A streak of dazzling divine radiance illuminated the sky above, making half the heavens glitter and gleam like a vast sheet of crystal, translucent and brilliant.
Li Heishui was the first to act, shooting upward toward the sky to intercept the human-shaped radiant silhouette.
Ye Fan moved with even greater speed — both hands swept outward, then pressed down with great force. Thread after fine thread of energy shot from between his fingers, completely sealing the cracked-open stone.
At the same time, the old Daoist nun who had been seated cross-legged on her rush mat opened and closed her eyes, shooting out two beams of light, while a great hand extended outward into the air above.
Pop!
The human-shaped silhouette of light shattered with a soft sound, and Li Heishui shot through the spot, grasping nothing.
The old Daoist nun’s great hand swept through the void, and a curtain of light unfurled, draping over the Celestial-Grade stone garden and enclosing that stretch of space — sealing it off to prevent any divine object from escaping.
Everyone was stunned. All those present understood: something of peerless rarity had certainly been cut free. Its value, in all likelihood, would be immeasurable.
“What on earth is it? It’s been many years since we last saw a phenomenon like this — to think that something like ‘an immortal flying from the stone’ has actually appeared!”
“It must be an extraordinary rare treasure. A conservative estimate would place its value at well over a hundred thousand catties of source!”
“Unbelievable. Its value must be comparable to divine source — a precious treasure that sets the heart trembling. I desperately want to see what it actually is.”
“That was a human-shaped silhouette of light — could it be that some ancient creature was cut free?”
The crowd debated animatedly, emotions running high, as though they themselves had just cut free a matchless and priceless treasure. Every single one craned their necks and strained their eyes toward the stone garden within the curtain of light.
An immortal flying from the stone — it was a rare and wondrous phenomenon. Since ancient times, it had been an auspicious omen for those who cut stones. Once it appeared, it invariably foretold that something beyond the ordinary was about to enter the world.
“Ha ha ha!” Li Heishui roared with laughter, descending from the sky. He had been given a fright, but it turned out to be nothing more than an alarm.
Many people hadn’t known what “an immortal flying from the stone” meant before, but now they all understood — someone had cried out an explanation in the moment of shock.
“A peerless treasure has certainly been cut free. Please, please don’t let anything go wrong!” Li Heishui was wildly excited, rubbing his hands together as he pressed close.
The few old men inside the Celestial-Grade stone garden who had been selecting stones also crowded over. It was one of them who had first cried out the words “an immortal flying from the stone.” They fixed their eyes on the stone that Ye Fan had sealed, their gazes burning with desperate intensity.
“A great auspicious omen full of profound significance — it hasn’t appeared in many years.” The eyes of Yaoyue Kong, the young lord of the Celestial Demon Palace, blazed with a fierce, brilliant light as he stared fixedly ahead.
Inside the garden, the Great Xia prince and the little white-robed nun also stepped forward. A stone this precious could move the heart of anyone.
Even the old Daoist nun rose to her feet, moving silently to stand nearby, quietly observing. It had been many years since such a strange phenomenon had occurred.
As for the white-haired source master, he was so agitated he trembled, tottering back and forth on unsteady legs beside them. Those who cut stones longed most of all to witness such a sight.
“Hurry and cut it! Cut it open!” The people outside the stone garden were consumed by impatience, as though a hundred claws were scratching at their hearts. Many cried out for the cutting to begin.
“Opening it like this won’t cause any problems, will it? Could the divine object inside lose its spiritual energy, or escape entirely?” Li Heishui asked with some concern.
He had heard no shortage of legends, and naturally had a sense of what level of treasure this stone contained — something that rivaled divine source in worth.
“Not to worry. This old one has the purest jade vessels here. They’ll be more than sufficient to contain the spiritual energy so that it doesn’t leak out.” Nearby, one of the old men passed over a small white jade cauldron with a lid — evidently prepared in advance for exactly this kind of situation.
The old Daoist nun also spoke: “You may cut the stone without fear. I have already sealed the stone garden. Even if something inconceivable were to emerge, it would have no way of escaping.”
Ye Fan drew away the threads of divine energy he had used to seal the stone. The cracked stone had returned to its normal state, no longer emitting divine radiance, lying quietly on the green grass.
Crack!
Ye Fan brought the blade down carefully, peeling away the stone skin layer by layer. Before long, a gleaming crystalline surface appeared — a rush of cold, piercing air swept toward their faces.
“So cold!”
A patch of frost bloomed across the grass, the temperature of the air dropping sharply, as threads of icy chill drifted in all directions.
“That’s a variant source — Ice and Snow Source!” the Great Xia prince said.
With part of the stone peeled away, what appeared was a fist-sized chunk of snow jade, embedded in the stone like a block of glacial ice, roughly the size of a fist.
The source master said: “This chunk of Ice and Snow Source is worth a thousand catties of pure source — but something like that alone cannot produce the phenomenon of an immortal flying from the stone. There must be something else inside.”
“Keep cutting — faster!” The people outside the Celestial-Grade stone garden were even more anxious than Ye Fan himself, many of them shouting.
Crack!
Ye Fan continued peeling away the stone skin with care. When he followed the fissure all the way to the heart of the stone, a blinding divine haze shot out once more.
Biting cold, yet at the same time brilliantly crystalline — many of those present could smell a rich and fragrant sweetness, along with a spiritual energy of immense purity and sanctity.
“Something wonderful — it must be a precious treasure!”
“Young man, don’t cut this source any further. This old one wants it — eighty thousand catties of source. What do you say?” One of the nearby old men spoke up.
“I’m willing to offer ninety thousand catties of source for this stone.” Another old man, agitated, raised the price.
Ye Fan smiled. “I’d like to cut it open and see what’s inside.”
“Young man, you should know — this carries great risk. Even with the phenomenon of an immortal flying from the stone, sometimes the final value still may not amount to much.”
“Exactly. Such things have happened before: after cutting it open, what was inside turned out to be only a small corner of some valuable object, falling far short of expectations. Very well — this old one is willing to offer a hundred thousand catties of source. That is everything I have.”
“Elders, we want to cut it open ourselves.” Ye Fan shook his head. Clearly something precious lay within — they were right at the final step. How could they simply sell it like this?
“Hmph!”
One of the old men let out a heavy and disdainful grunt, turned on his heel, and stepped aside, saying nothing more.
“Old Li, stop throwing around the prestige of the Grand Elder of the Illusory Extinction Palace here,” another old man said with a chuckle.
Ye Fan couldn’t help glancing at the Grand Elder of the Illusory Extinction Palace. This man was likely a senior figure from the same sect as Li Chongtian. But even if the other party was displeased, Ye Fan still could not sell it this way.
“Continue cutting the stone. No one here is in a position to cause trouble,” the old Daoist nun said, her voice utterly indifferent.
Ye Fan continued bringing down the blade. Stone skin fell away, cascading to the ground in a rustling stream. Before long, part of the stone’s inner core had been exposed. In an instant, brilliant radiance erupted in all directions, and a human silhouette surged out, swirling and dancing without end across this place.
A sweet fragrance assailed the nose. The luminous silhouette wove and spun in circles — it was dreamlike and surreal.
“Heavens, what is that?! A peerless and matchless treasure has truly been cut free.”
“What outrageous luck — a treasure of incalculable worth!”
“How is it that dark boy and that fine-featured young man are pulling off the impossible again? They’ve cut out yet another divine object?” Wu Ziming and the others were furious, unable to accept what they were witnessing.
Just moments ago they had been mocking the two of them, and now this was a blatant slap across their faces — a divine object had been cut free right before their eyes, and the phenomenon of an immortal flying from the stone had appeared.
“Are these two country bumpkins trying to make me spit blood?” Li Chongtian was seething with bottled-up fury, but even he was now deeply curious and craned forward to watch.
“Brothers, my Celestial Demon Treasury will handle the auction for you when the time comes!” Yaoyue Kong, the young lord of the Celestial Demon Palace, called out.
This was a silver-white radiance, immeasurably sacred, swirling around Ye Fan in a dancing orbit. The heart of the stone blazed with brilliant light, fragrance drifting out — blindingly radiant.
When the stone skin was fully peeled away, what appeared in Ye Fan’s hands was a palm-sized chunk of Ice and Snow Source — even larger than the first piece, easily worth over fifteen hundred catties of pure source.
Of course, that was not the most precious thing. The true value lay in the object sealed within the source, for it was the source of that radiance.
“A treasure within the source — it truly is a rare and wondrous object!”
“This is… a type of medicinal herb!”
“No — this must be a divine medicine. Nothing less could produce a phenomenon like an immortal flying from the stone!”
The several old men all crowded forward, offering their assessments, each one agitated beyond measure.
“Young man, sell it to this old one. I’ll give you a price you’ll be satisfied with.”
“A hundred and fifty thousand catties of source — will you agree? This old one is Li Yishui of the Illusory Extinction Palace. I’ll go borrow the source immediately.” Even the Grand Elder of the Illusory Extinction Palace — the one who had let out the disdainful grunt earlier — spoke up now in anxious urgency.
The silver sacred radiance slowly began to recede and withdraw, and at last the rare treasure sealed within the Ice and Snow Source was revealed. It was indeed a plant. A faint, delicate fragrance seeped through the source.
“This is…”
“What a pity — how could it be like this!”
When the divine radiance faded inward and the true form within became visible, disappointment surged through everyone present — for this was not a complete plant. It was missing a critical part.
What lay sealed within the Ice and Snow Source was a pale blue root and stem, crystalline and translucent as a blue sapphire. Above the root and stem, there were no leaf blades to speak of.
“What a terrible shame — the most critical part of the medicinal herb is missing!” Several of the old men lamented with profound regret, deeply and utterly disappointed.
“No — wait, there’s another part. Look — how could it be this strange?!” One of the old men cried out in astonishment.
“Correct — there is another part. It’s… a pair of feet!” After looking carefully, everyone present was struck with shock.
This plant was extraordinary beyond words. Above the pale blue root portion, connected to it, were a pair of bulbous tubers shaped uncannily like the soles of human feet — not very large at all, only about an inch long, in a silvery white color resembling the Ice and Snow Source itself.
They were unmistakably tubers — only the resemblance to the soles of human feet was so striking that people instinctively mistook them for the severed feet of a small jade figurine.
“This is…”
“Legend has it that in the most ancient times, there existed a type of divine medicine that grew no leaf blades and was shaped like a human body. Could this possibly be that divine medicine?”
“It is very likely. It has been extinct for countless ages. Only its general form has been passed down. As for its specific properties and effects, scarcely anyone still knows.”
“Since it is called a divine medicine, its efficacy must be extraordinary beyond imagination — its value is incalculable!”
The several old men were simultaneously agitated and regretful. For this human-shaped divine medicine was missing far too much of itself — only the root portion and a pair of “medicine feet” remained. All the other parts had vanished, not sealed within the source.
“A miracle — to actually behold a divine medicine from the most ancient era. Only divine source and Ice and Snow Source could preserve such a plant.”
Those outside the stone garden were utterly stunned — a divine medicine from the most ancient era… it sounded like something from a fairy tale. Every person present stared with eyes wide and mouths agape.
“Young friend, four hundred thousand catties of source — will you sell it to me?” one of the old men asked.
“Why has the price gone down instead of up? Moments ago you were all offering a hundred and fifty thousand catties of source,” Li Heishui said unhappily.
One of the old men shook his head. “Just now, with the radiance blazing brilliantly and blinding our eyes, none of us could see it clearly. Now that the divine light has receded inward and the true form has been revealed, its genuine value has been made clear accordingly. If it were a complete divine medicine, it would be worth more than divine source — its value beyond estimation. But it is incomplete, as you have all seen. What remains is only a pair of ‘medicine feet.’ That is what it is worth.”
Ye Fan spoke calmly: “In this day and age, divine medicine is nowhere to be found. The great sacred ground masters in their final years, as their life essence runs dry, have wandered through the vast wilderness and still found none — not a single aged sacred ground master has ever been seen to reappear in the world thereafter. A divine object capable of changing one’s fate — how could it possibly be worth only forty thousand catties of source?”
Li Heishui added: “Exactly. This is a human-shaped divine medicine. Even trading one piece of divine source for it wouldn’t begin to match its true worth.”
“This old one, Li Yishui, is willing to offer fifty thousand catties of source,” the Grand Elder of the Illusory Extinction Palace said.
Ye Fan shook his head and did not agree, instead sealing the Ice and Snow Source within the jade vessel — he had no wish to let the spiritual energy dissipate.
Li Yishui’s expression immediately became rather unpleasant. “Young man, you must not be too greedy. A divine medicine this incomplete in truth does not command that high a value.”
“Elder, I’m afraid your words are not quite right. This divine medicine was cut free by my own hands. Whether I sell it or not has nothing to do with greed, does it?” Ye Fan replied.
“Brothers, speak a word to the elders of Daoist Yishi on our behalf — could you permit me to enter?” Just then, Yaoyue Kong, the young lord of the Celestial Demon Palace, spoke up.
Li Heishui and Ye Fan were naturally happy to oblige. After a brief exchange with the old Daoist nun, the violet-robed Yaoyue Kong strode inside.
“At most… I will offer sixty thousand catties of source to purchase this remnant medicine.” Li Yishui spoke once more.
Ye Fan suddenly said: “Everyone, you’ve overlooked one fact. The divine medicine’s root and fibrous roots are completely intact — undamaged. Perhaps it can be revived!”
“I offer eighty thousand catties of source for this divine medicine!” the Great Xia prince suddenly called out. Beside him, the little white-robed nun fluttered her large eyes, her expression full of hopeful longing.
“The Daoist Yishi sacred ground will buy back this rare treasure at a hundred thousand catties of source!” The old Daoist nun, who had been silent all this while, suddenly announced a price that left everyone reeling.
“Truthfully, I’d like to find a place to plant it and see what kind of divine medicine it might grow,” Ye Fan said, still unmoved.
In that moment, news of the divine medicine cut free at the Daoist Yishi stone workshop spread swiftly outward, and the reports reached the Temple of Wondrous Desire, the Guanghan Palace, the stone workshops of the various sacred grounds, and numerous great sects.