Chapter 111 Divine Bridge Realm
From nothingness, heaven and earth began.
The nine ancient characters carved into the cauldron’s interior walls contained heaven and earth’s Dao and Truth. At first they seemed like stars, s.h.i.+ning with divine light. They then seemed like primal chaos, releasing formless nothingness. Thousands of changes occurred without the slightest order.
With the birth of the heaven and earth, all living things came.
Ye Fan felt himself arrive in the era when life was just being born. Heaven and earth were taking shape, Yin and Yang completed each other. With Qi, life was born. Growth and decline, prosperity and destruction, they continuously replaced each other in an eternal cycle.
What was eternity? What was an instant? At this time, they were no different.
A strange feeling welled up in Ye Fan. These nine ancient characters blended with his cauldron. It was like they were trying to split heaven and earth and form a new world. The current cauldron was extremely mysterious and unfathomable, releasing a great ancient air of primal chaos.
Although Ye Fan’s body was within the cauldron, he felt as if he had reached the end of the world, and as if he were standing at the starting point of the river of time. At one moment the stars filled the whole sky, the next, the blue dome of the heavens turned empty and dull.
According to the ancient technique written in the Dao Scripture, when using the Vessel to suppress oneself, an instant would become an Eternity. Ye Fan finally achieved this state, and now prepared to consume the divine medicine to increase his cultivation base.
The inside of the cauldron was filled with a mysterious air, forming its own hazy word. Ye Fan opened a jade case, releasing a dazzling golden light as well as a dense fruit fragrance.
The current cauldron was already completely ready to reach Eternity. Without any worries, Ye Fan placed a golden fruit into his mouth and gently chewed, immediately turning the dragon eye-sized sacred fruit into immortal ambrosia.
Using the Dao Scripture’s mystical arts, he quickly dissolved the divine medicine’s golden energy and sent it flowing through his body, immediately causing him to s.h.i.+ne like he was made of gold.
By using his Vessel to suppress himself, Ye Fan was able to turn an instant into an Eternity. After dissolving the divine medicine, he sent its energy to nourish his body. However, he didn’t turn into a baby. The fantastic golden energy repeatedly baptize his body, allowing his flesh, organs, and bones to all be strengthened to an inconceivable level.
But what shocked him was that no matter how he used the Dao Scripture’s mystical arts, he was unable to draw the golden energy into his Sea of Bitterness.
“What’s going on?” Ye Fan didn’t understand why he couldn’t guide the golden energy. If he couldn’t establish his Sea of Bitterness, there was no way he could promote his cultivation base.
Time slowly pa.s.sed. The fantastic energy slowly flowed everywhere, completely baptizing every corner of his body. His newly nourished flesh was unceasingly upgraded to become more and more powerful.
“Why won’t it flow into my Sea of Bitterness…?” Ye Fan couldn’t make head or tails of it.
Suddenly, the fantastic golden energy started to converge between his eyebrows. Like a tiny trickle, it slowly converged from all over his body. Divine light flashed, and it unexpectedly condensed into a small golden lake there.
“This is…” Ye Fan suddenly felt that his divine sense had been enhanced by quite a bit. His five senses became extremely keen, and the world within the cauldron immediately became much more vivid.
In the end, the absolute majority of the golden energy condensed between his eyebrows, forming a small golden lake. Only a small amount of the energy nourished his body. His cultivation base may not have increased, but a huge change had occurred to his divine sense.
“I understand! The legends are true!” Ye Fan suddenly thought of something, muttering to himself, “The Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land possesses nine sacred mountains, which give birth to different kinds of divine medicine. It’s said that each divine medicine has a completely different effect from the others.”
It was easy to see that the golden fruit’s mysterious energy couldn’t enter his Sea of Bitterness of Spring of Life, but it could increase his divine sense and let his divine energy quickly strengthen.
Three years ago, Ye Fan had been told that the Ancient Desolation Sacred Body could not be cultivated. But in the following few years, he had continuously making advancements, not at all inferior to any immortal sprout. He had always had suspicions that when he had consumed the sacred fruit, the energy it had contained had flowed into his Sea of Bitterness and helped break that curse.
“Maybe it really is that way. The sacred fruit from three years ago had the effect of aiding in the establishment of the Sea of Bitterness, and this sacred fruit has the effect of nouris.h.i.+ng divine sense.”
According to legends, the nine sacred fruits had nine different effects. The only similar effect they had was that they could strengthen the body, allowing one to become a whole new person.
“The first divine medicine let me succeed in stepping foot on the path of cultivation, establis.h.i.+ng the Ancient Desolation Sacred Body’s Sea of Bitterness. The second medicine strengthened my divine sense. I wonder what kind of opportunity it will bring to me in the end?”
Once everything settled, Ye Fan felt full of energy. His divine sense had grown to an incomparable level, and his spiritual sense was exceptionally sharp now. After exiting his cauldron and returning back within the immortal cave, this kind of sensation became even more distinct.
He walked out of the immortal cave and surveyed his surroundings from a cliff, immediately sensing that his field of vision had become much wider. Even the scenery from extremely far away had become very clear.
Ye Fan carefully experimented with this change. All of heaven and earth, every animal and every plant all seemed to become extremely vivid to him at this time.
“Although this might be a great change, what I need to do is to expand my Sea of Bitterness and let my divine energy source-spring bubble forth. That way I can increase my cultivation base.”
He was both happy and disappointed. The effects of this divine medicine might be very large, but it wasn’t what he needed right at this moment.
He comforted himself, “I heard that once a cultivator reaches a certain realm, only by increasing their divine sense can they gain insight into heaven and earth. After reaching such a level, only enlightenment can increase your cultivation base. So right now I’m paving the way for my future.”
Thinking of this, Ye Fan’s disappointment gradually faded.
Over the next month, Ye Fan didn’t consume another divine medicine, instead silently cultivating. He wished to complete refine and absorb all of it, not wasting even a bit of its energy.
During this, he was surprised to find that other than his physical body improving, the difficulty of establis.h.i.+ng his Sea of Bitterness was much reduced. After a month pa.s.sed, Ye Fan once more suppressed his body within his cauldron, turning an instant into an Eternity, and consumed the second golden fruit.
This time, the fantastic golden energy still first baptized every portion of his body, increasing his physique, before then slowly trickling between his eyebrows, deepening the small golden lake there.
Ye Fan felt his divine sense become stronger once more. After collecting his cauldron and arriving outside the immortal cave, he found that he could hear even more beasts roaring, and that even the sound of ants crawling along the ground reached his ears.
Using divine sense, everything could be sensed, even without using his eyes or ears.
“My spiritual perception is unceasingly becoming stronger.”
In addition, a nice surprise he found was that his physique had become stronger once again. His flesh flickered with golden light, and when he tried expanding his Sea of Bitterness, he didn’t find it very difficult at all.
He immediately went back to his seclusion cultivation, spending another month to absorb all the energy. When he once more appeared, Ye Fan’s entire person seemed to have become much more inscrutable.
In this manner, Ye Fan continued to suppress himself at the beginning of every month, consuming the sacred medicine and having his body change over and over. His divine sense became increasingly condensed, seeming as if it might take solid form at any moment.
Another gratifying change was that his body was also transforming. His physical body became stronger and stronger, flas.h.i.+ng with divine light, and when he would expand his Sea of Bitterness, he didn’t receive the slightest resistance.
Time quickly pa.s.sed, and Ye Fan had already consumed six of the golden fruits. After bitterly cultivating for a month, he once more walked out the immortal cave. His very temperament and air seemed to have greatly changed. He was as unfathomable as if he were enshrouded by mist. As the mountain’s breeze blew his clothes around him, he appeared just like an exiled immortal standing over the cliff.
A small golden lake that was incomparably deep had formed between Ye Fan’s eyebrows. It was impossible to reach the bottom of it. It was now complete, forming spiritual energy that could condense into solid form.
Moreover, an even more earth-shattering change had occurred to his golden Sea of Bitterness. Waves soared, divine light flashed, thunder rolled, lightning clapped. It had doubled in size and was now almost as large as a fist.
At the center of his Sea of Bitterness, the Spring of Life gently bubbled. The divine energy source-spring surged, and the opening of the spring mouth had also become many times larger. Its bubbling was unending, continuously rus.h.i.+ng out with occasional bright flashes of colorful lights.
“Divine energy like the tide, lights filling the whole sky; I’ve finally reached the peak of the Spring of Life realm.”
Since ancient times, there had been far too many legends of sacred medicines with unimaginable divine effects. The fantastic golden energy had nourished and strengthened his divine sense mostly, and at the same time it had transformed his physique. Although it didn’t flow into his Sea of Bitterness, it still allowed him to be on the verge of advancing past the Spring of Life realm.
The divine medicine’s reputation is not in vain!
Other than the Wheel and Sea, the human body also held other secret realms. Jiang Hanchong and the other Elders that had surpa.s.sed the Paramita realm had let Ye Fan sense the enormous difference. He urgently needed to become stronger.
There was still one more golden fruit. Ye Fan returned to the immortal cave, suppressing himself within his cauldron. When he consumed this last golden fruit, he immediately felt his body tremble and bones cracking. His flesh was constantly s.h.i.+vering, and even his organs were repeatedly shuddering. His whole body was filled with incomparable pain.
“This is…” Grinding his teeth through the pain, he endured through this torture that was on the same level as purgatory!
He immediately understood that this was the true transformation that was shedding one’s mortal body. Consuming the previous six golden fruits could only be considered as a change, not truly being reborn as a new person. Only at this time did the real ‘b.u.t.terfly breaking out of the coc.o.o.n’ transformation occur. His flesh, organs, and bones were all reorganizing. This was a true, yet strange rebirth.
Just like the first time he and Pang Bo had consumed the sacred fruits and then recovered their youth when they walked out of the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land, this was a transformation on the same level. This was truly shedding one’s mortal body!
His bones became pure white, and their hardness reached an inconceivable level, even capable of enduring against divine blades. His organs became faultless, without the slightest impurity. They seemed like divine items, their surfaces sparkling with light and their substance becoming almost transparent, flas.h.i.+ng with a jewelled splendor.
Ye Fan’s whole body was gloriously bright, the fantastic golden energy turning into a stream that flowed between his eyebrows. Golden light glinted from the small lake there, whose depths could not be seen.
Ye Fan then went into seclusion for two more months before a rumbling sounded within the immortal cave. Tsunami soared towards the heavens and bursts of thunder rang out, and rainbows shot everywhere.
At this time, Ye Fan’s golden Sea of Bitterness had been expanded to the size of a fist. Resplendent rainbows hung over it, and the sky above it appeared incomparably gorgeous. He had finally formed a small portion of the Divine Meridian that was suspended over his Sea of Bitterness. He had become a Divine Bridge realm cultivator!
Ye Fan stood up and walked out of his immortal cave. No powerful fluctuations came from him. He could not be described as gracefully drifting above mortality. Instead, he seemed like a tender boy next-door. He seemed to have lost some of his normal aura, and gained a kind of ordinary feeling of simplicity and truth.
He didn’t do anything to test out his new cultivation base, because there was no need for him to. He already knew his level. He was very tranquil, quietly and normally living for another month, sitting on top the mountain and watching the world below him. The rivers flowing, the beasts roaring…only after a month did he once more begin cultivating.
He was now refining his Vessel. He carved the first line of the mysterious ancient scripture he had obtained from the bronze coffin onto the cauldron. The path of heaven is broken and cannot be repaired… Although these ancient characters would quickly fade whenever he carved them in, the small cauldron became more and more exceptional due to them.
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In the end, he cultivated for over a year. Ye Fan had gained many insights and his comprehension of the Dao had greatly deepened.
A Dao that came from nothingness, a Dao from the void, from the beginning of heaven and earth. With the creation of heaven and earth there came form and position, hard and soft, life and death.
He felt that the cauldron, the Dao, and heaven and earth all seemed to have some innate connection.
The three foot, two handled cauldron was ever more mysterious. The cauldron’s three feet fixed heaven and earth in place, the two handles gave birth to Yin and Yang, and the spherical cauldron body brought forth primal chaos. The Dao and Truth evolved from it were formless, but the countless living beings that formed from it were all named.
The cauldron almost seems like a Vessel formed from the very world. It perfectly combines the nonexistent and the existent, giving birth to the Dao and all living things. Using a cauldron as my Vessel truly was the right choice. No wonder it was the most mysterious sacred item of ancient China.
Having cultivated for over a year here, Ye Fan finally felt that it was time to leave this place and walk back out into the world.