside the Heavenly Court to welcome the legendary Heavenly Emperor who had lived undying for fifty thousand years. Every last soul among them trembled with excitement and exhilaration.

The celestial soldiers and generals stretched beyond what the eye could see. Metallic armor shimmered with flowing light. Battle swords and divine spears in their hands gleamed with cold radiance — these were elite troops, warriors who had survived a hundred battles.

Ye Fan withdrew his Heavenly Emperor’s aura — for few in this world could endure it — and swept his gaze across the assembled host. Then his body released a gentle radiance, and thousands upon thousands of rays of auspicious light surged outward toward the crowd.

In that moment, a resonant clanging rang out without end. Everyone’s armor and weapons erupted with blazing brilliance. Strange runic patterns appeared upon them, and the grade of every piece was elevated by a tremendous degree!

All present were stunned. What kind of supreme divine ability was this — an indiscriminate reversal that caused all weapons and armor to evolve and ascend? The Heavenly Emperor was bestowing his blessing, and countless divine treasures had been born.

“The Heavenly Emperor!”

The crowd cried out in unison, their voices shaking the starry sky.

Ye Fan returned to the Heavenly Court and sat upon his cold throne, gazing down upon the boundless heaven and earth. He had finally lived through this most crucial lifetime, and his understanding of immortal life had advanced to the very forefront.

On this day, from every corner of the cosmos, all the powerful clans came to pay their respects and bow before the supreme Heavenly Emperor. The chorus of their reverence was unending.

This grand spectacle lasted for an entire month before it gradually settled. The authority and prestige of the Heavenly Court reached its highest peak in all of history. From every realm across the myriad heavens, every clan came to offer their homage.

Outside the Heavenly Court, three magnificent divine temples floated in immortal mist, growing ever more sentient and awakened. Ye Fan sat alone in their presence, carrying on conversations with them — for three distinct wills had already been born within those temples.

Though they were not yet truly the same people as those he had lost, possessing significant deficiencies, they nonetheless allowed him to see a glimmer of hope. The Three Teachings had been established and stood powerful in the starry skies. It was precisely because these teachings had been founded that the three magnificent temples could continue gathering the power of faith.

No one disturbed him. People understood — this was a loneliness that belonged to the Heavenly Emperor alone. Spanning fifty thousand years, to whom could he pour out his heart?

Little Song was sealed once more, and the Heavenly Court returned to tranquility.

The Heavenly Emperor’s greatness illuminated the cosmos. Throughout all the ages, only a handful could walk alongside him. His divine authority held the entire cosmos in awe — every corner of existence, every direction in the world, all paid him reverence.

Yet this was a brilliance that belonged to one person alone. He shone dazzlingly, standing firm across the Nine Heavens, while the world below grew lacking in great cultivators.

Over the course of those fifty-thousand-plus years, the Heavenly Emperor had endured. As though he alone had claimed all the world’s providence and fortune for himself, it became nearly impossible for any race to produce a single transcendent expert of his era.

And the very nature of heaven and earth had changed greatly as well — it was no longer suited to cultivation, having reached its lowest point, suppressing all living beings and filling their hearts with dread.

This was a glorious age belonging to one man — radiant across ten thousand ages, without compare — yet the multitudes of living beings in comparison were far too dim, falling far short of the days of old, lacking the powerful quasi-emperors of past eras.

Over those fifty thousand-plus years, that long stretch of time had produced only two quasi-emperors, and neither of them had reached the Ninth Tier of Heaven.

In this lifetime, the Heavenly Emperor would periodically patrol the various realms. The Forbidden Zones had been wiped out entirely, and the Primordial Ancient Mine had become the Heavenly Court’s highest-grade storage reserve. There were no longer any sources of chaos or calamity in the world.

Time flowed like water, and in the blink of an eye, twenty thousand years had passed. Yet in this lifetime, the Heavenly Emperor’s life seemed especially long — at twenty thousand years of age, his hair was still as black as a cascade, and his vital energy was robust and vigorous.

This lifetime, lived through his own strength alone, was unlike any other. It had made him even more powerful. With the mere lift of his hand or the shift of his step, he could shatter entire spans of time and space.

On this particular day, Ye Fan was in a dead and silent star field when he caught a wisp of flowing light — and his expression changed with surprise. It was a brand left by the Ancient Kylin Emperor, inscribed with the experiences and insights encountered on the path toward immortality.

He sat cross-legged there for a long while. Only after ten years did he rise to his feet, having gained enormously.

This was already the fourth such brand he had obtained from across the cosmos. There had been others before it, left by other ancient supreme beings — each one uniquely wondrous, all of them belonging to those who had once set foot upon the path to eternal life.

The Heavenly Emperor was now over seventy thousand years old, and he still lived on — pressing down upon the entire universe, standing as the absolute pinnacle of the mortal world. The majesty and authority he commanded now had few peers throughout all of history.

If one were to make comparisons, only the mythical Desolate Heavenly Emperor — who some debated even existed — would be invoked alongside him.

At twenty-two thousand years of age, white began appearing in Ye Fan’s hair. And it was in that very year, as he passed over a sea of broken stars, that his expression shifted. The place was strewn with star fragments everywhere — a scene of utter ruin.

He transformed into a streak of light, appeared on the spot, and reached out with one hand, seizing a fragment of a star and pulling it toward him. What seemed like plucking a flower was in truth an entire continent being dragged into his grasp.

“The root stalk of a divine medicine!”

Ye Fan split the continent apart. From within a vast underground palace, he lifted a medicine cauldron. After breaking its seal, he discovered inside a dry and withered root stalk — devoid of vitality, no longer bearing any luster.

“Before the dark turmoil of that era, the various clans of the Northern Dipper fled to distant lands, scattered into the starry sky. This was a refuge of the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty.”

Through the remnants and relics left in that place, Ye Fan deduced the origins of the clan that had once sheltered there. Tragically, the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty that had taken refuge here had been destroyed, leaving behind only a few traces.

Only someone like the current Heavenly Emperor could sense that sealed within the medicine cauldron was a withered, long-inert strange root stalk — and he recognized it, for he had once shared a profound connection with this particular medicine.

Long ago in the Divine City of the Northern Region, he had cut open a remnant medicine whose root stalk was a pale blue color. At the time, it had been sealed within an icy source — only a small portion of the stalk remained, bearing a vague resemblance to a human foot. The medicinal portion had already been severed and lost.

At the time, by all appearances, it had been a withered dead divine medicine, its divine essence nearly entirely exhausted. No one could have revived it. Ye Fan had auctioned it off.

Fifty thousand years had passed — and now Ye Fan encountered it again. It had almost completely withered away, even that final trace of divinity having vanished.

Even with the Heavenly Emperor’s identity and state of mind at this point, he let out a long sigh. It was truly a pity beyond words. If his guess was correct, this should have been the human-shaped divine medicine once under the control of a great emperor!

Had Ye Fan possessed his current cultivation back in those days, he surely could have brought it back to life. But now… it had dried out completely, every trace of vitality extinguished.

According to ancient records, of all the immortal medicines that had ever appeared throughout history, there had once been thirty plants in total — including those in the form of trees — and each one was unique and irreplaceable. Yet by now, half of them had already disappeared.

Was yet another one about to be lost? Ye Fan furrowed his brow. This particular plant was absolutely the most distinctive of them all, for it had grown into the shape of a human being, perfectly mirroring the form of the human body.

Ye Fan returned to the Heavenly Court and went into seclusion there, beginning a meticulous study of the immortal medicine.

Since ancient times, some great emperors and ancient kings had possessed immortal medicines and studied them, seeking the secrets of eternal life.

In this lifetime, Ye Fan had already undertaken similar research, studying the White Tiger Medicine, the Enlightenment Tea, the Bodhi Tree, and others, reaping great harvests — yet none that could be called truly extraordinary.

Upon returning now, he planted the human-shaped divine medicine within the Undying Mountain, channeled in the divine spring water to nourish it, and hoped he might be able to bring it back to life.

The Heavenly Court had absolutely no shortage of immortal medicines. The Kylin Medicine, the White Tiger Medicine, and the like would ripen once every four or five thousand years — Ye Fan had already harvested them more than ten times and stored every bit of the yield. The rare divine fruits borne by the Peach of Immortality, the Bodhi Fruit, and the Enlightenment Tea Tree had also been harvested many times already.

But Ye Fan was especially determined to revive this singular human-shaped immortal medicine. To that end, he employed extraordinary measures — even going so far as to refine portions of the divine essence from already-harvested Kylin and White Tiger medicines, using those essences to nourish this particular plant.

In the end, he even used the life spring fluid from within his own body to water the roots of the precious medicine.

Three thousand years later, a miracle occurred.

The withered root stalk gradually stirred with the faintest trace of life. At last, droplets of luster began to flow across its surface, and it began to emit the breath of living energy.

Ye Fan’s eyes did not blink. He stared at the medicine intently, the light in the Heavenly Emperor’s eyes shimmering with an imposing intensity as he carefully observed every detail of the new life emerging before him, seeing through every nuance of this plant’s process of rebirth.

Without doubt, this held immense significance for him — one could even say its influence was incalculably profound and far-reaching.

In this world, only the immortal medicines could grant eternal youth and deathlessness. To watch this plant go from withered to living, from a near-dead state back to thriving vitality, was to capture trace after trace of the path toward immortal life.

Brilliant rays of light flickered like rosy dawn clouds, and another thousand years passed. The dried root stalk came fully back to life, reclaiming its vigorous vitality. First it turned pale blue, then transformed into crimson haze, then into gold… until finally it gathered nine colors, breathtakingly radiant.

By this time, Ye Fan’s white hair already draped across his shoulders, for he was now twenty-six thousand years of age — yet his vital energy was more robust than in either of his previous two lifetimes. At the same age, he still showed no signs of decline.

Though his youth had ultimately faded, still he did not rise from his seat. He continued sitting cross-legged before this plant, year after year, day after day, watching it sprout and take root.

Time stretched on, and another four thousand years flowed by. The medicine’s tender shoot gradually grew into a small human figure slightly over one foot tall — no leaves upon it, its entire form flowing with a brilliant luster of extraordinary radiance, filling the entire Undying Mountain with its fragrance, shaking the Heavenly Court to its core.

At that time, Ye Fan was precisely thirty thousand years of age, and had finally reached the end of this lifetime’s life — yet his state of mind was serene and tranquil, for his harvest had been immense.

“This medicine can take the form of grass or tree, yet always appears in human form — rather remarkable.” Ye Fan murmured quietly. The plant now bore a human shape, and he recalled having once seen its tree-like human form in the ruins of the Heavenly Court as well.

Outside, all manner of rumors had already begun to spread. In this lifetime, the Heavenly Emperor had lived thirty thousand years, bringing his total accumulated existence across all lifetimes to over eighty-two thousand years — a figure so staggering that everyone speculated he had at last reached his endpoint.

But half a year later, within the Undying Mountain of the Heavenly Court, vital energy surged like a billowing tide. The Heavenly Emperor’s divine authority overwhelmed the world, his energy swallowing the eight wilds of the cosmos. A tremendous life force swept through and rocked the entire universe.

This time, Ye Fan had witnessed the human-shaped immortal medicine’s reversal from death to life — and it had moved him profoundly. He had grasped the supreme truth behind it all, and lived to his fourth lifetime.

“The Heavenly Emperor… he has lived yet another lifetime!” People felt their mouths run dry, utterly incapable of comprehending any of this.

Had the people of those earlier eras survived to this day, they would surely have grown numb to it — for it was not the first time the Heavenly Emperor had done this; he had done it again and again, consecutively.

But the people of this age had never witnessed it firsthand. They knew only the numbers, and naturally they trembled with shock, struck utterly speechless.

“Four lifetimes — is the Heavenly Emperor truly going to exist alongside this world forever?” The cosmos was thrown into unrest, and people trembled to the very depths of their souls.