The dark years cut from history, the False Immortal! Slain-an endurance battle in reverse?

"Since none of you are willing to emerge."

"Then... today, this Desolate Ash Sea shall be leveled!"

His might surged to the heavens, waves of heat roiling.

The Black Emperor unleashed a great divine ability, making the entire Desolate Ash Sea boil and roar without cease!

He seemed intent on directly erasing the forbidden zone's laws within the Desolate Ash Sea, stripping this realm, which stood apart from the greater universe, of all its power.

This would sever its very foundations!

Moreover, such conduct was nothing short of the most naked provocation!

Every Supreme had become one by cutting down their own cultivation after once standing invincible, and their pride ran high.

Getting them to yield at the outset had already been no easy feat.

Yet the Black Emperor refused to let the matter rest...

Crack-!!

Immortal source shattered.

From the depths of the Desolate Ash Sea.

A figure clad in white brighter than snow emerged.

His robes fluttered, his bearing transcendent and otherworldly, with the grace of an immortal and the bones of a sage, giving him an air of ethereal detachment.

Immortal music gradually rose, as though heaven and earth were harmonizing with him.

Faintly, a vision appeared.

It was an ancient tableau of worshiping an immortal, countless living beings prostrating themselves before that white-robed figure with the utmost devotion, as though... a True Immortal had descended!

Unlike the Supremes who had emerged earlier.

This man... was human!

He must have been a human Great Emperor recorded in ancient history!

Some frowned deeply and hurriedly searched ancient histories, but even surveying the entirety of those records yielded only scattered words.

Only one Great Sage of the ancient races, so old that he had been forced to emerge from divine source, abruptly shrank his pupils upon seeing that figure, as though he had witnessed some great terror he could never forget for all eternity!

"It's him... it's actually him!!"

"That madman is still alive! Could he still not have given up!?"

"No... kill him! Kill him now!! He'll bring unimaginable disaster upon this world! That was an era of chaos and madness taken to the absolute extreme!"

The Great Sage of the ancient races howled, driven into madness the very instant he saw that figure!

In the end, someone enlisted an Ancient Emperor Weapon to suppress him, and only then did he gradually calm down.

Then, through the efforts of the major factions, the scattered words each had preserved finally pieced together this Supreme's origins!

He had no honorific title.

Nor any legacy.

In ancient history, the records concerning the period when he attained the Dao described years of utmost darkness.

He had attained the Dao and become an Emperor during the Dark Turmoil, and should have sheltered all living beings and ushered in an age of peace.

Yet he... had not quelled the Dark Turmoil of that lifetime.

Instead... he had colluded with the Supremes, turning the greater universe into a veritable breeding farm for living beings!

He had proclaimed himself a True Immortal.

He had made all beings revere him, taking the masses as his most devoted believers!

Every living being who believed in him offered up body, mind, and soul alike, becoming nourishment for his growth.

At the height of his power, he had sacrificed the vast majority of living beings in the entire universe and attempted to ascend to immortality...

The result, naturally, had been failure.

From then on, he had vanished without a trace.

Everyone had thought him dead, fallen beneath heaven's wrath.

Who could have imagined that he had been lying low in this Desolate Ash Sea!

Those years had been far too dark.

Moreover, for certain special reasons, the major factions had voluntarily cut them from ancient history.

And the only name left for him was two words: False Immortal.

In the Desolate Ash Sea, the waves thundered.

The False Immortal's gaze swept across the entire greater universe, a hint of greed on his somewhat pale, uncanny face.

He murmured softly, his voice echoing between heaven and earth.

"It truly has been a long time."

"I wonder whether any of my believers still remain in this world?"

His words fell.

Bang-!!

Across the universe, many people discovered to their astonishment.

The familiar friends beside them seemed to receive a divine decree in an instant, their expressions turning utterly frenzied!

Then... they exploded.

Regardless of their cultivation, regardless of their status.

There were holy land elders, and there were menial servants and slaves.

There were even...

Powerful beings who broke out of divine source, their gazes fanatical as they looked toward the Desolate Ash Sea.

Then they channeled their divine power and detonated their bodies!

They had actually taken their own lives of their own accord!

Everyone paled in horror!

They could scarcely imagine that, after untold years, so many living beings were still this False Immortal's devoted believers!

One could well imagine how dark those years cut from history had been!

Wisps of the purest life essence were drawn from every corner of the universe.

They poured into the False Immortal's body, turning his hair black and filling out his shriveled frame once more.

His presence gradually grew formidable.

Even without sublimating to the utmost, he had already surpassed the Supremes!

To be called the False Immortal, and to have once sacrificed the living beings of the entire greater universe in an attempt to ascend to the true immortal rank.

He was naturally far from ordinarily powerful!

Though his methods were base and cruel, precisely because of them, he had obtained mighty power beyond the reach of ordinary Great Emperors!

Yet the Black Emperor merely watched him quietly.

His expression was calm, and he made no move to interrupt.

Because rather than interrupt rashly, it was better to let him finish absorbing the blood essence of those believers hidden throughout the world.

That would at least resolve a fairly significant latent threat.

As for whether he would become immensely powerful as a result... the Black Emperor did not care.

He possessed absolute confidence, believing that there might be beings in this world capable of contending with him.

But none capable of defeating him!

"You are very strong."

The False Immortal seemed to have returned to his peak now, and as he looked at the Black Emperor, he offered heartfelt praise.

But after that praise, only boundless greed remained in the depths of his eyes!

"Back then, I failed to ascend to immortality and could not knock open the immortal gate."

"My original intention was to cling to life within the forbidden zone until the path to immortality opened, then ascend to the rank of True Immortal."

"But after seeing you, I changed my mind again..."

"A Divine Medicine of Immortality can already help a Great Emperor live another lifetime. And you... attained the Dao with the body of a Divine Medicine of Immortality, so your medicinal potency must be greater still! Once I devour you, even if I cannot become an immortal in one stroke, living another lifetime will be effortless!"

"When that time comes, I can once again lead the living beings of the entire universe in ascending to the immortal realm together!"

The False Immortal's gaze turned icy, his tone gradually becoming sinister.

His presence surged, faint immortal light rising, making his figure ever more ethereal and immortal-like, dreamlike and illusory.

As though a True Immortal who had attained the Dao walked the world!

Yet in the Black Emperor's eyes, this display only made a flash of contempt cross his gaze.

A True Immortal?

Ascending to the immortal realm?

Though he did not know why he felt this way, he truly felt from the bottom of his heart... that it was uninteresting.

Utterly uninteresting...

"Further words are pointless."

"Since you alone have emerged, then... you'll be the first beneath my blade!"

The Black Emperor said no more.

Divine light blazed in his eyes, and he summoned the Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon refined from his own original body!

He immediately went all out!

It was a black lotus, seemingly rooted in the entire greater universe, possessing terrifying power capable of shaking the whole world!

It trembled slightly, lifting layer after layer of the void, seeking to banish the False Immortal into the eternal void!

Yet the False Immortal showed not the slightest fear!

"Hmph-!"

"A mere lifeless weapon dares dream of slaying an immortal? Send your master!"

The False Immortal snorted coldly.

He likewise summoned an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon, a scroll of the mortal world that became vividly lifelike when unfurled.

It held magnificent mountains and rivers, and also... the resentment of endlessly wailing living beings!

The two Emperor Weapons collided with tremendous force, as though heaven and earth were being created anew!

"Come! Let us fight at our peaks!"

The False Immortal stepped forward, seeming to cross some boundary between heaven and earth.

He sublimated to the utmost, ascending to his peak once more!

Without any hesitation, he chose to face the most powerful enemy of his life in his strongest state!

A path of retreat was something only losers cared about!

All he cared about was victory, regardless of the cost!

A fight to the death!

This was his conviction, and the reason he chose to stop at nothing and exhaust every means to become even stronger!

But... what he faced.

Was a being who, though a Great Emperor, possessed combat strength... that could rival a Heavenly Emperor!

"My peak?"

"I have yet to reach the peak within my grasp, while your limit ends here."

"What right do you have to fight me at our peaks!"

The Black Emperor pressed down with one hand, as though he held a great world of chaos within it.

He was even stronger than when he had fought Ye Mingyuan!

As though he had reached an ultimate limit!

His limbs extended, like heaven-supporting divine pillars capable of holding up the entire greater universe!

Though the False Immortal was extraordinary himself, and after sublimating to the utmost, his combat strength could barely contend with the Black Emperor.

After several hundred exchanges, his blood and vitality nevertheless began declining uncontrollably.

This was the most prominent difference between a Supreme and a reigning Great Emperor!

So what if they sublimated to the utmost?

Once they fell again, the outcome was already decided!

After a thousand exchanges, the False Immortal's presence abruptly plummeted!

"No!!!"

"If my believers were as vast and endless as they were back then, even after cutting down my own cultivation and falling from the Emperor realm, I could still rely on them to reach the summit!"

"I did not fall to you! What defeated me... was this world, this age!"

His face was pale as paper, his eyes thick with unwillingness, as he let out one final furious roar at the Black Emperor!

In the end...

Boom-!!!

Blood gradually spread, losing all spirituality.

A being who had once unleashed endless turmoil, such that an entire stretch of ancient history refused to preserve the slightest information about him.

Was slain on the spot by the Black Emperor!

"Who else?"

The Black Emperor stood above the Desolate Ash Sea, his presence not yet settled before his voice rang out once more.

Silence...

Utter silence.

His only answer was the False Immortal's Emperor blood, stripped of all spirituality, still dripping without cease.

Drip-

Drip-

The Black Emperor slowly withdrew his gaze.

He put away the False Immortal's corpse to prevent these Supremes from devouring its flesh and blood essence and bolstering their might.

Then, rather than insist on fighting again, he turned and left.

His first battle had already ended in victory.

There was no need to keep stubbornly blocking their way while he was exhausted.

After all, he did not possess the absolute strength to steamroll his way through and destroy the forbidden zones.

He could only eliminate them one by one, like boiling frogs in warm water!

And every Supreme eliminated would be enough to save countless trillions of living beings in future ages!

The Supremes within the forbidden zones understood this too.

But there was nothing they could do.

After all, none of them wanted to be among the first few wheels in a revolving-wheel battle; that would doom them to death.

So they could only gamble, betting that they... would not become the unlucky one chosen.

As they watched the Black Emperor leave.

The presence here gradually dissipated, as though everything had returned to its former calm once more.

And just as the Supremes of the Desolate Ash Sea breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to slumber again.

Suddenly!

Golden light blazed across the world, and imperial might surged boundlessly!

A golden figure exuded terrifying pressure, taking the Black Emperor's place with incomparable smoothness as he descended upon the Desolate Ash Sea!

With a faint smile at the corners of his mouth, Ye Mingyuan looked down upon the Supremes and said:

"Now... it's my turn."

"Which of you... will step forward?"