Ch. 110 - Nine Ancient Words

Ye Fan had already consumed four golden fruits. He felt he had returned to the peak of his vitality, flawless and pure, his body like a translucent godly artifact. With every gesture, godpower surged, and he felt significantly stronger.

“Beneath this endless abyss, the power of the ‘Desolation’ is truly terrifying. Even the Sacred Grounds and Desolate Clans are helpless against it. In this world, only the sacred fruits can dispel it. No wonder they’ve been renowned throughout the Eastern Wilderness since ancient times, they truly are divine medicines.”

When he entered the Forbidden Desolate Realm, a single collapsing skeleton had caused the deaths of over a dozen powerful knights, illustrating the fearsome power of Desolation. Ye Fan, attacked by an even more terrifying Desolate Slave, had been tainted by an even stronger aura of Desolation. If not for his Primeval Desolate Sacred Physique and the divine medicine, he would have undoubtedly perished.

“Near the lair of venomous insects, antidotal herbs often grow, this saying holds some truth.”

This Forbidden Burial Ground was profoundly mysterious and demonic, yet within such a deadly place grew nine mountains of sacred medicines, a fact that left one in awe.

“I’ve fully restored my youth. Now it’s time to enhance my strength.” Ye Fan’s heart surged with excitement. He needed the potent sacred medicine to achieve another breakthrough.

However, when he caught sight of his reflection in the spring pool, he froze. He seemed to have grown slightly younger, now resembling a boy of about thirteen, his clear face carrying a trace of youthful innocence.

Ye Fan let out a helpless groan. “Curse your ancestors! If I eat another golden fruit, won’t I turn into a soft, chubby baby?”

The thought of such a horrifying outcome sent chills down his spine. Turning into an infant atop this endless abyss would be a disaster of epic proportions.

“Damn it!”

Ye Fan pondered for a long time but couldn’t devise a solution, leaving him with a throbbing headache.

By the spring pool stood eleven small trees, with seven golden fruits remaining, crystalline, radiant, and exuding a fragrant aroma that was utterly intoxicating.

“Got it!” Suddenly, he recalled a passage from the Dao Scripture. In a few brief lines, it mentioned something about an ancient method of using a vessel to suppress oneself to achieve immortality.

“I’ll use my cauldron to suppress myself, then consume the divine fruit. That should solve it.” However, he didn’t dare experiment here. If something went wrong, he’d die without a burial place.

Ye Fan took out several jade boxes from his robes and carefully plucked the golden fruits, placing them inside. It felt like handling seven divine treasures, and he stored them with utmost care. These were the divine medicines for cultivating his Primeval Desolate Sacred Physique, absolutely irreplaceable!

“Finally got them.” He let out a long breath. After narrowly escaping death, he had succeeded. Recalling how the forces of the Jiang Clan, Ji Clan, and Radiant Light Sacred Ground had been completely wiped out, with even cultivators who had gone beyond the Other Shore realm perishing, he realized how arduous it had been to harvest the sacred medicine. A sense of accomplishment welled up within him.

Ye Fan stood and gazed at the other seven sacred mountains, murmuring, “There are seven more divine medicines…”

He desperately wanted to collect them all. With them, cultivating his Primeval Desolate Sacred Physique would face no obstacles, and he might even reach the ultimate peak. But now, it seemed an impossible dream. Each sacred mountain was guarded by a Desolate Slave, beings of flesh and blood, each comparable to or even more terrifying than the Heavenly Jade Saintess.

Ye Fan didn’t believe the green copper fragment would actively protect him. Lightning wouldn’t strike twice. If those Desolate Slaves attacked him directly, there would be no suspense, he’d be doomed.

“I really want to know what the other sacred medicines look like,” Ye Fan muttered.

Each sacred mountain bore a unique divine medicine, which puzzled him. Were they deliberately planted? It was clear these small trees had existed for countless ages. What kind of place was this in the distant past, and what had happened here?

Ye Fan suspected that in the Desolate Era, this place was likely a paradise. Otherwise, how could there be divine springs and sacred trees? Some catastrophic event must have occurred later, turning it into a Forbidden Burial Ground.

Then, he recalled the words of the mad old man: “That old madman said, ‘It’s coming again.’ What did he mean?”

Ye Fan gazed at a distant sacred mountain, where the most skeletons were gathered, far more than on the other peaks. Countless bones climbed up from the abyss, piling into a small mountain of bones.

“The bronze giant coffin is buried under the skeletons. What’s going on? How did the ancient coffin return to the sacred mountain? Was it the work of the Desolate Slaves? Are they afraid and don’t want it to remain in the abyss?” Ye Fan’s mind was filled with questions.

This place wasn’t safe to linger in. He didn’t want to delay and walked over to pick up a jade purification bottle, no taller than his palm, pure white and carved like fine mutton-fat jade. This was a treasure of the Radiant Light Sacred Ground, given to him by Xu Daoling, with an internal space capable of holding an entire mountain, meant for collecting the divine springwater.

The jade bottle had dimmed considerably, its divine glow subdued, and the patterns on it were blurry, nearly faded.

“Could this treasure have been ruined by the demonic forces of the Forbidden Ancient Realm?” Holding the jade bottle, Ye Fan approached the spring pool and began collecting the divine spring.

Gurgle, gurgle.

The milky-white jade bottle didn’t fill quickly. Ye Fan estimated he had collected seven or eight jin of water, which delighted him. Though not as precious as the sacred medicine, this was still called a divine spring.

“Damn it, didn’t they say it could hold a mountain? Why is it full already?” He reckoned he had only collected about a dozen jin before the bottle was full.

Unable to collect more, Ye Fan stood and approached the eleven small trees. He plucked a few needle-like leaves, chewed them, and felt a surge of potent spiritual energy.

“A greedy person might uproot these sacred trees entirely.” Ye Fan had no intention of destroying such divine treasures. These sacred trees could only survive by the divine spring, and he didn’t want to eradicate them. Who knew, he might return someday to harvest more divine medicine.

He only broke off a few slender branches and inserted them into the jade bottle. Then, he strode down the mountain.

Not far down the peak, Ye Fan spotted a purple copper mirror, the weapon of the Jiang Clan elder, Jiang Hanzhong. Now dull and lusterless, it lay among the scattered stones.

“A weapon forged by a cultivator who crossed the Other Shore realm must be extraordinary.” Not long ago, he had witnessed the purple copper mirror’s terrifying power, dimming the sun and moon, shaking the heavens with its radiant beams, unleashing an ocean-like divine force.

Ye Fan picked up the purple copper Eight Trigrams mirror, noting, “Like the jade bottle, its divine glow is subdued, and its runes have faded. I wonder if it’ll recover once I leave the Forbidden Ancient Realm.”

Nearby was a Heaven-Net Umbrella, the weapon of the Ji Clan elder, Ji Yunfeng, pierced and damaged by the Heavenly Jade Saintess. Still, Ye Fan collected it.

After searching the area and finding nothing else, Ye Fan rushed down the mountain, unwilling to linger a moment longer. He didn’t want his newly restored youth to age again.

“I can’t return the way I came.”

The Jiang Clan, Ji Clan, and Radiant Sacred Land each had divine chariots stationed outside the Forbidden Land, manned by figures so powerful that even Jiang Hanzhong and others had to bow respectfully.

Ye Fan chose a direction and, without hesitation, sped outward at full speed.

“Those great figures, if they expend their vital energy, can open their immortal eyes and see hundreds of miles. They discovered the bronze ancient coffin that way. I need to leave quickly, lest they get a whim to scan the area. If they do, there’ll be no place for me in the Eastern Wilderness.”

Soon, Ye Fan rushed out of the Forbidden Ancient Realm. Without hesitation, he began gulping down the divine springwater, fearing, as Jiang Hanzhong had warned, that leaving the Forbidden Ancient Realm might trigger some terrifying change.

His worries were unfounded. As a cultivator at the Life Spring realm, he had nearly fully assimilated the divine medicine on the sacred mountain, completing his transformation. No further changes would occur now.

“I wonder how Liu Yiyi and Zhang Ziling are doing…”

Ye Fan sped toward the deep mountains ahead, far from the Forbidden Zone. He knew the news of the Jiang Clan, Ji Clan, and Radiant Light Sacred Ground’s complete annihilation in the Forbidden Ancient Realm would soon spread, causing a massive uproar.

“I’ll have to lie low for now. I’ll reemerge in a year or two when things calm down.” Unwilling to take risks, he decided to carve out a cave dwelling in these pristine mountains, live in seclusion, and focus on improving his cultivation, keeping his whereabouts secret.

Ultimately, Ye Fan chose a stone mountain and carved out a cave dwelling inside.

Time flew by, and a month passed. Ye Fan attempted to use his cauldron to suppress his power to achieve immortality, but the Dao Scripture’s records on this were sparse, just a few brief lines. He nearly suppressed himself to death.

“Curse your ancestors!” After struggling for a full month, he finally broke free and retrieved his cauldron. Pale as a ghost, he hurriedly took out the jade bottle and gulped down several mouthfuls of divine spring water to recover.

For the next two months, he groped his way forward and finally found the knack. The cauldron, ancient and natural, slowly expanded to five meters tall in the cave dwelling, then enveloped him, suppressing him within.

Following the ancient method recorded in the Dao Scripture, Ye Fan inscribed nine mysterious ancient words inside the cauldron. This time, the nine words aligned perfectly, exuding a terrifying magical force capable of altering the heavens and earth. The cauldron’s interior became chaotic and misty, as if he had returned to the dawn of creation.

“These nine ancient words…” In that moment, a spark of realization flashed through Ye Fan’s mind, and he thought of a possibility.

Long ago, when studying the Dao Scripture, he had found these nine words peculiar.

In the Dao Scripture, they were listed as symbols without specific explanations, so he naturally couldn’t read them. There were only a few sentences briefly mentioning an ancient method. According to the Dao Scripture, inscribing these nine words inside a cauldron could provide a source of power, suppress oneself, and achieve “immortality.”

“I understand!” Ye Fan’s heart surged with excitement. These nine words reminded him of the ancient scripture he had obtained from the bronze giant coffin. The nine words were strikingly similar to the hundreds of words in that scripture, as if written in the same script!

“These nine words hold such immense power, and that mysterious ancient scripture is entirely written in this script. Even disregarding the scripture’s true value, extracting those hundreds of words alone would make them priceless treasures!”

At this moment, with the nine words inscribed in the cauldron, the primordial mist swirled, and time seemed to stand still. Only the charm of the Grand Dao flowed, as if eternity had been reached.

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