Shrouding the Heavens

The Flickering Light Sacred Land’s two Grand Elders tried charging out, but they were unable to escape this bloody region.

The bloody banners had grown hundreds of meters tall. Each time they trembled they would release rays of bloody sword light that were unstoppable and incomparably sharp.

“Jiang Hi, with your cultivation base having reached such a realm, only a Divine Source would have any use for you. Stealing a large amount of Sources from my Flickering Light Sacred Land has no benefit to you.”

The Flickering Light Grand Elder had just said this when a sharp sword light lit up the sky like electricity, chopping off one of his sleeves.

“You…” His expression became unsightly.

“I can use the Sources to exchange for something I need.” Jiang Yi’s voice was extremely calm as he sat upon his mythical beast. His hands slowly moved.

Fourteen of the bloody banners were like a torrential flood as they fiercely shook and changed positions.

Jiang Yi’s hands seemed to possess endless demonic might. Although his movements were slow, they caused a terrifying might as the fourteen bloody banners all began to tremble together.

BANG!

Space exploded, a rumbling filled the air. The two Grand Elders’ expressions both changed.

Even as powerful as they were, they were nothing more than duckweeds within an angry sea. They shook in the sky, unable to keep themselves from being blown all around.

The fourteen bloody banners violently shook as an incalculable energy that could rip apart the boundless sky appeared.

“He’s using the Eight Divine Beast Strength!” The two Grand Elders were shocked.

Jiang Yi’s hand movements were becoming slower and slower, but the energy released was becoming more and more terrifying.

Those two hands had demonic magic that made the sky shiver. Space was constantly imploding as the fourteen banners began to shake like fourteen bloody gods.

BANG!

One of the Grand Elders inattentively had half his clothes torn off by one of the banners. His face became ashen as his body swayed.

“You actually managed to cultivate the Jiang family’s Eight Divine Beast Strength to such a level. “

This was far out of the two Grand Elder’s expectations.

The Eight Divine Beast Strength allowed one to control peak-level divine energy. Once cultivated to the apex, nothing could break or stop it.

This kind of supreme secret art was within the Jiang Family’s ancient scripture and was on the same level as the Ji family’s Great Void Handprint. It was an ancient scripture’s peak level secret art.

Jiang Yi’s hands were still slowing down, in the end practically stopping. But this was even more terrifying, and for the eight great gods had truly descended.

This region was like a swamp or a demonic force field, causing the two Grand Elders’ movements to becoming slower and slower, almost completely binding them.

The fourteen huge banners had bloody light rushing out of them. They continuously tightened their circle, causing the space around the two Grand Elders to shrink.

BANG!

Just when Jiang Yi’s hands had almost completely stopped, he suddenly waved both his hands.

The space completely ruptured as the fourteen banners violently shook. The Eight Divine Beast Strength activated, acting like a raging wave that madly and tyrannically sent the two Grand Elders flying.

“You…”

The two Grand Elders revealed surprised expressions as a trace of blood flowed from their mouths.

“The Eight Divine Beast Strength really is terrifying and deserving of being called a supreme secret art. But if your skill has only developed to this point, you aren’t able to kill us! Therefore, leave your life behind!”

The two of their expressions were cold and their words were dark. They had been shaken to point that they had even needed to spit out blood by Jiang Yi, and were unable to remain calm.

“You want to kill me? Come and try it!” Jiang Yi didn’t move at all as he sat on top of his mythical beast. His hands no longer moved.

At the same time, the two Grand Elders acted. One took out a purple gold calabash (water gourd) while the other took out a copper bell. Both objects hung above their heads as ray after ray of bright light descended and enveloped them like a curtain.

The fourteen banners’ sword lights might be dazzling, but they were unable to approach their bodies anymore.

The battle of three experts caused the sky to explode. Destruction and annihilating energy filled that place.

As for the people on the ground, they would have been affected and killed, but a large banner was inserted into a stone. The banner was hundreds of meters tall and bloody light circulated within it, protecting the thousands of mortals so that none of them were injured.

“Eight Divine Beast Strength…” YE Fan looked up to the sky. He thought of the ancient book he read called the Natural Bestowal Tome.

“Eight divinities. First the Lord of Heaven offering the sky as sacrifice. The Lord of Earth eclipses the sky, offering sacrifice of the large mountains. The small mountain on top as an ancient sacrifice.The Lord of Battle…”

Not long after, beast roars rang out as those knights once more rushed over. Jiang Yi received their plunder of many Sources.

“Let’s go!”

He and those knights soared into the sky. The fourteen bloody banners trapped the two Grand Elders, making sure they couldn’t chase after them.

The four banners on the ground followed after them.

In the end, the remaining fourteen banners released a bloody light as they soared up and disappeared into the sky.

The two Grand Elders tried to chase after them, not wanting to let them off. At the same time, killing shouts came from the horizon as the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s reinforcements arrived.

The hundred thousand kilometers surrounding the Great Primordial Mine were divided between the Eastern Wastelands’ various sacred lands. The Flickering Light Sacred Land thus had many source mines, each with powerful experts overseeing them.

Unfortunately, Jiang Yi had long since made preparations and after fleeing, he opened a Domain Gate and his tracks completely disappeared.

In the end, the Flickering Light Grand Elders returned without any achievements, their faces unsightly.

Ye Fan was speechless. The thirteen powerful bandits were so unbridled, they even dared fight with the sacred lands.

In reality, the thirteen powerful bandits each had their own uncommon origins. Some came from sacred lands of the Eastern Wastelands, some came from the Central State’s drifting sovereigns, and there were even vagabonds who had fled from the Northern Desert.

This disturbance quickly passed and the new mortals that had arrived were quickly split up to the various mining areas.

Although they had just arrived, this land was simply too dull and there was nothing interesting about it. The area enveloped by the Dao Glyphs was no different from the outside world. It was eternally barren and empty.

Short stone houses were built over the brown soil. There were mines all over, but no signs of life.

In the distance, those people mining for Sources were completely expressionless as they worked stiffly.

They were practically numb. They had no reaction to these new people. It was like they had lost their spirits.

Many people shivered. Was this their future? Under the monotonous labor day after day, they would simply become walking corpses…

------

Three days later, Ye Fan had learned many things.

Normally there would be no problems with mining Sources. Just by using a normal body’s strength it was possible to mine. But once a demonic monster appeared, it would be extremely dangerous. Even powerful cultivators would be hard-pressed to survive.

Very few people were able to survive the ten years to return with a large amount of gold coins back to the southern region.

Ye Fan frowned. The Dao Glyphs densely covered this area, isolating it from the outside world. Only at special times could one leave. To escape would require quite a bit of planning.

But he wasn’t anxious. This place was practically a treasure. With Sources in the ground, if he was able to gather them and use them for cultivation, he would definitely be able to progress twice as fast with half the effort.

The only thing he was worried about in this region was the Flickering Light Sacred Lady. If Yao Xi were to come here, his situation would definitely become terrible.

Thinking about the inner garments he held in his robes right now, he immediately smiled.

The grand Flickering Light Sacred Lady wouldn’t come to this dusty mining area. Even if she was coming to the northern region, it was definitely for something else.

Ye Fan had to painfully break his own bones in order for them to properly heal. Many of them had changed shape and needed to be properly realigned.

“Damn, it really hurts.” Deep into the night, Ye Fan grimaced in pain as he corrected his bone alignments.

---

After a couple assignments, new people constantly replaced the ones around him. Although he wasn’t afraid of being noticed by these people, he still smeared his face with dust to conceal his identity every day.

---

Several days passed again and he once more went to work. He was now completely confident that his new appearance would not draw other people’s suspicions.

In the end, Ye Fan was sent to the fifteenth mining area.

Over these few days, he had always been studying information about Sources while working.

Sources were very precious and even more rare.

When opening a mine, the first thing was to make sure there was a vein of Sources in the ground.

Even in this region, it wasn’t like the Sources were endless. Even just a small Source mine was precious and if several kilograms of Sources could be excavated from it, then that would be pretty good. In some Source mines they might only be able to find two Sources.

In the larger Source mines, they might be able to find more or higher quality Sources. This was extremely shocking, but it was very rare to find such a Source vein.

“No wonder Ji Hui thought that giving me a fist-sized Source was enough to repay the favor I did to the Ji Family.”

Sources were exceptionally precious. Fist-sized Sources could raise Divine Bridge realm cultivators a whole realm.

And at that time he was right at the Divine Bridge realm.

But to Ye Fan’s bottomless body, a fist-sized Source was far from enough to break through a realm.

This couldn’t be considered a true fault. Although he needed a large amount of Life Qi, his divine energy was also much more vigorous than others. Cultivators at the same level were not comparable to him.

Other than this, he could constantly absorb Sources and didn’t have a restriction on how much energy he could absorb.

But normal Divine Bridge cultivators who were capable of rising a whole realm with a fist-sized Source would need to slowly absorb one for a long time before refining it into their body.

If a mountain-sized Source was in front of him, Ye Fan could constantly refine it. But a normal cultivator would not be able to do so and could only take it slow, forced to helplessly watch the treasure in front of them.

Of course, refining the treasures of nature was only useful at the initial stages of cultivation. Once reaching the third secret realm, it was difficult to find any outside assistance. At that time, it all depended on comprehending the Dao.

After the third secret realm, only by comprehending the Dao could one increase their cultivation base. There were no shortcuts.

---

The fifteenth mining area was a vast brown land. The soil was very hard and difficult to dig. Over ten mine shafts had been opened here, but very few Sources had been found. Each mine shaft had only obtained half a kilogram’s worth of Sources. For each Source vein to only held half a kilogram of Sources truly was poor, but the Sources in it were very bright with little impurity, so their quality was quite good.

Other than this, the fifteenth mining area stretched as far as the eye could see. It had just been established, so it wouldn’t be closing any time soon. There was no exceptional Source vein here.

---

On the twentieth day, Ye Fan had finally been taught enough and finally was sent inside a mine shaft to begin mining for Sources.

“Oh heavens, oh Buddha, let me find Sources. I’ll refine them cleanly for you.”

Suddenly, just at Ye Fan wasdescending the mine shaft, a startled cry came from outside.

Hearing that startled cry, the experienced miners all fled up the shaft for their lives.

“Damn, how is that the first day I go mining we run into a demonic monster?”

Ye Fan’s bones had long since been reconnected properly and his physical body could not be compared to others. He was like an agile monkey as he climbed and was the first to rush out of the mine shaft.

“The mine in front has run into a devil!”

“That vein has some strange things. The people who entered all died, and even the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s senior cultivators, who are extremely powerful, were unable to make even a sound before they also died inside!

In the mine right in front of them, a terrifying evil air rushed out. It was like some life form wanted to rush out.

Seeing this situation, Ye Fan quickly fled far away. He had a bad premonition that he couldn’t stay there no matter what.

In the immediate surroundings of the mine, many people were sent tumbling and corpses were everywhere.

The fifteenth mining area was a complete mess as the miners were all terrified.

After running several kilometers, Ye Fan finally stopped and looked back.

------

Author’s Note: The Flickering Light and Jade Lake are two different Sacred Lands. The Flickering Light is from the Eastern Wastelands’ southern region and is the master of the Flickering Light Sacred Lady. As for the Jade Lake, it is in the northern region. It is the leader in terms of cultivation techniques for Dao Palace cultivators.

TL Note: In Chinese these terms are similar: 瑶池 vs 摇光. 瑶池 is the name of the Jade Lake in the Kunlun mountains, while 摇光 is the name of a star in the Big Dipper.