Ji Ziyue had a good many people around her, but Ye Fan did not take them seriously. What truly put him on guard were the powerful masters lurking in the shadows — elders at the Dragon Transformation Secret Realm level.

“Ji Hui… vile old hag!”

Long ago, he had traveled thousands of li to escort Ji Ziyue home, only to have Ji Hui repay his kindness by nearly bringing about his total ruin. He had never hated anyone so deeply before.

Ye Fan watched Ji Hui from the shadows, and more than once came close to losing control and striking. With his current indestructible physical body, he could trail her without a sound and kill her in a single blow.

But in the end, he held himself back. A small impatience could ruin great plans. He had come for the Immortal Divine Medicine within the Ancient Forbidden Land. Killing Ji Hui and exposing his presence would introduce too many variables.

In this region, the Ji Family and Yao Guang were absolute rulers. This was their sphere of influence, and no one could shake their standing.

“You’re all so annoying! I’m not going anymore!” Ji Ziyue crouched down on the ground in a stubborn sulk, lips pouting, refusing to budge no matter what.

Her large eyes darted about with a lively, clever gleam as she continued to search for a chance to escape. She set her sights on the people from the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty, hoping to use their strength to her advantage.

Quite a few cultivators had arrived in the Yan capital. The Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty made no effort to conceal themselves — some wore Ancient Hua dragon robes, while others had dragon energy coiling around their bodies.

Ye Fan turned the matter over in his mind for a moment, then decided not to follow. He continued through the city, searching for the little girl, yet even with a divine sense as vast as the sea, he found no trace of her.

He asked around, but people only replied that there were many abandoned children in the city, and they had no idea which one he meant. No one had paid any particular attention, and he came away with nothing.

Ye Fan took a room at an inn, reserving a quiet small courtyard, and began refining his stone garment. He was about to enter and exit the Ancient Forbidden Land — this was the very foundation of whether he could succeed.

The stone skin of a divine Source did not make for sturdy armor and could not be used as a conventional breastplate, but it could isolate any and all aura — a remarkable material indeed.

All Source Arts masters possessed a divine Source stone garment, an unparalleled treasure for entering deadly terrain and descending into ancient deep-mountain mines. As a successor of the Source Heaven Arts, Ye Fan naturally understood all of this.

The Six Immortal-Sealing Locks was a supreme-tier Source Art requiring six types of divine Source stone skins as its materials. The technique bordered on the level of the Dao itself — not only could it seal Source, it could seal mountains, rivers, and earth, and even seal peerless masters of the highest order.

Unfortunately, the Source Heaven Book contained only a scant few lines on the subject, cryptic and extraordinarily difficult to penetrate. This was an unsurpassed Source Art that was still in a theoretical state, far from complete mastery. After long, painstaking contemplation, based on those few ancient characters, Ye Fan had poured out every ounce of his understanding and managed to grasp no more than ten to twenty percent of it — achieving just barely over a single Immortal-Sealing Lock at best.

But even that was enough.

Although he had gathered a fair amount of stone skin, it was of only two varieties — nowhere near the six types of ancient materials the technique required.

The divine Source Ye Fan had obtained was all golden. Other kinds were exceedingly rare, something one could only hope to stumble upon by chance.

There had been that time when he’d faced the Source Arts aristocratic family. Nangong Qi had cut open the blood sacrifice altar and found within it a piece of silver Source — gleaming like starlight and moonlight — with a young woman sealed inside.

At the time, he had not known the origin of that piece of Source. It was only afterward that it dawned on him: it was a far rarer and more precious variety of divine Source, extraordinarily uncommon. And naturally, that stone skin had ended up in his hands.

For a full seven days and seven nights, Ye Fan exhausted virtually all of his mental and physical strength, pouring everything he had into the work — consuming seven or eight tenths of the stone skin in the process — before the stone garment finally took shape, the two types of ancient materials fused together into one.

It was not simply a matter of forming the garment’s shape, however. Throughout those days, Ye Fan labored with everything he had, concentrating his entire mind and spirit as he inscribed tens of thousands of Source Heaven patterns and channels into the stone garment.

Every brand, every line he imprinted was a distillation of his life essence and spirit — the fullest expression of the Source Arts he had mastered. He transformed all of his accumulated insights, along with every profound technique he knew, into tangible divine patterns, and following the records of the Source Heaven Book, he refined them into the stone garment.

When it was done, he was completely spent — too exhausted to lift even a finger. He rested for a long while before he recovered.

The stone garment was plain and natural in appearance, nothing remarkable on its surface — it did not look as though it had come from the hands of a Source Arts master at all. It had returned to simplicity.

Ye Fan was satisfied. This was his only masterwork at the moment. When worn, it was as though one was severed from the surrounding heaven and earth, dwelling instead in an entirely separate expanse of void.

When he emerged from his closed cultivation, he immediately sensed something was wrong. A large number of cultivators had descended upon the Yan capital, and the atmosphere had grown unbearably tense. The other supreme great sect from the Central Plains had finally arrived.

The Yin-Yang Sect — its lineage was ancient beyond measure, stretching back to the earliest days of humanity. It took the natural world as its teacher, and its power was formidable to the point of being terrifying.

Among the Hundred Schools and Sects of the Central Plains, it ranked within the top few, worthy of being called a sacred ground in its own right. Though it had never produced a Great Emperor and possessed no supreme-tier sacred weapon, it could nonetheless stand on equal footing with the four undying imperial dynasties.

The Yin-Yang Sect’s branches spread across the entire world, even reaching the Northern Region of the Eastern Wastelands, yet its roots were in the Central Plains. From ancient times to the present, it had always flourished, its vitality never-ending.

Beyond the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty and the Yin-Yang Sect, quite a few other major powers had sent people as well — none of them able to resist the allure. Immortal Divine Medicine could be called a celestial treasure. Only the Great Emperors of antiquity had ever cultivated it. It had vanished entirely from the mortal world, and only a handful of stalks were said to remain within the forbidden zones.

Ye Fan moved in a flash, transforming into a streak of light and shooting out of the Yan capital, heading toward the primordial ancient forest that housed the Ancient Forbidden Land. He truly feared being beaten to it — if that happened, he would have nowhere even to weep.

Eight hundred li of primordial old-growth forest stretched before him, ancient and primal in every direction. Many cultivators had already arrived in the outer areas, and quite a few had ventured deeper inside.

A sinking feeling settled over Ye Fan. Something was wrong — was the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty and the Yin-Yang Sect about to make their move?

Several hundred li in, no one dared to continue flying forward. The outer reaches of the forbidden zone were home to a small number of incomparably terrifying beings.

Some demon clan members had long since chosen to take human form, while others had always chosen to cultivate in their original bodies, evolving endlessly in the form of beast kings — neither approach necessarily stronger than the other.

But those of the demon clan who had not chosen to evolve into human form were, for the most part, innately powerful and supremely proud races. They had no wish to integrate into a world ruled by humanity.

Many people knew that such beings dwelled outside the Ancient Forbidden Land. They were utterly without human sentiment, and once provoked, they would turn the surrounding area into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood without a second thought.

Ye Fan pressed deeper inside and came across a few wandering cultivators. After learning the details from them, he let out a long breath of relief.

The Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty and the Yin-Yang Sect had not yet moved to enter. For now, they were still scouting — making thorough plans and preparations.

Ahead, a roar shook the heavens. The mountain ranges trembled. Leaves flew in all directions through the ancient forest as the earth itself shuddered — and only after a long time did everything grow still again.

“Unbelievable — a strange beast just fought the imperial uncle of the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty to a standstill!”

The startling news spread through the gathered wandering cultivators, leaving all of them pale with shock. To match a Saint Master-level figure evenly — what manner of terrifying beast could this be?

Ye Fan and a dozen or so wandering cultivators pressed forward to where the battle had just taken place. A deadly silence hung over the area — no grass, no trees, no birds or insects. Before a pile of scattered rocks lay a vast lake.

It was utterly still, like a solid iron slab, without so much as a ripple. What was most alarming was its color: pitch black throughout, like ink spilled across the earth — a deeply unsettling darkness.

The surrounding land was barren and lifeless. Not a single weed grew anywhere near it. The black lake was heavy with the aura of death, utterly devoid of any sign of life — foul water in every sense of the name.

A few of the wandering cultivators had witnessed the battle. Every one of them was white-faced. One of them said, voice trembling, “It’s the legendary Dark Gold Cicada!”

The Dark Gold Cicada was an ancient strange beast. With the passing of ages, they had become nearly impossible to find in the world — one might appear in the Great Wastelands perhaps once every hundreds of thousands of years.

Before long, Ye Fan and some of the others neared the edge of the Ancient Forbidden Land. The people of the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty and the Yin-Yang Sect stood on two separate mountain peaks, gazing out ahead.

In addition to them, over a hundred wandering cultivators were gathered here, watching and waiting. They were still several li from the true boundary of the forbidden zone, and yet no one dared take a single step forward. Everyone regarded this forbidden land with the deepest reverence — it could strip the years from a person’s entire life with no effort whatsoever.

Ye Fan noticed something distinctly wrong: the Ancient Forbidden Land was far more terrifying than it had once been. Having entered it before, he was very sensitive to the aura of desolation it exuded — and that aura had grown many times more intense.

This was not a good sign. He couldn’t help but frown and lower his head in thought.

“The Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty has brought a divine garment — one left behind when an ancient sage passed away in seated meditation. They’ve truly staked everything on this.”

“A divine garment of an ancient sage… they actually have a peerless relic like that. Perhaps they truly can succeed.”

The onlookers murmured among themselves.

Ye Fan’s heart lurched violently. This was extremely bad news. He had seen with his own eyes just how terrifying a divine garment of an ancient sage could be — it had sliced open a divine king’s Pure Land without any difficulty!

“The Yin-Yang Sect has also come fully prepared. It’s said they traveled all the way to the Northern Region to have an ancient Source Arts family refine some mysterious stone garments — supposedly capable of weakening the aura of the curse.”

“Both major powers have put in tremendous effort. They’re determined to succeed!”

Hearing this news, Ye Fan could no longer remain calm. Someone had prepared a stone garment just as he had — and there was also the divine garment of an ancient sage. The situation was far from encouraging.

He was tempted to enter the forbidden zone then and there, but he found that the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty and the Yin-Yang Sect had each built a high platform atop one of the mountain peaks, clearly intending to maintain a permanent watch over the nine sacred mountains.

“This is trouble.” Ye Fan rubbed his chin and began thinking carefully. Every bit of this worked against him.

In the end, the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty and the Yin-Yang Sect left their most powerful figures behind to keep watch, while all the others withdrew entirely. This place was truly impossible to linger in — if a strange beast were to charge out, it could wipe out an entire group in an instant.

Seeing this, the many wandering cultivators lost no time in retreating. They had no courage to face something as terrifying as the Dark Gold Cicada. If one appeared, no one would survive.

Ye Fan was forced to retreat as well, lest the supreme figures who remained notice something unusual about him.

Over the following half-month, the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty and the Yin-Yang Sect made no moves, still scouting, still biding their time with remarkable patience.

For Ye Fan, this was true pressure. He had at most half a year left to live — or very possibly no more than a hundred or so days. He could not afford to wait them out.

During this period, Ye Fan Huiling arrived. But Ye Fan had not yet met with her — he needed to observe quietly for a time first.

Then Wang Chong also arrived. He defeated one young expert of the Southern Region after another without resistance, and afterward had a great battle with the head disciple of the Yin-Yang Sect, sending ripples of sensation through the region.

Slowly, Ye Fan’s mind steadied. For now, all he could do was watch and wait, and he began working through multiple possibilities.

The Immortal Divine Medicine was spiritually aware and could choose its own place of dwelling. Even in the most ancient of eras, there had been very few stalks of it. According to legend, in order to avoid being harvested by people, they had all flown of their own accord into the Seven Great Life Forbidden Zones.

The nine sacred mountains each bore one of nine varieties of sacred fruit. Legend held that they actually sprang from a single main root that someone had divided into nine, hoping to cultivate more stalks of Immortal Divine Medicine from them — but something had gone wrong in the process and a mutation occurred.

All of this was information Ye Fan had come to learn recently, uncovering many secrets he had not known before.

While waiting, Ye Fan visited a small tavern in the Yan capital and encountered someone who left him utterly stunned — Zhang Wenchang, that same taciturn old classmate of his.

Zhang Wenchang’s temples had gone white, and he carried himself with the weariness of an old man, devoid of any youthful energy. After emerging from the Ancient Forbidden Land, he had never truly recovered. The small tavern was his own establishment.

Ye Fan thought back to the time they had drunk themselves blind together in the Jade Cauldron Grotto Heaven — the memory of that evening, that normally reticent Zhang Wenchang weeping in a drunken stupor. He had wanted to go back home. When he left, his wife had already been pregnant, the child about to be born, and he hated himself for not being there.

Years had passed, and he had grown even older. His entire person was suffused with a dejected air, as though life had treated him poorly. He had evidently left the Jade Cauldron Grotto Heaven and come here to run a small tavern, just to get by.

“Old man, is it true your friend never came back?” A young man in the tavern said with imperious disdain, casting a contemptuous glance at Zhang Wenchang.

“He never came back…” Zhang Wenchang’s eyes held not even a glimmer of light. They were deeply dim.

Another young man spoke up: “Ji Hui, our grand aunt, has calculated that he will return. He’ll definitely come to see you. Old wreck — if you find out anything, you’d better tell us immediately!”

Hearing those words, Ye Fan’s face turned dark at once, and a cold smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.