The golden scripture was mysterious and unfathomable. The dense, tiny characters covering it were not read by him — they transformed of their own accord into stars, one by one, streaming into Ye Fan’s consciousness.
In that moment, Ye Fan felt as though auspicious colors fell from heaven, divine springs surged from the earth, lotus flowers bloomed one after another, and sacred grasses put forth shoots. Brilliant clouds filled the sky, dragons soared and phoenixes danced, the immortal turtle exhaled divine essence, the sacred unicorn breathed in celestial energy, purple radiance came from the east, golden light arrived from the west, five-colored divine light shone everywhere, and a seven-hued divine rainbow spanned the vault of the sky.
Wondrous signs beyond count, boundless dharma gates, unfolded before him in endless succession — deep and profound, like celestial music from the heavens, like a sacred hymn of the Great Dao, rolling and resonating through Ye Fan’s heart like thunder.
He was dazed, as if intoxicated, as if dreaming. Like a desert long parched by drought receiving a rain of sweet dew — amid the endless yellow sands, vitality gradually stirred to life. Ye Fan felt as though countless windows had all been flung open at once, and all manner of divine radiance streamed toward him. He reached out desperately, trying to grasp something — but the brilliance slipped through his fingers like water, impossible to hold.
This was not cultivation. No one could, in such a short span of time, grasp such profound and abstruse truths. What this was instead was an immense, surging “grand momentum” — the Wheel of the Sea volume of the Dao Scripture rushing in like the silver river of heaven crashing down from on high, silver radiance splashing out, overwhelming in its might and grandeur. What exactly this volume contained pressed into Ye Fan’s heart-sea in a sweeping, all-encompassing wave, giving him a broad and general sense of what he was meant to cultivate and what heights he was meant to reach.
The four great realms of the Sea of Bitterness, the Spring of Life, the Divine Bridge, and the Other Shore gave perfect expression to the purport of the Wheel of the Sea volume of the Dao Scripture.
A cultivator must first open up the Sea of Bitterness and cause it to expand steadily — only so can one begin to probe the Wheel of Life, for the two overlap and occupy the same space.
After that, one releases boundless life essence, which suffuses the space above the Sea of Bitterness and overflows into every part of the body, nourishing the flesh, the organs, and the bones, fortifying the physical shell and beginning to transcend the ordinary mortal state. This is the first great realm of the Wheel of the Sea volume — the Sea of Bitterness.
The Sea of Bitterness overlies the Wheel of Life, one above the other, born in overlap. Every year it leaves another scar upon the Wheel of Life, until the Wheel is covered in wounds and finally shatters completely — and that is the moment when a person’s lifespan is exhausted and they return to death.
To change this condition, one must open a passage within the Sea of Bitterness, reaching all the way to its bottom and connecting with the Wheel of Life, allowing vast quantities of life essence to surge forth vigorously, halting the corrosion of the Sea of Bitterness and extending one’s lifespan.
Quantitative change gives rise to qualitative change. As life essence gushes and surges in abundance, it ultimately converges and liquefies, forming a divine spring of life that charges into the Sea of Bitterness.
To carve a spring eye within the desolate Sea of Bitterness — connecting it to the Wheel of Life, allowing the divine spring to flow freely — this is the second great realm of the Wheel of the Sea volume: the Spring of Life.
Only then does the cultivator possess a source of power — the capacity to execute all manner of profound techniques and divine arts, wielding might that is immeasurable. This is the key turning point of the cultivator’s transformation. So long as the source of divine power is inexhaustible, one’s spiritual power will be limitless.
In truth, the divine rainbows that cultivators harness are none other than the divine light flowing forth from their own Spring of Life. Once a cultivator reaches the Spring of Life realm, they can ride the rainbow and fly — soaring through the sky and burrowing through the earth — and the range of exquisite profound techniques available to them is without number.
The human body holds boundless mysteries. Powerful cultivators are unwilling to remain confined within the Sea of Bitterness and seek to explore other unknown secret realms of the body. This is how the great crossing of the Sea of Bitterness came to be.
The profound technique recorded in the Dao Scripture carries a spirit of unyielding forward momentum — even if the Sea of Bitterness is without shore, there is no need to turn back. One must break through the bonds that confine, relying entirely on one’s own great power.
To achieve this goal, a cultivator must cause the physical shell to transform, giving birth within the Sea of Bitterness to a passage of divine veins that will assist in breaking through what obstructs, so that the far shore of the Sea of Bitterness may at last be reached.
This is an arduous and lengthy process. The cultivator grows stronger through each setback, and in the end causes the Wheel of the Sea to ascend and sublimate, bringing forth divine veins of heaven and earth, unleashing the endless potential within. This is the third great realm of the Wheel of the Sea volume: the Divine Bridge.
To reach this point in cultivation, the cultivator’s resolve must be absolutely unshakeable — there can be no wavering whatsoever. Only so can one see through illusion and mist and continue seeking one’s own Other Shore.
In this process, not only must the physical shell transform — the spirit must also undergo sublimation. When divine spirit and physical shell unite as one, breaking free of all shackles and transcending the self, one can return to the origin, seek the fundamental root, and the Divine Bridge will stretch forth like a rainbow, completing the great crossing of the Sea of Bitterness. This is the fourth great realm of the Wheel of the Sea volume: the Other Shore.
Upon reaching the Other Shore, the cultivator’s flesh, organs, and bones will all become desolate and spent — after which a different kind of rebirth will occur. Nine consecutive times the body will undergo a complete rebirth, completing a transformation akin to a butterfly breaking from its chrysalis.
The Sea of Bitterness, the Spring of Life, the Divine Bridge, the Other Shore — these four great realms are each sealed off from the others, each as distant from the next as heaven from earth. Breaking through from one to the next is exceedingly difficult. Each great realm contains numerous finer details that must be accumulated and solidified before transformation becomes possible.
“So it is that to reach the second great realm — the Spring of Life — one can already ride the rainbow. A person at that level killing a cultivator in the Sea of Bitterness realm would be as easy as crushing an ant.” Ye Fan gave a shiver of apprehension. He thought of Elder Han, whose cultivation was at least at the Spring of Life realm or above.
Between the four great realms, the gap in power is vast — like an unbridgeable chasm.
To place Ye Fan among cultivators of the Sea of Bitterness realm was frankly something of a stretch, for the golden Sea of Bitterness he had opened was truly tiny — no larger than a soybean.
Ye Fan was not discouraged. After all, he had only just begun cultivating — the time had been far too short. To have come this far was remarkable in itself. Moreover, his Sea of Bitterness was unlike any other: it glowed with a brilliant golden radiance, carrying not a trace of deathly stillness, and every time he opened it, the sound rang through heaven and earth like a surging golden ocean. By any measure, it was not ordinary.
Then Ye Fan thought of Elder Han’s grandson, Han Feiyu. Though his Spring of Life was not yet flowing in an unbroken stream — meaning he had not yet reached the second great realm — he had already been able to wield the Green Wood Sacred Seal. A Sea of Bitterness cultivator who had mastered a sacred artifact like that was already a sufficient threat to Ye Fan.
Ye Fan received the impact of this great “grand momentum,” as dream-like and unreal as a vision. The Wheel of the Sea chapter of the Dao Scripture was like a vast and rolling historical mural unfurled before his heart, and then like a surging sacred river cleaving open the heavens and the earth, rolling on and on — giving him a first glimpse of the profound truth within.
There was no concrete cultivation as such, but this magnificent baptism was of immeasurable benefit to him. It gave him a grasp of the overall shape of cultivation, let him understand his direction, and showed him how the road ahead should be walked.
“This differs somewhat from the Dao Scripture I was cultivating before…” After grasping the broad and lofty main essence, Ye Fan began to read through it carefully from the beginning — and immediately detected something anomalous.
He found that the profound technique recorded on this golden page differed from the Dao Scripture he had been cultivating at the Spirit Ruins Cave Heaven. Even just the first few lines of ancient characters showed certain small discrepancies.
“It seems that after the Wheel of the Sea volume of the Dao Scripture was lost, though some incomplete passages were passed down, they were not accurate enough…” Ye Fan felt quietly fortunate. Had he not come upon this golden page by chance, he might never have known that the version he had been cultivating contained flaws.
“There is still time to correct it now, and bring the profound technique to true perfection…” Ye Fan acted at once on what he had decided, immediately beginning to cultivate according to the genuine Dao Scripture as it was recorded.
A deep and mysterious sensation welled up in him, and he felt his heart become a boundless, luminous stillness. With the profound technique corrected, even more golden threads overflowed from his Sea of Bitterness, circulating through his four limbs and every bone and vessel, suffusing his entire body with a sense of wholeness and ease. In that moment, it was as though he possessed inexhaustible strength — his flesh, his organs, and his bones all being nourished.
At the same time, something strange occurred in the space above Ye Fan’s golden Sea of Bitterness. All manner of wondrous phenomena appeared — divine light flickered like scattered sparks, at first like constellations, then like primordial chaos breathing out essence and giving rise to creation, emerging from nothingness. Misty vapors swirled and coiled, divine radiance streaked in every direction, shifting through ten thousand changes with no fixed form.
Above the golden expanse, transformations multiplied endlessly: in one moment, rivers of stars filled the sky; in the next, the celestial vault was desolate and spent. Growth and decay, flourishing and extinction — cycling through again and again, turning in endless alternation.
“Can this truly be the kind of transformation that the genuine Dao Scripture is capable of?” Ye Fan was profoundly astonished. In that moment he felt the surging vitality of heaven and earth joining their energies to give birth to all things, and also perceived the deathly stillness of a universe gone cold — the dying of the stars.
Only after a long while did everything finally grow calm. The golden Sea of Bitterness had become yet more refined and concentrated. Before, it had shone like a bright moon; now it blazed with the brilliance of the midday sun. The golden threads that overflowed from it were more intense than before, carrying within them a life force of extraordinary vigor.
“The genuine Dao Scripture is truly extraordinary!” Ye Fan was filled with admiration. He believed he could travel further and break the curse of the Desolate Holy Body.
Yet he did not become complacent or self-satisfied, for he knew full well that throughout the Eastern Wasteland there existed several other ancient scriptures that could rival the Dao Scripture in depth and profundity — all of them complete and undiminished, none of them lost. Every one of them was now held in the hands of the great sanctuaries and ancient families of the primordial wasteland.
“At present, the profound technique I am cultivating is not inferior to anyone else’s. My starting point is no lower than any other’s.” A divine light glinted in Ye Fan’s eyes. “I will open up the Sea of Bitterness, let the divine spring flow freely, forge the divine bridge veins of heaven and earth, reach the Other Shore, undergo nine consecutive complete rebirths, and complete the transformation of a butterfly breaking from its chrysalis.”