The black skull — translucent, gleaming, flickering with a faint, dark luminescence — was a divine object like a perfect work of art, belonging to the Supreme Yin Sage of an earlier era.

At this moment, it sprayed forth radiance and exhaled auspicious energy. From all seven of its orifices, mist and vapor rose and swirled, trembling as though alive — it had been this object that struck through the Golden Crow King’s defenses in a single blow.

“Sixth, you have disappointed me. To perish and have your Dao extinguished at this age — I had harbored very great hopes for you. You were beyond saving.”

The Golden Crow King showed no sorrow or fury, no howl of rage. He was perfectly calm, speaking of the matter as though it were something entirely unconnected to himself, his expression indifferent.

This, however, made him feel all the more terrifying. Was this the stillness before a storm? Or was his character simply this way — as unmoved as if a mountain had collapsed before his eyes?

“All ten princes of the Golden Crow Clan have fallen at the hands of a single person!” In this moment, cultivators at the edges of the horizon were shaken.

Lu Ya was dead. The mist of blood dissipated. The Golden Crow King truly showed not a single ripple of emotion, and simply stared at that skull of the ancient sage.

Others too were pondering: the ancient relics of weapons that had survived in this world each bore their own distinguishing characteristics and could be counted on one’s fingers — which one was this?

Ye Fan smiled. With the Military-Word Secret alone, he could conceal all things and evade everyone’s inspection. In truth, there were many secret arts capable of concealing a weapon without betraying any trace.

Just as in the past, when every faction’s heroes had come to the Northern Domain Sacred City to kill the White-Robed Divine King — the foremost among them had been the Night Sovereign King, who had come wielding a supreme emperor’s weapon, and this had remained an unresolved mystery to this day, no one knowing which one it was.

The Golden Crow King turned sharply, facing Ye Fan. Without another word, he attacked directly. Within his twin eyes, sun and moon sank: mountains and rivers collapsed, and ten thousand ages of vicissitude turned in cycle.

In this moment, the primordial wilderness was presented — the world-dominant Golden Crow was sovereign over the great earth, sweeping across the heavens, one beam of golden light after another splitting across the vast sky.

This was a killing intent that pressed upon one, this scene transforming into a tangible world, advancing forward relentlessly.

Even as a projection from beyond the Celestial Domain, he still possessed the divine bearing of a supreme king, utterly beyond comprehension by ordinary logic — his law-power surged like floodtides, his divine power inexhaustible.

This was an awe-inspiring attack. Everyone was nearly suffocating. When the ancient primordial wilderness and the sight of the Golden Crow spanning the heavens appeared, even the people at the horizon trembled.

At the center of the scene, Ye Fan held the divine maiden furnace in hand. Facing this ancient battlefield of ages past, he felt as though struck by lightning, his body retreating backward ten-some steps.

With every step he planted, Dao-traces were stamped into the void. His Immortal Platform came under ferocious attack — a formless kingly Dao pressing in upon him.

“Crack!”

The Golden Crow King was performing a Dao sacrifice, severing Ye Fan’s final secret realm of the human body — merciless and brutal, irresistibly powerful.

Ye Fan’s primordial spirit shook violently. The small golden figure appeared with cracks running across it, spreading down to the Immortal Platform beneath — a terrifyingly perilous situation.

If this continued, he would be cut apart alive upon his Immortal Platform. His Dao foundation would be destroyed, and he would become a living dead, reduced to an imbecile.

“Pfft!”

Ye Fan was struck, coughing up a great mouthful of blood. Facing a projection from beyond the Celestial Domain on par with a fully accomplished Divine King, he stood before what felt like a demonic deity — the pressure was infinite.

“Crack!”

Fresh blood soaked his brow. A terrifying blood-line appeared there. The power severing his Dao foundation had invaded, destabilizing his primordial spirit.

This was the crushing weight of the Dao — the fundamental assault of divine power — formless and without trace. Ye Fan held the precious furnace in his hands and activated the ancient scripture’s heart-method. Golden light steamed from his body, transforming into the Sacred Domain.

“Thud!”

The final blow. His frontal bone nearly shattered — something that, since the completion of his physical body, through all his cultivation to this point, had been nearly inconceivable.

“He wounded my physical body…” Ye Fan murmured to himself. A fully accomplished Divine King was indeed dreadfully fearsome: his true body had not even come, yet with only his Dao-intent as the attack, it was this razor-sharp!

The gap in realm was too vast!

Even if you are a dragon, when young you must coil — you are no match for the other powerful beasts. The principle is the same: Ye Fan may be a sacred body, and enormously powerful now, but facing someone on par with a fully accomplished Divine King, the gap in realm is still enormous.

Yet ultimately, it was only a projection from beyond the Celestial Domain — not the true body. Once Ye Fan’s Golden Sacred Domain emerged, it finally blocked this tribulation.

He stumbled back several steps and steadied himself. The Sacred Domain gleamed like gold, enveloping him, creating an expanse where no law could touch — and with that, he held his ground in opposition to the Golden Crow King.

“Pity — too little power can be drawn upon. The true body ought to come out and stretch its limbs.” The Golden Crow King expressed regret. Without his true body present, the attacks he could unleash were limited.

At the horizon, people shivered. Was the formidable Golden Crow King about to emerge once more — a fully accomplished king, after long years in seclusion, at last walking the world again? What under heaven could rival him?

This would be news to shake every continent, stirring even the seas beyond into great waves. How many years had it been since a fully accomplished king had last moved in the open? People could barely remember.

“Clang!”

Ye Fan struck, driving the divine maiden furnace. Nearby, the black ancient sage skull also trembled, pressing down like a demonic pagoda.

“Clang,” “ring”…

Sacred weapons clashing — faster than lightning, surpassing the disintegration of stellar domains — divine power ran amok in a frenzy. Even hiding at the horizon, people were caught in the aftershocks.

No one could see what was happening at the scene — only light and black holes alternating, turning that expanse into a strange and monstrous heaven, while everything else was blocked from sight.

With the final impact, the scene cleared. Ye Fan retreated, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. On his chest was a fist-sized hole of blood, transparent front to back — his heart had nearly been pulverized.

“A terrifying fully accomplished king!”

“A heaven-defying projection from beyond the Celestial Domain — while the one casting the art is tens of millions of miles away, he can exert this divine might!”

Those were the words in every single heart. Fear gripped everyone. Any other person would have had their body and soul entirely obliterated long ago. Only the sacred body could endure.

The gap in realm could not be measured in miles. A peerless king’s bearing swept away all opposition — his reputation did not disappoint.

“Pity — just a few more threads of divine power and it would be enough. My strength falls short of my will…” The Golden Crow King murmured to himself. His attacks were limited at every turn.

“Boom!”

He brought both hands together. The ancient primordial wilderness reappeared, golden crows crisscrossing, transforming into a heaven-and-earth smelting furnace!

His hands swept through the air, Dao-trajectories manifesting. He encircled Ye Fan within them — using heaven and earth as a bronze furnace, Dao-intent as the furnace fire, to perform a living sacrifice and refine Ye Fan within.

At the very top of the furnace, the Golden Crow Clan’s ancient divine trident floated up and down, lowering tens of thousands of silken threads to fuel the Dao-fire’s burning.

“Boom!”

The heaven-and-earth bronze furnace grew ever more real. The Golden Crow King stood in the heavens above, Dao-intent blazing like fire, driving it and pouring it downward. From his mouth came the word: “Dao Transformation!”

This time, once again, no one could see anything. There was only light. Dao-intent drove the furnace — this was an assault of Dao and Law.

At the heart of the light, Ye Fan’s expression was grave. This was the final stage of the king’s offensive. If he handled it poorly, he might truly fall here.

He waved both hands, evolving the Golden Tai Chi Circle. The Sacred Domain expanded, law-power surging like floodtides. Golden radiance blazed and sprayed outward, seeking to pierce through this heaven-and-earth bronze furnace.

Then he raised his right hand and flung outward the divine maiden furnace from his palm, placing it into the center of the Golden Tai Chi Circle. Brilliance blazed magnificently, divine radiance blinding.

That crystal-clear divine furnace the size of a fist became the luminous point within the Yin-Fish of the Tai Chi, like a heavenly sun blazing in the sky!

“Crack!”

His other hand struck out. He placed the ancient sage’s black skull into the circle as well, fixing it as the luminous point within the Yang-Fish.

This black skull contained within it the Palace of Broad Coldness, borrowed from Yi Qingwu. Embedded within, it was nearly impossible for outsiders to sense.

This was a terrifying evolution. Even the Golden Crow King’s expression shifted upon seeing it. He murmured to himself: “The Divine Form!”

In this moment, Ye Fan blocked the Dao-fire. Standing at ease within the heaven-and-earth smelting furnace, he exerted his force in a single shake. The Golden Tai Chi Circle reversed course and struck skyward, its divine might terrifying — it was as though all of heaven and earth was about to revert to primordial chaos.

In the clash of light and darkness, in the collision of brilliance and black holes, Ye Fan used the Golden Tai Chi Circle to break the smelting furnace, warring against the terrifying Golden Crow King.

Throughout this process, the two exchanged ferocious blows. Sacred weapons shook incessantly. The battle left the expanse of heaven and earth in alternating brilliance and shadow, utterly transformed.

The Golden Tai Chi Circle’s divine might was now awe-inspiring before all the world, because the two Yin-Yang luminous points had been replaced with ancient sacred weapons — the divine maiden furnace and the Palace of Broad Coldness, one Yang and one Yin, perfectly in accord with its essential meaning.

In the end, a vast void abyss appeared, devouring everything, erasing everything. Heaven and earth fell into absolute stillness, and nothing could be seen!

No one knew how much time passed before light returned. When everything went still, the two emerged one after another from the great fissure in the void.

The Golden Crow King stared ahead and said: “In the current age, Yin Tiande evolved a flawless Divine Form more than ten years ago. Now there is one more: you.”

When the physical shell is cultivated to the ultimate extreme and evolves into the form of the Dao, it is a manifestation of Dao-practice that is deep and profound — an entry into the hall of the Dao — and furthermore a direction for future Dao-comprehension. Any such transformation is termed the Divine Form.

Four years ago, Yi Qingwu had also said that when Yin Tiande had broken through the one hundred and eight life-and-death barriers of the Palace of Broad Coldness, he had displayed a Divine Form — and that she herself would soon succeed in forming one.

“It seems today there is no way to kill you.” The Golden Crow King sighed lightly. Ten sons, each of them a rare talent — all had died at one person’s hands.

He was decisive. Carrying the Crow-Wing Flowing Gold Trident, he withdrew, moving to flee through the sky and across the earth.

People were shaken. What kind of Divine Form had Ye Fan evolved? To have blocked a fully accomplished king’s attack — this was simply astonishing beyond words.

“Even as a projection from beyond the Celestial Domain, the one casting the art is still a fully accomplished king!”

In this moment, everyone realized: a person truly capable of contending with the master of the Eight Scenes Palace in the future had appeared. As long as he did not die, he was destined to become a second Yin Tiande.

“Leaving just like that? Perhaps you might lend me the divine trident for a period of time.” Ye Fan used the two ancient sacred weapons as the Yin-Yang luminous points of the Golden Tai Chi, cutting off the path ahead.

“A divine being sleeps within the weapon. Once it awakens, no one but an ancient sage can subdue it — save for my Golden Crow Clan, no one in the world can wield it. Are you certain you wish to take that risk?” The Golden Crow King said.

“If I cannot use it, I can shatter it with the divine maiden furnace and recast it as the rough form of a new sacred weapon,” Ye Fan said.

“Young man, in all things, leave a thread — otherwise the consequences may spin entirely out of control.” The Golden Crow King stood tall and magnificent, like a demonic deity, his golden hair spread loose, gazing over with cold indifference.

“Those who deal with me benevolently, I will treat with courtesy in return. Those who come at me with a slaughtering blade — not even a single thread will I leave.” Ye Fan struck.

With two ancient sacred weapons as the Yin-Yang luminous points, the Divine Form he had evolved was magnified in power to an incalculable degree. Even a fully accomplished king’s projection from beyond the Celestial Domain could not match it!

“Boom!”

The Golden Crow King, like a divine being, let out a long howl. More than half his essence energy blazed up and was poured into the ancient divine trident, shooting toward Ye Fan.

“Thud!”

The two Yin-Yang luminous points within the Divine Form trembled simultaneously, releasing Yin-Yang energy and the divine power of the great Dao, overwhelming all resistance.

But the all-out strike of a king was beyond calculation. The divine trident pierced through, arriving before him at close range.

The Divine Form trembled again. The ancient divine trident cleaved through the void and vanished within it, its whereabouts rendered utterly traceless.

“Young man, I will make you understand the consequence of leaving no thread in all things!”

The Golden Crow King had just used the divine trident to arrive at close range — this was going to take everything down with him. His entire body blazed, achieving the ultimate sublimation, transforming into a streak of immortal light that pierced toward Ye Fan’s skull.

Ye Fan’s Immortal Platform shook violently. A blood-mark appeared on his frontal bone. The immortal light was on the verge of entering!

“Boom!”

Suddenly, from within Ye Fan’s brow, a small golden figure emerged cradling a cauldron, pressing it down in suppression. In this moment, time stood still — heaven and earth froze!

The Golden Crow King let out a great cry. His form grew faint and dissolved into flying ash. Only an incomplete sentence escaped him: “After the Divine Form…”