“Whether the immortal realm exists — not even the monarchs of the most ancient times, nor the Great Emperors of the human race, could say with certainty. They could not enter it. How could a single Immortal Mansion reveal its mysteries?”

“This is an immortal relic. Believe it or not — I for one believe it,” the beauty said with perfect composure.

“You believe it…” Ye Fan gave her a flick on the forehead, leaving an imprint on her smooth, jade-like brow.

“You surnamed Ye, you dare to lay hands on me?!” The beauty finally erupted — her firebrand nature on full display. Though her cultivation had been sealed, her physical movements were unrestricted.

With her divine power gone, she nonetheless fought back. Her left arm extended, pale and smooth as lotus root, her palm and fingers like a blade — slicing toward Ye Fan’s neck. Then her right leg spun, long and straight, white and tender and smooth, barely concealed by her skirts — sweeping a rotational kick at Ye Fan’s head.

Her slender waist twisted, full and firm with explosive force, undulating like a water serpent — nimble and graceful and swift.

“Bang!”

Ye Fan did not dodge her left hand, letting it chop against his neck — he did not move an inch. Princess Qi’s dark brows furrowed slightly; her slender jade fingers ached, her hand in constant motion trying to shake off the pain, as if she had struck against solid rock.

As for the long right leg, it kicked through empty air — Ye Fan had no desire to have dirt on his forehead and stepped back to the side, snatching her smooth, tender ankle and hoisting it high.

“Let go!” The beauty cried out in alarm, her face crimson. Her skirts could not conceal her snow-white and long jade legs; murderous intent flashed in her bright eyes; her hair drifted lightly.

“Bang!”

Ye Fan gave a flick of his hand; she sailed lightly through the air and came to rest in a rattan chair. She said, “Release me, or else…”

“Crash! Clatter!”

The firebrand’s spirited temper was rising — she grabbed whatever she saw and threw it. At last, with a resounding clang, she struck an iron lion — and then squatted down from the pain, endlessly shaking her slender hand.

“Smash away if you have the energy. If you really need to, I’ll send you a pile of sandbags,” Ye Fan said with a smile.

“You surnamed Ye, treating me like this…” The beauty left the sentence unfinished. Beautiful eyes shot a gaze like a death glare, though vexed and angry as she was, she did not dare go too far.

Ye Fan showed no courtesy whatsoever and searched her person directly, extracting a precious vial from within her wheel-ocean. Inside was everything — spiritual herbs of ten-thousand-year-vintage, Saint Master-level weapons, and one bronze token.

“Can there really be such an Immortal Mansion?” He was quite surprised — the bronze token was surely the entry token into the mansion that Princess Qi had mentioned.

All disciples of the Hall of Exceptional Scholars could go to seek immortal fortune, and each had been given one such bronze token. It seemed to carry particular significance.

“My lord, something is wrong!” Ye Fan had only just arrived at the Deserted Reed Village when a villager came running up in a panic to report the situation.

“What happened?”

“The Ancient Locust Forest has begun producing killing shouts, just as the ancestors described,” the villager trembled, face completely drained of color.

“Can this be? Has this happened before?” Ye Fan was surprised and went to the edge of the Ancient Locust Forest.

One old tree after another, gaunt and wizened — many of their main trunks had hollowed out completely — and yet they stubbornly lived on, like coiling dragons lying prostrate upon the earth.

Ye Fan approached and listened carefully, but heard nothing — only the rustling of branches and leaves in the wind, and the cool shade spread across the ground below.

He looked to the villagers in puzzlement, his expression showing incomprehension. Immediately, one person’s face went white as snow, and they stepped forward to say softly, “Press your ear against the trunk and you’ll hear it.”

“Is that so?” Ye Fan was doubtful. Plainly they were just old trees — even if they had developed consciousness over the ages, surely nothing like this should be happening.

But in the next moment, when he leaned close and listened, his body gave a violent shudder. His expression became one of utter disbelief, and he stepped several large paces backward.

The old tree trunks were cracked and fissured — tree after tree — said to have existed for over a hundred thousand years without ever changing. The villagers called them Sacred Trees and had never once harmed a single leaf.

And now Ye Fan was truly shaken. From within the trunks came the thunderous sounds of battle — as if an ancient battlefield from primordial times stretched before him: men shouting, horses neighing, swords and blades flashing.

“Rumble, rumble!”

When he pressed his ear against the trunk, he could even feel that vibration — tens of thousands of warhorses charging, trampling the earth with a rolling thunder.

Ye Fan was deeply stirred. He had come here for the Deserted Reed Village to begin with, yet had never managed to find the path in — and now, in these few days of absence, such an extraordinary change had arisen.

“Is there a more detailed legend regarding these ancient trees?” He wanted to know more.

“The ancestors only spoke of it in broad strokes — they said the gates of the immortal realm open and divine sounds come forth, and one should not approach carelessly, or one might accidentally enter,” the eldest of the villagers said.

Ye Fan found it deeply strange. He wandered through the ancient grove for half the night, yet he did not dare to enter enlightenment there. In such an unusual time, he feared he would immediately dissolve away in death.

Over two consecutive days, he pondered within the locust grove, trying to uncover the truth. When he pressed his ear against the trunks, he not only heard the sounds of the ancient battlefield — he also heard the cries of dragons, phoenixes, and qilins. This left him wide-eyed with astonishment.

“A hallucination — it must be a flood dragon, a luan-bird, a qilin beast!” He refused to believe divine creatures of that kind still existed in the current age.

“Boom!”

Then came the sound of flooding water — vast and overwhelming — the roar of a great sea, waves crashing to the sky.

“Something is not right here. How can these Sacred Trees carry sounds like this?” Ye Fan puzzled over it endlessly without finding an answer.

Day after day he remained there, determined to understand — yet the more anxious he was, the less he could make sense of it.

On the sixth day, as he lay against the thickest ancient locust tree at the heart of the grove and listened, one soul-shaking roar nearly shattered him!

“Undying Heavenly Monarch…”

This was not any language — it was purely a spiritual thought, as if transmitted across ten-thousand ages, reverberating through a hundred million years, as if it had pierced through an entire star domain and re-emerged into the world.

Ye Fan’s spiritual consciousness was extraordinarily powerful, yet beneath the aftershock of this spiritual thought, his face went completely white. The small golden lake at the center of his brow surged and shot out blinding radiance, nearly shattered by the impact.

“Who could this be — calling out for the Undying Heavenly Monarch?!”

His heart was shaken beyond all measure. These four characters were not the first time he had heard them. Even the great monarchs of the most ancient times would bow in reverence before this being — regarding it as an existence that transcended divinity itself.

Ye Fan finally understood why the ancient Great Emperor had, in his later years, built a thatched dwelling here to reside. This place was far from ordinary — it certainly concealed some hidden mystery.

“It was not that the ancient Great Emperor of the human race wished to spend his twilight years here in peace — he had discovered something extraordinary!” This was the deduction he arrived at.

On the seventh day, he listened before the smallest and shortest ancient tree at the outermost edge — and stared, jaw agape, as a spiritual thought transmitted outward bearing the three characters “Hall of Exceptional Scholars.”

A flash of illumination swept through Ye Fan’s heart. His thoughts instantly scattered outward in all directions. He turned and left at once, returning to the City of Reeds. He took out a precious vial, lifted its seal, and released the beauty from within.

“You surnamed Ye… you dared to seal me for seven days — I’ll fight you to the death!” The unparalleled immortal face of the beauty was written all over with fury. She clawed and snapped, charging forward for a fight — just like a firebrand, no different whatsoever.

“Move recklessly again and you’ll be automatically promoted from handmaid to chamber-maid,” Ye Fan threatened, his face perfectly calm and his heart not missing a single beat.

“Trod! Trod! Trod!”

The beauty was truly frightened. She retreated over ten steps in succession, one hand pressed to her heaving chest, deeply unsettled. On those jade-white cheeks, her pair of bright, spirited large eyes held a trace of fury — but she no longer dared to lash out.

“About time you behaved. Go serve the tea and pour the water,” Ye Fan directed.

“In your dreams!”

“Still such a firebrand. Very well — I won’t press you. Tell me in detail about that Immortal Mansion,” Ye Fan said with an air of indifference.

“You want to go in?” The beauty’s eyes lit up.

“Never mind all that — just tell me the details,” Ye Fan said, sipping his tea and listening.

He was quite surprised. The Immortal Mansion lay within an ancient mountain range — said to be connected to the immortal realm, filled with mysteries from the primordial past, harboring many secrets unknown to the world.

According to the deductions of the Hall of Exceptional Scholars’ powerful elders, it was highly likely that the footprints of an ancient Great Emperor could be found there — a place of profound and unfathomable strangeness.

“The Ancient Locust Forest is connected to that Immortal Mansion?” Ye Fan murmured inwardly.

He wasted no time and flew that very day toward that ancient mountain range — this was his first approach to the Hall of Exceptional Scholars since arriving here.

This mountain range had auspicious energy soaring into the sky. With the Divine Eye activated, one could clearly see ten thousand purple great dragons coiling overhead — extraordinarily impressive.

Here, crimson cliffs and strange stones rose up, qilins lay in solitary repose, luan-birds soared and danced, purple energy swirled, ten-thousand-year-old spiritual herbs grew from sheer precipices, and immortal fungi grew alongside ancient trees. Whichever way one looked, it was a sacred land — nearly enough to make one doubt whether one had wandered into the immortal realm. The mountain range was utterly unlike any other, profoundly wondrous. Mystical fungi, spirit springs, longevity deer, ancient cliffs — it was as if one had stepped into a painting.

This mountain range offered a different view with every ten steps — accumulating divine grace and grandeur in equal measure. Ye Fan did not disturb the rare birds and precious beasts, and did not approach the central Hall of Exceptional Scholars carelessly.

For this place was simply too extraordinary. One careless move could lead to discovery — and he had no desire to be seized.

“Pang Bo is perhaps inside,” Ye Fan reflected. He had come here not only for the Deserted Reed Village but also for another purpose: to seek out an old friend.

Soon he clarified the situation. The Hall of Exceptional Scholars had sealed off the mountain — no one was permitted to enter or leave. He finally understood why no one had come to cause trouble at the City of Reeds in these past few days.

The Immortal Mansion was of great importance. After consulting with various major powers, the Hall of Exceptional Scholars wished to avoid letting word spread prematurely, and had decided to jointly open this cave-mansion.

Ye Fan stopped at a distance of several dozen li, gazing toward the Hall of Exceptional Scholars from afar. Beneath the bright open sky, purple smoke was rising there, soaring like dragons in flight.

“Without even activating the Divine Eye I can already see it — this place is unfathomably deep. Immortal energy pervades it, ten thousand dragons soar through the heavens. It has plundered the most exquisite workings of heaven and earth!”

Ye Fan kept watch for several days and finally discovered the key: the Immortal Mansion had opened, located within the rear mountain of the Hall of Exceptional Scholars. There, the divine and graceful energy could not be contained — even the great formations could not seal it.

“An Immortal Cave-Mansion!”

His eyes burned with longing — yet there was simply no way to enter. Supreme elites guarded the entrance, and their number was far greater than four or five. It was completely sealed off.

It was called a single immortal cave, and yet the outstanding talents of the Hall of Exceptional Scholars streamed inside one after another without the slightest congestion — beyond all imagination, how vast it must be within.

Ye Fan kept watch from sixty-seven li away, activating the Divine Eye to observe for several days. People moved in and out continuously — and in particular, all seven-hundred-plus disciples of the Hall of Exceptional Scholars had mobilized.

During those days, people came out injured from time to time, and even corpses were carried back. He was greatly astonished. Powerful elders also stumbled out in that time — critically wounded and near death.

“This Immortal Mansion is truly unusual. So many people going in to seek immortal fortune, turning it into their proving ground — yet even figures of Saint Master caliber nearly died inside.”

Ye Fan’s heart stirred intensely, yet there was nothing he could do. For the first time he felt a measure of regret for not having joined the Hall of Exceptional Scholars — and yet he had missed this kind of opportunity.

He kept watch outside for seven or eight days, and noticed that nearly everyone had withdrawn. But within three days, after a period of recovery, these people began their second attempt at the immortal fortune.

“Is this truly an immortal burial ground? What a pity I have no way to enter…” Though he had mastered the Movement Character Art, he still had no way to break past the defense of several supreme elites.

Ye Fan let out a long sigh and returned to the Deserted Reed Village, seeking another approach among the ancient trees, circling those old trees every day. The villagers were deeply unsettled, and one of them urged him, “Young City Lord, do not go near the Sacred Trees when they are producing divine sounds — or you’ll be swallowed up.”

His heart stirred, and he said, “What circumstances lead to being swallowed up?”

“At certain special times, those tree hollows connect to the immortal realm…” The eldest of the village told him a secret unknown to anyone else.

Ye Fan decided to take the risk. Seizing a moment when no one was watching, he steeled himself, approached one of the ancient trees, and extended his hand into the hollow at the center.

“Force of space!”

His heart gave a jolt — this confirmed his hypothesis. He pressed his ear to the trunk and heard many sounds within, and among them, certain voices of young people.

“The disciples of the Hall of Exceptional Scholars!”

This time, his heart was fully certain. He set aside all fear and decided to take the risk.

“Swish!”

When Ye Fan ventured in at personal risk, entering one of the ancient tree’s hollows, a ripple appeared in his place — and then he simply vanished, leaving nothing behind.

Fortunately, the villagers had not noticed — otherwise, they would certainly have cried out that the young City Lord had passed away and been swallowed into the immortal realm.

In that brief instant, Ye Fan felt as though he had lived through ten thousand years. Truly afraid he might be lost to nothingness, he was wrapped in endless darkness — and did not know how much time passed before light returned.

“This is… that Immortal Mansion?!” He couldn’t help but let out a startled cry.

The scene before his eyes was nothing like he had imagined. This was not a gloomy underground world, not the interior of some mountain.

It was brilliantly radiant — the sky above cerulean and flawless, without a single impurity, as if a tremendous blue sapphire had been inverted overhead.

“Croak!”

A colossal bird swept across the sky. In an instant it blocked out the sun entirely, its feathers flowing with five-colored radiance, casting a vast shadow across the earth.

Ye Fan was stunned. How enormous was this bird? Like a great expanse of cloud, stretching across the sky as far as the eye could see.

“Not just one!” He was truly astonished — in the far distant sky, there were similar shapes like clouds, though they were clearly of entirely different kinds.

“Boom!”

In the distance, the earth and sky shook. A mountain range flew up, soaring toward the heavens, emanating boundless ferocious killing energy.

“How can a mountain range move?” Ye Fan was initially puzzled, but in the next instant his expression became one of shock — it was no mountain range at all, but unmistakably a massive blue-green serpent.

It had slumbered for who knew how many years; its body was covered in layers of earth and soil, with many ancient trees growing from it.

It shot up into the high sky and began fighting with that cloud-like enormous bird. Serpent scales flew; iridescent feathers drifted down; blood poured in sheets. The slaughter was ferociously intense.

“Heavens — what kind of world is this, that such primordial savage beasts still exist, killing each other in such a way, as if it were completely ordinary?”

Ye Fan’s heart surged in turmoil. Could this really be that Immortal Mansion? This was plainly an entire world — it bore no resemblance whatsoever to a cave-mansion.

In the distance, ancient trees soared into the sky; mountains and rivers stretched out in their primal grandeur; old vines hung like coiling dragons; towering peaks rose magnificently; great rivers flowed vast and powerful — a scene of the world before recorded time.

“Ah…”

From within the mountains came a human cry of agony. Ye Fan transformed into a phantom and rushed over, witnessing a young man die miserably in the jaws of a flood dragon — bitten clean in two and sinking into the depths of a deep pool.

“Be careful — do not wander off!” A voice rang out in transmission from hundreds of zhang beyond the pool, and more young people appeared.

“Disciples of the Hall of Exceptional Scholars…” Ye Fan’s brow gave a start. Now he was fully certain this was the Immortal Mansion — it was just like a true and real world.

“This is a primordial ancient world. Though it holds supreme immortal treasures and perhaps even Great Emperor ancient scriptures, it is equally filled with dangers. Deep within, even supreme elites have perished — one must be cautious!”