Blood everywhere — a sight that stopped the heart.
Ye Fan came stamping down with Zi Tiandu beneath him from high above, a single stomp shattering his chest into pieces, the foot driving clean through to the ground below.
This sight silenced everyone. How many grandmasters were within this garden — how many of the Southern Ridge’s rising prodigies, how many luminous beauties of the great royal dynasties and teachings — and the color drained from all of them.
A display written in blood. A scene painted in gore. More powerful than any words — the heralded young lord of the Divine Spirit Valley, an inheritor of the primordial royal tribe, had been defeated in battle by the human Sacred Physique.
Ye Fan had not resorted to a single trick. He had not even produced a weapon. Pure violence — toppling and smashing all obstacles — with a pair of golden fists he had shattered everything.
Unmatched in this age. Everyone felt it — he carried such a conviction within him.
The decisiveness and clarity of Ye Fan’s words and actions made people feel a keen sharpness: striking down every obstacle, crushing with a single fist all that dared to stand in his path.
Chen Yuan, Liu Yunjie, Kong Linghua, and Xie Siyuan stood pale as snow in the distance, hearts leaping with fear and dread, deeply ill at ease.
Wu Fei, one of the Four Celestial Women, maintained her composure. But even several of the luminous beauties had lost their calm, wondering privately whether they had said anything disparaging about the human Sacred Physique during their earlier pleasantries with the young lord of the Divine Spirit Valley.
The crowd was shaken to its core — all of them watching from a distance, not a single person daring to come near.
The ground was crimson. Ye Fan stood upon it. Zi Tiandu’s body was shattered into pieces. At this moment, a golden hand pressed downward — ready to end his life entirely.
Zi Tiandu cried out, a sound of absolute desolation. His body completely collapsed — dissolving into a mass of radiance — but everyone was startled, for this was something he had done by his own initiative.
A blazing brilliance appeared. A second Zi Tiandu stood upright in the void, freed from beneath Ye Fan’s foot, merging with his primordial spirit, lunging forward.
The entire heaven and earth reverberated with rolling thunder. All manner of Great Dao traces appeared — the undying, the eternal, the timeless — as though all were on the verge of shattering.
A divine being!
Every person present felt this aura. This light-bodied Zi Tiandu, merged with his primordial spirit, was more terrifying than before. In an instant, the void was locked in place; for a brief, fleeting moment it was as though all things had been brought to a standstill.
“Did you think the Divine Spirit Valley was called that for nothing?” Zi Tiandu’s voice was icy cold.
Ye Fan’s body was unable to move so much as a hair — bound within the void. The divine-light-bodied form ahead that resembled a true god fired off beam after beam of terrifying light.
“What we primarily cultivate is the divine spirit. The physical body is merely a waystation!” Zi Tiandu shouted, striking at Ye Fan’s primordial spirit, seeking to destroy him within the Immortal Platform.
The Divine Spirit Valley’s ultimate aim was to cultivate the primordial spirit — to forge one’s own divine spirit — and at the highest realm, to shed the physical body entirely.
Zi Tiandu was far from the highest realm; had he not been pressed into this absolute desperate situation, he would never have dared to deploy this technique, for the risk at any moment was the annihilation of the spirit!
Yet today he had succeeded. Nothing dangerous had occurred.
“Dong!”
Ye Fan’s physical shell was like one struck by lightning. A crack appeared at the center of his brow, and a thread of fresh blood seeped out — yet his body did not fall; it stood upright still.
“What a powerful physique. It would be a waste to destroy it — let me keep it as a waystation, to become my true body henceforth.” Zi Tiandu laughed, cold and vicious.
His body sent forth an even more terrifying radiance, directed at Ye Fan’s brow. Dong — another light impact — and one more crack appeared, fresh blood flowing.
“I will break through your Immortal Platform, seize your physical shell, and make the human Sacred Physique my body henceforth!” He screamed with mad fury, charging forward.
From a distance, everyone was horrified. No one had imagined that Zi Tiandu possessed such a terrifying method. The physical body was irrelevant — it was the divine spirit truly cultivated within that was the most frightening thing.
“You may die now. Offer up that powerful physique to me.” Zi Tiandu bellowed, his expression ferocious. He sought to transform into a blaze of blazing light and pierce through Ye Fan’s Immortal Platform.
Boom!
Suddenly, a golden hand reached out and seized him, gripping him within its palm. Ye Fan’s voice came cold: “Divine spirit — that too is nothing more than this.”
“Impossible — how could you break through? The Eternal Binding — no one at the second tier of the Immortal Platform can escape this restraint.” Zi Tiandu screamed. Only at this moment did true terror reach him.
“The Divine Spirit Valley has this secret technique — I will admit it caught me somewhat off guard. But to use this to kill me still falls a little short.” Ye Fan’s golden battle-energy outside his body steamed and billowed without cease; a blazing aura spread across the heavens. Boundless sacred light submerged this place.
Whatever binding there was, whatever restraint, whatever eternity — all was shattered.
“Ahh…” Zi Tiandu screamed, struggling with all his might — but it was utterly useless. Ye Fan’s great hand was closing. His light-body was being slowly ground away.
To climb from hell step by step through one’s own efforts until one finally stood at the pinnacle of heaven — to overturn everything, to be filled with a sense of accomplishment, spirit endlessly exhilarated — yet if, just as one climbed up, someone kicked one back down again, it was more sorrowful than cycling through the eighteen levels of hell.
“No!” Zi Tiandu’s every hope was extinguished. He had thought he had turned the tide at the critical moment, pressing an unrivaled great enemy firmly under foot — but it had all amounted to nothing after all.
Everyone present felt wave after wave of chilling horror. Asking themselves honestly — had it been them in that battle, none of them could have survived this crisis. The Divine Spirit Valley’s secret technique was sudden, terrifying, and deadly.
A true last-moment reversal — yet Ye Fan had forcefully crushed it back down, and it had not produced the effect it should have.
“I will not die! Sacred King True Words, Forbidden Divine Technique — I borrow the power of heaven, I borrow the light of the Dao — burn for me!” Zi Tiandu howled unwillingly, his expression savage.
On his body, an ancient character blazed with strange and terrifying radiance. Carved upon his very soul was a mark — radiating a terrible sacred-level pressure.
“The aura of a Primordial Ancestral King!”
Ye Fan cried out in alarm. This was the handiwork of a primordial saint-level figure. Zi Tiandu was the inheritor of the Divine Spirit Valley — truly he had received protection and indulgence of the highest order.
“Hum!”
His Immortal Platform blazed with dazzling brilliance. A small golden figure, identical to himself, cradling a small cauldron, flew outward — merging with the Great Dao of heaven and earth.
In that moment, time seemed to stop. The void seemed to congeal. It surpassed Zi Tiandu’s Eternal Binding by an immeasurable degree.
The Supreme Polarity became Ye Fan’s divine form; reversing, returning, his primordial spirit merged with the Dao — becoming an ungraspable point that shot free from the original body’s celestial domain, transforming into a variable!
Like a strand of Primordial Light, nothing could obstruct it. The primordial spirit, cradling the small cauldron, descended from the sky like a great suppressing mountain — boom — and shattered Zi Tiandu’s soul completely.
All was silence. Only the single point transformed through the reversal of Supreme Polarity into the Infinite was in motion — that was Ye Fan’s primordial spirit, together with the small cauldron.
In the distance, the spectators likewise became still — seemingly frozen within this painted scene.
Boom!
Only when Zi Tiandu’s soul exploded, and Ye Fan’s primordial spirit returned bearing the cauldron, did everything seem to come alive again.
In an instant Ye Fan retreated far from the site. Zi Tiandu was annihilated — form and spirit both destroyed. He could not even manage a dying scream before becoming dust.
“Who is it — who has killed my descendant, leaving not even the barest remnant?!” A stern and majestic voice called out in fury. In the void, an ancient character blazed with a divine radiance that reached the heavens.
“It is I!” Ye Fan stood in the distant sky, serene and unafraid.
“Hum!”
That ancient character blazed with surging radiance and transformed into an enormous violet claw — spreading across the sky, descending — seeking to reduce everything to ash in a single strike, to destroy utterly.
The heavens and earth trembled!
Ye Fan moved decisively. His golden battle-energy seethed and boiled, submerging the heavens and earth. He reversed the heavenly machinery and threw all of everyone’s perception into chaos.
In the void, he carved eighteen ancient characters — nine recorded in the Dao Scripture, and another nine from the True Scripture of the Sun — opening out a small world-cage, concealing every last trace, completely isolated from the outside.
In that moment, Li Tian and Yan Yixi had not the slightest hesitation. They moved decisively — directly calling forth the Divine Woman Furnace. The entirely crystalline furnace erupted with blazing radiance and drove into the cage.
The roaring was like a great sea!
No words could describe it — deafening — as though sun, moon, and stars were sinking one by one, falling.
Yet those outside could not perceive that within, they were wielding a great weapon of a human saint, extinguishing the carved imprint of an Ancestral King.
The eighteen ancient characters concealed its aura entirely.
Ye Fan, Li Tian, and Yan Yixi — powerful, decisive, fearless, breathtaking — directly ground away the imprint of a Primordial Ancestral King.
Zi Tiandu was dead.
This news spread rapidly. The entire Southern Ridge erupted in clamor; many people were dumbstruck, their hearts seized with shock.
The primordial races were about to emerge. The vast pressure of it left even the undying divine dynasties unable to breathe. In all these years, the human race had felt as though facing a great enemy — many hearts were unsettled and afraid.
And now, someone had struck directly against the primordial royal tribe, killing the inheritor of the Divine Spirit Valley. This was truly a great upheaval — and for the first time, someone had dared to do such a thing. It sent shock waves in every direction.
After finishing off Zi Tiandu, Ye Fan did not leave. He remained in one of the gardens, enjoying the scenery. This made a number of people deeply uneasy — above all, Chen Yuan, Liu Yunjie, and Xie Siyuan, whose hearts had no foundation to stand on.
Ye Fan swept a light glance across them and said, “As outstanding young talents of the Southern Ridge, you should have your own backbone. Your ancestors were all gifted heroes whose names have been etched in history.”
These words at once set the cheeks of those several people burning. They cupped their hands in salute and slowly retreated. Their opponent had not erupted in fury or moved against them — they finally let out a long breath of relief.
The guqin began to sound. First it was like a fine trickle, droplets of a clear spring — and then it gradually grew more intense, rising by degrees into a fierce swelling tide: the clash of armies and swords, the sharp ring of blades, the roar of battle reaching the sky.
When the melody ended, Wu Fei, one of the Southern Ridge’s Four Celestial Women, gave a light sigh. “Gentlemen — do you suppose that I too was ingratiating myself with the primordial royal tribe?”
“Naturally not. One who listens to a melody knows the person. Miss Wu is clear-minded and perceptive — how could she be such a person?” Li Tian said with a grinning familiarity, practically radiating eagerness, warmly introducing himself as he stepped forward.
The Four Celestial Women of the Southern Ridge were renowned throughout the world — unrivaled beauties, rare matches in all the world. The rankings placed Qi Shuishui first, Wu Fei third.
“Will you gentlemen be lingering here much longer? Are you not afraid that great enemies will come to your door?” Wu Fei said.
“I will sit here and wait for them to arrive one by one!” Ye Fan stood in the pavilion, his words resounding, his gaze reaching toward the distant horizon.
Without even thinking, one knew that outside there was surely already an uproar — one could not imagine how many people were speaking of this day’s battle.
Ye Fan could almost see it in his mind: Wang Teng, Hua Yunfei, Yuangu, and those from the Ancient Assassin Divine Dynasty, all of them converging.
“You intend to wait for them to come?” Yan Yixi asked in a low voice.
“Naturally I cannot just stand here as a target waiting for them to strike. Once I sense they are nearly here, we will go out and intercept and cut them down one by one!” Ye Fan’s voice was low and resolute.
The wind began to rise. Petal after petal of crystalline flowers fell away — drifting and swirling as they descended.
“The Primordial Ancestral Kings are about to emerge. What an immense pressure…” Ye Fan murmured to himself. To awe those ancient kings into submission — how could that be anything less than extraordinarily difficult?