Vermilion Bird City held considerable renown across the Southern Range. In this vast region dominated by the demon race, any city bold enough to bear such a name carried with it an immortal legend, earning its place among the Ten Great Ancient Cities.
An ancient bronze cauldron hovered above Ye Fan’s head, releasing countless strands of the primordial mother qi of all things, tens of thousands of threads weaving together to shield him within their embrace. He stood with his sword raised, droplets of blood falling from the blade’s edge — in that moment, he resembled a god of slaughter.
In the distance, not a single soul responded. The entire heavens fell utterly silent. Within the city, no one could say how many cultivators were watching, yet not one dared to speak, not one dared to draw breath.
Ye Fan was more the image of a killer than any killer could hope to be. The slaughter he had carried out in that brief instant sent hearts trembling with fear — among the dozens of assassins from the Ancient Divine Dynasty, there had been no shortage of living fossil-level figures, yet he had pinned them all dead with a single sword.
“Since you came here for me, why do you not dare step forward to fight?” This was the bearing of a man who dared to face the entire world alone. Ye Fan stood in the high air, immovable as a mountain.
“Charge——!” At that very moment, the sound of iron cavalry thundering across the distant sky rang out, surging forward like a black mountain torrent.
“Who dares lay a hand on my little brother Ye?! Children, kill them all for me!” The barbarian tribe’s great army appeared, crossing through the domain gate, filling the sky in every direction — the cries of men and the roars of beasts shook the heavens, dense and overwhelming.
The hearts of the onlookers seized with fear, the hairs on their arms standing on end. The Southern Range barbarian tribe had made its name known throughout the world, having trampled flat the ancient aristocratic families of the Northern Plains and become a force that no one wished to provoke.
War banners snapped in the wind, exotic beasts roamed freely across the sky, and wave upon wave of ancient war chariots appeared, rumbling with a thunderous sound — these were the spoils of war seized from the Northern Plains Wang Family.
When such an army appeared, who could remain unafraid? To offend them meant the catastrophe of having one’s entire sect wiped out, and every onlooker immediately pulled their head in and kept as far away as possible.
In that moment, people finally understood how close the bond between the barbarian tribe and Ye Fan truly was — they had become his most powerful backing. In this Southern Range territory, to provoke him was to seek one’s own death.
“Aooooo——!”
A deep, resonant roar shook the entire earth. A colossal creature swept across the sky — its dragon body like a mountain range, its twin wings broader than the clouds themselves, blotting out the whole sky and casting vast shadows upon the land below.
The barbarian tribe’s guardian deity, the Azure Dragon, had come in person!
Ye Fan felt a surge of warmth in his heart. He understood that the barbarian tribe was making a statement — that on this Southern Range land, no one was permitted to harm the Holy Body. Otherwise, why would they have invited out this great sovereign today?
“Let us go.” The divine sons and daughters of the two great ancient assassin divine dynasties, witnessing this scene, vanished silently into the horizon without a sound.
Yuangu was of towering build, yet standing in the sky he appeared indistinct, impossible to see clearly — only a powerful aura radiated outward. Up in the heavens, the Azure Dragon turned its massive body and looked in this direction. Yuangu’s face remained expressionless, but in the end he chose to withdraw. However confident he might be in himself, he did not dare to confront this fully-accomplished sovereign.
“What a truly grand spectacle!” Li Tian and Yan Yixi both exclaimed in astonishment.
Ye Fan knew that the great battle today would be difficult to ignite. Most of those assembled would likely be frightened away — no one dared to contend against the Azure Dragon, no one dared to face such a host of iron cavalry.
“Ahhh——!” In the distance, atop a golden ancient war chariot, Wang Teng’s hair hung loose and wild. He was near frenzied, howling toward the sky like a wounded beast.
It was this very barbarian army that had destroyed his clan, reducing the Wang Family to smoke and shadow of the past. This was the blood-hatred of annihilation. Above all else, the sight of those war chariots that had once belonged to his family turned his eyes red with rage.
Swoosh!
Ye Fan sensed his presence in the very first instant. His feet activated the Circulating Qi technique, and he shot toward the sky at extreme speed — like a bolt of lightning tearing through the void.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
A golden tunnel appeared in the heavens. The golden ancient war chariot carrying Wang Teng plunged into it. Though he burned with hatred and wailed toward the sky in grief, he had not lost his reason, and in the end he retreated.
“Wang Teng, where do you think you’re going?!” Ye Fan’s fist shattered the void, but he was ultimately a step too late and could not stop him.
Vermilion Bird City erupted into a clamor. The once-invincible Wang Teng had fled without engaging — this too became a remarkable tale, as people recalled just how dominant he had been in the past.
“Wang Teng ran away without accepting the challenge. Truly rare to see!”
“The age of the Wang Family has ended. It has left the so-called Northern Emperor with one less source of confidence. Now the human race’s Holy Body rises in dominance — there is no stopping him.”
People discussed the matter among themselves. The always-domineering Wang Teng had chosen to retreat — this alone showed how powerful Ye Fan had become. A sense of awe settled in many hearts.
Ye Fan stood in the distant sky, sweeping his gaze in all directions, when his expression suddenly froze. His pupils contracted sharply. At the very edge of the horizon, a beautiful woman in white flashed into view for an instant, on the verge of vanishing completely.
“Li Xiaoman!”
Ye Fan leapt into the air in pursuit, pushing the Six Paths of Reincarnation Fist to its absolute limit and unleashing a single strike.
Crack!
The entire sky shattered. What lay ahead became a scene of devastation, an enormous spatial rift extending far into the distance, becoming a zone of chaotic temporal currents.
Light beams shot from Ye Fan’s eyes with terrifying intensity. He charged through the air like lightning and arrived at that stretch of sky, only to witness a black void close shut — the beautiful woman in white was gone.
“You killed even Pang Bo — what is there you cannot do? If the day comes when you appear before me face to face…” His voice was ice cold as he stood there for a long while without moving.
The barbarian army had arrived and frightened away all enemies — not a single one dared to linger. The great battle that had been on the verge of erupting was interrupted.
“Come, let us return to the tribe and eat great hunks of meat and drink great bowls of wine.” An elder of the barbarian tribe stepped forward and clapped Ye Fan on the shoulder.
“Some of your friends are staying as guests in our mountain range. Word has reached them by now — they should be arriving before long,” another elder said, laughing heartily.
These men were all magnanimous and straightforward in temperament. They swept Ye Fan, Li Tian, and Yan Yixi along with them and stepped through the domain gate.
It was not long before heaven and earth transformed around them, and they emerged deep within a great mountain range. This was a primordial landscape, where every manner of ancient beast roamed freely, their roars shaking the sky.
Upon entering the barbarian tribe’s settlement, a group of people were indeed on the training platform, about to cross through the void. In an instant, Ye Fan caught sight of two familiar figures.
Ji Haoyue, the Divine Body — unseen for so many years, he had grown far more imposing. He stood with grounded steadiness, his black hair thick and full, towering and immovable as a mountain, exuding an aura that commanded awe. He had already begun to take on the bearing of an invincible divine sovereign.
Beside him stood a young girl dressed in violet, radiant and beautiful, her bright eyes and white teeth framed by a grace that was innately celestial — like a fairy blossom just beginning to unfurl, swaying with boundless spiritual brilliance.
“Little Ye Fan, you’re back…” Ji Ziyue froze for a moment, then slowly walked forward.
“Have these years on the other end of the starry sky been kind to you?” Though she was smiling, a mist of tears was already gathering in her eyes.
“Twelve years. The stars up there are so numerous — I never did manage to count them all, and my eyes ached from trying.” She smiled as she spoke, and then the tears came rolling down.
Ye Fan stepped forward and gently wiped the tears from her face, then slowly began to speak of his experiences beyond the domain.
Ji Haoyue held no warmth for Ye Fan whatsoever, his expression thoroughly unfriendly. Over these past decade or more, every evening he had watched his younger sister stand alone upon the white jade divine platform, gazing up at the stars in a daze and murmuring to herself. Each time, he had wanted nothing more than to drag Ye Fan out and give him a thorough beating.
More than ten years had passed, yet Ji Ziyue had not changed much at all. When she was happy, her large eyes would still curve into crescent moons, and small dimples would appear on her cheeks. When she lightly furrowed her delicate brows, her pert nose would wrinkle as well, and the pair of small tiger-tooth fangs in her mouth would glint with a bright luster — clever and playful, infectious to anyone who caught a glimpse of it, instantly putting those around her at ease.
Ye Fan and Ji Ziyue strolled outside the settlement, recounting the many experiences of all these years. There was tranquility woven through with turbulence, laughter mingled with tears, and their two silhouettes stretched long and far beneath the setting sun.
Li Tian stood atop a great flat stone within the settlement, watching that pair of figures against the sunset. With his usual familiarity, he nudged Ji Haoyue, the Divine Sovereign Body, and said: “Brother, do you happen to have any younger sisters? This kind of girl — born with celestial grace and overflowing spiritual beauty — I’ve never laid eyes on anyone like her before.”
The moment the words left his mouth, he found himself airborne — Ji Haoyue had tossed him straight onto a mountaintop.
“My goodness. If you ever do have a sister, let’s pray she’s nothing like you,” Li Tian called back, his words as brazen as ever, his body perfectly willing to take the punishment.
In the end, Ji Haoyue did initiate conversation with Li Tian — though his manner was far from warm. He merely wanted to pass along a message through him.
“Go and ask him this for me: if he only ever saw Ziyue as a girl-next-door little sister, then tell him to get lost immediately and never appear again. Ziyue having a brother like me is enough — she doesn’t need him to fill the gap.”
One could see plainly the deep affection he held for Ji Ziyue, as well as the long-accumulated grievance he carried toward Ye Fan.
“Easy, easy — even if that young scoundrel Ye Fan is a worthless blackguard, doesn’t she still have me? In a moment I’ll send him packing myself.” Li Tian said this, then threw himself wholeheartedly into currying favor with Ji Haoyue.
That evening, the bonfire leapt and crackled. Sea dragon, great roc, and all manner of precious meats wafted rich and fragrant aromas into the air, their surfaces glistening a golden, oily bronze that made mouths water and set appetites stirring.
Fire after fire blazed, flooding the whole area with light, the entire settlement alive with festive noise. At that moment, Ye Fan’s expression was grave. He sat cross-legged upon a divine platform, using his golden blood qi — brimming with vitality — to dissolve a block of mysterious ice.
“Little Ye Fan, to think we brothers would live to see each other again. But I don’t have much time left…” Li Heishui’s breath was weak, his body covered in wounds that flickered with black light, eroding his life force, refusing to heal.
“With me here, you aren’t allowed to die even if you wanted to. Don’t worry — everything will be all right.” Ye Fan drew a deep breath, then his entire body billowed with blood qi that transformed into a blazing expanse of golden light, all of it pouring into Li Heishui’s body to drive away the black luminescence.
“This is the blood qi of the Ancient Emperor’s descendants — it cannot be fully purged. Even a trace of it left behind will allow it to regenerate. It has tormented me for many years, and I truly cannot hold on any longer,” Li Heishui said.
“I will use holy blood to cleanse your body — you will certainly recover.” Ye Fan spoke no further. From within the crown of his skull, a towering column of golden blood qi surged upward, then spiraled downward and poured entirely into Li Heishui’s body.
The Heavenly Dao sang in resonance. Endless Dao-blossoms opened and bloomed, submerging Ye Fan and Li Heishui within them. Upon the divine platform, a fragrant, sweet scent rose on the air, weaving together into the intricate patterns of various Great Dao principles.
“No wonder the ancient texts record that the blood of the fully-accomplished Holy Body rivals divine medicine — in those terrible upheavals of the past, it brought many warriors back from the very edge of death…”
Watching as Ye Fan’s blood began to expel the black light, those present all broke into expressions of relief, knowing that Li Heishui would likely be saved.
Suddenly, a medicinal fragrance filled the air. Ye Fan produced a jade-clear bottle, and upon breaking its seal, thirty-six tiny dragons — each less than an inch in length — came rushing out, flooding the entire ancient settlement with spiritual energy.
Puff!
Ye Fan lightly blew a breath, dissolving twelve of them. They became a blazing radiance that enveloped Li Heishui. He then resealed the remaining twenty-four tiny dragons back into the bottle.
These were drops of the Divine Dragon Immortality Elixir obtained from the Ten-Thousand Dragon’s Nest — born alongside the Ruthless Emperor’s coffin, they had been treasured and carefully preserved by Ye Fan all this time, and now at last had found their most important use.
“An Immortality Divine Elixir — bringing the dead back to life would be no problem at all. On the contrary, there will be a tremendous surplus of benefit — a complete rebirth and transformation!” The elders of the barbarian tribe could not suppress their astonishment.
Boom!
At last, the golden blood qi surged and boiled. Li Heishui’s bones cracked and popped throughout his entire body, and he could not hold back a great shout of pain.
“Done. In another half a month, you will be a whole man again — vigorous as a dragon and fierce as a tiger,” Ye Fan said, rising to his full height, his entire body drenched in sweat.
“Wonderful news! Come then, let us eat great chunks of meat and drink great bowls of wine!” An elder of the barbarian tribe laughed heartily.
“I want to join too,” said Li Heishui, still sitting cross-legged on the divine platform.
“You’d best sit there and watch us eat roc meat and drink aged wine,” many of them called back, laughing loudly.
“Rest and recover well. When the time comes, you and I will fight our way into the Eastern Desolation together, track down Pang Bo and the Black Emperor, and find out what has become of them. Ancient Emperor bloodline or not — this time, I intend to go and face them myself.” Ye Fan said.
He was willing to believe anyone might be dead — except the Black Emperor. That one he found the most implausible. A dog that had given him such headaches even at a glance would likely outlive everyone else. Ye Fan felt certain that even if he himself were slain by someone, that hound would most probably still be bounding about with shameless vitality.