Shrouding the Heavens

His field of vision was vast allowing him to view far off into the distance, this was a totally new sensation, using his own strength to fly into the blue dome of heaven, looking down on all life in the world, filling him with amazement.

Magnificent mountains and rivers, vast areas of land, all this filled the eye and made one feel satisfied and free from worry. Within the lofty heights, all living things in this world such as a blade of grass or a piece of wood faded into the background, filling one with the grandiose aspirations of swallowing mountains and rivers.

“So this is the Spring of Life realm, I can feel an exceptionally strong energy…….” Ye Fan stood tall in the sky, his body unencumbered by dirt, his being was sparkling and translucent flashing with dots of light, like a beautiful art piece, giving him a feeling of shedding the mortal flesh and exchanging one’s bones.

At this moment, he finally understood how large a difference there was between realms. The fleshly body was completely filled and almost perfect, if he met a cultivator of the Sea of Bitterness realm, he could exterminate the other party in no time at all, this was not a blind confidence but rather because of the exceptionally strong amounts of energy that continually filled his body.

Ye Fan rode on a mystical rainbow to travel, traversing through the world as a dazzling rainbow streaked through the sky, seemingly like a comet rushed towards the ground at one moment then like a brilliant moon rising above the ocean the next, an azure dragon rising to the sky.

It was only an hour later before he finally managed to calm himself down as he stood on top of a mountain allowing the fresh wind to blow at him, his black hair was gently dancing in the wind and his eyes were like two stars that shone.

Ye Fan was silent as he suppressed the strong and imposing aura, making him seem to gain a peaceful and tranquil manner, he seemed perfect without any dirt as his clothings fluttered, like a banished immortal who came to earth, graceful and elegant giving one a feeling of nature and otherworldliness.

Within his body, the sea of bitterness that was half the size of a fist was completely calm, there was no longer the berserk ‘volcano’ nor the surging waves that were roiling.

The golden sea of bitterness was exceptionally peaceful and in the very centre, the mouth of the spring gurgled and frothed, vigorous amounts of qi essence of life was being released, that was the Divine Spring of Life flowing.

The wheel of life which was submerged within the sea of bitterness had been linked and the endless amounts of spring water that contained the essence of life surged up, this was the foundation for a cultivator’s strength.

Ripples formed from the spring of life and undulated in all directions forming gentle billows, adding a sense of naturalness and nimbleness to the undulating golden sea, the divine spring gurgled as the two merged together, divine energy continued to flow and vitality was abundant.

At this moment, the mysterious piece of aurichalcite had changed a location as it firmly stood within the eye of the spring at the bottom of the sea, continually accepting the baptism of the divine spring of life. As for the golden book, it was still squeezed to the outer edges and had no way to get near the mouth of the divine spring.

The ‘cauldron’ which Ye Fan wanted to smelt already had a rough outline but had not managed to fully take shape, it was about the size of a cherry and floated above the sea of bitterness.

Based on common sense, the four great realms of Sea of Bitterness, Spring of Life, Spiritual Bridge and Other Shore, each realm would allow one to sacrifice and refine an ‘artifact’ however, Ye Fan had already reached the second great realm but did not even have a single ‘artifact’. This made him frown, a ‘cauldron’ was indeed difficult to forge.

He was not overly worried, it was clearly recorded within the Dao Scripture that the more complex and profound the artifact, the more difficult it would be to form because they contained the Dao and Truths of the world.

Based on what was mentioned within the Dao Scripture, one could focus on forging a single artifact, hinting that a strong artifact would be one that was formed from all four of the great realms. This meant that if one wanted to have the strongest artifact, they would only forge one artifact from the Sea of Bitterness, Spring of Life, Spiritual Bridge and Other Shore realms, not four different ones.

This was what was meant by the term ‘Great artifacts would take ages to complete’ but once a person was successful, they could used a single artifact to break tens of thousands of techniques, once the flower blossomed it would be able to kill off hundreds of other flowers.

In the entire eastern badlands, only a small number of ancient scriptures recorded this profound technique of forging a single artifact throughout the four realms, a normal cultivator would never have this chance.

However, even for the few Sacred Grounds and ancient aristocratic families who had these few ancient scriptures, their disciples did not dare to take such a risk, with great opportunity came great risk, if one wanted to gain more they had to be able to risk a similar amount and many could not bear with this risk. Using four realms to forge a single artifact, since ancient times till now, a large number of people were unsuccessful in forging even a single artifact as they wasted countless years of their life. Without their own artifact, they would not be able to utilise an artifact and would be not much different from a crippled person. As such, disciples of the Sacred Ground or ancient aristocratic families would seldom make such a choice.

At the Sea of Bitterness realm, Ye Fan did not need to make a choice and only needed to focus his will on forging the cauldron, however, upon breaking through to the Spring of Life realm, his artifact had not formed and he had to make a decision.

“Although it’s filled with risk and at the end I may end up with nothing, I don’t have any way back. I’ve already decided to forge the cauldron because I want to obtain the strongest artifact, it could one day gain the Dao and Truths of the world. Using four realms to forge a single artifact isn’t contradicting to my choice, it could even said to be in line with it. I don’t have any reason to shrink away.”

Ye Fan was not concerned about other people having many artifacts while he would have less artifacts. Faced with a difficult situation, he believed that the firm words ‘one artifact to break tens of thousands of techniques, once the flower blossomed hundreds of other flowers could be extinguished’ recorded within the Dao Scripture.

“I sincerely hope that a great artifact will be formed after much struggle and I won’t end up with nothing……”

After reaching the Spring of Life realm, one could fly through the blue dome of heaven. Ye Fan began to consider venturing into the Forbidden Ancient Desolate Land but he needed to make sufficient preparations otherwise that area could very possibly be his burial ground.

He was not in a rush to set out and continued to consolidate his new found strength, after a breakthrough in cultivation a period of time would be required for one to get used to it. In the days that followed, the cave dwelling was dug into a messy state in order for Ye Fan to acquire more spiritual aspects within the Demonfire, he constantly dug till into the depths and almost caused a fire vein to explode forth.

Time passed swiftly and Ye Fan cultivated for almost another full year, the entire fire vein had nearly been exhausted by him and his realm had thoroughly stabilised to the extent that it had even increased considerably, the gurgling divine spring seemed to be filled with even more vitality.

This was of course not the biggest gain, what made him most satisfied and excited was that the rough form of the cauldron had finally been forged, using the unique spiritual aspect of the Demonfire and forging thousands of times had finally resulted in a three legged circular cauldron to appear.

“It seems that if I want to be successful in forging the artifact, the unique spiritual aspects of various divine flames will be most effective. Just like how the forging of weapons would require a fire to smelt in order to forge divine and precious armaments, the cauldron within me also seems to require this!”

Above Ye Fan’s sea of bitterness, a small cauldron which was roughly formed could be seen, it was about the size of a cherry, all its dazzling splendour had receded and it seemed natural, simple and unadorned. In this one year, after forging repeatedly for thousands of times, engraving the Dao Inscriptions of the aurichalcite on the divine metal, the small cauldron already have an exceptional aura, giving one a feeling that it was made by the heavens itself.

Ye Fan willed it and the small cauldron instantly flew out of his body without a sound as it easily pierced through the ten odd metre thick stone wall of the cave dwelling and rushed towards the sky.

“A cauldron with two ears and three feet. The Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, three give birth to thousands of objects, thousands of objects bears Yin but embraces Yang……. Good! Good! Good!”

Ye Fan was extremely satisfied, the natural, simple and unadorned small cauldron gave him a natural feeling of the Dao, it seemed to already contain the Dao and Truths of the world, seemingly mysterious and profound.

“I really look forward to the moment where one artifact can break tens of thousands of artifacts……”

Once the small cauldron was formed, it could already be considered a strong weapon which could attack and defend, able to conquer any obstacle. The mysterious Dao Inscriptions on the aurichalcite gave it a mysterious energy which allowed it to constantly transform.

Ye Fan had already been in this world for three years, he had lived for a small period of time within the Ling Xu immortal sanctuary before cultivating in this cave dwelling for close to two years. His body was much taller and was about 1.7metres tall but still seemed young and tender like a fourteen year old child.

The short hair that he had earlier was longer by ⅔ metres, black and thick as it naturally fell before his chest and back, gently floating in the wind making him seem extremely delicate, no one would be able to guess that such a youth would actually be a cultivator of the Spring of Life realm.

“It’s time to leave……” Ye Fan took a final glance at the cave dwelling behind him before flying just above the treeline towards the distant mountains.

Ye Fan dragged a deer as he entered a small town, using it to exchange for some money to buy some suitable clothes for himself. Two years had passed and he was already much taller, the original clothes he wore were in tatters, ragged and shabby. The moment he entered the small town people actually began to point at him.

“In order to cultivate within this world, one has to first assimilate into human society.”

Ye Fan found a place to eat and chose a seat that was near to the window. By the side was a table of people who seemed to have extraordinary demeanours, different from that of normal humans.

Real cultivators did not have much interaction with ordinary humans, they would not usually showcase their prowess and even if they were right before you, normal people would not have a single clue. It was clear that these people were all cultivators and followed this principle, they did not wish to startle the people in the surroundings as they softly discussed, unless one’s spiritual sense was exceptionally sharp, normal people would have no way to hear them talk.

“The burial mound of the demon emperor is too demonic in nature, over these two years countless numbers of cultivators have died but it still remains closed.”

“The entire eastern badlands has been shocked, several large sects have sent experts to that area of the ruins but have no way to open that Yin grave.”

“The main reason for this is that the really unparalleled experts are concerned and dare not easily act, that Yin grave is extremely evil and seems to have already gained spiritual sense. Unless one had the most precious treasure of the human race of the eastern badlands, even if an unparalleled expert were to break the sure-kill formation, he would be unable to stop the Yin grave from rushing into the ground beneath the eastern badlands, like a dragon returning to the sea without a trace to be found.

“It’s rumoured that three bigwigs have already died, is it true?”

“Naturally it’s real, within these two years countless cultivators have died and this deep pond should soon be filled to the brim with corpses, of the bigwigs, several of them have already died and even more are said to be at death’s door.

Ye Fan was extremely shocked, who knew that after two years, the Yin grave was still closed and the sure-kill formation within it had actually killed large numbers of cultivators. He sat quietly by the side as he listened and ate without any change in expression as he did not wish for these cultivators to find out he was eavesdropping.

“The surroundings of the deep pond already have a pile of corpses the size of a mountain, it has completely become a plot of demonic land and even looking from a distance one can feel their hair stand on end, the resentment in the area was thick and every inch of the land was stained with the blood of cultivators.

“Since that deep pond is an area where one can enter but never return, creating a mountain of corpses and a bloody sea, why are there still an endless number of cultivators advancing wave after wave to that area?”

“Without any benefits to gain who would risk their lives like that? That is the burial mound of the demon emperor who managed to unite the entire demonic race of the eastern badlands, there must be endless amounts of precious treasures buried with him.”

“That’s right, even those superbly strong bigwigs have been startled, it’s rumoured that the Desolate Pagoda is actually located within!”

“The Desolate Pagoda that is rumoured to be able to seal even immortals?”

“That’s exactly it, otherwise, how could those bigwigs endure such risks to venture into the depths.”

“It’s already been two years and the disciples of various sects have begun to fear that piece of ruin. However, these sects are unwilling to give up and many people have thus lost their lives.”

“You people probably don’t know this but it’s rumoured that even people of the Central Province have been shocked into action and recently some mysterious people have rushed into the eastern badlands.”

“Could it be that they wish to steal our most precious treasure within the eastern badlands, the Desolate Pagoda?”

“This probably isn’t the case, they wouldn’t extend their reach so far away. Although the might of the cultivators of the Central Province are unequaled and able to suppress the other four regions, they would not dare to easily make the entire eastern badlands an enemy. If a big battle were to erupt, an impossibly high number of people would die, it’s rumoured that they are actually looking for the most precious treasure of the Central Province……”

Not far away, Ye Fan’s heart began to beat faster, he did not need to ponder to know that these bigwigs from the Central Province were clearly here to look for the aurichalcite.