Xiao Yunsheng had been slapped by a cultivator of the Dragon Transformation Secret Realm and was completely stunned, roaring with rage like a wounded beast.
Ye Fan pressed in, his right hand forming a seal as he pressed down toward Xiao Yunsheng’s glabella — this time aiming directly to split open his skull.
Xiao Yunsheng extended his left hand to block. If his glabella were smashed, his sea of consciousness would be destroyed — and at that point, even a supremely capable figure would not survive.
At his level of cultivation, even if limbs were severed they could be regenerated; only the spirit consciousness must never be harmed. Once the imprint of the soul was extinguished, that person would simply cease to exist.
“Bang!”
What Ye Fan unleashed was once again the Mountain-Embracing Seal — indomitable and unstoppable. His right hand, as black as a mountain peak, shattered the principles woven from divine power and drove forward.
“Crack!”
Xiao Yunsheng’s left hand convulsed and then twisted out of shape, suffering a severe fracture. The searing pain twisted his features and caused cold sweat to break out across him.
“Splat!”
The black mountain peak formed by Ye Fan’s right hand continued to press downward with ferocious, heavy force — this was pure physical combat. Xiao Yunsheng’s palm and fingers finally gave way and were reduced to pulp.
The body of a capable figure — how incredibly solid — yet even that was no match for Ye Fan, who pulverized it with his peak physical power.
“Aah…” Xiao Yunsheng let out a great cry and fell backward, dodging the strike that was about to split his skull open.
Ye Fan’s right hand pressed down until it was nearly touching Xiao Yunsheng’s forehead bone. Xiao Yunsheng was seized with mortal terror and, utterly abandoning all pretense of dignity, fell straight onto the ground and rolled desperately.
“Bang!”
Ye Fan followed in three steps, swinging his right foot and bringing it down with a crashing stamp — heavy as ten million catties!
“Crack-snap!”
That kick was nothing short of ferocious — vicious and devastating. His foot landed on Xiao Yunsheng’s chest, and more than a dozen ribs shattered instantly.
“Splat!”
Xiao Yunsheng coughed up a great mouthful of blood. In that moment his five organs all ruptured. That one kick had nearly punched clean through his chest.
“Bang!”
Ye Fan continued with another kick — this time utterly without mercy — aimed at Xiao Yunsheng’s forehead, clearly intending to shatter his skull in a single blow and end his life.
All of this transpired in a single instant, too fast for anyone to intervene. Every motion happened in the blink of an eye.
“Stop!”
Someone roared from nearby. Grand Tutor Xiao, with more than ten treasure forbidden weapons hovering above his head and his hair standing on end with fury, pounced forward like an old lion.
“Bang!”
Ye Fan was unmoved. His right foot stamped down violently toward Xiao Yunsheng’s glabella. If it landed there, even a supremely capable figure would die completely.
“Splat!”
At the critical moment, Xiao Yunsheng spat out a mouthful of innate essence blood, which transformed into a qilin shield, placing itself above his forehead bone.
Ye Fan let out a great shout and stamped down with all his strength. There was a bang as his foot landed on the blood-colored shield. The ten-thousand-foot jade platform shook — one could imagine just how tremendous that force was.
The blood-colored qilin shield shattered into four or five pieces, then exploded with a bang. Most of the force of Ye Fan’s foot was absorbed — yet the foot still landed in the end.
“Thud!”
Like the peal of a muffled drum, a portion of Xiao Yunsheng’s skull caved inward — pressed in by Ye Fan — though ultimately it was not split open. The area was a mess of blood and flesh.
At this point, Grand Tutor Xiao arrived. With both hands sweeping outward, a splendid landscape painting appeared, intending to draw Ye Fan inside it.
“Bang!”
Ye Fan flicked his fingers. This time he formed the Human Sovereign Seal — the seal of the common lord of the human race, sovereign over all under heaven — and clashed head-on against the landscape painting.
“Boom!”
Ye Fan’s physical body was without peer, yet Grand Tutor Xiao’s power, though suppressed, still had the strength to move seas. With a tremendous crash, both men retreated several steps.
“Why don’t you just die!”
At this moment, from behind Ye Fan — also sheltered beneath Duan De’s cracked bowl — the barbarian struck. The great club in his hand swept outward.
On the ground, Xiao Yunsheng was enraged and alarmed all at once and rolled rapidly, dodging that tremendous blow.
“Clang!”
The barbarian’s physical body was also fearsome. The wolf-tooth club could nearly pierce the heavens, striking the ten-thousand-foot jade platform with a violent shudder. Had this not been a resting place for divine beings, it would likely have been reduced to rubble long ago.
“Bang!”
Xiao Yunsheng dodged the first strike, but could not dodge the second. With a miserable cry, both his legs were smashed by Dongfang Ye, reduced to a bloody ruin.
“How dare you…”
Grand Tutor Xiao’s fury was boundless. Seeing the barbarian’s wolf-tooth club swinging toward his own younger brother’s glabella, he attacked with all his strength.
But Ye Fan blocked him — refusing to let him advance — repeatedly colliding with that landscape painting, his fingers splitting the vault of heaven, battering the ancient painting until it was nearly destroyed.
“Swish!”
Members of the Yin-Yang Sect acted, as one capable figure expelled a streak of light and went forward to rescue Xiao Yunsheng — otherwise he would have perished under the barbarian’s wolf-tooth club.
At the same time, the Yin-Yang Sect’s elderly sect leader Wang Yangzhan personally made his move and pressed forward, intending to deal with the several individuals before him.
It had been he who had spoken of clearing the area to begin with, and now that his ally was in trouble, he naturally had to assert his authority. He was a living fossil-tier existence, more than three thousand years of age — a fact that made every person present wary.
His speed was not especially fast, yet he was deeply imposing as he advanced. Hands clasped behind his back, he looked down at the group with a slant of his eyes. That manner of one who had everything in hand was genuinely unsettling.
He looked down at the group, extending his right hand — reaching directly for the cracked bowl floating in midair — intending to seize it in a single grab and strip them of their protective treasure, leaving them to die.
He did indeed have the confidence to be this bold: as a living fossil, even an apex holy sovereign was no match for him.
“Hmph!”
The old blind man let out a cold snort. His right hand struck out, bearing an equally unfathomable and terrifying force of principles, no weaker than that of Wang Yangzhan, the Yin-Yang Sect’s elderly sect leader.
“Bang!”
The two clashed with a single collision. A vortex of divine power appeared — uncanny beyond description — as though time and space themselves had shifted, everything thrown into chaos.
All around them, the crowd was shaken. Many people’s divine power had been sealed after coming to this place, yet the living fossil-tier figure Wang Yangzhan could still display capabilities like this — truly a cut above the rest.
And that inconspicuous old blind man had actually withstood his assault. No one had thought much of him earlier; who would have expected him to be an extraordinary figure hidden from the world.
“It’s you… the second greatest bandit of the Northern Region — the Heaven-Blind Elder!” Wang Yangzhan’s expression became one of utter disbelief. “You still haven’t died…”
“You haven’t died either — how would I?” the old blind man replied with a sinister chuckle.
“Swish!”
Both sides rapidly separated, each retreating, both wary of the other. Neither made any further move to strike.
Xiao Yunsheng had been rescued, but his condition was utterly wretched. Both arms had been reduced to pulp by Ye Fan, and both legs had been smashed apart by the barbarian.
His forehead bone in particular had caved inward, bearing a clear imprint of Ye Fan’s shoe sole. This humiliation drove him nearly mad, and the look in his eyes was one of venomous, boundless hatred.
“The Grand Emperor was a great emperor of the human race — revered by all peoples across all ages, past and future. As members of the human race ourselves, why should we not be permitted to pay our respects? Or do you consider the rest of us to be foreign races — or perhaps it is you who harbor treacherous intentions in your own hearts?”
Ye Fan pinned a great accusation on the Yin-Yang Sect’s members. A considerable number of people who had been fated to be included in the group forced to leave heard these words and all voiced their agreement and support.
A commotion swept through the crowd. The sovereign of Great Xia stepped out from the throng. “We will take only the founding ancestor’s remains and leave everything else untouched. Let us open the coffin now.”
After the earlier conflict, no one dared act rashly anymore. What appeared to be the weakest faction in fact harbored two wild-beast-like existences as well as the second greatest bandit of the Northern Region — far beyond what anyone had anticipated.
At this moment, the expressions on Ye Fan and his companions’ faces were also rather peculiar. They had never imagined the old blind man had such a formidable background.
“Fizzle, fizzle, fizzle…”
Beams of divine light were projected. Imperial Dao Dragon Qi was channeled into the markings on the ancient coffin. The coffin lid began to sound, slowly lifting open a crack.
“Boom!”
Primordial chaos qi surged out with a sound like a clap of thunder, and everyone rapidly retreated, watching the ancient coffin with tense expressions.
This was the burial place of an ancient great emperor; no one could be certain he had not left some final contingency behind. Everyone was on edge.
The chaos energy dissipated. Silently the coffin lid rose, revealing everything within, and the crowd surged forward together.
It was empty.
An empty coffin — no body whatsoever. Not a trace of the Grand Emperor’s presence.
“What is the meaning of this? Where are the Grand Emperor’s remains?”
“Why is it an empty coffin? Where has the ancient great emperor’s body gone?”
Quickly, people discovered that on the floor of the coffin was a humanoid impression — the silhouette of an ancient emperor, branded into the wooden base.
“Has the Grand Emperor dissolved into the Dao — merged himself into heaven and earth…?”
“No — this is a Great Dao brand. It is not the trace of dissolving into the Dao!”
At that moment, people were overwhelmingly agitated. This was a Dao-mark left behind by a human great emperor. What kind of profound truth was contained within it — one didn’t even need to think to know it was a supreme ancient scripture.
Where had the Grand Emperor gone? This was the question on everyone’s mind.
Suddenly, someone pointed at the coffin wall. “There are words up here!”
“Undying Celestial Emperor…” someone read aloud — but they were cut off almost immediately as killing intent erupted throughout the site.
At that moment, the people present finally abandoned all restraint and began fighting for the ancient coffin. Everyone wanted to claim it for themselves. Not only did it bear a great emperor’s Dao-mark, but it seemed to hold other secrets as well.
“Do not act recklessly — doing so will destroy the brand!” someone shouted.
If the coffin were shattered into pieces, the brands upon it would cease to exist, and no one would be able to obtain them.
“This old one said long ago — all idle bystanders should withdraw!” Wang Yangzhan of the Yin-Yang Sect raised the issue once more.
The Demon Sovereign of the Southern Range, the imperial sovereigns of the Central Continent, the divine monks of the Western Desert, and others advanced, driving a large number of people back — no one could get close.
“And you — get out of here immediately!” Someone beside Wang Yangzhan barked at Ye Fan and his companions, his expression grim and threatening, his manner utterly self-assured.
“Already forgotten the pain from earlier?” the old blind man said with a cold laugh.
“This place is not somewhere that just anyone can stay…” As Wang Yangzhan spoke, above his head the energy of life and death manifested and appeared.
Red and black energies coiled together, like a piece of sky descending, intending to suppress everyone. Every capable-tier individual felt a suffocating pressure.
“A weapon of the ancient sages!”
Many faces went pale. Even sovereign-level figures felt unease in their hearts — no one had expected someone to bring out the weapon of a sage. Something like that could sweep through everything in the vicinity.
That kind of power was something that almost no human force could contend against. In an age when sages are difficult to be born, wielding such a weapon would render one virtually peerless under heaven.
“Is this the legendary Yin-Yang Mirror?” People’s minds turned to that weapon which was practically the stuff of myth, and not a single expression remained unchanged.
This was a world-spanning sage weapon, passed down through the mortal world for more than two hundred thousand years, indestructible through all that time — one of the most fearsome ancient sage weapons in existence.
Not every sage could refine a weapon that matched his own cultivation level, for the materials required were simply too difficult to find.
Just as great emperors sought phoenix-blood crimson gold, the Primal Mother Qi of All Things, and immortal-tear green gold — such things could only be encountered by chance, never sought deliberately.
Weapons refined by ancient sages from ordinary materials could survive as few as tens of thousands of years and as many as around a hundred thousand years before being worn away by time.
Only weapons refined by absolute divine materials — superb sage weapons — could remain indestructible forever. These were known as world-enduring sage weapons, and they were rare beyond measure.
“No — that’s not the world-enduring sage weapon. It doesn’t have that invincible aura of annihilating all things.”
“This is a replica mirror the Yin-Yang Sect forged fifty thousand years ago. Though it was made by a sage’s hand, it was not cast from any divine material. Over these tens of thousands of years, it has already been half-destroyed.”
“Nevertheless, it still carries a very powerful sage aura. No other weapon can contend with it!”
Everyone retreated. Many faces went ashen, knowing they had no way of competing with the Yin-Yang Sect.
Though the Yin-Yang Sect’s people were self-assured, they did not dare to show disrespect to the people of the undying sacred dynasties. These were inheritances that had produced human great emperors — their hidden depths were beyond measuring.
However, they showed no consideration whatsoever to Ye Fan and his companions. Xiao Yunsheng, who stood together with them, gritted his teeth and barked: “Get over here!”
“Old blind man — this damaged sage weapon of mine, even in this place where divine power is suppressed, is more than sufficient to kill all of you,” Wang Yangzhan, the elderly sect leader of the Yin-Yang Sect, said with casual unconcern. “Out of respect for you, you deathless legendary figure, I will allow you to leave. But these others must die.”
He fixed his gaze on Ye Fan, Dongfang Ye, and Duan De, then honed in specifically on that cracked bowl — intending to claim it as his own.
The ten-thousand-foot jade platform fell silent. Everyone understood that even a half-destroyed sage weapon, worn down by time, could kill many of the greatest masters present.
“Fat one — hand over that bowl of yours!” Wang Yangzhan said with cold indifference, demanding the group’s protective treasure.
At this moment of life and death, Duan De’s expression shifted through a whole range of emotions — one moment gritting his teeth, the next his eyes flickering with thought.
“You bugs are all dead!” Xiao Yunsheng ground his teeth with unbounded venom. “That fat one — hand over the bowl immediately.”
“The hell, did you really think you had me cornered?” Duan De gritted his teeth and finally made his decision. The cracked bowl above his head began to flow with a terrifying aura.
“Crack!”
The bowl shattered. More than ten thousand dark beams of light shot out. An ancient, unadorned ceramic lid became visible, hovering in the void — and the ghostly face impression upon it was breathtakingly conspicuous.
“That is…”
“It looks strangely familiar — very similar to an account recorded in a certain ancient text!”
“I remember now — that ghostly face… it is the marking of the Heaven-Devouring Great Emperor. This ceramic lid is an imperial weapon.”
“The ancient Heaven-Devouring Demonic Jar… it is an absolute-path weapon of the Eastern Wasteland. Heavens — the lid of the long-lost Demonic Jar has appeared in the world!”
Many were horrified. All of them couldn’t help but fall back — this made the very hair stand on end. A cracked, worn-out bowl had actually been concealing half of an absolute-path imperial weapon!
“There is no need to fear — half an absolute-path weapon cannot be reawakened. Unless a sage arrives, no one can activate it. It cannot display the divine might of a great emperor.”
“Then go ahead and try it yourself!”
“Even without displaying the might of a great emperor, it can still overpower ancient sage weapons!”
The ten-thousand-foot jade platform erupted into another commotion. Not a single person was not shaken — everyone retreated.
Ye Fan was also left momentarily speechless. The Heaven-Devouring Demonic Jar that the Black Emperor had endlessly spoken of — its most crucial component — had actually been in Duan De’s possession all along, hidden inside that cracked bowl.
“You think waving around some broken mirror impresses me?” Duan De squared his shoulders and puffed out his chest, steadying himself. “You’re done for — you’ve made enemies of me! In the days to come, I’ll dig up your ancestors’ graves one by one. As for your own tombs, I’ll leave those for my grandchildren to plunder!”