The mountains and rivers of the Central Plains are countless in number — the winding Yellow River, the towering Kunlun, the imposing Taihang Range — all majestic and boundless, inspiring wonder at the astonishing power of nature, as though shaped by the work of gods.

But at this moment, Ye Fan and his companions felt chills running down their spines. All of this might have been deliberately arranged by human hands in the ancient past — what an immense undertaking, unfathomably vast!

They had stumbled into forbidden territory. A force beyond human power had been involved — astonishing for all eternity. Every ancient dragon mountain was like a piece on a chessboard.

Ye Fan was deeply shaken. In the Big Dipper Star Region, dragon mountains like these could be found — but not many, and certainly not more than a dozen or so gathered in one place, let alone ninety-nine intertwined together. This was truly the ultimate.

“Having traversed so many ancient stars, I’ve never seen a sight like this — ninety-nine dragon mountains coiling and interlocking. It sounds like a fairy tale!”

It was a myth — a shattered myth that had been deliberately concealed, forbidden to be sought out. No one knew why it had been covered up.

The old crane and the Third Valley Master both carefully pondered the words of the Yellow River flood dragon and the ancient turtle, and the more they thought, the more cold the chill that crept through their bones. What lay at the heart of all this was truly not something they were capable of peering into.

If this were real, one could imagine that even their founding ancestors, if they came, might be killed with a mere press of a finger — because it was simply too terrifying.

“Do not speak of it, do not investigate it, otherwise great calamity will follow — even ancient sages and worthy men did not dare touch it.” These words, passed down through the ancestors of the Yellow River flood dragon and the ancient turtle, held an immense warning within them, enough to send chills through one’s heart.

“From the ancient past to now, who knows how many years have passed. Whether it remains forbidden is uncertain. The essence of heaven and earth has already dried up. Over such a vast span of time, the beings involved may already have perished — or perhaps they’ve already left.” The Third Valley Master offered this as a self-consolation.

Ye Fan retrieved the bone fragment from Chi Songzi’s cremation burial site, then carved out the stone maps from the Mount Lu underground palace and the Primordial Dragon Cave, and studied them carefully.

“No — the fragmented map of the immortality opportunity does not depict the ninety-nine ancient dragon mountains. There is no necessary connection.” He was puzzled. What was going on? Had they been heading in entirely the wrong direction and accidentally blundered into forbidden territory?

He combined all nine ancient jade pieces and examined them repeatedly. Indeed, there was no mistake — but they seemed to have little direct connection to the immortality opportunity map.

What was this about? Ye Fan was somewhat confused. Did Chi Songzi’s investigations in the Sichuan-Shu region have nothing to do with this? Was there a different secret altogether?

“Did you all notice what the flood dragon and the ancient turtle said? Long before the ancient era, the ninety-nine dragon mountains had already been separated. For those of later generations, it is completely beyond verification.” The old crane said.

The nine ancient jade pieces dated from the ancient era, and should have been carved into scripture after the dragon mountains had already been separated. This meant everything had already occurred and could not be changed. So what purpose remained in carving out these inscribed jade pieces?

“Perhaps we’ve had the entire direction wrong from the start, and we ourselves wandered into the forbidden territory. Could these nine jade pieces be pointing to something else entirely?” The Third Valley Master said.

“Which sect of the current world is the most ancient? Let’s see whether we can find information about the ninety-nine dragon mountains and the ancient forbidden secrets.” Ye Fan said. Since they had already traced this matter to certain clues, there was no possibility of simply letting it go.

The current era was the final age of the law — all great practitioners had left the Earth. This was perhaps the best opportunity of all; no one in the current world could obstruct them.

“The oldest ancient sects… most likely date back to a million years ago.” The Grand Valley Master said.

Ye Fan was dumbstruck. Back then humans were still at the stage of primitive ape-men — yet someone had already founded a sect? That seemed a bit too far-fetched.

“Ancient sect ruins from that era have truly been excavated. The age when people ate raw meat and drank blood was vastly different from today, and there were also esoteric inheritances — but all of that has become part of the past long ago.” The old crane said.

“Actually, if we want to investigate, we could go straight to the Shu Mountain sword cultivation sect. After all, that’s the lineage left behind by Chi Songzi — there might be some great secret unknown to the world.” The Third Valley Master said.

“Correct. We must make a trip to the Immortal Sword Sect — we need to get to the bottom of this.” Ye Fan nodded.

What people called “Shu Mountain” was a general name for the mountain ranges around the Emei area. They returned to the Sichuan-Shu region, circumvented the ancient formations, and entered a primordial zone that the mortal world would never know about.

Shu Mountain — the Immortal Sword Sect was overwhelmingly powerful, surpassing many ancient sects in standing. It was comparable to the Ten Thousand Demon Valley, the sacred ground of the demon race. Its Daoist heritage shook the world, and no one dared provoke it.

The old crane had once wandered accidentally into Shu Mountain and obtained a great fortuitous opportunity within the belly of one peak, inheriting part of the sword cultivation heritage, which had caused his strength to rise dramatically thereafter.

“Chi Songzi’s lineage is now incomplete — the Immortal Sword Sect is far less powerful than it was in the ancient past.” The Grand Valley Master explained. In truth, most sects were in a similar situation, having lost many of their texts and records.

On this occasion, the old crane truly came to understand just how terrifying Ye Fan was. Ye Fan asked the two of them to wait here, then transformed himself into a wisp of light smoke and vanished between several sword peaks.

“Forcibly breaking into the Shu Mountain Sword Sect — what depths of Daoist attainment must that require? At the very minimum, a great practitioner of the Immortal Platform Realm — and one must keep in mind that this place has innumerable sword formations laid down!” The Grand Valley Master exclaimed in astonishment.

The Third Valley Master fared a little better, having personally witnessed the terrifying sight of Ye Fan entering the Immortal Sword Heavenly Pool and single-handedly enduring thousands upon thousands of sword lights. That had given him some degree of immunity.

Ye Fan entered the ancestral hall of the founding patriarchs and found a stone statue with the bearing of an immortal and the bones of a Daoist master. He gave a sincere bow. Having observed Chi Songzi’s Dao and grasped a profound truth from it, he held deep reverence.

He searched for secret texts, hunting through ancient Daoist books, paying particular attention to all manner of personal notebooks and manuscripts, reading through them carefully in hopes of glimpsing some trace of what he sought.

It had to be said — the Immortal Sword Sect was formidable. The cultivation methods recorded within were indeed true transmissions of Chi Songzi’s Dao. Though a portion was missing, it was still enough for them to transcend the mundane world.

Ye Fan searched with his powerful divine sense for most of a day. He then subdued one of the sect’s supreme protector elders and read through that person’s sea of consciousness, gleaning only a small clue.

Using powerful methods, he erased all traces he had left behind, then silently opened a hidden door and entered a sealed stone chamber. Inside there were no Daoist methods, no spiritual elixirs or sacred medicines — only some scattered odds and ends.

This was a sealed chamber where Chi Songzi had once gone into closed-door cultivation. The Immortal Sword Sect treated it as a forbidden ground, sealing it and passing down its guardianship through every generation, accessible only to successive generations of sect masters.

This place had evidently become the supreme secret ground of the Immortal Sword Sect. There were many personal notebooks there, many written by great practitioners across different eras, speaking of many hidden matters and secrets.

The notebooks spanned a very wide range of time, left by successive sect masters from the ancient era through to the present. He read through them carefully and finally found what he wanted to know.

The immortality opportunity that Chi Songzi had been pursuing was connected to the ninety-nine dragon mountains that predated the ancient era!

Yet when he came to the Sichuan-Shu region, he had not been directly seeking the ninety-nine dragon mountains, because they had already been separated before his time. What he sought was an Earth Immortal — someone who had deeply grasped the secrets of the ninety-nine dragon mountains — from whom he hoped to find a breakthrough.

Ye Fan read carefully, his heart jolting again and again. He finally came to understand some of the truth.

The ninety-nine ancient dragon mountains had nurtured the hope of attaining immortality. Chi Songzi had been in pursuit of it. The ancient sage-emperor had been in pursuit of it. Even the progenitor demon god of the Ten Thousand Demon Valley had been in pursuit of it. Yet the ordinary sages and worthy men of the ancient world all feared it and avoided it like a venomous snake.

One person suspected to be an Earth Immortal had made extraordinary gains. According to accounts, this person had gone into reclusion in the Sichuan-Shu region. It was for this reason that Chi Songzi had come here, hoping to obtain the secret of immortality.

The hope of immortality nurtured by the ninety-nine ancient dragon mountains had been extracted by someone. That Earth Immortal had come into slight contact with it, and then retreated into seclusion in the Sichuan-Shu region, vanishing without a trace.

Ye Fan examined every scroll of the notebooks. Many were records compiled based on rumors, assembling accounts of Chi Songzi’s words and actions throughout his life — through these fragmentary details, some astonishing truths could be reconstructed.

The Earth Immortal had arranged ninety-nine small dragons for himself, fashioned to imitate those ninety-nine great dragon mountain ranges. Every secret he possessed was buried within them.

“So that’s it. The dragon mountains inscribed on the nine ancient jade pieces are not those original ninety-nine true dragon mountains — but his own burial site.”

Ye Fan left the Immortal Sword Sect and relayed what he had learned to the old crane and the Third Valley Master. After all, the Ten Thousand Demon Valley had investigated this for so many years and had surely developed some intuition.

“We absolutely must find it!” The Grand Valley Master said. Countless predecessors of the Ten Thousand Demon Valley had poured their hearts and souls into this, expending so much effort to arrive at these results. How could they stop now?

Though pressing deeper might ultimately touch upon forbidden territory, they felt it necessary to first locate the Earth Immortal, then make their final decision about next steps.

“The Earth Immortal has died — so presumably he did not obtain what was needed to become truly immortal. Otherwise he would not have died. Being called an Earth Immortal is likely an exaggeration.” Ye Fan murmured.

“In life, never touching the ground; in death, never entering the soil; a single immortal fetus; throughout life, untouched by worldly dust.” These were the words from the nine ancient jade pieces after they had been assembled, describing the Earth Immortal. With a bit of reflection one could understand — if you could glimpse the Earth Immortal’s manner of burial, it was clearly within a hanging coffin, off the ground, not buried in the earth.

“No wonder Chi Songzi opened hanging coffins and sought ancient burials. He already knew that the Earth Immortal had retreated into the Sichuan-Shu region and had learned the manner of this person’s entombment.” The old crane said.

Having made a full circuit, they felt that the ninety-nine ancient dragon mountains were absolutely untouchable and had already been separated long ago. The only thing they could do was find the Earth Immortal’s coffin.

Their one advantage now was that the Earth had long since been emptied of sages. They were already among the most powerful people in the world and had no need to fear being obstructed.

In the period that followed, they spent a great deal of time in the Sichuan-Shu region, examining mountain terrains everywhere, earnestly searching for a cluster of small dragon mountains, hoping to find the Earth Immortal’s burial site — yet they came up empty-handed.

“Could it simply not be within the Sichuan-Shu region? Otherwise, with Chi Songzi’s heaven-penetrating, earth-pervading supreme abilities, why would he have failed to find it?” Ye Fan raised the question.

“Whenever a terrain of great power matures, it will give birth to divine beauty and nourish the surrounding landscape. After thousands upon thousands of years, it will inevitably have influenced the configuration of the mountains around it. Perhaps we can use this as a starting point.” The old crane said.

Since the Earth Immortal had modeled his arrangement of small dragon mountains after the ninety-nine ancient dragon mountains, even if it was hidden within an ancient formation, all those years from the ancient era to the present would necessarily have influenced the surrounding mountains.

The Ten Thousand Demon Valley mobilized every resource it had, dispatching a large contingent of people, pouring the full strength of the entire valley into the investigation. In the end, a breakthrough discovery was finally made.

On that very day, they set out without pausing. They traveled straight to their destination without stopping and then observed from a distance.

The mountain’s shape was like a dragon coiling and a tiger crouching, leaping skyward — powerful and magnificent, the dragon and tiger competing with neither yielding to the other. A stream wound around the mountain peaks — ninety-nine peaks and twenty-four crags in total. Though they did not resemble dragons in form, they carried that spirit and momentum. The softness of water complemented and balanced the hardness of the dragon.

“An ancient formation seals the hidden ground, and it has influenced the layout of the surrounding mountains and rivers. The Earth Immortal’s burial site must be right here!”

“But this is the ancestral holy land of Daoism — we can’t simply act carelessly. If we’re discovered, at least half of all the Daoists in the world will fight us to the death.”

This had to be the place. Through the art of Source Heaven, Ye Fan could sense a particular energy signature — the uninhabited zone sealed by the ancient formation must be the place they were looking for.