Shrouding the Heavens

Chapter 97: Rising to the Spring of Life Realm

Once all the dust had settled and Elder Han was taken care of, Ye Fan sat down calmly on a stone chair as he began to earnestly think how to proceed from here.

The horseman of the Jiang Family was still chasing him and he did not have sufficient strength to resist in any way, under the current circumstances it would be best to hide and not appear until he raised his cultivation level.

Without question, this cave dwelling within this mountain was the best place to hide, Elder Han had mentioned that there were many Dao Inscriptions carved into the mountain rock, creating a separate space which others could not possibly sense.

“Alright, I’ll continue cultivating here.”

Ye Fan made his decision as he began to clean the stone room starting with Elder Han’s corpse which he placed inside a medicinal cauldron and firmly shut the lid.

“You’ve refined medicines all your life, this medicinal cauldron will serve as your coffin. Rest well within your own cave dwelling.”

This cave dwelling was exceptionally wide and seemed like a hidden palace, Ye Fan carefully made markings as he proceeded, shifting the medicinal cauldron into the innermost depths of the mountain before sealing it within a stone cave.

Returning back to the stone room, Ye Fan continued to tidy up, the few medicinal cabinets were all shifted back to their original positions as he placed the ten odd rare and precious spiritual medicines back into them, that was the best place to store these medicinal plants.

Besides medicinal cabinets, this vast stone room also had ten odd bronze medicinal cauldrons as well as several stone tables and chairs. Atop one stone table were two ancient texts that were actually made from beast skin, they seemed to be well weathered with age and had at least been around for several hundred years.

It was obvious that Elder Han often read them, both the stone chair and table were clear of dust and a book was open with Elder Han’s annotations within.

“Ehh!”

Ye Fan had an alarmed expression, the ancient text which was left open only had a few pages made of beast skin and there were several strange dao veins carved on it, there were almost no words and merely seemed like scribblings, without any way to decipher. If it were not for Elder Han leaving behind some annotations, Ye Fan would definitely not be able to understand the meaning of these strange dao veins.

“They are……. Dao Inscriptions!” He felt shocked, although there were merely a few pages, this was clearly a precious book that had recorded Dao Inscriptions.

It was rumoured that Dao Inscriptions were comprehensions of experts of the past with regards to nature, they would carve these understandings on items and a small portion of these items had managed to survive the passage of time.

From a certain perspective, Dao Inscriptions were carvings of the comprehensions of experts of the past, the stronger the cultivator the more interested he would be in analysing the Dao Inscriptions which had been passed down for years.

Ye Fan carefully perused and from the limited ancient words in it, he realised that this was merely an ordinary Dao Inscriptions ancient text and there were two base words written atop it.

Even so, an ordinary Dao Inscriptions ancient text was very taxing for Elder Han and he had placed many annotations, it was clear that there were several areas which he had not been able to understand.

“It seems Dao Inscriptions are really profound, only real expert cultivators will be able to analyse them, even Elder Han was only able to have a very basic level of understanding.

“Although I can’t understand this book, I will have to mull over the annotations he made in order to get out of this cave dwelling.”

Ye Fan opened the other beast skin ancient text and similarly there were only a few pages, it was merely a thin book and there were some ancient methods of pill refinement which would have great benefits for a cultivator once successful.

However, Ye Fan had a minimal understanding of spiritual medicines and even if the medicinal plants mentioned within were placed before him, he would not be able to recognise them not to mention attempting to refine them into pills.

The beast skin ancient text clearly recorded, if a person was able to find divine medicine which allowed one to shed their skin and transform their bones, they could refine an exceptionally precious pill which could not only increase a cultivator’s life span but also cause a large increase in cultivation, it would greatly benefit a cultivator at any realm.

“No wonder that old fogey wanted to catch me at all costs……”

Thereafter, Ye Fan found a mountain spring within the cave dwelling, there was also much food which Elder Han had kept and this settled his immediate concerns, allowing him to cultivate in peace.

In the following days, Ye Fan carefully studied the annotations within the Dao Inscriptions ancient text and finally gained a basic understanding which allowed him to walk out of the cave dwelling.

From then on, Ye Fan would very rarely head out and only go out to gather some berries or wild vegetables, spending most of his time cultivating and comprehending the Dao Inscriptions.

Time passed by swiftly and a year had already passed, Ye Fan had already ingested all the spiritual medicines and his golden sea of bitterness was already half the size of a fist, dazzling as essence continued to swirl about.

Within the centre of the sea of bitterness, clouds roiled like a beacon of fire as they rushed up, no longer filling the area or swirling but rather spurting out like a live volcano!

It was difficult for Ye Fan’s golden sea of bitterness to maintain its calm and there would often be spurts, as though it would connect with the wheel of life at any moment, releasing a divine spring.

Each time he entered a state of emptiness, the sea of bitterness would have the sounds of the howling sea, the indistinct sound of waves would emitted from his body and a layer of divine light would shroud his entire being.

Also, a unique scene would occasionally appear from the sea of bitterness, the centre most area would continually spurt like a volcano under the ocean and lightning would occasionally streak across the sky.

Upon circulating the mystical arts recorded within the Dao Scripture, a strong fluctuation of life energy appeared within his body, his golden sea of bitterness was as bright and dazzling as the sun. Essence seemed to flow endlessly and his four limbs and bones within his body absorbed it as nourishment, his already abnormally strong body grew even tougher and became much stronger as compared to the past.

“It is indeed difficult to break through to the realm of the Spring of Life……” Ye Fan lamented, he had already attempted to break through five times but had not succeeded.

Within this year, he had earnestly comprehended the Dao Scripture as he continually molded his ‘artifact’, that lump of divine metal within him had already been smelted multiple times as the Dao Inscriptions on the aurichalcite were continually engraved on it, already having a mysterious air around it giving it a sort of ancient and natural feel.

Much time had passed and Ye Fan believed that the horseman of the Jiang Family had already left, it was impossible for them to still be searching.

This day, he left the cave dwelling as he attempted to control the divine energy while within the mountainous region. Raging waves appeared within his sea of bitterness as a blazing divine light shot out of his body, shrouding him and actually lifting him three inches off the ground as he flew forward.

“Plonk!”

It was a pity that after flying for merely thirty odd metres, he fell straight to the ground.

“Without entering the Spring of Life realm, it will definitely be difficult to maintain flight for long periods of time. The divine spring of energy must continually gurgle forth to allow one to fly freely.

Although he could not fly up into the sky, flying for such a short distance was a very fresh feeling for Ye Fan as he continued to practice, making him realise that he could at most fly for over one hundred metres. Compared to his running, the speed was much faster and his feet did not need to touch the ground as he drifted like the wind.

Without reaching the Spring of Life realm, Ye Fan did not wish to leave this cave dwelling. He felt that his strength was too low and travelling would be too dangerous. Also, the Demonfire within the mountain could help him to cultivate, the spiritual aspect contained within was unique and although it was not very thick, its strong point was that it seemed endless.

“I should head over to the Purple Sun immortal sanctuary and get that piece of ‘source’ back……” Although he felt that travelling too far was not wise, he still decided to leave this area. His physique was too unique, like a bottomless pit which required endless amounts of spiritual energy in order to cultivate faster.

Ye Fan carefully proceeded along the way, the horseman of the Jiang Family had indeed left long ago and would not pose a threat to him, the Yan State was currently very peaceful.

Reaching the mountainous region where the Purple Sun immortal sanctuary was located, Ye Fan became more cautious in avoiding people from the sect. Not long after, he came before a river and fiercely jumped in. Half a minute later, water splashed as Ye Fan emerged from the river, a sparkling ‘source’ within his hands.

“It’s lucky that it’s still here……”

Initially when he had arrived here, his heart was beating fast in fear that someone had already taken the ‘source’.

In reality, this area was very desolate and unless top-notch experts of the Purple Sun passed by this area, the others would not be able to feel the aura of the ‘source’.

Ye Fan did not wish to tarry here and followed his initial path back.

“It’s her……” Ye Fan suddenly stopped as he looked at a few young figures, amongst them was Li Xiao Man.

Ye Fan did not stop but rather swiftly ran off into the distance, disappearing among the cluster of mountains.

Half a month later, rumbling sounds could be heard from the cave dwelling which Elder Han had created. Thereafter the sounds of an immense howling sea could be heard roaring to the heavens together with deafening claps of thunder.

“Boom!”

At this moment, a strong aura exploded out and the entire cave dwelling began to tremble, all the essence within Ye Fan began to surge as a golden divine fire burned outside his body.

Divine light seemed to shine within his eyes, like two bolts of lightning that were shooting out, causing the entire cave dwelling to be brightly lit.

Ye Fan straightened his body as he stood up, at this moment he seemed to carry a dignified and imposing presence, the aura which he released made the entire cave dwelling tremble violently causing large fissures to appear.

“I’ve finally managed to enter the Spring of Life realm!”

He became a streak of golden lightning as he rushed out of the cave dwelling, a blazing mystical rainbow shrouded him as he slowly flew into the air.

At this moment, within the centre of Ye Fan’s sea of bitterness, there appeared the mouth of a spring, he had connected with the wheel of life and the divine spring was gurgling forth, a bright coloured mist could be seen swirling above it.

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