After dinner, Ye Fan continued to contemplate the Dao Scripture, spending the entire evening immersed in a state deep and mysterious beyond all description. Above the golden Sea of Bitterness, essence breathed forth from chaos to give birth to creation, emerging from nothingness — constellations blazed, primordial mist swirled, ten thousand transformations cycling without end.
It was not until the following morning that he emerged from this state — not the least bit fatigued, his Sea of Bitterness overflowing with life essence, leaving him feeling refreshed and clear-headed.
“Big brother, come eat breakfast…” Little Tingting came bounding over to call him, her small face radiant with joy. Though her clothes were ill-fitting and worn thin, covered in patches, it could not dim the luminous light that only belongs to a child’s joyful face.
Ye Fan let out a quiet sigh. A child was a child. Yesterday she had gone through such a harrowing ordeal, been wronged so deeply, and cried with such heartache — yet she had woken this morning and all the sadness was gone, all the unpleasantness already forgotten.
“Is Tingting happy?” Ye Fan asked with a smile.
“Mm!” Tingting gave a serious, earnest nod. “Now that there’s food, Grandfather doesn’t have to go without eating so I can have it saved for me — of course Tingting is happy.”
Ye Fan was momentarily taken aback. So this was how simple some people’s happiness could be. The ability to eat her fill was all it took to satisfy little Tingting so completely. Compared to those people who scheme and struggle for fame and profit by every possible means, this standard was extraordinarily humble — and yet perhaps it was precisely this kind of unadorned happiness that gave rise to such pure and genuine goodness.
Watching her rosy little face bloom with smiles so radiant and bright, Ye Fan was deeply moved. With an indulgent pat to her head, he took her hand and walked with her out of the house.
Near midday, the sallow-faced middle-aged man from the Li Family came back. Seeing the small restaurant closed and shuttered, he kicked at the door several times with force and hollered with curses: “Open up! Your grandfather’s here to eat!”
Inside the shop, Tingting was trembling with nerves, her large eyes wide with fear. She pressed herself tightly against the old man’s chest, terrified those people might force their way in. Old Uncle Jiang patted her back softly and murmured words of comfort.
Ye Fan stood inside, listening to the ugly curses outside. Gradually he frowned, his eyes growing colder and colder.
“Fine, Old Jiang — keep your restaurant closed and just wait to starve to death. You’re already nearly eighty. Let’s see what you can do!”
The people outside cursed for a while, then hurled the two potted plants at the doorway to the ground with a crash, and used a blade to slash at the door, defacing it completely, before finally swaggering off.
“Grandfather…” Only after a long time had passed did little Tingting timidly ask: “Will those bad people come again tomorrow?”
“It’s all right. Don’t be afraid, Tingting. Grandfather won’t let them hurt you.” The old man continued to comfort her gently.
Tingting said softly: “Those bad people do evil every single day. Why isn’t there any good person to bring them to justice?”
Ye Fan felt it confirmed once again — there is no speech more true in this world than a child’s. There is much that is unjust, but not everything can be set right.
“Don’t worry, Tingting. Tomorrow, they definitely won’t be coming back.” Ye Fan crouched down and said with a smile, “Come — let’s go eat. I’ll make you a special dish today for lunch.”
“Big brother, you know how to cook?” Tingting’s large eyes filled with disbelief.
“Underestimating me, are you? Watch what I can do today — I guarantee you’ve never eaten anything like it.”
The little girl blinked her large eyes — completely unconvinced. “I don’t believe you. Grandfather knows how to make everything. Back when we still had the inn, Grandfather used to make me delicious food every single day.”
“Sweet and sour spare ribs — have you ever had those?” Though it was an extremely ordinary dish from his homeland, Ye Fan was confident it had not yet appeared in this world.
And indeed, a look of puzzlement crossed Tingting’s face. “How can sugar and spare ribs go together?” Even the old man beside her wore an expression of complete confusion.
In the end, Ye Fan could only talk about it in theory — his cooking skills were truly abysmal. But once the old man knew the method, he took matters into his own hands, and managed to set a perfect plate of sweet and sour river deer spare ribs on the table. Tingting ate that meal with absolute delight, her small face rosy and filled with happy smiles throughout.
Ye Fan was deeply fond of this warm and harmonious atmosphere. It gave him the feeling of home, and in some vague, undefined way, gave him something to hold onto.
After lunch, the old man sent little Tingting off for her afternoon nap. He steeped a pot of coarse tea, set it on the clean Eight Immortals table, and asked Ye Fan with some concern: “Child, are you planning to do something? Don’t act rashly…”
Ye Fan smiled. “Uncle, you don’t need to worry. Nothing will go wrong. The truth is, anyone can play the villain — it’s simply a matter of whether they’re willing. As for bad people, a hundred ways to deal with them exist.”
“What are you going to do?”
“If I truly set my mind to scheming against them, harming people isn’t difficult. But there’s no need for that — the most straightforward approach will do. I’ll make them too caught up in their own troubles to come looking for any more. And later, when there’s leisure time, we’ll settle with them properly.”
That afternoon, Ye Fan left the small town directly. He had no desire to scheme elaborately against the Li Family — as long as those members out cultivating somewhere didn’t return, there was simply no need.
He had already established that the Li Family traveled to the county seat each month to purchase grain and goods, having essentially monopolized half the trade in this small town. Tomorrow was the day of their great monthly purchasing trip. The sallow-faced middle-aged man was one of the Li Family’s managers and was typically the one responsible for these affairs.
The county seat was seventy or eighty li from the town, far more prosperous — with a population of tens of thousands, lined on both sides of its streets with shops, the sound of vendors’ calls unceasing. For Ye Fan, whose physique far surpassed that of ordinary people, this distance was nothing at all — in little more than an hour, he arrived with ease. After exchanging several pieces of game he had hunted in the mountains for coins, he bought quite a few sweets and snacks for little Tingting, then picked out several small pieces of clothing and shoes for her as well, before finally purchasing the things he would need the following day.
It was not until the sky began to darken that he turned back. His main purpose in coming today had been to survey the road between the small town and the county seat, to identify where it was desolate and secluded.
Ye Fan did not return until the lamps had been lit. Seeing him come back unharmed, the old man finally let out the breath he had been holding. Little Tingting was overjoyed and excited, her face bright with delight as she picked up one pretty little garment after another to look at. She opened the paper packages of sweets and snacks, first stuffing treats into the old man’s and Ye Fan’s mouths, then happily started eating herself.
“Why isn’t Tingting going to try on her new clothes?” Ye Fan asked her.
“I want to save them for later. My clothes now can still be worn.” She carefully wrapped the new clothing back up.
Looking at her small, worn garments — patched and re-patched, sewn and re-sewn — Ye Fan felt a pang. The children of the poor inspired a kind of heartache. So young, and already so sensible — those offhand words, though she didn’t mean anything particular by them, left him with a feeling that could not easily settle.
“Don’t worry — from now on, Tingting will have new clothes to wear every day. Go and change.” Ye Fan felt that a girl as adorable as Tingting, and a man as kind as Old Uncle Jiang — if they were to be bullied any further, it would truly be an affront against heaven.
That night, Ye Fan continued to contemplate the Dao Scripture. He found that when he held the Bodhi Seed in his hand, his heart became especially clear and open, and his understanding of the scripture was noticeably much deeper.
“Truly worthy of being called the Enlightenment Tree…”
The following afternoon, Ye Fan left the small town and moved through the mountain forest, quickly circling around to the road that led toward the county seat. A section of the mountain path passed through a small gorge.
Ye Fan swiftly scaled the cliff wall, changed into a set of black clothes, covering his face, then mounted a pair of stilts he had prepared to make himself appear as tall as an adult. He then opened all the oil barrels he had positioned here the day before and settled in to wait for the Li Family’s purchasing group to return.
Not until the sky had nearly darkened did the sound of rumbling wheels finally drift up the mountain road — more than ten large carts in total, all loaded to capacity with goods. From silk fabrics and clothing to household necessities and grain, they had everything one could ask for.
Ye Fan rose to his feet and began hurling the oil barrels one after another over the cliff edge. The sound of crashing and splintering rang out in succession as all ten-plus carts were drenched with oil, throwing the area below into immediate chaos.
“Oil — it’s oil! Someone is going to set the carts on fire!” The Li Family people cried out in alarm. Many scrambled in panic to flee; others began searching for whoever was planning to set the fire. By now, someone had finally spotted Ye Fan above the gorge — tall and imposing in his black robes, hurling one torch after another down the cliff.
“Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!”
Roaring flames erupted all at once. The ten-plus carts were engulfed in a sea of fire in an instant — there was absolutely no way to extinguish it — and the blaze shot skyward like a pillar of light.
“Who are you?! How dare you burn the Li Family’s goods — aren’t you afraid of being hunted down by cultivators?!” The sallow-faced middle-aged man shouted in panicked rage. With so much of the goods destroyed, he had already imagined the terrible consequences he would face upon returning.
“Crash!”
Another barrel of oil came flying down, nearly striking him on the head. Oil splattered across his clothes, and immediately a tongue of flame fell — the sallow-faced middle-aged man let out a howl of agony and fled for his life toward a mountain stream in the distance, flames dancing across his body.
Ye Fan swept a glance over the scene, then vanished from sight atop the gorge. He swiftly removed his stilts, stripped off the black robes, bundled everything up, and fled like a wisp of smoke.
That night, the entire small town of Clear Wind was shaken. The Li Family had suffered a devastating loss — everything in those ten-plus carts had been burned to ash with nothing remaining, and seven or eight people had been burned with injuries.
Throughout the night the town could not settle. The Li Family people went about like madmen, searching house to house for leads. For them, this was like someone having the audacity to stir up trouble in the very lair of a ferocious beast — the immensity of the loss filled the Li Family with furious outrage.
It was not until deep in the night that the town finally grew quiet. The Li Family concluded that the people of this town did not have the capability nor the courage for such an act, and speculated it must be an old enemy from afar. The entire Li Family instantly fell into a state of high tension, dispatching riders through the night to send word to Smoky Haze Cave Heaven.
That night, Ye Fan slipped quietly out of the small restaurant and made his way deep into the mountain range — he needed to improve his cultivation as swiftly as possible. He went so deep into the forest that he lost count of the distance, until at last he found a stone cave. Ye Fan sealed himself inside with boulders, then laid out the several spirit medicines he had brought.
The Jade Serpent Orchid was translucent and yielding as mutton-fat jade, exuding a fragrance that was deeply refreshing. The golden tuber left behind by the ancient wood spirit glowed with brilliant golden light, radiance rippling across its surface.
Ye Fan gripped the Bodhi Seed in his hand, settled his heart, and began to contemplate the Dao Scripture with focused clarity. Only when he felt his Sea of Bitterness trembling — sensing that a breakthrough was within reach — did he swallow the Jade Serpent Orchid.
Half an hour later, though the cave had been sealed shut with boulders, it still shook with sounds like waves crashing endlessly. Streaks of golden light burst outward like a tidal wave, roaring and thundering without cease.
Not until the second half of the night did everything grow quiet. Looking inward, Ye Fan found that his golden Sea of Bitterness had grown to more than double its previous size. He moved the boulder aside and charged out of the cave — his body light and vigorous, his strength and speed both increased by a considerable measure. He moved through the mountain forest like a wisp of light smoke.
Eventually he returned to the cave, resealed the entrance with boulders, and without any hesitation swallowed the golden tuber left by the ancient wood spirit. He then gripped the Bodhi Seed and contemplated the Dao Scripture.
In the second half of the night, a thunderous sound that shook the ears erupted from within the cave — the boulders blocking the entrance shattered all at once, stone fragments flying outward in every direction.
Like a volcanic eruption, like the silver river of heaven cascading down in full force — the cave was filled in every direction with a blinding radiance, tidal waves shook the sky, peals of divine thunder rang without cease. Ye Fan’s Sea of Bitterness transformed into a golden ocean, surging endlessly toward the heavens.
This continued for a full hour before the terrifying sounds gradually subsided and the divine light slowly withdrew. Ye Fan burst out of the cave at speed. Behind him, the stone cave let out a rumbling groan and collapsed — it had not fallen earlier only because the golden light had been holding it up.
By now dawn was near. The mountain forest was no longer particularly dark. Ye Fan felt his body brimming with vigorous life force, a robust essence circulating within him.
The golden Sea of Bitterness had, in a single night, expanded from the size of a soybean to the size of a pigeon egg — grown several times over. He was deeply astonished. This was entirely the work of the golden tuber left by the ancient wood spirit, which contained ten times more life essence than the Jade Serpent Orchid — a truly rare treasure beyond compare.
Ye Fan’s heart could not settle. He found that his body was like a bottomless pit — there was no need whatsoever to worry about an overdose of medicinal energy. So long as sufficient life essence could be provided, he could keep opening up his Sea of Bitterness without limit.
“Is it that the curse of the Desolate Holy Body has not manifested in me yet? Or is this itself the curse — that every step forward demands a vast ocean of life essence, so that as the road advances it grows ever narrower, the Sea of Bitterness ever harder to open in later stages…”
If an ordinary person had absorbed this much life essence, the Sea of Bitterness would likely have been pierced through already, and the physical body shattered. “If an ordinary person absorbed all this life essence gradually over a long period, the Sea of Bitterness they opened should be larger than mine…” Ye Fan pondered this. His manner of cultivating was akin to an extravagant squandering of resources. He murmured to himself: “Am I wasting it? I don’t think so.”
Because in that moment he discovered that his Sea of Bitterness was exceptionally refined and concentrated. Though only the size of a pigeon egg, it already contained a full nineteen “divine markings,” radiating life force of extraordinary power.
“When an ordinary person’s Sea of Bitterness reaches the size of a pigeon egg, it would likely still be difficult for them to condense ‘divine markings.’ My golden Sea of Bitterness managed it far ahead of time.” Ye Fan felt no sense of waste at all — on the contrary, he was filled with a deep sense of achievement. His golden Sea of Bitterness was unlike any other.
“Tsst! Tsst! Tsst!”
Ye Fan flicked his ten fingers lightly, and a dozen “divine markings” shot out immediately — like streaks of dazzling sword light, boring through all the mountain stones before him.
“Opening the same sized Sea of Bitterness, the divine power I possess will be many times greater than anyone else’s.” This thought set Ye Fan’s mind racing.
“But for someone with my constitution to achieve success in cultivation, a vast ocean of life essence is needed as a foundation.” When he considered this, he couldn’t help furrowing his brow.
“And yet it isn’t limited solely to spirit medicines. If I could find what Elder Wu Qingfeng spoke of — the ‘Source’ — and cultivate in a place of extraordinarily dense spiritual energy, that should allow for breakthroughs as well.”
According to ancient records, in the age when heaven and earth joined their energies to give birth to all things, the primordial chaos was thick with spiritual energy, dense and pervasive. Many spiritual creatures could absorb the primordial essence energy of heaven and earth and condense it into amber-like crystals, within which an enormous reservoir of life essence was sealed.
Those that have been preserved to the present day are called “Source” — and for cultivators they are exceedingly precious. Certain supreme-quality specimens are rightly described as priceless beyond measure.
From the age of the first birth of all things to the era of the Primordial Antiquity, the primordial essence energy of heaven and earth gradually grew thin, and spiritual creatures found it ever harder to condense “Source.”
However, in that final glorious period — when the ten thousand things flourished, when life forms were mighty, and spirit medicines were plentiful — a great number of rare and world-class “divine Sources” were formed. In later generations, people have discovered amber-like crystalline stones containing living organisms sealed within: these “divine Sources,” once mined, can provide an inexhaustible supply of life essence.
“What a magnificent and extraordinary age that must have been…”