Shrouding the Heavens

“You’re really quite the gangster.”Ye Fan was amused: “Using your words, if you aren’t honest, I have many ways to deal with you.”

Ji Ziyue used her pearly white teeth to gently nibble her red lips, her head was twisted to the side as she looked at the clouds by the horizon, seeming to want to say something before finally swallowing her words down.

Ye Fan did not immediately act to interrogate her, he had time and it was more important to temper and refine the profound earth essence, his cauldron was already shattered, it was currently together with the aurichalcite leaving him extremely worried.

Within the wheel and spring, the aurichalcite was motionless as profound earth essence swirled around it, the shattered cauldron ebbed and flowed, mixing together with the profound earth making it impossible to differentiate one from the other.

Ji Ziyue made a lot of sense, with the cauldron shattered, it was actually a chance and not a disaster for Ye Fan.

“Since it’s shattered, I will reforge it!” Ye Fan’s concentration was on his divine spring, the divine energy within his Wheel and Sea was carefully squeezing the shattered cauldron.

What he needed to do right now was not to immediately forge, rather, he needed to completely shatter the cauldron, allowing it to fully integrate with the profound earth essence.

Shattering the cauldron within his sea of bitterness was akin to shattering his own body, his divine energy rotated as his focus submerged within, giving him an impression of crushing his own body.

The profound earth essence was shining like the moonlight, extremely eye-catching as it continually merged with the shattered cauldron, under Ye Fan’s control, the two gradually became indistinguishable, gradually turning into a streak of light.

It continued to swirl around the aurichalcite, misty, mystical and profound. Finally, within the light, the sharpness receded as it became simple and unadorned, strands of profound earth dual qi naturally circulated, giving one a feeling of inconceivability.

Since the beginning of the world, small amounts of heaven’s essence and earth’s quintessence were produced, these were the origin qi of all living things, they contained an unfathomably mysterious energy which was a priceless treasure for forging artifacts!

Ye Fan carefully controlled, he was in no rush to forge his cauldron, in order to fully assimilate the two, he continually tempered and refined the qi, directing it towards the seal of the aurichalcite at the same time.

Using the essence of profound earth to encompass the aurichalcite, continually forging and engraving, wanting to fuse the two, engraving the naturally formed Dao Inscriptions on to it.

This was destined to be a long process, he needed time to slowly sharpen on the grindstone, initially everything went smoothly without any problems, this was an auspicious beginning.

In this manner, Ye Fan lived temporarily by the shore of the lake, adding a number of seals onto the binding of Ji Ziyue to prevent her from breaking through her restraints. Time passed swiftly and in the blink of an eye half a month had already gone by. Mist filled the lake as gleaming reflections of waves in the sunlight could be seen, the lush, green trees by the shore coupled with the fragrant flowers and plants.

Beneath a sprawling ancient tree, Ji Ziyue was motionless, restrained there. Ye Fan ignored her shrill cries as he focused, using the pen within his hand to draw onto her pristine jade-like face.

His hand moved swiftly, drawing a toad as he nodded, apparently very satisfied. Placing the pen by the side, he lifted a mirror and placed it before Ji Ziyue.

“Aaaaahhhh!” Zi Ji Yue screamed as though she had met with a terrifying incident, piercing to the extreme. She was incensed as she grit her teeth, staring hatefully at Ye Fan.

“Half a month has gone by but you’ve only written the first part of the ancient scripture for me, that’s simply too little. I require the full text…….” Having said this, Ye Fan suddenly diverted the topic carefully and systematically: “I have the profound earth essence, one would be hard pressed to find it even after tens of thousands of years, if you are willing to fully transmit the ancient scripture, I will gift you the origin qi of all living things. This will be mutually beneficial, no one will take a loss.” Ji Ziyue was moved as her large eyes blinked: “I need time to consider.”

“Don’t think I don’t know that you’re trying to delay time.” Ye Fan sat there as he prepared pen and paper, releasing the seal on Ji Ziyue’s right hand: “Stop hesitating, the origin qi of all living things is right before you, don’t you wish to acquire it?”

Ji Ziyue angrily continued: “You’re too much, I’ve already given you countless treasures, you really don’t know how to be satisfied. At the worst I’ll die together with you. If I die, the mark on my body will immediately alert the Ji Family, everything that has occurred thus far will be exposed……”

Ye Fan was speechless, placing a phoenix hairpin, two bracelets and a pair of earrings before her: “How could I possibly use these items? If you hand me the ancient scripture, I will return all of them to you.”

Ji Ziyue’s expression immediately changed as she said sobbingly: “It’s not that I don’t wish to write the ancient scripture, the elders of my family have placed a restriction within my sea of bitterness, if I dare to leak any information, I will immediately die…….”

Ye Fan lightly laughed: “Don’t pretend to be pitiful, I don’t believe your words in the slightest.”

Ji Ziyue’s beautiful eyes became watery as she helplessly bawled: “I’ve never had enmity with you, I even let the people of the demon race go, I’ve never had the thought of hurting you but you actually treat me in this manner……”

This made Ye Fan feel ashamed, after capturing this troublemaker, he found it really difficult to deal with her. He could not kill her but leaving her was also leaving a threat behind, constantly pressing for the ancient scripture but failing to acquire the mystical technique.

“I must acquire the ancient scripture no matter what, stop acting……”

Ji Ziyue expression changed once again, the water in her eyes seemed to dry up as she exposed her pearly white teeth: “I’ll duke it out with you!”

“Alright, let’s do this.” Ye Fan began to take off her shoes and socks.

Ji Ziyue shrilly cried: “What are you doing? Stop!”

“Are you going to write the ancient scripture or not?”

“I….!!”

Ye Fan had removed her shoes and socks, exposing her pristine tiny feet, like pure white jade, sparkling and translucent, specks of flickering lights could be seen on her glossy, delicate and beautiful legs.

“You…….” Ji Ziyue’s face was flushed, she was thoroughly afraid as she chimed: “Stop now!”

Ye Fan was calm as she slowly applied a coating of honey onto her feet, finally catching some ants which he placed atop it.

Within the ancient forest, Ji Ziyue’s embarrassed and angry shrill cries could be heard: “Little kid Ye Fan! I’ll never forgive you, aahhhhh……”

An hour later, Ye Fan held a few pieces of paper as he walked to the shore of the lake, his expression was focused as he earnestly read what was written atop it.

“The great Dao measures all, all living things will be used up and will return back to the earth……”

Ye Fan scrutinised while also comprehending, the ancient scripture of the Ji Family was indeed unique, definitely not any inferior to the Dao Scripture.

The words in the first few sections already highlighted the key points which this ancient scripture was used for, the great Dao was formless but it’s uses are unlimited, this was the Formless Scripture of the Ji Family.

The formless great Dao, whittling away at the sharpened tip of all living things, resolving the disputes amongst all living things, harmonizing the brilliance of all living things, incorporated into all living things of the earth, however, it was in itself forever formless, forever existing.

It was a pity that Ji Ziyue was extremely stubborn, writing only a limited few pages. If he wanted to acquire the entire ancient scripture, he needed to spend even more time.

These few pages of scripture were rather incoherent, explaining a pitiful amount with regards to the Dao Palace, there were only a few pages for him to carefully scrutinise.

“The harvest god is immortal, it designates the mysterious valley, the door of the mysterious valley is the root of the heaven’s lake……” Although it was merely a short half page, it was able to enlighten Ye Fan on how to cultivate the Dao Palace.

“One really has the cultivate the five divinities!”

One could nourish the spirit to become immortal, the Dao Palace had the divinities, if one could utilise it as their own, they could extend their lifespan!

Nourishing the five spirits, combining the divinities with qi, various mystical things would occur.

The Dao Palace was extremely mysterious, even more exceptional than that of the Wheel and Sea, establishing it would create various mystical scenes, it was a pity that Ye Fan was only able to read half a page and did not know how to continue from there. If one wanted to cultivate the Dao Palace, they had to surpass their sea of bitterness, reaching the Other Shore before cultivating.

In the time that followed, Ye Fan began to bitterly cultivate, he did not wish to waste a single moment.

During this process, he continually tempered the essence of profound earth, forcing it to encompass the aurichalcite, imprinting the Dao Inscriptions onto it while intermingling them.

During this period of time, the most important thing that Ye Fan had to do was acquire the blood essence within the demon emperor’s sacred heart, he needed to become stronger and this heart which was submerged within his spring of life, if he did not use it that would be such a waste. This time, he used the dual qi of profound earth to apply pressure on the sacred heart, causing bloody lights to envelop the sky, using this method to acquire more blood essence.

With the aurichalcite pressing it down, the demon emperor’s sacred heart simply could not resist, like a river dragon that was in the shallows, afraid of doing any sudden movements.

For a full half month, Ye Fan continued to squeeze, forcing out more the sacred blood, baptising his body as it became brilliant like jade, removing all the impurities within his body as he neared a complete transformation.

Ji Ziyue witnessed all of this and felt stupefied, she could sense that there were many mysteries surrounding Ye Fan’s body and it was not as simple as it appeared on the surface.

The nineteenth day of processing the demon emperor’s sacred blood, an astonishing transformation occurred as the blood red heart seemed as though it could no longer bear it, thoroughly exploding forth.

Ye Fan’s golden sea of bitterness churned, if it were not for the aurichalcite, he feared that he would have already disintegrated.

The heart of the demon emperor continued to beat as though it had recovered its vitality, it was unwilling to let the sacred blood be forced out of it as it attempted to forcefully shock Ye Fan to death. Back then, even experts who had surpassed the Other Shore realm could not bear it, one could imagine just how frightening it was!

The dual qi of the profound earth circulated atop the aurichalcite, stabilizing the Wheel and Sea, preventing any harm from befalling Ye Fan. The heart that was dazzling like a ruby blazed, forcefully breaking free from Ye Fan’s sea of bitterness, turning into a dazzling streak of blood red light as it disappeared into the horizon.

Intense pain could be felt within his sea of bitterness, although it was swiftly healing, it took a long time before he finally recovered. This outcome simply left him speechless as he muttered: “I was too fierce in pressing it, the sacred heart of the demon emperor actually…… flew away!”

The powerful sacred heart of the demon emperor was unwilling to be used daily, finally……. Running away without leaving a single trace of it.

“Heavens, the sacred heart of the demon emperor was actually within your body!” Ji Ziyue was speechless, an expression of incredulity could be seen on her face. Ye Fan did not chase but rather sat down, using the last drops of sacred blood which he had acquired to baptise his body once more.

In this moment, his entire body was like jade as his five organs flashed, his bones were dazzling and his skin was glistening, after the baptism of the sacred blood, he could feel bouts of pain race through his body. Finally, since consuming the two sacred medicines, his body experienced its third shedding of skin and exchanging of bones.

This was a painful and unbearable process that lasted for half a day before everything calmed down once again. Ye Fan seemed like a god as he stood up, multicoloured lights shot forth in all directions, as bright as the sun, moon or stars, resplendent like a rainbow in the sky. A long time passed before the splendour finally receded, returning back to his original appearance.

He could feel an immense power, after his third complete transformation, he seemed as though he had been reborn, the amount of energy contained within his body seemed endless!

His five fingers slowly clenched into a fist, the golden fist seemed to have golden lightning swirling about it, as though it could pierce through heaven and earth.

What was most inconceivable was the dual qi of profound earth that actually floated above the golden fist, as though it had been smelted atop it.

Ji Ziyue was stunned, her small mouth was in a ‘O’ shape: “Young fellow…… what did you do?”

A gentle breeze blew by as Ye Fan’s black hair danced, clenching his golden fist, he felt incredibly strong as the dual qi of profound earth diffused out.