The red-furred creature let out a deep, low hiss. The clarity in its eyes vanished — it was now filled with murderous ferocity — and then it suddenly raised its head and fixed a deadly stare upon the group, letting out a sharp and piercing shriek.

“This is bad — it has fallen into the stupor. Watch out — it may attack us.” Yan Yixi said.

Ye Fan held the Divine Maiden Furnace aloft, aimed it forward, and the aura of a Sage billowed outward. Wave after wave of golden ripples rapidly spread in all directions. The fierce light in the red-furred creature’s eyes blazed to its peak — then it gave them one last look, and vanished into thin air.

“The creature said ‘they are coming’ — surely that can’t mean the first few generations of Wellspring Heavenly Masters are on their way? Those are fearsome presences, each more terrifying than the last. This is truly unsettling.” Duan De said. Over his years of wandering through burial grounds and ancient tombs, he had dug up a number of secrets concerning the Wellspring Heavenly Masters.

Ghost soldiers borrowing the road, with the shadow of a Wellspring Heavenly Master lurking behind it all — this struck everyone as utterly baffling. Just what hidden secrets lay within? Where had the Wellspring Heavenly Masters gone after the inauspicious signs manifested in their late years, and at whose bidding did they serve?

“No wonder that red-furred creature ran into the Purple Mountain and took shelter in the Great Emperor Wushi’s sacred ground, using it to suppress itself — it was to cut itself off from the outside world, to avoid being summoned away.” The Black Emperor muttered. It was of course referring to the fifth generation Wellspring Heavenly Master, Zhang Lin.

Above Ye Fan’s head floated nine ancient characters — the immortal script recorded in the Dao Scripture — rising and falling, alternately bright and dim, sealing eighty-one banner poles, each only an inch in length.

The nine ancient characters flowed with the rhythm of the Great Dao, carving out a small world one foot square in which time had stopped — as though permanence had been achieved.

Within it, eighty-one small black banners glimmered with dark light, utterly motionless, harboring within them a vast and terrifying power that lay dormant — ready to erupt at any moment.

“So these are the array banners left behind by the Undying Celestial Emperor. If the Celestial Emperor’s son knew of this, he’d likely burst with fury — his old man left the magical treasures to a subordinate, and now you’re using them. What a situation to put him in.” The monkey said.

The situation was urgent. Powerful members of the Wellspring Heavenly Master lineage could appear at any moment — all of them sunk deep in their stupor, recognizing neither kin nor stranger, and would slaughter everything in sight. Ye Fan had no choice but to prepare the array banners in advance.

“Yuangu, Hua Yunfei, Li Xiaoman — they also came in here, so why has there been no trace of them?” Li Heishui wondered.

“The primordial battlefield is vast beyond measure — there’s no certainty we’d run into them. Besides, they may have been driven away by the red-furred creature.” Li Tian said uncertainly.

They began to circle the perimeter of the core battlefield, looking for a thin point where they could enter and guide Dongfang Ye out — rescuing him from the Purgatory.

After circling for more than eight hundred li, they came upon an enormous deep abyss — bottomless — with soil and stone piled in mountains beside it, heaped up high like a great burial mound.

“This soil is freshly excavated. Who did this, and what were they trying to accomplish?” They were puzzled.

Examining the surrounding terrain, this had originally been a natural pit — then someone had dug it even deeper, until it had reached this scale and become a pitch-black, bottomless abyss.

Ye Fan held the Divine Maiden Furnace aloft. Nine ancient characters hovered above his head, sealing eighty-one inch-long jet-black banner poles. Naturally he feared no perilous situation, and so they descended, wanting to understand it more fully.

“A Five-Color Altar! A Five-Color Altar!” The Black Emperor cried out loudly.

Duan De, the monkey, and the others were all equally startled. By now they all understood what a Five-Color Divine Altar signified — it was one of the ancient star-roads of the heavens, capable of reaching into the stellar domains.

Someone had excavated a Five-Color Altar from here — what were they trying to do? Full of questions, they descended into the depths of the earth.

It was an altar of considerable scale, but unfortunately far too much time had passed — it had long since collapsed, more than half of it destroyed, and some parts had already been carried away, the work having begun not long ago.

“There are bodies over here — a great battle was fought!”

On the other side of the Five-Color Altar, the remains of quite a few ancient clan members lay strewn about. Several bodies had been shriveled dry — every last bit of their foundational essence absorbed.

“The Heaven-Devouring Demonic Art!”

Ye Fan’s heart gave a lurch. Hua Yunfei and Li Xiaoman had been here, and had clashed with the ancient clan members. This altar had perhaps been excavated by them.

“These are all people from the Primordial Lake!” The monkey confirmed this after examination. These were members of the same race as Yuangu — among them several true imperial bloodline members, of extraordinary power.

“The two sides clashed first, and then the red-furred creature arrived and slaughtered everyone.” Li Heishui said.

Apart from several ancient clan members who had their foundational essence drained after being attacked, the rest had all been killed with a single strike — skulls pried open, with one or two red hairs stuck to their brains.

“This should have happened several days ago. Both sides were driven away by the red-furred creature.”

“Let this Daoist take a look at what happened.” Duan De always carried many tools on his person. He produced an ancient mirror — remarkably, it had been polished from a piece of lustrous white bone.

“What is that? What does it do?” Li Tian asked.

“Don’t you underestimate it. This is the only Dao bone left behind when a great saint of the human race dissolved into the Dao — the frontal bone. The frontal bone is a person’s immortal platform Dao bone, and the mirror ground from it has limitless uses.” Duan Fatty polished it with reverence and care, and the mirror grew ever more crystalline.

The Black Emperor, upon hearing this, nearly lunged over to snatch it. Ye Fan grabbed it firmly around the neck and held it back — otherwise a great battle between man and dog would certainly have broken out.

Flash!

The ancient mirror blazed with radiance and revealed several images. First appeared the figure of Yuangu, then a group of ancient clan members holding a jade disk and comparing it against this location, digging out the altar.

The monkey’s heart immediately jolted: “Not long ago, I heard that certain ancient clans were seeking a path beyond the heavens — it seems that was true!”

He was a royal bloodline of the primordial era, and any news he received would not be false. The moment these words left his mouth, every one of the group was shaken. The ancient clans were seeking a path beyond the domain — where did they intend to go?

This was absolutely a terrifying matter. Once it came true, it might carry an extraordinarily far-reaching influence.

“The people of the Primordial Lake have found their way here. The imperial bloodlines of the Divine Silkworm Ridge, Blood Phoenix Mountain, and Fire Unicorn Cave may well be searching in other locations…” The thought of this filled them all with deep unease. What did the primordial imperial clans intend to do, and where were they going?

Then the mirror polished from the Dao bone blazed with radiance once more, and the figures of Hua Yunfei and Li Xiaoman appeared. They had come to this location guided by an ancient scroll, also seeking the Five-Color Altar.

“The other end of the star-road!”

Ye Fan read Li Xiaoman’s lips, catching these words, and a shiver ran through him. Were these two the same as he — wanting to cross the stellar domains and go to Earth?

In that moment, he broke into a cold sweat. He absolutely could not allow the inheritor of the Ruthless One to reach the other end of the star-road — if that happened, the trouble that would follow would be boundless and endless.

On the other side there was a massive population, yet none of them could cultivate. Among ordinary people it would be far too easy to seize foundational essence, to hunt for various physiques — they could do as they wished, taking lives at will.

“That’s right — my own physique… it originated from that world. Perhaps they place great hopes in it for that very reason. Beyond that, the ancient history on that side holds boundless secrets as well!”

The people of the Primordial Lake had dismantled the Five-Color Altar, recording the exact position of every stone — clearly intending to take it all away to reconstruct and study it. Hua Yunfei and Li Xiaoman had ambushed them.

Then the red-furred creature appeared and killed in all directions. Yuangu produced a palm-sized divine platform and vanished. Above Li Xiaoman’s head appeared a golden vortex — she and Hua Yunfei dove into it and likewise disappeared from sight.

“A Domain Platform!” The monkey stared at the miniature divine platform in Yuangu’s hand, and a look of shock spread across his face. This was something only a great saint could engrave — it allowed one to break through the void and depart at any moment.

“A domain spirit descending bodily to protect her!” The Black Emperor fixed its gaze on the golden vortex above Li Xiaoman’s head, spotting within it a blurred golden form seated in meditation, its eyes wide open and staring.

Even a mirror polished from the sole frontal bone Dao bone of a great saint — forged through secret arts — could only reveal these few images. There were no additional clues to be found, and even trying to see them again a second time was impossible.

“This is the mirror I use to observe ghosts in ancient mausoleums. That it can do this much is already remarkable.” Duan De said.

“Dismantle the Five-Color Altar!” The Black Emperor was absolutely resolute. It memorized every marking on the Five-Color Stone Altar thoroughly, then swiftly stripped away the remaining more-than-half of the ancient platform and stowed it into a magical vessel.

“Things are truly about to descend into chaos. This is no longer as simple as the primordial ten thousand clans emerging — now there is a scramble for paths beyond the domain as well. Who knows what may be drawn here in the future!” The Black Emperor muttered, turning over certain ancient memories in its mind.

“The various great imperial clans may be trying to summon some existences from beyond the domain to come here.” The monkey said.

Ye Fan was also deep in thought. Hua Yunfei and Li Xiaoman had the protection of domain spirits — had they found some way back? In the not-too-distant future, they would most likely face a battle to the death, fighting over the sole right of passage along the ancient road leading to Earth.

A cold and gloomy energy swept over them. The red-furred creature appeared again. Had it not been for its wariness of the Divine Maiden Furnace in Ye Fan’s hands and the eighty-one banner poles above his head, it would long since have lunged in to kill them all.

“There is no more time. We must act quickly to rescue Dongfang Ye — if the earlier generations of Wellspring Heavenly Masters come, there will truly be no hope of survival.”

In the end, Ye Fan steeled himself and drove the Divine Maiden Furnace forward, forcing his way into the heart of the battlefield. Ten thousand silken threads cascaded down to shield everyone within.

Yet it was an extraordinarily perilous process. Even with the Divine Maiden Furnace as a shield, they were constantly on the verge of death and barely surviving. Every few steps forward required stopping for a period to work at recovering their divine energy.

The domain was simply too terrible. All manner of ancient weapons and divine radiance flew about — these were the laws left behind by the ancestral kings of the pre-primordial era made manifest, equivalent to the lingering aftershock of a Sage’s strikes.

“This is no good — at this rate, who knows whether we’d need months or years to reach the core region.”

There was no time to waste. Should the first generation Wellspring Heavenly Master come, even the great killing weapon they held might be useless. This land did not lack for source energy, and a single peerless source art technique could well wipe them all out in one stroke.

In the end, Duan De gritted his teeth and brought out the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Lid. The Black Emperor engraved one corner of the Wushi Killing Formation. Ye Fan, expending the full force of his heart’s blood, engraved a stretch of mysterious Wellspring source markings, channeling the mountain veins and earth pulse, feeding endless essence energy into the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Lid and the Wushi Killing Formation.

Although the laws left behind by the primordial ancestral kings were terrible beyond measure, the Heaven-Devouring Demonic Lid surged up and down, unaffected by them, trailing down streaks of dark light that shielded the group beneath.

The one corner of the Great Emperor Wushi’s Killing Formation was even more overwhelming — it blazed a path through everything in its way, causing many of the laws that had nearly extinguished to dim completely and fade from existence.

They advanced like a great force that nothing could stop. At last they broke through to the very heart of the primordial battlefield. In the distance they spotted a disheveled man — ragged and tattered — seated cross-legged on the ground.

A great wolf-fang club hovered above Dongfang Ye’s head, emanating wisps of holy might, carving out a peaceful space of one zhang all around. Yet he was far from comfortable — trapped here, unable to move a single step.

“The divine spirit within that wolf-fang club has revived — no wonder he has been able to hold on. The protection of an ancient holy weapon has shielded him!” Duan De said.

“Although he has been shielded, every day he must fight with everything he has to resist the onslaught. He lives a life of Purgatory — yet the benefits he gains are equally enormous.” The monkey said.

All around him, laws and divine radiance surged in all directions. Each day Dongfang Ye faced all of this in a desperate fight for survival. Naturally he had come to comprehend no small number of divine principles that ordinary men could never reach.

“Brother Ye!” Li Heishui called out, tears nearly flowing. In those days, Dongfang Ye had stepped forward for their sake and held back their enemies.

“Though this was a great tribulation, he has survived it. Immersed here in the comprehension of the various laws of primordial heroic spirits, his future achievements will know no bounds!” The Black Emperor said.

“You all…” Dongfang Ye opened his eyes, shooting two blazing beams of light from his gaze. He was awakening from the ocean of laws.