Chapter 34 Legends from the Desolation
A meter wide and two-meter long rainbow light hung in midair. It was completely straight, and its glorious light shone brightly making it seem as real as a sparkling crystal.
Within the light was a slender eighteen or nineteen-year-old maiden with jade-like skin. She was very slender, with a slim waist and perfectly straight legs. She was wearing a light blue dress which floated naturally, and she seemed to possess an immortal air.
Everyone was stunned. This young beautiful maiden resembled a fairy that could not be tainted by mortal breath. She was like the dew rolling off a pure white lotus, yet also like a blossoming snow lotus on top a high mountain. Her beauty was something that could not be found in the mortal world.
The world didn’t lack ultimate beauties, but it was still difficult to find such a person whose beauty surpassed the ordinary world. It was like a new and pure world had formed all for her existence.
This touchingly enchanting young maiden was very serene as she gazed at everyone. She said something to them in and extremely moving voice, but everyone had to think about what she was saying for a long time before they could understand what her words meant. Her words were very similar to the speech of ancient China, which required them to carefully try to figure out what she was saying.
“We’re a group who has fallen into hardship. Are you a fairy? Can you save us?” a woman immediately asked with a sob. Now, her whole body was withered and her wrinkled skin made her appear old and decrepit. Seeing someone she suspected to be an Immortal, she immediately cried out and asked for help.
Lin Jia and Li Xiaoman also walked up with hopeful expressions. They had been extremely beautiful people, so they were naturally conceited over their looks. It might even have been more merciful to just kill them than to have them suffer what they had gone through. Now that such a moving and enchanting maiden appeared before them, they wished even more to recover their youth.
Standing in the glorious light, it seemed like the very essence of a rainbow had been condensed into precious jade in order to seal the fairy-like maiden inside.
But in reality, the crystal-like rainbow was not real and had no binding effect. Her black hair was like a waterfall as it gently floated, and her eyes were like water drizzling, containing traces of mist. Her smooth and lustrous skin sparkled, appearing extremely beautiful.
“Has your group entered the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land?”
Saying another soft and pleasant sentence, everyone still had to think about it to understand this ancient Chinese language.
“Yes, we just escaped from there,” an aged woman helplessly cried out with a begging expression. To a woman, such a situation was the worst thing that could happen. Her thoughts had long since turned chaotic, so she no longer thought about what she was saying before speaking.
The rainbow’s maiden’s calm and jade-like face immediately revealed great shock.
“Being able to walk out of there alive is not an easy feat,” she quietly said. Then, sweeping her gaze back and forth across Liu Yiyi, Zhang Ziling, Pang Bo and Ye Fan, she seemed to think of something and an extremely amazed expression appeared on her face. She eagerly asked, “Are these your real ages?”
“We weren’t this old. We don’t know why we lost so many decades of youth and our life energy,” quickly responded a man. He hopefully stared at the floating maiden.
But she didn’t even look at him. Apparently, she had long since known that they had lost their youth and life energy. She was asking Ye Fan and Pang Bo.
Ye Fan replied, “Originally, we were all in our twenties, but for some reason, most of us became extremely old and a couple of us recovered our youth.”
“It really is true…” The floating maiden seemed shocked, immediately closely staring at Ye Fan and Pang Bo. She hastily asked, “Did you guys eat a red fruit that was bright and sparkling?”
Ye Fan was certain that the odd fruits they had eaten were what she was describing, and he didn’t have any way of denying it. The people around him like Zhou Yi had all seen it and were nodding their heads.
The floating maiden looked strangely at Ye Fan and Pang Bo, almost examining them the same way a person would examine a treasure. Being so closely examined by such a beautiful and outstanding maiden, the two of them began to feel a bit uneasy.
“Excuse me, but can the people who became old still be saved?” Wang Ziwen had difficulty staying calm. He greatly desired to recover his lost youth.
“Don’t despair. Although it might be difficult to recover your appearances, losing your youth has also allowed you to gain a lot. In the outside world, many people will be fighting over you.” Seeing everyone’s peculiar expressions, the floating maiden continued, “Don’t worry, fighting over you isn’t a bad thing. It’s actually an opportunity for you.”
“I…just want to recover my appearance.” A woman was weeping endlessly. Having aged so suddenly, she had already lost the will to live.
“Ok, I’ll first bring you out of this ancient forest.” The mysterious maiden gently raised her hand, and the rainbow light shone onto the mountain, enveloping all of them. It slowly lifted them into the sky beside her.
As expected, this really was a mysterious world. According to their understanding, this must be some kind of immortal technique.
“This place is extremely far from human civilization. If you had wanted to use your legs to leave this place, the chances of you walking out would have been practically zero. This primitive mountain forest has many dreadful beasts. Even if it were me, I would have no choice but to avoid them.”
Pang Bo had a strange expression on his face. “You didn’t come from the immortal palace in front of us?”
“Immortal palace…”The floating maiden was confused, asking, “Where is there an immortal palace?”
Pang Bo pointed to the tall mountain, saying, “Aren’t there many palace halls there that continue into the distance? The countless palace halls and rooms are vast and grand, and there are many cranes flying there.”
“The legends are actually true…” This maiden had a strange look on her face now.
“What do you mean legends? You can’t see it?” Pang Bo asked, surprised.
“Yes, I cannot see it.” The maiden of the rainbow was pondering deeply. “The Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land. It comes from the distant ancient times, a place that is forbidden to life. Since ancient times, the people who accidentally enter into it and survive to tell the tale said that they see an immortal palace right in front of them, but they were never able to reach it.”
Everyone suddenly understood that their bitter experience had exactly matched up to what she said. Someone asked, “Then it is just an illusion?”
“It’s not an illusion. The immortal palace can only be approached at the right time using special methods. But such a great opportunity is something an ordinary person will never be able to obtain.”
Zhou Yi cared greatly about the matter of his body. “The people that accidentally wandered into the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land and lived, how did their lives end up?”
The maiden was like ice-cold jade as she calmly answered, “Of those who enter the land that is forbidden to life, only one survives for every hundred that walk in. The ones who live all have white hair like frosted snow, and they have reached the end of their lifespans. But each person’s ‘Sea of Bitterness’ was activated, and if they walked the path of cultivation, they were able to achieve twice the effect for half the work.”
“Can they recover their youth?”
“It’s very difficult, but it’s not impossible. The further they travel on the path of cultivation, the stronger their life energy would grow. After reaching a certain realm, it’s also possible to change one’s appearance.” The maiden’s words sparked hope in many people.
“Just what is in the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land? What kind of power would cause us to lose our youth?” Wang Ziwen couldn’t help asking. This was the detestable question that confused everyone.
“This question has been asked since ancient times. Many people have tried to answer it, but none of them could.” The maiden was bringing everyone along at an extremely high speed. The surrounding rainbow light around them split the horizon. Its soft light blocked out the strong winds and allowed them to speak without hindrance. She continued, “Legends say that the abyss of the forbidden land contains ‘Desolation (Huang),’ a person from the times of the Ancient Desolation. Or, it could also be some terrible power.”
“Did no one go to explore it?” Ye Fan asked.
“Countless people have gone to explore it since the Ancient Desolation. But there was no miracle; they all died.” This mysterious maiden turned her head back to look at that primitive forest. “Each inch of that land has been dyed in blood, and skeletons of the dead can be piled into mountains. Moreover, the ones who died are all experts. Back in the day, a Sacred Land immortal sect which had reached their absolute peak strength throughout all of history used its whole force, gathering many thousands of powerful cultivators, all in order to split apart the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land and obtain the illusory thing from the legends. But the thousands all died, and the Sacred Land’s name was erased from the world. In the end, only three to five people managed to escape, and their inheritance was almost completely severed.”
“It’s that frightening?!” Pang Bo was speechless.
“It’s a devilish land that is contaminated by endless amounts of blood. Sadly, the unprecedented and flourishing Sacred Land’s thousands of cultivators were annihilated. Even those lucky few peak power cultivators who survived ended up becoming ‘Desolate Slaves’ in the Ancient Desolation Abyss, forever to be enslaved.”
When they heard this, everyone remembered the beast whose ferocity towered through the heavens, easily moving even when it was bound by huge iron chains that were hundreds of meters long. Most likely, this was one of the so-called ‘Desolate Slaves.’
The rainbow’s light was extremely quick, practically as fast as lightning. The endless primitive forest below them flew by, but they still had to fly for over an hour before they reached the end of the desolate forest.
The sky had already long since darkened by the time they finally saw a brightly lit town in the distance. As soon as they approached, seven or eight rainbow beams soared into the sky, each with a person’s silhouette inside.
“Weiwei has returned.”
“What did you find around the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land? Each of the surrounding Blessed Paradises sent out experts to search for something. You didn’t end up encountering them, did you?”
“Since us few old timers can sense something from the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land, there’s no way those other strong people from the Blessed Paradises didn’t sense it.”
The rainbow beams held a couple old people who were conversing. Apparently, they were this young maiden Weiwei’s seniors.
“These people are…”
“They should be people who accidentally wandered into the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land and still managed to walk out alive?”
When Weiwei confirmed this, the seniors immediately burst into hearty laughter.
“Hahaha…nice, their ‘Seas of Bitterness’ have been activated. They are excellent seedlings to begin cultivating!”
Everyone quickly descended and walked into the brightly lit town.
“Why are they so young?” The seniors were immediately surprised when they noticed Pang Bo and Ye Fan. It was a bit hard to believe.
“Could they have eaten the fruits from the legends? But…that’s impossible!” One of the old men was extremely shocked. “Nine sacred mountains surround and form the Ancient Desolation Abyss. Legend has it that each sacred mountain has a divine spring which grows some strange sacred fruit. There are nine divine springs and nine different types of sacred fruits; by obtaining them, one can shed their mortal body! But, how could a couple ordinary mortals manage to get there?”