Ancient affairs of the primordial past dissolved with the passage of time, the dust of history buried entirely beneath the earth — this was the truest portrait of the Northern Domain.

Ages swept by. Land that had once teemed with life became a scene of utter bleakness. The races of former days became the smoke and clouds of history.

Now, the Northern Domain was left with nothing but endless openness and desolation — the eye swept across boundless earth and found nothing but monotonous reddish-brown.

A dozen or so riders moved at a quick pace. The village of Elder Zhang and his companions was two hundred li away. At this speed, they could return before the sun set.

Ye Fan rode one of the horses as well, riding side by side with Elder Zhang and earnestly asking about the various secrets of Source.

A thousand years prior, the Book of the Source Celestial had been lost, and with it many Source-seeking secret methods had been passed down no more. Elder Zhang was deeply regretful — whenever this matter came up, he would sigh.

Ye Fan too felt some disappointment. That was surely a wondrous book. He longed to catch a glimpse of it — finding the dragon veins of Source, holding supreme divine Source in place so it could not escape — methods of this kind were breathtaking to the world.

Once such knowledge was in one’s hands, one would inevitably become an honored guest at any Holy Land. This wondrous book held value beyond estimation.

A dozen or so riders moved forward, leaving behind a dozen or so trails of dust.

Over an hour later, the horses slowed — they had only covered seventy or eighty li. These were no exceptional fine horses; their stamina was quite ordinary.

“Charge!”

Suddenly, seven or eight riders appeared on the horizon. Their speed was extraordinary — like a whirlwind — kicking up billowing clouds of dust, and in the blink of an eye they were right before everyone.

These people’s mounts were no ordinary horses. All of them shimmered with scale-light, large and powerfully built — these were Dragon Scale Horses. In form resembling horses but covered in blue-green scales, they could travel four to five thousand li in a single day without tiring.

“Trouble — raiders!” The quick-witted young man Wang Shu’s expression changed.

“Everyone stop!” A man with very dark skin bellowed.

Eight Dragon Scale Horses surrounded them, cutting off Ye Fan and his companions. The riders all shouted, “Hand over whatever Source you’ve excavated. If you don’t, this is where you’ll be buried.”

Ye Fan at last personally experienced the chaos of this land. In broad daylight, raiders ran rampant, threatening to kill and rob at the slightest provocation.

“Friends, we didn’t collect a single grain of Source today — not any gains whatsoever.” Wang Shu smiled apologetically and explained.

“Save your nonsense. Source miners like you never change your ways until you see the coffin — hand it over right now, and we’ll let you go. Otherwise, today in a year will be your memorial day.” The dark-faced middle-aged man at the center scolded.

“Friends, we truly have nothing to show. If you don’t believe us, you’re welcome to search us — we won’t offer any resistance.” Elder Zhang clasped his hands together respectfully.

Ye Fan patted Elder Zhang on the shoulder, signaling him not to worry, and sized up these people.

“Old man, step aside!” One of the raiders stepped forward, fixing his eyes on Ye Fan. He sensed a faint aura of Source about this person.

“You still claim to have no Source — this fine-skinned tender-fleshed young man definitely has plenty stashed on him.” One of the raiders raised his riding whip and brought it slashing heavily toward Ye Fan, cursing, “You dare lie to our faces!”

Smack!

Ye Fan caught the riding whip in his grip. He said to Elder Zhang and the others, “Go on ahead and wait for me.”

“Who the hell do you think you are, you little rabbit? Even a Source miner dares to act like this?” The raider swept his gaze all around. “I’ll see which of you dares to leave — all of you stay right where you are!”

Thud!

Ye Fan seized the man and yanked him off his Dragon Scale Horse with one hand — though he did not take his life, as he had many questions to ask these raiders.

Seeing this, Elder Zhang and the others charged away into the distance, not lingering.

The lead raider — a man who raided for a living and had a sharp eye for trouble — immediately abandoned his Dragon Scale Horse, leaped into the sky, and attempted to flee.

“Trying to escape?” Ye Fan flicked his fingers. Eight streams of finger force — like eight hammers — struck their bodies. All eight men immediately tumbled to the ground.

The lead raider was no more than a Life Spring realm cultivator — no match for Ye Fan whatsoever. Every single one went pale, knowing they had kicked an iron board.

“Are you even proper raiders? All the Source you have on you put together doesn’t even add up to half a catty.” Ye Fan was quite displeased. “Tell me in detail — which raider groups are operating in the vicinity?”

A quarter of an hour later, Ye Fan led eight Dragon Scale Horses to catch up with Elder Zhang and his companions. “Will bringing these Dragon Scale Horses back cause trouble for you?”

The dozen-odd young adults eyed them hungrily, but Elder Zhang shook his head. “Let them fend for themselves. Only raiders can ride these unusual beasts. If our village had them, it would draw too much attention.”

“With raiders running rampant, don’t the local sects do anything?” Ye Fan asked.

“What can they do? Raiders are like locusts — one group goes and another comes. There’s no way to manage it.”

“If they don’t collude with the raiders it’s already something. I’ve heard that quite a few sects actually prop up the raiders from behind the scenes and use them for plundering.”

Through this, Ye Fan came to understand further the lawlessness and bloodshed of the Northern Domain. It was truly a paradise of wickedness.

“No wonder cultivators from other regions come to the Northern Domain to take their chances. Here, without any law, those with strength can be lords of a patch of earth.”

Ye Fan felt this suited him well — no more need to worry about Source.

Before sunset, they finally completed the journey of over two hundred li.

Ahead was a village built of stone — no more than several dozen households, and no more than two hundred people altogether.

As they drew near, Ye Fan could see the fierce customs of this place plainly. Men, women, elderly, and children alike, every villager gripped a sharpened blade. Seeing it was Elder Zhang and the others returning, they finally let out a long breath and set down their weapons.

“Chen Big-Beard came again. He said there are only five days left. If the Source still isn’t delivered, he’ll wipe out the whole village.”

The villagers were all furrowed brows and sighs.

“The other groups that went out also returned empty-handed.”

“After years of excessive mining, the Source in the nearby areas is all exhausted. How can we gather enough in such a short time?”

Ye Fan settled in. Stone houses were common in the Northern Domain, and his lodging was clean — it had been carefully tidied.

That evening, Elder Zhang and the others offered him a warm welcome. They specifically slaughtered a sheep for the occasion, and everyone gathered around a fire. The whole roasted sheep, golden and glistening with oil, was taken off the rack, and everyone ate great chunks of meat and drank full bowls of spirits.

Northern Domain men were for the most part rough and rugged — with a touch of wild recklessness about them — and drinking contests were inevitable. Ye Fan ate to his heart’s content. After the hardships of these past months, always fleeing, this kind of ease felt deeply relaxing.

During the meal, he asked Elder Zhang about several place names and inquired as to their directions.

Elder Zhang had someone bring out a cowhide map and pointed each location out for him, all within a hundred li radius — these were the base camps he had learned of from the raiders.

Now that Ye Fan was in desperate need of Source to advance his strength, he set out that very night, striking three raider camps one after another in rapid succession.

The results were deeply disappointing. Each den had no more than a dozen people, and from all three locations combined, he found only a little over two catties of Source.

“Not enough for me. I need to find a bigger target.” By now, Ye Fan missed the Yao Guang Holy Land’s Source area tremendously. It had truly been a treasure of a location. The outside areas were extremely barren by comparison — there was simply no way to compare.

This stone village was situated within an oasis of over ten li across. On the horizon stood a solitary great mountain — several thousand meters in height.

No soil, no vegetation — entirely a stone mountain.

In the early morning, as sunlight fell, the enormous stone mountain gave off a feeling of profound, weighty solemnity.

When Ye Fan stepped out of the stone house, he happened to see Elder Zhang facing the morning glow and prostrating before that great mountain — which he found rather strange.

The honest young man Er Lengzi explained without being asked, “The first thing Elder Zhang does every morning when he gets up is bow to that mountain.”

Ye Fan’s heart stirred. That stone mountain must be no ordinary thing — there was surely something behind it.

Just then, Elder Zhang walked over. He didn’t explain anything — he simply called Ye Fan over for breakfast.

“Er Lengzi, let me ask you — what is strange about that mountain?” When no one else was around, Ye Fan asked.

“I don’t know. Elder Zhang won’t let us go near it. He says it’s a place of inauspiciousness.” Er Lengzi shook his head.

After breakfast, Ye Fan set off. Like a wisp of light smoke, he was at the foot of the great mountain in no time.

It was entirely deep purple-brown in color — like dimly tarnished purple-gold — heavy and solemn, four thousand meters tall, with extremely steep sides that no ordinary person could climb.

Ye Fan noticed with astonishment that across its surface were many cuts from blades and holes from swords — all nearly eroded away and smoothed over. Only by looking very carefully could one make them out.

He tried running a finger along the cliff face and found it extremely hard — comparable to refined iron. This purple rock was something special.

Ye Fan drew a sharp breath of cold air in an instant. For such a hard great mountain to have eroded to this state, the blade and axe marks left upon it — from what era could they possibly date? Beyond all reckoning!

He slowly ascended into the air, astonishment growing with each moment. It was not only the cliff face at the base of the mountain that bore blade marks — the holes left by weapons covered the entire mountain body, all the way up to the midpoint of the mountain.

Above the midpoint, the purple mountain rose sheer, like a great sword thrust into the sky — imposing and magnificent.

Ye Fan was startled to discover that alongside the various marks left by weapons, there were also quite a few handprints and finger holes — nearly eroded away, faint and indistinct, barely discernible.

“These must be traces from before the Great Antiquity. Otherwise, marks on stone this hard could never have worn down to near-erasure.”

After flying to the summit, Ye Fan looked out into the distance and saw mountain ranges in every direction.

“Nine ranges in total — barely visible on the distant horizon — while this purple mountain seems to lie at the center.”

Ye Fan had no expertise in terrain and topography, and he could find nothing particularly remarkable about it. In the end his gaze settled on this purple mountain alone.

The summit was bare, with nothing on it. The morning glow spilled across it, making the entire mountain appear even more magnificent.

“Nothing remarkable here — could there be Source inside?” Ye Fan summoned the Golden Scripture and slashed across the open summit.

The purple mountain was extremely hard — particularly at the summit. But it was still cut through by the Golden Scripture, sparks flying, rock and stone shattering in all directions. Before long, a large pit appeared at the summit.

Ye Fan furrowed his brow. He found nothing unusual. This was clearly not the kind of rock that encased Source — it shouldn’t be yielding any.

In the end, he returned empty-handed to the stone village.

The next day, he rose early and watched from a distance. Sure enough, the first thing Elder Zhang did upon leaving his house was bow to that great mountain.

At breakfast, he could hold himself back no longer and asked, “Elder, is that mountain something special? Why do you bow to it every single day?”

Elder Zhang’s expression stiffened. Then he let out a long sigh. “That is a place of inauspiciousness. You must never go there. My ancestor once said that in the entire Northern Domain, no one can provoke it.”

“Provoke…” Ye Fan was even more astonished, and asked, “What on earth is in that purple mountain?”

“I don’t know what’s there either. I only know it is a place of inauspiciousness.”

He got nothing out of Elder Zhang. Moving about the village, he found Er Lengzi again and questioned him further — but Er Lengzi couldn’t say anything meaningful either.

The quick-witted young man Wang Shu happened to pass by. He bore considerable goodwill toward Ye Fan, knowing he had stayed to help the village, and said, “I know a little. Elder Zhang once got drunk and wept bitterly, saying it was a place of inauspiciousness connected in some way to an ancient Great Emperor.”

Ye Fan was struck speechless on the spot. Since ancient times throughout the entire Eastern Desolation, how many Great Emperors had there ever been?!

No more than a scant handful — lords over all under heaven, shaking ancient times and illuminating all ages, whose accomplishments almost no one has ever surpassed.

The few terrifying paramount weapons of the Eastern Desolation all came from the hands of those few figures. No one else could ever refine them.

In this moment, Ye Fan felt his blood surge with heat, nearly crying out in excitement. Connected to an ancient Great Emperor? His mind immediately leaped to countless possibilities.