“Ah…”

Jin Chixiao let out a great cry. His left shoulder writhed and churned, and a brand new arm grew out — but it was entirely different from before. It was covered in golden scales, larger and far more powerful.

“As expected of a descendant of an ancient creature, with the blood of an Ancient King flowing within.” Ye Fan’s expression was calm as he stood in midair, Ten Thousand Calamities Bow in hand.

With one Supreme Elder dead, the remaining three old men all put on grave expressions. They stood not far away in a standoff, gathering their strength and preparing for a single decisive blow.

“The legendary Eight Prohibitions — someone has entered the Eight Prohibitions!”

Cold light flickered in their eyes. This was deeply troubling news. Even Jin Chixiao’s face was filled with resentment — jealousy and indignation written together across his features.

At only the Third Transformation of Dragon Sublimation, yet killing an expert of the Immortal Platform secret realm — it was truly beyond belief. Leaping across eight full realm boundaries had been virtually unheard of throughout all of history.

Nine transformations of Dragon Sublimation, then a single leap to the Immortal Platform — only when the great dragon along the spine reached absolute perfection could one enter the final secret realm of the human body: the Immortal Platform.

Ascending the great dragon along the spine all the way to the summit of the Immortal Platform, overlooking all the mountains below — it was a pure land, the supreme immortal treasury, a place of boundless potential.

The human body possessed five great secret realms in total: Wheel Sea, Dao Palace, Four Extremities, Dragon Sublimation, and the Immortal Platform — each ascending in order above the last.

Some had once attempted to deduce a sixth secret realm, but found nothing — ultimately concluding that it could not exist, unless one were a divine being or an immortal.

Whether Supreme Elders, powerful sages, peerless divine kings, or even saints — all alike came to a halt at the final secret realm of the Immortal Platform.

The Immortal Platform was the last secret realm of the human body, fundamentally different from the previous four — one could say there was an essential, qualitative distinction.

This secret realm was extraordinarily difficult. Progress was grueling, and every single step was like climbing one more tier of heaven, with tremendous differences in power between each level.

Moving from one tier of heaven to the next was separated by a chasm as vast as the gulf between heaven and earth — extraordinarily difficult to cross, rarely achieved. One could well imagine how challenging the Immortal Platform was to cultivate.

Indeed, in this final secret realm, the distance between each tier of heaven was equivalent to the gap between entire earlier major secret realms.

The Supreme Elders of the various Sacred Grounds were almost entirely at the first tier of heaven in the Immortal Platform. The most outstanding among them were those who were half a step from becoming great sages — standing at the absolute pinnacle of the first tier, only half a step away from entering the second.

The Immortal Platform was extraordinarily unique. If it only had four tiers of heaven, then in terms of power, it would be comparable to four entire major secret realms combined.

Consider that there were previously only four secret realms — Wheel Sea, Dao Palace, Four Extremities, and Dragon Sublimation. Yet the final Immortal Platform secret realm had each tier of heaven equivalent to an entire major secret realm — the gap between them was extreme and vast.

If the Immortal Platform had eight or nine tiers of heaven, the implications were even more terrifying — equivalent to adding eight or nine entire secret realms on top.

How many tiers of heaven the final secret realm of the human body actually possessed was something no one knew — for no one knew how powerful the Great Emperors truly were, and no one knew the height at which they stood.

Some said that only by ascending the Immortal Platform did one truly set foot on the immortal path — only then could one begin the climb and see exactly how many tiers this secret realm contained.

The Wheel Sea, Dao Palace, Four Extremities, and Dragon Sublimation combined could not match the span of power encompassed within the Immortal Platform alone.

A Supreme Elder at the beginning stage of the Immortal Platform’s first tier of heaven had just been killed by Ye Fan. Their apprehension was understandable. The legend of the Eight Prohibitions unsettled them. If allowed to continue growing, the outcome was impossible to predict.

Hum!

The void shuddered. All three Supreme Elders moved simultaneously, exhaling together their innate primordial quintessential energy, condensing it into a Ten Thousand Li River and Mountain Map. It came down like an entire sky pressing upon the world.

Flash!

Ye Fan retreated at once, making no attempt to take the blow head-on. These three were absolutely stronger than the one before. Combining their forces, their power was staggering — beyond the Eight Prohibitions threshold.

Each tier of heaven in the Immortal Platform was equivalent to one past major secret realm — and unlike the Wheel Sea, Dao Palace, or Four Extremities with only four or five minor boundaries, each tier was equivalent to the Dragon Sublimation secret realm, with nine minor boundaries.

Of course, those nine minor boundaries within a single tier of heaven were no longer finely divided; they were simply classified as initial stage, middle stage, and peak.

All four of the Supreme Elders were at the initial stage of the first tier of heaven in the Immortal Platform. But only the one who had just died had been eight minor boundaries above Ye Fan; the remaining three were each nine minor boundaries above him.

Ye Fan pushed his cultivation to its absolute limit. Phenomena of all kinds manifested around him, and ten thousand golden beams of light shot outward from his body. He surged with vast, ocean-like waves of power, like a divine demon unleashed.

Moreover, in that very moment, he continuously activated the All Character Formula, seeking to multiply his combat power tenfold — to use it against his enemies and cut down these powerful figures.

This was the first time he had attempted to activate the All Character Formula since making his great leap in power and formally entering the ranks of those who had crossed the Eight Prohibitions — he hoped to push himself even further and shatter the limits of legend.

Yet no matter how he tried to activate it, the All Character Formula simply would not function. In ordinary times, a few dozen attempts would suffice for success, but now he had already tried more than five hundred times.

“What is happening?” Ye Fan was taken aback, unable to understand what was wrong. He sensed that something had gone seriously wrong.

The Ten Thousand Li River and Mountain Map, like a bottomless abyss, immeasurable in its depths, flew toward him — and nearly captured him within it.

Ye Fan retreated again, moving like a great dragon across the sky, withdrawing several thousand zhang. He hovered in midair, making continuous attempts, but after more than a thousand failures, he still could not succeed.

“The All Character Formula… has stopped working.” Ye Fan stood there in a daze, utterly bewildered.

“Where do you think you’re going!” The three Supreme Elders roared in unison. Each of them exhaled another mouthful of innate primordial quintessential energy, pouring it into the Ten Thousand Li River and Mountain Map.

It was a true expanse of rivers and mountains soaring across the sky — majestic beyond measure, peaks towering, flowing springs and cascading waterfalls brimming with powerful energy, yet rendered with vivid, lifelike detail.

Ye Fan retreated again and again, refusing to clash head-on, muttering to himself: “Could it be because I have entered the legendary ranks of the Eight Prohibitions?”

As that thought struck him, he stopped trying to operate at his absolute peak and instead lowered his power considerably. In that instant, he successfully activated the All Character Formula, and his combat power multiplied tenfold.

“It worked — and I am precisely back within the Eight Prohibitions threshold…” Ye Fan stared in blank astonishment.

In that moment, he was genuinely taken aback. Just what secrets did the Eight Prohibitions contain? Could they truly not be surpassed?

If anyone had known Ye Fan’s thoughts in this moment — that he was dissatisfied — they would surely have cried out in indignant fury.

Since ancient times, almost no one had been capable of entering the Eight Prohibitions and fighting across eight minor realm boundaries — it was like something out of a fairy tale. Now he had become one of the rare few throughout all of history!

Countless dazzling geniuses had attempted every conceivable method, spending enormous effort deducing paths, all in hopes of entering the Eight Prohibitions — and still could not step inside.

Yet he had succeeded without even realizing it, and felt none of the joy one would expect. Anyone else would have wept with happiness, for such a thing was extraordinarily rare across the ages.

“What are all the secrets of the Eight Prohibitions?” Ye Fan murmured to himself. He had discovered the unsurpassable nature of the Eight Prohibitions threshold — even the All Character Formula could not be activated beyond it.

“Even as a Sacred Body, one is not guaranteed to enter the Eight Prohibitions. Capture him — we must understand what is happening!” The three Supreme Elders secretly transmitted a message to one another, exchanged a glance, then transformed into three brilliant rainbows and shot forward, driving their boundless divine power.

“The Eight Prohibitions…” Ye Fan mused as he retreated in flight, his mind generating one idea after another.

Before long, he raised his head. This was not the time for prolonged reflection — he needed to resolve this battle first.

“Jin Chixiao!”

Ye Fan shouted. He could do nothing against the three Supreme Elders, for they surpassed the Eight Prohibitions threshold. He locked his gaze onto the heir of the Northern Plains Golden Family instead.

At that moment, Jin Chixiao was following close behind the three Supreme Elders, not daring to stray half a step away, his expression cold and watchful as he observed Ye Fan.

Ye Fan gave a cold smile. He feinted an attack against the three great experts, charging forward — and then, in an instant, his figure vanished entirely from where he stood, leaving no trace!

All three Supreme Elders froze, momentarily baffled. But from behind, a startled cry rang out — the void beside Jin Chixiao split open, and Ye Fan stepped through.

“The Great Void Technique!” Everyone was startled. This was a secret art of the Ji Family of the Eastern Desolation — a technique that was never passed down to outsiders.

Though it allowed one to traverse the void, a prepared opponent could still detect those rippling fluctuations — and its speed was far inferior to the Circulating Character Formula, which was why Ye Fan rarely used it.

This was nothing more than a surprise ambush. The three Supreme Elders had not anticipated it, and so he succeeded in closing the distance to Jin Chixiao before they could react.

At such close range, even a half-step great sage would meet a bitter end against him. In close-quarters combat, very few could escape his methods.

“Ah…”

Jin Chixiao screamed. Cracks spread across his entire body, like a cicada shedding its shell — his human flesh split open, and a golden creature burst out to resist Ye Fan’s golden fist.

“An Ancient Creature!”

Ye Fan was shocked. He had long known this clan carried the blood of Ancient Kings in their veins — but he had not anticipated they could also transform into a different true form.

Jin Chixiao remained humanoid in shape — the most obvious characteristic of an Ancient King’s descendant — but his entire body was now covered in dense golden scales, as though cast from pure gold.

And his hands and feet had grown far larger, his bones cracking continuously as his hair transformed into blazing gold, burning like a flame.

The human flesh fell away in bloody strips — a disturbing sight. Even his eyes had turned gold, and from the center of his brow, a single horn emerged.

Bang!

Jin Chixiao brought both golden hands crashing against Ye Fan’s golden fists, producing a sound like shattering bone. He let out a pained cry and used the force of impact to recoil like a beam of light, flying backward.

Pfft!

The instant Jin Chixiao shot away, both his hands became pulverized flesh. Then his arm bones snapped — one could only imagine the force he had just absorbed.

Yet Ye Fan was also surprised. In his Ancient Creature form, Jin Chixiao’s physical body was now comparable to that of a half-step great sage — a figure standing at the absolute peak of the first tier of heaven in the Immortal Platform.

“The physical body of an ancient being is this fearsome…”

“Kill him!”

The three Supreme Elders came charging in, but their speed could not keep pace. Ye Fan had already transformed into a beam of light and was bearing down on Jin Chixiao.

Boom!

In this moment of life and death, Jin Chixiao gritted his teeth. His golden body ignited, burning his ancient creature’s primordial source, fleeing into the distance. He knew that even in his transformed state, he was no match for Ye Fan — a man who had set foot in the Eight Prohibitions.

The Eight Prohibitions were simply too monstrous. He had not the slightest chance of winning. His only option was to run!

“Once, twice — but never three times. You have ambushed me three times already. It’s time I sent you on your way.” A cold, detached smile curved at the corner of Ye Fan’s lips as he hurled the golden war spear.

Slash!

The war spear flew like a golden bolt of lightning, piercing cloud and sky. In an instant it caught up, and with a pfft, it drove into the center of Jin Chixiao’s back, sending a spray of blood scattering outward.

“Ah…”

Jin Chixiao screamed. Pierced through by the golden war spear, he was carried more than a thousand zhang forward before the spear pinned him against a sheer cliff face ahead. The golden shaft quivered, and blood flowed down in rivulets.

“No!”

From behind, the three old men roared in fury — but they could do nothing to stop it. The distance between them was simply too great.

Jin Chixiao was in unbearable agony, yet could not move at all. The war spear pinned his body fast against the cliff face, and the slightest twitch sent pain to the marrow of his bones.

Ye Fan walked forward and, with a sharp bang, wrenched the spear free and held it single-handed, suspending Jin Chixiao in midair on its tip.

“Let me go. I am willing to pay any price — I will never dare ambush you again.” Jin Chixiao submitted, terrified that Ye Fan would shake the spear and blow him apart into pieces.

Not long before, he had watched with his own eyes as Ye Fan either pried or shattered nine mountains — uprooting mountains and overawing the world. That had truly broken his spirit.

“As long as you spare my life, anything you want…” All traces of his former arrogance were gone. He begged in a low, fawning voice.

“You are a descendant of an Ancient King — you must be able to read the script of the ancient era.” Ye Fan thought of the Immortal Tear Green Gold book within him, wanting Jin Chixiao to translate it.

Flash!

A glow flickered, and a piece of rust-mottled green bronze appeared — ancient and desolate, drawing the mind toward it.

“Can you read the characters on this?”

“I… cannot.” Jin Chixiao shook his head apologetically. “Too much time has passed. Those characters were forgotten long ago.”

Ye Fan’s anger flared. “Then what use are you — you illiterate!”