The Ji Family — even its outer gates floated in the sky, wreathed in clouds and rosy mists. Some islands were suspended in the air, with silver waterfalls cascading down from them — a sight of extraordinary splendor.
“Who dares to make such a clamor?” The Ji Family members shouted. An elderly cultivator stepped out.
But before he could act, another figure moved faster still — a powerful Wang Family cultivator who had been waiting outside all along, watching for Ye Fan’s arrival, intending to cut him down the moment he appeared. He surged forward, transforming into a streak of light.
“Spit!”
A sacred tree flew out from between his brows, shattering a phantasmal figure in the air. A muffled boom rang out across the sky as boundless divine radiance erupted.
“The emperor moves ever forward without pause. Does your Wang Family think they are worthy of producing a Great Emperor? I will come to slay you all!”
Only these words echoed in the azure sky above. What had just been destroyed was merely a phantom of talisman-light — not the true body.
“Holy Body, where do you run?!”
The Wang Family cultivator gave pursuit, yet his divine sense swept in all ten directions and found nothing. He retreated with a sullen expression, clearly embarrassed — the true body had never come at all.
Suddenly, a block of divine origin stone covered in densely packed runes manifested and exploded on the spot, blasting open a vast black void abyss. The Wang Family cultivator screamed — half his body was left mangled.
Had it not been for the incomplete Great Emperor’s divine array left behind by the Ji Family, which stabilized the surrounding void in all directions, this block of divine origin stone engraved with a million runes would have been enough to obliterate him entirely.
But even this was more than sufficient. In the Southern Domain, an untold number of eyes were watching this place — and all of them felt a sudden chill. The Holy Body had dared to act like this, with such ferocity.
Did he still have follow-up moves in reserve? Would he truly appear in the flesh two days from now at the Ji Family’s gates? What did he have to counter the Void Ancient Mirror? How did he intend to contend with the Northern Emperor?
Ye Fan had naturally not revealed his true body. By now he had long since traveled a great distance away, leaping tens of thousands of miles at a stride, arriving at a desolate wasteland.
This was a peculiar place. The red earth bore no life whatsoever, crisscrossed everywhere by crevices meters wide, scorched and smoldering. Columns of flame shot into the sky, and even at a great distance one could feel the intense heat — divine fire blazing, nearly tearing the void itself apart.
The Fire Domain.
Years had passed, and Ye Fan had returned to this place. He had once been driven here while being hunted, surviving nine near-deaths, enduring the fire tribulation, forging the Ten Thousand Things Mother Qi Cauldron, and cultivating in bitter hardship for half a year.
He had passed through the first five layers of the Fire Domain. The sixth layer — “Purple Qi Coming from the East” — had nearly burned him to nothing in body and soul. Had the Bodhi Seed not shielded him, even the Holy Body would have become nothing but the dust of destruction.
Now, returning to this familiar place, Ye Fan no longer needed to carry the Bodhi Seed to withstand the purple flames. He did not pause, advancing into the seventh layer.
Here, five-colored flames flowed in currents, known as the Five Elemental True Fire, drifting like wisps of mist, the temperature intensely more extreme than before. Most powerful cultivators could not endure this place — it would roast them to charcoal.
It was with these terrifying flames that, years ago, he had burned a Ji Family Supreme Elder alive at the Unfettered Gate, making his escape.
Ye Fan pressed forward in great strides, entering directly into the eighth layer of the Fire Domain. This place could not be entered even by peak Saint Lords — the true bodies of Sovereign Lords could be reduced to ash here.
In the present age, only one person had ever come here — a Crow Daoist who had once used these flames to refine lamb-fat jade divine iron, because he possessed the body of a fire crow, born of sacred fire, and thus was unafraid.
In thousands of years, Ye Fan was the second person to enter the eighth layer of the Fire Domain, relying upon the unparalleled flesh of the Holy Body to withstand the incineration of the seven-colored flames.
Seven colored wisps drifted through the air — not densely packed, and yet they carried a devastating heat. No Sect Master-level cultivator could resist them; they would burn through all the heavens.
Ye Fan’s flesh surpassed that of Saint Lords, and yet here his entire body felt on the verge of splitting apart — he barely managed to hold it off. Even his Holy Body was under threat. One could only imagine the intensity of the heat.
And yet this was still not his target. He pressed on, arriving at the edge of the ninth layer, where the terrifying heat ahead could make a person feel as though they were cracking apart even at a distance.
The ninth layer of the Fire Domain — in thousands of years, not a single person had entered. It was a place of certain death in the truest sense. Ye Fan stood at a distance and beheld dozens of human-shaped ash remnants.
“Who would dare to storm the ninth layer of the Fire Domain?” His heart trembled. This was a place from which none returned, and yet across countless ages, so many had tried to enter.
Nine-colored flames, seemingly transcending the bounds of the mortal world, as though burning in some other vast realm of existence — dreamlike and terrifying, nine-colored misty wisps dancing and flickering, destroying all things.
This was Ye Fan’s goal: to collect the sacred flames of the Fire Domain’s final layer, to be used against a host of great enemies. When he had watched the fire-scaled tortoise do battle, his mind had leaped to this place.
“Can I enter the ninth layer?” Ye Fan took out the Bodhi Seed. Without it, he would not dare to take the risk — the eighth layer was already his limit.
“The sins of the world, gathered together, form the Karma Fire, capable of extinguishing all divine beings. Bodhi proves the Dao, standing alone against the Karma Fire — perhaps it can also hold against the sacred flames of the final layer.”
Ye Fan made the attempt, bearing a divine instrument as a vessel for the Bodhi Seed, casting it into the ninth layer — and found that it remained unharmed, shielded from the flames, not incinerated.
This set his heart at ease. He retrieved the Bodhi Seed, held it in hand, and with great strides moved forward, entering alone the deepest place of the Fire Domain, whose terrifying reputation had been built across the ages.
Nine-colored sacred flames danced and leaped, as though countless gods and demons were wailing all around, while ancient and mysterious sounds echoed in his ears — as though he had stepped into a battlefield of the divine.
The temperature was terrible. Even holding the Bodhi Seed, he felt a deep discomfort, as though his skin might burst and his flesh tear, barely able to breathe. He was the first person in thousands of years to set foot in this place.
Ye Fan intended to collect these flames with the Ten Thousand Things Mother Qi Cauldron — for only it could withstand such temperatures; any other weapon would be instantly incinerated to dust.
Then, on a sudden impulse, within the Ten Thousand Things Mother Qi Cauldron he discovered a black gourd. When he pulled out its stopper, a flash of primordial light appeared and was gone.
“It is…”
Ye Fan had nearly forgotten this treasure entirely. He had seized it long ago from the Holy Son of the Purple Mansion, having spent a great deal of time trying to puzzle it out without success, unable to draw out its power.
Yet the gourd’s stopper could be used — shaped like a rotted wooden mallet, gnawed by insects, but when swung it could release a thread of primordial radiance possessing a terrifyingly destructive power.
At the time, he had even mocked the Holy Son of the Purple Mansion for possessing a treasure yet not knowing it — fighting with only the stopper rather than the black gourd itself. And now, after all this time in his own hands, he found himself doing exactly the same.
“I do not know its divine power. Let me try using it to contain the sacred flames of the ninth layer. If it is a divine object, it certainly will not be destroyed. And if it is reduced to ash, no great loss.”
The black gourd contained some True Yin Water, which evaporated instantly upon entering the ninth layer. Then the black gourd sank forward — under his urging, it began to drink deeply, inhaling and swallowing the nine-colored sacred flames.
“Not afraid of the most terrible fire in existence!” Ye Fan was greatly astonished, realizing that he had truly overlooked a divine treasure.
The black gourd emitted not a single trace of divine power. Under his control, it was like a bottomless pit — as though it wished to drain the entire ninth layer dry, sinking and rising ceaselessly.
“With this many flames… it would be enough to burn a dozen or more Saint Lords to death…” Ye Fan felt a wild, reckless impulse. Using this, he could absolutely do something that would shake the world.
The black gourd seemed to have been born at the creation of heaven and earth — it seemed as though it wished to devour the entire Fire Domain. Ye Fan cautiously sent a thread of divine thought inside, and found within it something like an ancient cosmos.
“This black gourd is truly unsettling. From the looks of it, it was not forged by someone — it grew in the world on its own.” Ye Fan examined it closely: the patterns upon it were ancient and natural.
In the end, he dared not absorb more sacred flames. For when he gave it the lightest shake, a sound like mountains collapsing and seas overturning rang out — there were already too many flames within. He feared that when the time came, he would not be able to control it.
“Is it truly a supreme sacred object?” Ye Fan was left speechless. Even the stopper had been gnawed by insects, and yet it could release primordial radiance. He was entirely at a loss for words.
Suddenly, from the outermost reaches of the Fire Domain, a strange sound reached him — like a human sigh, or perhaps a living thing crawling about.
“What is this?” A chill passed through Ye Fan’s heart.
At the far end of the Fire Domain lay a dead and silent place — only a few li across, completely bare, without a single trace of life. Even the flames had ceased there — and yet now, sounds were coming from it.
“A small tree?!”
His eyes widened in shock. At the furthest end of the Fire Domain, a small tree appeared — moving quickly, as though it had grown legs, moving forward of its own accord.
“No — it is a flame!”
His expression shifted. Activating his Origin Heavenly Eye, he perceived its true nature: it was a tongue of fire, though it had taken the form of a small, half-meter-tall peculiar tree.
“Can it be that those legends are true?!” Ye Fan was startled.
Many legends surrounded the Fire Domain, and many of the records bordered on the absurd.
One ancient text recorded that in the deepest reaches of the Fire Domain, an Immortal had once been burned to death. Another recorded that an ancient tower had once appeared here, drifting for thousands of years.
Yet another record stated that among the nine layers of the Fire Domain there were in truth ten types of flames — but the tenth had no root and no source, and had only appeared a handful of times throughout all of history.
“The tenth flame — it truly exists!”
Ye Fan’s expression became one of pure disbelief, filled with shock and awe. He was witnessing it with his own eyes.
The small tree was not tall, but it was sturdy and vigorous, coiling like a dragon. Its flame-tongues flickered, seeming capable of incinerating all the heavens and toppling eternity.
“The tenth flame burned an immortal to death…”
The thought of those legends made even Ye Fan’s scalp prickle. This tongue of fire was small, but if it were to surge toward him, he would likely be reduced to a handful of black earth in an instant.
In that moment, he witnessed an incomprehensible sight. The small tree burned — and its flames were runes, one after another.
One small world after another collapsed and shattered, then reformed and fused back together, bizarre beyond imagining. It truly could incinerate all the heavens and topple eternity — and yet in the end, everything was restored.
Ye Fan stared at those flames composed of runes for a very long time. Only when the small tree sank into a pitch-dark ancient cave did he come back to himself, and he left this place.
“The Holy Body — what moves does he have left? He has less than two days. How could he possibly enter the Ji Family’s estate? It seems completely impossible.” Outside, everyone was speculating. How could Ye Fan enter the Ji Family’s gates? It seemed beyond all reason.
The Void Ancient Mirror — a Dao-limit imperial weapon capable of crushing ten thousand ages of heaven — short of a Great Emperor returning to life, no one could stand against it.
How was Ye Fan to go to the Ji Family and bring Little Moon away? Even with the aid of the Crimson Dragon King, the Battling-Heaven Holy Monkey, and the others, it would be hopeless. One trace of imperial majesty would reduce him to ash.
“He is walking into his own doom. He has no one to blame but himself. In times to come, when people speak of the Holy Body, all they will remember is that he was nothing more than a stepping stone upon which my son climbed toward the emperor’s path.” Wang Chengkun clasped his hands behind his back, gazing out the window.
“To be born in the same age as Teng’er is his misfortune. He was destined to be nothing more than a green leaf. As the many kings rise, he will be the first to fall beneath Teng’er’s feet, his blood staining the emperor’s road.” Wang Teng’s uncle nodded in agreement.
Tens of thousands of miles away, Ye Fan furrowed his brow. A long silence. How to stand against the Void Mirror — this had become his greatest challenge. Unless he could borrow an imperial weapon to wield for himself.
By now, he had already gathered the sacred flames of the ninth layer of the Fire Domain — he need not fear any Saint Lord. Yet he still lacked an imperial weapon to provide the necessary deterrence. Otherwise, everything would still come to nothing.
“There is no choice but to risk everything and carry it out!” Ye Fan made a decision, striding toward an ancient forbidden land.
This was one of the life’s forbidden zones — from ancient times, few had dared to enter. Sovereign Lords who walked into it would be reduced to ash without exception. No one could resist the power of “desolation.”
Outside the forbidden land, ancient trees reached the sky in a scene of primordial grandeur. Inside, a fallen pin could be heard — dead silence, as still as death itself, without a single sound.
Ye Fan took out every jade bottle he had filled with sacred spring water, then bit down on a gossamer-shaped sacred fruit, its fragrance permeating to the bones and soaking into the soul. He had very few left now — yet all he could do was spend them with such extravagance. The aura of life enveloped him.
Then, like a bolt of lightning, he charged within — vanishing into the deepest reaches of the ancient forbidden land.
No one knew how much time passed. From the depths of the forbidden land came a vibrating sound — like the primordial cry at the birth of the cosmos, making one’s heart tremble and one’s soul threaten to leave the body.
Nine Dragon Corpses lay strewn in their places. Within an ancient bronze great coffin, Ye Fan bore a small coffin upon his back with great effort, sweat pouring from him, one step at a time, moving toward the outside.
“Void Ancient Mirror… I can withstand it.”
For Ji Ziyue’s sake, Ye Fan had thought long and carefully, risking his life to come and carry this mysterious bronze coffin upon his back — intending to use it to contend against the Dao-limit imperial weapon.