The bright moon hung in the sky. The valley was still. Every manner of wild bird and cicada had gone quiet, making no sound. Only the fragrance of wild vines and flowers drifted through the air. The clear small lake was mirror-smooth — all the world was hushed.

The young man finished his declaration. The female warrior waved her hand, and they launched a swift charge, intent on annihilating Ye Fan.

The first wave of attackers each bore a cross upon their chests, clad in golden battle armor, wielding great swords taller than a man. The blades glinted with cold light as they descended in silent, vertical strokes.

The sword aura was chilling, cleaving apart the sky, shattering the silence, killing intent surging up to the clouds. These were a group of sword path masters — more than ten of them arrayed side by side, an unstoppable force.

“Master, let me handle them!” Zhan Yifan stepped forward, eager to take action, pitting the Shu Mountain Celestial Sword inheritance against the sword arts of the West.

Ye Fan shook his head. This group did not alarm him — yet he sensed something amiss. Perhaps they carried some manner of divine artifact, or possessed some hidden secret technique, and some concealed danger lurked within. He did not want any of his informal disciples to take unnecessary risks.

“Mere minor tricks.” He murmured quietly to himself, taking a step forward to face the group alone.

Fourteen great swords descended, their brilliance like a waterfall surging skyward in reverse. Every sword had been tempered through countless trials, passed down from ancient families — each blade bearing a luminous history.

The ancestors of these people were nobles — knights of renown in ages past. Their lineage had been passed down to this generation with their traditions intact and their glory undiminished, their bloodlines noble.

These fourteen heirs of holy knights rarely joined forces. Only because rumors held that this great enemy was at the Great Completion of the Dragon Transformation realm or higher did they unite to bring him down together.

Heaven and earth shattered!

As they roared, the golden armor of every one of them blazed with light — like fourteen suns bursting forth, arrayed across the night sky. Fourteen streams of sky-splitting sword energy descended vertically, cleaving apart the heavens.

Yet when facing these formidable warriors of extraordinary cultivation, Ye Fan made only one move — a flick of his finger. A far more brilliant wave of golden sword energy was born, like a towering, sky-shocking surge of waves sweeping across heaven and earth — vast as an ocean, unleashing the roar of thunder.

Spurt!

A burst of blood exploded. All fourteen warriors bearing ancient inheritances were blasted apart simultaneously — along with their ancestral armor and their great golden swords. All of it became dust.

It was a scene of terror. With only a single flick of his finger, Ye Fan had unleashed a wave of golden sword energy like a crashing tide — an indiscriminate strike.

Fourteen warriors of noble blood became bursts of blood light in a single instant. Fourteen wisps of blood mist remained — and everything else was utterly reduced to ash.

This was absolute, overwhelming dominance.

The enforcers who had traveled vast distances from the West — the Eastern Crusade — all changed color. This outcome far exceeded their expectations.

In the days prior, they had conducted investigations and learned that at the cultivators’ great assembly, Ye Fan had displayed the divine abilities of the Great Completion of the Dragon Transformation realm. Based on this, they had mobilized their forces, believing they could annihilate him in a single stroke.

Who could have imagined that what stood before them bore no resemblance to that assessment whatsoever? This figure had to be, at the very least, someone who had entered the Celestial Platform realm — otherwise, how could he accomplish this with such ease, turning clouds with one hand and rain with the other?

“Fall back!”

At that moment, an elder robed in golden vestments stepped forward, wielding a golden staff topped with an embedded piece of divine source stone the size of a chicken’s egg — an extraordinary rarity in the present age. The staff radiated a dazzling light.

He gave the golden staff a gentle wave, executing an ancient Daoist technique while chanting an incantation: “Lightning of Order — dance together with heaven and earth.”

Crack!

A sheet of lightning fell from the sky — golden lightning that nearly flooded the airspace above the small lake, becoming a swamp of orderly electricity.

Ye Fan was surprised. In this era of declining spiritual energy, to be able to channel ambient essence and activate ancient Daoist techniques in this way — embedding a divine source stone in the staff, engraving Dao inscriptions upon it as an enhancement — multiplied the power of the secret technique several times over.

Without such augmentation, given the depletion of heaven and earth’s essence, this elder’s own cultivation alone would have been entirely unable to deploy such a secret technique.

Yet this was entirely useless against Ye Fan. The figure before him was formidable — but Ye Fan did not even fear tribulation lightning from Heaven. Why would he fear something called the Lightning of Order?

The technique’s name was impressive, and in the ages before antiquity it had been terrifying — but against Ye Fan it had no effect whatsoever. Under the stunned gazes of all present, he opened his mouth and inhaled forcefully, drawing all the golden lightning filling the sky into his own body.

Golden arcs of electricity coursed across his body. He exhaled forcefully — and a surging sea of blazing golden lightning shot outward.

Boom!

The elder in the golden vestments was instantly reduced to tribulation ash on the spot. More than ten knights guarding him were likewise turned to dust — obliterated entirely.

What manner of being is this? This was practically terrifying beyond measure. In the present starfield, those capable of such feats were vanishingly few. The people of the Western cultivation lineage could not bring themselves to believe what they were seeing.

“You have come in such numbers for me — simply because I killed a man from your Western lineage at Gesao Mountain who sought my life. And for that, you mobilize these forces and seek to pass judgment upon me? Is the Western cultivation lineage not overstepping, coming all this way to the Central Land to execute me — is this to demonstrate your might?!”

Ye Fan’s expression was cold as he stood at the edge of the clear lake, sweeping his gaze across all present, then fixing it upon the few young golden-haired men and women in the center who radiated holy light from their entire bodies.

“Far surpassing what we imagined…” The young man who had earlier decried Ye Fan as a heretic and declared he would be sentenced to death by fire now stepped out from among the crowd.

He held a cross in his left hand and a golden divine sword in his right, radiating blazing light. He pressed forward, chanting under his breath.

Boom!

Suddenly, an aura like a vast ocean erupted from him. Light without measure blazed from his entire body, and a vertical eye slowly opened at his brow.

His bearing transformed entirely. He declared: “I beseech the forefather spirits to descend upon my body — glory is my very life.”

Many people cried out in astonishment. This was the legendary secret technique known as Divine Descent Upon Man — most dared not use it, for the damage it inflicted upon the body was severe. Only those with a special constitution were capable of it.

Once the vertical eye opened at his brow, the sacred power radiating from his entire body intensified several hundred-fold in an instant. His whole frame blazed brilliantly — as though cast from molten gold.

In that moment, he was entirely transformed into another being. An aura that made one’s blood run cold erupted from him, and the magical power flowing from his raised hands surged like an ocean tide.

“Interesting. It seems the West truly has ancient great practitioners — yet without their true body descending, this is insufficient to contend with me. You cannot harm me.” Ye Fan murmured.

Boom!

The cross in the hand of this man — who now resembled a sun god — shattered, transforming into a blazing divine ocean, weaving into the laws of heaven that filled the sky, surging downward.

An aura that made all present tremble spread out to encompass everything. Many people nearly couldn’t stop themselves from falling to their knees. This was the overwhelming pressure of a supreme divine power.

Ye Fan stood rooted to the spot, not moving a step. He struck out with his right hand into the void, and countless great rifts in space appeared, rapidly dissolving the holy light, destroying the killing laws that had spread outward.

Spurt!

The young man radiating holy light coughed up a mouthful of blood. Half of the cross-shaped laws he had deployed were destroyed, and more than half the divine power reversed course and surged back into him, injuring himself.

“Divine presence within my body — flesh eternal!”

He cried out. Holy light bathed his entire form. Every inch of his flesh became like divine gold — fortified and imperishable to a terrifying degree. Then he swung his divine sword with his right hand and charged forward to engage Ye Fan in direct physical combat.

Ye Fan stood unmoved, waiting calmly as the young man rushed up to him, a faint trace of cold detachment at the corner of his lips.

The other knights, holy warriors, and all the rest widened their eyes and held their breath. The Divine Descent Upon Man could elevate a person’s physical body to an incomparable level of power — once close enough, it was capable of reducing everything in its path to ruin.

Yet the final outcome stunned everyone present. They all stood frozen.

Standing at the edge of the lake, Ye Fan swung his golden right fist to meet the attack — shattering the holy sword, piercing through the skull of the Divine Descent body, carrying with it a large spray of blood as it passed clean through.

Simple. Direct. Overwhelming.

A great burst of blood bloomed outward. Time seemed to freeze at this moment. Shattered bone and blood still suffused with holy light traced a slow arc through the air — chilling to the soul.

Thud!

The headless body of the young man possessed by the divine descent toppled straight over and lay still, stripped of every trace of divine power — a corpse.

“A demon — he’s a demon!”

No one could say how much time passed before many people began to cry out. Such a terrifying and brutal reality left them trembling with fear. They had set out on this campaign expecting to return with glory — they never imagined that in the Central Land, they would encounter a “Great Demon.”

The West has Buddha; the Central Land births demon. This was an ancient saying from India. And in the ancient West, there was a similar warning: The West has God; the Central Land births Demon.

“The Central Land has birthed a demon — he is the Great Demon the Central Land has produced in this era!”

The crowd cried out in panic, faces filled with dread. The ancient warning left by the sages of the West from times of antiquity — they had not forgotten it. Today, it may well have come true.

In ancient times, the holy sages of the Western cultivation lineage had suffered greatly at the hands of Central Land demons. They had thus solemnly warned their descendants: remember — be cautious. If you encounter an era in which a demon has arisen, you must withdraw.

“Over a hundred years ago, you launched your Eastern Crusade to invade and pillage — you stole important ancestral artifacts from our Central Land, looting under the banner of God. If that is so, then so be it — let the Central Land be said to have birthed a demon!” One of Ye Fan’s disciples spoke up indignantly.

“We have long since departed through the ancient Hangu Pass to the west. And now we shall travel west without end — to the Western lands to reclaim what is ours, to retrieve the ancestral artifacts. When that day comes, you will understand what a demon truly is!” Several of the informal disciples declared, their blood boiling with passion.

“Glory is our very life!”

The crowd roared. Though they were shaken, their hearts filled with dread — they had no wish to submit meekly to death. Holy light blazed from each of them as they prepared to fight to the last.

In particular, the remaining young men and women — all of them sacred in bearing, all of them capable of executing the secret technique Divine Descent Upon Man — moved into action.

“We are the Eastern Crusade — ours is a holy war. To die at the hands of a demon is to ascend to the heavenly kingdom, to return to the embrace of God, to fight the final battle. Death itself is an honor!”

When people hold a faith — once they enter a frenzy, they are truly fearsome. Every single person was shouting, their bodies blazing with holy light, burning themselves, fighting their way forward.

“Glory, my foot!”

Ye Fan had only four words in response. For someone of his standing, this manner of speaking was a little out of character — but it was the truest expression of what he felt, and it came out with great satisfaction.

After that, he raised his hand and pressed down upon heaven and earth, unleashing the ancient Heaven-Overturning Seal. His palm and fingers transformed into a great golden seal that obliterated every enemy in its path.

Wave after wave of blood light erupted. Bursts of blood splattered outward. With the exception of the few figures with Divine Descent Upon Man bodies, all the rest were destroyed in a single instant — body and spirit both extinguished.

“The West… has powerful figures.” Ye Fan murmured to himself.

Then, with a forceful grinding motion, the ancient secret technique of the Heaven-Overturning Seal trembled violently — and the few remaining divine descent bodies below were also reduced to dust, dissolving into blood mist.

“Master… is far too powerful!” Several disciples could only offer this much in astonishment. Their hearts were shaken to the core — they could find nothing else to say.

A long while later, the Daoist Little Celestial Master Zhang Qingyang was the first to speak: “The Central Land has birthed a demon. Since they have proclaimed it so — then, Master, from here onward, let your demon’s path lead westward.”