Tianyuan was an ancient city of long history, one that had existed for an immeasurably long time. No one knew which era it had first arisen in.

Outside the city, in this wasteland, lay endless secrets. It was said that the Tai Yin Ancient Emperor had once resided here, leaving behind boundless legends.

Stone mountains stood tall, not a blade of grass grew anywhere, the ground scorched and seared — as though it had once been subjected to the most severe burning of the True Solar Fire. Even the red soil had melted, crystallizing into glittering and translucent formations.

“It is said that the Tai Yin Ancient Emperor once entered closed seclusion here. He cultivated the Tai Yin True Scripture — the softest and most yin of all arts — so how could it have produced such a scene?” someone asked quietly.

“What do you know? When Tai Yin reaches its ultimate extreme, Yang is born from it — extremity brings transformation. Otherwise, how would he have achieved the supreme Dao fruit of an ancient emperor? This is the manifestation of the great completion reaching its absolute pinnacle!” another replied.

Ye Fan very much wanted to rush forward, but the Old Madman had already vanished. His movements were too swift — one step and he was gone, having entered the depths of this ancient land.

“Don’t push — why are you all walking inward? This is a living ancient sage, for heaven’s sake! Do you want to enrage him? Don’t approach his sacred grounds.”

“This ancient sage has a peculiar temperament. He dislikes being disturbed and has never once accepted anyone’s obeisance. It is best not to court misfortune and bring trouble upon ourselves.”

Some people offered warnings. They said that over these past several days, the heads of various sects had gone to pay their respects, only to be met with utter indifference — utterly unmoved, as though utterly at odds with the entire world.

“Senior!”

Finally, Ye Fan caught sight of the Old Madman again. He saw him emerging from a subterranean cavern, stepping in a single stride to stand atop a mountain peak.

“Old Madman, elder brother!” He called out again.

The people around him stared at him as if they were seeing a ghost. What kind of person would dare call an ancient sage by such a name? It was truly beyond words. What generation would one have to be from to speak so?

“Who is this person — daring to speak like that? Has he grown tired of living? Even several sect patriarchs have come and bowed as juniors before him. And he dares open his mouth like this?!”

“Who are you? Show some respect to an ancient sage!”

Yet what made everyone gape in astonishment was this: the disheveled figure in the distance actually turned and looked over in an instant. His eyes, through the curtain of wild hair, locked directly onto Ye Fan.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, Ye Fan was airborne — involuntarily lifted — and appeared atop that stone mountain. Everyone stared in shock with wide eyes.

“Greetings, senior!” Ye Fan was deeply moved. No matter how he had tried to imagine it, he had never expected to encounter the Old Madman in the Purple Tenuity Ancient Star Region. Were these the means of a sage? To be able to cross the darkness of the cosmos?

“Why are you here?” The Old Madman spoke in a low and deep voice — this was the first time he had ever voluntarily spoken to Ye Fan.

Ye Fan’s heart could not be calm. He sent out a divine thought, depicting everything he had experienced, and sought the Old Madman’s aid — hoping that the Old Madman might take him along to cross the star regions together.

“The Forbidden Ancient Land!” The Old Madman’s eyes shot out two beams of terrifying light — extraordinarily brilliant, like two divine lanterns — piercing straight through the vault of heaven.

For a full quarter of an hour, he did not move a muscle, gazing northward toward the Big Dipper. Within his heart, violent surges of emotion rose and fell, impossible to still.

Ye Fan understood. There, in that place, the Old Madman had a tragedy of the heart — all of his companions had perished, and now only he remained, half-mad, half-crazed.

When the divine thought Ye Fan had sent out showed the purple copper warship they had encountered drifting in the dark cosmos, the Old Madman’s expression instantly shook. Divine light blazed within his eyes, and he said: “A ship full of Primordial Ancestor Kings?!”

A chill ran through Ye Fan’s heart. For the first time, he felt the supreme oppressive might of a sage — an intense battle intent surged skyward, as if it would tear apart the cosmos itself and pierce into the universe beyond.

He truly had the strange sensation that the Old Madman had become a deity, as though he were about to charge alone into the starry void to hunt down and kill those Primordial Ancestor Kings.

“If these beings do not die, the human race will face a great catastrophe. Their resurrection requires boundless life source — the bodies of billions fallen would not be enough.” The Old Madman spoke these words — cold and chilling to the bone.

“What?” Ye Fan was startled, wishing to ask more — but the Old Madman had already become, as he always had in the past, as placid as an ancient still well, saying nothing more, like a rotten old stump.

Finally, gritting his teeth, Ye Fan revealed that he had come from the other shore of the starry sky — from a place called Earth. If the Old Madman, who could travel through the cosmos, could bring him home… even just thinking about it made his blood burn with excitement.

The Old Madman was silent for a long time. After a very long while he finally said: “Difficult. Difficult. Difficult. Without cosmic coordinates, there is simply no way to find the place you speak of. One wrong step would mean being lost in the Desolate celestial void forever, until death.”

Ye Fan felt as though cold water had been poured over him when he heard this. Whether it was Huoling or the Ancient Earth, each had its own precise position — but how would he ever know those coordinates? It was certain he would have no way to determine what those so-called coordinates were.

Suddenly, the Old Madman’s eyes blazed with great radiance. Two piercing beams of divine light shot out and penetrated straight into the starry void, gazing toward the Northern Dipper — and then his body began to grow faint and transparent.

“Leave… something is about to happen to me!” He spoke these words in a low and heavy tone.

Ye Fan’s heart leaped. What was about to happen to the Old Madman? Was his condition very poor? What was coming?

In the next instant, Ye Fan was sent flying outward, leaving this barren wasteland, tumbling into the midst of the crowd and retreating far away.

The Old Madman swept his hand through the air, and an unknowable number of formation patterns appeared from thin air. In an instant they submerged that stretch of ground, and a vast and boundless curtain of light descended to cover the barren red earth.

This was an ancient formation of extraordinary depth and complexity — its every step a killing trap, sealing this entire region completely!

Ye Fan could vaguely recognize within it a fragment of the killing formation of the Beginningless Great Emperor that had been brought out by the Black Emperor, as well as a fragment of the divine patterns of the Void Great Emperor. The two were joined together, combined with other vast and intricate Dao patterns — dense and innumerable.

The ancient formation sealed heaven and earth, pressing down and suppressing him — the Old Madman himself — preventing him from breaking free and emerging. It astonished everyone who saw it.

“What is he doing? Those look like fragments of imperial patterns — is he trying to suppress himself to death?”

“What is wrong with this ancient sage? Why is he doing this to himself?”

No one could understand. Everyone revealed expressions of utter disbelief, gazing within.

“Roar—”

At that very moment, the Old Madman let out a great bellow. His head of jet-black, dense hair instantly turned snow white, flailing about like wild grass. In the span of a single breath, he aged several thousand years!

He had originally been tall and imposing — the appearance of a middle-aged man. But now he was incomparably ancient — having shed all the years of his life in a single morning, withered and decrepit beyond measure.

Yet at this moment, he was fearsome. His withered skull tilted toward the sky, his gaze terrifying and intimidating — as though he had fallen into a state of demonic frenzy. His second great roar rang out, and the ancient land was completely shattered.

“Heaven — this was once the cultivation grounds of the Tai Yin Ancient Emperor, having endured countless tribulations without falling. Yet today he shattered it with a single roar!”

Everyone was horror-stricken, their hair standing on end.

The Old Madman let out a great roar, and every stone mountain collapsed. Boulders rolled and tumbled. Spanning an unknowable circumference — hundreds, thousands of great peaks fell into the dust, erased forever.

“Pff!”

Someone vomited great mouthfuls of blood and collapsed into a pool of it on the spot. Even through the barrier of two kinds of incomplete imperial patterns and a vast stretch of deeply unfathomable ancient formations, the sound still transmitted outward — and the people outside could not endure it.

“The legends were true after all — a single hair from an ancient sage can cut down a thousand soldiers, a single drop of his blood can kill a Saint Lord. These were no empty words!”

“If not for the incomplete Great Emperor formation patterns, everyone outside would have died — shattered alive by the roar, dissolved into a mist of blood, not a drop remaining!”

The hearts of the people trembled. The power of a sage’s single roar was this fearsome — if the intention to kill was truly there, who could withstand it? Ordinary people and such a being were separated by an uncrossable chasm. He stood high above, capable of looking down upon all living things.

“Roar—”

Another great roar from the Old Madman. White hair like weeds, wild and tangled — he had lost himself entirely. Murderous energy flooded the wilderness. Even with the great formation as a barrier, one’s very skin seemed on the verge of splitting. One could only imagine what it was like within the formation.

The Tai Yin Ancient Emperor’s cultivation grounds were completely shattered — nothing remained. Only the formation patterns flickered, blocking this world-dominating divine demon’s aura from leaking outward.

“What is happening? Why is this happening? What has gone wrong with the Old Madman’s body?!” Ye Fan was greatly alarmed and deeply worried.

The Tai Yin Ancient Emperor — who had attained the Dao in the primordial ancient era, with divine writings recorded in ancient texts — his power was so great that people could not fathom it. He had plucked stars and seized moons, slaughtered deities, and employed methods that defied the heavens.

Though so many years had passed since his death, people still held him in reverent awe, worshipping him as a divine being. And now a sage of this caliber had appeared at his cultivation grounds.

“Boom!”

A great tremor rang out. The sitting grounds where the Tai Yin Ancient Emperor had transformed upon passing were surging with wild violence. At the Old Madman’s brow, a black moon appeared — fearsome and unsettling.

“That is… Tai Yin holy power!”

“This ancient sage is so powerful — he has condensed the Tai Yin imprint! Could it be that he has cultivated the Tai Yin True Scripture?!”

“Is he walking the path of the ancient great emperors, seeking to comprehend the Tai Yin and Tai Yang ancient scriptures?!”

…

The people were shaken, and speculation was rampant.

Yet the Old Madman only grew more frenzied, falling completely into a state of demonic madness. The black moon at his brow grew ever more terrifying.

His roars grew louder. His tangled white hair whipped against the void in reverse as his body rapidly transformed — first returning to middle age, then reversing toward youth.

“Boom!”

At last, a young man of seventeen or eighteen years of age stepped forth from within his body — his bearing heroic and vibrant, supremely intimidating, filled with sharp and cutting energy.

Behind him, the elder’s body stood vacant and wooden — motionless, like a clay sculpture, heavy with the weight of twilight.

The youth’s eyes were like two heavenly swords — incomparably sharp, impossible for others to meet directly. This was an extremely domineering and fearsome young man.

“How can this be?!” Ye Fan stood dumbfounded.

This was a young Old Madman. In one motion, he turned, opened his mouth, and swallowed the elder’s body whole — then his own body shook violently as he awakened completely.

Everyone was struck dumb. What kind of extraordinary technique was this? The Tai Yin black moon imprinted at the brow — reversing age, returning to youth — and then in one breath absorbing the former self, erasing the marks of years, appearing before the world in the form of a youth.

Though the Old Madman’s appearance had changed, the frenzy from before had not subsided. He was still in a state of demonic possession, his gaze filled with boundless killing intent.

One final great roar rang out. The leveled ground sank further, opening into a bottomless abyss. With a casual wave of his hand, he gathered up all the formation patterns.

Then he began carving patterns into the earth, reestablishing Dao patterns — as if deducing something. The complexity and depth of what he carved was enough to make even a sect leader-level figure’s eyes swim and their head split with pain.

“Dozens of Primordial Ancestor Kings — and the three great sages including the Thousand-Handed Divine Demon — you’ve all come to the Purple Tenuity Ancient Star Region to wash the world in the blood of billions? I will kill you to prove my Dao!”

The voice of the young Old Madman was bone-chillingly cold — like a supreme demon lord striding across all the heavens and worlds, descending here.

“I will go and kill all of your Ancestor Kings!” The moment the young Old Madman spoke these words, thunder rang out both above and below — as if the heavens themselves had been provoked.

He stood alone in the void, black hair thrashing wildly, gaze sharp as knives, fixed on a single direction.

Ye Fan’s heart shook violently. The young Old Madman was utterly unlike who he had been before — incomparably dominant and fearsome.