Everything happened too fast for anyone to react.

The ancient Great Sage with golden hair to his shoulders and a pair of dragon horns had his head severed — his torso then stamped to ruin by the old madman’s foot.

The Undying Wondrous Tree’s seven branches trembled — like seven world-opening divine trees — and grew wildly. Their roots and branches pierced through the cosmos. Their leaves rustled loudly, and tens of thousands of divine rays of light descended, burying the old madman and blocking his sharp assaults.

At the same time, the silver-haired Great Sage roared. With the flip of a hand, heaven and earth overturned, and a boundless primordial chaos surged — all things became invisible.

This was a clash between Great Sages. Even if one had cultivated the Heavenly Eye technique to its peak, they could not see through it — obscured by the light of the primordial beginning. The location had become a place of primal oneness.

When at last heaven and earth became clear again, the Great Sage with dragon horns had reassembled his body — but was clearly gravely depleted, holding the Undying Wondrous Tree and trembling faintly.

The silver-haired Great Sage’s expression was solemn. The black void at his forehead exhaled and inhaled silver radiance, the diamond-shaped divine light scale floating up and down.

The young madman was drenched in blood, his injuries not light — bone gleaming at many points — yet his battle-intent and killing intent had not lessened even a fraction. If anything, they had grown stronger.

It had to be said: these two ancient Great Sages were extraordinarily formidable, to have wounded the peerless, unrivaled old madman to this extent.

They had slept for far too long. Though they had absorbed the life essence of all living things for hundreds of thousands of li in every direction, they were still far short of the standard of hundreds of millions of human beings’ worth of life essence. They were bound and constrained — able to manifest their former glory for short periods, but unable to sustain it.

“Divine Path to Heaven!”

One of them called out, using supreme divine power to forcibly break open the ancient formation the old madman had laid down, attempting to absorb the outside world’s life essence, plundering the life source of other living beings.

A beam of heaven-reaching light shot toward the sky, attempting to break through the restraint and shatter the obstruction.

Meanwhile, the Great Sage with the true dragon horns on his head cast a cold glance in Ye Fan’s direction, his gaze locking onto the black gourd in his hand — his heart shaken violently.

Then, holding the Undying Wondrous Tree, he moved to intercept the young madman and keep him from pressing close, buying time for his companion.

A great battle had begun: an ancient Great Sage facing a peerless human genius. With one sweep of the Undying Wondrous Tree, ten million divine rays of light shot outward, reshaping heaven and earth.

The young madman’s black hair stood completely on end, his entire body streaming with blood. Yet the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist grew more dreadful still, reaching its absolute peak.

“Ahh…!”

With a great roar, the six ancient worlds once more appeared — the supreme expression of his fist-intent, representing the Six Paths and becoming eternal cycles of reincarnation.

There were no weapons, yet this surpassed any world-shaking sacred weapon. A pair of fists shattered the universe and all the heavens. No one could withstand their edge.

When the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist was deployed and the six ancient realms simultaneously manifested, even an ancient Great Sage holding the Undying Wondrous Tree felt he could not endure it. He released his potential recklessly to contest the blow.

Golden blood flew. The body he had just reassembled cracked apart again; even his brow was split by a terrifying fissure. The Undying Wondrous Tree’s light dimmed considerably.

One could well imagine how terrifying the young madman’s fist-intent was — crushing the void, shattering the world, nothing able to stop it.

Yet the ancient Great Sage’s methods were heaven-defying as well. Possessing immortal divine power and Dao-force, even as he was struck, he left a wound in the black-haired youth’s chest that went straight through — front to back.

But the young madman only grew more formidable the more he fought. He was almost single-handedly suppressing the golden-haired Great Sage, battering away at him relentlessly.

“Bang!”

Finally, the silver-haired Great Sage who had been working to force open the formation’s seal struck — unwilling to let his companion face catastrophe.

It had been an immeasurable loss when the Thousand-Armed Divine Fiend died. An ancient Great Sage of the primordial era, possessing heaven-defying power — he had died here for nothing, simply because he hadn’t recovered his vital energy in time. It was profoundly grievous.

“Ahh…!”

Both Great Sages cried out, unleashing their killing moves in full. Each bearing a supreme sacred weapon, they summoned the law-order of all heaven and earth in concert, driving it toward the old madman.

This was a great battle that shook the entire Ziwei Ancient Star Region — one seldom seen across thousands of lifetimes, with few parallels throughout all of history.

At the same time, the purple-bronze ancient ship trembled, and six ancient kings stepped out one after another — each one indescribably ancient, their hair white as snow, their skin deeply wrinkled.

Far away, every human cultivator changed expression, approaching despair. Two ancient Great Sages already possessed heaven-defying divine powers — undying, indestructible, unconquerable — and now six more ancient kings had appeared. How was this to be fought?

Ancient progenitor kings were all saint-level existences, each with heaven-defying divine power. Though they were a step below Great Sages, they were still beyond all resistance.

This was a fatal trap with no escape.

Though the old madman’s cultivation was heaven-defying, he had not yet attained the Dao. How could one man stand against so many?

Everyone despaired. The young madman was divinely brave and peerless, yet numbers were overwhelming — this was an unspeakably dire situation.

The people’s only hope was that these ancient progenitor kings were all so weakened that they could not endure fierce combat — otherwise the Ziwei Ancient Star would be buried under bones beyond counting, its earth stained red with blood.

The great battle erupted. The old madman was surrounded and attacked by two Great Sages and six ancient kings simultaneously — his body covered in wounds — yet he did not retreat a single step.

This was a world-shaking battle. The young madman fought to the point of frenzy: his eyes awe-inspiring, his black hair streaming, the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist with each strike matching nothing in the world.

He suffered severe damage as well — yet in these circumstances he still managed to seize one enemy’s sacred sword and cleave that enemy vertically in two, extinguishing its primordial spirit.

“Boom!”

The old madman’s back received a solid, direct blow — a fist-sized blood hole appeared, visible from front to back. The silver-haired Great Sage had personally delivered it.

“Ahh…!”

Yet it was precisely because of this that the young madman went berserk — his killing intent boundless. He plunged forward, reached out with one hand, and crushed an ancient king’s skull in his grip, turning its primordial spirit to ash.

This battle between saints was extraordinarily brutal — an exchange of life for life, with not a single moment of luck involved. Sacred blood sprayed, supreme existences waning.

“You have no more chances. Even if you’re a Great Sage — can you defeat all of us?” An ancient king sneered cruelly.

It was indescribably ancient — the ages had nearly exhausted its lifespan — yet in this moment it forcibly gathered its remaining life essence, finding the strength to fight.

The ancient Great Sage with golden hair — with ancestral dragon horns — wiped the gold blood from the corner of his mouth and said: “Dying like this is not an unjust end for you.”

The young madman’s gaze was sharp as a blade. He spoke not a single word. The Six Paths Reincarnation Fist — steady, broad, and mighty — merged the six ancient worlds it had opened into one, carrying supreme divine might, and drove it outward.

“Bang!”

The Undying Wondrous Tree was nearly shattered. The ancient Great Sage shuddered violently across his entire body, six invisible fist-imprints branded onto him, every bone in his body resonating without end, many shattering. Six terrifying bloodstains appeared even on his forehead — such was the divine might of the Six Paths Reincarnation Fist.

But the old madman also paid a terrible price. The silver-haired Great Sage’s millstone-sized diamond-shaped divine light plate nearly sliced him diagonally from shoulder, and sacred blood sprayed everywhere. The Undying Wondrous Tree simultaneously tore a gash across his body that nearly exposed his organs, even cracking bone.

Beyond that, one ancient king thrust a blood-spear into his chest, piercing straight through and shattering viscera in its wake.

Yet the young madman did not so much as furrow his brow. He wrenched his body with force, snapping the spear in two. In the instant he turned back, he pulled out the broken spear and drove it into the ancient king’s forehead bone.

“Pft!”

Dark purple blood surged. The broken spear entered through the forehead and emerged from the back of the skull, pinning the primordial spirit to nothing. Gruesome beyond measure, the corpse fell to the earth.

The young madman’s body was riddled with wounds — pierced through in many places — yet he had killed three ancient kings and left both Great Sages critically injured.

But could this go on? He was betting his life — his entire body soaked in blood.

“Senior!” Ye Fan cried through his spiritual perception. He threw the black gourd out through that crack in the formation, sending it to the old madman to help him slay his enemies.

He did not know the gourd’s exact rank, but he suspected its origins were vast — otherwise, why would the ancient Great Sages have shown such extreme shock upon seeing it?

He could only drive it once — enough to sever an ancient king’s head. But held in the young madman’s hands, perhaps it could unleash even greater power.

The two Great Sages and three remaining ancient kings all reached for the black gourd, trying to intercept it midway. But the old madman’s Six Paths Reincarnation Fist was too terrifying.

Using the six ancient worlds to physically force a path forward, enduring the critical blows of both Great Sages, he arrived first and seized the black gourd in his hand.

The black gourd’s light then blazed greatly, streams of dark radiance descending from it to hover above his head — awe-inspiring, like an ancient cosmos unfolding in evolution.

Yet the two ancient Great Sages let out cold, sombre laughs. One of them said: “So it’s damaged. I knew it — how could something like this appear in the mortal world?”

“After the legendary great battle, it disappeared. Everyone thought it had been destroyed. Who would have expected to see it today? But it’s already greatly diminished!”

Far away, Ye Fan’s face fell. In the end it was a ruined weapon. The young madman was in danger.

“Thud!”

At that moment, the purple-bronze warship shuddered, and eight ancient kings stepped out, making this patch of heaven and earth nearly collapse entirely.

Indescribably ancient as they were — every one of them wrinkled and with their life nearly at its end — each still had the strength to fight, temporarily manifesting their former greatness.

Even if each could only fight for a few minutes, eight more saints suddenly added to the field was more than enough to destroy even a peerless, unrivaled master.

Everyone was utterly and completely despairing. How was this to be fought? How was that black-haired youth in the center of the field — so high-spirited, fighting to the point of frenzy — to break free from this trap?

“You haven’t recovered your vital energy. Trading life for life will only mean dying for nothing. Break through the formation and fight in the outer domain. I have the means to eliminate him,” the ancient Great Sage with dragon horns said coldly.

A tremendous sound rang out. The entire vast golden desert trembled violently, and then an aura surging for a hundred thousand li threatened to shatter every primordial spirit present.

The purple-bronze warship was immense beyond reckoning — like a great purple monolith standing there, as though it were alive, inhaling and exhaling the life essence of heaven and earth, every breath capable of swallowing an entire world.

One dark abyss after another spread through the void, converging on the purple-bronze warship like a terrible demonic maw.

Now it began to rise from the earth, preparing to fly beyond the life ancient star.

“Human saint — you are very powerful. But no matter if you go above the heavens or below the earth, you will certainly die. Unless an ancient sage-emperor of old were resurrected to save you!” The silver-haired Great Sage said without mercy.

The young madman made no move to stop the ancient ship’s departure. His body was covered in wounds, his eyes cold, utterly without fear: “Even if I die fighting beyond the outer domain, every ancient king on that ship will have their blood spilled across the heavens. All of them will fall!”

The purple-bronze warship rose from the earth. Sacred blood rained down. Every human cultivator gazed upward — this was perhaps the last time they would ever see a human saint.