Shrouded Sky

Chapter 222 - Gods

Moonlight like water, the land empty and still, utter silence.

The red gravel beneath their feet, the giant boulders several hundred meters away, and the stone hills in the distance were all covered by moonlight as thin as smoke, casting everything in a hazy glow.

But Ye Fan, Old Blade, and the other two weren’t feeling peaceful at all. They were now dangerously close to the Primordial Mine, standing atop the blood-colored ground with hearts pounding wildly.

The two cultivators named Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan were trembling uncontrollably, barely able to stay on their feet. Their hearts were full of fear.

The Primordial Mine was one of the seven Forbidden Burial Grounds in the Eastern Wilderness, its terrifying reputation known across the world. Too many dreadful events had happened there since ancient times.

“Someone save us… I really don’t want to die!”

“How do we escape this place? Old Blade, do you have any ideas? Daoist, can you find us a way out?”

Their voices trembled, nearly breaking into sobs. Both looked deathly pale.

They were now within a hundred miles of the Primordial Mine. At this range, their odds of survival had dropped drastically.

“Why panic? We haven’t entered the divine mine yet. We’re still several dozen miles away. If we leave now, we might still make it,” Old Blade growled.

“But isn’t it said that anyone who sees the Primordial Mine dies? We’ve practically seen it already, is there still hope?” The two clung to Old Blade’s words like a lifeline, filled with nervous hope.

“That’s because people got too close. We still have distance, there’s a chance,” Old Blade snapped. He didn’t want to waste time talking. He turned and ran.

Ye Fan also turned and followed him, sprinting after. He felt like luck hadn’t been on his side lately. All he wanted was a distant look at the mine, he never expected to get caught in this black whirlwind.

Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan, pale-faced, chased behind. Their minds were already overwhelmed, completely relying on Ye Fan and Old Blade for direction.

The four of them sprinted fifty miles before stopping to catch their breath, only to turn pale again.

“Something’s wrong… why can we still see the Primordial Mine?!” Old Blade exclaimed quietly.

Ye Fan also sensed it. He activated his divine sense and gazed ahead.

At the edge of the world, the starlight poured down like water, a vast white curtain flowing toward a single location.

Without a doubt, that place was the Primordial Mine, still only a few dozen miles away from them!

Waves of unease, fear, rage, sorrow, just like before, surged from the distance and wrapped around them.

“How can this be? We clearly ran fifty miles away. Why hasn’t the distance changed?”

Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan turned green. Every inch of their bodies trembled, except their eyeballs.

“We’ve been running the opposite direction, yet it’s like we’re circling it?”

The realization was chilling. All four of them felt helpless.

“We’re not dead yet. Keep running!” Old Blade said through clenched teeth. He clenched his long tobacco pipe and shot forward again, running hundreds of meters in a blink.

Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan were crawling and tumbling after him. Their legs were like jelly, and they fell multiple times before catching up.

You couldn’t blame them for being terrified. Since ancient times, countless sect masters had fallen here. Compared to those legends, they were small fry.

Even Ye Fan felt uneasy. This scene was just like what was described in the second half of the Celestial Source Tome, but unfortunately that section was too obscure for him to grasp.

Another fifty miles later, when they stopped again, they realized nothing had changed. They were still circling the Primordial Mine.

“This is unbelievable… I don’t get it,” Old Blade muttered, stunned. While running, he had clearly felt they were moving away. But whenever they stopped, it became clear they were merely going in circles.

He squatted down, lit his pipe, and began puffing away, frowning deeply.

“You still have the nerve to smoke?” Li Desheng wailed.

“Think of something, please,” Chen Huaiyuan gasped, sitting on the ground and breathing heavily.

Ye Fan was now certain. This was exactly what the second half of the Celestial Source Tome described. The godsource here had created a “field” that distorted space and disrupted time.

This was extremely dangerous, not because of some external power, but because the godsources had naturally produced it. It was almost as if the laws and order of this world had been rewritten.

They were still relatively safe for now, but if they wandered into a deeper area, where the unknown laws might be triggered, the consequences could be fatal.

“Daoist, did you figure something out?” Li Desheng looked at him hopefully.

Chen Huaiyuan came over as well. “Brother, if you can find a way to get us out of here, I swear I’ll reward you handsomely!”

“I’ve only figured out a little… this place is far too complex,” Ye Fan said honestly.

This field disturbance came from multiple godsources reacting to each other. The field wasn’t artificially created, it arose naturally. But if there were additional unknown elements, then it would be unpredictable, unless a true Source Master came in person.

“The Primordial Mine must contain godsources that have gained sentience,” Old Blade sighed.

“That makes things even worse. If they can evolve their own killing formations, the outcome will be unimaginable,” Ye Fan frowned.

The problem was, this was all guesswork. No one really knew what was inside.

“Is there any point in continuing to run?” Ye Fan stood up. He wanted to measure this field himself.

And so, the four of them took off running again.

An hour later, Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan were nearly foaming at the mouth. They collapsed on the ground, having no idea how many "fifty mile" stretches they’d run, yet they still hadn’t escaped.

“How can this be…?” They gasped for breath, almost completely drained.

“Could it be that this godsource seals something alive?” Old Blade whispered to himself.

Ye Fan was silent. The odds were high. And if it did, then the creature sealed within must be unimaginably powerful, just one more terrifying variable to add to the mix.

“I’ve heard people say that a Sage-Soul was born inside the mine… even God-Kings from the Eastern Wilderness fell there.”

“There’s another theory, it holds an immortal race…”

Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan were sitting on the ground as they spoke. After so much running, they were soaked in sweat and strangely… not quite as afraid.

These legends were just surface tales. The true secrets remained hidden.

According to the Celestial Source Tome, even these terrifying legends were only hooks, the real implications could be ten times worse.

Ye Fan had only studied a small portion of the latter chapters of the Celestial Source Tome, but even that left him awestruck by the Primordial Mine.

Just from this tiny glimpse of the “pull,” he was shaken, yet he hadn’t even seen the full truth.

Even mastering the Celestial Source Tome might not be enough to unravel the true nature of this place.

This mine was likely far more terrifying than anyone imagined, there was probably an earth-shattering secret buried here.

Why else would even legendary Celestial Source Masters fear to enter? The founding patriarch of the Zhang clan, known as the pinnacle of his generation, never dared set foot inside, and regarded it as the greatest regret of his life.

“Are we really going to die here?” Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan looked grim. Seeing Ye Fan silent, they assumed all hope was lost.

“Not necessarily.” Ye Fan stood up. “If we travel a few more dozen miles, we’ll have completed a full circle around the mine. By then, we might begin to understand the situation.”

He deeply respected the Primordial Mine, but they were still a safe distance away, nearly a hundred miles. He believed there was still a chance to find a way out.

After all, they were at the edge, not the core.

Another twenty-plus miles later, they returned to where they’d started.

“Daoist, I can tell you’re a Digging Master, a real master. You have to think of something!” Chen Huaiyuan cried.

Ye Fan was speechless. “Digging Master,” was a nickname for disciples of the Celestial Source Masters.

These people lived underground year-round, digging for source veins. They were known for their ability to sense terrain and spiritual fields.

“Daoist… Digging Master… have you figured out how to get us out?” Li Desheng asked anxiously.

“I have a plan, but it’s risky…”

“What kind of risk?” Old Blade asked, puffing his pipe.

“We need to move several miles toward the Primordial Mine to better sense the field energy. Only then can we find a path to escape,” Ye Fan said calmly.

“Have you lost your mind?!” Chen Huaiyuan shouted, jumping up. “Who moves toward the Primordial Mine?! Even Sage Monarchs only dare go there in their final days!”

Ye Fan continued calculating and carving diagrams on the ground without looking up. “Only by repeatedly measuring the field can we figure out a solution.”

“Alright, let’s do it!” Old Blade took a deep puff, tapped his pipe clean on a rock, and stood up.

“To be cautious, we’ll go just five miles. Not too deep…” Ye Fan said, leading the way.

Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan looked like they were about to cry. But they didn’t dare stay behind alone. At this point, they could only rely on this “Digging Master.”

After advancing five miles, they stopped, and were stunned. The land beneath them suddenly shifted backward with a whoosh.

“What the…?” Even Old Blade’s hair stood on end.

They had clearly only moved five miles, yet somehow ended up twenty miles closer to the mine. The cascading starlight from the Primordial Mine now looked like a white waterfall ahead.

“You’re trying to get us killed, Daoist!” Chen Huaiyuan shouted.

“It’s fine. We’ll go back the way we came,” Ye Fan said, though even he was shocked. The laws and natural order here were horrifically twisted.

Going in was easy, getting out was hard. They spent an entire hour trying to return those twenty miles, constantly diverted off course.

If Ye Fan hadn’t inscribed special source runes on the ground in advance, they never would’ve found their way out.

All the marks left by the others had mysteriously vanished, only Ye Fan’s remained, though faint.

“Why does it feel like we didn’t walk straight at all? More like we zigzagged the whole way?” Old Blade was puzzled.

“This is the natural effect of the godsource’s field. Thankfully, we’re still at the edge, it hasn’t fully evolved yet. We’re lucky,” Ye Fan replied.

“Can we still get out?” Li Desheng asked urgently.

“We’ll need to test several directions. I can’t be sure yet.”

“Test again?!” Chen Huaiyuan looked panicked.

“Got a better idea?” Old Blade glared at him.

Over the next hour, Ye Fan tested several more paths. The final attempt was the most dangerous, he suddenly advanced thirty miles. Even Old Blade’s face went pale.

Now they were within 50–60 miles of the Primordial Mine. From here, they could clearly see silver rivers of starlight flowing down from the sky.

The brilliant light completely flooded the land, gentle and holy.

“What is that?!” Ye Fan was stunned.

The mine was underground, they shouldn’t be able to see it. But above it, brilliant objects floated in and out of view.

The starlight rained down like waterfalls, yet those glowing objects outshone it all. Some rose into the sky, others sank into the earth.

“Could those be godsources?” Old Blade squinted, eyes flashing sharply.

“Godsources?!” Ye Fan was shocked. These weren’t wrapped in stone shells, and they were devouring star power. Had they… become sentient? He could see four or five such light points rising and falling, those were only the ones he could spot.

“I see… bodies…” Li Desheng stammered, lips trembling, face pale.

“What? Where?!” Ye Fan exclaimed.

“In the sky above the Primordial Mine… they rise and fall, sometimes sinking underground, sometimes drifting up into the stars.”

“Bullshit!” Old Blade barked. “That mine is shielded by strange power. Even I can barely see light points, how can you see that?”

“My left eye… was born with Lunar Sight. Sometimes I see strange things…” Li Desheng was shivering in fear.

“Your left eye… is Lunar-Sighted…?” Old Blade was astonished.

Ye Fan’s heart trembled too. He’d heard of such eyes. They were rarely cultivated later in life, almost always innate, and allowed one to perceive the hidden world.

“What else did you see?!” Ye Fan and Old Blade asked at once.

“Those corpses… they keep rising, entering the starlight, then slowly sinking into the ground again. There are… a lot of them.” Li Desheng spoke like in a dream. His face had lost all color.

He couldn’t see anything else, not even the godsources. His cultivation wasn’t high enough. His eye only occasionally glimpsed the hidden world.

Based on what he said, Ye Fan and Old Blade could now picture the scene 60 miles ahead.

Beneath the silver waterfalls of starlight above the Primordial Mine, countless corpses floated in holy radiance, rising and falling.

Even just imagining it made their hearts race in terror. What was this place?!

Besides that, there were light points and other things, rising and falling in rhythm, dimly visible.

“No wonder even the great Celestial Source Master of the Zhang Clan never dared enter…” Ye Fan thought to himself. This place was far too mysterious.

Buzz!

Suddenly, a powerful suction erupted from the direction of the Primordial Mine. The starlight in the sky was instantly drained away, plunging everything into pitch-black darkness.

On the ground, it was as if a giant black hole had appeared, ready to swallow everything.