Chapter 110 Priceless Ancient Characters
Altogether, Ye Fan consumed four of the golden sacred fruits before recovering to his peak state. His body was faultless, like a sparkling divinity. Just by raising his hand, divine energy surged and he felt that his body had been strengthened by quite a bit.
The power of the Desolation within the endless abyss is extremely frightening. The Sacred Lands and the Ancient Desolation Noble Families did not have any means to block it. Only the sacred fruit could do so. No wonder these divine medicines have shaken the Eastern Wastelands since ancient times.
When they had entered the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land, just breaking a single skeleton caused a dozen powerful knights to die from aging. The power of Desolation was truly great here. And Ye Fan was actually attacked by a Desolate Slave, so the Desolation air around him was even greater. If he had not possessed the Ancient Desolation Sacred Body, or had not consumed the sacred medicine, he would have died without a doubt.
“The antidotes to poisonous existences truly do reside within their lair…”
This area forbidden to life might possess a great mystery and evil, but within this extremely perilous land were also sacred medicines that people lusted for.
“I’ve already completely recovered my youth, so I should now raise my strength.” Ye Fan was very excited. He currently needed powerful sacred medicines in order to make another breakthrough.
However, when he saw his reflection in the spring, he was stunned to notice that he had turned younger than he had been before entering the forbidden land. He was now around thirteen years old, and his young face possessed a trace of immaturity and naivety once again.
Ye Fan helplessly groaned. “If I were to consume another golden sacred fruit, then wouldn’t I become a tiny baby?”
Thinking of such consequences, he felt some goosebumps. If he ended up a helpless baby on top of the endless abyss, then such a joke would truly be funny.
“Damn!” Ye Fan carefully thought it over for a long time, and couldn’t think of any way to avoid this. He immediately felt a headache coming on.
The spring had eleven small trees around it, and now there were seven golden sacred fruits left.
“That’s it!” Suddenly, he thought of the recordings within the Dao Scripture. It was just a couple lines and very simple, but it brought up an ancient method to use one’s Vessel to suppress one’s body in order to arrive at "Eternity."
“I can use my cauldron in order to suppress myself, and then consume the sacred medicine. Then it won’t be a problem.” However, he didn’t dare to take any risks here. If some trouble were to occur, he would definitely die miserably.
Ye Fan took out a jade case from his robes and placed the seven golden sacred fruits within it. He felt as if he were holding seven divine treasures as he carefully collected them. These were divine medicines that were needed for him to cultivate the Ancient Desolation Sacred Body. He absolutely could not lose them!
“I’ve finally obtained them.” He sighed in relief. After a narrow escape from death, he finally ended up succeeding. Thinking about how the Jiang Family, Ji Family, and the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s troops had all been exterminated, and even the cultivators that had surpassed the Paramita stage had failed, he felt that plucking these divine medicines was truly too difficult, and he immediately felt a sense of accomplishment.
Ye Fan stood up, looking out into the distance towards the other sacred mountains, muttering to himself, “There are still seven other types of divine medicine…”
He wanted to go pluck them all. If he could, he would definitely have no problem at all cultivating his Ancient Desolation Sacred Body. He might very possibly reach the very peak. But right now it would be impossible to achieve his wish. Each sacred mountain had a Desolate Slave guarding it. Each possessed a flesh and blood body, and each was at least as frightening as the Celestial Jade Sacred Lady.
Ye Fan naturally didn’t believe that the green copper could protect him. Such a lucky thing definitely couldn’t occur twice. If those Desolate Slaves were to just directly attack him, he would have no chance.
“I wonder just what the other kinds of sacred medicines are like,” Ye Fan muttered.
No one knew why each sacred mountain had their own kind of sacred fruit. Were they planted by humans? Those small trees had clearly existed for countless years. Back in that ancient past, just what kind of place was the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land, and what had happened here?
Ye Fan’s hypothesis was that this place had most likely been a holy land. Otherwise, how could these divine springs and sacred fruits be here? It was most likely that some sort of terrifying change had occurred for this to become an area now forbidden to life.
He then thought of the old madman’s words. “The old madman said ‘it comes again.’ What is ‘it’?” he wondered aloud.
Looking out towards a specific sacred mountain, he saw that even more white skeletons had appeared there. This sacred mountain had even more skeletons than the others, with more and more of them climbing out of the abyss, forming a small mountain of bones.
“The huge bronze coffin has been enveloped by the bones of the dead. How did the ancient coffin even appear again on the sacred mountain’s top? Was it the Desolate Slaves? They were afraid of it and didn’t want it to stay in the abyss?” Ye Fan was very suspicious.
This was not a good place for him to stay, so he didn’t want to waste any more time. He picked up the jade bottle that was shorter than his hand, its body pure white. This was the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s precious item that Xu Daoling had handed it to him. It possessed a space within it that could hold even a large mountain.
The current pure jade bottle had dimmed by quite a bit. Its divine light had become much more reserved, and the Dao Glyphs upon were fuzzy, about to disappear.
“Could the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land’s evil air be damaging it?” He carried the pure jade bottle to the spring, and it began sucking in the water.
The pure jade bottle didn’t immediately become full. Ye Fan estimated that he had gained at least five kilograms of water. He was very pleased, as the spring water might not be as precious as the sacred fruits, but to be called a divine spring of water, it must have some miraculous effects.
“Damn, didn’t he say that it could store a mountain? Why is it already full?” He had only taken in about six kilograms of the waters before the pure jade bottle was full.
Since the pure jade bottle was unable to continue absorbing any more spring water, Ye Fan stopped and stood up. He walked over to one of the eleven small trees and took off one of its needle-like leaves. Placing it in his mouth and chewing it, he felt a powerful spiritual energy.
“A greedy person would probably uproot and take all of these sacred mountains.” Ye Fan didn’t wish to destroy any natural treasures. Such a divine tree could only survive around the divine spring. Taking it would essentially cause them to become extinct. It was also possible that he might be able to once again come here to pluck the sacred fruits in the future.
He only snapped off a couple thin branches and placed them into the pure jade bottle before leaving.
Walking down the mountain, Ye Fan saw the purple copper mirror that had been Jiang Hanchong’s weapon. It was now dark as it lay in the rubble.
“A Vessel refined by a cultivator that has surpassed the Paramita realm is definitely important.” He had personally seen the purple copper mirror’s formidable might. It had eclipsed the sun, overpowering the colors of heaven and earth while emitting a resplendent light with a vast divine energy.
After collecting the purple copper eight trigram mirror, he said, “It’s the same as the pure jade bottle in that its divine light has become withdrawn and its Dao Glyphs have become vague. I don’t know whether it will be able to return to its original state after leaving the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land…”
Ye Fan then found the Sky Gathering Parasol from the Ji Family’s Elder Ji Yunfeng. It had been pierced through by the Celestial Jade sacred lady’s finger and was now damaged, but Ye Fan still collected it.
He was unable to find anything else so he quickly rushed down the mountain. He didn’t waste any more time, not wishing for his just recovered vitality to once more fade away and turn him into an old man.
“I can’t go back following our original path…”
The Jiang Family, the Ji Family, and the Flickering Light Sacred Land had each left behind a divine carriage outside the forbidden land. The people within those divine carriages had to be even more important than the likes of Jiang Hanchong and the other Elders. It was obvious how powerful they would be.
Ye Fan selected a different direction and didn’t tarry, quickly charging forward, his speed reaching his peak.
“If those great figures don’t hesitate to spend their Yuan Qi, they can open up their immortal eye and see hundreds of kilometers away. That was how they noticed the ancient bronze coffin. I have to leave here as quickly as possible in case that they use their immortal eye to gaze here. If they did, there would be nowhere for me to hide within all the Eastern Wastelands.”
Not long after, Ye Fan rushed out of the area forbidden to life. He didn’t hesitate, immediately beginning to gulp down the spring water. He was afraid of what Jiang Hanchong had mentioned, the terrifying changes that could occur after leaving the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land.
He obviously had overthought it. He was already a Spring of Life realm cultivator, and he had even quickly absorbed the divine medicine and greatly changed. There was no way he would turn old.
“I don’t know how Liu Yiyi, Zhang Ziling, and the rest of them are…”
Ye Fan quickly charged into the mountains before him, leaving the area forbidden to life far behind him. He knew that great waves would spread from this event. The Jiang Family, the Ji Family, and the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s powerful experts were all exterminated inside the forbidden land. This news would definitely spread out, causing a great shock.
“I can only temporarily hide for now. Once another year passes and things calm down, I’ll come out again.” Not wanting to get into any danger, he decided to set up an immortal cave right within this primal mountain range. He would live in seclusion and raise his cultivation base, not letting anyone find out about him.
In the end, Ye Fan selected a stone mountain and opened up an immortal cave within it.
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Time flew by, and a month passed in the blink of an eye. Ye Fan had attempted to use his cauldron to suppress his body and arrive at “Eternity”. But the related text within the Dao Scripture was very little, at most only a few lines. He narrowly avoided suppressing himself to death.
“Damn!” Only after struggling for a month did he escape his failed suppression. Putting away his cauldron, his face was incomparably pale and he hurriedly took out the pure jade bottle and gulped down quite a bit of the spring water before recovering.
He once more fumbled around for two more months before finally reaching the answer. His simple and natural cauldron Vessel slowly grew within the immortal cave, becoming five meters tall. He suppressed himself within it.
Using the ancient technique from the Dao Scripture, he carved nine bizarre ancient characters inside the cauldron. This time, the nine ancient characters were finally arranged perfectly and now seemed to possess a formidable magical power that could flip heaven and earth. The cauldron’s interior immediately became full of primal chaos, as if returning to the time when heaven and earth were first split and formed.
“These nine ancient characters…” Ye Fan immediately thought of a possibility…
He had previously studied the Dao Scripture, and at the time he had found these nine ancient characters to be particularly special. They were placed as a list of symbols or marks within the Dao Scripture without actual explicit definitions of their meanings. There was no way for him to know their meanings, as all he had were these nine ancient characters that were just briefly mentioned within the ancient technique. According to the Dao Scripture, by carving these ancient characters into the interior of a Vessel, it would provide primal energy, allowing you to suppress your body and arrive at “Eternity”.
“I get it now…” Ye Fan was incomparably excited. These nine ancient characters reminded him of the ancient scripture he had obtained within the bronze coffin. They were very much alike.
“These nine ancient characters actually possess such a mighty force. And it actually is exactly like the ancient scripture’s characters. Just the ancient characters are precious treasures on their own, let alone the value of the whole ancient scripture!”
Now that the ancient characters were carved into the cauldron’s interior, it immediately became full of primal chaos, and time seemed to stand still. At this moment, it seemed that all that remained was a circulating Dao charm. He had reached Eternity.