Chapter 97 Ascending to the Spring of Life Realm
When the dust had finally settled, Elder Han was no more, while Ye Fan’s life was now safe. Ye Fan recollected himself, sitting on top a stone seat, and started to carefully think about what path he should take now.
The Jiang Family’s knights were chasing him. Right now, he didn’t have enough strength to contend against them, so he couldn’t show himself in public. The best option for him right now was to conceal himself and increase his cultivation base.
Without a doubt, this immortal cave was an excellent hiding place. Elder Han had once said that this stone mountain had many Dao Glyphs carved onto it so that no one outside would be able to discover it.
“Ok, I’ll just cultivate here.”
After making his decision, Ye Fan started to tidy up the stone room, first placing Elder Han’s corpse into a medicinal cauldron and tightly covering the lid.
“You refined medicine your whole life, so in the end, your pill cauldron can be your coffin. Just quietly stay within the immortal cave by yourself.”
This immortal cave was like a labyrinth. Ye Fan had to mark a couple of the walls and paths. He brought the medicinal cauldron to the deepest part of the cave before sealing it inside a stone cave.
Returning to the stone room, Ye Fan continued to tidy up. He fixed up the medicinal cabinet into its original state, even adding back the dozen rare spiritual medicines he had found into it since it was the most suitable for storing medicinal herbs.
This wide stone room also had over a dozen more bronze medicinal cauldrons, as well as several stone tables and chairs. On one table were two ancient texts. They were written on animal hide, and appeared very aged, at least hundreds of years old.
Obviously, Eder Han had often perused these texts, as the stone table and chair had been rubbed so often they had turned shiny. One of the books was open, and there were a couple additional notes within from Elder Han.
“Oh?!”
The opened book only had a couple of pages. Strange lines were written on it and it didn’t seem to have any characters at all. It resembled an extremely messy writing that was impossible to decipher. If it weren’t for the comments left by Elder Han, Ye Fan wouldn’t be able to understand any of the strange lines’ meanings.
“These are…Dao Glyphs!” Ye Fan was extremely startled. Although there were only a few pages, this ancient book actually had precious Dao Glyphs recorded within.
It was said that Dao Glyphs were naturally left behind by mighty people from ancient times when they gained insights into heaven and earth. Some of them managed to be passed down into the present world.
From a certain perspective, Dao Glyphs were records of mighty cultivators in the past. The stronger the cultivator the more they would desire to carefully study these circulated Dao Glyphs.
Ye Fan carefully looked it over. From his limited understanding of ancient characters, he found that this was just an ordinary Dao Glyph book. The word “Foundation” was written on top of it.
However, even an ordinary book with Dao Glyphs caused Elder Han to struggle greatly. He wrote many notes, and there were many places he wasn’t able to comprehend.
Looks like Dao Glyphs really are profound. Even extremely formidable cultivators might not be able to understand them. Elder Han himself could only hover at the threshold of understanding without being able to enter. Ye Fan immediately realized that the symbols carved about the immortal cave had come from this book.
Although he didn’t understand this book, I will need to study those lines outside carefully or it’s possible I won’t be able to leave this immortal cave.
Ye Fan opened the other ancient text, and found that it was also similarly made of animal hide and was only a few pages long. It recorded an extremely ancient pill formula. After successfully refining it, it would have an extremely large benefit for the cultivator who ingested it.
However, Ye Fan’s understanding of spiritual medicines was limited. The many medicinal herbs mentioned in it were not things he knew of, let alone could refine.
The ancient animal hide book had many clear recordings that if one could find a sacred medicine that would allow one to shed one’s mortal body, they could refine it into a precious pill that could not only raise a cultivator’s lifespan, but also their cultivation base no matter what level they were at.
“No wonder that old codger wanted to catch me so badly…”
Following that, Ye Fan found a mountain spring and many supplies that Elder Han had prepared. This resolved his worries about his immediate survival. He could now calmly cultivate here.
Over the next few days, he carefully studied the comments Elder Han had left behind in the ancient text. He finally understood a bit of it to succeed in leaving the immortal cave.
After that, Ye Fan could leave whenever he wished. He would occasionally go out foraging for some wild berries and herbs, but he spent the majority of his time cultivating and increasing his comprehension of the Dao Scriptures.
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Time flew by quickly, and Ye Fan had now spent a full year here. All the spiritual medicines had already been absorbed by him, and his golden Sea of Bitterness had been established to the size of half a fist. It was absolutely dazzling and had become many times larger.
Outside his Sea of Bitterness, red clouds rolled like flares and directly shooting out. No longer was it just a slight lingering amount in the air; it was now like a volcano constantly erupting.
Ye Fan’s Sea of Bitterness could no longer remain calm. Every now and then it would bubble out, apparently wanted to connect to his Wheel of Life and release his divine spring.
Whenever he would enter the state of spiritual emptiness, the sound of waves would come from his Sea of Bitterness. His body was enveloped in a divine and sacred light.
Moreover, the center of his Sea of Bitterness would occasionally flare out, acting like an active volcano on the seafloor. Lightning would often streak through the air above it.
When he used the mystical arts from the Dao Scriptures, his whole body would immediately give off a powerful life aura. His golden Sea of Bitterness was like a dazzling sun. Qi endlessly bubbled forth, and even his body received a cleansing, making it much stronger than before.
“The Spring of Life realm is indeed hard to break through…” Ye Fan was somewhat disappointed. He had already attacked the Spring of Life realm five times without succeeding.
During this period, he had been earnestly comprehending the Dao Scriptures, constantly attempting to create his own Vessel. That lump of divine iron was swelling as it passed through repeated refinements, imitating the Dao Glyphs from the green copper. It was already starting to appear out of the ordinary, possessing a hint of a natural and simple aura.
Over a year had passed, and Ye Fan was convinced that the Jiang Family’s knights had already left here and were no longer as dedicated to tracking him down.
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This day, he left the immortal cave and went to a barren hill in order to test his control of divine energy. The waves in his Sea of Bitterness soared, and a blazing divine light rushed out his body, surrounding him and bringing him a meter off the ground forward.
Plop!
Unfortunately, he had only flown around thirty meters before he fell on the ground.
“Without entering the Spring of Life realm, there’s no way to fly for long distances. The divine energy spring must unendingly bubble forth. Only then can one fly in the heavens,” he grumbled to himself.
Despite not being able to soar into the sky, this kind of short distance flight still gave Ye Fan a very novel sensation. He continued to practice, and found that he could fly for over a hundred meters. He could go much faster than he could on the ground. Without even needing to take a step, he flew by just like the wind.
Ye Fan didn’t want to leave the immortal cave without reaching the Spring of Life realm. He felt his strength was still too low and that leaving would bring too much danger. Moreover, the mountain’s flame fiends were also a great assistance to his cultivation. Although their kind of spiritual energy wasn’t that dense, it was still a steady flow.
“I should to the Violet Sun Paradise to get the Source back…” Despite not being safe for him to go too far, he still left. His physique was too special and was like a bottomless pit, requiring a huge amount of spiritual energy to accelerate his cultivation.
Ye Fan heard from a couple travelers on the way that the Jiang Family’s knights had already long since left. They shouldn’t be a threat to him. Nowadays, the area around Yan had become very tranquil.
Arriving at the mountain range of the Amethyst Sun Paradise, Ye Fan carefully avoided detection by the sect’s people. Not long after, he reached the river and jumped in. After half an hour, the water splashed and Ye Fan came out with the bright Source in his hand.
“It’s lucky it was still here…”
Originally, he was nervous when he arrived, afraid that it had been taken by other people.
In reality, this place was very secluded. Other than if some peak strong people of the Violet Sun Paradise passing here by chance, no one else would be able to sense the Source.
Ye Fan didn’t want to stay here, so he quickly made to return.
“It’s her…” Ye Fan suddenly stopped, seeing a group of young figures, one of whom was Li Xiaoman.
Ye Fan didn’t stop, quickly leaving until they all disappeared behind the mountains.
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Half a month later, a rumbling came from Elder Han’s immortal cave, followed by the sound of huge tsunami waves resounding through heaven and earth, as well as bursts of deafening thunderclaps.
BOOM!
Just at this moment, a powerful shockwave exploded out, causing the entire immortal cave to shake. The Qi in Ye Fan’s body was surging, and a golden divine flame was igniting and raging outside his body.
His eyes were filled with a clear divine light, shooting out two lightning bolts that were especially resplendent within the immortal cave.
Ye Fan stood up, now possessing an extra dignified and imposing quality. Exhaling a breath of air, the entire mountain violently shook and many huge cracks appeared on it.
“I finally entered the Spring of Life realm!” he exclaimed.
He became a golden bolt of lightning as he rushed out the immortal cave. A blazing divine rainbow covered him, slowly lifting him inito midair.
At this moment, the mouth of a spring appeared within Ye Fan’s Sea of Bitterness, connected to his Wheel of Life. His divine spring was bubbling, and a bright mist lingered about it!