# Chapter 1796: Demon Fog
Little Pine wore a serious expression, resolute and determined. The great era was withering, allowing people to feel this desolate atmosphere.
Ye Fan looked at his disciple, sighed softly, and nodded. "Good!"
This was a major matter with far-reaching implications. Among the next generation of the Heavenly Court, there were no shortage of dazzling geniuses, but ultimately none like Little Pine or Ye Tong who could battle Supreme Beings.
The glorious golden age was coming to an end. Many had grown old, and the Heavenly Court had to take precautions. At the very least, the Primordial Ancient Mine had yet to be pacified, its location still unfound.
Ye Tong and Yang Xi knew this and all came. Looking at Little Pine, they couldn't help but feel melancholy. Powerful as they were, having reached their current step, they still found it difficult to seek the gate of immortality.
"Master, seal me as well," Yang Xi said.
Upon hearing this, Ye Fan did not nod. Only after a long time did he speak: "None of you need to rush. Go back and think carefully. We still have divine medicines that can let you live another life."
Ye Fan turned and walked through the Heavenly Court. Most of the faces he saw were new. Several thousand years had passed—a new generation replaced the old. The Heavenly Soldiers and Heavenly Generals had changed over an era.
Now, the descendants of Li Heishui, Dongfang Ye, Li Tian, and others had long become the pillars of the Heavenly Court, renowned across the realm. But several close friends had clearly aged.
Among Pang Bo's thick hair, white strands had long been mixed in. Though his body remained stalwart and his back straight, his youth was ultimately gone.
"Pang Tao, you need to work harder, or I'll punish you with ten years of secluded cultivation—no one can see you," Pang Bo scolded his great-grandson. He already had children and grandchildren filling his home.
There were several children there, each with a tiger-like vigor, full of vitality. Under their ancestor's scolding, they practiced with furrowed brows, occasionally winking at each other.
Ye Fan smiled. Many of their generation had grown old, but seeing the younger generation brought him some comfort, reminding him of themselves back in the day.
Now, aside from Ye Fan's own lineage, everyone else had long had children and grandchildren, their homes bustling with activity.
The older generation continuously passed away, but this sorrow was diluted considerably by the vitality of new life.
"Little Wu, you stop right there!"
In the distance, a small golden monkey a few years old came scurrying over, swift as lightning, baring its teeth. Clearly, it had just been disciplined.
Suddenly, a golden hand tore through the void, reached over, and grabbed the little sacred ape, Little Wu. The Holy Prince appeared and seized his own child.
Ye Fan was speechless. Among all the descendants, the monkey's lineage was the most troublesome.
The Battle-Saint Ape Lineage had extremely low fertility. To date, the monkey finally had one child, whose talent and strength were astonishingly formidable—if not the best among the younger generation, then close to it.
This little monkey was also entrusted with great hope by the Heavenly Court, with expectations that it could surpass its father's generation.
As for the little sacred ape's mother, her origins were also astonishing. She was none other than the Six-Eared Macaque, who had dueled with the Holy Prince for many years. When the monkey brought her back five hundred years ago, it truly dropped a jaw or two.
Without a doubt, she was also a peerless expert, astonishingly powerful, invisibly strengthening the Heavenly Court's power considerably.
At first, Ye Fan, Pang Bo, and Huahua named the little sacred ape Sun Wukong, similar to the Dharma name of the Battle Victory Buddha. However, this met with fierce opposition from its mother. She once chased Huahua for a hundred thousand li, beating him until he fled with his head in his hands.
"Brother Monkey, you can't raise a child like this," Ye Fan said.
Little Wu nodded pitifully, tears in his big eyes. "I won't dare again. Father, please don't hit me."
When Ye Fan learned that the little monkey had caused havoc in the Heavenly Court, playing with a group of Heavenly Soldiers' and Heavenly Generals' descendants and nearly dismantling the main hall of the Heavenly Court, he was at a loss for words.
Ye Fan walked away. He had already decided in his heart that he would seal away those old friends who were about to sit in meditation and pass away, even if they disagreed, he would carry it out.
As he walked out of Immortal Mountain, he happened to see the Dragon Horse strolling around. Though it was even older than Ye Fan, its blood energy was still relatively vigorous because it had gnawed on more than one medicinal king in its time. However, it too had begun its decline.
In the distance, the Black Emperor, accompanied by the Silver Blood Twin Emperors, came strolling leisurely. He too had grown old, losing his wildness of the past. Even his jet-black, satin-like fur was turning grayish-white.
Ye Fan knew that this fellow had eaten the Immortal Divine Phoenix Medicine and had received Emperor Wu Shi's marrow-cleansing and body-transforming. His foundation was thick, so his lifespan was not yet a problem.
"I'm bored out of my mind. Let's go out for a spin," the Black Emperor said.
Ye Fan nodded and walked out of the Heavenly Court with the Big Black Dog and the Dragon Horse, entering the starry sky.
"Sigh, this emperor is truly unwilling. After so many years, waiting half a lifetime, I still haven't seen the birth of a Primordial Sacred Body Dao Platform."
Ye Fan smiled bitterly and said nothing.
The starry sky was boundless. They passed through one star system after another. A golden path of light spread beneath their feet, allowing them to quickly cross to another place.
All races in the universe saw this and were filled with awe. People knew that the Heavenly Emperor was traveling. Though he had not emerged for many years, legends about him never ceased, shaking the ten directions.
"The Heavenly Emperor is immortal, living long through countless kalpas!"
"The Heavenly Emperor is a hundred thousand years old!"
...
In various places, people shouted, sincere at heart. Ye Fan had pacified several forbidden zones, shaking the universe, resolving the source of the Dark Calamity, earning the admiration of many powerful races.
"Our generation has grown old," the Black Emperor said, uncharacteristically serious for once, letting out a long sigh as he gazed into the deep starry sky.
"The wild years are gone forever, never to return," the Dragon Horse also said.
"Sooner or later, I will break through the method of immortality. I hope that when that time comes, old friends will still be by my side," Ye Fan said.
The vast heavens, the boundless sky, continuously receded beneath the golden path of light.
"Oh?" Suddenly, Ye Fan revealed a strange expression, stopping his form and looking toward a distant star system.
Only his divine sense in the world could be this terrifying—one thought could shatter the nine heavens. He sensed an anomaly in the deepest part of the starry sky and opened his Source Heaven Immortal Eye to observe.
The golden path of light spread, carrying Ye Fan, the Black Emperor, and the Dragon Horse across the star river to a desolate place.
There, a vast expanse of mist lay, boundless and endless, gray and heavy like leaden clouds, pressing down until the cosmic void cracked, obscuring the sun, moon, and stars.
"What is this thing?" The Dragon Horse sucked in cold air. The gray mist enveloped large swaths of stars, directly devouring them, absorbing their essence and leaving only dust.
Ye Fan pondered, then recalled a terrifying event he had witnessed in the past.
Back then, when the Eternal Star Domain attacked the Big Dipper, they encountered a wisp of such mist along the way. It destroyed large numbers of warships, terrifying even saints, who dared not approach. They called it Demon Fog.
According to ancient texts from the Eternal Star Domain, it was extremely terrifying, but what it truly was remained unclear, with no one able to explain it fully.
It was a legendary forbidden substance, destruction-level. For a long time, it had been difficult to determine whether it possessed autonomous will or was a life form.
"This thing is related to the Immortal Emperor," the Black Emperor said with a grave expression. Over the years, it had researched many rare texts about Emperor Wu Shi and the Immortal Emperor.
"Today, let me see what the Demon Fog really is," Ye Fan said, leading them forward. As the Heavenly Emperor, nothing in the world could stop him, not even something left behind by the Immortal Emperor.
"Such thick killing aura. I know now—it matches the records in that ancient text Duan De gave me, dug from a burial cave. This is corpse qi mutated from the decay of an emperor's corpse," the Black Emperor said.
Under normal circumstances, even if a Great Emperor died, their body would remain indestructible through countless kalpas. If not preserved, they would undergo dao dissolution. Decaying imperial-level corpses were almost unheard of.
But extremes meet, and anomalies always occur.
Ye Fan broke through the mist and walked inside, then changed expression. This gray mist was strange and terrifying. Powerful as he was, he could withstand it, but anyone else absolutely could not stay long. The closer to the core, the more astonishing it became—it could definitely cause even a Quasi-Emperor at the ninth level to dissolve into pus and blood.
"The mist is terrifying!" the Dragon Horse exclaimed.
When they neared the core region, Ye Fan emitted radiance. The gray mist in this area was especially astonishing, like an imperial beast, capable of devouring a Supreme Being's essence blood, attempting to plunder his vitality.
"Not simple. This kind of thing would be very useful against an aged Supreme Being, making their blood energy even drier," Ye Fan said.
"So it's this kind of thing," the Black Emperor said, surprised, taking out a green jade turtle.
This was something Ye Fan had brought out from before the altar in that broken ancient hall in the Primordial Forbidden Zone, given to the Black Emperor. Over the years, it had already researched what it was.
Someone had used great power to seal a quasi-imperial corpse inside, nurturing corpse qi. It was a powerful artifact, but the people of that era couldn't use it. Inside the green jade turtle, various array patterns were laid down. The body rotted, nurtured for ten thousand ages, transforming into the most powerful rotting qi, now finally usable.
Ye Fan's heart stirred. He took the green jade turtle and used great power to inscribe runes on it. He possessed the ability to turn decay into magic—even a blade of grass, refined by him like this, could become a heavenly treasure.
Then, using the green jade turtle's mouth as a guide, he absorbed all the gray mist. At first, it was like a river roaring, then like an ocean surging. The heavens and earth rapidly cleared, and starlight shone in.
"Someone's in the distance!" the Dragon Horse said.
Ye Fan nodded. He had already noticed, and he also saw another strange object.
Finally, all the gray mist was collected. Ye Fan handed the green jade turtle to the Black Emperor, telling it the method to activate the runes. It had become a forbidden artifact.
A stone island floated, with a deep pool on top.
Soul Spirit Pool!
Ye Fan had seen this before after crossing the Sea of Bitterness of the Numinous Treasure Heavenly Venerable, on the other shore divine land formed from his Dao Palace.
In the world, there were three rare flowers: Demon God Flower, Divine Spirit Flower, and Dao Harmony Flower.
There were also three strange substances related to immortality: Reincarnation Sea, Soul Spirit Pool, and Soaring Immortal Waterfall.
The Divine Other Shore had long been shattered in a battle from years past. After many years, Ye Fan never expected to see the Soul Spirit Pool again, appearing here, surrounded by Demon Fog.
"I understand now. The Soul Spirit Pool was left by the Immortal Emperor. It's too terrifying. His soul underwent a rebirth-like transformation," the Black Emperor said, horrified.
Combining rare ancient texts, it reconstructed the incomplete secret history, concluding that the Immortal Emperor's primordial spirit had undergone rebirth. The essence within his physical body—or rather, his discarded shell—was absorbed, then abandoned, rotting into qi.
Above the stone island, an ancient hall floated, rising and sinking. The life aura sensed earlier originated from there.
That ancient structure was very mysterious, suspended in the universe, isolating all aura. Even the Black Emperor and the Dragon Horse could not probe it.
"Someone's inside. Don't tell me that old ghost, the Immortal Emperor, has returned again. Wasn't he undergoing rebirth and transformation?" (To be continued)