The moon shone bright and clear, a solitary boat drifting downstream. Flecks of light danced across the river’s surface, and occasionally a fish would leap up, sending a small spray of water into the air.
Great mountains rose on either side of the banks, their peaks alive with the cries of apes and the roars of tigers, disturbing the stillness of the night and lending it a vivid sense of life.
Ye Fan stood on the small boat, his fine hair dancing in the breeze. Her skin was like smooth white jade, and a jade flute gleamed beneath her red lips as ethereal, melodious notes drifted out — a heavenly sound that wound and coiled through the air.
She smiled and openly admitted she had come in search of the Immortal Divine Medicine. Yet even with the Heaven-Covering Sacred Garment on her body, it would be impossible to venture deep into any of the Seven Great Life Forbidden Zones. There were very few people in the world who could manage it.
Beyond this, Ye Fan had received a piece of very unwelcome news: a considerable number of people from the Central Plains had arrived, all with their eyes set on the Immortal Divine Medicine.
“Why is this happening?”
“One of the Central Plains’ undying imperial dynasty’s old emperors has had his life essence run dry. Among the Hundred Schools and Sects, a supreme sect master whose power is no weaker than the old emperor’s is also near the end of his life. Neither of them wishes to depart this world.”
Ye Fan gazed at the moon, lost in thought. The Central Plains was in turmoil — an unparalleled emperor and a supreme sect master were both seeking to extend their lives, and he had been swept up in their wake. This journey ahead was fraught with uncertainty.
He had to make preparations. Otherwise, a single misstep could leave him with regrets for the rest of his life. There was no medicine for regret in this world.
“You need not worry too much. Since ancient times, no old Saint Masters or Saints who have ventured deep into the forbidden zones and the Great Wastelands have ever been heard from again. Success is nearly impossible.”
Ye Fan looked into her eyes — black as precious gems, as though they could peer into another’s very thoughts. She carried an aura of sacred, otherworldly grace, and her smile put even the bright moon to shame.
“I will find it very difficult to harvest the Immortal Divine Medicine myself. Lending me the Heaven-Covering Sacred Garment very likely means your generosity may go unrewarded, Miss Ye.”
Naturally, no one gives away a precious garment for nothing. Ye Fan understood she too had come for the Immortal Divine Medicine, yet she was well aware of how terrifying those forbidden zones were — not something an ordinary person could penetrate.
“Given the body you possess, if you were to wear the Heaven-Covering Sacred Garment, your chances would actually be quite good.” A bright glow lit her cheeks.
Ye Fan smiled as well and shook his head. “The whole world knows I bear the wounds of the Great Dao within my body. Even if I were to harvest a mature stalk of Immortal Divine Medicine, it would be difficult to make those wounds heal.”
“Everything we experience in this world cannot always be chosen for us. Sometimes, all we can do is take the gamble.” Her smile was pure and untroubled.
Ye Fan did not reveal that he truly intended to enter a Life Forbidden Zone. Until he could actually set out, he did not wish to attract attention, so he said nothing more than necessary.
Nor could she simply lend him the garment on the spot — there were still variables to consider. After all, this was only their first meeting, and she had already made it clear she needed time to think it over.
The Eastern Wastelands held the Seven Great Life Forbidden Zones, each one boundlessly mysterious, the last seven places where Ancient Divine Medicines might still exist. Elsewhere in the primordial wilderness, the chances were vanishingly slim.
She peeled back the layers one by one, eliminating them in turn, and concluded that the undying imperial dynasty and the supreme great sect from the Central Plains would ultimately come to this region.
For although all seven of the forbidden zones were rumored to hold Immortal Divine Medicine, the only one anyone had ever actually witnessed across all of recorded history — with ancient texts to corroborate it — was this one.
The river grew turbulent. On both banks, the cries of apes rang out ceaselessly. The light boat had already passed beyond ten thousand mountains.
The riverbanks gave way to sheer cliffs thousands of feet tall. The small vessel shot forward like an arrow. She rose into the night sky, her robes billowing, drifting away like Chang’e ascending to the moon, leaving behind only a breathtakingly beautiful silhouette.
She and Ye Fan made an arrangement to meet outside the Life Forbidden Zone in the future. If the terms were settled by then, she would bring the Heaven-Covering Sacred Garment with her and lend it to him.
Ye Fan felt the urgency of time pressing down on him. He dared not waste another moment on the road. Once the powerful figures from the Central Plains arrived, he would face no end of trouble, and his difficulties would multiply greatly.
The destination was fully one and a half million li away — an immense distance. Ye Fan took out his Profound Jade Platform and began crossing through the void, each passage a small, single-direction spatial gateway that carried him tens of thousands of li at a time.
And so, at great cost in Source, Ye Fan finally arrived at a place he knew well.
He had returned to the Southern Region. His purpose was clear: to re-enter the Ancient Forbidden Land, to ascend the nine sacred mountains, to drink of the divine springs and consume the sacred fruits, and to heal and recuperate within that primordial expanse.
He knew nothing of the other Life Forbidden Zones. Only this place had he truly witnessed divine medicine with his own eyes, and only here did he feel any confidence — after all, he had succeeded once before.
Still, he did not dare to be careless. Based on what he had come to understand afterward, the Ancient Forbidden Land was incomparably terrifying. The reason he had survived his first two visits unscathed was entirely due to the presence of that bronze coffin.
Without it, that abyss was nearly impossible to approach. Even standing at the foot of the sacred mountains would bring inexplicable death, to say nothing of actually climbing them. It had always been a place of no return.
Pang Bo had experienced it firsthand. After studying vast quantities of ancient texts in the sacred land of the demon clan, he had gained much greater insight into the situation. He shared his deductions with Ye Fan: it had to be because the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin had fallen atop the mountain peaks, and that had somehow counteracted the world-defying curse.
Several years had now passed. Ye Fan did not know whether ascending the mountains again would be as uneventful — he had not an ounce of certainty — but there was no longer any path of retreat.
Returning to the Southern Region, Ye Fan stood lost in a daze, wondering how his former classmates were faring. Lin Jia, Zhou Yi, Wang Ziwen, Zhang Ziling, Liu Yiyi, Li Xiaoman…
They had all come to this world together. By now, each of them had surely walked their own distinct path through life. Perhaps they would be meeting again before long.
As his path passed through the Southern Region’s supreme great sect, the Tai Xuan Sect, Ye Fan stood atop a high mountain and gazed into the distance. One hundred and eight main peaks stretched before him in breathtaking grandeur, like a divine realm made manifest.
Peak of Clumsiness, the Natural Great Dao, the Nine Secrets… many things came to mind. Li Ruoyu, Ji Ziyue, Hua Yunfei, Li Xiaoman… he had no shortage of memories here.
He did not linger. Until he had harvested the divine medicine, it was not the right time to show his face. To do so would likely stir up waves of trouble and bring a great deal of problems down upon him.
That same day, Ye Fan entered the Yan Kingdom — the place where they had crossed through the stars and first arrived in this world.
Yan stretched two thousand li from north to south and three thousand li from east to west. In the Eastern Wastelands, such a territory was no more than a drop in the ocean, just one of countless nations like it.
The reason it was known to the world was without question the Ancient Forbidden Land at its heart. From ancient times to the present, it had given rise to countless legends. No one could say how many supremely powerful masters had perished there, nor how many incomparably great sacred grounds had been annihilated within its bounds.
Setting foot on this land, Ye Fan felt more than a little stirred. He longed to find those former classmates — they had come together from the other end of the starry sky, bound by the same strange experience.
Ye Fan entered the Yan Kingdom’s capital, revisiting old haunts. The city was full of life — carriages and pedestrians crowded the roads, the streets bustling and lively, the calls of vendors echoing without end.
“Crispy chicken wings — if they’re not delicious, you don’t pay!”
“Zhang Family soup dumplings — thin skin, generous filling, rich broth, delicious flavor — come and taste them!”
Ye Fan smiled. This place was exactly as it had always been, unchanged in any way — as though he had never left at all.
“Big brother… I’m hungry. Please buy me a bun to eat. I beg you. Little Nannan is so hungry.”
Suddenly, a small, pitiful voice reached him, and someone gently tugged at the hem of his trouser leg.
Ye Fan looked down to find a small, dirt-covered girl blinking large eyes up at him.
She looked no more than three or four years old. Her clothes were tattered and ragged, her face smeared with grime, yet her eyes were bright and clear.
“Little Nannan is so hungry. Big brother, please be kind and buy me a bun to eat.” The little girl was timid, clearly frightened, her eyes brimming with tears. It seemed as though she had gone without food for many days.
Ye Fan’s heart ached a little. He bought a steaming basket of soup dumplings and handed them to her, telling her to eat slowly and be careful not to burn herself.
Then he rose and walked away. He had far too many things to attend to, and though pity welled in his heart, he could not possibly bring her with him into the Ancient Forbidden Land.
The little girl watched him disappear with immense gratitude, tears shining in her large eyes. Heedless of the heat, she began eating ravenously.
Abruptly, Ye Fan stopped.
He felt that the scene just now had been all too familiar. Three years ago, in this very same city, on this very same street, something just like this had happened.
His body went rigid. It came back to him in a flash — it was the same little girl. That tattered clothing, that small dirt-streaked face, those eyes brimming with tears — identical in every way.
Three years had passed, and she had not changed at all. Still exactly the same as before, pitiful and heartbreaking.
How could this be?!
Ye Fan spun around and ran back quickly. He refused to believe that after three years, a child had not changed in the slightest. This was clearly no ordinary thing.
He felt certain she was not disguising herself, but she was absolutely not an ordinary child. No one in the world had eyes that pure and unblemished — a single glance at that pitiable expression was enough to make one’s heart tremble.
The street was thick with people flowing in every direction. Ye Fan searched carefully, then suddenly stopped, reining in his divine sense and letting it no longer radiate outward.
Because he had spotted masters of supreme power ahead.
Four great figures were approaching from in front of him. They wore dragon crowns atop their heads, dragon energy swirling around their bodies, their bearing lofty and commanding. They moved with the stride of a dragon and the step of a tiger, emanating a grand, awe-inspiring might that seized the soul.
Having reached such a level of cultivation, they saw no need to conceal it — nor did they care to. Above each of their heads floated the specter of an ancestral dragon, as though divine emperors had descended to the mortal world, making it impossible to resist the urge to bow down and prostrate oneself.
Four supreme figures of the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty!
Ye Fan had seen them before, back in the Divine City. They were the ones who had bid forty-one thousand and one hundred jin of Source at the Celestial Demon Treasure Tower to purchase that incredibly incomplete, foot-only humanoid divine medicine he had cut out.
Of course!
It all clicked into place. The old Saint Master of the Ancient Hua Imperial Dynasty was near the end of his lifespan, and they had been searching everywhere for the Immortal Divine Medicine in hopes of extending his life.
The undying imperial dynasty from the Central Plains that sought to enter the Ancient Forbidden Land this time — it was certainly them. And the other supreme great sect had most likely sent people as well.
With this delay, by the time Ye Fan looked for the little girl again, she had vanished without a trace — swallowed up somewhere in the crowd. He frowned slightly, then chose a direction at the crossroads and walked on.
“Stop following me everywhere!”
Ahead, a young woman’s melodious voice rang out — though no matter how one listened, she sounded thoroughly vexed.
Ye Fan was surprised. He hadn’t expected to encounter Ji Ziyue here of all places. She was dressed in violet robes, light and otherworldly, her hair cascading like a waterfall. She was scrunching her delicate nose and grinding her small, gleaming tiger teeth.
All around her walked a group of people who encircled her and escorted her forward.
“Oh! Ye Fan is over there!” Ji Ziyue suddenly cried out, pointing ahead.
Everyone around her turned at once in surprise, all looking back at once.
Ji Ziyue instantly leaped into action, hiking up the hem of her violet skirt and sprinting away, trying to break free. It was both lively and amusing.
Ye Fan was puzzled. She had clearly had her cultivation sealed — otherwise, she would have long since taken to the sky.
An old woman on the street stepped forward, catching Ji Ziyue by the arm and bringing her to a halt. “Getting more and more mischievous by the day,” she said.
“I don’t want you following me!” Ji Ziyue sulked.
The old woman disappeared in an instant, and those who had been following her closed in again, surrounding Ji Ziyue once more.
Ye Fan’s expression darkened. He recognized Ji Hui — the old woman who had just appeared was none other than her. All the grievances from the past could be said to trace back to her.
Back then, he had escorted Ji Ziyue home, only for Ji Hui to repay his kindness with treachery. Not only had she offered no gratitude, she had dispatched Ji Ren to hunt him down — and ultimately came after him personally.
The whole chain of troubles that followed had all stemmed from Ji Hui’s pursuit. If there was one person Ye Fan hated most in this world, it was this old woman.
“That wretched old thing — she must have calculated I’d come back. She’s set a trap for me and is still trying to deal with me!”