Ye Chen released his palm, and the Blood Crystal, resembling a rhombic red diamond, left his grasp, hovering in the void before him, spinning gently, each facet radiating crimson rays.

Whoosh!

A mass of pitch-black flame, like the ghostly fire of the netherworld, erupted fiercely from beneath the crimson Blood Crystal, instantly enveloping it and ravenously consuming the energy within.

If one looked closely, they would see thousands of incredibly fine, faint lines threading through the air, glowing with a subtle red luminescence, like blood vessels or meridians, injecting themselves into Ye Chen's skin. These were strands of pure energy refined from the Blood Crystal, converging into his bones and blood.

Under this brilliant red energy, Ye Chen’s body remained utterly still, like an ancient block of ice. A rich, blood-red radiance slowly emanated from his skin, enveloping his frame, which resembled an ancient War God.

In mere minutes, a colossal roar suddenly sounded within Ye Chen’s body, akin to an explosion of thunder. His clothes and hair were violently thrust outwards, billowing and flying.

Puff!

A river of time, as if spanning the heavens and earth, ripped open violently above Ye Chen’s head, tearing the silver-white space to reveal a massive, fissured chasm.

The seven-hued river of time poured down as if descending from the Celestial Realm, channeling directly into the Baihui acupoint atop his head. It saturated the space surrounding his body, and a force of temporal law settled upon him, causing the Chaotic Power within him to undergo rapid metamorphosis.

Epoch Realm!

Ye Chen, who had already reached the bottleneck of peak Divine Emperor, immediately underwent a world-altering transformation, completely breaking through, stimulated by the Blood Crystal.

Ordinary people often spend countless eons stuck at the peak Divine Emperor barrier. Even if their physical bodies reach the absolute limit of peak Divine Emperor, their consciousness and soul power have not yet cultivated to the point of being qualified to accept the infusion of time power. Should they rashly attempt to break through, they would either have their souls pulverized by the surging temporal force during the ascent, or they might even reverse through time, potentially regressing from a peak Divine Emperor to a newborn infant.

This was precisely why the Epoch Realm powerhouses were so scarce on the Ancient Continent.

The Heavenly Dao of yesteryear relied on the peerless scripture, the Heavenly Dao Codex. Although his soul power hadn't reached the qualification for temporal infusion, he forcefully withstood the torrent of time power through his formidable physique and boundless energy. Upon reaching the Epoch Realm, he instantly possessed the might of the peak Epoch Realm!

This was the strange allure of the Heavenly Dao Codex.

It was also the reason why all profoundly cultivated Divine Emperor experts were willing to cast aside all dignity and cultivation, shedding their most primitive appearance to contend for it.

At this moment, the power of time was irrigating Ye Chen. His very genes and flesh were infused with time, becoming stronger, more mysterious, and imbued with an ancient sense of longevity.

True powerhouses are those who can remain uncorrupted while the sun and moon decay. True powerhouses stand astride the river of time. Only that which time cannot ruin is the eternal truth!

Around Ye Chen’s body, numerous illusions began to manifest, replaying every moment of his existence: the day he was born in a hospital, a middle-aged woman lying pale and sweating profusely on a delivery bed; then, a middle-aged man bursting in, his face filled with excitement and joy.

That was his father.

Then, his slow growth—childhood, adolescence, young adulthood—with phantoms of his elementary, middle, and high school years flickering through, a period of pure and clean memory.

The sky in those memories was as azure as the sea.

Then came the apocalypse: the entire world shrouded in gloom, happiness destroyed by death, the struggle against unknown fear, the gnawing erosion of rotting flesh, the burying of inner fragility, forging an icy exterior capable of observing this transformed world with sharp, cold eyes.

It was a sharp and frigid world. He had learned to drift within it. Only by making himself equally cold could he survive. Perhaps this was one of humanity’s greatest sorrows.

In his previous life, he had died alone like this. In this life, he had rediscovered happiness and warmth—the warmth of family, the warmth of comrades, the warmth of love. Though it was still the apocalypse, he felt he was the luckiest person alive. It was to protect this happiness that he constantly grew stronger.

Who gave you a warm gaze in that cold world? Who kept you company during your moments of loneliness and isolation?

These illusions swirling around Ye Chen replayed all the images of his past, like tiny vignettes. It felt like ten thousand years, yet also like just an instant, all rushing into his black pupils, leaving behind only a faint glimmer, like a spark of fire, on his retina.

Ye Chen withdrew his gaze, lowered his head, and looked at his hand, slowly clenching his five fingers into a fist. He could feel the surging power within him, stronger than ever before, like a roaring, galloping river. His body felt tightly interwoven with the world, like a great spider on a web—pulling himself free would agitate some thread connected to the entire world.

The threads of law. The threads of time. He felt that with every movement, he could alter time; with just a thought, he could cause a patch of void before him to instantly revert to epochs past.

“This is the Epoch Realm…” Ye Chen suddenly thought of the Demon God Palace, where the cultivation space, like the Tower of Time, could accelerate time by hundreds of times, especially the broken worlds within, which could accelerate to a thousand times! The universes of ordinary Divine Emperors did not accelerate.

“I knew it. Anyone capable of creating a secret art like the Myriad Heavens Melting God Technique could not be simple. It seems that Wan Renxiong, who could slay tens of thousands of Divine Emperor experts, must have been at the Epoch Realm, or perhaps even stronger.”

Ye Chen mused inwardly. He clenched his fist, then continued to sit cross-legged. The black flame within him grew stronger and more vigorous, resembling a hideous demon face tightly enveloping the now fist-sized Blood Crystal, burning it furiously.

A wisp of temporal power was added to the black flame. The burning speed instantly increased tenfold!

Within Ye Chen’s flesh and blood, cells and genes were wrapped in a crimson energy, undergoing frantic metamorphosis. Gene chains twisted violently, seeming on the verge of snapping. His body was changing at a staggering rate.

“Void Heaven Realm!” Ye Chen’s gaze sharpened. With this breakthrough, he would finally become a true supreme powerhouse holding the Ancient World, looking down upon the ages.

The White Bone Road. Boom!

A black shadow plummeted from the sky like a meteor, slamming heavily onto the solid white bone ground, causing fissures to crack across the sturdy bone.

The black shadow sprang up from the ground in a sudden movement. Spreading his wings, he swiftly evaded the continuous onslaught from above, flashing to hover in another expanse of air.

From the wall of flesh above, countless crimson tentacles stretched out, reaching to entangle his body. Zero’s gaze was cold. With a slight turn of his wings, the surrounding flesh tentacles were swiftly severed.

“Retreat,” Di Zangchuan said indifferently to the Earth Blood Beast beneath him. The Earth Blood Beast’s body trembled slightly, its eyes revealing intense fear. It shrank back, and the crimson tentacles in the sky quickly retracted along with it.

Kins, lying nearby, weakly turned his head to watch Di Zangchuan in the sky, his eyes filled with shock and dread. He couldn't fathom that someone on the Ancient Continent could battle that monster and not be at a disadvantage! Who was he? Why was he here? Kins felt that many unusual things were happening here. His fingers twitched, but his bones felt shattered; even with his magnificent vitality, he couldn't recover quickly. He sighed inwardly and closed his eyes in despair.

At this moment, Di Zangchuan and Zero were locked in a fierce, evenly matched battle in the sky. However, after only a short while, Zero was completely on the defensive, while Di Zangchuan remained vigorous, as if possessing inexhaustible power.

Di Zangchuan chuckled lightly, his body flashing to appear behind Zero, ghost-like, gripping the root joints of Zero’s two massive wings. “Your agility has dulled, haven’t they? That’s not good—” Zero started, startled, and lunged forward, attempting to break free from Di Zangchuan. But as soon as his body moved, Di Zangchuan’s palms clamped down tightly, like sharp knives piercing into the flesh at his wing roots, violently tearing the two sturdy black wings apart.

Splat—

Crimson blood sprayed down from the sky like raindrops.

Zero screamed, his body trembling violently. The two huge black wings on his back were completely separated from his body, and blood gushed forth like a spring from where they connected to his back ribs.

Di Zangchuan held the two huge black wings in his hand, shaking his head with feigned pity. “Oh dear, truly…”

Boom!

A pattern of light flared on the black wings in his hand, and they suddenly exploded. Di Zangchuan’s words were cut short by the blast wave. At such close range, even with the Earth Shield protecting him, he hadn't been fully guarded and it was too late to react.

Zero gasped heavily, staring into the explosive shockwave as black shards and pulverized flesh sprayed outwards like mud. When all the black debris vanished, Di Zangchuan’s figure was revealed. His hair was slightly messy, his cheeks were scorched black and tinged blue, and a trickle of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth. His eyes looked like two balls of fire, ready to erupt.

“Good, very good…” He took a deep breath, then stared at Zero, clenching his fist. The entire White Bone Road seemed to tremble violently, and the whole sky appeared to freeze and solidify suddenly.

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