The Northern Region was rich in Source, and home to terrifying creatures that had slumbered since the most primordial of ages. From ancient times to the present, it had always been a place where storms gathered and fate converged.
The Primordial Ancient Mine stretched across the span of all eras — the Dark Age, the Ancient Calamity, the great catastrophes that befell humanity — all of these had its shadow woven through them in one way or another, leaving behind an endless wealth of legends.
Since the dawn of humanity, no one knew how many supreme sovereigns had entered it in their twilight years, never to be heard from again.
A month after Ye Fan’s departure, world-shaking news arrived from the Northern Region. The various sacred grounds had gone to probe an ancient temple within the Primordial Forbidden Zone, only to return with heavy casualties, battered and broken.
The entire world was stunned. No one had imagined that the sacred grounds would dare to enter the Primordial Forbidden Zone, where they had fought a bloody battle with unknown creatures inside an ancient temple from the most distant antiquity.
The sacred grounds had kept it completely under wraps — not a single piece of news had leaked beforehand, no matter how long they had been preparing. It was only after the operation failed that the world found out.
The world was shaken. The sacred grounds had actually entered the Primordial Forbidden Zone — it was profoundly shocking. They must have discovered some incredible secret to take such a risk. What else could have driven them to it?
The earth buzzed with clamor. People talked of nothing else. To everyone’s astonishment, there had been signs of this long in advance.
More than a year prior, wondrous music had drifted out from the Primordial Forbidden Zone. Someone had seen an extraordinarily beautiful woman emerge, causing a sensation across the Northern Region and sending word spreading to countless great sects.
It was from that moment that the currents of the world began flowing toward the Northern Region. Whether of the younger generation or supreme sect masters, all began moving northward.
Ye Fan remembered it clearly: the Azure Serpent King had come all the way to the Southern Region to invite the Peacock King to go north. The various holy sons and holy daughters had also begun traveling northward at roughly the same time.
“Of course. So that was it!”
It all made sense now. The Primordial Forbidden Zone must have yielded a discovery of staggering importance — and that was what had agitated the nerves of all the sacred grounds, driving them to spend more than a year in preparation.
Looking at it all together, everything that had seemed inexplicable clicked into place: why the Northern Region had been in such turmoil over the past year, with figures of every stripe appearing one after another, as though it had become the center of the entire world.
Within the Primordial Forbidden Zone, an ancient temple of world-shaking significance had appeared, and the wondrous music of a transcendent divine woman had drifted out. And yet, the sacred grounds had ultimately retreated without obtaining everything they sought.
Still, they had certainly reaped considerable gains. After all, they had been preparing for over a year.
By the time Ye Fan found Ye Fan Huiling, yet another earth-shaking piece of news had arrived from the Northern Region.
The Ancient Demon Jar of Heaven-Devouring had appeared. Word had been circulating for months, and someone had finally located where it was buried — only for the discovery to result in bloodshed deep within an underground vault, with countless powerful experts dead or severely wounded.
A supreme sacred weapon left behind by a Great Emperor of antiquity — the news of its appearance seized everyone’s attention and sent the world into another great shock.
People had reason to suspect what was truly going on. The sacred grounds had only just retreated from the Primordial Forbidden Zone in defeat — so why, so conveniently, had the lid of the Heaven-Devouring Demon Jar chosen this moment to appear?
Before long, more precise details came through: quite a few of the sacred grounds’ supreme elders had been killed or gravely wounded. The younger generation had nearly been wiped out entirely.
It had long been said throughout the world that opening the Ruthless One’s cultivation ground required the combined efforts of multiple rare physiques — the Celestial Demon Body, the Divine Body, the Holy Body — who would use their blood in a sacred sacrifice.
Now, those words had been proven true. The various kings had risen together and used their blood to open the supreme cultivator of antiquity’s cultivation ground — only to find waiting for them a merciless slaughter.
The ancient Great Emperor’s hidden armory was etched with awe-inspiring formation patterns. No matter how brilliant one’s talent, nothing could withstand a single strike — penetrating all of heaven and earth, obliterating all things in its path, toppling whatever it touched.
If not for a critical moment in which the Azure Serpent King seized the Green Emperor’s sacred weapon, and the seventh great outlaw Tu Tian wielded the demon jar to force open a path of escape, not a single person would have survived.
The world was deeply shaken. The ancient supreme ruthless figure had truly been merciless — ruthless toward himself and even more merciless toward anyone who dared to provoke him. He had nearly annihilated an entire generation of the Eastern Wastelands’ finest young talents.
The Ji Family’s divine king physique, Yan Ruyu, the Jiang Family’s divine king physique, the Celestial Demon Body, the innate Dao Womb, Xia Jiuyou, Yao Guang’s holy son — all of them had been seriously injured, narrowly escaping the destruction of body and spirit alike.
“Too ruthless — he refined his very own body into a weapon and showed no mercy even to those who came after him. Truly worthy of being the most dangerous figure of the ancient world — the one no one dared provoke!”
“He created the Imperishable Heavenly Arts, growing a spiritual embryo from his aged and withered body. What he was refining was his own old self. Legend holds he may well be the Great Emperor who lived the longest of all ancient times.”
When Ye Fan received this news, the first thought that came to him was: conspiracy.
Because the Black Emperor — that creature who was a walking encyclopedia of history — had made various deductions and shared many secrets with him in the past.
Sure enough, more precise information followed. He picked up on the threads: within the Ruthless One’s cultivation ground, those possessing the Celestial Demon Body, the Divine Body, the innate Dao Womb, and others had been trapped, their life essence nearly stripped away.
“This…”
It matched the secrets the Black Emperor had revealed. The ancient supreme ruthless figure had a mortal body, yet he had overpowered all the kings, ultimately attaining the supreme path of a Great Emperor. Before creating the Imperishable Heavenly Arts, he had also created the Heaven-Devouring Demon Arts.
When this technique first took shape, the entire world hunted him down — because he could devour others’ life essence. The Ruthless One spent his life walking the line between life and death, with more enemies than even the Wushi Great Emperor ever had.
These secrets had long since vanished into the river of history, and only the Black Emperor still remembered them. Almost no one in the world knew that the Imperishable Heavenly Arts had once been preceded by the Heaven-Devouring Demon Arts.
“Could it be true, as the Black Emperor said — that someone has obtained the inheritance of the ancient supreme ruthless figure?” A cold shiver ran down Ye Fan’s spine.
Far away in the Northern Region, the Black Emperor was beside itself with rage, screaming and shrieking, eyes fixed on the site of the cultivation ground. It was on the verge of going mad, and it had nearly taken bites out of Pang Bo, Tu Fei, and Li Heishui alike.
It had been the Black Emperor itself that had held Pang Bo and the others back, keeping them from entering the Ruthless One’s cultivation ground and sparing them from a catastrophe beyond imagining.
And yet, the Black Emperor had been consumed by fury — because it discovered that the cultivation ground had already been visited by someone beforehand, and the lid of the Heaven-Devouring Demon Jar had certainly been taken away.
The final outcome confirmed its suspicions. Disaster struck, many cultivators barely escaped alive, and not a single piece of the ultimate-tier sacred weapon was obtained. They had nearly been wiped out entirely.
There was also one person who had remained very calm and had not entered: the unscrupulous Daoist, Duan De. He had arrived at the site, frozen first in shock and then with eyes narrowing to slits, and had not taken a single step inside.
When Ye Fan learned of all this and thought back to the secrets the Black Emperor had shared, he felt certain that a terrifyingly calculating figure had orchestrated all of it from the shadows.
“Who could it be — someone who obtained the Ruthless One’s inheritance and wanted to wipe out those with the Divine Body, the Celestial Demon Body, the innate Dao Womb, and all the rest in one fell swoop?”
A single person came to Ye Fan’s mind. If it was him, then he was truly unfathomably sinister — never revealing himself, never drawing attention, yet with killing intent lurking in every step. A chill ran through Ye Fan at the thought.
With two earth-shaking pieces of news from the Northern Region, the great curtain slowly came down. Supreme sect masters, powerful figures of all kinds, and the various holy sons began withdrawing and returning to their homes across the Eastern Wastelands.
Beneath the moonlit night, Ye Fan and Ye Fan Huiling met again. Everything was settled smoothly, and the Heaven-Covering Sacred Garment was lent to him.
In the flowing silver moonlight, this woman from the Central Plains was brilliant and otherworldly, her skin smooth as white jade, her eyes vivid and expressive. She was completely candid: if Ye Fan successfully climbed one of the sacred mountains and returned with Immortal Divine Medicine, she wanted a single fruit in exchange.
Ye Fan agreed at once. If he truly succeeded, he intended to scale all the sacred mountains — the nine divine roots had all grown from a single main root.
“Please help me with one thing, Miss Ye. If I go in and do not return, please take someone away from here, and help me look after someone.”
“Oh? Who are they?” Ye Fan Huiling was surprised.
Ye Fan pointed toward Zhang Wenchang in the small tavern. “Take him away from this place. Help him escape this environment.”
Then he pointed toward the inn. Through the window lattice, Little Nannan could be seen — like a delicate little porcelain doll, her lashes long, sleeping peacefully and serenely.
“Alright. No problem.”
The next day, as rosy dawn began to glow and morning dew rolled across green leaves, catching the light and scattering it into seven colors, Ye Fan stepped into the eight-hundred-li primordial ancient forest and made his way toward the Ancient Forbidden Land.
Half a month had passed. Neither the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty nor the Yin-Yang Sect had left. They were still in the Yan capital — but no one was any longer keeping watch over the forbidden zone.
Throughout the journey, Ye Fan did not encounter a single person. He moved with great care, skirting the areas where supreme strange beasts might lurk, until he reached the very edge of the Life Forbidden Zone.
The vast forest was silent as death — not a single sound. No sign of birds or beasts. Not an ant or insect to be seen. It was as though he had arrived at the end of the world.
Thud!
One of Ye Fan’s feet finally crossed the boundary into the forbidden zone. Immediately, he felt a terrifying aura surge toward him, rushing to invade.
This was… the force of desolation!
The last time he had walked all the way to the foot of the nine sacred mountains, it had not been like this. And yet now, the very moment he set one foot inside, this was already assaulting him. A chill swept through his entire body.
At this critical moment, the stone garment adhered to his body, and the Heaven-Covering Sacred Garment covered him from head to toe, protecting him completely. He pressed forward in long strides.
Swish!
In the instant he entered, even with the supreme stone garment encasing him, Ye Fan still gave an involuntary shudder. Every last trace of his cultivation was stripped away cleanly, with nothing left behind.
Within this Life Forbidden Zone, he had become an ordinary mortal. He could no longer fly through the sky or disappear through the earth. Yet he was not like the others — his sea of the wheel had not run dry, his Dao Palace had not fallen dark, and his four extremities were not sealed. His divine power had not vanished; it was simply locked within his body.
The Holy Body’s flesh was supremely powerful. Golden blood energy still boiled within him, ready at any moment to burst outward. This was the very foundation on which he dared to enter the forbidden zone at all.
Ye Fan strode forward at full pace. Before long, he had covered more than ten li, and he sensed something was wrong. The force of the ages was seeping through the stone garment, strand by strand, thread by thread, gradually penetrating inward.
“Not good!”
His heart went cold. His expression changed. This was only a tenth of the distance, and already it was this dangerous. No wonder even the peerless emperor of the Central Plains had to fall here.
“Hiss!”
Ye Fan activated the Source Heaven patterns and channels. Tens of thousands of divine patterns blazed with flowing light, wrapping around him. At the same time, the Heaven-Covering Sacred Garment’s divine radiance blazed to full brightness, enclosing him within its protection.
He looked up at the sky. There was no turning back now. If he retreated, he would be dead within half a year. And to press forward through this forbidden zone — though it was like standing at the edge of a ten-thousand-foot abyss — perhaps it could open the only path to survival.
Within the forbidden zone, ancient trees rose like mountains, their canopies reaching toward the sky, their branches spreading like the hands of giants, almost level with the mountain ridges. Old vines as thick as water vats coiled like true dragons, winding from the foot of the mountains all the way up to their peaks — ancient, powerful, and full of vitality.
All along the way, Ye Fan encountered countless spirit medicines — world-rare, extraordinarily ancient supreme-grade herbs — yet he had no time to harvest them.
Every second, every moment, he was spending the currency of his life. To stop even briefly was not worth it. Now, only the Immortal Divine Medicine could be of any use to him.
Thirty li in, the Heaven-Covering Sacred Garment began to dim. The Dao patterns woven within it were being severed.
The garment’s material was unknown — harder and more resilient than divine iron, having fallen from beyond the heavens. Refined into a sacred garment, it was indestructible in nature and could isolate any and all aura — hence its name, “Heaven-Covering.” But now, under the assault of the desolation force, its Dao patterns were being ground away. Only the garment’s inherent toughness remained. Its Dao, its principles, its arts and its methods had all been stripped from it.
Ye Fan moved with the speed of a swift wind, pressing forward at full sprint. Ahead lay the abyss; behind lay hell. There was no sanctuary anywhere — only himself to rely on, to carve out a single path through.
“Pop!”
The Source Heaven patterns and channels within the stone garment began to shatter. They too could not hold. Tens of thousands of them snapped in an instant, more than half gone, and it would not be long before every last one was destroyed.
“The Classic of the Dao!”
Ye Fan activated the cultivation method of the Classic of the Dao. The nine ancient characters emerged upon the surface of the stone garment, shining out to suppress his own being, to achieve permanence, to stand against the force of the ages.
Worthy of being innate Great Emperor patterns — the assault was held at bay. He steadied himself temporarily and was no longer having his life stripped away.
Yet in the end, they were only nine characters. He could inscribe them, yes — but he could not even comprehend their meaning, let alone fathom the ultimate mystery within. How could he possibly hold back the entire force of this place?
By the time he had gone sixty li, the nine ancient characters began to fade and grow faint, disappearing along with the Source Heaven patterns — all of them on the verge of being wiped out completely.
“This is only sixty li, and it is already immeasurably more difficult than the last time!”
Ye Fan’s heart pounded violently. At this rate, he would certainly die. There was simply no path through. And the desolation aura ahead was surely only growing denser.
He bit down and ran. Peak after peak he swept past, and by the time he reached the seventieth li, he had already begun to age. At this point, the nine ancient characters and the Source Heaven patterns within the stone garment had vanished entirely.
Now, all that remained were the hollow stone garment and the Heaven-Covering Sacred Garment — no Dao, no principles, no arts, no methods to guard him any further.
Ye Fan did not panic. He drew out the Qilin Seed, gripped it in his hand, and as he drew on its life essence, he continued his desperate sprint — using the Immortal Divine Medicine to extend his life and push through the last stretch of the journey.
But this final stretch was extraordinarily difficult. Even with the divine medicine extending his life, he was still aging. And worse still, even the Great Dao wounds within him were deteriorating.
At last, after driving forward for more than a hundred li in total, Ye Fan finally caught sight of the nine sacred mountains — and yet the erosion of the ages had already eaten down to his very bones. His mind was beginning to blur.
He gritted his teeth and pressed on, and finally reached the foot of the mountains — but his strength was almost entirely spent.
And at that very same moment, a chill ran through him from head to toe. There, on the sacred mountains above him, several silhouettes stood side by side, looking down at him with cold, icy eyes. The chill went from the top of his head all the way through to the soles of his feet.