Over the course of nearly two months, Elder Wu Qingfeng had devoted himself wholeheartedly to teaching Pang Bo and Ye Fan, guiding them onto the path of immortal cultivation. Pang Bo’s cultivation had progressed smoothly — having already attuned to his own Wheel of Life, he could now circulate his Life Essence freely. His next step was to open the Bitter Sea, in preparation for later releasing the divine power wellspring.
Ye Fan still could not attune to his Wheel of Life. That place remained utterly still and tranquil, without so much as a ripple. Yet after each day of cultivation, he felt clear-headed and refreshed, his entire body at ease and brimming with vitality. Over these days, his strength had grown greater and greater, his speed had also improved considerably, and his body seemed to possess an inexhaustible reservoir of Life Essence and spirit.
Time passed swiftly. Two months slipped by in the blink of an eye, and Elder Wu Qingfeng was about to depart, no longer teaching them on his own.
“The path of immortal cultivation is perilous. Only with an unwavering will and steadfast perseverance can one achieve anything.” With those words spoken, the elder drifted away.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo bowed deeply toward the elder’s retreating figure — not as empty ceremony, but as a genuine bow from the depths of their hearts.
Before the low hill stood three or five thatched cottages and two or three groves of bamboo — quiet and natural. With coarse food and plain tea as their daily fare, Ye Fan and Pang Bo had gradually grown accustomed to this way of life.
Tomorrow they would go to Spirit Void Cliff to cultivate. Originally, Ye Fan had been rather hesitant about it. Since he had not joined the Spirit Void Cave Heaven, it felt improper to continue learning the Dao alongside Pang Bo. However, Elder Wu Qingfeng had given him a jade token — bearing this keepsake, even if he was not a Spirit Void disciple, he would still be permitted to cultivate there.
The bright moon hung overhead, its pure radiance cascading down. The moonlight was gentle as rippling water, and the woodland around the low hill was shrouded in a soft haze, as though draped in a thin veil.
Both Ye Fan and Pang Bo gazed up at the starry sky for a long while without speaking. They were searching for that one star in their hearts — but beneath the night sky, countless stars glimmered, all of them strange and unfamiliar. That familiar starfield was nowhere to be seen.
They had come to the far shore of the stars. The past was so very distant now; it could no longer be found.
“I wonder what the palaces in heaven look like, and what year it is tonight…”
“People know joy and sorrow, parting and reunion; the moon waxes and wanes, bright then dim… May we both live long, and share this moonlit beauty though a thousand miles apart.”
The two of them lay on the grass, gazing up at the stars, coarse tea cups in hand — though the tea never quite made it into their mouths, and nearly all of it spilled down their faces.
“We can never go back…”
After that, both of them fell silent for a very long time, lying there quietly, watching the stars, neither speaking another word.
It was not until much later that this stillness was finally broken.
“We have to live well…”
Ye Fan and Pang Bo were both optimistic people. The brief moment of melancholy was a farewell to the past; from here on, they would face the future with composure.
They soon let it all go, and the topic turned to the matter of cultivation. Though they had only been cultivating for two months, for both of them it felt like a kind of “rebirth” — an experience unlike anything that had come before. The path of the immortal was vast and uncertain, and the road ahead was impossible to predict. But since they had already stepped onto it, there was nothing to do but walk it with unyielding resolve.
Spirit Void Cave Heaven was one of the six blessed cave heavens of the Yan region. While it could not compare to those long-renowned great sects, even so it boasted nearly a thousand cultivators, and its young disciples numbered in the hundreds.
Dawn’s rosy clouds rose to cast golden light across the cliff face, brilliant and radiant.
Spirit Void Cliff was a stretch of sheer rock faces, composed of more than a dozen low stone scarps that were not connected to one another, with a certain distance between each pair. None of the cliff faces were particularly tall — only around seventy or eighty meters high.
In the early morning, many young disciples gathered here. With their varying levels of cultivation, their choices naturally differed — each going to a different stone cliff to listen to the mystical techniques suited to their current stage.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo arrived early as well. As complete beginners, they had only one option, and went straight to the very last cliff face. A good number of people had already gathered there — men and women both, at least forty or fifty in all. The youngest few were only seven or eight years old, with tender, childlike faces; the oldest few were already past thirty, their faces etched with the marks of hardship.
Whoosh!
A flash of radiance, and a divine rainbow split the sky and descended onto the cliff face. As the brilliance faded, a white-haired elder sat cross-legged upon it. He cast an indifferent glance downward, his gaze pausing briefly on Pang Bo and Ye Fan, and then he began to impart the Dharma.
At the same time, divine rainbows descended upon the other cliff faces as well — all of them elders of Spirit Void Cave Heaven. Each cliff was separated by a stretch of distance from the others, so they did not interfere with one another.
Facing the morning glow and listening to the methods of cultivation, quite a few of those below felt a sense of novelty — many of them had only just become disciples of Spirit Void Cave Heaven.
The elder upon the cliff was still as an ancient well. His voice was calm and without emotion, yet he spoke with great care, touching on every point that those newly embarking on the immortal path needed to be mindful of.
Half an hour later, the transmission of the Dharma concluded. The elder on the cliff face looked down with an expressionless face and said, “Those with questions may raise them. If there are none, we end here for today.”
Several of the young disciples hurried forward and began asking questions one by one. The elder on the cliff answered them in turn, and when no one had any further questions, he rode his divine rainbow and soared away.
Their first time listening to the mystical teachings here had been utterly ordinary — nothing remarkable in the least. That was the feeling both Ye Fan and Pang Bo were left with; they even found it rather dull. Over these two months under Elder Wu Qingfeng’s instruction, their foundations had been laid very solidly, and every point that required attention had long since been made clear to them.
“The opening chapters of the Dao Scripture are enough to support us in cultivation for two years or more. These minor mystical techniques are rather uninteresting — the elder has already guided us through all of it.”
“Don’t reach beyond your grasp. Didn’t the elder remind us that the foundation must be laid solidly? Since he stressed it so much and had us come here to cultivate, there must be a reason for it.”
Over the next half month, despite finding it tedious, both of them kept coming every day without fail. In the end, they slowly began to discover the benefit — the transmitting elder on the cliff face would occasionally share insights and personal reflections from his own cultivation journey, and this was invaluable. That sort of cultivation experience was like a guiding lamp for beginners; comparing it to their own situation, it was not difficult to draw inspiration from it and thereby accelerate their own cultivation.
On a particular morning, the transmitting elder on the cliff face suddenly opened his palm, and dozens of rays of light shot downward, landing in the hands of Ye Fan, Pang Bo, and the others — one small jade vial per person, very smooth and lustrous. Upon opening it, a fragrant, pleasant scent immediately wafted out.
“This is the medicinal fluid to help you open your Bitter Seas.” The transmitting elder’s words were, as always, extremely concise — not a single character more than necessary.
The Bitter Sea and the Wheel of Life are fused together as one. In order to release the vast amount of Life Essence stored within the Wheel of Life, one must continuously open the Bitter Sea.
The medicinal fluid in the small jade vials was extremely precious and was only distributed once every three months — each person could receive no more than four vials per year.
Pang Bo’s Bitter Sea had been slowly changing all along. Over these three months, it had expanded from the size of a date pit to roughly the size of a fingernail, with wisps of life vitality swirling around it. His entire being appeared considerably more vibrant and spirited.
Although Ye Fan had also drunk one small vial of the medicinal fluid, there had still been not the slightest change. His Bitter Sea remained utterly still — impossible to open, impossible to activate even a sesame seed’s worth of area, with not a single trace of Life Essence flowing through it.
Even so, over these days his strength and speed had both continued to grow. The vital energy within his body was nearly boiling and surging, his blood and qi especially vigorous and torrential — comparable, almost, to that of a flood dragon or a great elephant.
“I’ll just keep cultivating steadily like this. Though I can’t work on the Bitter Sea for now, nor can I attune to the Wheel of Life, at least my physical body grows stronger and stronger with each passing day. That can’t be a bad thing.”
“I think you’re actually doing far better than I am. I spend all day working on the Bitter Sea, and I haven’t seen my strength grow or my speed increase at all — I can’t even use any mystical techniques. I honestly don’t know what the point of cultivating like this is.” Pang Bo grumbled.
The very next day he could no longer hold back, and asked the transmitting elder at the base of the stone cliff: “Elder, must we really keep cultivating like this? When will we be able to ride divine rainbows?”
The transmitting elder gave him an unhurried look and said, “Food must be eaten one bite at a time, and a road must be walked one step at a time. If you cannot walk, yet wish to run, you will only trip and fall.”
The transmitting elder, though admonishing him, ultimately still provided an answer — primarily to offer hope to all those gathered below. He spoke briefly about what the later stages of cultivation would entail.
“Only when the Bitter Sea is large enough can the next stage of cultivation begin. That is to open a channel within the Bitter Sea leading straight down to the Wheel of Life at the bottom — forming a ‘wellspring’ that releases the divine power source of the Wheel of Life. Only when that is achieved can one be said to have made real progress, and only then can one begin to wield mystical techniques in a rudimentary way — the divine powers and abilities you all yearn for.”