Shrouding the Heavens

“Why are your dressings so weird?”

“Why do you keep such short hair?”

“You are all ordinary people, why did you enter into the Forbidden Ancient Desolate land?”

“Why is your spoken language so weird? Where did you come from?”

“With your strength, how could you possibly go near the abyss in the forbidden area and pick the divine fruit from legends?”

The few elders were very careful and meticulous as they continuously questioned, trying to find out exactly where these people came from.

They came from the other side of the stars separated by tens of hundreds of light years which was impossible to reach even after millions of years of flying. Who would be able to say something like that? Ye Fan and the group were taciturn and silent.

“Why aren’t you talking?” An elder’s gaze became incredibly sharp.

“Even if we told you the truth of the matter, would you be able to believe it?” Ye Fan looked at the people within the hall and said in a firm and calm voice: “Our home is in a far away place and we arrived here from the other side by scaling an ancient mountain. We are currently clueless as to where we are and have no hope of returning to our home.”

The few elders exchanged glances and someone finally nodded before saying: “I think I can understand, there must have been some extraordinary expert who set up an “influence” on that ancient mountain which could transcend time-space and turn the Big Dipper & move the stars*. A person who could use such methods is simply….. Frightening!

[Idiom* Time flies]

Since the elders did not pursue in their questioning, Ye Fan and the others did not mention the nine dragon corpses and bronze coffin. Nor did they talk about traversing through the desolation of space to arrive at the other side of the stars.

At this moment, the elders noticed the bronze lamp, alms bowl, bell and other artifacts

“This is……”

An elder among them had an expression of concentration as he took the bronze lamp within Ye Fan’s hands and looked it over carefully. Thereafter he let out a long sigh and said: “ These are the workmanship of a supreme expert, I suspect that the lampwick itself has already borne ‘spirit’. It’s a pity that the lamp is no longer functional and the interior of the lamp has no veins to follow through.”

Thereafter he carefully inspected the alms bowl, bell, plaque and other artifacts, there was shock clearly written all over his face but he sighed and said: “They were originally such good items, how can all of them not be working?! The highly regarded Dao inscriptions within all of the items have been destroyed. Even taking a glimpse of the workmanship involved is no longer possible.”

“How did all of you obtain these items?” The elders felt their hearts ache as they felt that it was such a pity and continually sighed.

Ye Fan did not reply immediately. His words earlier had painted an airtight story that even if Zhou Yi and the rest said the truth, there would be no contradictions with what he said. However this time it was different.

Some people followed his train of thought as they replied, saying that the Buddha artifacts left behind were found on the ancient mountain with an ‘influence’ and although they had unknowingly entered the Forbidden Ancient Desolate land they had held onto them.

It was obvious that it was not only Ye Fan who did not wish to speak about the events that occurred on the other side of the stars, the others also felt that this matter was of great importance and they could not spill the beans so easily.

“So that’s the case, I’m becoming more and more interested in that ancient mountain that you speak of and I’m actually thinking of going over there to investigate.” An elder smiled as he narrowed his eyes, it was unclear if he was suspicious or really felt like investigating.

“Where’s the initial place that you guys lived in? Is there an approximate region or district?” Another elder started a different line of query.

By now the group had all caught on to Ye Fan’s line of thought and lied together as a group. A female student said that they came from the western region.

“The western region? This means that you people actually came from that vast and boundless desert……” One of the elders frowned as he muttered: “From the desert in the west to the eastern badlands, the distance is simply unimaginable. Even if I were to travel by rainbow and fly there, it would take at least thirty over years. Exactly what sort of person would have such unrivaled talent to create such a formidable ‘influence’ on that mountain? This is simply inconceivable!”

“This means that we’ve actually arrived at the eastern badlands.” Zhou Yi took the opportunity to ask: “How big is the eastern badlands?”

“The eastern badlands is endless, even if a mortal were to live for ten generations they would still be unable to finish exploring it.”

“It’s that big?!” Ye Fan and the others had expressions of incredulity.

“In this world, the state of ‘Yan’ controls this region which also includes the forbidden ancient desolate lands. The distance from north to south is two thousand miles and east to west is three thousand miles. This territory is but a drop in the ocean when compared to the eastern badlands, there are simply countless states just like this.”

Hearing these words Pang Bo nearly jumped up, it was such a large region? The state of Yan’s area was so vast yet it was nothing compared to the eastern badlands, the states with the same amount of territory were countless.

The eastern badlands was simply vast and boundless and it was difficult to imagine exactly how big it was!

“How could it possibly be so vast?!” Pang Bo’s pupils constricted as he felt that this reality refuted all common sense, this was simply too ridiculous. However, when thinking that there were even deities present in this world, he could only shake his head.

A few of the elders noticed Pang Bo’s flabbergasted expression and revealed expressions or mirth, this eleven or twelve year old looking youth would be the seedling that they focus on nurturing from now on. One of the elders then continued: “State of Yan may just be a corner within the eastern badlands, a drop in the ocean* but it was not without its own reputation. Within the state of Yan there was the Forbidden Ancient Desolate lands that was one of the seven great life forbidding regions within the vast eastern badlands.

[Idiom*: small and insignificant]

The group was silent as they contemplated on all the information that they had received. Their emotions were riled as they tried to come to grips with all the shocking information.

“You also mentioned the western desert earlier, how does it compare to the eastern badlands?” Wang Zi Wen was more thorough and could not contain his curiosity.

“The scale of the western desert is almost identical to that of the eastern badlands’ region. It is similarly boundless.”

Hearing this confirmation their hearts were jolted, these regions were simply limitless!

Nonetheless, there was still a piece of news that was even more mind-blowing, an elder went on: “eastern badlands, western desert, southern mountains, northern plains and the central province, amongst these areas the central province is the most extensive and can be thought of as truly limitless, even cultivators would find it hard to traverse across ……”

Everyone turned into a statue as they felt their mouths were dry and were speechless.

The few elders were very satisfied with their reactions and encouraged: “A normal human’s life is but a speck, just like an ant and would have difficulty understanding how vast this world is. Right now you people have the chance to overlook this boundless world. If you work hard to cultivate, one day you will surely bring about a storm and stand at the summit above the clouds.”

The group started to recover their bearing as some people hesitated as they said: “Us…. Cultivate…..”

“That’s right, although you people have entered the Forbidden Ancient Desolate land and lost your youth, this world is fair, how much you lost would be relative to how much you would gain. The thorny road of cultivation may be difficult to traverse but you people have already opened up the basic path.”

“That’s right, your sea of bitterness has already been triggered and once you surpass the sea of bitterness to step onto the spiritual bridge, finding the divinity within you would not be impossible.”

The few elders continued to say words of encouragement to entice them onto the path of cultivation.

。

“We still don’t know exactly who are you people?” Zhou Yi seized the opportunity to ask.

“There are six immortal sanctuaries, and the place that we are currently cultivating in is one of them. Of course it isn’t located here in the mortal world.” One of the elders laughed as he replied.

“The State of Yan is but a drop in the ocean when compared to the eastern badlands, this corner of the region has six immortal sanctuaries. How many immortal sects with cultivators does this world exactly have…..” Pang Bo softly breathed.

It was clear that the elders viewed Ye Fan and Pang Bo differently and did not show any displeasure as they warmly replied: “Don’t think too far ahead. Your basics are the most important and our immortal sanctuary hails from one of the sacred grounds. The basics are the secret to success in this world. Also, if you can rise up like a phoenix in the future we will provide you with a more comprehensive and larger scale of development space.”

“That’s right!” Another elder boasted: “Although we are only an immortal sanctuary, we belong to one of the famous sacred grounds within the eastern badlands. If you are sufficiently talented in the future, you might even be selected to enter into the sect that oversees the sacred ground!”

Having said this, the few elders looked dotingly at the young girl Wei Wei and said: “Wei Wei is our immortal sanctuary’s unparalleled talent within a thousand years, it won’t be long before she’s selected to enter the sacred ground. We’re even feeling a bit reluctant to part but we aren’t willing to stand in the way of her cultivation.”

It was at this moment when the hall was filled with a loud raucous laughter: “Your ‘blessed land*’ is simply insufficient, if you have any talents you can send them over to our ‘immortal caverns*’. I heard that you people actually discovered over ten good seedlings that can cultivate?”

[T/N*: He split up the words immortal sanctuary 洞天福地 into 2 literal parts, blessed lands福地 and immortal caverns 洞天]

Tens of rainbows seemed to fall from the sky as these people entered into the hall uninvited.