Shrouding the Heavens

Chapter 184 Heavenly Source Master

Over the next seven days, Ye Fan’s entire body began to overflow with light. His life force was like an ocean, and the strange scenes within his Wheel and Sea lit up and emitted all kinds of sounds.

This continued until the seventh day, when the light gradually withdrew and the cave became dimmer. Ye Fan’s body no longer glowed, becoming plain and quiet. His life force withdrew and no longer flowed out.

On the eighth day, his body began to dry up, an exceptionally different appearance from his previously shining body.

On the ninth day, his organs stopped working. His previous vigorous life force was replaced with a heavy, deathly air.

On the tenth day, his bones turned dull, no longer a pure white. It was like they were about to decay and could no longer exist.

This was the transformation of the Paramita realm.

After arriving at the Paramita realm, a cultivator’s flesh, organs, and bones would all wither, before then being reborn into a different new existence. After shedding one’s flesh and bones nine times, the transformation would be complete.

However, this wasn’t the exact same as what was currently happening to Ye Fan. He was going progressively step by step, instead of starting the transformation only after he reached the peak of the Paramita realm.

His nine transformations would be undergone separately. What was happening now was just the first transformation, so his body hadn’t completely withered and been reborn.

Ye Fan’s entire body seemed to want to return to the dust, the dust returning to the earth. He was about to completely decay, his life force reaching its end.

It was only on the eleven day that he became like a plant that had survived the frost, and once more recovered his life force. Vitality surged out of him.

The cave lit up as Life Qi filled it. Ye Fan’s essence blood had been reborn. It was like a large surging river and extremely loud, the surging sound capable of being heard from a great distance.

His heart pulsed with an even greater power, sounding like a drum was beating. The pulsing sound would definitely overwhelm ordinary mortals if they heard it. His organs were all shaking and ringing like bells. His bones were constantly ringing out as the grayness retreated and was replaced with a snowy jade whiteness. They shone brightly and purely as they trembled continuously.

All of his old injuries, whether it was outer ones on his skin or inner ones on his organs or bones, had now undergone another baptism. Although they had already been healed, this time, the process was a completely new rebirth.

His entire body was pure and completely reborn. This transformation persisted for several days before Ye Fan completely awoke. The divine energy within his body was now surging.

This time, it couldn’t be considered shedding his mortal body. But his body had been greatly improved and was now much more tyrannical.

“There are still eight more chances for transformations. If I continue to the end like this, with all eight overlaying over each other, it should be comparable to a ‘shedding one’s mortal body’ transformation.”

He had consumed two sacred fruits and once used the essence blood of the sacred heart of the demon race’s Great Emperor to refine his body. All together, there had been three shedding of his mortal body transformations. He sensed that if all nine of the Paramita realm’s transformations were added together, they would also be comparable to one “shedding one’s mortal body” transformation.

Ye Fan noticed that he had refined five kilograms of his Sources. This stunned him. His consumption was much greater than he had expected. He originally thought that this many Sources would be enough to reach the great circle of perfection of Paramita and enter the Dao Palace mystic realm.

“According to such consumption, just a couple dozen kilograms of Sources is not enough for me to continue all the way through nine transformations. I need to find more Sources.”

That fact that he had used up so many Sources also meant that his transformation had been very thorough and that his body had been powered up by a larger amount. This would definitely startle others, as it had far surpassed ordinary cultivators.

“This is really extravagant spending…” He was somewhat regretful. If he hadn’t come to the northern region, it would be very difficult for him to resolve this problem.

Over the next few days, Ye Fan bitterly cultivated in seclusion without leaving. He had enough food and water in the pure jade bottle that he didn’t need to be worried.

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Time passed quickly, and two months passed in the blink of an eye. Ye Fan passed through six transformations in total before using up all his Sources.

These six transformations powered him up even more, and at the same time, his Wheel and Sea also changed quite a bit.

Inside the cave, Ye Fan was towering and unmoving, his whole body covered in electrical arcs. His golden sea appeared around him, his green lotus and blue sky complementing it beautifully.

This wasn’t a true Variation, just one further evolution of his Wheel and Sea. It had broken through the restriction of his physical body and could now appear in the real world.

That green lotus was like the Dao that gave birth to one. It always had three leaves, just like how three gave birth to all things. It swayed gently, as primal chaos enshrouded it and also enveloped Ye Fan.

That blue sky was bright and pure, like a precious stone. Lightning dragons roved about, interwoven with thunder and light. It was like the thunder from the beginning of the universe had somehow managed to teleport here.

Within the waves of the golden sea, Ye Fan was a stable boulder. He didn’t move himself, but flowed naturally with the undulations.

This was marvelous scene. The thunder and lightning that seemed to come from becoming of the universe was deafening. Eventually, everything calmed down, to become quiet and harmonious.

This wasn’t a Variation, but was comparable to one. It had completely enveloped him, making him seem as if he were standing in a different marvelous world.

At this time, Ye Fan was completely calm and was in harmony with the pulsing of heaven and earth. Within that quiet calm was an exceptional strength.

Only a long time later did he open his eyes. The green lotus, blue sky, golden sea, thunder and lightning and the rest, all disappeared.

In Ye Fan’s current situation, he had no choice but to go looking for Sources. His body was like a bottomless pit and no matter how many Sources he had, it wasn’t enough.

By this time, he was truly envious of the disciples of sacred lands. With powerful ancient secrets and endless heavenly treasures, all they had to do was bitterly cultivate to succeed.

But he had to think of methods to steal cultivation techniques and find his own Sources. For just one secret art, he was chased into the northern region and barely survived.

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Rumble…

Ye Fan used the golden tome to slash through the land in search of Sources. This region was quickly turned over with huge cracks everywhere within the earth and stone.

He only found a stone vein on the fourth day. This was a vein of stones that commonly contained Sources within them, but after completely excavating it, he was disappointed to find he had found less than two hundred grams of Sources. So little!

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Half a month later, Ye Fan finally managed to collect over five hundred grams of Sources. This let him clearly understand that the mining areas controlled by the sacred lands were the best. In comparison, the other regions were far too poor.

Continuing like this wasn’t a solution. He had to think of something else.

When Ye Fan returned to his residence, the stone cave, he suddenly noticed a group of about ten people. Among them was an old man, while the rest were all able-bodied young men. Right now they were examining his stone mountain as they circled around it.

“Ah, Bandit Chen Da really is vicious and oppressive. If we can’t hand three kilograms of Sources over, he’ll have all the young and old folk in our village killed.”

“Nothing we can do about it. The strongest person in our village is just in the Spring of Life realm. How could we compare to his group of powerful roving bandits?”

“The deadline is coming up soon. If we still aren’t able to find enough Sources, our village really will fall into danger.”

“Fifth Grandpa Zhang, you’ve circled around this stone mountain already. Are there Sources in there or not?” asked a straightforward young man.

“Inside this stone mountain are definitely Sources, and high grade ones, too. Unfortunately, this stone mountain is over three hundred meters tall, and with our strength, there’s no way to excavate it,” that old white-haired Fifth Grandpa Zhang sighed.

Ye Fan had lived there for two months and hadn’t noticed any Sources. But this old man just circled around the mountain once to be sure there was one. It really was stunning.

“Let’s go looking around elsewhere.” Fifth Grandpa Zhang sighed and said, “Over these years, the easily found places have all been mined empty. Looks like we have to go somewhere more distant. I wonder whether we’ll make it in time.”

The ten people turned their horses and started galloping into the distance.

Ye Fan flew out a short time after and stood atop the stone mountain. He took out the golden tome and started hacking at the mountain.

Stone flew everywhere, and he quickly cut through dozens of meters from the summit before already actually finding a Source vein.

He began to excavate through it, finding over a kilogram of Sources. This area truly did have high grade Sources.

“That old man’s gaze truly saw the truth!” Ye Fan was somewhat amazed.

The sound of horses rang out as Fifth Grandpa Zhang and the other ten young men returned. They had heard the activity from behind them.

Seeing the stone mountain’s summit split open and a teenaged youth standing there, everyone was shocked.

The white-haired Fifth Grandpa Zhang jumped off his horse and bowed. “This little brother, no, this little immortal, senior respectfully greets you.”

The other young men also hurriedly jumped off their horses and bowed when they saw this.

“Sir, there’s no need for you to do this,” said Ye Fan, smiling.

Among the ten people was an eighteen-year old man who was the most clever, and seeing Fifth Grandpa Zhang act like this, he immediately understood and kowtowed, saying, “Little immortal, please save us! Help us please! We won’t be able to survive.”

The others all comprehended and kowtowed, saying, “Bandit Chen Da wants to kill everyone in our village. Little immortal, please save us.”

A rather stupid young man kowtowed even harder, his forehead even bleeding as he said, “Little brother, save us. My older sister has already been taken by them, and her future will be terrible. And now for Sources, they actually want to kill our entire village’s people…” His bitter tears began to flow.

Fifth Daoist Zhang kneeled down, his white-haired head smashing into the ground as he lamented, “Little immortal, please save us. We really will not be able to live. In such a short time, there’s no way we can collect three kilograms of Sources. Those brutes have threatened us that if we don’t have enough, they’ll kill all the men in our village, and capture all the women.”

Ye Fan didn’t want to cause trouble, but the thing he hated to see the most was the weak being bullied. This was his innate nature that he couldn’t ignore.

“Senior, please rise.” He descended to the ground and lifted up this old man whose forehead was now bleeding and asked, “What kind of group are those people?”

“They’re roving bandits who will commit any crime imaginable. They aren’t as famous as the Thirteen Great Bandits, so they specialize in tormenting the weak.”

“There are actually many roving bandits like this, but ones as cruel as them are rather few.”

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The group of people began to describe the whole sequence of events.

These roving bandits didn’t have a set headquarters. They fought all over the place for Sources, frequently killing people, humiliating young women, and committing all sorts of atrocities.

According to their descriptions, these roving bandits had a Divine Bridge realm cultivator. Although the village had people who cultivated, they were unable to resist the bandit leader.

Ye Fan pondered over this. These bandits went all over the place fighting, so they definitely had Sources. He could probably beat these bandits and take the loot.

“Senior, let me ask, are roving bandits like this common?”

“Very common. They’re like ants. When one batch goes, another one comes. Everywhere in the northern region is the same, and it’s very chaotic.” Fifth Grandpa Zhang shook his head.

This was also why a remote village would have cultivators. Without the power to guard them, their situation would definitely turn bleak.

Ye Fan’s eyes were bright as he thought about how his difficult problem could now be resolved. He nodded and said, “Fifth Grandpa Daoist, I’ll return back with you.”

“Many thanks, little immortal!” These people were all very moved and once more bowed.

“No need to be like this, no need!” Ye Fan hastily stopped them.

Along the way, Ye Fan consulted with Fifth Grandpa Zhang on why he could see that the stone mountain had Sources.

“That stone mountain had a thick grandness. Its peak had scales, its sides had stone vines curled around, and other than this…” Fifth Grandpa Daoist said a bunch of things. In the end, he added, “There are all kinds of indicators on the outside that there was a stone with a Source inside.”

Ye Fan was speechless. To think that searching for Sources was so complicated. According to what the old man had said, even the movements of the celestial sky, the changes in the color of soil, and various factors all had to be taken into consideration.

“It’s so complicated…” Ye Fan was very amazed.

“This is just the more obvious methods.” Fifth Grandpa Zhang shook his head, saying, “Searching for Sources is truly an endlessly profound art. You must examine the appearance of the mountains and plains, learn the paths of the earth’s underground veins, and sometimes even the stars in the sky have an impact…”

Ye Fan couldn’t help being startled. To think that finding Sources had so many principles to it, it truly was profound and broad.

“Is everything you’re saying actually true?”

“Of course it’s true. Fifth Grandpa Daoist is the most famous Source Master within this region.”

“Fifth Grandpa Zhang is very accurate when looking for Sources and is rarely ever wrong.”

Fifth Grandpa Zhang shook his head and said, “I’ve only learnt a tiny bit of what the ancestors have passed down. This kind of knowledge has almost completely died out.”

“His ancestors were Heavenly Source Masters capable of finding the Sources’ dragon veins, capable of determining the position of peerless Divine Sources and not letting them get away,” said the rather dumb person.

“Heavenly Source Master… capable of finding peerless Divine Sources?” Ye Fan was incomparably amazed.

“Divine Sources are alive. They are found within Source dragon veins, and even if ordinary people happen to find them, they won’t be able to capture them,” added a middle-aged man.

Fifth Grandpa Daoist shook his head, saying, “According to what my ancestors said, rather than saying Divine Sources are alive, it’s that the life forms sealed within them are still alive.”

“What?!” Ye Fan was even more shocked now. A mortal actually had such an understanding of Divine Sources!

“According to my ancestors’ conjectures, those lifeforms are all extremely tyrannical. Even powerful cultivators of this age might not be their match.” Fifth Grandpa Daoist didn’t hold anything back and told him everything he knew. “My ancestors once personally saw an ancient person walk out from a peak Divine Source. With a mournful howl, a mountain range was completely shattered.”

Ye Fan’s heart shook as he let his imagination run wild. The northern region was truly too mysterious. This huge land had far too many strange things occur in the past. Although the earth was completely barren and without any life, the things of the past hadn’t been finished and were still sealed here.

“How much understanding did your ancestors have of ancient lifeforms?” asked Ye Fan.

“Not much,” Fifth Grandpa Daoist shook his head. “According to what my ancestors left behind, those mysterious life forms are taboo existences within the northern region. It’s best not to talk about them too much, otherwise some bad things might happen…”

“If your ancestors were Heavenly Source Masters, their status must have not been ordinary. For them to know such secrets…”

“Heavenly Source Masters is just a title. In the distant past of the northern region, there were only a few. Now there are almost none.” The middle-aged man seemed to be somewhat sorrowful.

Ye Fan sucked in a cold gasp of air. He didn’t have much understanding of the northern region, but it appeared Heavenly Source Masters were definitely not as simple as ordinary mortals.

“In the northern region is an immortal land called the Jade Lake. They even once invited Fifth Grandpa Zhang’s ancestors to be a guest there,” said the rather stupid fellow.

“What?!” Ye Fan was truly shocked.

He was invited to the Jade Lake Sacred Land? If so, Heavenly Source Masters were definitely sacred figures that had far surpassed mortals. To be able to find dragon veins and determine the location of Divine Sources, they were probably unimaginable existences.

“Afterwards, did the Jade Lake’s people come back to your village?” asked Ye Fan.

“They came back once five hundred years ago, but unfortunately the Heavenly Source Book had already been over a thousand years ago. The descendants after that only learned some superficial knowledge, and so they weren’t able to help them.” Fifth Grandpa Zhang shook his head.

“Looks like your ancestors must have been extraordinary people. Did they leave behind an era of peace for your village?” Ye Fan felt that Heavenly Source Masters were transcendent sacred figures what were hard to measure, so he purposely asked this.

“Ah…” Fifth Grandpa Daoist sighed, saying, “Heavenly Source Masters know too many secrets about Sources, and will definitely attract some inauspicious matters…”