Shrouding the Heavens

Time passed by, and the thriving land filled with vitality turned into a desolate and barren desert. The various creatures of the past became the empty smoke of history.

Currently, all that remained of the northern region was a vast and barren land. Nothing could be seen as far as the eye could see. It was just monotonous red brown soil.

The ten horsemen moved quickly. Their village was a hundred kilometers away, and at this speed, they should be able to arrive before the sun set.

Ye Fan was also riding a horse with Fifth Grandpa Zhang. He was asking him all kinds of secrets pertaining to Sources.

A thousand years ago, the Heavenly Source Book had been lost, and many secrets about searching for Sources had been lost. Fifth Grandpa Zhang was very regretful about that, and whenever it was brought up he would sigh.

Ye Fan was also somewhat disappointed. That was definitely an amazing book, and he really wished he could study it. The methods to find Sources’ dragon veins and determine peak Divine Sources were definitely astonishing.

If someone obtained it, that person would definitely be invited to become a Sacred Land’s important guest. Such a marvelous book definitely had an immeasurable value.

The ten horsemen continued galloping forward, leaving behind ten dust trails.

---

Two hours later, the horses gradually slowed down. They had only gone for around forty kilometers, as the horses weren’t that amazing and their physical strength was just ordinary.

Suddenly, seven or eight more horsemen appeared on the horizon. They were extremely quick, galloping like a whirlwind and kicking up a storm of dust. They were upon the group in just an instant.

Their horses were not ordinary horses. They had flickering scales, and their bodies were large and lengthy. These were Dragon Scaled Horses. Their bodies were in the shape of horses, but they were also clad in green scales. They could travel two to three thousand kilometers a day without getting tired.

“Crap, it’s bandits!” exclaimed Wang Shu, the one who was quite quick on the uptake.

“Stop for this master!” shouted an extremely dark-skinned, middle-aged man.

The eight Dragon Scaled Horses surrounded them, blocking Ye Fan and the others. Each horseman shouted, “Hand over all the Sources you’ve collected, otherwise this place will be your burial ground.”

Ye Fan could not be considered to have personally experienced the barbarity of this chaotic land. Bandits actually roamed around in broad daylight, threatening to kill and rob people.

“We didn’t find even a single Source today, so we have nothing to hand over,” explained Wang Shu with a smile.

“Bullshit. If you don’t wish to see the inside of a coffin, hurry and hand them over. Otherwise, this day next year will be the anniversary of your death,” ordered the dark-skinned man.

“We really didn’t have any harvests. If you don’t believe us, go ahead and do a body search. We won’t resist at all.” Fifth Grandpa Daoist cupped his hands towards them.

Ye Fan patted his shoulder, letting him know he didn’t need to worry as he sized up these people.

“Old bastard, so wait to the side!” One of the bandits walked up and glared at Ye Fan, sensing that his body had the air of Sources.

“You said you didn’t have Sources? This immature youngster definitely has quite a few Sources on him.” One of the horsemen sent his horsewhip to heavily whip Ye Fan, cursing, “You dare tell lies in front of me!”

BANG!

Ye Fan caught the whip in his hand and pulled the horseman off his mount, but he didn’t take his life. He still had many questions he wanted to ask these bandits.

Fifth Grandpa Zhang and the rest saw this, and all fled far away without stopping.

That head bandit was experienced and naturally saw that things had taken a turn for the worse for them. He abandoned his Dragon Scaled Horse and charged into the sky, trying to flee.

“You want to run now?” Ye Fan snapped his fingers and eight winds swept towards the horsemen, slamming into their bodies like hammers and causing them all to immediately collapse onto the ground.

The head bandit was just a Spring of Life realm cultivator. To Ye Fan, he was someone unable to endure a single blow. Their expressions were now all pale as they realized they had kicked an iron plate.

“Are you guys even bandits? All together, you only have two hundred grams of Sources on your bodies.” Ye Fan was very dissatisfied with such a low amount. “Carefully tell me about the bandit groups in the vicinity.”

------

Half an hour later, Ye Fan led the eight Dragon Scaled Horses and caught up to Fifth Grandpa Zhang and the rest of them. “Will bringing these Dragon Scaled Horses back cause any trouble for you guys?”

The ten youths were very envious, but Fifth Grandpa Zhang shook his head and said, “Let them go live on their own. Only bandits can ride them. If our village had beasts like this, it would be too conspicuous.”

“Do the sects not care about the roving bandits?” asked Ye Fan.

“How could they possibly care? Bandits are like ants. When you get rid of a batch, another batch comes. There’s no way for them to handle the problem.”

“They’re actually not that different from bandits themselves. I’ve heard that many sects are secretly supporting the bandits in their plundering.”

Ye Fan now understood even more just how chaotic and bloody the northern region was. This was a land of crime and sin.

“No wonder other cultivators felt that coming to the northern region was a huge risk. There are no rules here, but as long as you have enough strength, you can become a local tyrant.”

Ye Fan felt that this suited what he needed. He shouldn’t need to worry about Sources in the future.

---

They finally finished their hundred-kilometer journey before sunset.

In front of them was a village built out of stones. There were just a dozen families, and altogether there weren’t even two hundred people.

But when he arrived closer, Ye Fan noticed it truly was a hard and tough place. Whether it was man or woman, young or old, all the villagers had knives on their bodies. Only when they saw that it was Fifth Grandpa Zhang and the others did they sigh and put their knives down.

“Bandit Chen Da came once again. He said that there are only five days left. If we still don’t hand over the Sources, he’ll kill the whole village.”

Those villagers all appeared anxious and miserable as they sighed.

“The other groups that went out all failed to obtain anything before returning.”

“Over these few years, it’s become even more difficult to collect Sources. The surrounding lands have already been picked clean, and there’s no way to get more in a short amount of time.”

Ye Fan was given a residence. The northern region was filled with only stone houses. His residence was very clean as it had been carefully tidied up for him.

That evening, Fifth Grandpa Zhang and the rest enthusiastically received him. They killed a sheep, and everyone surrounded the fire as they cooked it to a glistening golden color. Taking it off the spit, everyone began to eat and drink.

The northern region’s men were all very straightforward, some of them even having the air of bandits. They all needed adventure. Ye Fan ate to his heart’s content. Over these few days he had always been fleeing. The current mood let him finally relax.

During this banquet, he inquired about the various names around this place and where they were.

Fifth Grandpa Zhang ordered people to fetch a cowhide map. He pointed to various locations within fifty kilometers. These were all the headquarters he had learned of various bandits.

---

Ye Fan urgently required Sources to increase his strength. That very night, he raided three of the bandit headquarters.

The results disappointed him greatly. Each lair held only a dozen people, and all together he only obtained a kilogram of Sources.

“It’s not enough for me. I have to find a powerful group.” At this time, Ye Fan was longing for the Flickering Light Sacred Land’s mining area. That truly was a precious place. The outside areas were very destitute and couldn’t be compared to that place.

This stone village was located within an oasis over five kilometers wide. There was an isolated large mountain that was several thousand meters tall.

There was no soil, no vegetation. It was simply a giant stone mountain.

Early in the morning when the sun had just risen, the spilling sunlight gave the huge mountain an incomparably heavy feeling.

When Ye Fan walked out of his residence, he saw Fifth Grandpa Zhang facing the mountain and bowing, giving him a strange feeling.

That uneducated youth simplemindedly explained, “Fifth Grandpa Zhang will always bow to this mountain first thing every morning.”

Ye Fan’s heart shook. That huge mountain most likely wasn’t simple. Perhaps there were some secrets concealed within it.

Just at this moment, Fifth Grandpa Zhang walked over. He didn’t explain anything, simply telling them it was time for breakfast.”

“Hey, what thing is within that mountain?” asked Ye Fan when only the uneducated youth was left.

“I don’t know. Fifth Grandpa Zhang won’t let us get close to it, saying that it’s an inauspicious land.” He shook his head.

---

After eating breakfast, Ye Fan stepped away, becoming a strand of smoke that arrived in front of the mountain in a short moment.

Its whole body was a purple-brown color, like dull purple gold. It was dense and massive, around four thousand meters tall and very precipitous. Mortals would not be able to climb it.

Ye Fan was startled to find that there were many sword scars on its side. All of them were eroded by nature and could only be identified after careful observation.

He tried cutting through the stone with his finger, but he found it was extremely hard, comparable to the hardest iron. This purplish stone was extremely special.

Ye Fan sucked in a cold gasp of air. It was such a hard mountain, so just how many years of erosion had gone by for its sword scars to fade so much? It was impossible to estimate just how long ago they had been left!

He slowly flew up, and grew more and more startled. Not only did the bottom part of the mountain wall have scars, scars could be found throughout the entire wall all the way to halfway up the mountain.

At the halfway point, the purple mountain was extremely drawn out, looking like a large sword that had been inserted into the sky, grand and majestic.

Ye Fan was shocked to find that other than the various blade scars, there were also small handprints and finger holes. They had all been almost completely eroded and were very faint.

These vestiges were definitely left behind from before the Ancient Desolation. Otherwise such a hard purple rock’s marks couldn’t possibly be eroded like this.

After flying to the summit, Ye Fan took a survey and noticed that there was a mountain ridge in every single direction.

“All together there are nine mountain ranges. They extend so far that I can’t see where they end. As for this purple mountain, it is the epicenter.”

Ye Fan didn’t study the mountains and plains that much, and he couldn’t find anything else special. In the end, he focused on this purple mountain.

The mountain peak was completely bare. The sunlight spilling over it caused the mountain to appear even more majestic.

“There’s nothing else special. Could it be inside there’s Sources?” Ye Fan took out his golden tome and slashed at the mountain peak.

The purple mountain was very hard, especially its peak. But it was still cut through by the golden tome. Sparks and rubble shot everywhere, and a large hole quickly appeared on the mountain peak.

Ye Fan frowned since he didn’t notice any abnormalities. This wasn’t the kind of stone that surrounded Sources, so there shouldn’t be any appearing.

In the end, he didn’t make any gains and returned back to the stone village.

------

The second day, he woke early and began to observe from a distance. As expected, he saw Fifth Grandpa Zhang go pay his respects to the mountain first thing in the morning.

During breakfast, he was unable to hold back from asking, “Gramps, is there something special about that huge mountain. Why do you have to bow to it every morning?”

His expression turned heavy and he then sighed. “That is an inauspicious land. You absolutely can’t go there. My ancestors once said that in the entire northern region, there was no one who could provoke it.”

“Provoke…” Ye Fan was even more startled, asking, “Just what is inside that purple mountain?”

“I also don’t know. All I know is that that place is an inauspicious land.”

Ye Fan didn’t ask any more. He wandered around the mountain village before finding the dumb fellow and asking him. But he was also unable to tell Ye Fan anything.

That smart youth Wang Shu was just passing by and had a good opinion of Ye Fan. He knew that the reason he was staying around was to help the village, so he said, “I know a bit. Fifth Grandpa Zhang once got drunk and began to bitterly cry. He said that that place was an inauspicious land, and that it had something to do with an ancient Great Emperor.”

Ye Fan was immediately stunned. Since ancient times, just how many Great Emperors had the entire Eastern Wastelands ever produced?!

It was just a meager few people. They were lords of the land, glorious and earth-shaking, and there was absolutely no one that could surpass their accomplishments.

The Eastern Wastelands’ few terrifying peak weapons were all made by them. Others were simply unable to refine such things.

At this moment, Ye Fan sensed his blood surging, and he almost shouted out. It had something to do with an ancient Great Emperor? He immediately thought of many things.