Shrouded Sky

Chapter 128 - Void Scripture

Ji Ziyue’s lips curled up slightly as she glared at Ye Fan and snapped, “No treasures, no ancient scriptures, only the life of a future immortal. You decide what to do with it!”

“You’re pretty straightforward.” Ye Fan couldn’t help but laugh. “In your own words, if you don’t behave, I have plenty of ways to deal with you.”

Ji Ziyue bit her lip with her glistening pearly teeth and turned her head to look at the clouds on the horizon. She seemed about to say something but held back in the end.

Ye Fan didn’t immediately press her. He had plenty of time. For now, the most urgent task was to refine the Black-Gold essence. His godrune cauldron had shattered and fused with the green copper, which worried him.

In the spring at the bottom of his Oceanic Wheel, the green copper piece remained still. Around it swirled the Black-Gold essence, with the broken cauldron fragments drifting within, merging with the essence, inseparable from it.

What Ji Ziyue said made sense. The shattered cauldron wasn’t entirely a bad thing for Ye Fan. It was an opportunity.

“If it’s broken, I’ll reforge it!” Ye Fan immersed his consciousness into the spring, carefully using his godpower to compress the shattered cauldron.

He wasn’t trying to directly reassemble it. His goal was to crush it even more thoroughly so it could fully merge with the Black-Gold essence.

Breaking the cauldron in the Bitter Sea was like breaking part of himself. Godpower flowed through him, and his mind was so focused that he felt as if he were shattering his own being.

The Black-Gold essence was radiant like moonlight, brilliant like sunlight, stunning. It continued to blend with the broken cauldron. Under Ye Fan’s control, they gradually became a single stream of glowing light.

It spiraled around the green copper, shrouded in mist, mysterious and profound. In the end, the brilliance turned inward, its edge concealed. It became unremarkable and simple, yet naturally emitted Black-Gold energy that felt unfathomably deep.

At the dawn of Heaven and Earth, a small amount of celestial and earthly essence gave birth to all things, the motherly energy of creation, holding unimaginable power. A rare treasure for refining artifacts.

Ye Fan remained cautious. He didn’t rush to forge a new cauldron. He continuously tempered the essence, pressing it against the green copper to imprint and blend, hoping to make them one, to inscribe the natural Dao runes onto it.

This would be a long process, requiring time and patience. At least everything had started smoothly.

So, Ye Fan settled by the lake. He placed several new seals on Ji Ziyue to prevent her from breaking free.

Time flew by, half a month passed.

The lake remained misty, the water shimmering. The shores were lush with trees and fragrant with flowers.

Beneath a towering ancient tree, Ji Ziyue was immobilized, bound in place. Ye Fan ignored her screams and, with focused concentration, began drawing on her smooth, jade-like face.

He worked quickly. In no time, a toad was sketched. Nodding in satisfaction, he put the brush down and held a mirror up to Ji Ziyue’s face.

“Ahhh!” Ji Ziyue screamed, like she had encountered her worst nightmare. Her voice could tear through eardrums. She was livid, glaring at Ye Fan with gritted teeth and blazing eyes.

“Half a month’s passed, and you’ve only written out a single piece of ancient scripture, that’s far too little. I need the complete text…” Ye Fan’s tone shifted, becoming gentle and coaxing. “I have the Black-Gold essence, the motherly energy of all things, impossible to find even in a thousand lifetimes. If you help me decipher the scripture, I’ll give you some. It’s a win-win.”

Ji Ziyue looked tempted. Her big eyes blinked a few times. “I need time to think.”

“Don’t think I don’t know you’re just stalling.” Ye Fan sat across from her, paper and brush ready. He released the seal on her right hand. “Stop dragging your feet. The motherly energy is right here, don’t you want it?”

“You’re going too far!” Ji Ziyue fumed. “I’ve already given you several treasures, and you’re still not satisfied? Fine, if it comes to it, we’ll both go down together! If I die, the mark on my body will alert the Ji Clan, and everything that happened will be revealed!”

Ye Fan was speechless. He pushed a phoenix hairpin, two bracelets, and a pair of earrings in front of her. “How am I supposed to use this stuff? Write out the scripture, and you’ll get them all back.”

Ji Ziyue’s expression changed instantly. Tearfully, she said, “It’s not that I don’t want to. There’s a celestial curse sealed in my sea of consciousness by the Clan elders. If I dare reveal the scripture, I’ll be destroyed on the spot, body and soul!”

Ye Fan chuckled. “Don’t play the pity card. I don’t believe a word of it.”

Ji Ziyue’s beautiful eyes welled up with tears. She sobbed softly, “I’ve never meant you any harm. I even let those demon race people go. How could I ever hurt you? And you still treat me like this…”

That did make Ye Fan feel guilty. Capturing her had been a major headache. Killing her wasn’t an option, but letting her go would be dangerous. He kept pushing for the scripture but had yet to obtain any real cultivation method.

“I want that scripture. So enough with the act…”

Ji Ziyue’s demeanor changed again. Her tears vanished. Her little tiger teeth flashed as she threatened, “Then I’ll fight you to the death!”

“Fine, let’s fight.” Ye Fan began pulling off her shoes and socks.

Ji Ziyue shrieked, “W-What are you doing?! Stop!”

“Are you going to write or not?”

“I…”

Ye Fan completely removed her shoes and socks, revealing delicate, jade-like feet, smooth as mutton fat jade, shimmering with soft luster, slender and beautiful.

“You…” Ji Ziyue blushed furiously, trembling with rage and embarrassment. “Stop this right now!”

Unhurriedly, Ye Fan smeared honey on her soft sole, then brought over a few ants and placed them on it.

In the ancient woods, Ji Ziyue’s mix of shame and fury echoed in a scream: “Ye Fan, you little brat, I’ll never forgive you! Aaaaah!”

Half an hour later, Ye Fan walked to the lake with several pages in hand. He focused intently, studying the content written on them.

“The Grand Dao is like an abyss, the origin of all things, blending brilliance and dust alike…”

As he read, Ye Fan contemplated deeply. The Ji Clan’s scripture truly was exceptional, no less profound than the Dao Scripture.

The opening lines revealed the core focus of this ancient text. The essence of the Dao was void, yet its influence was limitless. This was the Ji Clan’s Void Scripture.

The Void Dao wore down the sharpness of all things, dissolved conflict, harmonized radiance, blended dust, but remained void in essence and eternally existent.

Unfortunately, Ji Ziyue was determined and unyielding. She only wrote a few pages, not the full text. It would take more time to get it all.

The pages were fragmented, lacking a lot in explanation. The explanations about the “Dao Palace” were scarce, barely half a page. Ye Fan examined it closely.

“The valley spirit never dies, it is called the Mysterious Female. The gateway of the Mysterious Female is the root of Heaven and Earth…”

Although short, this half-page gave Ye Fan insight into what needed to be cultivated in the Dao Palace.

“Indeed, five god-spirits must be cultivated!”

If one could nourish their god-spirits, they could defy death. Within the Dao Palace resided five such spirits. If mastered, they would extend life, generate five elemental energies, and merge spirit and essence, leading to wondrous transformations.

The Dao Palace Realm was extremely mysterious, even more so than the Oceanic Wheel Realm. It would unlock incredible powers. But with only half a page, Ye Fan couldn’t see what came next.

To cultivate the Dao Palace, one had to cross the Bitter Sea and reach the Other Shore.

In the following days, Ye Fan trained relentlessly, determined not to waste a moment.

He continued refining the Black-Gold essence, merging it with the green copper, forging it repeatedly, and engraving Dao runes.

Most importantly, he began extracting and tempering the sacred blood of the Imperial Demon Heart. He needed power. The heart had been soaking in his Life Spring, it would be wasteful not to use it.

This time, he used the Black-Gold energies to pressure the heart, making its blood surge so he could collect it.

With the green copper suppressing the sea floor, the Demon Emperor’s heart couldn’t resist. It was like a trapped dragon, unable to make a move.

For a full half-month, Ye Fan methodically extracted the sacred blood, refining his body. His skin became as smooth as jade, and impurities were purged. He was about to undergo a metamorphosis.

Ji Ziyue observed all this in shock. She suspected Ye Fan harbored many secrets, far more than he let on.

On the nineteenth day of refining the Demon Emperor’s blood, something shocking happened. The heart, red and gem-like, finally had enough and exploded in defiance.

Ye Fan’s golden Bitter Sea erupted. If not for the green copper stabilizing the area, his body might have been torn apart.

The Imperial Demon Heart began to beat, restoring its vitality, furiously resisting the theft of its sacred blood, trying to kill Ye Fan with its pulses.

In the past, even those beyond the Other Shore stage couldn’t withstand its power. One could imagine its horror!

But the green copper circulated Black-Gold energy, stabilizing the Oceanic Wheel and protecting Ye Fan. The radiant, ruby-like heart burned fiercely and finally burst through his sea of bitterness, transforming into a brilliant streak of blood and vanishing into the sky.

Ye Fan’s Bitter Sea throbbed with pain. Though it closed quickly, it took a long time to recover. He was dumbfounded, muttering, “I pushed too hard… I really went too far. The Imperial Demon Heart… flew away!”

That mighty heart, unwilling to be drained any longer, finally… fled.

“My god… that was the heart of a Demon Emperor?! And it was in your body?!” Ji Ziyue was stunned, her face filled with disbelief.

Ye Fan didn’t chase after it. He sat down and began refining the last of the sacred blood to cleanse his body.

At that moment, his entire body glowed like jade. His internal organs sparkled, bones shimmered, and his skin gleamed. The pain from the blood’s transformation was intense and unbearable.

Finally, after taking two sacred medicines in the past, this was his third rebirth.

It was an excruciating process, lasting nearly a whole day before peace returned. Ye Fan stood up like a deity, god-light radiating from him, shining like the sun and moon, glowing like stars, his body as translucent as colored glaze.

Eventually, the glow faded. He returned to his normal appearance.

But he felt immense power within him. This third rebirth left him like a phoenix risen from the ashes, his energy seemingly limitless.

When he clenched his fist, golden lightning danced around it, like he could pierce through Heaven itself.

Most astonishing of all, the Black-Gold Dualforce appeared on his golden fist, seemingly fused into it.

Ji Ziyue was stunned. Her mouth formed a perfect “O” as she said, “What… exactly did you do, you freak?”

A breeze blew gently as Ye Fan’s black hair fluttered. Clenching his golden fist, he felt overwhelming power, Black-Gold Dualforce radiating from him.