“Sa-du-la-joo-fah-shoo-goo-lu…” The divine baby glared, a little indignant and somewhat frightened. His pupils, like black gemstones, were filled with tension as he locked his gaze with Ye Fan’s.
Ye Fan’s expression was solemn, his eyes blazing with light, fixed upon the baby’s Immortal Platform as he prepared to probe his sea of consciousness. The child’s forehead glowed with a soft radiance — pure white and lustrous, like a piece of carved jade.
The divine baby grew increasingly uneasy. He kicked and flailed his hands and feet, trying to break free of the immortal source and make his escape. Yet the immortal source was no ordinary object; breaking out of it was exceedingly difficult, to say nothing of the fact that Ye Fan had it locked in place — not even the faintest crack could appear.
Hum—
The bone of Ye Fan’s forehead blazed with fierce radiance, shooting forth a strand of his dominant spirit consciousness, like a beam of light streaking across the heavens like a comet, shining directly into the immortal source and entering the child’s Immortal Platform.
He had to understand this clearly. The origins of this child were too uncanny, too unsettling!
The boundless sea of consciousness stretched like a vast ocean — wide, limitless, crystalline and dazzling, profoundly serene and harmonious. And at the very center of this sea, a lofty platform soared into the sky, resplendent with ten thousand rays of light, towering and awe-inspiring.
This was the divine baby’s Immortal Platform — radiant and blazing, as though sculpted from divine jade. Arriving here made one almost believe one had ascended into an immortal realm; it was suffused with sacred energy, striking the heart with astonishment.
This was only a child, yet his Immortal Platform was this vast and grand — surpassing that of many powerful cultivators who had devoted their entire lives to the path. It was deeply shocking.
Ye Fan’s dominant spirit consciousness ascended the Immortal Platform and entered that radiant source ground. With a great thunderous crash, he entered a vast world — identical in every way to the other shore of the starry sky he had glimpsed earlier.
This was the sight of Earth’s ancient wilderness — mountain ranges majestic and mighty, the terrain vast and sweeping, boundless and immense, ancient trees soaring to the sky, all manner of wild beasts charging and running, divine birds splitting the heavens apart.
These were the child’s memories — the primal ground of his sea of consciousness, the images most deeply imprinted upon him, and thus the most dominant fragments of his spirit.
Then, Ye Fan heard countless weeping sounds fill his ears — as though tens of thousands of people were wailing and crying out, the sound shaking the very heavens. The entire world was thrown into upheaval.
And this was only the beginning. The weeping grew louder and louder, the number of voices multiplying with startling speed, until at last it was as though every living being on the vast land was sobbing in grief. It was incomprehensible — almost impossible to take in.
Then came all manner of strange sounds — like sacred drums thundering, like funeral bells tolling in sorrow, shaking all nine heavens and ten earths.
On Earth, the other shore of the starry sky, every towering great mountain all began to tremble in unison — as though they were about to crumble. Ancient sacred symbols and dao markings blazed into brilliance on the mountain faces, and every mountain and gorge resonated in shared vibration.
Ye Fan walked forward. He could only see various scenes from the primordial wilderness and hear the wailing cries of countless living beings — yet he could not see any human figures.
The heavenly drums, the funeral bells, the sorrowful cries of all living things… all of it woven together, mysterious and eerie, raising the hair on one’s neck.
At last, when he reached the very deepest place, he heard the sounds of various sacrificial rites — like a supreme sage of ancient times being laid to rest. Every manner of sign and strange occurrence made him feel that something utterly out of the ordinary was present, pressing down upon his heart, filling him with a heavy weight.
“What happened? Why does this child’s sea of consciousness contain this kind of memory? And why are there no human figures to be seen? Yet there are quite a few wild beasts and divine birds prostrated upon the ground.”
Ye Fan passed through with endless questions, and in the end he never discovered this child’s true origins. The divine baby seemed to have been born knowing — remembering only that primal ground, and then a great blank, without anyone having taught him anything. After that came only scattered trivial events from over a hundred years in the stone workshop.
For the better part of that time he had been sleeping. His sea of consciousness was riddled with one gap after another, and as for his origins — there was nothing. Not even the child himself knew.
Whatever composure and vigilance the baby displayed now was all innate divine intelligence. He had nothing else — it was as though no one had ever sealed him, or as though something unusual had occurred, leaving his sea of consciousness with a deficiency.
There was also one other possibility: nothing was missing at all, and it was simply as it had always been — his entirety, and nothing more. He was simply too young and had left no imprint of his past.
“Those sacrificial rites and burial sounds are deeply unsettling. And the vast mountains and rivers of the other shore of the starry sky keep manifesting — these are the greatest clues to his identity and origins, and it is difficult to draw any conclusion.”
Ye Fan had a number of earth-shaking suspicions forming in his mind, yet he lacked evidence and could not confirm anything.
He searched carefully through the Immortal Platform, finding a few more scattered memories — many of them blurry scenes from Earth’s primordial wilderness era, all of them lacking any human figures.
In the end, he caught sight of what appeared to be a boundless heavenly palace — but only in fragments, like something that had grown broken and fallen into ruin, flashing past in an instant, just one brief scene.
“The death of an important figure… the decline of a great and magnificent divine dynasty…” Ye Fan murmured to himself. These were the most important clues in the divine baby’s sea of consciousness.
He thought of many things, and stood silently in this place for a long while, his heart weighed down. This child’s origins were simply too extraordinary — truly difficult to know how to handle.
After careful examination, Ye Fan confirmed that this child was not a sacred being. What tribe he belonged to was difficult to say.
He had a human-shaped body, yet at this young and tiny age he already possessed a Saint’s strength — something terrifying beyond words. Calling him human did not quite fit.
He was neither a true sacred being of flesh and blood, nor a malevolent creature. This made Ye Fan let out a long breath, though he felt a measure of guilt toward the child as well.
Now that the stone skin had been cut open, it was impossible to simply leave him to stay in the stone workshop. Ye Fan had no intention of breaking the immortal source — it was better to leave the child in his sealed state.
Though there was not much evidence, every indication pointed to this child’s background being something that, in all likelihood, defied the very heavens and the earth. In the future, many unforeseeable things might occur.
“Little chubby one, stop struggling. I won’t hurt you — just sleep peacefully,” Ye Fan said, transmitting the words this time through divine sense.
“Fen-lao-reng-ge-lo-li…” The divine baby puffed out his cheeks and mumbled.
Ye Fan truly could not make out what language this was. By now he had long since mastered the universal ancient script shared among the ten thousand tribes, yet this child’s language lay completely outside that scope — it felt even older.
Thinking carefully about it, it was enough to make one’s heart stir with agitation. Where did it come from — the language of an even more ancient era?
“Has he truly come from Earth? Was there once an era sealed away and forgotten?” Ye Fan murmured to himself.
When he had still been a mortal, he had always been deeply interested in ancient legends and secret accounts. In the Plain Questions section of the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, there was a passage that read: “The people of high antiquity, in springtime and autumn, all lived to a hundred years, and their movements were not impaired.”
That was a mysterious stretch of ancient history, shrouded in mist and fog. When he had last returned to Earth, he had not managed to unearth any particularly extraordinary secrets.
“Perhaps I should go back again.” Ye Fan murmured to himself. He was reluctant to set out lightly, fearing he might bring the flames of war there. His current enemies were none of them good-natured sorts — some were even quasi-emperors drawing closer to manifestation, giving him no small number of things to be cautious about.
“Cutting out a child — comparable to a Saint — this is simply too defiant of heaven. Whose descendant is this? It is simply inconceivable!”
“Heavens, could this be an Immortal Fetus, lost and fallen into the mortal world, now emerging? How else could it be this powerful!”
The crowd cried out in astonishment from a distance. After so many years, Ye Fan had once again come to the stone workshop — and just as before, he had caused a tremendous stir. In cutting a stone here, he had brought forth a living being, so small and young, yet so overwhelmingly powerful!
The divine baby was round and chubby, plump and fair, with two large bright eyes. He stared back at Ye Fan, working hard to hold his ground without retreating, looking at once stubborn and adorable.
Ye Fan turned it over in his mind for a good while. What should he do with this little one?
Several important members of the Ji Family gathered around, their faces filled with astonishment. Back when they had been disposing of that stone, they had been entirely casual about it — never imagining they had buried a little great-grandfather within it.
“This living being was cut out from your Ji Family. When I come calling at your clan’s door before long, I’ll bring this along as a gift of ceremony,” Ye Fan said after a moment’s deliberation.
The child stared wide-eyed, mumbling away, not clear on what he was saying.
“Who knows if you’re a harbinger of disaster or an innocent soul. But now that you’ve come into the world, looking the way you do, you’re absolutely like a piece of monk’s flesh — everyone will want a bite. I’ll send you into the Ji Clan, where you’ll receive their protection. Just sleep your long sleep in peace.”
Ye Fan departed, taking with him the little chubby one — as he called him — and the Divine City erupted, setting off a tremendous stir. This was no ordinary matter; it spread in all four directions in an instant.
A young child who had come into the world from within a stone, whose display had been so astonishing — people could not help but be shaken. It set off a great sensation throughout the Northern Region, and then swept rapidly toward the Central Plains, the Southern Ridge, and beyond. Even the Saints from outside the domain were stunned and could scarcely believe that such a heaven-defying divine baby could exist.
“Please, fellow Daoist, wait!”
As Ye Fan made his unhurried way toward the Jade Pool, someone called out loudly from behind. He turned to look — and it was the ancient tribe’s Great Saint, Huntuo, who had given chase.
“What business do you have?” Ye Fan stopped and turned to look behind him.
The Calamity God was wiping sweat from his brow, seemingly having run with every last ounce of his strength. Upon hearing the news, he had been the first to arrive, tracking down Ye Fan.
“Fellow Daoist Ye, I’ve come to acknowledge kinship,” Huntuo said with a thoroughly earnest expression.
“I don’t believe we have any family connection. Do you think we look alike?” Ye Fan’s face bore a look that was somewhere between a smile and not.
“You’ve misunderstood me, fellow Daoist. I’m here to acknowledge kinship with the child you cut out. That is a baby from my household, lost over a million years ago. I’ve come today specifically to recognize him,” Huntuo said with an anxious expression.
Ye Fan was rendered speechless with exasperation. “You actually have the nerve to say something like that. That child is yours? Why don’t you go ask him whether he’s willing to acknowledge you? And take a closer look — isn’t this immortal source far more ancient than even the years of your own existence?”
Within the immortal source, the child was staring at Huntuo with his glittering black gem-like eyes, huffing and puffing with indignation, mumbling away: “Eh-why-reh-ga-ta-hu-lee-fen!”
“You see — he’s calling out to me. This is the young son I left behind in a moment of youthful foolishness. Today we meet again — what a comfort to this old heart of mine, moved to the point of tears. Ah, my heart aches!” The Great Saint Huntuo said all of this with perfect composure, not the slightest flush of embarrassment on his face.
“You could actually have a son like this?!” Ye Fan scoffed, though he had no fear of him trying to snatch the child. He waved him over, wanting to use him to further confirm the child’s identity.
Great Saint Huntuo was a little hesitant. Though he bore the title of Calamity God, he was still afraid that Ye Fan — this god of slaughter — might give him a strike. If an imperial weapon came flying at him, it could well be his own calamity.
He stood at a distance, listening to the divine baby mumble his dissatisfied complaints at him.
It did not take long before Huntuo’s expression changed. The more he listened to the child’s mumblings, the more solemn his face became. His voice trembled: “How can a language like this still exist in the world? It’s impossible!”
In the end, unable to endure the torment within his heart, he extended a strand of divine sense — with Ye Fan’s acknowledgment — and observed the child’s brilliant Immortal Platform.
When those sacrificial rites sounds rang out, the body of Great Saint Huntuo shook violently. Then, like a startled old hare, he leapt thirty feet straight up into the air and bolted away in a streak, fleeing in terror like a stray dog — and that expression on his face was absolutely not feigned.
“Huntuo, isn’t this your child? Hurry up and explain what’s going on!” Ye Fan gave chase with the child in his arms.
“This has nothing to do with me. My child ascended to heaven long ago — how could this be my descendant? This is clearly an ancestor!” Huntuo charged forward like an old hare in a mad sprint, his peak-level power fully unleashed — swift as wind and lightning, making it hard even for Ye Fan to keep up.
“Tell me his origins, or don’t blame me for not showing courtesy,” Ye Fan closed the distance and threatened from behind.
“I advise you to send this little ancestor away as quickly as possible — don’t get entangled with him. In the most ancient era, there was once a great ancient imperial clan that was utterly wiped out because of this!” Great Saint Huntuo warned solemnly.
“Absurd nonsense!” Ye Fan called back mildly.
One fleeing, one chasing — and just like that, the two of them arrived directly at the Jade Pool, which had been Ye Fan’s destination all along. Great Saint Huntuo did not wait to be announced. With a sudden dash, he shot up to the mountain gate, threw back his head, and bellowed in his broken-gong voice: “Hurry and prepare the Western Emperor’s Tower! Something enormous has come! Sacrifice at least two imperial weapons and send this child into the boundless universe — otherwise, a great calamity will befall us all!”