The evening sun was gentle, the sunset clouds liquid and soft. The stone village, bathed in the last light of day, was dressed in wisps of golden red.
Every building had been raised from great stones stacked upon stones. Ye Fan and Elder Zhang sat on a bluestone, gazing at the red sun on the horizon, speaking quietly.
“Our founding ancestor behaved strangely in his later years and vanished frequently. On one occasion he disappeared for more than half a year. When he returned, he was carrying two very unusual infants.”
Ye Fan understood—those must have been the ancestors of the Wang and Lei lines. “What was unusual about them?”
“Those two infants possessed enormous strength—enough to lift a grown man.” This was what had been passed down through the Zhang family line, generation to generation, by word of mouth.
Ye Fan’s eyes went wide. Infants lifting grown men—this violated all natural law. No matter how transcendent one’s innate gifts, it was an impossibility. “Were they… of the human race?”
This was a suspicion he had long harbored. The so-called mysterious bloodline had sent his thoughts branching in many directions—particularly after hearing Tu Fei speak of those secret accounts. He had already formed many theories in his mind.
“You have thought of it too. That’s correct. Beyond this, they had other characteristics as well, which were unlike those of human beings.” Elder Zhang’s voice was even. “Their blood was silver in color. Their brow bones could emit light. Their eyes bore dual pupils. There were many other abnormalities—it has been too long, and not all of it survived in the telling.”
Ye Fan’s inner world lurched. Silver-colored blood—clearly not of the human race. Brow bones that emitted light—certainly born with divine capacity. As for dual pupils—that was even more exceptional. In the ancient mythology of China, those born with dual pupils were often ancient emperors. If they were not human, then such a thing was even more difficult to account for.
“So… remarkable…” Ye Fan rubbed his chin and fell into thought. After a long silence he asked: “Did the Source Heaven Master say anything? Did he never explain where they had come from?”
“In his later years, our founding ancestor behaved in ways that were difficult for outsiders to understand. He personally placed a seal on those two children…”
The Source Heaven Master had told his descendants: find them human wives. If the children born from those unions were also unusual, seal them as well. But he never disclosed where they had come from.
No one knew how many generations passed. The blood of the Wang and Lei lines gradually turned from silver to red, until they seemed no different from ordinary people.
Over all those years, only occasionally—a generation here or there—would one or two unusual children appear. Their brow bones would emit light, lasting perhaps a hundred days before fading inward. They would be born with innate mastery of spiritual arts, possessing uncanny abilities.
Ye Fan glanced toward the village. In the distance, Er Lengzi was waving at him energetically. “Brother Ye, my mother says she’s inviting you to dinner at our place tonight.”
“Of course—I’ll be there.” He called back with a smile.
All of this was beyond anything he could have imagined. Origins unknown. Not of the human race. He had instantly thought of the Primordial creatures. The founding ancestor truly had been audaciously bold.
“In his later years, the founding ancestor would sigh, saying that his greatest regret was never having entered the Primordial Ancient Mine—and his unfulfilled wish was that he could not see the future of the Purple Mountain.”
Ye Fan’s heart shook deeply, and for a long while he could not find his composure.
If I were to become a Source Heaven Master… Many things surfaced in his mind at once.
In his later years, would he too meet some ill fate? What kind of destiny awaited him? That was the last question his thoughts arrived at.
But for now, he had no time to dwell on all that. He needed source. He needed to grow stronger. He needed the power to cross the starry void. He had already been in this world for five years—and every time he thought of it, a sense of urgency pressed down upon him.
The following day, Ye Fan moved far from the stone village and sealed himself underground. He feared the movement of his breakthrough would be too great, and he did not wish to harm the villagers.
His aim this time was not merely to complete the Other Shore stage and be reborn. He also wanted to break decisively into the Dao Palace Secret Realm.
He had been contemplating the Yaochi cultivation method continuously. Though it was incomplete—the Source Heaven Scripture carried only a few pages of it—yet it had given him endless illumination.
Dao Palace Secret Realm, I am coming!
A full half-month passed. The place where Ye Fan had entered seclusion remained utterly still, without a single sound—until the sixteenth day, when dust and sand rose to blot out the sky, and a column of smoke and energy surged upward.
This stretch of land had always been barren—reddish-brown, strewn with sand and stone, barely showing signs of life, with only the occasional stubborn blade of grass managing to stand. But now it was bursting with vitality. Green shoots pushed up through rock and soil—tender, young, like fires of hope—spreading outward in profusion.
Ye Fan’s Wheel Sea had reached full completion. His body was reborn. The Other Shore’s nine transformations were complete. The energy of life overflowed outward, causing even the withered grass to recover its living spirit. After twice consuming sacred fruit and once refining his body with the blood of a Great Emperor, this was his fourth time being reborn.
Every motion and gesture radiated surging divine power. He snapped open his eyes, lifted his gaze to the sky, looked down at the earth, and stood motionless for a long while—silently absorbing the sensation of this entirely new transformation.
Then, without lingering, he flew forward like a dart, found another location, and plunged back into the earth—preparing to break into the Dao Palace Secret Realm.
The Ancient Insect Source rested in his palm, life essence billowing from it, wrapping around him.
The Wheel Sea lay below the navel, roughly the size of a palm. The Dao Palace rose above it. Having contemplated the fragmentary passages of the ancient Yaochi text, Ye Fan now understood with full clarity: the Dao Palace corresponded to the five viscera, held within the enclosure of the ribs.
The five divine beings residing within the Dao Palace had a profound and inextricable connection to them—capable of generating Dao power, manifesting life force, truly a place that nurtures and sustains life.
Heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys—together called the five viscera, or the Five Spirits. They store vital essence without releasing it, they harbor life and do not decay. They are a profoundly powerful secret realm within the human body.
If a person can sustain the Five Spirits, they will not perish. If the Five Spirits persist, one remains ever in the vigor of spring—flowing through the five energies, connecting to heaven and earth, continuous and unending, able to endure through all ages.
The Dao Palace is a secret realm not to be underestimated. If one wishes for immortality, one must apply deep and sustained effort here. If one wishes to reach higher still and comprehend the Dao of the immortals, one must allow the five elements to unfold and evolve within this very realm.
The Ancient Insect Source in Ye Fan’s hand was completely refined and absorbed. A faint, ethereal mist—carrying a terrifying divine energy—enveloped him entirely, as though a great bronze furnace had drawn him inside.
Yes. In that moment, he transformed the abundant life essence into a furnace of heaven and earth, placing himself within it as though he were an immortal elixir, subjecting himself to endless refining.
The Other Shore grew distant. No flowers bloomed there. Clouds rose and dissolved. Divine halls materialized. Ye Fan saw with perfect clarity: above his Wheel Sea hung a gate of celestial towers. If he passed through it, he would enter an entirely new secret realm.
Raise my divine sails. Break through the sea and rise. Ascend to yet another realm of heaven.
Long, sustained tones rang out within the Wheel Sea. Borne on the wind, he rose—the bitter sea surging sky-high, carrying him into the clouds.
A divine bridge stretched across the heavens, extending down to his feet, bearing him toward the celestial gate. From far away he could already see it: inside lay a new world entire.
Beneath his feet the vast sea rose. Above the clouds the celestial gate opened. The threshold he had longed for—the Dao gate—shone in the distance, drawing near.
Ye Fan strode forward. Closer and closer. He had accumulated enough. To break into the Dao Palace in a single attempt was no mere vision or dream.
Rumble!
From within the celestial gate, the breath of divine beings poured forth. He felt the touch of Dao power, reaching him from nearby.
One step remained. One step, and he could enter the Dao gate. Ye Fan paused. He turned and looked down—the vast sea surged with waves, clouds and mist rose together. He saw not only the Wheel Sea, but a procession of moments from the past.
The path he had walked was not merely one secret realm—it was a span of years. Tide rising, tide falling, brilliance fading. He snapped his head back around and took that step.
In the next instant, heaven was vast and earth was boundless. He had entered a new world—thrumming with vitality, filling every corner of that space.
At the same moment, within Ye Fan’s body, a deep rumbling arose. Five energies surged toward the heavens. Five columns of divine smoke, each coiling like a dragon, shot upward, piercing the sky.
“What kind of person is this?! Five divine energies connecting to heaven, breaking through the sky—can this actually be real?” A hundred miles away, someone had witnessed this extraordinary phenomenon, their expression one of utter disbelief.
“This is truly difficult to believe. Such a manifestation of the Dao is exceedingly rare in all the world. Even the Sacred Masters of the major sacred grounds, in the full vigor of their youth when they were young and spirited—they cannot have displayed such a sight when they broke through. Who is this? What kind of physique could give rise to this?”
The cultivator a hundred miles away had seen the five energies surge to the sky and was rushing toward the source at full speed, hoping to see the one responsible.
But the distance was simply too great. He had no chance of arriving in time—for the five dragon-like columns of energy vanished in the blink of an eye, gone before he could reach them.
Having advanced into the Dao Palace Secret Realm, Ye Fan now faced a choice: which divine being should he cultivate first?
The human heart moves ceaselessly—blood flows through all the meridians, carrying divine power to every part of the body. I should begin with the divine repository of the heart. He reflected for only a moment before arriving at his decision.
The Dao Palace world was shrouded in mist everywhere, awaiting his exploration. He could only rely on instinct to search for that one divine repository.
The heart is the sovereign of the body—the root of all things, the supreme master of the five viscera and six bowels.
One could say that from this divine repository, all else unfolds. Ye Fan walked straight ahead, guided by feeling. Before long he had parted the mist, and arrived before it.
The divine being of the heart took the form of an unopened lotus—not yet in human form, signifying that it was still in the process of being born. For the sake of immortality, for the sake of enduring existence, this is where one must begin.
Life essence forms the foundation of the human body. Upon entering the Dao Palace Secret Realm, what must be done is to transform essence into spirit—to call divine beings into existence.
“That which gives rise to life is called essence; the union of two essences is called spirit…” Ye Fan recited the ancient text’s cultivation method under his breath.
He understood it thoroughly, for those words had appeared in ancient volumes he had once encountered in the starry realm beyond. As a result, his progress in cultivating the Dao Palace Secret Realm came with ease.
“The essence of the earlier heaven gives birth; the essence of the later heaven nourishes.”
The essence of the earlier heaven accompanies a person from birth—it is the beginning of an individual’s world. When form is complete, spirit is born; when form ceases, spirit is extinguished.
The essence of the later heaven must be refined and obtained—it sustains the spirit and nurtures life.
Having come into the presence of the divine repository, Ye Fan felt waves of blazing heat wash over him. The divine repository of the heart is where yang energy is most intensely concentrated.
“The human being corresponds to heaven and earth. Heaven has its sun; humanity also has its sun. The yang of the ruler-father is the sun…”
The human body corresponds to heaven and earth. The divine repository of the heart is the sun of the human body—the very root of all life force—and it could be said to be the foremost among all. It is the highest of the five major realms of the Dao Palace.
This divine repository is the sun among all divine beings. Yang energy is its instrument. It drives the circulation of life force, sustains the body’s immortality, ensures that life never ceases.
In that moment, Ye Fan found that the red source in his hand had become strangely active. It transformed into a fire-natured life essence and surged directly into his body, nourishing the divine being that had taken the form of an unopened lotus.
“The heart is the fire viscera—its radiance illuminates all things.” Clarity arrived in Ye Fan’s mind. “The body’s sun must not be without yang—it nurtures and sustains all things, and it is the foundation by which the body persists.”
Boom!
The divine repository, shaped like a lotus, drove away the mist. Ye Fan felt ease suffuse his entire body, the pores of his skin relaxing and opening, as a stream of wondrous Dao power flowed outward, spreading into every inch of his flesh and blood.
Having first set foot in the Dao Palace Secret Realm, with the essence of the earlier heaven giving rise to life—the divine repository of the heart, like a sun rising over heaven and earth—it was as though heaven and earth had come into being for the first time, all things newly born. The sun of the human body had appeared.
The Dao Palace Secret Realm had opened from this day. Step by step, he would press forward, opening new worlds within himself.
“Wheel and Sea give rise to yin and yang; the five great divine repositories transform the five elements…”
Yes—the Wheel Sea generates yin and yang. He felt as though he had glimpsed a fragment of the ancient great ones’ secret for cultivating a single secret realm alone.
Ye Fan rose to his full height, took one step outward, and emerged upon the boundless earth. Having broken into the Dao Palace and given rise to the beginning of the human body’s inner cosmos, his cultivation had risen by a full measure.
In that moment, he and heaven were in accord. He and earth were one. There was the feeling of heaven and earth converging, the Dao following what is natural.
His wide sleeves drifted in the wind. Like an immortal descended to the mortal realm. Where his feet fell, the rhythm of the Dao arose, traceries of pattern unfolding—a banished immortal, arriving in the dust of the world.