Chapter 2822: New Generation Young Emperor

"Di Zun? Is that Di Zun?"

"He's wearing a mask, so his true face is hidden."

"If the Shen Jiang says so, it must be him."

Upon hearing the Shen Jiang's shout, the cultivators of Zhutian were all astonished. Many stood on their toes, straining for a better look, their eyes gleaming brightly. They could recite the legends and myths of that emperor from memory.

Xianwu Di Zun, the last emperor of Zhutian.

His life was shrouded in mystery and legend. Ten thousand years ago, he led a million Shen Jiang into the Taigu Honghuang, and they had never been seen returning since.

Counting them up, so many prodigies had undergone their tribulations, drawing forth so many emperor-level laws. In Xuanhuang, there were one hundred and thirty emperors, and apart from Xianwu Di Zun, all the others had been encountered. This was the first time anyone had seen Di Zun's law body.

As the legends said, Di Zun always wore a mask, and no one could see his true appearance. Not everyone knew the connection between Di Zun and Ye Chen either.

"It's him, that jerk."

The Fifth Shen Jiang was quite excited, his eyes welling up with hot tears, yet his words flowed smoothly as he cursed. As a Shen Jiang, he had been tricked by Di Zun countless times. Before that guy became an emperor, he had peeked at fairies bathing more than once, and each time, he had dragged the Fifth Shen Jiang to take the blame.

"This Shen Jiang is quite mischievous!"

"Let me calculate — he's cursing Di Zun."

"Truth be told, I quite admire him."

The Fifth Shen Jiang's single word "jerk" instantly set things ablaze. For an emperor's Shen Jiang to curse like that, there must have been so many untold stories from back then!

"It's him, it's him."

Not all the Shen Jiang were like the Fifth Shen Jiang. Tianqing and the others were still quite normal, their aged bodies trembling with tears. Di Xuan was especially choked up and unable to speak.

Buzz! Buzz!

The Xianwu Emperor Sword hummed and trembled in the starry sky. Its master, or at least the one it recognized, was just a law body, but it was still Xianwu Di Zun! If not for Di Xuan forcibly suppressing it, it probably would have rushed over already.

"Any special feeling?"

The Ren Wang looked at Ye Chen, not glancing aside.

Ye Chen didn't reply. He simply stood quietly, gazing into the distant sky. It was the first time the world had seen Di Zun, and it was the same for him. From Di Zun's law body, he seemed to glimpse the starting point of his own reincarnation, perhaps even the end. The years were too distant.

As for any special feeling, there certainly was one. His soul would jump at times, feeling both intimate and strange toward the law body. He could see it clearly, yet it felt impossibly far away.

"The son is about to fight the father."

The Sheng Zun said this meaningfully, hands tucked away.

"Ye Chen is Ye Chen, Di Zun is Di Zun."

"More or less the same."

"Not at all. The one in bed is Ye Chen, not Di Zun. This is a serious issue— we can't mix them up."

A few old fellows kept chattering endlessly and delved deeply into a certain matter, making sure to clarify the bedroom affairs.

Pfft!

Amid the discussions, the law body of Xianwu Di Zun suddenly turned into a wisp of flying ash. It had only appeared for two brief instants before vanishing without a trace.

"This..."

Not just the younger generation of Zhutian, even the elders were stunned. It was their first time seeing Di Zun's law body, and also their first time witnessing such a situation. It had manifested, so why had it disappeared?

Ugh!

In that instant, Ye Chen couldn't help but let out a muffled groan. No one else present knew what had happened, and even he, as the ninth reincarnation of Di Zun, didn't fully understand. All he knew was that in the previous moment, he had seemingly been struck by some invisible heavy blow, appearing only fleetingly.

"What's wrong?"

Nanming Yushu turned her head and asked tentatively.

"It's nothing."

Ye Chen shook his head, staring at the spot where Di Zun had vanished, his eyes flickering with uncertainty. The invisible heavy blow from before must have been related to Di Zun's law body.

"Where's he gone?"

"What's going on? He came and then left just like that?"

"We didn't even get a clear look."

The starry sky was filled with noisy chatter as people looked at one another, but no one could explain this strange occurrence. Everything had been fine, so why had it suddenly vanished?

"Even without that one, there are still seventeen emperors."

Donghuang Tai Xin murmured softly, taking a deep breath. Compared to the matter of Di Zun, the current heavenly tribulation was the most pressing issue. Seventeen emperors made for a formidable lineup.

"It's still far short of Ye Chen and Yaochi."

The Fate God King said leisurely.

No one would argue with that. After all, when Ye Chen and Ji Ningshuang underwent their great saint tribulations, there had been thirty-two great emperors, even more than Ye Fan's.

Crack! Crack!

Amid the noise, the sound of bones cracking rang out clearly.

It was Ye Chen— at some point, Ji Ningshuang had gripped his hand tightly, her domineering saint bones crunching under the pressure.

Awkwardly, Ji Ningshuang seemed completely unaware. Her clear, beautiful eyes were fixed only on her child. Having fought against emperor-level law bodies before, she knew how terrifying such tribulations were. Even a moment of mercy could lead to destruction and divine burial. In other words, Ye Fan could die at any moment.

Ye Chen grimaced, unsure if it was from the earlier invisible blow or from Ji Ningshuang crushing his hand bones. Either way, his face didn't look great.

Boom! Boom!

The starry sky shook, and the universe trembled.

The seventeen emperors stood like seventeen monoliths. Each had once ruled over all beings and dominated the cosmos. The legends of emperors were all myths, and today, these seventeen were joining forces to eradicate that heaven-defying individual.

Ye Fan's expression was stern, his combat power at its peak.

For seventeen emperors to target him, the merciless heavens truly thought highly of him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

In the starry sky, the banging sounds were slow and rhythmic— the footsteps of the seventeen emperors. Perhaps their emperor bodies were too heavy, as each step made the starry sky rumble, their ultimate emperor auras interconnecting.

Boom!

Accompanied by a loud rumble, the eight Honghuang emperors attacked together, and the other nine followed suit, launching their emperor-level assaults at the same time. Every strike was devastating enough to destroy heaven and earth, instantly draining the color from the starry sky.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The scene that followed was hard to watch. In just one exchange, Ye Fan was nearly shattered. Pieces of his dao bones, stained with strands of dao blood, scattered across the starry sky. Prodigious as he was, he couldn't withstand the assault of seventeen emperors. A seventeen-against-one formation would be tough even for Ye Chen to face head-on.

Crack! Crack!

Ye Chen's hand bones cracked again.

To put it this way, every time Ye Fan spilled blood, Ji Ningshuang crushed Ye Chen's hand bones once more. The saint body's recovery was powerful, but Yaochi's grip was equally formidable. Her watery eyes were full of worry, so consumed by concern that she forgot everything else, including Ye Chen.

Ye Chen didn't grimace anymore, or perhaps he had forgotten the pain. In the eyes of his father and mother, nothing in the world mattered anymore— only their child, enduring this life-and-death tribulation.

"Hold on, hold on."

That Kui Niu fellow was quite the character, stamping his foot with every shout. Looking under his feet, there was someone lying there— well, more accurately, a golden-furred monkey. For some reason, it had been knocked down by Kui Niu and was now half-disabled from the repeated kicks.

That's right, it was the Little Ape Emperor, already unconscious. There was strong suspicion that Kui Niu was doing it on purpose, claiming to cheer for Ye Fan while actually using the opportunity to beat him up.

Ye Fan was fighting fiercely, but he was even worse off.

"I can't bear to watch."

Tianlao and Dilao clicked their tongues, their hearts pounding. They said they didn't dare look, but their eyes were wide open and bright. They were joking around, but they were still worried.

Seeing seventeen emperors gang up on one was painful to watch.

Compared to them, Jian Shen, Huang Zhe, and the others were quite composed. When Ye Chen and Ji Ningshuang had undergone their great saint tribulations, they had faced thirty-two emperors. If he could overcome it, then Ye Fan could too. Like father, like son— that young fellow wouldn't disgrace his parents' legacy.

As they watched and thought, Ye Fan proved incredibly resilient, fueled by unyielding and indomitable beliefs. Though he fought emperor-level law bodies, he was resisting the will of heaven itself. As the child of Ye Chen and Ji Ningshuang, both of whom had forged myths and defied the heavens, how could he submit? How could he be defeated?

As long as his dao heart remained unbroken, his body would not perish.

Ye Chen had that belief, and so did he.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

The shattered starry sky was stained red with fresh blood.

Ye Fan was covered in blood, his body riddled with wounds, each one laced with emperor-level killing intent that eroded his vital energy. The injuries not only failed to heal but even spread outward. He fought on the brink of death, his skull half-blown apart, a bloody hole in his chest gushing blood, and even his spine severed. His body reformed time and again, only to be shattered repeatedly, as he dragged his mangled form, struggling to hold on.

In the eyes of the world, the emperor-level law bodies had faded away, leaving only that blood-soaked figure. Watching Ye Fan was like watching the Ye Chen of years past. As father and son, they were so alike— refusing to yield even in death, unwilling to fall, both inheriting that fierce, unbowed bloodline.

Ye Chen's gaze turned cold, glaring at the heavens.

Ji Ningshuang's killing intent was no weaker than his.

Both bearing heavenly punishments, they knew Ye Fan's tribulation shouldn't have been this intense— it was the will of heaven meddling, forcibly trying to erase him.

Roar! Roar!

Amid the booms, powerful dragon roars echoed. Ye Fan transformed into a dragon, coiling through the nine heavens. The seventeen emperors did the same, all turning into dragon forms. The eighteen divine dragons battled from the eastern skies to the southern void, then from the southern void to the western heavens, and from the western starry skies to the northern vastness. Thunder rumbled along the way, chaos reigned, space collapsed inch by inch, and countless destructive visions appeared, each radiating apocalyptic glory.

The hearts of the people stirred uneasily. They had known it would be chaotic, but the current shockwaves were so intense that not even the elders dared approach recklessly. Any residual wave carried utter destruction, lightly injuring and heavily killing.

No one knew when the rumbling finally ceased.

The seventeen emperor-level divine dragons all reverted to human form, standing in the four directions, no longer attacking. Some unseen time limit in the void had been reached— the heavenly tribulation was ending.

As for Ye Fan, his physical body was gone, leaving only a shattered primordial spirit drifting with the stellar winds, its divine fire dimming to the point of nearly extinguishing.

"The younger generation is formidable."

Though the seventeen emperors said nothing, their satisfied smiles perfectly conveyed those words— a recognition of the heavenly talents that followed. It was the ultimate honor.

One by one, they dissipated, leaving behind not just their legacies but also immortal myths, to be eternally recorded in history.

Ye Fan managed a weary smile and fell from the void.

Ye Chen was the fastest, instantly descending, taking Ye Fan into a magical artifact, then turning and vanishing.

"It's over."

"A family with three young emperor-level figures."

"What a temperament!"

It took a long while for the people to snap out of it.

Then came sighs of admiration.

The people of the Sheng Ti lineage were all absolute prodigies. Sheng Ti Ye Chen and Dong Shen Yaochi had dominated an era, and their child was destined to lead the next. Tian Qian Zhi Ti Ye Fan might not be as terrifying as his parents, but he was still a heaven-defying existence.