“The mountains and rivers bury the saints of antiquity…” Ye Fan murmured to himself. Based on the guidance of the ancient pavilion’s stone pillars, that was indeed how it should be.

Before this, he had not seen the ancient bronze coffin within the pine forest, yet he believed it truly existed — the Fourth Generation Patriarch would not have carved those markings carelessly.

By his reasoning, buried deep within the immortal forest, this should be the great burial mound vaguely referenced on the stone pillar.

Ye Fan was thoroughly shaken. What kind of existence could this be? With such terrain and topography, whoever was buried here was absolutely extraordinary.

The fire dragon burial mound connected to the pine forest, its form soaring as if pulling a coffin — it bore too great a resemblance to the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin. Could there be some inexplicable connection? Why else would even the lines of the ancient bronze coffin be so similar?

The difference was that nine dragon corpses truly existed, while this place was merely a geographical formation, possessing only a single fire dragon burial mound.

Ye Fan believed the two shared some kind of inherited or civilizational intersection — otherwise the ancient bronze coffins could not be so alike. He simply did not know which had inherited from which.

Ye Fan’s thoughts wandered endlessly, and only after quite some time did he pull himself back to the present. There was no use thinking so much right now — escaping the Primordial Forbidden Zone was what truly mattered.

Regarding the fire dragon burial mound, the dragon’s bloodbathed ground, and this pine forest — the stone slab was covered in numerous runic markings, annotations made using the celestial source vein patterns. Ye Fan’s head ached just trying to read them.

Without fully comprehending the Book of Celestial Sources, he could not possibly understand the Fourth Generation Patriarch’s annotations, nor grasp their meaning.

What shocked him most was that a great expanse of inscriptions on the stone slab had been deliberately erased. The carved diagram should have been far larger, encompassing a much broader stretch of terrain, yet it had been destroyed.

Ye Fan lamented inwardly. Those worn-away stone carvings should have depicted the various topographical features of this entire region — effectively a map of the outer reaches of the Primordial Forbidden Zone.

He was certain there must be other death zones similar to the dragon’s bloodbathed ground, and not a few of them. Had the carved diagram been complete, one could have avoided those treacherous places.

“The Primordial Forbidden Zone is truly vast. Even the Fourth Generation Patriarch only managed to carve down a portion of it — and even that was later destroyed.” Ye Fan felt regret, yet could do nothing about it. The carved map was lost; only stone fragments remained.

In a place where things reach extremes and reverse, with unimaginable existences buried beneath — Ye Fan’s imagination ran wild. He longed to dig three hundred zhang into the earth and pull whatever lay there into the open.

He shook his head. Even celestial source masters had no solution for this place. Even the aged Divine King of the Eastern Desolation had perished here. He himself hadn’t the slightest hope.

“The Primordial Ancient Mines…” Ye Fan sighed. This was not a single hidden location, but an entire cluster of them, stretching endlessly together.

The innermost ancient mines — there was no need to even think about it. He suspected that even the old madman who had ventured there would find it a one-way journey.

As for the outer reaches of the Primordial Forbidden Zone, those too were fraught with danger — lands of great calamity and malevolence. However many entered, that many died.

Ye Fan rose to his feet and gazed into the interior of the divine temple. The scenery within was hazy and indistinct.

This divine temple was many times larger than the several he had seen along the way. It was clearly a site of great importance that once held a special status in former times — yet the passage of years had taken everything, leaving only decay and desolation behind.

Ye Fan walked inside holding the Book of Celestial Sources, carefully observing his surroundings. His powerful divine sense took form and extended outward, sweeping through every inch of space. If any artifacts were to be discovered here, they would certainly be extraordinary.

Yet inside, it was utterly empty — nothing remained.

The ground was covered in a thick layer of stone fragments. The same was true of the raised platform at the center — nothing but dust.

“Of course. All of it has been consumed by time. Nothing could remain.” Ye Fan understood. This ancient temple had not collapsed because it had been laid with awe-inspiring Dao-pattern formations. As for the divine statues and the like within — they had naturally all rotted away to nothing.

Tracing back to the Primordial Era, even ten thousand years was but a single unit of measure, not even a significant span of time. Over such an immense duration, even spiritual treasures should have long since crumbled.

Unless it was an extreme Dao weapon forged by a Great Emperor — imperishable and undying, capable of enduring through the ages — otherwise nothing could possibly survive.

Ye Fan searched through the vast hall, and among a heap of dust and ash, he found a rust-mottled fragment of iron.

“Even divine iron has corroded…”

The iron piece was snow-white, covered in fine cracks and heavy rust stains, its spiritual essence long since extinguished, its value gone.

He had seen this kind of divine iron before — in the eighth level of the Fire Domain, when that crow-robed Daoren had been refining weapons, he had used this very type of divine iron, which resembled mutton-fat jade in texture, as his material.

By all accounts it was extraordinarily rare, almost never seen in the world. Even among Yao Guang Sage Master’s weapons, a small amount of this divine iron had been incorporated — only those of great power could find any of it at all; ordinary people had no hope of obtaining it.

“This must have originally been a large piece, yet it corroded down to this tiny fragment over the ages.”

Ye Fan believed that in its day, this magnificent ancient temple must have been a site of great importance. Just from the divine iron alone, one could tell that many precious objects had once been left here — unfortunately all had been damaged by the passage of time.

As he had anticipated, among the ash he began to find piece after piece of crumbled and corroded metal — there was Zijing divine copper, there was Grand Radiance silver essence, there was Immortal Tear green gold.

Ye Fan felt deep sorrow. These were all the finest divine materials in the world, the most sought-after substances for forging extreme Dao weapons — and all of them had been drained of their spiritual essence, reduced to near worthlessness.

Especially that piece of Immortal Tear green gold — even now, there remained a chunk the size of a fist, its surface dotted with tear-like markings. Legend had it this substance was formed from the tears of immortals. Yet the green gold no longer shimmered like jade — it had long since dimmed to a dull finish.

“What a terrible waste. Were materials like these so common in the Primordial Era? Nowadays, one could search the entire Eastern Desolation and not gather much of any of them.”

To let such things corrode away in dust — it was an extravagance beyond measure. Ye Fan searched and found dozens of pieces in all, yet not a single one remained usable.

“What a pity. Even the greatest Sage Masters would ache at the sight of this…”

Ye Fan made a complete circuit of the great hall and came away with nothing of practical use. Divine materials existed, yes — but all were rotted away.

In the end, at the base of the central altar platform in the great hall, he sensed the presence of an object. He scraped away the thick layer of dusty earth and brushed aside the accumulated ash of history, bringing it back into the light of day.

Ye Fan had approached with great anticipation, but the moment he laid eyes on this artifact, the corners of his mouth twitched.

He had assumed it would be a fully formed spiritual treasure — even if its essence had been exhausted, perhaps he might at least see Dao-patterns the likes of which he had never before encountered.

Yet this object had no such Dao-patterns to speak of. It was a jade ornament, a plaything. Green and glistening throughout, no larger than a walnut — it was a small jade tortoise.

Exquisitely crafted, nearly indistinguishable from a real tortoise, vivid and lifelike. Held in the palm, it felt warm and smooth — the material was top-grade jade.

“Wait, something is wrong. Even the Grand Radiance silver essence has deteriorated. Even the Immortal Tear green gold has been destroyed. How could this jade tortoise have survived intact?”

Ye Fan sensed something unusual and turned it over and over in his hands, examining it from every angle. This was an arcane tortoise — its neck long like a serpent or dragon, its shell patterned like the Eight Trigrams.

The jade itself had also faded in color, its spiritual essence wholly depleted. Though it remained green in hue, the vitality within was long gone.

This object was certainly no extreme Dao weapon — it fell far, far short of that. Not even a trace of Dao-patterns could be sensed upon it. Ye Fan could not understand why it alone had managed to survive.

He let his fingers turn golden and squeezed the jade stone with force — yet it did not break. This astonished him. The small jade tortoise was absolutely out of the ordinary; its hardness surpassed imagination. He could not help but take it seriously and extended his powerful divine sense to investigate.

“What is this… there seems to be something inside…” Ye Fan discovered in surprise that something was sealed within the jade, detectable only as a faint resonance.

All the divine materials around had crumbled to nothing — had he actually stumbled upon a true treasure at the very end?

He studied it closely, yet no matter how he looked, he could not make sense of it. This jade tortoise was clearly not a weapon, and yet it had not been destroyed by the ages.

“Buried beneath the dust under the central altar of this ancient temple — could it have some notable origin?” Ye Fan turned it idly in his fingers, puzzling over it.

He passed through the magnificent ancient temple and came out the back. The pine forest was perfectly still. Across the forest floor, there were a full several hundred celestial source vein patterns, all of them shimmering — resonating with the mysterious book in his hand.

“This is…”

Ye Fan’s head throbbed as understanding slowly began to dawn. This was a profoundly complex celestial source map, capable of fixing dragon veins, locking divine sources, and altering the great momentum of mountains and rivers.

“Has the Fourth Generation Patriarch gone mad?”

Ye Fan was stunned. This was a super-scale “celestial map” that should have been spread across dozens of li of mountain terrain — yet it had been compressed into an area of barely a hundred zhang in circumference. Such density — if handled improperly, the sky would collapse and the earth would cave in.

A celestial source map this terrifying — even a master of the celestial source arts could layout only a handful of such maps in an entire lifetime.

“What was he trying to do?” Ye Fan stared for a while, then cried out in sudden understanding: “Borrowing force!”

Without a doubt — he was borrowing the force of this extremity-reversal terrain!

A flash of intuition struck him. He recalled the carved diagram on the stone in front of the ancient temple — the ancient bronze coffin marked within the pine forest seemed to be located right here.

“Yes — it must be buried beneath this grove of trees!”

Ye Fan felt an immediate chill of dread. The Fourth Generation Patriarch had left behind inscriptions with stern warnings to all future generations: do not rashly disturb the forces beneath the pine forest — death would certainly follow.

Yet the Patriarch himself had been borrowing the subterranean forces here. What a gamble that was — a single misstep would have ground him to dust. This treacherous ground, which entombed a saint of antiquity, was utterly unpredictable.

Ye Fan felt a wave of anxiety ripple through him. He was standing in what was truly the central zone of the pine forest — with great malevolence entombed directly beneath.

Within this area of a hundred zhang in circumference, there were three hundred and sixty-five celestial source vein patterns in total. True dragons ascended through the heavens, Vermilion Birds swept in dancing arcs, arcane tortoises loomed like mountains… The patterns here were not simple runes — they had each formed into complete diagrams that, combined together, resembled a painting from the immortal realm, or a configuration of celestial phenomena.

“The Patriarch truly put everything on the line — hoping to use this to protect himself and change the fate of his later years.”

Ye Fan dared not step inside. Were he to enter deep enough, he feared he would be unable to leave for the rest of his life. Within this hundred-zhang radius, one could draw upon the killing forces of heaven and earth and harness the momentum of this place for oneself.

He stood outside the celestial source map — a hundred zhang away, yet close enough to see everything clearly.

Looking carefully, he spotted a broken stone ruler on the ground, along with some fragments of a shattered stone garment.

Ye Fan’s heart sank at once. That ruler was made from aged divine source skin, known as a Heaven-Measuring Ruler — extraordinarily precious and an essential tool for exploring divine mines. As for the shattered stone garment, he was no stranger to it either. He had worn something similar when exploring the Purple Mountain — also made from aged divine source skin, capable of completely masking one’s presence.

“Red strands of hair…” He noticed several locks upon the shattered stone garment. Because this place was sealed by the celestial source map, everything from the past had been preserved and had not dispersed.

Ye Fan’s heart went cold. The Fourth Generation Patriarch had met with misfortune — in the end, he had still been unable to change his fate.

“Were these red strands of hair his own — grown naturally — or…” He thought of the Zhang Family’s progenitor.

Setting that aside — something had certainly found its way to this location, bringing catastrophe down upon him.

What could that thing have been? Could even the extremity-reversal terrain not have stopped it? Could even the burial ground of an ancient saint not have given it pause?

If no remains are found, then catastrophe has occurred, meaning failure. Those were the words the Fourth Generation Patriarch had left behind. Ye Fan came upon a flat stone lying within the pine forest, its surface inscribed with a considerable number of characters.

He sighed deeply. The final years of a celestial source master were truly terrifying. The Fourth Generation Patriarch had exerted himself to the utmost, hiding within the Primordial Forbidden Zone — yet still could not escape his doom.

Even with the force of this place working in his favor, he had still been unable to change anything. Most terrifying of all was the psychological torment — one could easily imagine it must have been nothing short of hellish suffering.

Ye Fan carefully read through all the characters inscribed on the flat stone, and he found within them the means to escape. This left him somewhat dumbfounded — the surface of the pine forest had indeed been sealed by the Fourth Generation Patriarch.

However, anyone carrying the Book of Celestial Sources would inevitably be drawn in — such was the nature of the celestial source vein patterns the Fourth Generation Patriarch had laid. His purpose had been to lead descendants here to receive his inheritance and carry his life’s greatest achievement, his “sublimation,” out into the world.

Ye Fan silently bowed in the direction of the pine forest’s depths. What a lament — a man of extraordinary genius who had shaken heaven and earth, yet in the end could not alter his own destiny.

I do not wish to suffer such torment in my later years…

Half an hour later, following the stone inscriptions left by the Fourth Generation Patriarch, Ye Fan successfully walked out of the pine forest without incident.

Looking back, the moonlight was like still water, the pine forest like a painting — tranquil and serene.

Ye Fan let out a quiet sigh. The Fourth Generation Patriarch — a figure of towering stature — had not even left behind his bones. What exactly had happened?

He flew onward, dissolving into a wisp of shadow over the blood-colored earth, leaving this death zone far behind.

Dozens of li of distance meant nothing to him — in no time at all, it fell behind him.

Ahead, several silhouettes stood in the moonlight, cloaked in a soft luminous haze. Not one was missing — six in total.

Ye Fan had nearly met his end, while these six had come through unscathed and waited here with ease. Quite the contrasting experiences — though he had little room to complain, for he had obtained the inheritance of source arts after all.

“I say, young fellow — you really have an audacious pair of nerves. You told us to run, then charged headlong into the pine forest like you had no regard for your own life.”

“Indeed, Daoren. We all thought you were sacrificing yourself for our sake.”

Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan both stared in astonishment to see him return alive, and said as much.

The corners of Ye Fan’s mouth twitched. There was truly no way to explain it — when one’s patriarch summons, what choice is there but to go?

“Daoren, is there something inauspicious about you?” the Yaochi Saintess asked in alarm. Mist swirled around her, concealing her true appearance, yet her grave seriousness was unmistakable.

“There isn’t anything,” Ye Fan replied in confusion, looking toward her.

“No, there must be something inauspicious — my secret treasure has sensed it, and it signals extreme danger.” Her voice was like celestial music, and she asked with great solemnity: “Did you obtain any artifact from within the Primordial Forbidden Zone?”

A chill passed through Ye Fan. His mind went immediately to the small jade arcane tortoise — beyond that, he had obtained nothing else.

A flash of light — Ye Fan produced the arcane tortoise and held it in his palm. In the moonlight, it did look somewhat translucent.

The moment the Yaochi Saintess saw it, she quickly stepped back several paces. Her beautiful eyes brightened with alarm as she cried out: “What a terrifying aura — this is an object of great malevolence.”

Yao Guang Sage Son and Yao Xi also stepped back. They trusted the Yaochi Saintess’s judgment.

“This sort of thing… I seem to have heard of it before…” Old Blade Handle’s expression turned grave.

“This is a divine source shell!” the Yaochi Saintess declared.

“What?! This is a divine source shell?!” Ye Fan was considerably startled, then immediately shook his head. He had been studying the Book of Celestial Sources for some time now — how could he fail to recognize the properties of a divine source?

“This is a divine source that has already run dry — its spiritual essence has been completely absorbed. It is nothing but an empty husk.” The Yaochi Saintess explained: “Someone has refined it into a hollow vessel using supreme divine power, and sealed something terrifying within.”

“That’s right — I know of this,” Old Blade Handle nodded. “A divine source shell is the finest material there is for sealing away supreme malevolent entities.”

“Are you saying that sealed within this arcane tortoise in my hand is something of extreme and terrible power?” Ye Fan stood there in a daze, feeling as though he were holding a burning coal.

“Where did you obtain it?” Old Blade Handle asked, simultaneously stepping back several paces — clearly wary of the arcane tortoise.

Ye Fan’s heart could not settle. This arcane tortoise was no larger than an infant’s fist, yet had something unimaginably fearsome sealed within — it was entirely beyond his expectations.

He had no desire to reveal the object’s origin. Were he to tell the others he had taken it from the ash beneath the central altar of a magnificent ancient temple, they would likely be even more astonished.

“I picked it up in the pine forest. What do you all think — how many years has it been around? Isn’t it possible the thing sealed inside has long since turned to dust?”

Just then, Li Desheng let out a startled cry. A trickle of blood seeped from his left eye, and he pointed at the arcane tortoise with a trembling finger: “There is a demonic force inside!”

His left eye was the Yin-Nether Eye he had been born with — it could occasionally pierce through the Yin-dark realm and perceive certain unusual things. When he said this, everyone tensed immediately.

Ye Fan nearly shook his hand and flung the tortoise away. This was too unbelievable — how many years had passed? What kind of thing could remain alive for so long? It seemed utterly impossible.

“What did you see?” the others asked Li Desheng.

“I can’t see it clearly — it’s too hazy. But it is terrifying. My Yin-Nether Eye has been injured from the attempt.” Li Desheng shook his head.

“My friends,” Ye Fan shook his head and said, “does this seem realistic to you? If this divine source shell was encountered in the Primordial Forbidden Zone, even if it were left behind by the human race, it would still be hundreds or thousands of years old. What kind of thing, sealed away for that long, could still be alive? Do you really think it’s the Divine King of the Eastern Desolation, who could remain undecayed for four thousand years?”

“It’s fine — we can get a clearer look in a moment.” Yao Guang Sage Son’s entire body blazed with luminous light, auspicious radiance flowing in streams as he directed a shaft of sacred light into Li Desheng’s left eye.

In barely an instant, the Yin-Nether Eye was restored — the bleeding ceased. Everyone present felt a tremor of awe. That holy light that nothing could violate was truly formidable.

Ye Fan also wanted clarity on the matter. He had no desire to carry a malevolent object on his person — if it somehow dragged him into danger, that would truly be dropping a stone on his own foot.

Li Desheng’s Yin-Nether Eye darkened, shooting out a streak of dim light as he gazed once more at the green jade arcane tortoise.

Simultaneously, Yao Guang Sage Son enveloped him in sacred light to prevent him from suffering another attack and being forced to stop.

Li Desheng’s Yin-Nether Eye flashed one final time, the dim light vanishing. In that brief span, even with Yao Guang Sage Son’s assistance, he still shed more than ten drops of blood.

“What did you see?” Ye Fan pressed him.

“I saw a blurry corpse — heavily decomposed, shrouded in black mist, with a demonic force pulsing within it.” Li Desheng’s complexion was deathly pale, as though he had been thoroughly frightened.

Ye Fan felt thoroughly cursed. After such effort to obtain an artifact from an ancient Primordial temple, it turned out to have a corpse sealed inside. The corners of his mouth twitched.

At that moment, the Yaochi Saintess, Yao Xi, and Yao Guang Sage Son all changed expressions — even Old Blade Handle was jolted with surprise.

“This seal absolutely cannot be broken open. If it were, the demonic aura within would be enough to kill every living soul in a small city.”

“Is it truly that terrifying?” Ye Fan asked.

“Absolutely. Whatever creature a divine source shell seals must be a supreme powerhouse without equal. Even in death, the demonic aura does not dissipate — were it to break free, the consequences would be catastrophic.”

“I would advise you, Daoren, to discard it at once. Otherwise, if it were to be damaged, the first person harmed would be you yourself.”

“That is indeed true.” Ye Fan stroked his chin, musing aloud while turning the matter over in his mind. Discard it? That was out of the question — this was effectively an object of deterrence, worthy of being treasured.

In the future, if he were being hunted down, no matter whether it was one of Yao Guang’s Supreme Elders or one of the Ji Family’s Supreme Elders — he’d just throw it at them first. If it could cripple a great figure like that by half, everything would be worth it.

Beyond that, since divine source shells generally sealed supreme entities without equal, it was not impossible that such a being might have great artifacts and treasures on their person.

The seven of them set off again. This time, they gave the pine forest a wide berth and walked toward the outer edge of the blood-colored plains — they all had the feeling they were truly about to leave the Primordial Forbidden Zone.

Suddenly, light and nimble footsteps came from behind. All of them turned their heads at once.

In the moonlit night, a small child with loose, flowing hair came bounding and skipping toward them. The child appeared to be no older than four or five, pink-cheeked and chubby white, exceedingly lovely.

This could not possibly be a human child — for upon its back grew a pair of pure white wings, and its eyes contained double pupils.

“A living existence!” Old Blade Handle’s expression changed. The Yaochi Saintess, Yao Guang Sage Son, and Yao Xi were also shaken, their composure shattered.

Since ancient times, almost no one had ever encountered a living entity in the Primordial Ancient Mines — and all who did were certain to die.