Among all those powerhouses, the demon clan maiden with her mane of golden hair was undoubtedly the fastest. Her wings beat powerfully, and two streaks of golden lightning seemed to slash across the sky as she arrived at the ancient hall first. She spread her wings wide and pushed against the tightly shut five-colored jade doors.

Hiss!

But what no one anticipated was this: a flood of five-colored divine light burst forth and flung her bodily backward on the spot. Even a Great Demon as formidable as herself was sent tumbling five or six times through the air. The others drew sharp breaths, not daring to be careless. They all brought out their weapons and rushed forward together, each vying to open the Demon Emperor’s tomb.

The entire ancient hall had been forged from five-colored divine jade, and it emanated the feeling of having cleaved through time from a primordial age — one could sense in it the weight of untold years and the breath of history. At the base of the gleaming, crystalline ancient hall were carved numerous ancient characters: some in the form of dragons, vigorous and powerful; some in the form of phoenixes, soaring and exuberant; some in the form of dark tortoises, heavy and settled; others in the form of qilins, vast and majestic. Like dragons and phoenixes, like tortoises and qilins, with strokes like iron hooks and silver slashes — powerful and sweeping. These were the imperial demon script from before the Primordial Age.

These characters possessed a mysterious power. When the assembled fighters launched wave after wave of attacks, they were hurled back every time by the five-colored divine light that flowed from those characters, unable to draw close or push open the ancient hall’s doors.

Boom!

The Great Demons and the powerhouses of Lingxu Cave Heaven struck together: the purple bronze cauldron, the golden swords, the Eight Trigrams mirror, the flood dragon scale blade — all slammed into the ancient hall’s doors simultaneously. At last they shook it, and amid a thunderous rumbling, a crack was forced open.

At once, a primordial breath surged outward, and a vast wave of life force crashed forward like a boundless ocean, hurling everyone outside off their feet on the spot.

Thoom!

That dull and forceful sound grew even more terrifying. Every face present changed expression as they felt a sharp pain emanating from within their chests. But no one lingered — the moment they steadied themselves, they charged back toward the majestic ancient hall.

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

Light flickered as weapons swallowed and released divine radiance, clashing incessantly with a chorus of ringing and clanging. Demon clan powerhouses and human cultivators pressed together before the five-colored ancient hall as combat erupted anew. No one was willing to let the other gain any advantage — each wanted to be the first to charge inside.

Before the majestic ancient hall, light blazed and demonic energy shot into the heavens. Both sides were fighting with everything they had — this was now a battle to the death, and no one was holding anything in reserve. The Demon Emperor’s burial mound meant too much to all of them.

Fierce radiance flickered and the sky trembled. Weapons swallowed and released divine light, crashing into one another from every direction, as killing intent pierced the heavens and divine power surged. The area before the ancient hall had nearly reached a boiling point.

The battle was extremely intense. In barely a quarter of an hour, one of Lingxu Cave Heaven’s Supreme Elders was driven back step by step and gradually overwhelmed. Then a Great Demon punched clean through his chest — half of his shattered heart was torn out with bare hands, blood spraying everywhere, spattering across the demon’s body, making it look utterly ferocious.

The sect master of Lingxu Cave Heaven’s expression turned glacial. He formed hand seals with both hands, tracing strange trajectories across the sky, drawing upon the purple bronze cauldron’s vibrations until endless purple mist billowed outward — in an instant, two Great Demons were sucked directly into the cauldron.

Boom!

Torrents of purple divine fire blazed skyward. Soul-rending screams issued from within the cauldron as the two Great Demons were smelted alive in a single moment, and in the end, only two wisps of faint smoke drifted free.

In the distance, Ye Fan’s heart lurched again and again. Slaughter this savage and brutal was truly terrifying, and as a person from the modern world, part of him struggled to accept it. He began to seriously wonder — was it even meaningful to become a cultivator? Was it worth it?

And just then, more than ten fierce beasts on the volcano launched into all-out battle with the elders of Lingxu Cave Heaven, equally brutal and grim. A humanoid beast with a gaping maw and protruding fangs, covered in fur more than half a foot long and looking utterly monstrous, tore one of the elders clean in two on the spot — blood flying, shredded remains falling — a sight too terrible to behold. Nearby, another elder of Lingxu Cave Heaven brought out a demon-slaying blade and split a fierce bird clean in half with a single stroke. Within dozens of meters, cold light pervaded the air as the blade gleamed and dripped with blood, suspended in the sky — a scene of raw, bloody carnage.

Among the more than ten supremely fierce beasts, the lightning bird was by far the most terrifying. Moving at extreme speed, it shot straight into the air, stretched out its golden talons, and shredded the divine drum an elder had summoned on the spot. When it plummeted back down, it dragged with it hundreds of bolts of lightning — dense and relentless, roaring with thunder, crackling with electric light. They fell like a forest of gleaming blades, each dozens of meters long.

Crack!

The elder from Lingxu Cave Heaven rode a divine rainbow upward, but even that was not enough to evade hundreds of bolts of lightning — too fast to outrun. He was struck, his entire body scorched black. He shuddered several times, then plummeted into the crater of the volcano and was swallowed by the surging lava.

The battle was soaked in blood and slaughter. Human and demon alike suffered casualties on both sides, everyone fighting for their lives — all for the chance to be the first to break into the Demon Emperor’s burial mound.

“Is this what a cultivator’s life is like…” Ye Fan murmured to himself, his heart far from calm. This was nothing like the life he had imagined — soaring on divine rainbows, carefree and unbound beneath the heavens. “Perhaps,” he continued, “different cultivators walk different paths.” At those words, his gaze grew clear and resolute. “Since I have chosen this road, I will walk it one step at a time. My fate cannot rest in another’s hands. I must grow stronger…”

Suddenly, a faint sound broke Ye Fan’s train of thought. On the ground, Pang Bo’s body was suffused with swirling blue-green qi, and an azure-green luminescence had begun to slowly kindle across the surface of his skin.

Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!

Streams of light flowed out from within Pang Bo’s body — the Dao patterns Elder Wu Qingfeng had laid down, the remnant power of the seals — and yet now they all burst outward. The seal had failed!

At the same moment, a faint green glow bloomed within Pang Bo’s Bitter Sea. Then his body shuddered, and with a sharp sound, his eyes flew open — shooting two beams of green light, eerie and otherworldly.

At the same time, strange symbols appeared across Pang Bo’s forehead and face: some were meaningless streaks and lines, while others resembled characters. Those that resembled characters were shaped like dragons and phoenixes, like dark tortoises, and like winding serpents.

Ye Fan was immediately alarmed. Though he couldn’t interpret the meaning of those symbols, he had heard the teaching elders speak of such things before — what he was looking at was unmistakably similar to the script of the demon clan.

The green light gleaming in Pang Bo’s eyes, he sat bolt upright without a sound, then silently rose to his feet. He stared coldly at Ye Fan, as though on the verge of striking — yet the hand he raised trembled, refusing to fully obey.

“Pang Bo!” Ye Fan called out loudly. He knew that Pang Bo’s own will had not fully fallen into slumber — Pang Bo was fighting for control of his own body.

At the sound of that call, the body wavered, and the demon patterns across his forehead and face dimmed noticeably. But then a low, guttural roar issued forth. Pang Bo’s body shook violently, and the azure-green light blazed brighter than ever. The demon patterns spread densely across his forehead and face, before gradually falling still.

Then he stopped staring at Ye Fan. Instead, he turned toward the volcano, and from his throat came a hoarse, raspy voice: “Letting you seal me was entirely intentional…”

A chill ran through Ye Fan’s heart. The unknown entity that had seized Pang Bo’s body was evidently far more formidable than he had imagined.

At this moment, the battle before the ancient hall had grown even more intense. The hall’s doors had been forced open, and both sides were locked in fierce combat at the entrance. The sect master of Lingxu Cave Heaven and two of the Great Demons had already stepped halfway through the threshold.

Just then, Pang Bo looked back and swept a glance at Ye Fan — and without another word, he leapt skyward, transforming into a streak of green light that shot toward the majestic ancient hall above the volcano’s crater.

The battle before the ancient hall was fierce and stalemated, with casualties mounting on both sides. Pang Bo’s sudden appearance caused the elders of Lingxu Cave Heaven to reveal expressions of shock, while the several Great Demons, upon seeing the demon patterns on his forehead and face, were equally stunned and uncertain.

But no one had time to spare for him right now. The sect master of Lingxu Cave Heaven and two of the Great Demons stepped simultaneously into the ancient hall. Pang Bo left an afterimage in the sky as he charged in right on their heels.

In the sky above, a cascade of brilliant light unfurled. The remaining two Supreme Elders and several more Great Demons followed one after another into the hall. Down below, the lightning bird and the other supremely fierce beasts, along with the ordinary elders of Lingxu Cave Heaven, all soared into the air and surged toward the ancient hall as well.

Thoom!

Just then, the dull sound from within the hall rang out again — far more violent and forceful than any time before.

Pfft!

Two elders of Lingxu Cave Heaven immediately vomited great mouthfuls of blood and staggered backward out of the hall. A silver centipede as thick as an arm cracked all over its body, then its silver-cast form shattered inch by inch and plummeted from the ancient hall.

There was also a fierce beast resembling a massive bull, bearing a lion’s head, its entire body covered in dense azure scales — towering over ten meters tall, charging into the air like a small mountain. Yet the moment it neared the ancient hall, the dull reverberations caused it to vomit great gouts of blood, and a shattered heart was coughed directly out of its chest on the spot.

Thoom… thoom… thoom…

The dull sounds continued without pause. The supremely fierce beasts and elders of Lingxu Cave Heaven that had charged in first all staggered backward out of the hall, every one of them bleeding from all seven orifices, gravely wounded. The weakest among them — along with a number of the fierce beasts — died outright inside, their chests splitting open, blood spraying, never to emerge from the ancient hall again.

In the distance, Ye Fan was shaken to his core. What kind of power was sealed within this Demon Emperor’s burial mound — how could it be so terrifying? Even from so far away, he could feel the ever-swelling force emanating from within. The dull, reverberating sound was already becoming more than he could endure.

The majestic ancient hall trembled. Combat raged within it — the voices of several Great Demons rang out in fierce shouts, while the sect master and Supreme Elders of Lingxu Cave Heaven roared in long cries.

Bang!

A flash of blue-green light, and Pang Bo’s figure materialized at the entrance of the ancient hall — seemingly blasted out by someone. His face had gone an iron gray. He slapped the corpses on the ground — hard — sending them hurtling through the air with tremendous force, all of them flying toward the mountain peak where Ye Fan stood, crashing heavily onto the ground.

A flicker of realization stirred within Ye Fan, for he noticed that Pang Bo — his face still wreathed in blue-green qi — had swept a glance in this direction before snarling and charging back into the ancient hall.

Ye Fan flipped the corpses over and examined them carefully, and then on the body of one of the savage beasts, he discovered something unusual — tiny, faint glimmers of golden light were flowing out from its wounds. Had one not looked closely, they would have been all but impossible to notice.

“What is this…” Ye Fan extended two fingers and probed into that wound, feeling as though he had touched something. He pinched whatever it was and drew it out.

At once, a blazing surge of light erupted, nearly blinding Ye Fan before he could even fully open his eyes. It was a sheet of golden paper, its surface flowing with boundless divine radiance, dazzlingly magnificent.

The sheet of golden paper was heavier than metal, yet covered on every surface with an uncountable number of ancient characters — so tiny they were almost impossible to read. Every single ancient character shone like a star in the night sky, brilliant and resplendent.

Ye Fan’s heart immediately began to pound — thoom, thoom, thoom — faster and faster. His mouth went dry. The divine radiance blazing from the golden sheet of paper forced him to squint his eyes nearly shut.