The years had washed away all traces of splendor. Towers of jade and halls of gold rose layer upon layer, steeped in the dust of history, their light dim and faded. Upon the grand ceremonial platform, a towering silhouette loomed in obscurity, its oppressive presence so overwhelming it seemed to steal the breath from one’s lungs.

Was he one of Wushi’s? The moment the three stepped inside, they spotted a figure seated cross-legged on the platform, half-concealed within the mist, and their minds went blank.

“Swish!”

From within the haze, two bolts of lightning shot forth, illuminating the shadowy cavern depths. The figure opened its eyes.

“He’s still alive!” Duan De felt a chill crawl across his entire body. As someone who harbored grand ambitions of excavating the tombs of ancient emperors, there was nothing worse than this.

And yet, beyond terror, what they felt most was awe — a breathless, staggering awe. A living ancient emperor. It was beyond all comprehension, like something pulled straight from myth.

“Wait — that’s not right.” Though the Old Blind Man’s nickname bore the word “blind,” his eyes were sharper than anyone’s. He pierced through the obscuring mist and saw the figure’s true form.

In that same instant, Duan De snapped open his Yin-Yang Heavenly Eyes, penetrating to the very source of the being. He immediately leaped back, his entire body breaking out in goosebumps. “Damn it all — that’s an Ancient Ancestral King. We’re in serious trouble.”

Ye Fan felt his own skin prickle. Before them was an utterly genuine ancient living creature. Once he activated his divine sight, its true form became unmistakably clear.

Mist swirled around the platform, yet it could not conceal the overwhelming aura — a killing intent that froze the blood. Though the creature was humanoid in shape, it bore twenty-four pairs of wings. Its skin was wrinkled and folded, bunched and knotted, its entire form like something on the verge of dissolving into the Dao.

It was enormous. Seated cross-legged upon the platform, its spine was bolt-straight, and its gaze — terrifying, penetrating, deeply unsettling — was fixed unblinkingly upon the three of them.

This was an Ancient Being withered beyond recognition. Every last strand of hair had fallen away. Yet for all its decay, it radiated a sinister, demonic energy, like some primordial god of slaughter, its killing intent thick and suffocating.

“Don’t be afraid,” Duan De said, trying to bolster his own courage. “It’s dying. It looks like it’s about to dissolve into the Dao — it can’t handle us.”

Then, without warning, a deep, demonic howl erupted from the platform. The ancient withered creature lunged forward with utter ruthlessness, unleashing destruction from the very first moment. A boundless holy aura — vast as a stellar domain transformed into an ocean — came surging and roaring toward them.

The pressure was simply unimaginable.

The strength of an Ancient Ancestral King — who in the present age could stand against it? Decrepit as it was, it still far surpassed the three of them by leagues.

Duan De and the Old Blind Man cried out. Their spiritual souls nearly left their bodies. A single drop of a Saint’s blood was enough to destroy a powerful cultivator — against an assault like this, who could possibly endure?

Without hesitation, they summoned the Ruthless Man Emperor’s sacred vessels — the Demonic Lid and the Jar — sealing them together, releasing an extreme Dao pressure that sheltered the three beneath them. Without that protection, they would have been reduced to ash on the spot.

“BOOM!”

Ye Fan blazed with golden radiance across his entire body. The mortal shell he now inhabited had belonged to a Saint who had cultivated a single Secret Realm exclusively — and like Ye Fan himself, that Saint had possessed a Sacred Physique.

Such a constitution was unmatched in the present age, something no living person could rival. Even the slightest movement from him was like a vast golden ocean surging forth in all directions.

Ye Fan’s body transformed into a torrent of scorching light. He charged directly forward to meet the Ancient Ancestral King, forgoing all techniques and spells, seizing one of its arms the moment he reached it.

Close quarters. A kill-or-be-killed struggle.

This was Ye Fan’s only option. Any other choice meant certain death. He possessed a Saint’s shell, but none of the corresponding magical power — without the support of heaven and earth’s great Dao principles, only this indestructible body could serve as his weapon.

A fierce collision. Life and death decided in an instant.

For beings of Saint-level, such close physical combat was enough to make one’s hair stand on end — a single careless move meant annihilation.

“Splat!”

Ye Fan tore one of the Old Ancestral King’s arms clean from its body. The claim that a Saint’s shell was without equal was no empty boast — a Saint of the same tier, once caught in its grip, could only meet their end in agony.

A long arc of blood exploded outward, obliterating a stretch of the void in an instant, transforming that space into a place of dissolution — all life within it utterly extinguished.

“A single drop of a Saint’s blood can slay a powerful cultivator — that’s no exaggeration. With this much blood, a whole crowd could be wiped out!” Duan De’s scalp went numb.

“Not good!” the Old Blind Man cried out in alarm. Together with Duan De, he drove the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Jar forward, pressing it ahead of them — for the Ancestral King had seen through the truth of Ye Fan’s capabilities. Its magical power surged violently as it attempted to stamp him out with the might of the Great Dao.

When a Saint unleashes their magical power, it can shatter countless tens of thousands of li of pure land. It was fortunate they were inside the Purple Mountain, where nothing within could be destroyed — otherwise, the surrounding area would long since have been reduced to ruins.

Had Duan De and the Old Blind Man lacked the protection of the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Jar, no divine power they possessed could have saved them from being shattered to dust — not a single scrap would have remained.

“Bang!”

But Ye Fan did not wait for them to summon the Jar. With a slab of green copper clutched in his hand, he met the overwhelming surge of magical power head-on.

With that single strike, the vast Dao markings that had filled the sky crumbled to ash and vanished into nothing.

“Splat!”

At the same moment, Ye Fan exerted his full strength and tore the Old Ancestral King’s other arm from its body. Blood sprayed in torrents — a grotesquely savage sight.

A low, furious roar. The ancient Ancestral King — already on the very brink of death — ignited its entire body, attempting to immolate the Ye Fan who clung to it and refused to let go.

“BOOM!”

Then, without warning, the ancient creature shattered apart. No blood, no shards of bone flying outward. Instead, it dissolved into a cascade of Dao light, dissipating into the air.

Dissolution into the Dao.

Ye Fan stood dazed. The Old Blind Man and Duan De stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed. The Old Ancestral King had simply… faded away like this.

“I understand now,” one of them murmured. “When we entered, it was already in the process of dissolving into the Dao. It was already beyond saving.”

They silently counted themselves lucky. Had they encountered this being at the height of its power, even with an extreme Dao Emperor’s weapon at hand, they could not have guaranteed victory.

That Ye Fan had managed to wound it at all was nothing short of sheer fortune. The withered Ancestral King had not realized that Ye Fan’s mortal shell was without equal — caught off guard by the close-range assault, it had been seized. Had it known, the outcome would almost certainly have been reversed, and it would have been Ye Fan drenched in blood.

“Fortunate indeed. Had it not been mid-dissolution, had it not returned to the embrace of heaven and earth at that critical moment — we would have been in real trouble.”

“Boy — that green copper of yours…” Duan De’s eyes burned with naked desire.

“None of your business.” Ye Fan shoved him aside without ceremony, tucked the green copper away, and kept it outside his body — if stored within, drawing it out again would be far too difficult.

“That piece of green copper really is something — it blocked a strike from an Ancient Saint…” the Old Blind Man muttered to himself.

“The thing can only defend passively. It has absolutely no offensive power. Otherwise, that Ancient Ancestral King would have been blasted dead on the spot.”

Duan De’s hundred-and-twenty-fold thieving heart refused to give up, and he could not stop thinking about the green copper. But there was nothing he could do. In the end, he turned his gaze to Ye Fan’s physical form and clicked his tongue in amazement.

A Saint’s shell — in any era, in any age, it was a treasure worth cracking skulls over.

“Where did you dig up that body? It can tear apart even a Saint — it’s absolutely a divine shell. In that distant past, legend has it that only nine individuals ever achieved the Great Accomplishment of the Sacred Physique. I’ve searched for years and turned up nothing. If I could just unearth one of them, it would make me truly invincible…” The chubby fellow droned on endlessly, his attention shifting from the green copper to the Sacred Physique.

Then his expression grew strange. “By the way — where is your real body? Where did you put it?”

At those words, Ye Fan’s heart lurched violently. This scoundrel had indeed thought of that angle. He kept his face perfectly neutral and said nothing.

“I know,” Duan De said with a sly grin. “You definitely buried it outside and left a thread of your Yuan Spirit behind — you were afraid of being destroyed inside the Ancient Emperor’s Mountain.”

Ye Fan felt deeply uneasy. He glared ferociously. “You fat bastard, stop your scheming. Robbing every tomb across the known world is bad enough — don’t tell me you’re thinking of robbing a living person now?!”

“How could I? What kind of person is Duan De? Righteousness comes first — I never do anything underhanded. I’m simply a great archaeologist.” Duan De laughed dryly.

The place was as silent as death. Beyond the dust-laden jade towers and golden halls, there was nothing — clearly, this was not the deepest point of the Purple Mountain, nor the site where Wushi Emperor had dissolved into the Dao.

The Old Blind Man’s tortoise shell crackled and snapped as he drew one divination after another. Duan De moved and paused, moved and paused, reading the feng shui of each section. Ye Fan, too, kept busy — tracing the flows of the source veins, surveying the terrain.

The three of them together truly made an exceptional team. With their roles clearly divided, it was not long before they identified a path forward. Following an ancient cave, they pressed deeper and arrived at another open expanse.

“The route is completely different from the one I took before…” Ye Fan could not help but marvel. The interior of the Purple Mountain was vast, a small self-contained world unto itself. The region he had traversed in the past had been merely one corner of it.

“There’s the sound of water up ahead.”

The three exchanged surprised glances and followed an ancient path paved with green jade, climbing a series of steps to reach an ancient site. The remnants of pavilions and terraces stood here, alongside withered old vines and ancient trees.

Light shimmered on water. Ahead was a pool — carved from green jade — that had filled with a body of water, white mist rising in wisps above it.

“This has to be some sort of immortal pool. Could it be Wushi Emperor’s bathing pond?” The Old Blind Man acted with complete shamelessness: the moment they arrived, he stuck out a foot and shoved Duan De in, sending him to test the waters.

“Damn it, you old fossil — Daoist Master remembers this!” the rogue Daoist raged. But then his expression shifted to something peculiar, and he muttered to himself, “This water is remarkable. It makes the blood course faster through the body and can accelerate the speed of cultivation.”

Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.

He drank several large mouthfuls in succession, declaring the taste exquisite and sweet. He theorized that the source was likely a divine spring, then leaped to his feet and charged upstream.

At the very source of the flowing water, clouds of vapor and rosy mists swirled and drifted, colors shimmering in every hue. A second, even more resplendent pool lay there — carved from five-colored jade.

“This is absolutely Wushi Emperor’s cleansing pool. Daoist Master shall enjoy it as well.” The chubby Duan De dove in headfirst, gulping down several more large mouthfuls of spring water.

Ye Fan’s expression turned peculiar. He crouched at the edge of the pool and pinched up a few strands of sleek, pitch-black animal fur — and froze.

“What are you holding, boy?” Duan De felt a terrible premonition.

“Animal fur,” the Old Blind Man said, completely unruffled.

The chubby fellow’s face went white on the spot. He retched violently, nearly bringing up bile — the strands, no matter how one looked at them, resembled nothing so much as a small tuft of dog hair.

“What the — is there a dog here?! The audacity! Bathing in a divine pool like this?!” Duan De ranted and cursed between heaves.

Ye Fan’s heart surged with excitement. These were unmistakably the Black Emperor’s fur. That aura was far too familiar. This dog — even more shameless than Duan De himself — had indeed not died. It had come to the Purple Mountain.

Duan De continued his stream of curses as he crawled out of the pool, ranting that he had suffered the worst luck of his eight lifetimes — how on earth could there be a dog in a place like this?

“So was it a divine spring? How did it taste?” The Old Blind Man was thoroughly shameless as well, grinning from ear to ear as he patted the rogue Daoist on the shoulder and leaned in close.

“Bring that up again and I swear to—!” Duan De nearly retched again.

Suddenly, a wave of pure, sweet fragrance drifted past. It almost pulled their spiritual souls from their bodies, suffusing their entire beings with such ease and bliss that they very nearly floated off the ground.

“What is that smell?”

A streak of fire blazed across the sky. A resplendent bird swept overhead — shimmering with five-colored light, beautiful to the point of unreality.

“Is that a… bird?“

“Good heavens — that’s a phoenix! The divine bird of legend!”

“I know what it is — that’s the Undying Divine Phoenix Herb! After it, quickly!”

The three snapped to their senses simultaneously, excitement overtaking them all as they gave chase.

Yet after a short pursuit, they lost all trace of the Undying Phoenix, the creature vanishing into thin air. Even so, Duan De was practically vibrating with exhilaration. “What incredible luck we’re having! I have a feeling — we’re definitely going to obtain an Undying Medicine!”

Then his expression froze. He looked down at his feet — and erupted.

“WHAT THE — whose dog is running loose?! Daoist Master has literally just stepped in dog sht!”

And indeed, beneath his foot, there was a heap of it. Duan De’s nostrils practically curled from outrage. He hopped about in a frenzy, very nearly losing his mind entirely.