Chapter 33 White Haired Youths
Ye Fan was silent for a long time as he looked at the now old group of over ten white-haired seniors. They were definitely his classmates, yet they had now changed into such shocking images.
Pang Bo was also dumbstruck. His heart beat with some lingering fear. If it had been him who turned into such a manner, he might even start to have suicidal thoughts.
The two of them quickly walked over and checked everyone’s condition. The good news was that all of them were still breathing and hadn’t lost their lives.
“Huh?”
Pang Bo noticed Liu Yiyi lying in the grass. She hadn’t turned old at all. She was still her delicate and pretty self. With her eyes closed, she seemed lovely and pitiful.
This unexpected discovery delighted Ye Fan and Pang Bo. They had been good friends with Liu Yiyi during their time in university, and now they were still full of sympathy for her. They naturally didn’t want more bad things to happen to her.
Ye Fan found Zhang Ziling beneath an old tree. He now appeared to be around forty years old. Although he had lost quite a few years, he at least wasn’t as decrepit as Zhou Yi and the others.
“The handsome Ziling has become uncle Ziling.”
“At least it’s better than becoming grandpa Ziling,” Ye Fan and Pang Bo quietly muttered to each other.
Liu Yiyi woke up not long after. When she saw Pang Bo and Ye Fan’s current appearance, her jaw dropped. Zhang Ziling also awoke a bit after her. When he finally noticed his current state, he couldn’t help but wail. A youth in his prime had gained the appearance of an uncle. No one would be able to accept such a sudden change.
“Ziling, don’t be too sad. Look at the others and you’ll feel much better.”
Zhang Ziling listened and looked at Zhou Yi, Li Xiaoman, and the others, and was immediately stupefied. He was actually not the worst off; in fact, all of them were worse off than him.
“What happened…?” He was still in a blank daze, but at least it was better than his previous manner of complete despair.
Of their group, Pang Bo and Ye Fan had become younger, Liu Yiyi had not changed at all, and Zhang Ziling had lost around twenty years. The rest of them had all become old men and women with decrepit bodies.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo glanced at each other, and the two of them immediately thought of the sparkling and translucent red fruits. When they had eaten them, they had only felt that it was extremely fragrant and that it had quickly restored their strength. But now it appeared that those fruits were truly extraordinary, maybe even miraculous!
They didn’t know the reason, but now all of the others had become seniors. Only those that had eaten those fruits had resisted the erosion of the years.
“Just what kind of power stripped them of their youth and vitality?” Pang Bo was still extremely puzzled as to how this could occur.
“I bet it was because of the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land,” speculated Ye Fan.
Just hearing the name, Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land, people could guess its meaning. It was definitely related to the Ancient Desolation; maybe this had been a forbidden land ever since the era of the Ancient Desolation. The inside was completely deathly, without even the slightest life. It definitely was a land of evil.
However, they had all managed to safely walk out of it without any danger. This definitely didn’t match up; did the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land not live up to its name?
“You’re right, it’s definitely because of the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land!” Pang Bo also now realized the discrepancy.
According to their speculation, the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land might have a kind of frightening power that could absorb people’s life energy. But why would it wait for everyone to walk out of it before it activated? This was quite puzzling.
“Maybe it’s similar to a curse. Once you’ve entered the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land, no matter where you are or whether you’ve left or not, once the curse’s time has arrived, there would be no way to avoid it.”
Ye Fan and Pang Bo both rejoiced; had they not found those miraculous fruits, they themselves would also have become old and decrepit.
After another couple of moments, everyone else quickly awoke. The hilltop immediately echoed with mournful cries. At first the cries were shocked, but then they turned to weeping.
Aging prematurely and having your youth disappear was the world’s most tragic affair. The twenties were the time in which people were in their prime. But in the blink of an eye, they had become old and wrinkled. It was difficult to endure; it practically caused them to want to die.
“Why did I turn into this?” Zhou Yi raised his trembling hand, feeling his wrinkled skin and pulling out tufts of withered white hair. In an extremely aged voice, he angrily raved, “WHY?”
Beside him, Wang Ziwen was also uncontrollably trembling as his eyes became watery. He had egg-sized bags around his eyes and he appeared incomparably old. Trembling, he said, “I can’t accept this…”
“AHH!” Lin Jia almost fell apart. Her sharp cry startled all the forest’s birds into flying away. Looks were most important for women, especially for beautiful women like her. To someone like her, who had a natural beauty and charm, losing her skin’s luster and smoothness to become incomparably old was practically worse than killing her.
Li Xiaoman was also pained to the point of wanting to die. If before she was an elegant lotus flower in bloom, she now appeared worse than a dried up lotus leaf. Her long black hair had now become white and dull, withered up like weeds. Her skin was even worse. It was wrinkled and loose, and tears flowed down her face.
Seeing Ye Fan walk over, Li Xiaoman immediately screeched, “Don’t come near me!” She used her hand to cover up her face as she cried, before putting her head between her knees to completely hide.
Ye Fan didn’t approach her anymore in order to refrain from upsetting her. He loudly consoled everyone, “Don’t despair. This world has gods, so no matter what happens, there will definitely be a way to fix it.”
The hilltop’s atmosphere was gloomy and worried, and many people were practically suicidal now. They were especially distressed when they saw Ye Fan and Pang Bo’s appearance of only being eleven or twelve years old. The absolute majority of them had become extremely aged, but these two had actually regained their youth. The contrast practically caused people’s hearts to drip blood.
“Omg...God…you bastard!” Kade angrily used both use Chinese and English to express how incomparably grieved he felt.
“Yank, don’t be so sad.” Pang Bo walked over and insincerely patted him on the shoulders. “To slowly grow old with one’s beloved is the world’s most romantic thing.”
Kade immediately began crying even more, appearing just like a child as he wailed, “My girlfriend…isn’t even here; it’s not romantic at all.”
Pang Bo was immediately stumped for words. Casting a glance at Li Xiaoman, he didn’t say anymore and instead walked over to someone else.
“Ye Fan, why haven’t you guys turned old?” Zhou Yi was the first to regain his calm. His eyes were fixed on Ye Fan and Pang Bo, the two turbid eyes now emitting two rays of light.
The others also temporarily put aside their grief and came over to listen.
When Pang Bo heard Zhou Yi he became somewhat uneasy. He extremely insincerely said, “Grandpa Zhou Yi, you wouldn’t be suspecting us two of foul play? If we had such magical powers, we might as well have undergone the Heaven Bestowal ourselves. Why bother pretending to be ordinary people?”
Lin Jia stopped her crying. Looking at Ye Fan, she seriously pleaded, “Ye Fan, tell me the truth. How did you manage to recover your youth?”
Ye Fan could only comfort and console her. Those bizarre red fruits had long since been completely eaten. He didn’t have any other method.
“Leave here…and go to that immortal palace!” Zhou Yi tottered and managed to stand up. He used his finger to point to that tall mountain with the unending halls and rooms which appeared like a celestial palace descended to the mortal world. Although his body had become decrepit, his mind hadn’t become senile. He clearly knew that the only hope was that celestial palace. If that place had Immortals, then this could all be easily fixed.
Everyone helped support each other as they walked down the mountain. With their bodies turning old, they had now become extremely weak. Ye Fan, Pang Bo, Liu Yiyi, and Zhang Ziling had no choice but to run back and forth to help them.
“Grandpa Zhou, Grandpa Wang, I’ll help you.” Pang Bo walked between them, extending his arms to support Zhou Yi and Wang Ziwen. Wang Ziwen bitterly smiled, but Zhou Yi’s expression didn’t change at all.
For some reason, Li Xiaoman chose to let Ye Fan support her. But during the entire time, she didn’t say anything. Her tears continuously streamed, almost causing her to collapse.
“What the…why are we still separated by another mountain?”
Ye Fan and the others all felt that something was wrong. There had clearly only been one mountain between them and the immortal palace, but as soon as they managed to climb over its peak, another mountain had appeared between them as if they hadn’t gotten closer at all.
“This looks the same as before. It doesn’t look like we’ve gotten any closer at all to that immortal palace. What’s going on?”
Once more surveying the scene, they once more advanced and managed to climb over the second mountain. But in the end, nothing changed. Everyone then understood that there was no way for them to walk forward.
“We have to choose. We can’t keep trying to go forward. It appears as if we’ll forever be unable to escape this maze and reach that palace.”
Suddenly, a foul smell assailed their noses. The forest shook, and a five-meter tall black beast came running at them, its sharp claws glittering. Its whole body was densely covered by hand-long black fur, and its body was similar in shape to an orangutan. But its head was incomparably monstrous. It had a foot long beak that seemed to come from some demonic bird.
None of them had ever seen such a vicious beast, and most of them were absolutely terrified, so much so that two of them powerlessly collapsed onto the ground. With such a fierce and huge monster coming after them, if they were to be attacked by it they would definitely be ripped apart.
“Be careful, Ye Fan!” Pang Bo yelled since Ye Fan was at the very front. Carrying the Great Thunderchant Temple copper plaque, he rushed forward to help.
Ye Fan pushed back the two people beside him. In his right hand, he held the jeweled vajra scepter he had obtained from Liu Yunzhi. Using all his might, he slammed it in front of him.
Bang!
The jeweled vajra scepter slammed into its sharp claws, immediately causing the huge black-furred beast’s claw to bend strangely. Just a glance was enough to tell that the claw had been completely broken.
Everyone blankly stared, assuming that this was due to the might of the jeweled vajra scepter. Only Ye Fan knew that the last bit of divine energy from the scepter had been completely used up by Liu Yunzhi. This outcome had entirely been caused by the immense strength of his body.
He was extremely shocked; if it was his previous self, there was simply no way he could generate such a huge amount of force. But after recovering his youth, he felt that his body was surging with energy, as if he possessed a divine strength that could rip apart a tiger and throw an elephant!
The huge beast let out an extremely mournful howl, and its beak opened and ferociously pecked at Ye Fan, while his other huge claw was also violently swung.
Ye Fan’s movements were extremely quick, and with an inconceivable speed, he managed to dodge. Moving behind the beast, he used all his strength to violently smash the jeweled vajra scepter onto the huge creature’s back, and the sound of bones breaking was audible.
Bang!
It was hard to imagine just how powerful that blow was. A five-meter tall beast was treated like a puppet as it was sent flying over eight meters by the jeweled vajra scepter, before heavily crashing onto the ground. It struggled to get up, but in the end, it stopped and no longer moved again.
Everyone was completely shocked. They simply could not believe this. ‘The Barbarian’s’ body might have become smaller like a delicate and gentle twelve-year-old, but his speed and power had reached such a shocking level.
Managing to get out of such a dangerous situation unscathed, everyone began enviously discussing how Ye Fan had such a divine strength.
The sky gradually darkened, and in the end, the sun finally set. People unwillingly decided to once more climb the next mountain, but the celestial palace was still separated from them by another mountain, appearing as distant as ever.
Everyone completely lost hope now, deciding to stop attempting to go in that direction.
At this moment, a beam of colorful light suddenly appeared on the horizon, appearing like a long rainbow traversing the sky. It was exceptionally striking in the dark sky.
“That’s…”
Everyone was surprised to see that a human was standing on the rainbow light, apparently using it travel unhindered through the sky. This was definitely not a mortal!
Whoosh.
The rainbow light suddenly turned in their direction, and in an instant, the figure began to fly towards them. Their speed made the group speechless. Just like a rainbow cutting through the horizon, the figure arrived in front of them in the blink of an eye.