Shrouding the Heavens

Time seemed in flux. Maybe only a second passed, or maybe ten lifetimes had passed. The bizarre journey finally ended, and everyone could feel the passing of time resume.

The void split and the Flickering Light Sacred Land Grand Elder walked out, followed by several young disciples who differentially stood to the side.

He waved his sleeve, causing mist to fill the air. Using his secret art, the thousands of people descended to the ground from his sleeve.

Had they arrived in the northern region? Everyone was somewhat nervous and looking forward to it.

Ye Fan was also somewhat excited. He had finally arrived at the other end of the Eastern Wastelands. He could start a new life here. But just what kind of place was this?

As far as he could see, it was completely different from how he had imagined it. There were no flourishing flowers, no bustling streams of people. There was no vitality at all.

The land was completely barren. The scarlet soil and brown rocks were bleak and lonely.

The vast land stretched out far and empty with the slightest signs of life. Only a few bare mountains and random stones could be seen all the way to the horizon.

In this lifeless barren land, there were no signs of humans. Everything was completely dead.

“This is the northern region? Didn’t they say this place was bustling and filled with treasures?”

“Let alone other people, I can’t even see a single blade of grass. What kind of ghastly place is this?!”

“We have to mine Sources in such a place for ten years before being allowed back to the southern region… damn!”

At this time, the thousands of people were all dumbfounded. This was a bitter desert, causing everyone to feel depressed.

The Flickering Light Grand Elder frowned and said, “The sects who sent you to the Flickering Light Sacred Land didn’t tell you what kind of place this was?”

“It’s completely different from what they said. We didn’t think it’d be like this. Not even birds would fly to such a place.”

“The northern region is just like this…” The Flickering Light Grand Elder was completely calm.

The vast northern region was filled with Source mines, and so it was quite famous.

From the view here, it could be seen that there were few people in this land. They were unable to see any signs of people within a thousand kilometers. Everything they passed was completely barren.

The formation of strange materials like Sources required the condensation of Life Essence. It seemed this entire northern region’s Spiritual Qi was sucked dry.

“Heroes come from spiritual lands”; such a term was something that people couldn’t imagine had anything to do with the northern region.

This place also had some oases, but compared to its vastness, they were small and insignificant. These were the places to get Sources. They weren’t somewhere people just went for random fun. But it was also because of the Sources that life and death battles frequently occurred as people fought over Source mines.

Thus, all the various powerful sacred lands had come to mine Sources, and had brought people from their respective areas.

The value of Sources to cultivators was like gold coins to mortals. This led to thievery and riots. Not only were the natives here, but the various powers of the Eastern Wastelands had also sent people here.

In the contests for Source mines, blood flowed like rivers as people fought. Battle was a very frequently seen thing.

No matter how one put it, the northern region was a completely chaotic land.

This barren land had become famous due to its Sources, and it was thus ordained as a chaotic and bloody field.

The Flickering Light Grand Elder walked up along the scarlet ground, leaving behind a line of footprints. With a wild gust and clap of thunder, his figure suddenly disappeared.

The ground shook and swayed. The thousands of people were almost all thrown to the ground, all revealing terrified expressions.

In front of them, the scenery had changed. In the previously empty space appeared many stone mountains and houses, and there were even some people and Source mines.

This area had profound Dao Glyphs inlaid that had collected the land’s power to protect the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s Source areas by concealing them in an illusion.

The thousands of people were now in the northern region whether they wanted to be or not, and so they had no more options. They could only hope that ten years passed quickly and they could collect enough gold to live happily once they returned to the southern region. Those were the riches they were exchanging for ten years of their youth.

With this many people arriving, housing and food were all problems. But this was all arranged by specialists. As for the Flickering Light Grand Elder, he directly disappeared.

The northern region had countless mining areas, but the absolute greatest area of production was naturally the Great Primordial Mine. It was the absolute center of the region, while the various large sacred lands split up the surrounding ten thousand kilometers.

The Great Primordial Mine was one of the Eastern Wasteland’s seven areas forbidden to life. The depths of its area were completely surrounding by the claims of the powerful sacred lands, but not a single power dared enter.

Over the countless years, too many strange things had occurred in that ancient mining zone. Sacred Master after Sacred Master had entered without returning, so no one else dared have any ideas.

That place had become a cursed land…

In the northern region, the Great Primordial Mine might be the most terrifying and mysterious area, but as long as no one went and provoked it, there wouldn’t be any misfortunate.

To the sacred lands, the most dangerous existence was the robbers.

Roving bandits filled this land. Every day there would be bloody rivers flowing. It was definitely a true chaotic land.

Powerful bandits had come from all over the Eastern Wastelands. Even some of the vagabonds from the Central States and the Northern Desert had come for Sources. They formed a powerful and terrifying force.

Even a sacred land couldn’t be worry-free. Their mining areas were definitely in danger of being looted.

This wasn’t an exaggeration. Some powerful bandits were extremely powerful, comparable to a sacred land’s Grand Elder. They could come and go without leaving a trace, and thus were very difficult to capture.

In the northern region were thirteen exceptionally well-known and powerful bandits. Each of them was an expert and threatened the safety of the sacred lands’ Sources.

Each of the powerful sacred lands had surrounded them many times, but they had failed every time. Those powerful bandits managed to escape and it was difficult to trace their tracks.

“Kill!”

Suddenly, a thunderous voice exploded out and shook the sky.

This was proof of just how bloody and chaotic the northern region was.

These thousands of mortals had just entered the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s mining region. The Dao Glyphs had yet to absorb enough power to once more close before a squadron had come to attack them.

The invaders were all only seventy to eighty people. Each of them was a knight riding a powerful beast. The beasts’ scales shone sinisterly and their roars could be heard dozens of kilometers away. A killing aura soared.

This was a group of powerful knights whose whole bodies were filled with bloody odors, and there were even bloodstains on their bodies. Who knew just how many people they had killed? There was endless killing intent radiating off them.

The thousands of mortals immediately went limp. They were completely cowed by that killing intent. It sinisterly invaded their bones, making them tremble and forcing them to the ground.

The roar of those seventy to eighty beasts shook the land as they stepped across the sky towards the group. In the center was a thirty year-old man sitting atop a mythical beast. He was covered in iron plate that shone like divine armor.

There were eighteen poles behind him that had banners fluttering in the wind, as if they could break heaven and earth. Each banner was as red as blood, and a baleful aura soared from them as if they had drunk the blood of endless people.

He stuck three of the bloody banners onto the ground. They seemed to be pillars that were holding the sky, boundless and unfathomable. The banners shook, releasing a resounding sound as bloody light soared.

The land’s Dao Glyphs immediately lost their effect. The land’s great power stopped flowing as it was broken off, unable to flow to this region. This was due to those three bloody banners being inserted into the ground.

“Kill!”

These knights were all extremely powerful. It was like the heavens had descended onto the land. They possessed incomparable battle might. Including the beasts, it was like a powerful flood was descending as the sky rumbled.

“Who dares enter the forbidden land of the Flickering Light Sacred Land?”

The Flickering Light Sacred Land’s cultivators all charged out to block their attack. They were led by three seniors with white hair. Their gaze was electric.

“I, Jiang Yi, have come here. Who dares block me?!” That middle knight atop his mythical beast had fifteen bloody banners remaining behind him. A vast and terrifying aura exploded out from him.

He charged over alone with just a single banner. His speed was exceptionally fast, to the point where it was impossible to follow with eyes. All that could be seen was a line of afterimages.

“The ninth on the bandit list, Jiang Yi?” The Flickering Light Sacred Land’s cultivators were all extremely shocked. Those three seniors’ expressions all changed and they took out their weapons to block him.

However, this legendary powerful bandit was too powerful, and they were unable to resist at all.

That bloody banner violently swung, causing a dozen cultivators behind the three seniors to immediately let out miserable screams as they exploded.

Bloody lights collected around the banner as a dozen corpses fell out of the sky.

“Jiang Yi, you are originally from an Ancient Desolation Noble Family. Why do you need to be so tyrannical?!” shouted the three elders.

“You don’t have the qualifications to ask!” Jiang Yi’s beast arrived, and he mounted it. That bloody banner shot out like a lance and pierced towards them.

The three seniors joined hands to fight against him. One of them took out a jeweled pestle that grew to the size of a mountain, blossoming with divine light as it pressed forward.

Crack.

That banner’s bloody light was unstoppable. It was like a sharp spear as it collided with the mountain-sized pestle, causing the pestle to immediately shatter.

“This…” The three seniors left behind an afterimage as they quickly retreated.

Unfortunately, their speed could not be compared to Jiang Yi’s. His bloody banner pierced out and seemed to tear through space, directly piercing through an elder.

BANG!

Jiang Yi shook and the elder that had been pierced through disintegrated, a couple strands of bloody light entering into the banner.

“You…” Everything happened too quickly, and the two other elders were unable to help at all.

“Go accompany him!” Jiang Yi shook his large banner, and the bloody banner opened and began to flutter.

BANG, BANG!

Those two elders immediately exploded out, unable to resist at all!

This was a completely shocking scene. Jiang Yi could not be stopped. The banner’s might filled this area.

He sat down upon his mythical beast. The sky trembled as killing intent filled the air.

“Ninth on the bandit list – Jiang Yi!” Two Grand Elders rushed over from the distance. One of them was the Grand Elder who had brought Ye Fan and the others to this place.

“You’re a direct descendant of an Ancient Desolation Noble Family, yet you dare degrade yourself to become a thief! Why?!” shouted one of the Grand Elders.

“Ever since my big brother Jiang Zhe left the Jiang Family, I completely separated from the family. Don’t try to give me such a status again!” Jiang Yi’s eyes filled with cold light.

“No matter what is going on with you and the Jiang Family, we don’t care, but why have you come to plunder my Flickering Light Sacred Land’s Source area?”

“What a joke!” Jiang Yi coldly laughed. “The Source mines outside the Great Primordial Mine are obviously for the people of the northern region. What right do you have to come here and stake them as your own?!”

Ye Fan’s heart shook when he heard the name Jiang Zhe. He was the genius of his generation in the Jiang family, but for some unknown reason he had broken his ties with the Ji Family and died in a faraway foreign land. Little Tingting was his descendant.

BANG!

A bloody banner descended and stuck into the ground, quickly growing taller, growing hundreds of meters to like a heaven reaching ancient tree, completely enveloping the thousands of mortals in its bloody light.

“I don’t want to harm the innocent. You two old fools can come up and test me!” The ninth ranked bandit Jiang Yi waved his hand towards the knights behind him. “You go take the Sources. I’ll block these two old fools.”

The fourteen bloody banners behind his back all soared up into the sky. Like pillars supporting the heaven they towered into the sky, encasing the two Flickering Light Grand Elders.

Behind him, those dozens of knights all cried out and flooded over, shaking the sky.

Ye Fan was not able to stay calm. The Great Primordial Mine, the thirteen great bandits, the Jiang Family, and the Jade Lake Sacred Land were all close….