“Something inauspicious occurred there…” The Jade Pool’s Sacred Lady’s expression darkened, and she said no more, unwilling to reveal anything further. It was plain to see that within it lay secrets of no small consequence.

In the end, Ye Fan took his leave. He gave Liu Yiyi a strand of the Source of the Dao, and then departed with the divine baby.

“Little chubby one, if you keep glaring at me like that, I’ll stew you in a pot,” Ye Fan threatened him.

The child puffed out his cheeks, looking thoroughly unconvinced, yet also a little scared. He wanted to run but could not, wanted to fight but could not win, leaving him huffing and puffing with frustration.

“Why have you gone quiet? Try tapping into your subconscious — you might just be able to recall your true origins,” Ye Fan said.

The child shot him a glance out of the corner of his big eyes, paying him no mind — clearly nursing a quiet grievance.

Ye Fan smiled. He found this little fellow rather interesting.

“I hate you!” The child, carved like white jade, could hold back no longer. Seeing Ye Fan teasing him again, he waved his hands and kicked his feet, trying to break free.

“Don’t go thrashing about — if you crack the immortal source, you’ll be the one crying. There’ll be no way to seal you inside it again,” Ye Fan said.

The cold, vast expanse of the Northern Region’s great land — tens upon hundreds of thousands of miles without a single living soul. Traveling this way, one might pass an entire lifetime without encountering a single living being.

The red earth stretched endlessly, not a single blade of grass growing — such was the present state of the Northern Region. Ye Fan walked in one direction, and the closer he drew, the more oppressive he felt — a great and sweeping fluctuation of law pressing outward.

This was the direction of the Primordial Forbidden Zone. He was still more than eight hundred miles away, yet already he could sense an invisible force of order, sending his heart lurching with wave after wave of dread.

Ye Fan flew into the sky and gazed into the distance. The ancient mine lay deep and unfathomable, swallowing the essence of the sun and moon, surging with an energy that had made supreme beings of ten thousand ages tremble — existing alongside all of eternity.

By now, all the great forbidden zones showed signs of stirring back to life. Not long ago, word had even come that a woman playing the flute had passed through the air above the Primordial Ancient Mine, and no one dared approach anymore.

Ye Fan stopped here as well, not wanting to draw too close — he only wished to come to the outer region after so many years and gaze upon it from a distance, to see if there were any particular changes.

“Grand and magnificent palace halls rising anew on the land!”

Within the Primordial Forbidden Zone, in those specially shaped pieces of terrain, some enormous palace halls stood towering — vast beyond measure, evidently some sacrificial divine temples that had been sunk underground and had now re-emerged from the earth.

The Primordial Ancient Mine was stirring. It would not be long before it truly came out into the world.

Ye Fan did not linger. With things as they were in this place, anything could happen at any moment. He left swiftly, arriving at a stretch of stony wasteland two or three hundred thousand miles away.

The moonlight poured down, casting a haze across the entire land. The reddish stone and soil looked desolate and bleak, without a trace of life.

Suddenly, at the far edge of the vast land, wisps of white light arose, soaring into the sky and flying toward the heavens, blinking out into the deep blue in an instant.

Ye Fan shot into the sky at once. By now, his speed under heaven was unsurpassed — with one thought, he could reach the eight corners of the world. Swiftly he arrived up in the celestial expanse. Yet still he was a step too late; he could only catch a glimpse of a few white figures scattering — far too quick, ephemeral and indistinct like immortals made of mist, vanishing into the darkness.

“The Jade Pool’s Flying Immortals!”

In those days, he and the Black Emperor had used this very phenomenon to find this place.

As for the Jade Pool’s Flying Immortals — since ancient times, there had never been any definitive explanation for them.

This place would occasionally, beneath the light of the night moon, display the wondrous sight of flying immortals — yet no one could explain it. From afar they were hazy; up close they were nowhere to be found, vanishing in an instant.

It was said to be an ancient remnant shadow — a reflection cast by the boundless ages past, a replay of things that happened in ancient days.

Deep in the night, the former grounds lay in profound stillness, without a single sound. The moonlight was clear and bright, illuminating the reddish-colored stones and rubble until they were translucent and gleaming.

Ye Fan walked in one direction, extending his powerful divine sense. Beneath the red sandy expanse, he found a dry well emanating the breath of primordial ancient ages.

The mouth of the well was constructed from jade stone. A large boulder pressed down upon it, and once he pushed it aside, the starlight and moonlight from the sky instantly poured down like water, flowing into the well.

It was swallowing and breathing in the essence of heaven and earth, replenishing the divine energy within the former grounds of the Jade Pool.

In one flash, Ye Fan disappeared, dropping down through the mouth of the well. He descended some unknown number of yards before reaching the bottom, then angled forward, and at last emerged from the dry bed of a great lake.

He knew — he had truly entered the former grounds of the Jade Pool!

This was a pure land sealed off from the rest of the world. The spiritual energy was so dense it was almost impossible to dissipate — but every last piece of vegetation and ancient tree in this place had died. Not a leaf remained; every trace of life had vanished.

Many enormous, dead trees — thick enough to fill the arms of a dozen people, soaring up into the heavens like mountain peaks — stood bare and silent without a single leaf, without a breath of life.

The four directions were still and deathly quiet, a lifeless silence. What had once been a world fragrant with flowers and birdsong had now become a barren and desolate wasteland, pervaded by a strange and eerie energy.

This place was not lacking water — along the way he spotted one or two flowing spirit springs — yet there was no life, for the fish and vegetation had all died. Everything was bleakness.

Palace halls and towers appeared, many of them collapsed to the ground. What had once been magnificent structures were now ruins, left behind for those of later ages to mourn.

At last, ahead of him, an immortal energy hovered hazy and indistinct. Great mountains appeared and faded in and out of sight, and a vast expanse of magnificent, perfectly intact palace halls came into view, standing tall amid the clouds, perched on the cliff faces.

It was almost like a realm of immortals — stirring a deep longing in the heart. And yet it was still lacking — no trees, no vegetation; the silver waterfalls had all run dry, turning this into a land of death.

“I’ve come back to this place,” Ye Fan said softly. The year he and the Black Emperor had broken into this place, he had been left astonished for a very long time.

Now, he harbored a strong suspicion: that dry well was in fact a dog tunnel, dug out in years past by the Black Emperor. In all this world, perhaps only it knew the Jade Pool most deeply of all — for after all, Wushi had come from here.

Ye Fan walked forward, arriving at the innermost depths of the Jade Pool’s sacred grounds, and life suddenly surged forth. Looking out over the entire former site, this was the only place still blazing with brilliant auspicious energy.

From a distance, radiance shot in all directions, auspicious colors surging and gushing outward — like the birthplace of life at the very beginning of creation.

Here, there was an Immortal Pool. The very name “Jade Pool” had been derived from it in ancient times. In this place, vegetation grew lush and abundant, the cliff faces were green, and silver waterfalls cascaded down with a thundering roar — vast and magnificent in scale.

Paired with the towering palace halls and towers, the scene was at once lively and harmonious, transcendent and natural — beautiful beyond measure.

“Finally there is sound — no longer deathly still.”

But arriving at this place, Ye Fan’s expression grew even more solemn. He was fully on guard, for he would not forget the true scene he had witnessed here in those former days.

At the heart of the Jade Pool was an Immortal Lake. Auspicious light steamed upward, mist and haze drifting in gossamer veils, a flowing radiance of light and color — truly like a realm where one might become immortal.

At the lake’s edge, all manner of rare flowers and exotic grasses grew in profusion, their clean fragrance filling the air, refreshing and intoxicating — as though one had arrived at a paradise beyond the mortal world, stepped into an immortal realm.

Ye Fan would not forget: the year he and the Black Emperor had leaped into the lake, what they had experienced at the bottom — the lake floor was filled with female corpses, every one of them wearing a beautiful face, all of them Jade Pool disciples.

Having grown to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Great Saints by now, and having come here with an imperial weapon, he intended to investigate thoroughly, to understand at last what had happened in this place.

Several dark shadows drifted past, drawing lines through the water. Ye Fan opened his Heavenly Eye and saw clearly: they were a few corpses, all dressed in pure white long skirts, and over so many years they had still not decayed.

Ye Fan lifted out the divine baby again, letting him sense whether any particular energy was present in this place. He believed this child possessed extraordinary bloodline power, and might be able to make unusual discoveries.

“Little chubby one, sense this place carefully.”

“Who are you calling chubby!” The divine baby was deeply unhappy with this name. In truth, he was not chubby at all — children of this age were all round and soft.

This child of mysterious origins, born already as a Saint, puffed up with indignation, staring at him with wide eyes as they faced each other.

But when Ye Fan tossed him into the lake and the child saw the female corpses, he was immediately so frightened that he wailed out in alarm, and instantly became well-behaved.

Ye Fan brought him down into the water. Even though it was not the first time he had seen this, his scalp still went numb. At the bottom of that lake, one corpse after another lay scattered in dense profusion — this was a pit for the dead.

Even at a rough glance, hundreds of them were visible, piled up until the very heart of the lake was filled, a terrifying sight. Slender lotus arms, long and graceful jade legs — still with a faint luminescence upon them, but their bodies rigid, without a single sign of life.

Every woman had her hair loose and disheveled, her face pale and bloodless, dressed in white burial garments bearing the mark of the Jade Pool. Their locks swayed and drifted like serpents, writhing in the dimness of the lake floor, raising goosebumps in the most unsettling way.

By now Ye Fan was on par with the Great Saints. He had come here to unravel the mystery, and nothing could make him stop. He moved them himself, clearing the heart of the lake entirely.

No water plants, no fish — only ancient corpses. During this process, several of the women suddenly opened their eyes, and rays of terrifying light shot forth.

The divine baby was nearly frightened out of his wits. Ye Fan observed carefully — but unfortunately, they had merely transformed into yin creatures, retaining none of their former memories. They were what common mortals called corpse ghosts.

Such things naturally posed no threat to him whatsoever, and he dealt with all of them.

At the bottom of the lake, Ye Fan discovered a spring eye. The water of the Immortal Pool surged up from here, and in an instant something stirred within him — for it was said the immortal tears green gold had been found within this very lake, and had ultimately been cast into the Western Emperor’s Tower.

And before the Jade Pool had moved away from this location, that imperial weapon had been placed within this pool to stand guard — making this place all the more wrapped in layers of mystery.

Ye Fan exerted his strength and pried away several slabs of blue-green stone at the bottom of the lake, causing the spring eye to suddenly widen into a dark hollow — large enough for a person to enter.

“Do we have to go in?” The divine baby was afraid.

“Little chubby one, you were born already a Saint — how can your courage be so small? Did someone frighten it away?” Ye Fan teased him.

“I’ll fight you to the death!” The little fellow, fair and smooth as carved white jade, drove the immortal source and smashed it toward him with full force.

“You’d better just be good and behave yourself.” Ye Fan carried him straight down into the spring eye and sank deep into the earth below.

As they went deeper, the water grew clearer and more refreshing, life essence flowing within it, filled with divine brilliance.

This was an underground lake — not very large. What made one’s heart lurch was the discovery of many more corpses here as well, all of them with formidable cultivation in life, all of them with beautiful faces.

The divine baby immediately quieted down, not making a sound, a hint of fear showing on his small face.

Ye Fan’s expression was grave. He drew out the imperial sword and held it in hand, searching carefully — and still without any great discovery, he pressed on into the spring source that led further underground.

And so it went. Ye Fan plunged seven thousand yards deep into the earth, passing through seven levels of lakes — all of them filled with many corpses. The seventh level in particular contained a number of Saint-level corpses!

At last, entering the eighth level, even his hair stood on end. Eight or nine corpses appeared to be swimming about — all of them Saints, some among them even Great Saints. Divine source lay shattered all around.

“Is this the former strength and reserve of the Jade Pool — or part of it? For some unknown reason, their divine source shattered, and they all died here!” Ye Fan was shaken to his core.

In those days, the Western Emperor’s Tower had been placed within the Immortal Pool as its guardian, naturally defending this place and protecting the strength accumulated within. He had not imagined that even so, part of the Jade Pool’s accumulated foundation had still fallen victim to catastrophe.

“What happened?” Ye Fan was deeply unsettled.

Coming now to the spring eye, the depths below were even more profoundly dark — and only he, with his Source Heavenly Eye, was able to see. Anyone else would have been rendered completely blind upon reaching this place.

“The answer should be in the ninth level!” Ye Fan brought out the green bronze cauldron, suspended it above his head, left hand holding the unwilling little chubby one, right hand gripping the imperial sword, and sank down into the spring eye.