Shrouded Sky

Chapter 224 - Encounter At The Forbidden Burial Ground

Ye Fan's speed was incredible, almost peerless even among those in the Dao Palace Realm. It was as if space folded with every stride, shrinking the land beneath his feet. With each step, it felt like time flowed and space shifted.

In the blink of an eye, he had rushed several miles ahead. But as he looked up, his whole body turned cold.

Moonlight filtering through pines, spring flowing over stones, a scene of quiet serenity, appeared ahead.

He hadn't escaped. He was about to charge back into the pine forest.

“What the hell?!”

Ye Fan came to a sharp stop. The peaceful pine forest lay before him, wrapped in soft moonlight and veils of thin mist.

This pine forest was supposed to be behind him, so how was it now ahead?

He looked back. The six others were nowhere in sight. The land behind was vast and empty, blood-red earth stretching endlessly.

“What’s going on?”

“When things reach their limit, they reverse.”

This kind of terrain could kill a Grand Xia emperor. Ye Fan had no way to break it. Heart pounding, he turned again and sprinted away.

Stars shifted, the world spun.

Ahead, the stream trickled softly, the forest stood still and picturesque, as if it were a retreat for immortals.

But that peaceful image blocked his path once more, as though he himself were charging into it again.

Was the forest… moving?

Ye Fan was stunned. He hadn't sensed any spatial field or energy fluctuations. Everything felt peaceful, too peaceful.

Why was this happening?

He changed direction again. But not far into his new path, the same scenery reappeared.

The same elegant forest, as though it had always been there, waiting in front of him. As if he were a wanderer stepping into a quiet sanctuary.

Ye Fan stopped and silently began calculating, using all his knowledge to analyze this anomaly. But after a long time, he could neither find the cause nor a solution.

This wasn't due to a spatial field. It seemed… the forest could actually move.

At this point, he began to distrust his own senses. He closed his eyes, extended his divine sense in all directions, yet the result was the same. Nothing changed.

“It looks like… I’m trapped. I can’t get out.”

He didn’t know if the others were caught in the same way.

Standing less than a hundred meters from the forest and spring, Ye Fan couldn't hide his anxiety. His life was on the line. Who could remain calm in a situation like this?

“What now?”

He was young, with so much still ahead. No one wanted to die here.

He summoned the cauldron forged from Motherly Energy, suspending it above his head, letting strands of yellow energy hang down like mist. Then he summoned the God Furnace, holding it in his palm, ready to unleash it at a moment’s notice.

Midnight. Total silence. Only the gentle murmur of the stream. An eerie peace.

Ye Fan stood there for over half an hour. Nothing changed.

“Where did the others go? Why is there no sound? Did they escape?”

He was unsure. Standing there was pointless, so he finally pulled out the Celestial Source Tome, desperate for answers.

The strange book gleamed silver in the moonlight, heavy in hand. On its cover, the words “Celestial Source Tome” glowed brilliantly.

He opened it, flipping straight to the second half, seeking the pages on “When things reach their limit, they reverse”, hoping for a solution.

After a long study, cold sweat ran down his back. The situation was nearly unsolvable. The book advised immediate retreat, but he was already trapped. There was no way to back out.

“Observe the terrain to avoid misfortune…” he sighed. He had yet to fully master that part of the text. If he had, he would’ve detected the danger early and avoided it altogether.

Too late now.

For someone with such limited time, Ye Fan had already achieved remarkable progress. It was impossible to grasp the Celestial Source Tome all at once.

As he carefully studied the text again, he found one or two methods he could attempt, but they involved extremely advanced Source Arts that were beyond his current ability. Even if he could execute them, success wasn’t guaranteed, only a 50% chance at best.

“No wonder this terrain could kill even a Celestial Source Master…”

He was on the brink of despair.

Buzz-

Suddenly, Ye Fan's ears rang as if struck by a massive hammer. Blood flowed from his ears and nose, and his body was thrown like a ragdoll.

Bang!

He hit the ground hard, his entire body wracked with pain. Even his incredibly tough body nearly broke apart.

“What hit me?!”

Horrified, he expanded the cauldron above him and dove inside. The God Furnace flared to life, blazing fiercely in his hand.

But around him, nothing. Silence. Not a trace of an enemy.

Buzz-

It hit again.

His ears roared, vision blurred, and his divine sense screamed with pain, like needles stabbing his soul. Half of his senses were gone. An invisible force struck his body again.

This time, the cauldron caught him before he was knocked away. Inside, the primordial mists of the cauldron roared, intercepting the blow.

At the same time, the God Furnace’s lid flipped open, releasing a torrent of fire that swept across the sky.

“Damn it!” Ye Fan growled. He’d suffered heavy damage and still didn’t know who or what was attacking him.

Inside the cauldron, he checked his condition, and was shocked. Blood seeped from all seven orifices. His bones nearly shattered. His skin was laced with bloody cracks.

If it had been anyone else, even a cultivator at the third Realm, they’d be completely annihilated.

Even with a body tougher than a spiritual treasure, Ye Fan had nearly been torn apart. The power behind those attacks was terrifying.

Buzz-

Another wave came.

This time, sheltered within the cauldron, he saw it clearly, a strange light wave, gentle on the surface, but radiating an overwhelming power that made his palms sweat.

Bang!

The wave struck the God Furnace. A deep dent appeared, something Ye Fan hadn’t achieved even when using all his strength with his War Paragon Art. But this light ripple had warped the furnace in one strike.

No wonder his body had almost shattered. A few more of those, and he’d be dead for sure.

The light waves were coming from the pine forest, gently rippling out under the moonlight. Their beauty hid deadly intent.

Ye Fan quickly retracted the God Furnace into the cauldron. In just moments, it had been hit with four or five deep dents, as if whipped by the gods.

Fortunately, the furnace was nearly indestructible. After a short while, it began to regain its shape, glowing like crystal, slowly repairing itself.

“This furnace… really is immortal,” Ye Fan muttered, eyes gleaming. But this wasn’t the time to get distracted. If the crisis wasn’t resolved, he would die here.

What gave him some comfort was the cauldron. Though not sentient, it was immensely tough. The ripples struck it with resounding clangs, but left no mark. The primordial motherly energy hanging from it even managed to crush one of the ripples.

Ye Fan flew through the sky in the cauldron, unwilling to give up, trying once more to escape.

But again, no luck. And worse, more light waves appeared, filling the sky like rainbow-colored rain, falling down like divine punishment.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The sounds were deafening. The cauldron was thrown about wildly, and Ye Fan cried out.

Suddenly, the ripples vanished.

A black line appeared from the forest, gliding silently through the air, and Ye Fan’s heart dropped.

That black streak sliced open the void.

Its power was so immense, he doubted even the cauldron could withstand it.

“So this is ‘when things reach the limit, they reverse’. Looks peaceful, but it’s death itself.”

Clang!

The cauldron shook violently. Though it didn’t shatter, Ye Fan inside felt crushed, his whole body aching.

What made his scalp go numb next was that the forest, bathed in silvery moonlight, now began to emit countless black threads, drifting gently toward him.

Ye Fan panicked. Even the cauldron wouldn’t survive so many! Even if it didn’t break, the shock alone could kill him.

“There’s no way out! No way in! I’m done for!”

Despair consumed him. The pine forest, so calm and clean, like a fairyland, was more terrifying than a demon's lair. No matter where he ran, the forest was always in front of him.

Then he noticed, the black threads filled the air, but not the lower parts of the forest.

There, all was misty and dim.

“Screw it. If I die, I die.”

Clenching his teeth, Ye Fan dove with the cauldron close to the ground, rushing into the forest.

“When things reach their limit, they reverse.” Once triggered, this terrain was said in the Celestial Source Tome to be near-inescapable. But Ye Fan had no choice. If he didn’t charge in, he’d be dead in seconds.

The black threads in the sky danced like demonic fingers, but they soon faded away. Inside the forest, it was peaceful again.

Ye Fan waited in the cauldron for a long time. Still, nothing happened.

“Am I trapped in here forever?”

He emerged cautiously, standing on the ground and fingering the Celestial Source Tome.

Suddenly, the book flipped open on its own, pages rustling. Colorful light beams shot out.

“What is this…?”

Within the pine forest, that same light shimmered.

Ye Fan was stunned. Holding the book, he stepped forward.

On the ground, he saw Celestial Source Runes, unique to the Celestial Source Tome, glowing with a faint light, drawing him forward.

He strode forward quickly. The first rune was deep and complex, hundreds of symbols forming a six-pointed star, all etched into source stones buried underground.

Now they glowed in the moonlight, fully visible.

Ahead, more radiant lights glowed, more runes, leading into the heart of the forest like a trail of beacons.

“Could a Celestial Source Master have come here?”

His despair gave way to hope.

He held the book and walked slowly, studying each rune carefully as he went deeper into the woods.

Then, he stopped abruptly, stunned.

Not far ahead, there was an ancient building, weathered and broken, but still standing in the shadows.

It was a temple!

He recalled how in the Radiant Light Sacred Ground’s mining area, when the Primordial Pyramid was excavated, he had seen glimpses of the ancient world, lush landscapes, strange races, and divine temples.

This temple was undoubtedly from the ancient era. Though timeworn, it still stood.

Ye Fan was shaken. No wonder this place was so strange, it wasn’t ordinary land. In ancient times, it had likely been a sacred site.

The “reversal terrain” was probably just the surface. There had to be something more hidden.

But Ye Fan didn’t approach the temple. The runes on the ground didn’t point that way, they led deeper into the forest.

So he followed them.

Along the way, he passed dozens of rune formations, each more complex than the last. Some shaped like dragons, some like ancient turtles, some like stellar maps reflecting the heavens.

These were “Source Heaven Diagrams”, the highest achievement recorded in the Celestial Source Tome.

Only a true Celestial Source Master could carve them. No one else had this level of mastery.

Deep in the forest, moonlight fell like white feathers. Streams flowed gently. A stone pavilion stood quietly ahead.

It was ancient, made entirely of source stones, etched with the marks of time.

Four stone pillars supported it, each engraved with ancient characters. Just by reading the first one, Ye Fan was shaken.

“Paragons fallen, Emperors perished, God-Kings buried…”

This place was beyond anything he imagined. Carefully reading the text, Ye Fan realized:

It was the journal of a Celestial Source Master.