Ye Fan climbed toward the heavens step by step, coming face to face with the Pope in calm composure. There was no room for doubt — this was an enemy who would not be easy to deal with.
The sacred mountain towered magnificently, carved all over with the marks of ages. Rare fragrant orchids grew along the cliff walls, their gentle scent drifting through the air. The halls were grand and imposing, angels singing hymns, circling in flight around the great buildings. Step after step of stone stairs led upward — making everything above appear unattainably high.
The Pope and a group of elders stood before the magnificent divine palace. A great sacred cross hung above their heads — holy and awe-inspiring. He carried about him an aura vast as the open sea.
“Do we need to go beyond the domain to battle, or to use an ancient formation platform to create a battlefield? Otherwise the sacred land will be in danger.” A cultivator of very high standing spoke, consulting the Pope.
At the level of Ye Fan and people like him — a single shout could shatter mountains and rivers, move mountains and fill seas. If they battled with complete abandon, the consequences would be extremely serious.
BOOM!
The Pope pointed one hand to the sky and one to the earth — and the heavens and earth were immediately split open. All the sacred peaks shifted sideways in both directions. The great earth rumbled and shook as a primordial, barren ancient ground was revealed.
People trembled. Though they knew the Pope possessed supreme divine arts, witnessing with their own eyes a technique that pierced through heaven and earth still inspired a degree of shock and awe.
Ye Fan stepped into this ancient cultivation ground in a single pace. The place was spacious beyond any visible limit — bare and boundless earth, not a blade of grass growing.
The Pope seemed capable of grasping stars and plucking the moon. His entire body bathed in divine radiance, like an ancient deity descended to earth. He descended on foot from the magnificent sacred mountain — with every step, the great earth trembled once beneath him.
Though aged, his skin was crystalline like jade, his hair golden and full, bearing great dignity. Upon his head rested a sovereign’s crown. He pressed forward like a great mountain — people nearly suffocated beneath that bearing. Many among the crowd fell to their knees, unable to stop themselves from prostrating in reverence.
“You have turned your back on all the gods. Darkness clings to you. Only blood can redeem your sins.” The Pope spoke, and in this same moment he struck. The great battle erupted.
BOOM!
He pressed down forcefully in the void. A crystalline great hand materialized, formed entirely from condensed faith-power — vast and all-encompassing, descending from above, nearly blotting out the entire sky and pressing the earth flat beneath it.
Everyone was horrified. This was the Pope’s true strength. A single blow like this — who in the Western lands could withstand it? It could utterly obliterate any family. Who, in the end, was the true mightiest beneath the starry sky?
Against heretics this technique was most effective — borrowing the limitless faith-power of all living beings for his own use, everything adding itself to his person, transforming into a true god, destroying his enemies, his divine might covering all the world.
Ye Fan did not retreat. He also manifested a golden great hand, striking outward with the Heaven-Overturning Seal — seeking to flip the vault of heaven itself, a single force that would overturn all of heaven and earth.
BANG!
The two struck each other, as though an ancient Dao sound had been released. Every spectator’s ear bones ached — unbearable. Many more people bled from all seven orifices and fell dead upon the ground.
The crowd shuddered to their bones. The Pope had opened up this ancient cultivation ground and turned it into a battlefield, originally to isolate the force of their clash — yet even so, such terrifying consequences had resulted. That alone said everything about the extraordinary power of these two men.
“The divine order spirit-chains of the gods — bind this sinner, send him to the rack, and let him undergo the Final Judgment.” The Pope chanted an ancient incantation.
CRASH—!
Across the heavens, bolts of lightning struck — dazzling beyond endurance, condensing into chains of divine order that rushed toward the earth. Like dozens and hundreds of comets dragging brilliant tails of light — resplendent and magnificent.
The Dao of heaven and earth thundered — vast Dao-waves spread outward. The sun, moon, stars, mountains, and rivers were all enveloped and submerged beneath a boundless, sweeping energy — grand and overwhelming.
The divine order spirit-chains of the gods transformed into lightning coiling around and rushing inward, seeking to bind Ye Fan, strangling him inch by inch into pieces. This was an ancient divine technique — it required limitless power to unleash.
BANG!
A golden light flashed at Ye Fan’s brow. A golden immortal sword of an inch’s length flew out, blazing with undying divine radiance, and cleaved directly downward — slashing toward the divine order spirit-chains.
This was the Primal Emperor’s Dao Sword!
Long ago, Ye Fan had been greatly inspired by his battle with Yuangu, and modeled it with the Battle Sage’s method after considerable evolution. It had at last taken on a definite form — capable of severing ten thousand things, devastating all in its path.
CLANG—CLANG!
A piercing sound rang out. The Primal Emperor’s Dao Sword severed the divine order spirit-chains, turning the Pope’s great killing technique into nothing — it had not taken effect.
Moreover, the tiny golden sword swayed with a world-shaking radiance, erupting in resplendent immortal light and slashing straight toward the Pope’s brow — seeking to cut him open, to cleave him into two halves.
Cling—cling—
Within the Pope’s eyes, a blinding divine brilliance erupted. Both left and right eyes held within them vivid visions of star domains being destroyed — manifesting as though real — blocking the sword modeled after the Primal Emperor’s Dao Sword and destroying it simultaneously. Boundless light was released — like a tsunami submerging everything the onlookers could see.
“He is a divine incantation master!”
The crowd was stunned. Now they finally understood why the Pope was this powerful. Ancient texts recorded it — certain individuals could commune with divine essence, born to merge with Dao markings. They could instantly deploy every kind of law.
In the West, there were many ancient incantations — and a person like this was undoubtedly a favorite of heaven itself. Their words were law, their speech was rule — every word and action an incantation, their divine might without boundary.
The divine knight’s natural talent was perhaps the greatest in tens of thousands of years — but the Pope was no lesser. As a divine incantation master, and one who had always borrowed limitless faith-power for his cultivation, he was even more terrifying.
“The ocean is immeasurable — how could a mere insect know its depths? Sever the heavens and earth!”
The Pope gave a great shout. With these words, all nine heavens and ten earths were set in motion. Astral winds sharp as blades swept through the entire land — brilliant white radiance everywhere — limitless Dao markings densely covering every inch of space, elemental blade-light slashing through and destroying all things.
Ye Fan’s brow furrowed slightly. The Pope was truly powerful — an undiscriminating attack, like the representative of a god in the sky above the starry expanse — boundless power, sweeping all before him.
At this moment, even he was compelled to exercise caution. He let out a great roar — his golden vital energy collapsed the high heavens. That single true word dispersed throughout the air, shattering the sky full of blade-light. Even the ancient sacred peaks engraved with the laws of ancient sages rang with it, nearly shattering. As for the mundane mountains — they immediately became ash. One after another they fell, and no one could count how many, without any suspense.
“Ah—!”
Many people let out screams of anguish, dissolving into clumps of blood mist. The remainder fled quickly behind the sacred mountains, not daring to face the battlefield directly — otherwise there was a constant danger of falling.
CRASH—!
The sound of an ancient book’s pages turning reached them. In the ancient cultivation ground, the Pope looked down upon all the world. In his left hand, an ancient sutra. In his right hand, a cross — radiating eternal brilliance.
From within that ancient sutra, enormous ancient characters erupted one after another — each one like metal cast, weighing ten thousand pounds. One by one, they pressed down upon Ye Fan.
These were talismans born from heaven itself — every character a revelation of the mind and the Dao, compiled by an ancient great sage. They could slay gods and seize souls — capable of cleaving apart a person’s primordial spirit and Dao foundation.
One ancient character after another came flying — nearly burying Ye Fan beneath them, seeking to suppress him into pulp. A single character weighed ten thousand pounds in momentum — a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand… rumbling forward, beyond reckoning!
The ancient book turned swiftly, all the characters flying out rapidly — cracking heaven and earth, dedicated to slaying Dao-severers, an absolute kill.
Ye Fan uttered a single soft word, released his body, stepped his left foot forward, both hands forming the sun and moon great seals, then forced them powerfully outward — opening up a stretch of starry sky, conjuring a vision of stars being destroyed and moons falling, sweeping toward all the ancient characters.
This was a great annihilation. The skies full of stars pulverized the ancient characters — the Milky Way resplendent, the ancient talismans shooting skyward. Between the two, a rumbling sound arose — like a great flood surging straight upward into the ninth heaven.
“Let there be light!”
The Pope gave a great shout, majestic as an ancient deity, his entire being like one opening heaven and splitting the earth. Around him, primordial chaos surged. With the cross in his right hand, he lightly traced the ancient sutra — blazing radiance erupted!
“Heaven and earth — worthy of a god!”
“The Holy Father’s power is a boundless ocean, unrivaled throughout all of antiquity!”
In the distance, people cried out, falling involuntarily into prostration. The Pope’s techniques reached through heaven and earth — exactly as the gods described in the scriptures, possessing limitless divine power.
This light was devastatingly powerful. Even someone as powerful as Ye Fan felt it cutting into him like a blade — genuine pain. Light was everywhere, striking against his skin with metallic clanging sounds.
The Pope was borrowing the limitless faith-power, combined with his own divine incantations — his power pushed to the extreme. The mental intent of all living beings, imbued into his divine technique, was invincible!
Ye Fan’s physical body developed fissure after fissure — golden blood flowing out. He had actually been wounded. One had to say: the aged Pope was terrifying to the extreme.
“I say — where there is light, there is darkness!”
Ye Fan let out a great shout. Both hands swept into motion, weaving a tapestry of mysterious and complex patterns, then raising a golden sacred domain. Every kind of extraordinary phenomenon merged into one. The radiance of all of heaven and earth went dark, rapidly dimming. Only he remained eternal.
He transformed into a ray of starlight, charging toward the Pope. He raised his hand and struck with a single Heaven-Overturning Seal, sending him flying more than ten miles — hair streaming in disorder.
Ye Fan let out a long roar, pressing the momentum, killing forward once more. He swung his fist and hammered — golden vital energy flooded the sky, shaking the invincible Pope and sending him flying tens of miles — retreating again and again, coughing blood.
“Enough!”
The Pope let out a great shout that collapsed mountains and rivers and dried out great lakes. This man merged with the golden lion — and from the void he summoned an enormous golden-maned lion to serve as his mount.
This lion stood as tall as a small mountain, and was several thousand years old, having likewise survived from antiquity — already a Dao-severer. Its entire coat of golden fur shimmered with crystalline brilliance, like divine gold cast, its entire body radiating an extremely dangerous aura.
The Pope and the golden lion became one — transforming into an ancient war god, terrifying beyond measure. The aura they emanated made every single person tremble. Even Ye Fan felt a series of palpitations. This was indeed a powerful opponent — cultivated through the power of faith to a superhumanly terrifying level.
“I am not only a divine incantation master — I am also a divine knight!”
Everyone, seized with terror yet also with overwhelming shock — the Pope was also a divine knight. His power was clearly world-shaking, his combat ability heaven-defying — as very few in the past had known.
“And what of that?!” Ye Fan’s killing intent was blazing. His golden vital energy shot into the sky, his golden battle-energy surging and billowing, transforming into a vast ocean surging toward the Pope.
He struck heavily again and again in rapid succession. The sun and moon seal, the divine phoenix seal, the true dragon seal, the mountain-embracing seal, the king of men seal, the Heaven-Overturning Seal — each launched in sequence — as though seeking to bring the heavens crashing down. Throughout this process, the great Dao thundered — like a vast waterfall falling vertically. He was supreme in valor, none could stop him!
The Pope and the golden lion continuously fell back. Both were coughing blood together — overwhelmed by the invincible divine bearing of the human race’s Holy Body, finding themselves at a disadvantage, sustaining serious injury.
“Enough — Heaven and Hell!”
The Pope let out a great shout that collapsed mountains and rivers, evaporating great lakes. This man and the golden lion became one, releasing radiance like ten suns blazing together, becoming a divine-like existence.
Behind him, a halo of light appeared, transforming into an indestructible divine disc that would shine throughout eternity. The mental intent of all living beings became his power. He deployed the Vatican’s supreme technique.
Heaven manifested, blazing with fierce light. A sacred great hand reached outward, striking down one after another, hammering Ye Fan continuously downward.
Below, a dark hell appeared, its crevice gaping open, seeking to swallow him into it.
“Struck down from heaven into hell — this is divine punishment. Endure eternal torment!” The Pope spoke, the divine disc behind his head radiating holy light in all directions.
He borrowed the mental intent of all living beings, striking down one enormous sacred palm after another, pressing Ye Fan until he was covered in wounds, seriously injured, about to tumble down into hell.
The Pope’s terrifying power could not be more evident. This sacred great hand blotted out the sky and blocked the sun — larger even than dozens of mountain peaks placed end to end — pressing Ye Fan directly toward the abyss of hell.
Heaven above — the Pope standing at its gates, like a divine being judging a sinner. Hell below — Ye Fan fighting desperately, blood-soaked, charging upward against all opposition toward the high heavens.
The mental intent of all living beings was truly too terrifying!
Ye Fan let out a clear roar. He unleashed the technique of transforming one breath into three pure forms — a Dao body appeared, and together with his true body, they simultaneously charged toward the high heavens, jointly executing the Six Cycles Reincarnation Fist.
At the same time, all kinds of extraordinary phenomena merged into one. Both divine bodies were the same — the Dao was one with the self, ten thousand laws not clinging to the body, charging in the contrary direction toward the heavens!
BOOM!
They broke out of hell, killing their way up into heaven. The Six Cycles Reincarnation Fist struck without cease, blasting heaven and earth apart. Pfft — the golden lion bore the brunt first. Even having already severed the Dao, it could not withstand fist intent this terrifying!
Sheets of blood rain fell. Great chunks of white bone blasted outward. This Dao-severing golden lion king was smashed to pieces by Ye Fan — blasted into a pulp of flesh and bone fragments, dead on the spot.
What heaven, what hell — none of it could stop him. He was supreme in valor beneath all heaven, sending even the Pope flying tens of miles in a single blow — crashing into a sacred mountain in the distance, leaving a bloodstained trail behind, struggling painfully to rise.
The crowd was shaken. The demon from the Central Plains had truly been wounded just now — yet he had also gone mad for it, fighting until heaven cracked and earth split, demons wailed and gods howled. His golden battle-energy boiled and surged, nothing in the world capable of stopping him. He could not be challenged!
The Dao is one foot high, the demon is ten feet higher! His divine might was matchless, undefeated in the present age. Even the Pope had been sent flying — grievously wounded.
How was anyone supposed to fight now? Who could subdue the demon?!
Roooaarrr—
Ye Fan’s great roar came. His Dao body’s movements matched his own precisely. Together they lunged forward to kill — golden vital energy filled the sky and submerged the ancient cultivation ground entirely. Nothing could stop it.
Everywhere he passed, mountains collapsed, lakes dried up, the sky fell and the earth sank — like a supreme divine being exterminating the world. Nothing could be broken through, nothing could withstand him.
The Pope channeled his great divine arts. The divine ring behind his head manifested, blazing even more intensely. That divine disc rose like a brilliant moon behind him, hanging in the void above — as though in this one instant it connected all of time past and present.
His face was filled with fury and shock. He merged the Vatican’s faith and holy power accumulated across immeasurable ages with his Dao body, seeking to use this to suppress this opponent who was powerful beyond all imagination.
Ye Fan fought to the point of frenzy. Within his body, golden blood was boiling, releasing a deafening thunderclap that shook many spectators’ bodies into trembling — more than they could endure.
The Dao body he had manifested was indistinguishable from himself — battle intent flooding the sky, soaring above the clouds, charging toward the nine heavens, seeking to trample the Dao of all heaven and earth beneath his feet.
True body and Dao body together swung golden fists. The fist intent of the Six Cycles Reincarnation Fist struck outward — reincarnation unfolding, heaven and earth pulverized. This was invincible fist intent. Where I am present, there is no enemy. Press forward without halt!
BOOM!
The Pope’s divine ring behind his head was shattered simultaneously by Ye Fan and his Dao body. The divine disc collapsed — great sheets of luminous rain burst outward in all directions, piercing through the heavenly vault, crashing down upon the great mountains.
Ye Fan was like a war god reborn. Golden vital energy blotted out the sky and covered the earth — vast as the great sea. Devastating and all-consuming, he struck out across all the world, fighting until berserk. Nothing in this world could stop him. None could challenge him!