A foreign elder from beyond this realm, riding a green ox, and Shakyamuni himself had once visited the Immortal Transformation Pool. This news sent a tremor through Ye Fan’s heart and mind — a flood of thoughts came rushing in.

Coming from beyond this realm, from the other end of the star sea — these things resonated deeply with him. Ye Fan had long wished to return to Earth, to his homeland. And these two individuals had been able to cross the star sea, which was something he had always yearned for.

“Old brother, you know a great deal. Could you tell me more?” He asked humbly, genuinely finding it hard to imagine how the Sickly Elder could know all of this. Had he actually encountered those two individuals in person?

Ye Fan couldn’t help but look the old man over carefully. His hair was sparse; he appeared to be no more than fifty-something years old, looking sickly and frail — but what era he truly belonged to was very difficult to say.

“I saw it recorded in a handwritten journal left by someone who came before me. What I know is limited.” The Sickly Elder replied, though he still spoke in greater detail, giving Ye Fan a closer understanding.

Beginning from the Green Emperor and the Cai clan, what he said was difficult to keep one’s heart calm upon hearing — for within it were many hidden secrets.

The Immortal Transformation Pool’s origins were extraordinary and beyond anyone’s ability to fully explain. From the distant past to the present, no one truly knew everything that had transpired there. Immortal treasures lay submerged within it, shaking the soul, yet impossible to obtain.

In the age before the Primordial Era, perhaps great and unparalleled wars had been fought there. Gods may have been born within it. Supreme imperial weapons had been shattered and fallen into the pool.

The Wushi Great Emperor had found a Chaos Stone within the pool. He refined the immortal object hidden within it and forged the Wushi Imperial Bell — its sound, when rung, moved all ages, its power absolute and unmatched.

The Green Emperor had originally been a green lotus, born there, rooted upon a piece of green copper — granting him tremendous benefit. However, before he took human form, the green copper was lost and drifted away from him.

The Demon Emperor was one of unparalleled genius and brilliance. In the end, he had relied not on any external object, but on himself alone, to attain the Dao and become an Emperor in the later Archaic Era — becoming one of the most powerful beings of all past, present, and future.

The Cai clan had also produced one with great fortune who had entered the Immortal Transformation Pool. Thirty thousand years ago, someone had used the Bing character secret to extract a piece of green copper. Through cultivating the Bing character secret, they had gained tremendous benefit.

When he heard this, Ye Fan’s heart stirred. Could this be the fundamental reason the Green Emperor had destroyed the Cai clan? A historical mystery began to emerge into the light.

But the Sickly Elder shook his head. “The ancient great emperors all had a grand breadth of spirit. They would not wipe out an entire clan for such a reason. There was another cause.”

Ye Fan was puzzled. “What other reason could there be?”

“It all began with the ancestor of the Cai clan…”

The Cai clan held the Bing character secret — the highest secret art of Daoism, originating from the Eastern Wilderness. And in fact, investigations had confirmed that their ancestors had crossed the Eastern Wilderness to come here.

“This family is inauspicious. Once every ten or twenty thousand years, strange and uncanny events would occur through them, bringing harm to the world. That is why the Green Emperor acted.”

“The Cai clan is inauspicious?” Upon hearing such words, Ye Fan was increasingly astonished, feeling that within this must lie many hidden secrets.

“Seventy thousand years ago, their ancestor — in his final years — came from the Eastern Wilderness to Central Province and headed directly to the Qinling Mountains, wanting to be buried in this particular and special place.” The Sickly Elder spoke slowly.

The Qinling Mountains spanned a million miles in circumference, vast and boundless. Yet relative to the immensity of Central Province, they occupied only a corner of its western region.

Since ancient times, the Qinling had been the subject of endless legends. Below the ground lay countless ancient tombs; at night it was common to see old corpses crawl from their graves and breathe in the moonlight — this was the most widely told of those legends.

And indeed, it was so. From ancient times to the present, an unknowable number of emperors, divine monks, and others had been buried here. People had long since grown accustomed to this.

It was said that burial here could lead one to eventually become a Corpse-Liberation Immortal. No one knew which ancient text recorded this, but after certain supreme figures acknowledged it, subsequent generations followed suit.

The ancestor of the Cai clan came from the Eastern Wilderness in his final years and headed straight for the Qinling Mountains. In and of itself, there was nothing remarkable about that. But when he located the dragon vein and made arrangements for his own funeral rites, he alarmed a great many people.

In those days, the entire span of the Qinling Mountains was filled day and night with the sounds of immortals weeping, and dragon qi rose into the sky. The scene was terrifying in the extreme.

It did not last long, however, before everything subsided and returned to normal. People knew that the Cai clan’s ancestor must have been a remarkable individual — one who could seek out dragon veins and determine a divine burial ground.

“This clan truly is inauspicious…” the Sickly Elder continued.

Not long after, the people of the Eastern Wilderness Cai clan relocated in their entirety. Their ancestor had yet to draw his last breath, yet no one dared approach him.

He had clearly run out of vital life energy, yet found it very difficult to die. He moved frequently through the Qinling Mountains, returning at midnight. During that time, the clan witnessed a great many uncanny and strange occurrences.

And in that period, a Great Completion king from Central Province came to pay a visit — and something utterly horrifying transpired. This man, who had lived for nearly four thousand years and was peerless under heaven, was actually strangled to death by the Cai clan’s ancestor with his bare hands.

“A Great Completion king who had lived for nearly four thousand years, matchless in the world, was killed by someone whose vital life energy had run dry — a man of no particularly great cultivation, who knew only how to locate dragon veins. It was something as fantastical as a fairy tale.” The Sickly Elder shook his head.

Ye Fan was stunned as well. His hair stood on end, for he felt as though he recognized this — it seemed to match exactly with a certain legend. And it had great relevance to him.

“In his final years, in his last days, the place where he lived was perpetually shrouded in darkness at all hours of the day, with red whirlwinds blowing — uncanny and terrifying, with inexplicable screaming sounds.”

The Cai clan’s ancestor was down to his last breath, yet managed to hold on for more than half a year. All manner of eerie and chilling incidents took place during that time, and even several disciples of his own clan were frightened to death.

In the end, no one dared go near the place where he dwelled. One night, he finally vanished, leaving behind a letter with only a few lines: if he could not achieve Corpse-Liberation, his descendants would all face catastrophe.

The people of the Cai clan searched the Qinling Mountains for decades, finding no trace of his burial ground. They had no idea what had happened — they knew only that their ancestor’s final years had been far too uncanny.

“Eight thousand years later, on a lightning-filled, stormy night, the Cai clan’s ancestor returned…” the Sickly Elder said.

“What — how could he have lived so long?!” Ye Fan was greatly alarmed.

“He had been long dead. In the black, raging rain, people caught a fleeting glimpse of him. He looked exactly like the portrait kept in their clan, with one difference — he was covered in red hair…”

Ye Fan felt his scalp prickle. He increasingly felt that this had something to do with him — this was exactly like that legend.

“He was no longer human. A fleeting appearance, then he vanished again into the depths of the Qinling Mountains. But that very night, half the Cai clan died, and even the survivors frequently experienced strange events afterward — often losing their sanity and wreaking havoc throughout the Qinling region.”

Afterward, another ten thousand years passed, and similar events occurred again, even more terrifying than before. By then, the Cai clan had grown very powerful, and naturally the scale of the chaos grew accordingly.

Once things settled, they invited extraordinary individuals from Central Province, the Western Desert, the Southern Ridge, and the Eastern Wilderness to come and determine the truth of it.

At that time, a golden-bodied Arhat from the Western Desert came in person and declared that the Cai clan’s ancestor had found the greatest dragon vein in all of the Qinling — a divine burial ground. Unless he achieved Corpse-Liberation, he could not be eliminated.

A dragon-seeking Heavenly Master from Central Province, upon seeing it, was shaken, and stated that something inauspicious had befallen the ancestor of the Cai clan in his final years. He had no choice but to do what he did, seeking to use the Qinling’s immortal burial ground to resist a certain existence.

“The inauspiciousness that befell a Heavenly Eye Master in his final years was so dreadful — he fled all the way to Central Province and still could not escape it. His descendants were dragged in as well.” Ye Fan’s spine ran cold.

He too had learned the Heavenly Eye Scripture and had experienced that uncanny sensation before. Most likely, he would face such a day in the future himself — and he had no idea how to avert it.

“That is correct. The ancestor of the Cai clan was the third-generation Heavenly Eye Master of the Eastern Wilderness. After he departed, he buried the Heavenly Eye Scripture in the Eastern Wilderness. Twenty thousand years later, someone obtained it. The fourth-generation Heavenly Eye Master came in person to the Qinling Mountains of Central Province and merely sighed once before leaving.”

Ye Fan’s heart stirred deeply. Was this some manner of fate? Why did calamity befall Heavenly Eye Masters in their final years? What existence had come calling upon them, and could not be escaped even by fleeing all the way to Central Province?

In the Eastern Wilderness, there had been five Heavenly Eye Masters in all, and without exception, every one of them experienced terrible events in their final years. The third-generation Heavenly Eye Master had fled to Central Province — and he was the ancestor of the Cai clan.

The fourth-generation Heavenly Eye Master exhausted all his ingenuity and calculated for decades before fleeing into the Primordial Forbidden Zone, taking refuge in the land where things reach their extreme and reverse — a place whose terrain was linked to a true dragon, forming a True Dragon Coffin-Pulling Ground. Yet in the end, he had not escaped his calamity.

The fifth Heavenly Eye Master — the founding ancestor of the Zhang Family — had vanished in a single night of ghostly wails and divine shrieks, having apparently frightened a young child into a stupor. He was suspected to have entered the burial ground of the Wushi Great Emperor — the Purple Mountain.

“Without achieving Corpse-Liberation as an immortal, they cannot be eliminated. Every ten or twenty thousand years, the Cai clan would experience inauspicious events, and no matter where they fled, they could not escape…”

The circumstances were complex. Ten thousand years ago, someone once again saw a red-haired humanoid creature walk out of the Qinling Mountains. At that time, an unknown number of living beings across the million-mile span of the Qinling perished.

“The Cai clan’s ancestor, dead for sixty thousand years, with his corpse still intact — making another appearance?!” Ye Fan was astonished.

“Indeed. And what is more, in the dead of night, he made a fleeting appearance within his own clan. By then, this ancient family was incomparably stronger than before, yet still could not ward off the inauspiciousness…”

“Ten thousand years ago the Cai clan was wiped out — the reasons were complex…”

The Green Emperor had once entered the Qinling Mountains in search of that red-haired humanoid creature, yet had found no trace of it. Otherwise, he would have eliminated it along with everything else.

“In that case, it is still in this world…” Ye Fan felt a chill run through him.

“Until the day of Corpse-Liberation, there is no release. The Qinling Mountains are home to many ancient tombs — and the words of the ancients were not without reason. This region is truly extraordinary.”

Ye Fan was moved. Even after death, a Heavenly Eye Master could find no peace. What existence was it — and one so formidable that even a great emperor had to take action against it?

The Sickly Elder said: “There are no immortals in this world. For one to become a Corpse-Liberation Immortal is nearly impossible. Yet neither can it persist forever — most likely, whatever remained of it was largely cut down ten thousand years ago.”

“What happened?”

Ten thousand years ago, just before his final transformation, the Green Emperor accomplished many world-shaking deeds — descending into the Divine Ruins to seize the Desolate Tower, traveling far to Central Province in search of the green copper.

In the end, just before his final transformation, he wiped out the Cai clan with a single finger, and then — using the Demon Emperor’s immeasurable divine power — unleashed a single slash aimed at the Qinling Mountains.

The Green Emperor did not know where the red-haired humanoid creature was. He simply sent forth a killing intent borne of the Demon Emperor’s will. Even after his transformation, if this intent did not find its target, it would not dissipate.

“Where did he release this killing intent?” Ye Fan asked in alarm.

“Seated in the Eastern Wilderness, his intent shook the world in a single moment!” the Sickly Elder said.

“What?!” Ye Fan was struck speechless with astonishment. How unfathomably powerful had the Green Emperor truly been?

“The Green Emperor was immeasurably profound. That he alone could attain the Dao and become an Emperor in the later Archaic Era is naturally a feat of timeless wonder. His power was beyond all measure.” The Sickly Elder said.

The ancient great emperors were unified with the Dao, their pulse synchronized with the rhythm of the world itself — incomparably powerful beyond all ordinary comprehension. Even in death, it would take tens of thousands of years for their Dao to fully dissipate.

At the same time, Ye Fan found himself astonished. What was the Sickly Elder’s background — how did he know so many hidden secrets? Even the several great divine dynasties might not have clarity on all of this.

“That fat fellow, Duan De!” Ye Fan suddenly exclaimed in surprise. He had spotted a familiar figure moving through the mountain ranges ahead.

“Before long, more people will probably come. The Immortal Transformation Pool and the Qinling Dragon Vein — both places harbor unimaginable heavenly opportunities.” The Sickly Elder said.

Ye Fan had not anticipated it: the red-haired humanoid creature within the dragon vein also held tremendous value — it very likely contained a divine immortality pill.

“People from the Extraordinary Scholars’ Manor have also come…”

Before long, several familiar figures came into view — among them the Holy Son of Yao Guang and the Holy Maiden of Jade Pool. More than two years had passed since he had last seen them, and these people had all made considerable advancement.

“Even Wang Teng has come!” His eyes flickered with light.

A golden ancient war chariot, radiant light shooting toward the heavens — Wang Teng stood atop it, sweeping across the sky like a celestial emperor. Dragons and phoenixes sang in harmony, white tigers leaped through the heavens, black tortoises plowed through the seas — a scene of dazzling splendor.

The Sickly Elder said: “Not long ago, someone spotted the old corpses within the Qinling Mountains beginning to show signs of unusual movement. It is believed that the existence within the dragon vein is due to appear — whenever the dragon vein stirs, the Immortal Transformation Pool is certain to manifest.”

This was a heavenly opportunity, one that was drawing the Central Province into turbulence. It could be anticipated that in the near future, the Qinling would see the arrival of powerful cultivators from all quarters.

“The Nine Li Divine Dynasty prepared most thoroughly of all. That Moon Spirit Princess has been here for more than two years already — and not solely for the Nine Secrets.”