The rosy mist shimmered brilliantly. The half-page of scripture — crimson as fresh blood — trembled. Cast from phoenix-blood red gold, it rang with a clear metallic tone, as though an immortal phoenix long imprisoned was about to break free from its seal.
That thread of minute flame merged with it, transforming into a leaping rune, emanating an even more blazing light. The two resonated together — mysterious and unfathomable.
Ye Fan retreated backward, his eyes blazing like torches as he stared fixedly at that point, terrified of missing a single thing.
“Tweet, tweet…”
Deep within the Fire Domain, the small bird leaped about — born of fire, in form resembling a divine phoenix — perched atop the meter-tall tree-flame and chirping without cease. A scorching temperature surged forward to meet him.
It was spreading its wings, seemingly about to take flight — yet ultimately it did not leave the tree-flame. It opened its beak and expelled a thread of light — like a vivid streak of lightning — cascading down.
“What is this? It is all composed of runes — is it truly the essence of immortal fire?” Ye Fan’s expression changed.
He was worried. The half-page of immortal scripture was extraordinarily precious. If it were to be destroyed here, that would be a tremendous problem — for he had snatched it from the very jaws of danger and brought it back from the Purple Subtlety Ancient Star Domain.
Buddhist light shone universally. The Bodhi Seed hung suspended in the air. A Buddhist might permeated majestically, blocking the minute flame ahead. The outer shell of this seed was changing — as though about to crack and shed.
A great Buddha appeared, sitting cross-legged in the void, subjected to the scorching of that flame — a sorrowful expression upon its face — utterly motionless, its body radiating boundless light.
Ye Fan was astonished. Who would have thought the Bodhi Seed possessed this kind of secret power? He had never known it before. A Buddhist shadow was concealed within — what manner of strangeness was this?
Suddenly, something changed. A rustling sound — deeply unsettling. The small tree began to move. The little bird chirped without end and shot up into midair, gazing downward.
The transformation of the Bodhi Seed caused that cluster of mysterious runic fire to change as well, moving to approach, the temperature growing ever more terrifying. Even the void itself was being incinerated.
Ye Fan’s scalp went numb. There was absolutely no way to resist this thing. Ancient records noted that an immortal had been burned to death in the depths of the Fire Domain, leaving behind only catastrophic ash — whether true or false, this spoke to something of extreme and fearsome power.
He had no way to retreat. If that bird — resembling an immortal phoenix — plunged downward, it would be a great calamity with no means of escape. At this moment, a delicate state of balance existed. Once broken, the consequences were beyond imagining.
“Tweet, tweet—”
The palm-sized phoenix-bird opened its beak and continuously expelled threads of faint light that rained down. The Buddhist light of the Bodhi Seed grew more intense. The patterns upon it were changing; the flame-light was drawing closer.
“This will not do. The more we oppose each other, the worse things will become. The ultimate flame composed of runes possesses no consciousness — it is simply being drawn in by external forces.”
Ye Fan gradually discerned the subtlety of the situation. Rather than meeting force with force — which would most likely accelerate his destruction — if he were to do nothing and simply stand here, it would not continue to press forward.
At this moment, the form of the Buddha was solemn and magnificent, emitting boundless light. More and more runic fire was being drawn in — even the small tree had nearly reached him. The Bodhi Seed seemed on the verge of melting.
Ye Fan gritted his teeth and divided off a thread of his divine sense, sending it into the boundless Buddhist light and taking hold of the Bodhi Seed, beginning to attempt to change all of this. Upon it, there was no divine consciousness — only a faint imprinted brand that was activating the Bodhi power, manifesting it as a great Buddha, transforming it into boundless divine light.
Ye Fan easily took hold of it. The flame-light pressed in relentlessly. The imprinted brand from earlier had nearly been obliterated, progressively losing its connection to the Bodhi Seed, about to dissipate in midair.
The great Buddha began to dim, then slowly disappeared. All the boundless light was absorbed back within the Bodhi Seed — yet immediately after, another figure appeared: hair cascading like a dark waterfall, sitting cross-legged in the void like a god or demon, radiating hundreds of millions of streams of divine brilliance.
“This is…” Ye Fan was greatly startled. The form of the Buddha had vanished. He himself had appeared in its place.
The tree-flame drew near. The immortal phoenix chirped. Terrifying flame-light blazed all around. The Bodhi Seed rose and fell. Ye Fan felt as though he had fallen into the eighteenth level of a refining hell, suffering torment without end.
“What has happened?” He could not understand, feeling as though he was about to be reduced to catastrophic ash.
Stillness of heart. No action. He rapidly steadied his emotions, gathering all the divine sense he had used to take hold of the Bodhi Seed and drawing it inward, no longer manifesting it outwardly.
In the void, that shadow resembling a god or demon gradually disappeared. The flame-light flickered. The Bodhi Seed seemed to melt — the patterns upon it underwent tremendous change.
The tree-flame, composed of runes, rustled and moved — no longer at odds with him, receding from this place. The Bodhi Seed fell to the ground. Ye Fan regained his clarity. That thread of divine sense withdrew and flew back into his physical body. He then picked up the seed and carefully examined what was different about it.
“This…” His heart was filled with wonder. Previously, upon it had been an innate Buddha — formed by various naturally-occurring patterns. Now everything had changed. That Buddha had vanished, transformed into his own likeness.
Ye Fan stood in a daze. The original Bodhi Seed had carried someone else’s imprint — which in the future might very well have become a great hidden peril, for his every secret would have been laid bare before the Bodhi Seed. Now, this cluster of mysterious runic fire had pressed in and eliminated a potential crisis, extinguishing it at the very root.
“This seed is truly wondrous — and now, it truly belongs to me.” Ye Fan held the Bodhi Seed in his hand and felt a closer bond with it than before — as though listening to a profound Dao melody drifting in from the distant ancient past.
Comprehending the Dao — he had long since stopped needing to rely on this seed for that. In this moment, he was not using it to illuminate the Dao. Rather, he was genuinely capturing an extraordinary melody.
“It’s the half-page of immortal scripture!”
The tree-flame had disappeared. Yet the phoenix-bird had not retreated. It hovered in midair, gazing at the scripture cast from phoenix-blood red gold, expelling many streams of rosy light.
At this moment, the blood-crimson Ancient Scripture of the Divine Spirit merged with those vivid fire-lights, surging outward to form half of a fire-bird — yet it seemed as though someone had severed it at the midpoint, leaving only half a body.
Half a page of immortal scripture. Half an immortal phoenix-bird!
Ye Fan held the Bodhi Seed in hand, gazing forward intently. From his eyes shot two beams of materialized light that nearly connected to the wounded bird — striving to seize the secrets concealed within it.
This was manifested from Dao patterns, containing within it the secrets of imperishable deathlessness. Now, resonating with the light expelled by the bird formed from that runic flame, it manifested itself in the void.
Who in this world could be imperishable? Even the ancient Great Emperors could not achieve it. Was this truly a page of immortal scripture? Ye Fan stilled his mind and contemplated the phoenix’s Dao patterns, wanting to capture the most fundamental secrets.
Yet it was exceedingly difficult. The phoenix-bird manifested by this half-page scripture was broken — severed in two, with half torn away. In this state of incompletion, there was no coherence, no complete scriptural meaning.
Attempting to forcibly assemble and continuously deduce was no use either. It was simply impossible for scripture and Great Dao to emerge from this — which caused Ye Fan to furrow his brow, at a complete loss.
The Bodhi Seed in his hand, though now merged with him more closely, still could not conjure something from nothing. It could not create Dao — it could only capture Dao traces that truly existed.
“Tweet, tweet…”
The small bird in midair plunged down, dancing around the phoenix-blood red gold, graceful and beautiful — yet the temperature grew more terrifyingly fearsome. Ye Fan’s expression changed. He truly feared it would melt away the patterns upon it.
“CLANG!”
A metallic trembling rang out. The immortal scripture burst forth with even more brilliant light — crimson-red as blood — dyeing the entire Fire Domain in a dreamlike radiance, mysterious and magnificent.
“A brief section of unflawed Dao patterns!”
Ye Fan stared straight into midair. At the moment the phoenix-blood red gold and the thread of faint light merged, within the manifested incomplete phoenix-bird, a section of patterns like iron chains rang out with a clear metallic tone.
He poured divine brilliance from both eyes — like two sharp swords slashing forward — and through the resplendent rosy light, his gaze fell upon that chain of order. He carefully engraved it into his memory.
“Whoosh!”
The minute flame-light leaped. Ye Fan stepped back, then remained completely still. His entire being seemed to have lost all vitality as he sat cross-legged.
His divine sense was drawn into a deathly silent space, forcibly sealed within. Here, only a single chain of order moved — boundlessly terrifying.
“The secret of longevity?” Ye Fan’s heart became luminously clear. He concentrated his entire spirit in contemplation, gazing at the divine chain woven from Dao patterns, unaware of time’s passage, completely immersed within it.
It was a pity — how much could a half-page of phoenix-blood red gold scripture contain? And the sole unflawed Dao principle it held was not even a corner of the whole.
Yet even so, Ye Fan was profoundly moved. This was actually one of the Nine Secrets — the secret of the character Zhe!
This was what was called the art of eternal imperishable life! When he contemplated this chain of order, the other several secrets spontaneously began to operate, resonating with one another, uniting together in the Dao.
“What a shame — it is too severely incomplete. From these broken Dao patterns only this single chain of order could be extracted; its essential nature cannot be obtained.”
Even so, Ye Fan’s heart was shaken. The secret of the character Zhe could heal injuries, could refine one’s own body into a divine medicine. Even if one’s primordial spirit were shattered, it could be repaired. Even if only a single drop of blood remained in the physical body, one could be reborn from it.
It truly filled him with boundless regret. That secret of near-imperishability — he could not obtain it. There was only this one divine chain. A complete version should have at least nine.
No wonder there was a saying in the Purple Subtlety Ancient Star Domain — that one who obtained this ancient scripture would find it difficult even to die. It could repair one’s own body; both form and spirit would be difficult to extinguish!
Of course, this was not true longevity in the absolute sense. When a person’s lifespan was exhausted, even possessing this page of immortal scripture would be useless — it could not extend one’s fundamental life force.
Who knows how much time had passed before he withdrew from that void and truly awakened. The half-page of phoenix-blood red gold scripture had long since fallen to the ground. That cluster of immortal flame had disappeared.
This place was very quiet. Ye Fan picked up the scripture and slashed it into his own shoulder — immediately, fresh blood spurted out. Yet the moment the secret of the character Zhe was activated, the golden blood that had flown out instantly reversed course, flowing back. The wound healed, and in a single instant he was completely unharmed.
This made him even more regretful. If he could have obtained the flawless secret of the character Zhe, that would truly have defied the heavens — practically an indestructible golden body, undamaged through ten thousand tribulations.
Quickly, he smiled again. One must learn to be content. To have obtained one chain of order-divine pattern was already quite good. He had not perished here, and had even gained something — he should be grateful rather than lament.
Now, with this divine chain he had obtained — it should not be much weaker than Hua Yunfei’s Phoenix Tribulation Rebirth Technique. A durable and enduring life force is the greatest asset of all.
Ye Fan put away the half-page of immortal scripture, then carefully examined the Bodhi Seed. His heart became a vast clarity. He developed a strange resonance with this seed, always feeling that something would come to pass because of it — that it would be of unimaginably great use to him!
“Today, I know not what changes have occurred. This Bodhi Seed makes my heart pound with apprehension…” he murmured to himself.
At the same time, Gu Fei and Gu Lin were divining. Ye Fan had already been gone for several days. Li Heishui, Dongfang Ye, and the others in Heavenly Village feared he might meet with an accident and asked the two spirit children to calculate his whereabouts.
“Bodhi everywhere, faith gathered, establishing a teaching that is imperishable…”
“Spit—!”
Both spirit children opened their little mouths and coughed up a mouthful of spirit blood each. In an instant they fell unconscious. When roused, they were dazed and confused, having no memory of what had just occurred.
“What happened?” Qi Luo and the Monkey were both startled and came running quickly.
“Imperishable…” Little Sparrow Girl fluttered her big eyes, clutching her milk bottle, speaking in her soft and childish voice.
“Do not have them divine again. They are spirit children who can deflect misfortune onto themselves — yet this still happened. It seems it has touched upon the secrets of heaven.” The Black Emperor said in a deep voice.
Ye Fan left the Fire Domain. He traveled southward all the way, arriving in the Yan Kingdom — the very land he had first set foot upon when he came into this world. Its central territory was none other than the ancient desolate forbidden zone.
This time, he was not venturing deep into the life-forbidden zone. He came to the small shop where Old Uncle Jiang and Little Tingting had once lived, coming to take a look.
For Old Uncle Jiang had once mentioned, upon returning there once, that an old neighbor had told him that a beautiful woman named Lin Jia had come by, inquiring about everything concerning Ye Fan.
“Creak, creak…”
Pushing open the dust-sealed door, Ye Fan entered the small shop. Everything was as it had been, as though returning to former days.
Suddenly, his gaze came to a halt. Upon the wall he saw several characters — inscribed in the written language from the other side of the starry sky, entirely different from the script of this world.
“Feathering Immortal Valley…” Ye Fan read aloud, then stood still and silent for a long while. What did this mean — an invitation to seek it out?
In the end, he turned and departed — crossing directly through the void — returning to the Northern Region. A world-shaking great battle was about to begin. At this moment, he had no attention to spare for anything else. Everything would have to wait until this battle reached its conclusion!