“A human life, within the long river of time, is no more than a single instant. But death, once it comes, is forever — longer than ten thousand ages.”
“One does not speak lightly of death — for life is far more fleeting than death, and all the more worthy of being cherished.”
These were words that Zhang Lin had once spoken. Yang Yi thought of them in a daze, her eyes blurring again. In the end, she cradled that mound of earth and walked away, step by step, into the distance.
Where would she go next? Perhaps to the old grounds of the Source Heaven Master’s stone village. Perhaps to the dwelling of Zhang Lin’s descendants in the present day. Perhaps to the Jade Pool.
Ye Fan watched her go. He could only release a soft, quiet sigh. He had no way to help — there were many things one had to pass through on one’s own, before one could truly cross that threshold.
The Northern Domain was in chaos. The Divine Spirit Valley — unfathomably deep and powerful — had been erased, struck from the ranks of the Ten Thousand Clans. It had overturned the minds of every person and exceeded all prediction.
As one of the great Royal Clans of the Ancient Primordial age — having endured a thousand calamities and ten thousand hardships, standing firm from ancient times until now, never once falling — what manner of enemy had they not encountered?
The Ancient Primordial era was brutal beyond measure. Ancient clans stood side by side in great number. Wars erupted constantly between the clans. A single battle between clans could easily last for thousands or even tens of thousands of years.
The Divine Spirit Valley was the finest among them — otherwise, how could they have been transmitted down through the ages, growing stronger through each battle, elevated to the status of a Royal Clan? They had seen great scenes beyond counting and faced countless powerful enemies.
Having survived the great calamities of the Ancient Primordial era, they had assumed they could look down upon all the world and rest and recover in peace for several thousand years. Who could have anticipated that they would emerge from seclusion, only to be immediately wiped out.
And moreover — it was done by the Human Clan, the very clan they had looked down upon. It was worth noting that in the Ancient Primordial era, this clan had not been regarded as one destined for greatness — they had endured calamities of near-extinction multiple times, and had struggled in hardship to reach this day.
Just having awakened from their long sleep, certain that their era of glory had arrived — and yet this was the end that awaited them. It caused many ancient clans to draw in sharp breaths of cold air, their hearts turning chill.
Dark undercurrents surged. The entirety of the Northern Domain was unsettled. Only the Human Clan was in excitement — blood running hot, passions surging — as the move made by the figure beneath the Wushi great emperor stirred the hearts of every single person.
The impact of this battle was too far-reaching. Every Ancient Primordial Clan felt unease crawling over them. The Divine Spirit Valley had been so overwhelmingly powerful — and yet it had been destroyed. Who among them could not feel cold fear?
When Ye Fan heard these reports, he felt heartened. Zhang Lin had not died in vain — a single battle had suppressed the Northern Domain and left every faction trembling with fear.
He did not waste time lingering. He set off toward the place where he had buried himself, to retrieve his true body. At the time, considering how perilous entering Zishan would be, he had left his physical body behind along with a strand of his primordial spirit — preserving a hope for resurrection.
The mountain ground was still and quiet. Not a blade of grass grew. There was not a single sound. Ye Fan dug open the layer of earth and went straight down several thousand meters underground — and changed color on the spot.
“Someone has been here!”
He was immediately alarmed. This was his Dao body — the very foundation of his path to the Dao. The slightest mishap was beyond what could be borne. Who had come to this place?
When he arrived at the deepest point underground, he saw a tunnel that had been dug — formed as though by nature itself. Ye Fan’s nose very nearly twisted from rage. He swore out loud: “That scoundrel Duan De!”
That portly scoundrel without a shred of virtue was not in sight right now. If he had been present, Ye Fan would not have hesitated to hang him upside down and give him a thrashing — acting the part of the violent brute and transforming into a raging madman.
“I am a great archaeologist.” Only these words remained inscribed within the underground stone chamber. Every Source Heaven formation marking that Ye Fan had laid down had been dissolved and broken apart.
“That fat scoundrel Duan…” Ye Fan ground his teeth. Where in the world was this wretched fellow now — how was he to be found?
He left this place. With the great art of reshaping heaven and earth, he made this physical shell appear young again — and then walked toward a settlement of the Human Clan. He was desperately curious to know what had happened during the more than a month he had been absent.
What he hadn’t known, he didn’t realize — but once he found out, it gave him quite a shock. That fat scoundrel had truly been bold enough to make a commotion. The Heavenly Emperor’s son had been called a “chicken egg,” the Ancient One had been called a “watermelon” — everywhere he went, he picked quarrels and challenged all comers, declaring he wanted a great decisive battle. Yet each time, he would brush past his enemies just close enough to miss them — and so the fighting never actually broke out.
In the past month or so, this dead fatty had been provoking and taunting in every direction. He had even insulted the Divine Spirit Valley by calling them a “hammer.” He carried himself as though the whole world were his enemy and he alone stood supreme — and yet he had not been slaughtered by anyone. That he still bounced along as lively as ever was, in its own way, something of an achievement.
Over the past month or more, the Holy Body of the Human Clan had been the talk of the land — completely without equal. If not for the annihilation of the Divine Spirit Valley, all discussions would surely have been about him alone.
Ye Fan was quite at a loss for words. Though the enemies that Duan De had provoked were indeed those he himself intended to kill eventually, this wretched fellow truly deserved a beating.
He set off in pursuit, hoping to find Duan De’s whereabouts and quickly recover his true body — but that scoundrel apparently knew that he had made too many enemies recently and that danger was close at hand, and had gone into hiding. There was simply no way to drag him out.
In the half-month that followed, the Northern Domain was in chaos. Every clan was deliberating in silence, conducting serious and careful investigations — hoping to determine the truth of what had happened.
The Blood Phoenix Mountain, the Divine Silkworm Ridge, the Fire Unicorn Cave — these places had produced ancient emperors. Whether they held imperial ancient weapons or other reserves of power was difficult to say with certainty. Even they had been left shaken, and were investigating everywhere.
Whether the great emperors of antiquity were still alive had become a festering concern in the hearts of every ancient clan. By rights, such figures should not exist in this world any longer — but this battle had been too alarming.
“Why has it come to this?” Ancient Primordial Ancestral Kings murmured in low voices, pondering all of it in prolonged silence.
In the Ancient Primordial era, that wilderness of antiquity had been filled with ancient trees reaching the heavens and fierce beasts running rampant. Wars between the clans and tribal factions broke out constantly — yet seldom had there been anything so utterly sweeping and decisive as this: the Divine Spirit Valley annihilated in a single night.
In the month that followed, the Northern Domain remained a place of complexity and confusion. None dared make any large move. All were afraid of crossing some unknown line.
At last, a number of the great ancient imperial clans conferred together and issued a public declaration — stating that attaining the Dao and ascending to immortality was the ultimate goal of every cultivator, and that there was no need to slaughter one another along this path.
The moment this declaration was made, all under heaven was in an uproar. The tone of the various Ancient Primordial Clans had clearly softened noticeably. It seemed they were no longer looking down upon all from on high — they were willing to coexist peacefully with the Human Clan.
“Whether it was the emperors of the Ancient Primordial age, or the great emperors of the Human Clan in later generations — all have said: the ten thousand things are born in mutual interdependence and mutual restraint. Every clan propagates and flourishes — all have a reason to exist. Heaven regards all things with equal eyes.”
Someone from the Ancient Primordial Imperial Clans had spoken these words — and they sent another great tremor through all under heaven. Were they truly changing their hardline stance? Did they genuinely intend to treat the Human Clan with peace and goodwill?
A sect leader of the Human Clan, upon learning of this, vaguely divined the fears and intentions of the ancient clans and swiftly made a response — saying that a great era of unprecedented rarity in ten thousand ages had arrived. It ought to be made into a glorious and prosperous age, not a terrifying age of chaos and violence.
In the period that followed, the turbulent situation across the Northern Domain eased considerably. Whether Human Clan or the various Ancient Primordial Clans, all quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
During this time, every faction was testing the waters — through certain special occasions, they passed signals to one another. Many of the matters raised were of crucial importance.
In the end, it was as though a tacit understanding had been reached. Not one among the Ancient Primordial Clans raised the subject of marching out to conquer — to seize the regions most abundant in spirit medicines, dragon energy, or earth marrow.
And the great sects of the Human Clan expressed their own position at the right moment — that the five great domains were vast and boundless, with many famous mountains and great rivers where one could take up residence. The ten thousand clans need not lack for pure and unspoiled land.
Zhang Lin’s single battle had struck awe into the Northern Domain. All under heaven seemed, in an instant, to have settled into peace. In the short term, there would most likely be no great upheaval.
And yet every major sect was aware: this was merely a passing lull. What would come afterward, none could say with certainty.
“Ancestral Master — this battle of yours has driven even the Ancient Primordial Clans into fear. Your achievement will forever be remembered by the Human Clan.” Ye Fan let out a long sigh and poured a bowl of wine upon the earth as an offering of reverence.
At the same time, a sense of wistful, distant longing rose within him. The renown of the Wushi great emperor truly overshadowed the world — this time, borrowing his name as a disciple, it had worked an inconceivable and immense effect.
“This may not hold for long.” Ye Fan murmured to himself. To continue striking awe into others — it would only grow harder and harder. Though there were still a few more moves he could make, the time for them had not yet come.
At the very least, for the moment, things could remain in relative peace for a period of time. He had to grow rapidly — only then, when true darkness and chaos finally erupted, would he have a place to stand.
The Ancient Primordial Ten Thousand Clans and the Seven Great Life Forbidden Zones were bound together by ties without end — a place that even the great emperors of antiquity had not been able to completely uproot. When one truly allowed oneself to think deeply about it, the fear was beyond bearing.
Had a relatively peaceful period truly arrived? Every soul was rejoicing and in high spirits — though none knew how long it would last.
“Duan De, you wretched scoundrel — where on earth have you gone?!” Ye Fan cursed.
“Amitabha…”
It was on this very day — from the distant Western Wasteland, from the sacred Mount Sumeru — an ancient Buddhist invocation rang out, shaking every ancient temple in existence.
On this day, a Buddhist son from the Western Wasteland crossed east over the Central Continent, entered the Eastern Desolation, and at last arrived in the Northern Domain — bearing a decree.
“Peace upon all under heaven.” Only these four words — brushed with the vigor of an iron hook and the grace of silver strokes, bold and powerful with might — and the moment it was unrolled, the Heavenly Dao rumbled in response. Divine sounds descended from on high. Radiance of the Dao shot into the sky.
It was as though a host of ancient Buddhas were chanting in unison — the sound resounding across the earth. In that instant, every soul present was stunned into silence.
The Battle-Victorious Buddha had not died!
This news spread in the very first moment. The Five Great Domains were shaken with awe. Even the Ancient Primordial Clans were stunned. Every ancient king was shaken to their core.
Whether Human Clan or Ancient Primordial Clan, none quite knew what feeling to hold in their hearts toward this figure — for it was said that he was an Ancient Primordial King, and yet he had taken refuge in the Human Clan’s Buddhism, cultivating on Mount Sumeru and becoming a venerable Buddha.
Earlier, rumor had it that he had sat in meditative death and passed during his closed-door cultivation. And yet he had not died at all — he remained in this world still.
Even the Ancient Primordial Clans, overwhelmingly powerful as they were, could not help but hold him in fear and reverence. As for the Human Clan — that went without saying.
Who was the Battle-Victorious Buddha? It was said he was a sacred ape — in the Ancient Primordial era, the younger brother of the aged Battle-Sage Emperor — who had grown up under his elder brother’s guidance. The level of his cultivation was astonishing beyond words.
In those days he had feared neither heaven nor earth, roaming and ruling across the land. His cultivation could stand shoulder to shoulder with the Battle-Sage Emperor at the same stage — valiant and courageous, the greatest champion of the Ancient Primordial age, who had struck down an untold number of powerful existences.
If this was truly him — then no matter how powerful an ancient king came jumping out, it would have to weigh matters carefully before acting.
Moreover — since the various Ancient Primordial Clans had emerged from their long seclusion, they had all gone to the ancient grounds of the Battle-Sage Sacred Ape lineage to seek something, but had sensed no aura of an ancient emperor’s weapon there. Many had speculated it had been taken away by his younger brother.
The younger brother of the Ancient Primordial Battle-Sage Emperor — and if one added to that an ancient imperial weapon of an emperor — who in all the world could stand against him? To seek to wipe out a single clan would be no great difficulty.
His emergence from seclusion at this moment, with this decree — it would naturally set off a great tremor.
Was the Battle-Victorious Buddha seeking to mediate the current tensions — to bring every faction to a state of peace and harmony? Not just any figure could step forward to do such a thing. And yet, in truth, none dared to show the slightest displeasure toward him.
Ye Fan was deeply shaken. Laozi. Shakyamuni. The Battle-Victorious Buddha — one familiar name after another. And now at last, here was another one still remaining in this world — not yet gone into the far distance.
Not long after, the Northern Domain was alive with discussion, practically boiling over — for the various great Ancient Primordial Clans had actually put forward a proposal: to hold a Grand Assembly of the Ten Thousand Clans.
This was absolutely a stunning piece of news — and most likely connected to the Battle-Victorious Buddha!
Every great clan would need to send representatives to participate. An occasion of such grandeur would surely be a momentous spectacle.
Many sect leaders of the Human Clan responded with enthusiasm, feeling that such an assembly should indeed be held — so that they could sit together and discuss at length the pressing and tense matters of the day.