Shrouding the Heavens

Ye Fan had stayed in the town of Qing Feng for a period of time before finding out that this endless mountainous region was actually the outer region of the Forbidden Ancient Desolate Land.

From the south to the north of the Yan State it was about two thousand miles and from the east to the west it was about three thousand miles. The Forbidden Ancient Desolate Land was in the centre of this country and was surrounded by endless big mountains, the area occupied by it was over eight hundred miles.

Ling Xu, Yan Xia, Yu Ding and the other three immortal sanctuaries were all surrounding this area in the outer regions.

At this moment, Ye Fan was continually running into the depths of the forest, he could not wait to rush into the Forbidden Ancient Desolate Land. He felt a threat to his life and wanted to leave the small town as far behind him as possible.

“I hope my premonitions are wrong……” After running for over two hours, he had passed an innumerable amount of mountains before stopping to rest within a mountainous region.

Suddenly, he heard a ear-splitting roars of a ferocious beast that sounded like a thunderclap that ripped the vast skies, rumbling and surging as it resounded

“It’s coming from the direction of the town of Qing Feng……” Ye Fan was like an agile monkey as he rushed towards a cliff, pushing aside some vines as he entered a concealed cave. He held his breath and lowered any signs of life to the lowest point, his entire body became cold, seemingly devoid of life.

Not long after, he looked past the vines and saw a unique beast covered with green scales with a horseman from the Jiang Family.

“Really came chasing…….” Ye Fan’s eyes narrowed and his heart felt cold, he had personally witnessed the fearsomeness of the Jiang Family horsemen and if he was caught he would be dead for sure.

A while later, the mighty horseman rode on his unique beast and rushed back, continually hovering between a distant mountainous region and this piece of mountainous region.

“He’s locked on to this region, could it be that he has discovered me?” Ye Fan’s body felt cold and felt that death was just around the corner.

At the same time, his heart was filled with anger. The other party must have rushed over to look for his precious treasure, if he was found, there was no way to live. He did not dare to be agitated and did not move, continuing to lower any presence of life and he seemed like a dried up piece of wood as he hid within the cave.

Four hours passed before the green beast finally flew away and slowly disappeared into the horizon. Ye Fan did not dare to move and only when the sky became thoroughly dark did he nimbly climb out of the cave, swiftly running to another mountainous region.

“Jiang Family……” Ye Fan grit his teeth.

This night, Ye Fan did not light any fires and picked some wild fruit to sustain himself as he hid within the thriving cluster of thistles and thorns.

In the night, the roars of unknown beasts could be heard and it was extremely unsettling, the stars and moon in the sky were dim and a sinister air seemed to be present, the trees in the wild mountainous lands seemed to be shaking like a malicious spirit that was baring its teeth and flashing it claws.

Suddenly, the sounds of roaring wild beasts within this area vanished and the forest became absolutely silent. Ye Fan’s heart tensed and his body seemed to have withered as he stood there immobile.

It was unknown when the unique beast suddenly appeared in the sky with a man sitting atop it, giving the beasts below a feeling of immense danger.

It was only late into the night before the horseman finally disappeared from this area. Ye Fan felt cold sweat covering his entire body and knew that if this continued, he would certainly be caught sooner or later.

“If i clash with them head on I’ll certainly die, how can I get rid of him……” Ye Fan could not think of any ideas and could only choose to continue running.

In the next two days, Ye Fan continued to travel through the mountainous region while hiding, there were a few times where he was almost discovered by the other party and it could be said that he had a close brush with death.

It was on the third day where he met with the greatest danger, the other party seemed to sense that he could be hiding in the region and ruthlessly attacked, using a spiritual weapon to slice through several rock cliffs and dissected the entire mountainous region, destroying much undergrowth and causing the entire region to become barren.

Ye Fan was hiding within the swamp not far away and did not dare to move a whisker, his entire body was covered in mud and dried leaves as he held his breath, silently waiting for the horseman to leave.

The other party did not even leave the swamp unscathed and used his spiritual weapon which turned into a blue lightning, sweeping past the swamp causing many ravines to form, totally destroying the swamp.

“Chi!”

Suddenly, the spiritual weapon which was light a blue lightning flashed past, slicing through the mud and although it did not hit his body, the blue light brushed past his chest and Ye Fan felt a stinging pain but bore with it and did not move. If his body were not exceptionally strong, a normal cultivator would have his waist cut off by that frightening blue light!

An hour later, everything finally became peaceful again. Ye Fan grit his teeth as he extricated himself from the mud, fresh blood was gurgling from his abdomen and actually dyed the mud red.

“Jiang Yi Chen, sooner or later I’ll kill you! Even an ancient aristocratic family will not be able to save you!”

Ye Fan suddenly felt the as thought the sky were falling, he had lost too much blood and his abdomen had almost been split apart. If it weren’t for the mud that obstructed the blood flow, he would have long died to blood loss.

He hurriedly found a mountain spring and used the water to wash his wound, thereafter he took off his clothes which were filled with mud and used the cleaner parts of his clothing to wrap his wound. The wound on his waist was too serious and his intestines could also be seen as blood continued to flow without stopping.

Losing too much blood, Ye Fan felt his body losing its strength and even his hands were dyed with blood. He tore all the clean clothing he had and used them to press on the wound. However, the blood still continued to flow and his lower half was dyed red, his skin was already becoming pale.

Ye fan used his two hands to press against his wound, blood continued to flow out from between fingers, he bit his lips to maintain consciousness, unwilling to faint. Slowly circulating the Dao Scripture, utilising all the life force within him to try and stabilize the injury.

“It is the way of heaven to take from what has in excess in order to make good what is deficient…*”

[T/N*: Excerpt from Laozi’s classics]

Just as he was about to faint, from the depths of his mind a sound could be heard, several hundred ancient words flowed like a stream within his innermost being, allowing his consciousness which was blurry to gradually become clearer.

Ye Fan gradually regained his calm, his consciousness had recovered and he no longer felt dizzy. At the same time, the Dao Scripture was silently circulating, the qi essence of life continually surging towards the area of his wound. Eventually, faint blue light could be seen rushing out of that frightful wound that was wrapped up, the great danger that he faced was finally over as the qi essence of life flowed and managed to stop the blood loss.

Ye Fan was extremely weak but he still grit his teeth as he stood up, swaying as he slowly made his way towards the forest in the mountainous region. He needed to find a secluded area to hide as his wound was quite serious and he could no longer run.

Initially, Ye Fan had wanted to use these few days to rush into the Forbidden Ancient Desolate Land, only in this way would the horseman be apprehensive and not dare to go too deep. However, he did not have the strength and after careful consideration, he staggered as he headed back in the direction which he came from.

Finally, he came to an area which the horseman had destroyed and stopped within the rubble, hiding in a crevice within the rocks.

This region had already been searched and Ye Fan attempted to guess at the thoughts of the horseman and felt that this area would be a blind spot for a short period of time.

Ye Fan did not eat or drink and hid within the crevice for two days and two nights before the wound was completely under control. Even so, it was still difficult for him to make any sudden movements.

In these two days, that horseman had been hovering in the air above the mountainous region and much of the mountains and forest had been destroyed by him.

This night, Ye Fan slowly climbed out of the crevice and picked many wild fruits as he changed locations to hide. The new area had recently been ravaged by the horseman, trees were severed, rocks were shattered and the entire area was a mess.

“I’ll slowly follow behind you, wherever you search I’ll be there to hide.” Under these dangerous circumstances where his life could be snuffed out at any time, Ye Fan could only earnestly consider as he carefully hid, choosing to hide himself in the horseman’s blind spot.

This continued for five to six days before he gradually recovered. This could be said to be a form of torture and within these few days, under the shortage of food as well as suffering from the wound, he grew much skinnier.

“If it weren’t for my exceptional physique which is better than an ordinary cultivator, I would have already been killed by that blue light.” Ye Fan gazed at the horizon as he muttered: “I will definitely escape from this ordeal, I cannot die here.”

“Jiang Family…….” Ye Fan grit his teeth.

He did not have sufficient strength now and he could only risk death and hide into the Forbidden Ancient Desolate Land in order to escape from the horseman. Ye Fan’s body had mostly recovered and he began to diverge his path as he tried to get closer to the Forbidden Ancient Desolate Land.

“I’ve eaten the divine fruit and should be able to resist the curse there, going to that region which forbids life may be a good opportunity for me!”